good evening today is January 11th the watchong board district is committed to inspiring Learners to explore inquire and collaborate on their joyful Journey towards Discovery independent thinking and creative problem solving our culture and acceptance and inclusion provides a foundation for Learning and social and emotional growth through reflection and ethical decision- making we continue to learn and grow Embrace differences and prepare for an increasingly complex everchanging world I call to order a regular meeting of the Wong burrow District Board of Education on January 11th at 7 p.m. please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for [Music] all welcome to the meeting of the Board of Education of the B of Wang please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public and media consistent with public open public meetings act chapter 231 laws of 1975 and that advaned notice required therein has been provided this is a regular meeting of the Board of Education of the buau of Wang at which formal action may be taken this meeting will be live streamed on the district website where a recording of the meeting will also be posted the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda at points in the meeting provided for the public to address the board recording or photog for photographing other than private personal use requires the consent of parents Gardens for those whose children may be included in the image before we get started with our Retreat tonight and welcome Gwen thoron for the state of New Jersey Board Association I want to notify the public that board member Mr Richard bucarelli has resigned from the Board of Education immediately rich thank you for your four years of service I hold I hope to hold the same Integrity in my time here and I wish you the very best in your future endeavors as per our board and bylaws number 0143 on behalf of the board we invite any interested resident to submit a written request and resume for consideration of his or her cency for the vacancy these can be emailed to me or delivered to the board of education to my attention the board will be posting the vacancy to the district website and advertising it in it it to the community with appropriate deadlines the Board of Education will interview qualified applicants in executive session and will expect to vote to appoint a candidate to the vacancy in public session there will be no decisions made in executive session during the public session nomination and voting process board members must Express their opinion in support of their vote so the public can witness any deliberations policy for for policy formulation and decision-making progress of the board we expect this vote and appointment of the board new member to take place on February 22nd 2024 regular board meeting Karen Ro Please Mr fr here Mr Gonzalez here Mrs Harvey here Mr Ang Gracia AB Mrs jet here Mrs aguilo here Mrs Amadeo here Mrs Sanchez here at this point I would like to introduce Mrs Gwen Thorton of New Jersey SC boot Board Association who will be facilitating our board of education training goal setting and evaluation of the superintendent discussion this evening Gwen has been our field service representative for a number of years and we're happy to have you back with us tonight thank you very much it's a pleasure to be back Happy New Year to all of you welcome to the new folks who are just elected it's nice to see you please know that we are here as a resource for you always even if I can't remember remember every domain name that I need to know um but I will get that to you so I thought we would start tonight with your annual ethics training as part of New Jersey qac New Jersey quality Central accountability Continuum which is the state's monitoring process for school districts the board of education is required on an annual basis to review of the code of ethics I know that you probably read it into the minutes at your reorganization meeting but it requires a discussion under sa and so that is what I'm here to do and interestingly enough even if you've been on the board before um there have been changes as a result of the decisions of the school ethics commission that continue to change the landscape in New Jersey uh around the code of ethics so my goal for tonight um why is this not I have to do this too I almost forgot I have to do this but I have it up here older eyes I can see it much better here okay um so this is really just a disclaimer that talks about the fact that this is informational for you it does not take the place of the advice of your board's attorney who is the Arbiter um of a large number of pieces of this and if you have specific questions in regard to this your board's attorney is the person that you will go to for that final information so um the School ethics Act was designed to ensure that the contuct of members of local Boards of Education hold both the respect and the confidence of the people I have always been very proud as a board member when I was a board member and also as a staff member because we abide by this code of ethics as well and we enter um Financial disclosure forms the same way you do um that this was something that originally was voluntary and ascribed to by all it later became part of statute and is now a requirement of the law um but it was something that actually was approved at the delegate assembly which is the governing body of New Jersey school boards and made up of every school district which has one representative to that body who developed this initial code of ethics that later became part of Statute so it means that board members and administrators must avoid conduct that could be a violation or a perception of a violation and that's important as well it can be a perception of a violation of the public trust a justifiable impression that the trust is being violated so that's an important piece to keep in mind all of the time um once you become a board member I frequently say to members of the boards like having a Scarlet be on your forehead um as opposed to a Scarlet a from The Scarlet Letter People in your community know you are board members and they do imbue you with greater information and knowledge about the educational process in the school district than they assume for anyone else in your community and so it is a large responsibility okay once the school e ethics Act was in place um there is a school ethics commission it's called the SEC for a brief I thought that was the Securities Exchange Commission when I moved back to New Jersey I quickly found out as a board member it means the school ethics commission it lists prohibited acts around conflicts of interest it also embodies the mandatory training which we'll talk about in a few minutes as well as the requirement for those financial disclosure statements that you must fill out okay the provisions apply to all Board of Education members as well as Charter School members professional njsba staff such as myself officers of njsba and administrators who are certificated okay the provisions apply um for the code of ethics and mandatory training um for board members and Charter School trustees only who enforces this the SEC is made up of nine folks they're appointed for three-year terms two are school board members two are School administrators meaning superintendents and the remaining five are non-school officials the law says because we are nonpartisan as Boards of Education not tied to any political party that there can't be more than five people from One registered in one political party that's serve on the SEC to ensure that it remains uh nonpartisan it's jurisdiction IT issues two different and handles two different pieces advisory opinions and we'll talk a little bit about that any Board of Education member May request an advisory opinion of the school ethics commission if you think that you might have a potential conflict moving forward and you wish to get a determination before that vote vote comes before the body so advisory opinions are only on a prospective basis you can't ask for an advisory after you voted and found out it's a conflict that doesn't work okay they also address any ethics complaints that are filed against a board of education member okay and in any given year roughly there are around 85 ethics complaints that are filed um and some are thrown out some are adjudicated if there's Not Just Cause they will throw it out um 35 advisory opinions requested interestingly enough for advisory opinions to be made public there have to be six votes from the SEC to make them public so for example we went for several years in the teens in the late teens like 14 15 and 16 and there were no advisory opinions made public and they're made public they strip out all of of the names and the name of the school district if they think the SEC if the commission believes it has such widespread impact for all Board of Education members they will make that advisory opinion public there is an expectation on behalf of the school ethics commission that you will read those advisory opinions we publish them in Schoolboard notes if you haven't gotten your school first Schoolboard notes you will shortly um we always publish all of the advisory opinions as well as the ethics decisions because ignorance of what has been determined is not an excuse okay um so and in fact there are just a couple that have just recently come out that have had some really widespread impact and we'll talk about those in a few minutes okay so also in the ACT mandatory training board members in their first year of service and this would apply to the three of you who are brand new welcome welcome welcome um you have 9 days in which to attend new board member orientation for those of you who are sitting here who were elected before this year you had a whole school year 180 days to take it not anymore the SEC changed the regulations and they've determined they want new folks to have training within the first 90 days we applaud that because the sooner you go to training the more able you are to fully participate as a board of education member and understand what your roles and responsibilities are about so that's what you have to do in year one by the end of year two and you have the full year for this you have to go to gov two currently gov 2 is composed of a module on labor negotiations and school finance and budgeting go three you have to take by the end of the third year of your first term and that is focused solely on student achievement social emotional learning mental health supports climate and culture all of those wonderful things I think we should should give that to you earlier but that's my bias as a former educator gov 4 must be taken in the first year of any term subsequent to your first so when you finished three years as a board member of course you have loved it you run for reelection you win then you have to go to go four and that is legal updates around the school ethics commission changes from labor negotiations and perk decisions which is the public employees relations Commission um and all of those other court cases that might have an impact both at the federal and the state level on education in New Jersey okay so you also need to know because this question gets asked every year Well I I'm new and I want to go to all of them you can however you only get credit from the school ethics commission for taking it in the year in which it's required so if you're a new board member this year and you go to gov one you may want to go to gov two may want to go to G three you're welcome to attend any of those but they won't count for the requirement in the year in which it's due and I always get a board member or two who calls me and says but Gwen I went I get it but it it's not it's an SEC rule not an njsba rule that we're following because they are a state agency connected to the Department of Education and we are just charged with the training and Reporting the training and you want to make sure you don't wait until the 11th hour I literally had a board member at 11:43 on December 31st it finished his training don't take a chance that the technology will work and that you won't hit a glitch you can take it virtually you can take it in person self-paced you can do it home in your jammies and sweatpants or whatever with bunny slippers um we don't care how you take it but it's important that you take it and the sooner you take it the more informed you will be as a board member um and that's important and you also don't want to get hate mail from us because we'll start papering you with you're in danger of being out of compliance and I'll have to call your business administrator then they'll harass you and we'll harass you um and then if you don't do it there's a series of escalating penalties for board members who don't complete their training and it goes up to removal from the board if you fail to take your training and I'm not trying to scare anybody I'm just trying to tell you because it's always like a surprise to folks okay your disclosure statements you will get an email from the state you should have already received it you have 30 days from the date of reorganization when you were sworn in to complete that document if you're a returning board member you have until April the 30th so you have a little extra time as a new board member I mean as a experienced board member to finish your financial disclosure forms okay they are available it comes to you online you can fill it out I always tell board members when I was a board member this is how old I am we used to have to fill them out in duplicate you had to copy it and then sign both originals and deliver it to your business administrator now you can do it in the comfort of your home you hit certification and you're done and it gets done all electronically so it's much easier than it used to be penalties so they have now laid out um if you fail to do your required tests and or you are found guilty of a violation the SEC has the ability to reprimand you which is exactly like it says don't do it again same thing we would say to our kids right don't do that again they also have the authority to censure a board of education member that's a little more complicated it includes having a resolution of centure read publicly at a Board of Education meeting and then recorded in the minutes that that