Board of education meetings shall be a primary means of sharing information with community members and inviting their comments and suggestions. Regular and special meetings of the board of education are open to the public and representatives of the media, except when, by resolution at the public meeting, the board excludes the public from those parts of a meeting which deal with matters held confidential in accordance with law.

The Ocean Gate Board of Education welcomes participation of interested organizations and individuals and will schedule time as appropriate for the public to speak. The length of time scheduled for public discussion shall be stated in the agenda, together with any time limit proposed for individual speakers.

The board will not permit unnecessary or undesirable identification of district pupils at public or board of education meetings, particularly when the pupil is subject to disciplinary action, or has been identified as having a disability. A special confidential file shall be kept of the names of pupils with disabilities on whose behalf the board must take public action. An unidentifiable coding shall be used when referring to the pupil.

Comments and questions at the end of regular and special meetings may deal with any topic related to the board’s conduct of the schools. Advance announcement of all regular, scheduled special, and specially called meetings of the board is made through newspapers and other appropriate media outlets.

The board shall include a discussion of the School Ethics Act and the Code of Ethics for School Board members annually at a regularly scheduled public meeting.

In a regular meeting by September 30 of each year, the chief school administrator shall report to the board the number of pupils completing the grade requirements successfully the prior academic year and the number of pupils being retained due to the unsuccessful completion of grade requirements the prior academic year. This report shall include the number of pupils successfully completing the requirements under the special education and special review assessment procedures outlined in administrative code.

Non-categorized schools shall discuss the school performance report (SPR) publicly. The school performance reports is an annual New Jersey Department of Education report released for every school in New Jersey that sets specific school- and subgroup-performance targets for both language arts and mathematics, and detail the school’s annual progress toward meeting the targets. The report includes a range of data, including progress toward closing achievement gaps, comparison to peer schools with similar demographics, growth over time as measured through student growth percentiles (SGP) on State tests, and additional college- and career-readiness data points. The reports support school districts’ and schools’ engagement in performance management by setting performance goals, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and developing local plans to focus on low-performance areas.

In addition the district shall report on progress made in meeting the adequate yearly targets established for closing the achievement gap as set by the Department of Education.

School Performance Report/School Report Card

The chief school administrator or his or her designee shall oversee the collection of data for the school performance report card program and annually report the data to the board and the commissioner. The school performance report card shall be prepared annually and disseminated annually to parents and other interested taxpayers within each school district.

A. The following information shall be collected for the district and for each school within the district, as appropriate and including but not limited to:

1. Results of the elementary assessment programs;
2. Results of the Early Warning Test;
3. Daily attendance records for students and professional staff;
4. Total student enrollment, percentage of limited English proficient students, percentage of students in advanced placement courses, and any other school characteristics which the commissioner deems appropriate;
5. Instructional resources including teacher/student ratio, average class size and amount of instructional time per day, as calculated by formulas specified by the commissioner;
6. A written narrative by the school principal or a designee which describes any special achievements, events, problems or initiatives of the school or district;
7. Data identifying the number and nature of all reports of harassment, intimidation, or bullying; and
Indicators of student career readiness.

B. The following information shall be collected for the district as appropriate:

1. Per pupil expenditures and State aid ratio;
2. Percent of budget allocated for salaries and benefits of administrative personnel;
3. Percent of budget allocated for salaries and benefits of teachers;
4. Percentage increase over the previous year for salaries and benefits of administrative and instructional personnel;
5. The number of administrative personnel and the ratio of administrative personnel to instructional personnel;
6. Any other information which the commissioner deems appropriate.

In a regular board meeting by October 30 of each year, the chief school administrator shall provide an annual report which includes information on the following topics:

A. The status of all capital projects in the school district’s long range plan;

B. The maximum permitted amount of the school district’s reserve account

C. Implementation of school-level plans;

D. Achievement of performance objectives;

E. Each school report card, including pupil performance results and student behavior data;

F. Professional development activities;

G. Condition of school facilities;

H. Status of mandated program reviews;

I. Community support data as detailed in the administrative code;

J. The assignment plan for certified and noncertified nurses developed by the school district.

Other items presented at board meetings must include, but are not limited to:

A. Presentation of audit report;

B. Presentation of budget;

C. Student attendance;

D. Other demographic data;

E. Mandated inservice programs.

Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying Reporting

In addition, the board shall conduct a public hearing in October to allow the chief school administrator to report to the board all acts of violence and vandalism that occurred during the previous school year. The proceedings shall be transcribed and kept on file by the board. The transcription shall be made available to the public. This transcript of the public hearing shall also be forwarded to the Division of Student Services in the Department of Education by November 1.

NJSBA Review/Update: August 2008, October 2017
Adopted: January 21, 2009
Revised: October 2012
Readopted: October 17, 2012
Revised/Readopted: May 17, 2017
Revised:

Key Words

Board of Education Meetings, Reporting to the Public, Communicating with the Public, Confidentiality

Legal References: N.J.S.A. 10:4 6 et seq. Open Public Meetings Act
N.J.S.A. 18A:7C-7 School administrators report on students awarded or denied diplomas
N.J.S.A. 18A:7E-2 School report card program
N.J.S.A. 18A:7E-3 Report card information
N.J.S.A. 18A:10 6 Board meetings public; frequency; hours of commencement; adjournment, etc., for lack of quorum
N.J.S.A. 18A:12-21 School Ethics Act
N.J.S.A. 18A:17-46 Act of violence; report by school employee; notice of action taken; annual report
N.J.S.A. 18A:22 10 Fixing day, etc., for public hearing
N.J.S.A. 18A:22 13 Public hearing; objectives; heard, etc.
N.J.S.A. 18A:23 5 Meeting of board; discussion of report
N.J.A.C. 6A:8-5.2(f) High school diplomas
N.J.A.C. 6A:14-1.1 et seq. Special Education
N.J.A.C. 6A:16-5.1 et seq. School safety plans
See particularly:
N.J.A.C. 6A:16-5.2, 5.3
N.J.A.C. 6A:23A-14.1 et seq. Capital reserve
N.J.A.C. 6A:26 Educational Facilities
See particularly:
N.J.A.C. 6A:26-2.2(a) Completion of long range facilities plans
N.J.A.C. 6A:30-1.1 et seq. Evaluation of the Performance of School Districts
See particularly:
N.J.A.C. 6A:30-3.2
N.J.A.C. 6A:32-3.2 Requirements for the Code of Ethics for district board of education members and charter school board of trustee members
N.J.A.C. 6A:32-12.1 School attendance

Possible
Cross References: *1100 Communicating with the public
*2240 Research, evaluation and planning
*3100 Budget planning, preparation and adoption
*3570 District records and reports
*3571.4 Audit
*5131.5 Vandalism/violence
*5145.5 Photographs of pupils
*6142.2 English as a second language; bilingual/bicultural
*6142.6 Basic skills
*6171.1 Remedial instruction
*6171.3 At-risk and Title 1
*6171.4 Special education
*9322 Public and executive sessions
*9323/9324 Agenda preparation/advance delivery of meeting material
*9326 Minutes

*Indicates policy is included in the Critical Policy Reference Manual.