##VIDEO ID:D97x2pHCBP8## be excuse we please stand for the pledge allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all okay um glad that we have some public out um it's our pleasure to uh welcome uh Mr Terry Lewis from the New Jersey school boards we had an Ethics train uh training earlier by our attorney's firm and there was some concern that it wasn't in public so if the public could hear uh what was going on basically so we asked Terry Lewis to come and present us with a a training so Terry thank you for coming and we apologize for last time when you were here no not a problem I think it was a late night for you guys too anyway so it's a good thing that we couldn't stay now I'm a little bit handicapped here tonight right so I have a clicker in one hand I have a mic in the other hand and I have a cord here so I can guarantee you that something is probably going to go wrong in in the middle of but that's okay you're cordless you're good so you had asked me for ethics and I know that there's a lot of the ethics that you know so I thought that I would concentrate solely on the code of ethics only because I can tie it in really with what your role as a board member is um I wish that somebody had done that for me when I first started um as a board member it would have made my life in my first year as a board member a whole lot easier uh because I think I was one of those board members that did everything wrong for the first year um and then after that somebody said you know you really need to sit down and look at a few of these things and I was like oh I've been doing it wrong the whole time so let me just start and we can answer questions in between I'm not going to answer questions based on individual hey well if this happened would this be an Ethics violation um that's not my job that's what your your board attorney is here for mine is simply informational so let's start off with my informational disclaimer um I'm not an attorney I've never played one on TV so this is solely for information only this is not any legal advice at all so ethics and accountability is extremely important to a school district you are elected officials uh people elected you to do your job and oversee um the running of the school district and because of that we need to make sure that we can maintain the public trust anytime you can give the public a reason to go hey wait a minute can can they really do that that kind of erodes a little piece of trust every time time that happens so we need to make sure that we are holding ourselves as board members to that higher standard and making sure that what we do um is not perceived as gee is that a problem can they really do that so we're going to talk about the school ethics act a little bit only that it was um established in 1991 I think 1991 and it did a lot of different things and it was really kind of amazing to me that we went almost 80 years in education in New Jersey without having an Ethics act and it was only just recently and to me 1991 is recent um it was only just recently that they actually put it into play and it did several different things it established the school ethics commission it establishes prohibited acts um the mandatory training uh which we administer but we are not responsible for it that's in the act um the disclosure statements that you have to fill out and then nine years later came the code of ethics and that's what we're going to talk about tonight so who is accountable for the actual ethics act including any conflicts and prohibited acts and whatever it's the entire board and your Administration but for the code of ethics and the mandatory training it is only board members so who enforces this it's the school ethics commission there's a nine- member board um they're all appointed by the governor uh two are school board members five are non-school officials and two are School administrators um and they do two different things they hear ethics complaints and they hear advisory opinion what's the difference The Advisory opinion is if there's some sort of conduct or behavior or something that you want to undertake as a board member and you're not really sure if it's a conflict you can actually write to the school ethics commission and say Hey you know here's the scenario would this be a conflict if I did this and they'll write you back and say yes no and the reason why um if they say yes it would be a conflict it's not a good idea to go ahead with whatever it is you were going to do the other thing that they hear is ethics complaints so anyone in the state of New Jersey can file an Ethics complaint against a school official um they have to uh you know note what the uh violation the perceived violation wasw they have to note the statute that they think it violated and then that's heard by the school ethics commission here's the distinction advisory opinions before it happens ethics complaints after it happens so that's the distinction in the two there's four penalties that the school ethics commission can assess you can be censured reprimanded suspended or removed from um your post as a board member I'll be honest with you the quickest way to get removed is don't do your mandatory training and don't fill out your disclosure statement because they take a very dim view of that that'll get you removed from the board very quickly but let's move on now to the code of ethics because I think this is really going to be very helpful you to you tonight and it really will tell you what your role and what Lanes you need to stay in as board members so first and foremost you have to uphold enforce all laws rules regulations etc etc as a board notice as a board and you're sitting here at a legally advertised meeting right now so as a board you can't do anything that is contrary to the law so you can't break the law um back when the uh the park tests first came out remember the park tests yeah remember that yeah that was rough uh when they came out there were a lot of boards that were putting uh policies into place for having uh students opt out that was against the law there was no really opt out policy now parents could opt out but the way that the statute was written for the park test and it came down from the Department of Education there was no really opt out provision that a board could undertake so that would have been um something that the board did that would have uh been against the law so that's that's an example the other thing was the masking mandates remember the masking mandates well there were some boards that said we're not going to do that however it was an executive order and you didn't have the authority as a board of education to defy that executive order so this one is kind of important this is B I will make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of all children what does that mean we when we do our jobs have to look at the entire District you know not just the kids from this side of the um the the town not the kids from the other side not the band kids not not the kids that wrestle we have to look at everybody and we have to make our decisions based on what is good for all kids now this one to me is one of the most important out there and I wish I had had this one as a new board member because this really pretty much sums up what your role is in a nutshell I will confine my board action to policy name planning and Appraisal so that's what our role is we're policy makers a policy manual is very important to a district because it lets everybody know that these are our guidelines and then backing that up are the regulations that say these are how we're carrying out those guidelines so policymaking planning helping frame those large plans that keep the district moving forward I'm thinking planning in terms of District goals um things that you need to accomplish maybe you need to uh build or add on to buildings maybe you need to close buildings whatever it are you whatever it is you're involved in the large plans and then appraising is how well those plans were carried out that is our role in a nutshell so when you're doing