was done and posted on the district website for 30 days they have the authority to suspend a board member for a finite period of time it's what a suspension is the same way it is at the high school level three days five days whatever it is um and they also have the ability to remove a board of education member for egregious violations of the code of ethics and they have used that okay um I'm not going to take a lot of time because I know you've already written written and read this as well as spoken it at your board meetings but you are required to enforce and uphold all of the laws and rules of the State Board of Education and court orders um and only bring about change through legal and ethical procedures that simply means that you are publicly elected officials you took an oath of office that you swore to aold and that includes following all of the laws and regulations of the state of New Jersey including those that you may or may not agree with and that's a requirement you will make decisions in the best interests of all children the needs recognizing the needs of all students regardless of their ability their race their Creed their sex or their social standing so regardless of what your policy says you as a publicly elected official are required to abide by this and to uphold it you're required to confine your board action to policymaking planning and appraisal and do so only after you have consulted those who will be affected by them you are by definition a policymaking body that is one of your major roles as a board of educ a is to create policies which are essentially a road map if you will um a guide for your staff your students your community members the Board of Education your superintendent um and so it is really important that you understand that that means you are not involved in the day-to-day operational aspects of the district you will hear all New Jersey school boards Association staff say over and over and over your role is to see that the district is well-run it is not to run the district you hire your educational experts and staff to make sure that the district is well run you will work together not to administer the schools but again with your colleagues and fellow board members to see that they are well-run keep in mind that no Board of Education member has any Authority by themselves the only time you have any Authority in Wong is when you were seated here at a duly average adverti meeting of the Board of Education when you work together with your colleagues to make determinations around how the district is going to function and move forward whether it's adoption of a policy um whether it's author of a field trip that's been recommended by your superintendent all of those things can only happen here at the board table so when this meeting is adjourned and you go out into the community you have no more Authority than I do and I don't live in watcha okay and that's something that you have to understand no individual board member has the authority to direct your superintendent to act only the full board of education has that ability so it is only when the board Collective makes a decision to have the superintendent do XYZ that the superintendent would consider doing XYZ but none of you by yourselves have any Authority the board president doesn't the board vice president doesn't and none of you do either okay it is the collective board that has has the authority to make change in the district okay again here it is rest the authority rest with the full board and make no personal promises nor take any private action that might compromise the board and we will talk a little bit about what does that really look like what does that mean in reality because a lot of this sounds really nice but often times it's very confusing as to what that means you are folks responsible for seeing saying what you want to have happen in the district but you are not the how people you are not the nuts and bolts people that get in and fix the buses you are not the people that fix the water fountain you have no business doing any of that that's taking personal action that could compromise the board long term okay refusing to surrender your judgment to special interests or partisan political groups or to use the schools for personal gain or for the gain of of friends Boards of Education are nonpartisan we are elected that way that's why you're on a separate part of the ballot from all of the other offices that may be on that ballot but that means that you will not um Surrender Your individual judgment or thinking to partisan political groups with a big p meaning the parties Democratic Republican and or special interest groups whether it's the bowling team whether it's the mcal singers you're here for all students and so even if your child sings in the m in the chorus you have to look at decisions in the interest of all children regardless of how you might personally feel excuse me you want a water meof kind to stay warm I just keep thinking that cold ice water bath holding confidential information um that is discussed in exec session could needlessly injure individuals or the schools and again you are required to hold confidential executive information in exact session that means you don't discuss it with your best friend your neighbor your husband your wife exact session material does not go beyond the board and if you do you risk putting the district at a in a position that could be detrimental to students to staff um and needlessly harm folks that you don't want to do and so you need to make sure that you are not disclosing information that comes to you in exec session until the need for it has passed there is a process by which materials discussed in executive session become public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists that will never be true for personnel decisions it will never be true for student matters because both of those groups have an inviolate right to privacy that you can't abgate but for example if you're negotiating a contract and the contract is approved and the board signs off on it that material and information can become public there's some things that can become public there are just a few that will never become public however there's a process for making that happen so so that the public can stay in touch with what's going on in the district required to vote and appoint the best qualified Personnel available after consideration of the recommendation of the chief administrative officer you are not required to vote Yes on every Personnel recommendation as long as your rationale is not arbitrary or capricious we can talk about what that means you know capricious is I didn't really like what they wore to the meet the board um my neighbor told me they were not a good teacher that's an arbitrary capricious decision you can't have that you're required to support and protect School Personnel in the proper performance of their duties um for those of you who might be sport parents of one kind or another the day before you became a board of education member you could stand on the sidelines and say that person is the worst coach I had ever seen because he didn't play your child for enough time and of course your child is the next I don't know who's a great sport I'm not a big Sports person um and I'll say the wrong name Tom Brady yeah I'll get in trouble here I won't say anybody but do you know you could do that the day before you became a board member but the day you became a board member if the coach is employed by the school district you can no longer do that okay you have to protect your school Personnel in the proper performance of their duties okay you're also required to refer all complaints to the chief School administrator which is your superintendent and act on the complaint at a public meeting only after the failure of an administrative solution now failure of an administrative solution does not mean that every parent is going to walk away happy it means that it was looked at taken care of and addressed because sometimes people believe if they don't get necessarily what they might want or think is appropriate that's a failure but it is not up to the board to investigate complaints it is not up to you to do any of that work or to try to solve someone's individual problem because you don't have that Authority what you can do and we'll talk about this is use the chain of command in order to enable folks in the community to have access to the district what that means is you want to direct them to the person closest to the issue and ensure that they know and they have spoken to that person first if you're giving them help that's how you can help them if it's a class issue in a classroom have you spoken to the teacher you're not satisfied with the resolution at that level The Next Step Up the chain of command would be the vice principal or the principal and so forth and so on until it got to the superintendent if the Board of Education involves itself in those kinds of issues way down here when a parent calls and and says you can't believe my little suie did such and such and they did such and such you will have to recuse yourself if it ever gets to the board level and not participate also keep in mind that most times when people call it's because they're upset and like most folks they may not have the full story or the full picture for those of you who are parents and have ever had a child come home and tell you a story about something terrible that had happened to them you know that it's only about 50% of what may have transpired and often times for people who are upset it's because they don't have the complete story um at at their fingertips so the best thing you can do as a board member is to give them access tell them who to call if it's a transportation issue you call the transportation office you know if it's a um athletic issue you want to start with the coach and then the athletic director if you have one and work your way up but you wouldn't start with the superintendent and then work your way backward Okay so so that's the chain of command for the community and people will call you and reach out when they have an issue or a concern a lot of members of the public think you might have more Authority than you actually have uh because you don't have the authority to solve anybody's problems I also suggest when folks call you and they have an issue as a courtesy you should reach out let the superintendent know and copy the board president because that's helpful and then everyone is in the loop so that if it does become something that's really critical they're not hearing it at the 11th Hour okay what is your chain of command as a board of education member okay um again you know you should be advised of any issue that is a problem within the district that is going to look like it may end up in something however you don't go out to the public and solicit complaints okay I I know but sometimes people think I'll just go out and ask you know how is your child doing in this classroom that's not your job okay um again refer the person to the lowest level in the chain of command and then notify the superintendent so that it can be addressed if need be sometimes it will be need to be addressed and sometimes it'll be handled at the teacher level or the building level and we'll never go any further than that and that enables all of your educational leaders to do their work okay so um from this particular year um here are some examples and I'm going to send you this PowerPoint tomorrow so that or tonight so you'll have it tomorrow um so you can read it at your leisure um you know these are cases that were discussed um a board member copied and pasted info from a board email and sent the non-public contents to Township officials that revealed internal um executive Communications between the board it was considered confidential and not yet voted on this board member was found to be in violation and a reprimand was issued okay um an email sent from a district account to a known political entity misrepresenting the intent of a rally at the district it suggested political motivations and only invited one side of the community uh again using board email can give the impression that the statements were made on behalf of the board that that is taking personal action that compromises the Board of Education that's something you don't want to have happen okay here's one where a board member contacted Menders and districts for prices this is where a board member went beyond his role in oversight and Appraisal developing policy and Communications and was micromanaging the district it was administering the district by going to vendors getting prices um and then bringing them back okay it was a private investigation this individual was censured using board email to Express Personal views on mass mandates and encourage public action it was sent to the state legislators and members of the public this person was reprimanded it doesn't mean you can't have your own opinion but discussions of issues within your District should take place right here at the board table certainly not on social media okay um again a member accused the superintendent of changing the graduation date due to a personal conflict she reached out to the chorus teacher um to question why um and then again just created this incredible dust up and gave the appearance that the board disagreed with the administration and put the chorus teacher in a very uncomfortable situation again it was tantamount to an investigation referral not to the superintendent this board member was censured and in fact ultimately this board member was removed from the board um for a whole series of this these kinds of incidences um a member should have declined a meeting with the public to discuss a highly divisive board action to change a holiday name U because this action undermines the administration's Authority uh to address the concerns and created unnecessary strains on that relationship that board member was repr commanded and again all of these cases and references are going to be available to you in this um PowerPoint you will be able to go and look you can look at the SEC website um they have all of these cases by year these are some of the most recent um the day after a board president lost election he directed the board attorney to conduct