thank you can I have a roll call please Mr s here Mr Jan Mr Jan's absent mrzi Mr is absent Mr Mater Mr Mater's absent Miss noo no's absent Miss sha present here Mr tum much here M Joyce here Mr Carpenter here um can we please stand for the budget aliance I plge algi to States America theic for it stands Nation God indivisible and justice for all welcome everybody to the January 18th meeting of the Board of Education of Branchburg please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public in media consistent with the open public meetings act and that advanced notice required therein has been provided this is a meeting of the Board of Education of Branchburg at which formal action may be taken the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda and I will hand it over to Dr Chase for the superintendent good evening um first I want to bring everyone's attention to uh Item B on the governance section of our agenda uh it is School Board recognition month and I want to extend my deepest appreciation to all nine members of our board uh five are here this evening who give so generously of their time this is a volunteer position and there are hours that go into being on a school board so I wanted to thank them all and um specifically mentioned that this is a very dedicated board and the commitment that they've given to the educational s the educational program for students is very much appreciated so thank you all I also appreciate that you all come from very diverse backgrounds so that makes discussions very interesting as well why are you looking at me uh the other thing I wanted to mention is um today we were able to give out free breakfasts to our students at the middle school as part of a grant we received from um New Jersey Farmers uh so our students left the middle school today with a uh bag of um oatmeal and there was an apple in there and there was a cute bag a cute little bottle of honey for our students so hopefully tomorrow uh every one of our students can have a nice warm breakfast because based on what the weather's predicting it's not going to look so great there tomorrow which is my third point of conversation we are now 3 days in to the weather we had two days where we had flooding in town and then most recently we had a snow and ice storm and I'm carefully watching the weather forecast this evening and it's looking like we're going to going to get a decent amount of snowfall midday so uh these conversations are made in collaboration with the office of emergency management our police department and also neighboring towns our transportation and um our buildings and grounds Department here so these decisions are not made lightly uh but what this has done so far with having three days is we've had to take back some of our days that were in our calendar the most recent one that is coming off the end of our spring break but communication is going to be going out to staff next week about um anybody who had plans that cannot be changed we're going to be working with the association to make accommodations for those people because we certainly don't want them to experience any hardship so I just wanted to put that on everybody's agenda and that is my report for this evening thank you very much um that brings us to public comment on agenda items only the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and school matters of community interest support of this position the law establishes a period of public comment at every board individuals wishing to speak must State their name and place of residence comments are limited to three minutes per person for a total of 30 minutes an individual may speak a second time after all others who wish to speak on the topic have been heard please understand that our public forums are not structured as question and answer sessions but offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer in participant May address or question board members individually all speakers are requested to express themselves in a simil manner with due respect for the Dignity of privacy rights of others whose legal rights may be affected please note while it's not the board's intention to stifle comment on matters of legit legitimate concern to the school Community the public should be aware that if their statements violate the rights of others under the law governing defamation or invasion of privacy that they may face personal liability to the injured party if speakers are un certain of the legal ramifications of their comments the board urges them to seek guidance beforehand from their own legal adviser public comments are welcome now at this time on agenda items only towards the end of the meeting there's another comment section on any topic hello okay there we go hi Nicole Kepner I live at 23 Monica place in Scotch Plains New Jersey I am a teacher here at Branchburg Central Middle School and I want to address the items on the agenda where my name's attached for student council um our student several members of our student council actually 72 to be exact um made up our coalition to the winter convention that occurred on Wednesday um finally because it was snowed out and flooded out and I don't even know anymore um but while we were there the students went to different um sessions where they learned about lots of cool activities that other schools do and they gathered a lot of really interesting ideas and I'm excited to see where they came from um on the way to the trip my officers and I held a meeting um and some of the things that came out I wanted to make you aware of because our president will be drafting an email shortly about it basically looking at how we can shift our student government to actually function as a government and not just as a dance and fundraising act uh activity because that's not really what student council should be um some of the things that they heard from other groups were that sometimes they have members of the board I know they're at Somerville um there is a student representative on the board so there's been some interest in that also possibly having where there is regular reporting to you maybe not in public comment but somewhere else in the agenda um but right now I have a group of students that are very