your board work and somebody says I don't think that we should be looking at that or we should be doing that ask yourself this question are we making policy are we helping to frame those large plans or are we appraising how well those plans are being carried out and if you're not doing one of those three things you're probably doing someone else's job in the district so you're out of your lane I always like to point to the second part of this too where it says that the board um will only uh make plans after they have cons insulted those who will be affected by them that doesn't mean that we go out as nine individual people and start asking what do you think about this what do you think about that how about this that's not our job because we have different circles that we go in um we're from different parts of the town and when you bring that back together you're not going to have good cohesive information to make a decision you're only going to have it based on this very small thing what we say is if you need that information you go to the the person that's responsible for that which is the superintendent and say hey bring us back some information so that we can make a a good informed decision on this so let's just say and believe me this is hypothetical you're just planning on putting in a dress code policy you're like yeah we're going to do a dress code policy here we're going to change it we're going to have uniforms one thing that you're thinking about right no I I said it's hypothetical I want to I want to say that again this is hypothetical but let's say you want to put it a uniform policy you're going to ask your superintendent to get information for you so we want to know how it's going to impact kids how it's going to impact parents how it's going to Impact Staff bring us back this information so that we can then make an informed decision we are not going to go out as nine individual members and start asking the public what do you think what do you think what do you think d I will carry out my responsibility not to administer the schools but together with my fellow board members to see that they are well run um I'm not going to comment on this one yet I'm going to move to e first because I'm going to combine these two e says that I will recognize that the authority rests with the Board of Education and I won't make any personal promises or take any private action that may compromise that board of education so there are nine of you on a board on this particular board you are sitting at a legally advertised meeting so you now have power if you weren't at a legally advertised meeting you have no power you can't take any action so you have to remember that anything you that you want or anything that you need has to be done at a legally advertised meeting with a quarm of the board and the private action is the really important part so once you leave this meeting what you do outside of it can reflect on the board and you need to be very careful that you are letting people know if you're speaking about certain issues that you're not speaking on behalf of the board or that you're not doing something that may compromise the board so what does that look like we have a couple of um couple of scenarios here so this was a board member who um happened to work in or happened to be on a board in a district and they were Mac users um I'm going to say what 95% of the the school districts in the state of New Jersey use um Google uh these happen to be Mac users so this one board member said I don't know why we're doing this you know we have mac everybody says that Google's cheaper yada y yada they've always used them and they said well you know we've this is why we have done this and we have all of our backup materials is all in Mac however this board member wasn't happy with it and decided to go out on their own contact vendors and bring back in different quotes and things so that they could present that at a meeting uh to be able to to do what I don't know because it's not their job so you can see here that they were censured but tell me why you think that was oh is it I'm sorry I'm going to ask is it rhetorical or you actually ask for no I'm going to I was curious do you think it's wrong you know I think it's wrong because they didn't go through a superintendent exactly it's not our job if you're unhappy with a decision in this case uh you know MacBooks if the rest of the board didn't agree with you that's kind of it but if the rest of the board said hey you know what maybe this is a good idea Mr Mrs superintendent who happened to be there why don't you bring us back some information and maybe we do need to make a switch so one board member can't drive it and number two they shouldn't be doing the work of somebody else in the district so when they went out and contacted vendors and got information they weren't making policy they weren't helping to frame those large plans and they weren't appraising how well those plans were carried out they were doing somebody else 's job in the district um if you'll notice there that was a violation of e and that was Private action that could compromise the board and it's really important that you see that because a lot of the um ethics complaints that we're seeing that come out now e is the big violation so let's look at another one um uh someone used board email to express their personal views on mask mandates um and encouraged action um and it was sent to the state legislature and members of the public now why is that bad right they acted on behalf of the board they're using their board email so if I'm sending this to the public or or someone in the state legislature they're thinking oh my gosh this is coming from the uh ex Board of Education we need to pay attention to this when it was someone that was acting on their own behalf and again if you look violation of e took action that may compromise the board okay let's move on I will refuse to surrender my independent judgment to special interest or partisan political groups um we need to vote the way we need to vote not based on any political party not based on any group out there you now I said before earlier if you go back and you take a look at B which says I represent all kids and I have to take a look at all kids we have to make decisions based on what's good for the entire District um the last one is extremely important use the schools for personal gain or for the gain of friends not our job um this one is always interesting and I know every District that I say says we're very confidential we don't let any information out well that's really great because how come I see it on Facebook you know um we are in public session right now so anything that you talk about in public session you can talk about in public make sure you give factual information but when you're an executive session you know that's like Vegas and what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas so you need to make sure that you are not passing any piece of that information along because that could needlessly injure someone in your District a student a staff member and set you up for some you know liability as a school district so here's a couple of other cases um oh geez a member copied and pasted info from a board email and I think it was like one of the Friday things that superintendent sends around just say hey here's a heads up that's what we're looking at um but they actually copied and pasted it and sent it to um a member of the municipality the governing body of the M municipality um and it didn't go over well this is the second one there's another one that's out there where someone did the same thing and that one has not been uh totally adjudicated yet so it's happening more than what people are thinking so when you get information it's internal Communications it's meant to stay internal until it's time to be released to the public and again e is up there took private action that may compromise the board uh board members sent an email from a district account to a known political entity well there's a couple things