research on another board member who had campaigned against him this was seen as retribution obviously um and he took private action and used his position as board president um to secure privilege for himself that wouldn't be available to any of the rest of you as board members or any members of the public um this individual was censured in addition to the code itself there are some prohibited acts you're required by law to re accuse yourself if there is a benefit to you or to your immediate family there's a bus interest that provides a conflict um you must recuse yourself um if you are in a position to secure unwarranted privileges advantages or employment um keep in mind that the SEC has also said this extends beyond your immediate family to others so for example if you have an emancipated child that still resides with you in your home and you use your position as a board of education member to have them get a position somewhere um or another advantage that is greater than anyone else would receive you have a problem okay any kind of financial involvement that could impair your objectivity um if there's a vendor for example um or a contractor that you're looking at and you have some kind of personal relationship with them and you can't be objective in determining what's the best way to go then you should recuse yourself please keep keep in mind I'm talking about recusals recusals are different than extensions and we'll talk about what that difference is in a minute but if you have a a conflict under the law that's outlined here you must recuse yourself which means you won't participate you don't discuss and you don't vote and you don't sit in the session where that whatever that topic is that creates that Conflict for you is being discussed okay you cannot take any gift or favor that is offered with the intent to influence or any kind of action that would give you financial gain through the district okay so again no discussion no vote um you shouldn't represent any other person or party than the board or districts in matters that may come before the board this happened um in several districts particularly in the area of special education where there are special education advocacy groups where some sometimes board members would think they needed to go with a friend's parent one of their children's friends parents to the IEP conference to help Lobby for the services that is needed by that child that is the kind of thing that you must always avoid um because as a board member it creates a conflict for your staff and it puts them an incredibly awkward position because they know that you're Board of Education members okay um again it's not a conflict if you're not ACR something that is greater than anyone else acrs so I'm often asked I have a third grader and the whole third grade is going to Lincoln Center can I vote on that absolutely benefit to your child isn't greater than the benefit that every other child in the third grade is going to receive or in their class if it's a class trip as opposed to a grade level trip so those kind of things you can obviously take advantage of um and you feel free to vote it is only if it was just your child that was getting that benefit going to Lincoln Center okay then you would not be able to vote you should accuse yourself okay so um again when a conflicted board member votes if it's a legal conflict recus don't participate in discussion don't sit at the table don't vote if you wish to abstain um then that's okay exstension should be used when um you don't have enough information to make a decision um or you were absent from for example from the board meeting was something was discussed and it's being acted on at the next board meeting and you haven't been able to catch up or get that information to you exstension should not be used when there is a hard vote to make in other words if there's a controversial issue that comes before the district sometimes board members will want to abstain but the public has elected you to represent the best interests of every child in your district and sometimes that includes making hard decisions um so don't misuse exensions when something that might cause um division in your community or discussion sometimes you're going to have to do that okay so when we talk about immediate family members we just talked about that in terms of conflict it's your spouse your civil I'm not going to read all of these um they have adopted this was originally in the nepotism policy that you have we all have nepotism policies in every school district in the state of New Jersey originally when the ethics law was written immediate family was your spouse your dependent child who resided in your household and that was essentially it they've now expanded it to say spouse civil union domestic partner child sibling Aunt Uncle every relative you know and some you don't in all likelihood but you need to be aware of that okay so additionally they have also included others as well for some for example in um situations they decided and other was um a board member couldn't vote when they had a divorced spouse and the spouse was employed in the district and even though they were no longer married under the definition right because this person was paying child support for the children in the district there was this relationship that continued to exist and so that continued to create a conflict for that individual so sometimes you have to look Beyond just those terms to understand what um could be problematic and that's when we say the best Authority you can always check with if you have a concern is your board attorney who is the final AR Orit of those kinds of decisions to help keep and guide the board safe so that you don't accidentally overstep because there are individual circumstances in many cases that might you know tweak something that seems on the surface like it would be okay but it's not so if you ever have any questions about it your board attorney is really the person to ask for years we've been trying to discern what relatives are included and what Rel IES aren't included I'm going to send you this list tomorrow they published it this past fall Bas were dancing in the aisles with this because it lays out exactly whether it's a conflict or not a conflict for those kinds of um problems that could exist okay a school's official son-in-law as well as a daughter-in-law a steps their spouse their partner so it's very clear now what those conflicts potentially could be and I can't tell you how many phone calls we have all gotten and they say well you know it's my husband's second cousin's third wife's nephew okay we don't know the absolute answer to that because we can't know all of the circumstances so again um this is from an advisory opinion that was asked and they finally heard us long enough to write a list it's really exciting you can tell I a boring life um but but I I do think it's important okay um if you already have a relative working within the district that person can continue to work in the district meaning they were employed in the district before you were elected they can continue that employment however you should not vote on their Reemployment their raises the terms and conditions of their employment you should not vote you should recuse yourself because it's a conflict okay you may not hire the relative of a board member or the chief School administrator the nepotism policy precludes that it's right out there for you um but these are the guidelines if you already have someone that is within the district okay um so you just need to remember that that's something that you have to think about collective bargaining is also governed under this and I'm not going to take time to read the entire chart to you you'll be a able to see it it's pretty clear um what is the relationship to the board member what is the current member's status in terms of a public teachers union and this is for njaa the teamsters the FCI or any similar Statewide Union that a group or an employee might belong to because different districts have different teachers associations some are mjas some are or n yeah njaa part of Nea some are part of the AFL CIO we do you have some Teamsters as well um and that tells you whether you can participate in negotiations and then whether you can vote to ratify the contract once you have negotiated that contract okay so um keep in mind it used to be when I said of the Board of Education that if you were endorsed during the course of the election time by the Teachers Association you were automatically out of negotiations for the first year of your term as a board member they have changed that they have now said that it's not an automatic per se conflict um unless a financial contribution is given and intended to influence the member so just keep that in mind but keep in mind also that the school ethics commission has said it's not just a violation of the law it's also the perception of a violation so if it's well known in the community um that you know you're part of a teachers associ ation often times um there might be a perception if you were participating that that could be problematic okay there are all kinds and I'm not going to take the time to read through all of these these are all advisory opinions related to those prohibited acts that you can read at your leisure and again all the citations are there so if you want to read the totality of the case to see the glory details um that's available to you online as well this actually has just come out in the last couple of months um and it's sort of a dramatic change so what is the impact on committee assignments when the relative works in the district so the board president has a child who's an instructional assistant in the district she cannot choose committee members Beyond any committee involving the local Education Association matters related to the superintendent may not choose the chair members or members of a committee or serve on any committee that remotely touches directly upon family members employment including but not limited to Personnel negotiations instruction and finance which essentially means you will be a board member without a committee okay this is a huge change we have a lot of Board of Education members who are either teachers or who are part of um the educational systems of various districts and so again Um this can be problematic and watch School Board notes because I fully expect to see some additional advisory opinions coming out limiting word officers ability to serve on committees if they have conflicts of one kind or another this is a CA change impact on Executive session again you should never be an executive session if there's any time that there's a member of your family being discussed in executive session um one example is a board member they had a vacancy just like you do um and someone's spouse applied that sat on the board spouse applied for the position and the board member went into executive session even though her spouse was sitting in interviewing with the board of engine um that was a violation okay uh a board president attended multiple discussions involving spouses and other members were unaware of the identity um and in both cases Council was consulted first they did it anyway okay so they were both censored okay so just keep in mind you should again it was seen as trying to have an unwarranted privilege that wouldn't acre to anyone else except to you the spouse of the person who was applying or the immediate family member that was applying for the position and it wasn't a paid position it was a board of education seat okay and and that's a significant difference it wasn't hiring them it was simply appointing them um and so you just need to make sure um because they felt that the board members presence could chill or intimidate um the comments and opinions of others okay so you don't want to have that happen either volunteering in schools there are also some concern straints these this is a relatively recent phenomenon in The Last 5 Years Around board members volunteering in the school um these did not exist when I was a board of education member um clearly it has to do with the degree of giving or taking directions to students or staff um will you be in the building often um you should not be thought of as a fixture in the building if people think you belong in the building that's a problem because you don't don't um you're a board of education member not a staff member handling School funds of any sort I tell the story I probably told it to you all some of you will recognize this story so forgive me I used to run the the schore the school store volunteer once once a month they would run the school store for the elementary kids and literally it's a long time ago my kids are not young married and have kids um it was nickels and dimes and quarters it was a Pitt for erasers and stickers and folders and book covers and that kind of thing I I routinely hand out the money um couldn't have been 15 bucks on a good day it was nothing um however that would be a problem now so please do not in a volunteer capacity in any way handle any kinds of funds no matter how minimal you think they may be or even if they're handing you checks for a wrapping paper or chocolates or whatever kind of fundraisers you may be doing um you don't want to be in that process okay um you cannot be a coach volunteer coach or an advisor to any co-curricular program in the school district as long as you're on the board of education you can be a coach for Park and Rex you could pop warner um you can be in you can go to Every activity that you want however you cannot be a regular advisor um again we had a board member who ran a stamp collecting Club um for first graders and he was an older gentleman stamp collecting used to be big I probably have five different sets of stamp albums in my basement from my father-in-law my father my brother um all of whom you know are long gone um and he loved doing that and the youngsters loved it was was a way of teaching geography teaching history um because stamps typically are for famous people and places and locations and events um and the district said we're really sorry after these advisories came out you you can't do it so he resigned from the board he said because if I don't no one's going to do this because there is nobody to do this