NORTHFIELD CITY BOARD OF EDUCATION FILE CODE: 1120
Northfield, New Jersey X Monitored
Mandated
Policy X Other Reasons
BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETINGS
The Northfield City Board of Education (Board) 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 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.
Public Participation:
The Board welcomes participation of the aforementioned individuals and will schedule time as appropriate for the public to speak. In order to permit the fair and orderly expression of such comment, public participation shall be governed by the following rules:
- There shall be two designated time periods for public comments.
- Public comments will only be permitted during those portions of the meeting designated for the hearing of the public. The portions of the meetings during which the participation of the public is invited may be limited to 3 minutes unless extended by a majority vote of the board members present.
- A participant must be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface his or her comments by an announcement of his or her name, place of residence, and group affiliation, if applicable.
- Each statement made by a participant shall be limited to three (3) minutes duration.
- No participant may speak more than once on the same topic unless all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard.
- All statements shall be directed to the presiding officer. No participant may address or question an administrator, or a board member.
The presiding officer may:
- Interrupt, warn, or terminate a participant’s statement when the statement is too lengthy, duplicative, personally directed, abusive, obscene, or irrelevant;
- Request any individual to leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable decorum;
- Request the assistance of law enforcement officers in the removal of a disorderly person when that person’s conduct interferes with the orderly progress of the meeting;
- Call for a recess or an adjournment to another time when the lack of public decorum so interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting as to warrant such action; and
- Waive these rules when necessary for the protection of privacy or the efficient administration of the board’s business.
Grievances or complaints that have not previously been considered through administrative channels shall not be acted upon by the board.
The Board will not permit unnecessary or undesirable identification of district students at public or board of education meetings, particularly when the student is subject to disciplinary action, or has been identified as having a disability. A special confidential file shall be kept of the names of students with disabilities on whose behalf the board must take public action. An unidentifiable coding shall be used when referring to the student.
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.
Annual Reports to the Board:
In a regular board meeting by October 30 of each year, the Superintendent shall provide an annual report, which includes information on the following topics:
- The status of all capital projects in the school district’s long range plan;
- The maximum permitted amount of the school district’s reserve account;
- Implementation of school-level plans;
- Achievement of performance objectives;
- Each school report card, including student performance results and student behavior data;
- Professional development activities;
- Condition of school facilities;
- Status of mandated program reviews;
- 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:
- Presentation of audit report;
- Presentation of budget;
- Student attendance;
- Mandated in-service programs.
Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying
In addition, two times each school year between September 1 and January 1 and between January 1 and June 30, the school board shall hold a public hearing at which the Chief School Administrator will report to the board of education all acts of violence, vandalism, and harassment, intimidation, or bullying (HIB) which occurred during the previous reporting period. The report shall include the number of HIB reports in the schools, the status of all investigations, the nature of the HIB, and other data required by law.
Adopted: January 6, 1997
NJSBA Review/Update: August 2009; December 2010; July 2011; November 2021
Readopted: October 24, 2011
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: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(e) 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 Capital reserve accounts
N.J.A.C. 6A:26 Educational Facilities
See particularly:
N.J.A.C. 6A:26-2.2(a)7 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 Reporting requirements
N.J.A.C. 6A:32-12.2 School-level planning
N.J.A.C. 6A:32-13.1 School attendance
N.J.A.C. 6A:32-13.2 Dropouts
N.J.A.C. 6A:32-14.1 Review of mandated programs and services
Possible
*Indicates policy is included in the Critical Policy Reference Manual.