going on there but again E and F for the violations so be very careful what you're sending um h i will vote to appoint the best qualified Personnel available after consideration of the recommendation of the chief School uh administrator you know when I was a new board member and whenever I give ethics um like this people tell me they they chase after me in the parking lot and they go I never knew this one fact your public thinks that you hire people and when I got on the board I actually thought I did too um and I found out very quickly that anybody that is hired in the school district has to come with the recommendation of the superintendent so we get to hire one person as board members and that is the superintendent yet anyone else that is hired in the school district has to come with the recommendation of the superintendent if they're not going to recommend them you can't hire them so I thought always thought that was very interesting now we also don't get to say all right well we didn't like your first pick so we want you to pick you know you told us there were three candidates um we didn't like a but we like C we don't even get to do that you know you hire um a superintendent you hire them to build your house you can't tell them which contractors they have to use you can't tell them you know you know when you put the roof on I want you to use this well no I need a roofing hammer well this isn't a roofing hammer yeah but I want you to use it anyway well the roof's not going to go on really well yeah but these are the tools I'm get giving you so I guess what I'm trying to say is there are two really important words in your vocabulary as board members one is what and the other is how and we talked about those large framing those large plans that's the what what is it that you want done the how belongs to the administration so it's up to them to decide how to build that house so if you say say hey you know what we want a swimming pool we want a swimming pool we want a swimming team we want the whole nine yards um and you all agree and no you're not getting a swimming pool but if you all agree then it's up to the superintendent to say okay let me work on this I'll figure out how we can work this in how long it's going to take it's not our job to tell them how to do it um I will support and protect School Personnel in the proper performance of their duties I already said we have one employee right we don't get to evaluate the work of any other employees in the district that's not our job we shouldn't be badmouthing any employees in the district we need to support the work that they do it's very important work for us if there are any considerations that um that you think the superintendent should know about please reach out and let him know but it's not something that we take on ourselves and last but totally not least this is actually my favorite I will refer all complaints to chief administrative officer I know a lot of times board members kind of think that they're problem solvers and when you're new I think it's easy to fall into that trap because the you know if I'm a member of the public I'm thinking that hey you you can solve my problem right you're on the board and the truth of the matter is we can't so we need to refer them back through the chain of command you know whatever is closest to them um refer them back to the chain of command and it should only come to the board if it has gone entirely through anyone that can help them with that situation so if someone is having a problem with um their their teacher and they come to you and say hey you know what Terry Lois is giving my kid a lot of homework I don't know what's going on here um you can very nicely say I am so sorry to hear that I can't fix that but I think you should talk to the teacher and then once you have talked to the teacher if you if you can't get any resolution there please feel free to take that to the principal there's a I I can't figure out where the disconnect came in but you know a long time ago a long time ago when I was in school that was a long time ago anybody that had an issue with their child or what was going on in the school they either picked up the phone or they went to the school and said hey I'm having this problem I'm not sure what happened maybe just be we got so big uh but nobody seems to do that anymore and I think as board members it's imperative that we tell our public like if you are having any issue at all go back to the school that's your first place to start that's they're trained to deal with this this is their job so start there at the school district to get your information questions you want to cover one more oh go ahead Scott ask you for information something you know you said oh you want information on this you ask the superintendent to bring you information on this we're talking as a board member talking as a board member okay I guess where is that line in what I as an individual board member can ask the superintendent to get versus we as a board could get so for instance the swimming pool right I want the swimming pool hey Dr HS go you know investigate cost of the swimming pool and bring it back that should be a board action right that shouldn't be a Scott IND corest action yeah so one board member and we'll go back to D where I think it was D where it said uh to together with my fellow board members to see that they're well-run so when it comes to something like that if you don't have a majority that's going to support that decision then that's not going to get done so as one board member or even two board members you can't direct the superintendent to to either give any information or take a certain track uh they can't do that and then we shouldn't you know we always get mad at the superintendents when they say hey look I can't do that we can't get mad at them because they're just following what is's written I I need a directive from the board not a member or two so I'm I'm going to pick you back off of that so in regards to we'll do we'll do the swimming pool thing too so if Scott comes you know and we're I don't know if it'll be an executive that we would do that where he could approach the board say hey we're um I have an idea for us that I'd like to bring us swimming pool out would that then be a violation or would that be just him asking our opinion at that point about trying to instill a swimming pool in here is that Scott any well any board member like Stacy myself okay so you're talking from a board member as a board member myself if I have the idea that I would like to present an idea for a swimming pool would I then go in front of the board and executive and say hey I'd like to see if you guys are on board with possibly bringing a swimming pool in what are your thoughts now that is is that okay at that point because I haven't directed it to the superintendent yet just to get everyone's opinion to see if they're on board first or how would I go about doing that where I'm not in violation okay so that's kind of a um that's not a topic that you should talk about in executive session so that's number one okay okay um but I know that you kind of want to pull the board and figure out but there's nothing wrong and I know you probably have places in your agenda you know either either from a committee report if you're not on the facilities committee uh or uh I don't know if you have old business or new business that would be a time to bring it up then and say Hey you know uh a couple of people uh in the community have asked me uh is there a feasibility or is there any interest in US looking at building a swimming pool and that's when the board can have that discussion thank you just make sure yeah we're not getting a swimming pool that was hypothetical we're not getting a swimming pool you know and I want to go back to something that Scott said too so we were using like a real life you know getting a swimming pool but it also pertains to like information too so I mean if it's something that can be easily pulled out of a folder you know say yeah you know we have this then yeah you