particular thing and he loved doing it with the little kids and so that to me was a really sad outcome I know that's not what intended by this but sometimes when they make a broad blanket kind of thing like this it also has some downsides to it as well um and so I understand that but you need to make sure always advise the superintendent if you're going to be in a school building and you can be in the school building you know as a parent for your child's teacher conference um you know cing in a science project um or if you have a legitimate reason to be in the School building but you should not routinely be in a school building unless you have a purpose in being there you are not there to look and count the number of ceiling tiles that may be out of place or a crack tile you know or a leaky bathroom um that's not your role as a board of education member there are people who take care of those things um and again you know just always be cognizant when you are in the building and trust me when I tell you it takes about 15 seconds for every teacher to know when when you were in this building or any of the building and everyone knows you're there you can go to any public event you want I would encourage you to go to as many things as you can um it's wonderful for the community to see you it's wonderful for the kids to see you they appreciate you're taking your time to come to those things please go but it's different than visiting the schools on a regular basis you have no business in the schools unless you're doing a tour of the facilities with the business administrator to look at changes that were made to the tech lab or something that's a legitimate reason to be in there it's a board function but beyond that you don't routinely belong in the schools at all voting um again um board members are entrusted with making listening to recommendations from the district and you have to continue your understand and consider your uh requirements around this um for appointment transfer or removal of certificated or non-certificated staff um you can vote any way you want as long again as it's not arbitrary and capricious okay and that's just something that you have to and these are some of the advisories um that have been recently released here's one that is particularly um I think important to all of you um the ethics commission was asked if you were to vote in the affirmative on a board motion to refuse to implement the new New Jersey student learning standards for Comprehensive Health and PE would that be problematic and the sec's response is there um and it says um it was shown that a school official um acted in a contrary way to the laws rules and regulations promulgated by the state board you could be in violation of the law by the way they just added to the HP standards grief um education for students that is now going to be a part of the New Jersey student learning standards helping students learn to handle an address grief will be part of the HP standards that was just prolongated just this past week or so we're the first state in 50 to have that as a educational standard I'm blowing by my favorite thing social media okay this has taken up more time in the school ethics Commission than any other topic that they have been dealing with and that's the use board member use of social media um you do not automatically give up to your right to free speech however that being said it is a balance between your right to free speech and the restrictions placed on You by Statute and law as well as the code of ethics protecting School personnel and the proper performance of their duties not taking personal action that could compromise the board of education so it is a limited right and someone one of my board members said to me well I had more rights when I wasn't a board member I said that's true you did but you ran for the board and you're a publicly elected official and you are constrained by the code of ethics and by state law and Regulation and interestingly enough um when the school ethics commission held um around the HP standards they said individually if you voted no that wasn't a problem however ever if the full board were to have voted on that and refused to implement that would be a violation okay so individually it was okay but collectively it would have been a problem okay um again in large part using social media depends on the content of your speech and what it is you are posting um again keep in mind that the open public meetings act says that the public has the right to observe your deliberations and to listen to you discuss and determine how the conduct of the district moves forward the business of the district if you are posting pieces on social media um not everyone reads social media just a word about closed um social media groups like closed Facebook pages that are not open to your entire Community it is very possible that if there's a majority of the board on that same group or in that same group you could be viol VI ating the open public meetings act and so we strongly discourage you from belonging to any closed Facebook group that is related to your community you know if it's how to quilt I think that's just okay and not a problem however it is around your community or the district in any kind of fashion if you're all belonging to the same closed Facebook group that could be problematic and subject you to potential issues with the school ethics commission by virtue of that so if that's the case here um I you know I know in my community there's several Facebook groups I don't belong to any of them um I've managed to live a very long healthy life without being on social media um and and I'm not knocking it it has a lot of Virtues I'm sure I have trouble finding them because most of the time that I spend board members who are upset it's generally about things that are said on social media okay um so just keep in mind um the school ethics commission has said you know that if it's a question that does not relate to board business or its operations and it's reasonable to perceive the speech as being offered in your official capacity or pursuant to your District your duties it can be a violation okay so again um there's a case where they a parent asked and said I'm an educator I I would like to respond on Facebook to questions and answers from members of the public in the community in which he was a board member um is that a problem and they waited and said absolutely because you are not a school official you're a board of education member you're a public official and so there's always that risk that it the information you're providing could be misinterpreted as opposed to not so my best advice to all of you you is you want to drive people to your website where accurate complete and total information about everything that goes on in the district should reside as opposed to individually posting it um because it there always subject to bias or misinterpretation or misunderstanding so I encourage all of you to use social media with caution um I used to tell my board members because really social media was not ubiquitous 20 years ago and people would leave a meeting and would be upset and they go home and they type an email to another board member I'd say save it as a draft go to bed do whatever you need to do get up the next morning and hit delete call up the board member and have a conversation so going after each other on social media or implying that you're going after folks on social media uh is really not a good use of your time and it doesn't really move the district forward it generally ends up creating hard feelings hurt feelings um it is can be very very divisive and they SEC has asked us to talk about this um with Boards of education and help them to understand the risks that are involved um when you begin discussing District Business Online in whether it's an X account see I got it it's not Twitter anymore an X account um Facebook well there are more platforms that I don't have any idea who they are but um you just don't want to find yourself in that position you should if you're going to go ahead and do it put dip your toe into that water um you should make sure that you have included a disclaimer it says the following statements are made in my capacity as a private citizen not in my capacity as a board member these statements are also represented not represent representative of the board its individual members and solely represent my own personal views some kind of language like that doesn't have to be word for word that the SEC says this is the disclaimer I on the other hand am one of those rule followers I'd use the actual disclaimer from the school ethics commission just to make sure I've covered myself and been very clear um you need to include that okay so again if you use it does that automatically protect you it depends on the content of the speech so you can use a disclaimer but then if you go wandering off into those areas where you ought not to be discussing District business something confidential attacking a staff member and so forth and so on you will still be in violation even with the disclaimer so you just need to know that okay again if it's reasonable member of the public could perceive you're speaking in your official capacity never use your District email address to post on social media that email address should be solely used exclusively for district business if you're going to post on social media use your private account okay because if you use your you know if it says D Harvey Watchung schools.org that's a problem okay if it says Harvey Dy at gmail you have less of a problem okay sorry I'm not picking on you I don't know I'm just saying you need to be just very careful okay um if you use are you required to use the exact disclaimer no but you should use something very similar um again if you don't dis don't use the disclaimer does that mean I'm automatically involved in violation no but you should again it's a protection for you if you you use it okay um you should absolutely not use your campaign page okay because it's going once you've been elected you should shut that down put it on Hiatus until you run for election the next time after having had a wonderful three years but in those three years you should not use your campaign site because they've clearly said it leads to confusion in the community because they're going to automatically attribute it to you okay um can you like or share a post yes you can um but keep in mind depending upon who post you're liking or sharing it could be misinterpreted as well okay depending upon how potentially inflammatory a comment could be or how it could be perceived in the public to be um in a way we've seen this particularly I think the easiest example is the the war um in Gaza um with people posting various things there have been several board members that have had to resign um as a result of the kinds of postings that were made um because they were so inflammatory and it becomes a real difficult issue for a board to address and invites controversy um that no Board of Education wants to have and I'm not saying you can't have a position but again you know you have to be thoughtful about what it is you do you are publicly elected official and you are that publicly elected official now until December 31st 2020 whatever year you expire okay um and and you just need to be aware of that no matter when your term expires but it'll be on December 31st after that I don't care what you put on social media you can pull whatever you want well you could get in trouble with your kids trust me um for putting silly things the use of divisive language there's a very strong written and I love it it it's not in this particular presentation that talks about the fact that divisive language takes us off of the mission that we are there to do and could do the most damage to the children we are ultimately charged with serving and so you really don't want to use language on social media that is inappropriate keep in mind not only adults reading those things our children are reading those things our children are watching what we do okay so that's an important in the end just we have um recommend that you talk to your board attorney if you have a number of conflicted board members I have some boards where there are five and six members conflicted because they have family members employed in school districts I don't think you have anyone that is conflicted currently um however you can check with your board attorney um continue to check School Board notes and school leader to keep a breast of the most recent advisories because again there there's that expectation that you will be aware of what the advisories have said and I fully expect more advisories that are going to limit officers from appointing committees and serving on committees by virtue of um being endorsed by the Teachers Association and are having family members in a district so stay tuned because those things continue to change and evolve they're different this year than they were last okay so included we I've included and I'll send it to you all of these links so that you have them um so that you if you want you can look at all of the most recent decisions it's interesting to us it may not be terribly interesting to all of you um but it is important that you be aware okay questions no that's a lot I do understand that but it's important I have one question filing the disclosure statement do you have to do that your second year also every year every year you do every single year you will be sent a financial disclosure form here's my trick to that copy this year's Financial disclosure form that we because you have to have the name and the address of those places that you may receive income from so for example um if I say this because I can say it I'm old enough to say it if you're getting Social Security you know a social security check you have to put the address who remembers where the social security check come from from it goes to direct deposit you got to look it up it's a pain in the neck so just make a copy of your financial disclosure statement save it till next year I have I do it every year save it to the following year and then you have all the information that you need to fill out each sequential year unless you change jobs or win the lottery then you put the New Jersey lottery address