excited to make some change here at bcms to really start functioning as a government and um I look forward to sharing that with you in the future our next big Endeavor which I'm hoping will be on the next agenda since didn't make it for this one is a virtual field trip that is being offered through cane University um I'm currently taking a teaching the Holocaust and Prejudice reduction course through them and they are offering a daylong seminar and the topic is defining yourself so we opted to go for the virtual um day of that which will be on I believe it's March 11th um so that we can hear the keynote speaker but then instead of mingling with other schools we can really focus on ours in particular so when that date does come around I would like to welcome board members and obviously Administration to join the conversation because I think the more stakeholders our students have to converse with the more the defining self idea can really become a reality because there's only so much I as an adviser can do with my power and it really comes from higher up if what they want to do is even feasible or can be supported so I'll be sure to invite you to that but our students are very excited to kind of take that next step and become a more fruitful Student Government awesome thank you um anybody else okay we're going to move on to governance um so I have some exciting yet sad news you may have noticed that Mr Dugan's absence he's not here tonight um he's been nominated and confirmed as a superior court judge by the governor and the Senate so unfortunately he cannot continue in both roles I want to express my sincere gratitude to Mr Dugan uh for his invaluable contributions to the board and his contagious energy um he's always good for a lap and sometimes you need that around here so we're miss him we uh wish him the best in the future um and with that being being said we will be announcing the process for filling that open seat um so stay tuned further uh for further details about that we do have um a couple other voting items under governance we have a approval of minutes B School Board recognition month C approval of revised 2023 2024 School District calendar B approval of Hib investigation report and E approval of Hib findings report can I have a motion to move the those items motion second any questions or comments see none can I please have a roll call yes yes on everything but abstain from E Mr tum yes yes yes pass thank you very much um the next thing I want to point out is that our committees have just been reformed we have not met yet before this meeeting so we have no reports from any of the chairs regarding any happenings at any committee meetings um so we're going to move right to policy we have one voting item um a policy and regulation second reading can I have a motion to move those items please motion second uh any questions comments can I have a roll call please yes yes Mr T yes yes Mr G here yes Mo pass thank you very much next up is curriculum and instruction um we have a few voting items here we have a conferences and travel B approval of fundraisings service projects C approval of well-being Camp outside presenters and D approval of contracted service and I have a motion to move those items please motion second any questions or comments concerns and I have a roll call please M yes yes Mr Z yes M Joyce yes Mr yes thank you next up is Personnel we have some voting items here we have a approval of 2023 2024 non-athletic typen B approval of revision of personnel C approval of additional winter teacher Academy presenters D approval of revision of mentoring e approval of mentoring F approval of leave G G approval of 2023 2024 substitutes H approval of well-being Camp in-house presenters I approval of revision of leave and J approval of extra duty hours can I have a motion to move those please motion second any questions comments can I have a roll call please yes yes Mr T yes yes Mr Carpenter yes thank you again uh next up is finance and Facilities we have some voting items here as well we have a the bill list B approval to amend custodial contract can I have a motion to move those two items motion second thank you any questions or comments can I have a roll call please yes M yes yes Joyce yes the car here yes motion's pass thank you um next up is our second public comment on any topic if anybody would like to address the board this evening please step forward seeing no movement going to close public comment and move on to board Le on reports um first up is Somerville Mr f is not here so we'll move on to PTO do you have a report uh so um the Harlem Wizards uh PTO is going to be hosting the Harlem Wizards on March 1st it is a very fun event um it's a fun night for the families um but of course it raises money to support our schools and projects so they are looking for some companies to sponsor the event so if you are interested please contact the PTO for that um but yeah look forward to that a few weeks thank you that's a fun event for anybody who hasn't come so um next up is sorry one last thing I don't I don't know if you want to mention the meet and greet um so um as you all know we have an acting super an acting uh Middle School principal Chris stepner and uh Chris stepner and I will be uh at the PTO sponsored meet and greet the principal next week Wednesday I believe it starts at 6:30 at in the media center so anybody who would like to come and chat with us are more than welcome to attend and thank you to the PTO for being willing to sponsor that excellent okay next up is Somerset County Ed Services Commission I have no report then it's uh New Jersey school boards I also have no report um Branchburg Township leison no report bef no report and brur cpeg um so the cpeg I'm sure everyone got the email there was a town hall uh scheduled that got bumped thanks to the two two snow days ago the flood day I think um so the inform uh there was a liaison meeting yesterday and uh Miss Anderson shared with us that there will be information coming out once they decide when that the new date is for the Town Hall that's it you that is the end of the meeting can I have a a motion to adjourn motion second all in favor I thank you very much e my weedies this [Laughter] morning yeah