can ask for that as an individual but if you say look I want a uh fiveyear study on on the uh or the 10 a 10year study on the uh math scores from third through 8th grade both longitudinal and no the board has to agree to that because that's a lot of work that goes into that um so we can't we can't as one board member say well this is interesting to me I would like to have this information um if the board agrees that they're working on something and that information would be helpful so be it but one person can't direct that just a quick follow up on that so it would be incumbent upon the superintendent to then say to the board member it's something we're going to have to bring to the board because it's going to take an extraordinary amount of time so let's do that that would be appropriate yeah it's an item we're vo on swim you know someone's going to say we're understand new sign sign something like that and as a board member I can ask questions about de have to U have to vote on it right like okay what's the cost of the sign have you know have we made sure it's Ada complying or any you know regulations we going to comply with that type of stuff fine something asking for clarification Rel yeah and I would kind of urge you though you know I know you're committee based so you have to kind of have faith in your committee members that they have already asked those questions you know how much is it ADA Compliant you know have we checked with the neighbors if it's a light up sign is it going to be a problem so we we kind of have to have that but yes you are still free to ask those those types of questions and ter they happen they happen for board agendas and we we answer them those are just you know hey question on this one question on this that one so we weish that and we typically try to make sure everybody has that same that same information a good thing that we started doing is the the board minutes are much more comprehensive now so whereas I used to have like 50 questions on an agenda so know like now I can just go back to the board minutes and be like Oh business committee covered this you know and instru covered that so covers a lot so was this helpful this answer answer questions absolutely thank you very yes thank you now I also uh did you want to talk a little bit about goals yes okay uh hang on there goals so there's actually uh three sets of goals that that a board should be aware of um and one I don't have up there because you really don't have anything to do with it and that's what we call CSA goals C CSA goals are in statute but hey they belong to the CSA those are their you know professional development you know whatever they think they need so we don't put them up there but just know that that they have them and that they're generally like uh you know in a lot of districts if they've never done a bond referendum before and now they have to add on or something and they have a new superintendent who goes oh my gosh I can tell you that their professional development goal is I got to get up to speed on what this bond process and everything else looks like so those are their goals these are the two main ones that you should be uh worried about and one is District goals so District goals belong to everyone sitting here so we say that they're SEL they're set collaboratively with the superintendent and you guys have to know what they are and you have to we recommend that you make a motion you say hey these are our district goals for the upcoming year as how you set them there is no there's no one method out there I mean some districts have their superintendent bring them in and say Hey you know these are what I think our priorities should be they talk about it they hammer it out and they say Okay move on some go through a goal setting process um if you have a ton of new board members I would recommend that but you don't have a ton of new board members so um so there's no way to set them but they serve two purposes one is everybody's on the same page not just you but it also trickles down to the rest of the district um it also like like your your your ba once you set these now starts looking for information from the superintendent on okay what do I need to do with funding wise here what do we need to start putting aside what do I need to start planning for um the rest of your District knows what what your priorities are and what you're working on so you set them collaboratively but the um the superintendent is the one that makes sure that they come to life so you do the what yep these are our goals District goals they do the how board goals are a little bit different and board goals belong to the board but those should be making sure that you have information that you can take a look at yourselves what's our Effectiveness look like what are we working on to make sure that we are getting better those are board goals they belong to the board so you can't set a board goal and then turn around and say to the superintendent well you have to do this one because then it's not a board goal and it also has to be something that's in your lane so I I put a few examples together so um let's let's have a short quiz here are these District goals or these board goals provide tools training and Facilities to help students grow board goal District goal I said District you're going to say what I'll say District district board I think board if it's said approve board and I sort of gave it away when I said you know your ba is then going to take a look at the goals and they're going to start putting money aside so if you have goals I don't care what your goal is your goal is to make sure that you know all your kids uh up to grade eight are reading a grade level all right well your superintendent is going to need certain things to make all that happen so if you're not going to provide the tools and the resources and everything else to make that happen how are you going to achieve that goal we wouldn't tell them what to to use correct they that's the how right correct so that's but your job is to make sure that when when they come back and say you know I need uh four reading Specialists and this and this and this you're going to provide that right right um here's another one ensure that all students have access to strong instruction by providing a guaranteed and viable curric curriculum board goal District goal not sure let's look District goal so from the standpoint of the curriculum yes you approve curriculum but the rest of that ensuring that all students have access that has to be a district goal because you're not in the classrooms Define a Clear Vision of high expectations for student achievement and quality instruction I I want to say this I think that's a how you say board how many people say board I think a board ah let's see yep it is a board goal so you know the one thing that you have to do as as board members is through your communication you are relaying to your superintendent really what your uh expectations are for the district and that varies by School District believe it or not we think that you know we're all educating kids in 580 school districts in the state of New Jersey but there are varying degrees of what their expectations are for students so you need to make sure that you have a Clear Vision here so that then your superintendent can bring back to you priorities and say okay based on your vision this is what I think we should work on for these upcoming goals so that definitely belongs to the board um support the social and emotional Wellness of all School community members District I heard district dist notice the word support right so that's really a l like if you look at that you can say you know what the well-being of our students and staff and their health and safety is extremely important to us so that belongs to the board kind simar it is right necessary to and I made these a little challenging I probably could have gone a little bit easier but I wanted them to be challenging I wanted you to start thinking you need to start thinking like where are we in all this um expand and