you retire okay so yes you you do have to do it every year annually keep in mind that's public information and anyone's Financial disclosure form can be accessed and seen and there have been board members who you know will say something's missing from someone else's Financial disclosure forms that can create issues so make sure that it's complete and thorough okay think I'm kiding questions so I thought it would be um helpful to go through some scenarios I'm just going to grab my sheets they did it actually believe or not they signed it when they read it at the board meeting is that nice and I got them from everybody good job we're going to talk about how you would handle it and what you think is the appropriate thing to do in this particular particular instance do we read them to ourselves or do you want us to take turns reading the paragraph you can take turns we'll start um let's start with you you're the board president a board member is a CPA for a well respective accounting firm believing that the district needs to be fiscally conservative the member takes the proposed budget and identifies several line items that could yield savings for the district the member compiles the data into a report and distributes it at the following board meeting for consideration we'll go left this way you will but I want to know what you're going to do to address that is that okay you can't all sit and look at me and be quiet it's not okay Manny why isn't it okay Mo I'm sorry you were the one shaking your head um they're trying to run the schools instead of just ensuring they're well run exactly and additionally what didn't it go to First the committee the committee so if you were a board member and you had this concern and and you thought that there was a savings that could ACR to the district through doing something particularly if you took that to the finance committee and said here's something I think you all should look at and it ran through the committee and the administration and the business administrator all had input on that then it could eventually either find its way into the budget or it could be discussed at a full board meeting if that's what the committee recommend it but it should never just be handed out to the board as a fate comple as opposed to going through the process you operate by committee and therefore if you have an issue or an item that you think committee should be looking at you can ask that it be added to that agenda for that committee and then then it can be addressed in committee and if recommended it would then come forward to the board so it two reasons why it's not a good idea okay want to do the second one I'm sorry during executive session the board has provided information on an alleged victim involving a teacher and a student who happens to live next door to one of the other board members the next day the board member sees the parents of the student in their yard and has a conversation with them to get their side of the story good idea bad idea awful idea wonderful idea you're like being nice to the parents I care about the people I live next to what do you think I'd have to recuse you'd have to recuse yourself Additionally you don't you can't investigate and again you know you're going to give them the idea that somehow you can do something about their problem and at the end of the day you can't you're not there to solve individual family members student members issues that's not the role of the board the next one during intermission of the Middle School play a board member is approached by a few parents who inform her of the water inform her the water fountain in the hall is leaking water on the floor the member tracks down a janitor and directs him to clean up the water and fix the fountain as it poses a safety hazard appropriate seems like a good idea right if it's a safety hazard you could slip the principal there or tell the janitor that there's a leak and let him but particularly you would be better oberved by telling the principal and letting him you cannot direct any staff member you have no authority to direct any staff member the board of education has one employee one super superintendent you hold the superintendent accountable for their performance through their annual evaluation the superintendent holds all other staff accountable either through directly or through delegation for example to the principls of the buildings who hold their teachers accountable but they are then accountable to the soup and ultimately again you hold the soup accountable but you only have that one employee that's it so that there you tell the teacher tell a teacher tell another staff member there's a leak you don't want anybody to to get hurt or to slip we need to do something but they will figure out how to fix it okay you're not going to stand there and say give me a wrench I'll fix it for you first of all I wouldn't how to do that most of us wouldn't but again and you can't direct staff either and that's the important piece here no board member should ever be providing Direction to a staff member if you have a concern or you see something that is a concern the appropriate response is to immediately let your superintendent know so that that can be addressed okay unless it's an emerging situation in which case dial 911 like any other situation do you know if you saw a child down and hurt you can dial 911 call the superintendent know you know if the child's out there by himself or something like that um but again you you don't have the authority to do beyond that yes next one a newly elected member who won with support from the teachers union is invited to lunch by the union president the president indicates the teachers will be negotiating a new contract and would like to help the member better understand the Union's position the member agrees to go good idea bad idea don't go don't go first of all there's a negotiations committee I'm sure but secondarily that's a setup and you will be like a lamb to the slaughter okay you never and no you know we say this about negotiations all the time you know sometimes I'll have board president say look I know the Teachers Association president he and I can just have a conversation or she and I and we can settle this contract in 15 minutes so I'm just going to have breakfast with him at the local Diner and we'll be done yeah you'll be done you'll be toast okay never go into any kind of meeting with the association without either your entire committee but at least one of their board member okay um and while this seems like it's a really gracious offer to help help educate um believe me it it can be a very uncomfortable situation for you as a board member and not one you want to find yourself in because they have lots of experience negotiating and keep in mind all of you are lay people you sit on your board as a lay person um I'm a former teacher I was president of the Teachers Association I've negotiated on that side of the table and when I was a board member I've negotiated on the other side of the table but I will tell you when I was a a Association president and it was Pennsylvania Education Association not NJ um we went to classes on how to negotiate and they have professionals that assist teachers officers teacher Union Officers in knowing how to do that so just keep in mind you always have to be just a little wary um of that situation okay right next one during photography class A student is accidentally hit by a drone that was being used as part of the lesson due to the Uproar and safety concerns the board swiftly adopts a new policy prohibiting the use of drones on school property or for any District related activity for any reason what do you think you are a policymaking body why not as long as it goes through the committee never change your policy in the midst of a crisis right because now you've prohibited the use of all drones maybe you need to have aerial photographs done by drones for the construction project that expands your school you've now prohibited that again it needs to go through committee policy needs to be thoughtfully developed there's nothing wrong with having a policy around drones if you don't want them that's fine but in the middle of an upheaval or a crisis you don't immediately change your policy okay um and again you know the likelihood of a child being hit by a drone is very slim I wrote that with a little Caution because I thought I wouldn't want my kids hit by a drone um depends on the size and hopefully they're not armed um they're just taking pictures so um that that is just the message there is you are policymaking body but you need to be thoughtful and careful about the policies you adopt and it's never time um to do it when there is a crisis you have to wait for the crisis to pass and then you can begin looking at it in a very thoughtful thorough way to make sure your policy is well done the next one a veteran teach a veteran teacher is upset she's being moved to a different grade level and speaks to the superintendent despite arguing a teacher with les sority be uh be transferred the superintendent upholds the decision believing the superintendent is treating her unfairly the teacher reaches out to a few board members who agree to intervene I don't I don't think anyone but the superintendent deals with staff and such absolutely and additionally you're undermining the authority of your Administration you don't have the authority you can only hire someone with the affirmative recommendation of the superintendent the board's role in Personnel is the most limited of all of the areas in which you are authorized to work so for example you can't hire someone because you think they're the best person or agree you're not going to appoint the person the superintendent recommends because you know someone better for that job um again um you don't want to and the second corer to that is you need to notify the superintendent immediately of who has reached out to you because the staff knows that they have a process by which their voice can be heard if they have difficulty with the decision that the superintendent has made they can file a grievance there's an entire process put in place for their voices to be be heard and it's not going directly to Board of Education members sometimes that happens especially in smaller communities where there are teachers who live um in the district where they teach and so they know you as a friend it doesn't mean you can't have teachers who work in this District that are your friends but you should never be discussing District business nor should they be asking you for any kind of uh special treatment or asking you to solve a problem because again they have a very specific process every building has a building rep that they can go to if they have an issue um or a concern that they want addressed and there's a procedure in place that's embodied in the negotiated agreement in the contract that spells out what that process looks like and believe me teachers have copies of those contracts and they know what their rights are okay but the superintendent needs to have managerial discretion to make the best decisions for the students within the entire District and sometimes that's can be upsetting to teachers and I understand that as a former teacher um no one likes to be moved around um necessarily especially if they've been in a building for a very long time but sometimes there are changes that have to be made so you know it is important for the board to understand and again you know if that were to happen if a staff member reaches out to you even if they are a friend you need to say I can't talk to you about this I have nothing to do with this you you need to find a solution somewhere else and they do know that believe me they know that they have a process and a way to find a solution maybe not one they like but one that they can at least seek and so you need to remember that okay last one a member is unhappy with the leadership of the long serving board president decides to run against him at the upcoming reorg meeting wanting to avoid an uncomfortable and contentious situation in public the member de to send individual emails to the other members criticizing the leadership of the current president and asking for their support and his bid for position what do you think open public meetings act says the public has the right to witness your discussions and to observe the District of the dis business of the district that includes election of officers so sending emails and lobbying folks for a particular position like an officer position or a particular issue that you want other board members to vote with you on that you believe strongly about and advocating for that is not appropriate the rest of the board needs to hear all of those discussions because the notion of a board of education is that in among the nine or eight or seven of you however many there are tonight um still on the board um there is collective wisdom in all of those voices the different backgrounds the different perspectives the different viewpoints that you may all hold and that's okay you're not all going to agree with each other all the time that's okay you don't all have to agree however the public has a right to observe that and in order to make the best decisions you have to have access to all of that information and all of those discussions additionally If it creates a round robin process where one board member emails another board member on a particular topic I want you to vote Yes on Banning drones in the district and then you and you email you and then you email Manny who then emails Mo and then emails Dory you've now got a quarum of the board and you're conducting business outside of the public light okay so you should not be doing this or any other District Business Online that's why most many emails you may see say do not reply all the reason for that is that it's violative of the open public meetings law okay and you don't don't want to be in violation of that all district business should be discussed and disposed of at the board table at a duly advertised meeting of the board and that's an important piece questions none of these raise any questions with any of you that's wonderful expect 100% okay the other topic and I don't know Julie um if you want to to weigh in on this was we were going to discuss um District