improve communication with parents and community members by promoting respectful interactive and MultiLing Ling dialogue I'm going to go over for I'm going say District I I there's got to be one more dist because again the only reason I'm saying are you reading the test here yeah there's got to be one more District go only reason I'm saying is because everybody reads things differently and everybody has their own interpretation of what's being said the only reason I'm saying District on this one is because I'm not seeing the word support that's where my thinking is because the last question was saying now if you took support the word support out of that would that then change into a district go at that point because you took the support out of it depends on the before yeah okay so what if it said provide that would be support and provide are probably very similar if it said Implement that's the verb implement but you are right yeah not you got it there's your District goal right there the whole against me expand and improve communication so that would be a district goal of course it's the letter say thank you so I know that you're probably I don't know if you have your District goals already set or not I didn't look on your website so as you're setting them then you need to understand you only need three four goals if they're really beefy you might not even need three um but board goals don't go overboard you do not need four board goals you'll never accomplish them because this isn't your full-time job although the length of your meetings I'm beginning to think that you know hey you might be getting paid by the hour um I would say maybe one or two board goals you know what do you want to work on how do you want to improve your Effectiveness your efficiency your knowledge and if you look at it like that that'll help you with what you want to do with a goal interesting they would say like two I typically when we've done them we've kind of picked categories right we say like hey we want to worry about student achievement right and we want to worry about safety and we want want about um fin fiscal responsibility right so we take those categories and then we craft the go kind of incorporate those categories is that we thinking incorrectly District goals board goals board board goals so when you do that you you probably have too many goals and you're not paying attention to any of them because it it gets overwhelming so when you pick one or two board goals because the board has to accomplish those when you pick one or two and say this is what we're going to work on this year this is the most important to us to improve the way we do things I think it's a lot easier so those other ones of like safe the achievement that would be more appropriate maybe for the district go y i I had ones down that I thought like to encourage board member participation in school events a way that we could all attend school events and keep a log and we have schools that we're assigned to again report back to the board once we have that type thing and I also feel that the Board needs training so I had a goal where we have a certain number of training sessions from your group through the year to keep us on target as well as um schedule a code of ethics that it's every January when we have that coming up that would include the other things I'm talking about but also that we have the Retreats and the self-reflection which we haven't done this year on how the board's operating and then the other thing I had was to Adopt A School Board calendar to try to keep the school board adhering to what we need to discuss every month are they School Board goals yes they would definitely be board goals yeah I like your calendar yeah sometimes it's really hard I mean uh you know after 16 years to me this is board work is very cyclical you know in January you're doing this in March you're doing this in June you're doing this it's all very cyclical um the problem is not everybody knows that and sometimes you know something happens and you get off track so you tend to miss important things so if you're going to set a calendar what I say is if it's going to happen in these months make sure make sure you're proactive and you're looking two months out so today is this is September if you had a calendar I would be looking at what is happening in November because September's already here and that meeting is going to be here before you know it so I would be two months out this is what we need to start preparing for but those are very good ah excellent well it was my pleasure thank you so much I appreciated coming out um turn off that the mic here again we apologize for last time thanks thank you very much session now whatever you want to do you want you want to go on the end did did you hear what Scott said what's Scott said you're pay by the hour you have so people here tonight un you guys what the question was camera hang out okay okay oh car question yeah I have about camera first and then flip it out to okay uh we're going to have to go go into executive session for a few minutes not long but uh so having said that I'll can I have a motion to go into executive session second okay resolve the pursu in Section 8 of the open public meeting act the public shall be excluded from this portion of the meeting involving the discussion of uh Personnel items and attorney client attorney attorney client privilege further to resolve that discussion of such subject matter in executive session can be disclosed to the public if any action is taken by the board either at the resumption of the public session at the conclusion of the executive session or a public session at some later time um have a motion move all those in favor post we're going to move right yeah yeah we we're we're going to leave the room so you can stay stay put here and then we'll be back your 10 of8 and we're not expecting to be in there yes ma'am 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 [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right okay the uh board is leav an executive session I have a motion to leave executive session second second all in favor oppos okay sorry about that but we had the conflict attorney here which we had to talk to and took a little longer than what I expected wait for the superintendent to return okay school and community relations Mr diso welcome aboard thank you it's your first one so make it a good one no pressure I'm glad the microphone works thank you um so the Washington Township Schools hosted a widely successful blood drive to the American Red Cross on August 6th this was exceeding our day's goal collecting 31 units of blood and providing a life-saving gift to those in need additionally by achieving this goal the additional funds will be provided by the Red Cross as part of an annual scholarship they give to our Washington Washington Township High School graduate the next blood drive will tately be scheduled for Wednesday December 11th it's going to be here at the boardroom at central office the Washington Township school's monthly Food Bank of South Jersey uh food pantry assisted 67 families in August many of whom visited us for the first time our next pantry is on Wednesday September 19th from 8:30 to 10:30 in the morning at the Washington Township High School 910 auxiliary gym visitors should enter the campus through the ganttown road entrance and park near the Bus Loop signs will be posted to direct people to The Pantry be sure to bring your photo ID families do you need assistance with your Genesis and or parent Square accounts our data Tech Team can help you please email Genesis help at wtps.org and one of our team members will touch base to assist having accounts in both Genesis and parent square is vital to receive timely information regarding your child and the district as a whole additionally any family who has not yet completed their annual information update is asked to do so as soon as possible contact our data team for assistance if you need it but this is especially important so that we as a district have accurate