goals and board goals for the remainder of the year um I would remind the board and I have I have packets for you with information and one of those pieces is the annual calendar for Board of Education members that divides by month the kind of activities you are doing so typically you would do goal setting um in late summer or late spring early summer so that the Administration has the full year to work toward achieving the district goal goals District goals refer to the overall operation of your District in every aspect Finance facilities academic achievement Personnel um I'm sure I'm leaving out a million things that I'm not coming to mind however those are district goals what it is you want to see happen in the district that will move your District forward over the course of the year to hit that goal they become the objective um measure the objectives that you will be measuring the superintendent's performance on at the end of a year however we are now in first month of the second part of this school year okay so tonight when we talk about District goals I think what you need to focus on around those District goals are what are our priorities between now and June and being mindful of that compacted timeline as opposed to doing it um in the May June time frame which then gives the entire summer as well as the school year to make progress on those District goals and it becomes a matter of identifying what are those things that are most pressing that need addressed between now and June that you need to make progress around so that is what we are going to talk about now what are those things that are most pressing and when we do goal setting and I think I've done it with this board in Wong not recently um but in previous years we asked the superintendent to weigh in on what are those things that are most pressing that have to be accomplished um so that you can hear from your educational experts what are those things that are most important because there are a myriad of things we would all like to see happen in a district um but given um that we are already in January in fact we're almost to February when I look at my calendar for heaven's sakes um and so it's a very compacted timeline so I would ask Julie to to share with the board what you believe are the things that need addressed first sorry I moved my mic so honestly you all know exactly what I think the things we have to do right away are we we some of them we don't even have a choice about not that that doesn't mean we don't discuss it that's what we're here to do but the truth is with Karen sitting next to me having not even really started full-time yet we have to come to a stable budget right a balanc stable budget and I remind you I know we got the um committee um dates and the board meeting dates we do have to approve appr a tenative budget and upload it to the state for that Monday March 18th meeting so that's only two months three board meetings two months so that budget for me however you want to label it Call it as a district goal and I'll speak for Karen we we don't have a choice has to be done and it's going to take a huge amount of time and work to be able to do that you know that situation um the other thing we've already committed to all of us me me on the hook for it but all of us have committed to is transportation we knew the beginning I was very open about it Patty was open about it we could not fix our current problem we could get it consistent we could Lobby the bus company for consistent drivers and consistent times but I couldn't fix it in in our current um configuration and I committed and I am still committed to this we've already started I think somebody's Committee reported it maybe curriculum somebody reported it at the last board meeting we've already started conversations with um the high school on that shared service I'm part of a study group of superintendents and other districts of what they're doing and what they have done because everybody's having the same problem unfortunately so for me that Transportation piece having more Town Halls more conversations being able to come up with three or four options for fixing it really fixing it right whatever that means um bell times or I I don't even know all the the different things um has to be a priority we will be during the budget process working with the high school if we're continuing I think we are out of choices too but continuing the shared service looking at the costs so so some of that information will know some of it we have to do we said we wanted to bring in the the mobile fingerprinting unit for volunteers for the fall we again we might have to open up the contracts to look at those bell times so short short period of time to accomplish something again that I I think we've already committed to but open to discussion you you this is your discussion the third one um surprising to me um but but in the Forefront of my mind and we talked about this actually when I interviewed was the Strategic plan I think um and I understand why the strategic planning process wasn't implemented last year but the Strategic plan that you have in place the 5e strategic plan ends in June now a strategic planning process is usually something we would do over a whole year right we have Town Halls we talk to everybody we identify themes and focus areas and action goals for each year I want to do that um again hugely time consuming that that is not a small effort and strategic planning you know Gwen listed I don't know four five six different areas for goals strategic planning depending on the themes that emerge or the goals that emerge or the action items that emerge could Encompass all of those things none of those topics um Personnel academics all all of that are going to be accomplished in six months so Ju Just my two cents on three goals I would I wouldn't advocate for more than that because I doubt we could accomplish that but just uh my my two cents did the survey remember with the parents for the transportation yes so the survey was just to keep it consistent as we can right now but to fix it right I again I think we all agreed there was not much I could do this year but there's a lot of things we could look at to to try and F it for the future actually fix it not just be lucky be lucky that we're consistent so with the for the Strategic plan um is your hope that we could develop a fiveyear strategic plan in the next six months it would be my hope I mean that that's an area of expertise for me I know Gwen does this in districts all different districts I heard in a meeting and I have to get clarification on that there was was conversation last year about a strategic plan even though the process didn't go forward I I believe and Gwen like I said you do this in a lot of districts um that if we survey if we bring people together to have the conversations if we at the very least find the themes and the focus areas even if we don't have everything done by June 30th but we're ready to go you know for the fall I I do think that we we could it's going to be a lot again a lot but I also think if we're doing Town Halls on transportation we know that that's going to be I hate to say it you know that's going to be one of the focus I know it's one of the focus areas before we even bring everybody together so some of these things you know maybe we have a dual purpose does the Strategic plan um sorry is this the appropriate time for me being all discussion this is your this is your retreat does the Strategic plan help us determine uh budget or do we need to figure out budget issues first to then develop the Strategic plan I think there's two different things we haven't really started talking about board goals maybe Gwen will elucidate you with the board goals our budget issues cannot wait five years you you heard Ernie in October talking about you know how we got to where we are um all of the changes and revenues and Appropriations that we made right covered the shortfall we are not at a deficit but as again po Karen I'm afraid to say it out loud before she's even started but but we have to have the 2425 budget complete and voted on by this board nine members of this board by March that gives us a little time right it's not final until may vote but that has to get done in the next again couple months and three board meetings your strategic plan will be a lot longer than that does that mean as part of the Strategic plan you might not again as a community come up with a goal to stabilize finances or to look at how to not ever have this kind of financial instability again yeah that's a perfect kind of goal right different facer it's laid out focus areas's generally one around teaching and learning acad achievement instruction whatever you want piece umbrel curricular because for a lot of kids not so much the kevel the school about engag how we engage and to our a lot sorry I forget that I have to be on M um that's an area that a lot of districts look at um you know it depends on the other concerns within your District in your community what that other goal area turns out to be um depending on what what year is sometimes it's Safety and Security um sometimes that falls under the operations piece not a separate goal area but again it just depends on your community and what's important to them at a particular period in time you know for several years it was technology and then Co hit and one of the unintended consequences to co um that in some ways was fortunate for districts is it forced a lot of districts to go one to one that weren't and to upgrade their technology and their infrastructure so that they had better high-speed internet and so forth so we're seeing fewer and fewer districts focus on technology olog is a separate area because it often gets integrated into the teaching and learning curriculum piece because it can be used for that obviously um although you know in some districts technology is still an issue in terms of cyber technology and and you know um making sure your District can't be hacked or attacked um and hijacked um and so cyber security is an area for some communities those are typically the kinds of areas that you see coming out of strategic plans they tend to be big picture items because it's a five-year plan so they're going to be different objectives for each year um within those goal areas and the goal statement as you move forward Julie do you work on these in the Committees what all these goals and such I mean do we discuss this kind of thing well so of course so you know even just being in committees now and I'll say this more for new people I I'm thinking you're asking me this rhetorically so you know that when we're talking about the budget we did that in all four committees right when we're talking about um transportation we report that in all four committees and have those conversations when we do the calendar right it's not just because it's the academic calendar we don't just do that in operations or curriculum we do that in all four committees because we need everybody to have that engagement so for for these goals these District goals yes because we haven't gotten to this part of the agenda yet but that's what I'm responsible for making sure happens right that's the part where you're going to evaluate did we did we do this right so has to be those conversations in committee so would an appropriate board goal then be to develop a working fiveyear strategic plan for 2024 to 2028 by June I wrote it a little differently are you doing board or District I was going to say that's not a board goal District a district goal the board can have as a board goal to support the development of this strategic plan it it's not your goal it's Julie's goal to make it happen Okay board goals refer to the way you operate and you function your processes and procedures as a board District goals refer to what the board wants to see happen in the district that will move the district forward in the course of a school year the one beauty of having a strategic plan once it's finished um and it's a five-year plan you can pull your annual District goals right from the Strategic plan those are your marching orders from the board and the community um and the beauty of it is it also functions to really help with Community engagement because you're going to survey the community you're going to invite them in you're going to hear what they have to say listen to what their priorities are um and come to a conclusion around okay what are the things we need to focus on you know in some districts um recently it has been around offering full day um kindergarten in those couple of districts in the county and there aren't many that don't have full day kindergarten I I I say this with great pride we started working on full day kindergarten brid SCH Ron in 200000 and it was in the 1990s it wasn't even in the 2000s they finally got it done this year I I called the superintendent and said way to go because it took that long and the community was asking in the 1990s for f day kindergarten but we never had the money to be able to do it or the space and you know so there are things that happen so you know these are the kinds of having those discussions around your vision what is your vision for the future what does watchong education look like in five years right when you get to 2029 2030 I know it sounds outrageous doesn't it I think I got a chill 20 no how will education look different in W Chung than it does right now you know I don't have the answer for that but that's something that you want to hear from their Comm your community is what are their aspirations for their children what do they want to see happen what's important what matters what's valuable so I wrote it this way and I have it turned this way because of the camera I didn't have the mic I did remember I was on camera so I wrote it over here but I'm going to turn it this way now so you can see it um to develop and approve a sustainable balanced budget because not only does it be balanced but it needs to be sustainable over time right so that you are not spending money that you don't have not that you ever would dream of doing that but sustainable because a lot of districts for example um and this is true for all districts in the state Essa money is going away and a lot of districts used Essa money for Budget items in preceding years that no longer is available to them because those funds are gone okay and so that's why thinking about your budget in sustainable terms is as important as making sure it's balanced um finding solutions to solve Transportation concerns at is what you've got to do you have to do that and then begin development of a strategic plan I didn't put complete it because you might not get it all done thanks we'll do our best so those are the district goals so then are our board goals meant to support the district goals generally speaking your dis your board goals should always support District goals and if we did this in a normal timeline typically in in the May June actually the May June July time frame you would evaluate your superintendent which all has to be done by July 1 you would complete a board self assessment and that self assessment of the board and how you operate in function would be used to help set word goals that's typically the order I have the calendar in your folder that lays it out month by month so you can see what that looks like um but your word goals should always support the district goals what is it that we can do as a board to better support the administration of achieving District goals because that's what you're here for right the big picture District goals are these okay for for district goals between now and June we have I like them everybody's good with that we need a new board member too new board that's true we do need to have put that one first but that's your job that's that's your goal that's your responsibility right because you guys are the one you know right you're going to advertise you're GNA get those letters of interest and resumés you're going to interview all the candidates you're gonna vote right so that's that's actually a good board goal right no anon's just absent rich rich resigned was I you counted that's all no Anthony's on a business trip okay sing for you so you AR squeaky okay so I wrote the first one to find and appoint a new board member and provide support and onboarding because you're going to invite someone to join a team that already exists so you have that obligation to provide them with support and on boarding and if you need those materials I know has them I have them um but that's the board's responsibility and that's a board goal it's a perfect board goal because you want to have a complete team other thoughts around board goals sure I got one um we've had this in the past but I think it might help us um to foster a more positive and supportive working environment during Board of education meetings and committee meetings create an environment of Civility and professionalism with more straightforward communication among board members and the superintendent during all meetings want to just email that to me yes I can't that fast story it's okay Foster a more positive um climate and culture yes with the board yeah at all meetings where's civility dear where did I miss those words at all meetings including committee meetings right yes and with the superintendent okay okay all right if you send me that language I can write it up because I will send you a goals memo on this with that you can't because my scribble is pretty bad I get that does that work as a board goal I think that's really important and again we are seeing more and more um boards struggle um with Civility and keep in mind not only is your community watching your kids are watching watching kids are watching so it's important it really is important because at the end of the day the community is going to paint you all with the same brush right whether you've participated or whether you've not been civil or are always civil you know it it's like they campling nicely in the sandbox um and they have an expectation and a right to have that expectation that you will go along to get along doesn't mean you always have to agree it's okay to disagree but disagree on the issue don't disagree on each other okay don't make it personal make it about the issue because we're going to have different perspectives I feel differently about things those of you who are married to the same person for a very long time know you could have wildly Divergent perspectives on almost any issue okay but that doesn't mean you throw out the baby with the bath water right you have to all work together you don't have to be best friends I don't even mind if if you don't like each other but you have to work together and you have to work together focused around what's good for all kids that's what matters that's why you're here on a Thursday night at almost 9:00 it's important any other board goal that you think you should focus on I'd like to add Provide support for your superintendent and developing the Strategic plan whatever that that means right because there's some cost obviously um that the board's going to have to you know pick up but also just making sure you get people out to come and to be heard and to participate in that plan and that's invaluable because you all have different constituencies in your communities um whether it's even if you're at different gyms and we know you're not because one's got cold water one's got hot water but you all have different groups of people that you know that you can bring with you um to participate in that process and that's important because you want to hear from every single constituency in the community from preschool parents to retired folks to um people who send their kids to private school the naysayers your Municipal officials um the police chief the fire chief I did a strategic plan with a colleague um in a school district on the edge of mors County right on the edge of um suers County and it was just it's a beautiful K8 building and the cafeteria has one side of the walls that are all glass and I mean it's just it was a beautiful it looks out on the woods and we were just sitting chatting I was chatting with the gentleman before the meeting started and I said oh this is such a great place for kids they have lunch there it's their allpurpose room and he looked at me and he said ma'am this is my worst nightmare excuse me and he said yeah I'm the police chief see those parking spaces there are no ballards between the parking space and the glass I never even saw it I because I don't have that I didn't have that perspective and that's the beauty of strategic planning I just looked at it and thought it looked so nice for kids I didn't think about the fact that if I park there and I hit the gas instead of the break I was going to meet half of the classes for lunch and not in a good way so tell you we went back and we you know when we do a strategic plan we tend to go back in once a year and we ask for an update and we talk about what we accomplished and so forth and so on and they had ballards okay so you know sometimes we can live within a district and do things within a district we just don't see it in the same we don't have the same lens and he was the police chief he was there and he said they've got to do something you got written into the Strategic plan and it happened so you know that's the value of inviting the community in and asking them because they will see things that perhaps you don't see or I don't see or we see differently um and it just always stuck with me because I really felt a little stupid but I just didn't think in those terms because my kids were all older and I just thought oh this looks so nice and bucolic and pastoral um and he was having nightmares about it so no one ever got hurt and I'll just say along with that support from all of you you know it takes a lot Phyllis was there last night Christine already left but she was there last night for the parent meeting for strategic plan meetings Transportation meetings to have you part of the discussion in person like to be able to come out to those I know it's a lot right on top of everything else you do but to have you part of that is really important and after it gets developed right say you have four goals as Gwen said or four Focus areas to have um Administration board members community members stay on those committees over the whole five years is also really important it might change right the people might but having all of those voices again board Administration Community I'm a big fan of students believe it or not even our K to um on those committees teachers I want everybody um that's the kind of support yes financial and time and all of that but that kind of ongoing support is really important really you really do want it and kids have a wonderful having kids participate in a strategic plan is an invaluable exercise because they have they're the ultimate consumer of what it is you do so their perspective Ive is not one you can ever possibly have even if it's your own child right they're going to see things differently than you see them so having them weigh in and participate is incredibly important um don't forget the ministerium and the rabinal council within a community you know faith-based communities that's an important piece the fire department I mean all of those people who have you know a role in the community a stake in the community it's important to hear from them um and to get them to come out and also for you to be present so that you can listen and hear you know and sometimes boards end up hearing things that they may not have been a priority for you all right that it just hadn't risen to that level yet that you may hear and that's helpful to you as well as a board to hear those things what are the priorities in our community what matters to them what is their vision for the future of the district because it's important it's very important well so if you can come to consensus on the goals the board and District goals you'll vote them there'll be a resolution and vote to approve them at the January board meeting I wouldn't I'm not going to wait right we have committees next week we can already start planning for what we want to do right I we unfortunately I hate to say this budget for sure District goals we we've already had to start poort Ken doesn't even work and she's so far deep in the you don't even know what position control roster to to figure out Staffing and health benefits right because that's more than 80% of the budget so if we if we don't know that we can't even go forward she's already before she's even full time she's already doing that so we we've started in that way but we are we're not waiting right I I had a question if um with our goals that we set at the end of January um since we normally set them towards the end of the summer let's say would we then be doing another board retreat like yes but this time on schedule and then we're setting new board goals and District goals but for everybody to know if we don't finish which is what you guys are saying especially like the strategic planning then we can just continue that goal some you will these are short-term goals now you know you will set new goals come hopefully June for the following school year and if some of these are not complete you carry them over with you all right and also you know here's the thing you still have to evaluate the superintendent and the superintendent's evaluation by Statute talks about progress toward District goals so having three I don't even want to call them manageable cuz they're huge things but at least then you know what you're being going to evaluate your superintendent against right is the the budget being completed and submitted and being balanced and sustainable the you know the preliminary plans or maybe even further than that around developing a strategic plan are well in place bus the buses you know and what we're going to do in September in that regard has been addressed so that when September rolls around you know that the buses are going to roll the kids are going to be there and some of those issues that currently exist will have been resolved we get the price of gas to go down and the cost of buses and get them to deliver buses on time meaning the manufacturer people can't even get buses that they've ordered some districts are waiting two and three years to get new buses that they've ordered if they own their own Fleet um it it's really been a nightmare for every school District in different ways but the transportation and it's a function of inflation it was a function of Co I mean it's just a whole host of things um that have caused that to to occur but that's what that would look like so I think you also need to think about you know in terms of doing that evaluation perhaps because these are such a short term and a short timeline for these goals um that the evaluation you know you have to agree upon a tool to use to evaluate Val the superintendent so in this instance my recommendation would be to the board and I've know you've used our tool year after year after year but for this year I would think that you could do a summative evaluation that is a narrative based on progress toward these three goals that hits all of the Strategic strategic superintendent of I have strategic planning now on the brain um the superintendent evaluation requirements is around progress toward achievement of District goals and limited to that and just do a narrative rather than trying to fill out all those forms and do all of that work just because of the compacted time frame um I don't know how you feel about that but I perfectly comfortable with that I used I mean I've used sba's tool we've had millions of tools but most of them do start with July first and Gathering evidence and obviously first won't and I will just to your point at the reor meeting you voted um a tenative board retreat date of June 20th to to to revisit goals to set that evaluation tool for next year um so before that right we would do that board self assessment that that Gwen talked about we would do the the actual evaluation because it's due by July 1st by July 1 um so we could do that then too so you already actually have that date carved out and it'll be much easier to do when you have a whole year to to to work on gos because and I also think having those the big conversations right and and this is the place for you to have those conversations I know somebody asked is this the right time you know even if it's not something we set as a goal now to have those discussions is important it'll come out in those strategic plan