contact information as well as the designated adults who are permitted to pick up your child from school and we proudly report that the Washington Township Education Foundation or wtef re recently completed the process of approv approving 28 wtef mini grants for the 2024 25 school year District Educators representing all 12 schools plus Central Administration are represented in the list of Grant recipients Grant monies in excess of $25,000 will be used to finance supplemental programs throughout the Washington Township schools throughout the school year a full list of Grants and recipients will be announced through a press release on the district website later this month thank you thank you correspondence motion to uh approve those correspondents move second discussion all in favor opposed approval of the minutes motion to approve the minutes of July 2024 some move second a discussion roll call there's no roll call there's no roll no roll call all those in favor I guess opposed okay all business any old business I one item U I just wanted to bring this up and I don't mean to bring it up to be controversial or to like pick a fight or anything but uh last meeting can you hear me how about now good all right right so I want to bring up one point and I'm not doing it to be controversial or to pick a fight or anything but at the last meeting I think there was a discussion or was brought up about our class our rank our state rankings and the socioeconomic change of the district um I've heard that before as well and I think we got to be really careful throwing that out I mean it may be a fact right the socioeconomic demographic of the town has changed but then I don't think we want to necessarily use that as a correlation to why our rank fell um it you know I think it could send a negative message to the kids in this District right like I grew up in a pretty poor socioeconomic area and all the time growing up I I heard people say oh you know when you go to the high school cuz we were such a small town we have high school don't expect that you're going to be in top of the class at at high school know for me it ticked me off to where I did and then when I went to college oh don't expect that you're going to be in the top of the class right nobody from town here makes it and you know some kids don't have that drive that they're it ticks them off it actually disin sents them to think well I can't perform at the same level as those kids that come from Rich districts and stuff like that so I think we just got to be care careful and and set that bar and expectations that we expect all of our kids to perform well um and I think the other part is we got to look at it as a challenge that for whatever reason right whatever the reason is and I don't think it's just us that are experiencing a decline there's a decline in academics and performance Across the Nation and maybe it's not our class rank we got to worry about but it's getting the majority of our kids to proficiency and the key subjects you know that should be our goal and I just don't I I don't want us using a reason being well you know the socio economics have decreased so I to me I look at that as a challenge that we just got to try and do better so that's it thanks there's an interesting thing I read too when we were looking at that list claer County Institute of Technology is the number one rank on that ranking from the US News and their ranking was 335 so my point is it was in the it was in the 300s just like we get accused of our high school being and they're the number one so it doesn't mean that because you're 300 and something that you necessarily have a bad ranking yeah yeah I mean any other old business Miss way real quick yeah I I completely agree and I think that we have to we have to put forth the belief and the expectation right that all of our kids can be successful and that they're all going to have different Divergent paths to be successful some of our kids are going to walk out of here and want to go to Williamson I had never heard of Williamson I if you know what Williamson is if you don't know what it is it's just an amazing school that kids come out with a trade and they could be 20 years old making $70 an hour it's amazing kids don't pay a dime to go there it's or they could have a path to college or path to the military it doesn't really matter you know our job here is to inspire that's it and to let let these kids know every one of them that they can be whatever they want to be and that's that's what we're doing that's we're trying to be very positive um in our an intentional in our messaging uh the the first 3 days of school while exceedingly hectic um I think we're amazing you know we you know we we're going to have minor hiccups across the board because we're a 7,000 plus kid School District there's not one school district in the world you know that won't have to shave off time on bus runs or figure out how to you know get kids to class on time when they understand how to navigate the high school um so we're going to have those things but all the way through it's been a it's been a great opening but I agree Scott that we have to we have to always convey that message of positivity and growth and inspiration okay anyone else I have two things um I think since we had this meeting I talked to some board members and the administration uh the possibility of cancelling the next meeting which is 17th and then finish up with the the second meeting so do I need to vote for that yeah yeah so if there's a motion to cancel the S the next meeting so move second discussion on that I mean we've had our two meetings so okay I think I need a roll call on that Lory yes um Mrs Blom yes Miss chill yes Miss Deo yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano yes Miss Baker Mr Ross yes so the 17th meeting will be cancelled the other thing I wanted to talk about is the the uh new board member um the the vacancy that we had um the 65 days was up that we had to wait if we could the board couldn't reach a decision and uh goes to the county superintendent the uh material was sent to the uh uh County Superintendent material meaning the resumés um of those who who applied for the position in the meantime an email was put out by the superintendent that he would be in direct contact with the uh County uh superintendent relative to this uh I was a little concerned about that I'll going be honest with you because I felt that this was a board decision so I called the county superintendent and the county superintendent indicated that all as he meant by that was that he would disseminate the material back and forth to him and it would be the county superintendent's responsibility alone to uh to make the decision he also indicated that he he was in the process of sending a letter to all the applicants and asking them uh some questions on why they wanted to be on the board and as he uh got received that material he would make a decision and contact the board yeah so that's an update you have anything different on that no he no he said the exact same thing to me for sure so that's where we stand with the new board member any questions or or did you just did you just send an email to the county superintendent I'm confused by all the conversations with the county superintendent about the open board seat I'm saying did you just like send an email just terms of letting the board know that you contacted the count you want an email sent to the to the board members to explain what I just said is that what you're saying no what I asked was did you send an email to the county superintendent or did you call I called him okay that's what I asked actually he called me back after three phone calls right okay uh I got one more uh so just an update uh we did meet as business committee again last week to uh go through through um all the uh applicants for the budget task force the community task force that we were putting together um reviewed all the information we ended up uh deciding to go with all of the all of the applicants that got their information in on time