conversations with the whole Community right there's no way that even in the entry plans I've been able to do those conversations there are very clear themes right and those themes are what's going to lead you to whatever Focus areas and goals you might even decide that you want to start with looking at the mission and vision of the district I don't know when that was done I'm certainly not opening that can of worms if you don't want to um but that's even one other thing right does Mission reflect what you're hoping to accomplish that's just and I think you can leave your mission alone probably I mean I've read your mission yeah I just no but here's what I would say I think you need to do some visioning the community there you go because I think your mission is still kids on point and valid and reflects will of your Comm you know your community um but I think doing the visioning starting with that visioning piece rather than trying to tackle the mission and the vision I think I just me it's everything's on the table is kind of what and you could you could do whatever you'd like and including what you believe right in my last District we had this is what we believe this is what is the role of parents what is the role of the district what is the role of Staff what is the role you know so doing beliefs is really important as well any additional thoughts for board goals District goals the evaluation process in terms of the evaluation do we need actual like metrics like in order to foster a positive climate at board meetings do we need to specify practically how that happens or well typically you would write action plans to to judge how that happens um I think the metric is watch the videos for the last from January on and we'll be able to tell and so will everyone else I'm not being funny I mean literally you know it it makes a a real statement anyone can watch those so you know if if this hasn't taken root it'll be abundantly clear and I promise you if I'm here on June 20th I will have looked at your board meeting it's between now and June and you'll know right you're going to have a new board member and how do we on board right we're going to do that new board member orientation the same conversations we've been doing and what was the third support for theide support for the district strategic plan scribbly I get I didn't bring any glasses I can't see not for any amount of money in the world but that you'll know right because we'll have been having meetings we'll have you know a framework of nothing else and you can also use and look at your agendas as well over the course of time to look for evidence what are the things that we took action on that were part of this either from the board's perspective and or from the district goal perspective you can look at your agendas for evidence and proof of work that was done between January whatever date we are today the 11th and um June 20th or slightly there before I think that the the biggest thing that everybody's going to be able to tell is if we're collaborating with one another and a big way to tell that is if people start coming to meetings and grandstanding and reading tons of speeches of course I have been one of those um so you know I don't blame anybody else I've been a part of it as well um but if you don't work in committee with one another if you don't have discussions with chairs of committees if you don't talk to the superintendent and then you save all your questions and it's not that we shouldn't ask questions to each other at a public meeting but we do go through an enormous amount of committee meetings and discussions with one another and you know if if there's a board member or a couple board members who decide that they don't want to talk to anybody anymore or they don't want to engage with other board members it's going to absolutely show at a board meeting and all of us have seen it play out in public so I guess what I'm hoping with the point of me suggesting this is that we try not to do that anymore right like we try to actually talk to each other and I agree with the superintendent and with m s and we we don't all have to agree with one another but we have to come to a decision and not everybody's going to get what they want whatever that is but you have to be able to compromise and that's a big thing that I've seen haven't happened in quite some time um is that there isn't compromise and that's the only way we're going to be able to do that with nine people because there isn't just one way so I think it's it's a good idea for us to try to do that because I think that's what our community wants they don't want to see fireworks at meetings well maybe they do because they find it somewhat entertaining at home but I think for the majority of it most of the people who send their kids to our schools and come here they're working they have stuff to do they don't need to see all the drama they would rather our meetings be extremely boring and just know that we're all doing a good job and that we're all moving forward forward for the kids so that's why I proposed it I hope it happens I mean it's going to play out in public for everyone so I mean that's the only thing I can suggest you all know you can do it you did it when you did the superintendent search and you all came together and you came to consensus you didn't necessarily get your first choice but everybody and I that's saying that's true but but you have to learn to work toward consensus find those those shared pieces that you can agree on and work forward I know you can do it we did it when you did the superintendent search and you found someone wonderful who was willing to come and work with this district and continue to move this District forward you just have to keep that front and center and work together collaboratively and find those areas of shared agreement again it won't be on everything and you can can agree to disagree but do so civy and do it around the issue not around each other I think everyone has gotten and let things get too personal and taking it too much to heart and it's led to a lot of distrust and Discord and we know that those districts that have collaborative relationships among between board members and between the board and the superintendent are districts that have higher levels of student achievement and at the end of the day that's why you're here is to ensure that every child reaches his or her potential and to do that you have to focus on kids and not on adult stuff not on about he said she said we did they did he's up he's down she's up she's out that's not the purpose of a board of education we can help I come in and do training on parliamentary procedure consensus building team building we're here to help support you be the best you can be I've been working in Wong for more than a decade I've seen boards do well and I've seen boards fight like cats and dogs believe me board service is much more fun and much more effective when you work together and that's not meant as a negative toward anyone but it really is important you have this opportunity you have a new superintendent you have have information that you didn't have before you now know we have marching orders of things that need to be addressed and taken care of to make it better focus on those focus on moving those forward you passed a referendum the community wanted it you need to move forward with it that's going to continue to happen even though it's not a particular specific goal because you have to keep working on it to get it done um but you you've have success getting those things accomplished focus on what you can do and how you can work together effectively that's the most important piece you know if you listen to anything I've said tonight think about it from that perspective it's really important to continue to focus on what's good for all kids all the time and not on this stuff that takes you off that Focus around a singular issue or a singular point or being unpleasant to one another it's just not beneficial okay any other thoughts I want to add that we added that think that's the best place to I would agree I want to add that we added the best superintendent on the planet and she found the best ba on the planet so we're in good shape now we just got to work together support them and sky is the limit sky is the limit um should we add as number four the referendum as a conversation too as a no I don't I don't think you want to add that as a goal because that's going to just continue um because it those plans are already in place so it's just a matter of moving it forward and which you will continue I mean the regular operation of everything else all the teaching and learning and professional development and all those things that are all other pieces not mentioned are all going to continue to happen and move forward awesome um the the other thing I was just going to suggest um based on what Gwen gave us such extensive information on the social media situation um is that I think that that hurts our board too um and it's not necessarily board members going on social media and making comments it can also be our spouses going on and making comments about board business or you know other board members and calling names and whatnot because that's not going to help us work together so when it comes back to you even if you're not on social media but you're finding out that let's say a board member spouse is saying things that's not going to create a great working environment for anybody up here um so I think that's something that we all have to be mindful of and you know my best policy was when I started way back was to try to make sure I got off of all that stuff um I found it to be very distracting and I felt like it kind of took my eyes off of the target of whatever it is that our board was working on and it was all just kind of noise in the background um but but lately I guess you know the past couple years that's what I've been seeing more of is not NE necessarily board members going on but their spouses going on and and making really you know obscene and horrible comments about what's happening and that's not going to help anybody up here so I mean you know if there's any way that that could be factored in I think that would help all of us as well especially if we're all trying to work together I would encourage all of you to use social media as little as possible and that includes everyone's significant other children spouses family members again you know it takes your focus away from what's important with kids and I I know we all have strong opinions and perspectives on things and there's nothing wrong with that um but it belongs here at the board table among the board members and and the community can come and watch and observe and see they can sit at home and watch and see hopefully tonight they've been doing doing that um and hearing your conversations because I think they're important for the community to hear that you care deeply about the work that you do and that you're committed to it and committed to working together um as a team civil um and being respectful of others opinions um and you're right when there's negativity out there it sort of you know it creates this sort of atmosphere that makes everything more difficult and challenging and frankly nobody needs that in their Liv life period in in any way shape or form so I I completely agree Dory that if that can be limited or reduced or ended that would be helpful for the full board you know because you're all going to work together for the next three years no matter what okay any closing thoughts questions questions no questions so should I move on to the next thing have I missed anything no you covered everything St goals was the last thing okay I think I car covered everything on the agenda I think covered the evaluation of the superintendent yeah covered that thank you thank you thank you for having me thank you for inviting me it is really an honor and my pleasure to come in and work and watch on and I mean that sincerely thank you so much have a wonderful district and you have had it and you will continue to have it you just want to take it to the next step up you're right you do have the best ba in you're in good shape now for sure you are you right thank than you so much have folders for you with lots of information so I'm going to hand those out you can take them home and read them at your leisure if you have nothing else to do but you should read them anyway thanks Glen you're welcome okay now we're going to move on from comments from the public we welcome input from the public there are two times during the meeting when the public is invited to speak the first opportunity is to comment on agenda items only is now the second opportunity for the public to comment is towards the end of the meeting total lot of time public comments is 30 minutes before you make your comments please state your name Municipality of residence and if you are representing an organization in the event it appears to public comment portion of the meeting May exceed 30 minutes the presiding officer May limit the each statement made by the participant to 3 minutes of duration our public forums are not structured as requested and answered sessions but rather as offered as an opportunity to share input to the board in instances where the board feels a response is needed the presiding officer or superintendent will address the comment New Jersey statutes do not per permit the board to discuss Personnel or hiring public in public sessions names of student should not be used members of the public should consider their comments in light of legal lights rights of those affected and identified in their comments and to be aware that they are personally legally responsible potential liability for comments they make in the board the board shall not be held liable for comments made by any board members of the public seeing that there are no comments from the board we'll move on to board business from the public we'll move on to board business any new business seeing that there is no new business we'll move on to comments from the public again are there any comments from the public that are not on the agenda seeing that there are no comments from the public may I have a motion to adjourn all in favor need a second second second all in favor I I meeting jour