there were a couple that either were late or there were follow-up requests that they didn't respond to so we ended up with uh 10 uh so there'll be 10 members of the public that will be included in this task force um they'll be getting more information about uh the dates that we'll be meeting so we picked uh four dates one of which we got to reschedule because it coincides with the meet the candidates uh night in October and we don't want to be competing with that event um and also information on how we'll be running it um also we had uh ground rules uh drafted that we had uh the attorney review and that will be disseminated to all of the members as well I'll go ahead and read those names just so people people you know know I bet you're all waiting with faded breath and uh on pins and needles to determine if you were taken or not uh so it's going to be Jeff Pollock Tom Bal desero Meredith deal Jim hle Jim Sund Hoff Randy Ford Mark label Marcy Dewey Robert Sheen and Josh Pennington and then also um our we'll be uh reaching out to the um Council Town Council to get a town council rep which I I believe either will be our liaison which is um uh Rich Bennett or the VA or both of them so you all be hearing more about that coming in the near future and look forward to working with everybody and thank you to everybody that submitted to the process see any other old business I'm just real quick I in the same vein um in terms of the Community leison Committee that we're going to be forming um that Pat and I are working on we um asked volunteered volunt maybe um Mr destio if he could help out in that committee to help us select the community members so more information will come out so then that way you're aware similar to exactly what the business committee did it'll be something on the website and that way you can apply and we'll have all the parameters on there so that'll be forthcoming in the com in the coming week so just want to give everyone an update okay okay you have a motion to to the public going I'm sorry um this was uh this was uh talked about I believe last month and I'm going to direct it towards Mr s who's chair of the policy um has there been an update on the cell phone discussion no we have do you want me to take it yeah okay um no it's going to be on the agenda one of the things that we discussed um was gathering student feedback uh on the items before we implemented any major changes um so unofficially at the high school we've really put the word out that we don't want to see cell phones during instructional time uh we haven't said that they couldn't have them in the hallway you know study hall those types of of things uh Mr Sav is not here right now right he was uh but I think I'm on the money with that so we'll engage in conversations but we've already unofficially tried to lay tracks for the classrooms being you know not utilized for cell phones but that will progress through the through the committee and then we'll just make sure we engage Administration and then you know kids for their for their Viewpoint to hear before we make any final calls and then could you would you mind when when the uh community group is formed that's probably a fantastic topic for that Community when it's formed we could do that that probably then should be a Nexus uh with Mr Sano as well okay awesome awesome thanks yeah okay make that happen question thank you okay I have a motion to open to the public on agenda items so move second all in favor post okay I have one card here Chrissy Kosar that's better can you hear me oh yes you can okay good evening board members Dr Hibbs I'm excited to be back at the podium it's been a while since I've been able to address you in this room um this this evening I would like to talk to you about an NJ in initiative called pep public education partnership uh I'm currently a um school bus driver in Washington Township but I'm actually on a leave of absence to be the gler County Education Association uh Union president so I've been there for three years um marvelous job still love my hometown so um we used to have an initiative called Pride um and it benefited our community residents and students uh we often partner with the wtaa and events such as Trunk or Treat or the senior cleanup day or Project Graduation and a few years ago we used to have an initiative called Stuff the bus um we got permission from the district to be able to use a school bus uh we parked it in the parking lot at the high school off ganttown road and we sent out information to the community and the staff to ask them for non- perishable donations um we liased with um the municipal building to see what um supplies that they need and then we kind of send out a flyer accordingly and and people drop things off during the day um we would like to restart this initiative um I think that um it's always been a great reaction from the community um we had great interaction with the people dropping off supplies we usually give away chat keys and things you know depending on on who's running the running the event um and it raises staff morale District uh Kudos and helps those experienced in food insecurities unfortunately there are more people every week suffering from food insecurities um you know having difficulty feeding their families keeping a roof over their heads they don't have you know health benefits they don't have a pension um so we would like to respectfully ask Dr Hibbs and the board if we are able to work together to be able to start this initiative up again um the bus will be mned at all times uh we usually have it in the parking lot from like 12:30 to 6:30 on a weekday um and it's usually manned by members uh volunteer members who are either before a shift after a shift or you know they take they'll take a personal data actually make sure that that that bus is is Mand at all times um we'll send Flyers out to the employees uh via the uh social media if that's okay with the school district um we share it on our social media sites we try and post it everywhere so people know that this initiative's starting up again um I don't think we've done it for about three or four years now and Co obviously had a big impact on everything we did with the community um the new pep grants uh that we can use from the nja are from voluntary donations that are are garnered from everybody's union dues so every single Union member actually contributes to the pet program um voluntarily through their dues um and we have you know some people have considerable budgets to be able to work with the communities to be able to um have this interaction between parents and School Employees so that they become more confident in who we are and realize that you know our worth within our districts so um I would respectfully ask if the if the board would consider allowing us to have um at least four stuff the bus events during this year and I may be back to ask if we could do something else depending on what comes up but if we can make this a success this year we would love to uh put the time in and the effort to actually um put these on again thank you thank you I think that's great I did um kind of um at my last district and it was just wonderful I'd be happy to take a day forever come and Vol I we actually did it over Co but it was really mys kids come we like did chalk on the pavement and had signs and I me it was me we it was time we got tons and tons of so I think it's Yeah Yeah from from my end let's let's go that sounds awesome yeah and then I'm even happy to put it out to the administration too to figure out how we can help support those time frames I'd love to come out and not only with things but also help you man the bus or you know that's great I mean you're very welcome to come and join us for an hour or a half an hour it's always good fun and interacting with Community but yeah we'd love to we'd love to see you there and you know do you want to um you want to stop by and and we can plan it out abely okay sounds great yeah that's it yeah sure yeah thank you very much yeah thank you a motion to close to the public I move thank you all in favor I opposed okay all right report of the superintendent nothing at this time instructional appear Affairs one through five yes is Mo just just motion the yeah okay we're just voting moot okay okay motion to approve items number one to five so move discussion you have anything P okay I just have one thing in discussion um on five the the dual enrollment agreement yeah again I think that's a great thing you know and uh I I would just ask um I don't know that we get enough out on that you know do do we and this is I guess more of a question right how do we let parents know about that uh and take advantage of I think the students may know about it but you know haven't had a student that went through and I know some of my son's friends and whatnot they they graduated with like 12 16 credits they cut a half a year or a year off of college and I know we have some kids taken advantage of it but I feel like if parents knew they'd be saving maybe 20 grand on a college tuition bill they might be pushing their kids to take more of that stuff okay do you you want me to how about I put together a uh explanation of how we put this out and then run that back through either committee or through the whole board and then you can see everything that we do does that sound okay that that's fine with me I mean get up to the rest of the board if they want to hear it too I don't want to yeah you guys I mean I'm I'm happy that I I think it's it is discussed too at like the high school back to school night but there's so much information often times you're like wait a minute what did did you say so even if like that can yeah we can put together that way we don't have to fly by the seat of our pants I'm happy to that J you okay doing that for us awesome thank you awesome yeah you got it okay uh R Mrs chill yes Mr de Mayo yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Sano yes Mrs Bloom yes Mr Ross yes policy motion for items number one to five I move second discussion roll call M de Mayo yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano yes Mrs Bloom yes Miss Chilla yes Mr Ross yes okay um Student Activities items number motion for items number one and two I moveed second discussion roll call Mr Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano yes Mrs Bloom yes Miss Chilla yes Mr Mayo yes Mr Ross yes Human Resources motion for items number 1 to 70 some move second discussion have one item Ralph the recognition of a retirement uh Dr Gregor um retiring after 35 years I know he's had so many contributions to the district thank you Dr [Applause] and Dr Gregor is proudly serving at Kindle right now as well doing a doing his his hard work there anything else roll call yes sir Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano yes Mrs Bloom yes M Chilla yes M de Mayo yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Ross Yes take a sec and congratulate okay all right I'm gonna we have a lot of lot of big hires here I know I Big M so you're going be able to hear me so Bill who's going to Le all is going to be our new special education supervisor is going to probably be [Applause] 4 seconds to do and that was probably 72 hours wor away maybe more congratulations all three looking forward to having you make a difference one more round thank you everybody finance and Facilities items number 1 to 26 so move second discussion yeah I had a couple under here I didn't get a chance to review VI the response let me just uh find email uh okay you got N8 oh the only one I think you didn't get back to me on so I had a question about the checks on N8 you got back to me on that those were individuals had a question on n11 around the cell phone uh charges there and confirmed to me that those are all contractually obligated um oh n19 we didn't get to n19 yeah that which said 600 per activity but outline how many activities are there okay um here's the here's the explanation we have in there sorry it's hard to read and what's the question it was on n19 it says uh I don't have that in front of me it's $600 per activity right cash fund so life skills trip for special education students two High School groups two Middle School groups and three Elementary School groups they try to do one trip per month many trips have little to no cost the $600 limit per trip is in place for control purposes program has a $5,000 budget for the year and they do not exceed this amount for all the trips combined okay so it's a great great way it's a great thing okay all right thanks I was just looking forward that upper you got it yep five okay thanks any other discussion roll call Mr Serrano yes Mrs Bloom yes Mrs cello yes Mr too yes Mr Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Ross Yes special special education item number one can I thr for two seconds I'm so sorry I I should have I should have done one more thing um proving that we're all imperfect um I should have also congratulated uh Joe gfo who is our new director of informational technology he is not here to receive Applause um but I want to give him Applause anyway so so sorry and Joe if you're listening I'm sorry okay special education item number one second discussion roll call Mrs Bloom yes M Chell yes Miss to Mayo yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano yes Mr Ross Yes negotiations nothing is just Time new business any new business I just have a question when are we going to actually work on the board goals and the district goals well we can U set a special meeting or we can do it prior to one of the board meetings I I don't know and Ari maybe you can help us do we do that now or we do it as after January when a new board possibly comes in I mean we could talk about that it might make sense at this point to wait for the new board come in though we have three whatever four months left I mean it's really up to you as a board right that's fine it's just that last year I think it was done in like August that's the only reason I was questioning I keep Gathering goals and keep could I could I make a small suggestion and you guys can do whatever you want with this so for the district goals I there there are things we should develop jointly so how about I come up with a few ideas and then you can sketch them left or right or an entirely different direction right um because when we talk to Terry it's things like academics right you're talking about things that are a big part of what we do anyway so how about we do some I can put together some concepts for you in in working with the team and then as far as the board goals go I don't think there's any reason why you couldn't navigate those she said you only need one to two right had had some great suggestions so I don't think there's any reason why you couldn't at least put it on for a conversation for the regular meeting and then navigate it through it you all have great ways of dealing with people great suggestions Scott has very good uh leadership you know leadership you know I don't want to say tricks but you know what I mean you know he's got he's got great ways to to lead so I think we can we can navigate those those those Concepts to put things in place okay thank you you okay put on L yep yeah I think and I think that's a great idea I I also think the training was great and having that in like January so when you're a new board member come in and you actually hear like what your role is and what you can do I think we should schedule that now like talk to to Terry and say hey can we get you know for the on the books on the books for the 2 January meeting and it's already set for the new board members and if we work on a calendar as one of our goals that would be a good way to start that and get that going I agree yeah that's great good uh any other new business uh motion's open to the public so move all in favor I I don't think you have any oh you one is this no no that's last one you're good motion to close to the public move all those in favor oppos thank you public great meeting motion to motion to close uh motion to adjourn second all those in favor iOS thank you public oh