e Mitchell J Air Force JC public affairs officer and I'll be briefing you on what our KS have been doing during the last month uh who's taking roll call Jim yeah I know Mary's sick but okay we're gonna get started Jim roll call Miss Sebert thank you here yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss D Benedictus yes missan Ron Mr mmer here miss Bala miss wreb here Mr Edwards here the New Jersey open publics meeting law was enacted to the right of the public to have notice of and to attend meetings of the public bodies which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act The Brick Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be posted on the administration office bullet board the official District website and channel B tv20 and sent to the Asbury Park Press to Brick times St Ledger at Municipal clerk's office can I get a motion in a second to go into executive session motion Fran second alley Mr Edwards can thanks hear that whereas The Brick Township Board of Education has been formed pursuant to applicable New Jersey statutes and whereas the board is charged with responsibility of Performing all acts and doing all things consistent with the law and rules of the state board of education necessary for the proper I'm sorry for the lawful and proper conduct equipment and maintenance of the public schools of public school property of the Brick Township School District and whereas section seven of the Public's meeting act permits the exclusion of the public from a meeting of the board in certain circumstances and whereas the board has determined that circumstances exist for such an executive session and where is the board has found the action described below to be necessary and proper now therefore be resolved by the board on March 14th 2024 that the public shall be excluded from the discussion of an action on the executive session here and set forth session will be approximately 30 minutes and the general nature of the subject matter to be discussed is harassment intimidation and bullying reports litigation do OC n- l1530 d23 it is anticipated at this time that the above stated subject matter will be made public if and when is deemed to be interest public interest to do so so and the need for confidentiality is no longer required by the board Mr Edwards vote Miss Sebert yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss D Benedictus yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss wrab yes e e e e e e e e e e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e I I need a motion in a second to return motion Fran second Mike Jim Miss Sebert yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss D Benedictus yes still don't have Miss on right Mr Mesmer yes and Miss wreb yes please stand for the flag salute in a moment of [Music] silence aliance 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 all or mark thank [Music] you often it may appear to members of our audience that the board of educ ation act with very little comment and in many cases a unanimous vote please understand that before a matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting the Administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with the superintendent of schools discussed it in appropriate Boe committees and only then if the superintendent is satisfied that the matter is ready to be presented to the full Board of Education it is placed on the agenda for Action at a public meeting board of education members are given advanced notice to review the agenda and through the chair ask questions or voice concerns in rare instances when necessary some matters could be presented to the board of education for discussion and vote at the meeting Miss mcnam student Representatives thank you Mrs wreb this evening we have Amaya Dalton from Brick Township High School Amaya good evening I'm Amaya Dalton Brick Township High School student repres resentative I will start off with Lake Riviera Middle School's report spring sports baseball softball and track and field have begun their tryouts and practices the past few weeks they will begin their games and meets towards the end of March the science club celebrated St Patrick's Day creating leprechaun sand this was a chemical reaction between vinegar and baking soda from the Visual and Performing Arts Department there was amazing participation and performance from our arts department and music ensembles last week at the district Arts Festival Mrs dandi Mr Murdoch and Mrs per perednia and their students Rock the intera club has collected plastic eggs for Dd's house and are in need of small candies and other items to stuff them with the brick morning rotary interact spring food and toy drive is still going and in need of items the food bin is almost empty and we only have a few toys games collected this Thursday and Friday during home room there is an interact Club St Patrick's Day Spring bake sale each item is a dollar the club would like to thank the PTA for donating their extra Hostess items for the bake sale i' would also like to thank them for their participation and donating plastic eggs and items to stuff them for our D's house initiative in addition the club appreciates their support and sharing our activities on their Facebook page the Laker Ledger newspaper Club has just finished its winter Edition which will be going out to parents shortly we are proud to report that two of our student reporters have initiated awareness days for our school and will write about them in the upcoming spring edition in March Lakers are encouraged to wear orange on Thursday March 28th for multiple sclerosis Awareness Month likewise in April students and staff are encouraged to wear blue for Autism Awareness on Friday April 12th the next Manga and Anime Club and book club will meet this month after school in the library on March 21st as usual the students will check out and discuss books complete an activity do crafts have snacks socialize meet and make meet and make like-minded friends from the drama club we are very excited in our final weeks of preparation for the play Sleeping Beauty is a children's theater adaption of the well-known story and will be performed on March 22nd and 23rd in the lake Riviera MPR tickets are $5 each and will be sold to the public starting next week um upcoming concerts senior band and voices from the lake performed at the district Arts Festival last week they are also preparing for our spring concert on May 14th and planning to attend the CAC music for a Day Festival at Great Adventure on May 24th all Bandon choir students should be returning their Festival fees and permission slips by March 28th students who already have a great adventure pass are free now on to Brick Township High School this week our juniors are taking the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment or the NJ GPA in mathematics and English language arts additionally this week sophomores had the opportunity to take the psat1 wishing all students the best of luck during this testing window looking back on the last month the strong Club a female empowerment and Service Group held a table event in the cafeterias during lunches on Valentine's Day to spread awareness about healthy and safe relationships and decision-making to honor teen Dating Violence Awareness Month students had the opportunity to come up to the table to complete the sentence love is on a paper heart cards with information regarding healthy relationships and abuse hotlines were also given out many positive messages were received and the hearts are displayed outside the school-based office on February 16th two bths teams competed at the mammoth University computer programming competition against 20 other 21 other New Jersey teams this is our School's first appearance at a computer programming competition since the covid-19 lockdown we are extremely proud of the performance of both teams congratulations to Grace rodenberg Tommy Tran and Josie gondek for placing seventh and Carlos Gordo Mariam Mustafa and McKenzie Collins for placing 10th the bths mock trial team finished their season with the mayor Cup against brick memorial on February 26th the match was very competitive and although the Mustangs took home the trophy we are proud of our team for their hard work and dedication throughout the mock trial season the Key Club partnered with the brick Kiwani Club to create book libraries for the brick beaches the Key Club also prepared an Easter egg hunt for Warren Wolf Elementary School the National Honor Society participated in the tiger stavola foundation for drug prevention and education's freeze addiction Polar Plunge on Sunday March 10th in sebrite 24 NHS members plunged in support of the cause and painted rocks to honor those struggling with addiction NHS also paired up with the Green Team and interact club for a campus cleanup last Thursday student volunteers with the guidance of Mrs godak and Mr luchetti collected trash from the mall parking lots senior garden and Fields bir and Beyond which was rescheduled to February 28th was a great success for both Brick Township and brick memorial many bths clubs displayed posters about their organizations and and Google Classroom codes for other students to join students also enjoy the information about college and career opportunities After High School thank you to our guidance departments for organizing this event the last week of March was an exciting one for bths leading up to the battle of the classes on Thursday students participated in spirit week as well as a schoolwide game of R Shambo students collected a bead necklace from their class advisor to enter the game then had the chance to challenge any student or staff member to a game of rock paper scissors for the bead necklaces once a student collected 25 beads they returned the pile to their class advisor to earn a spot in the final at Battle of the classes on Thursday the classes decorated their corners of the East gym with banners balloons and streamers the battle teams wore their class colors and the Key Club collected canned goods from Spectators in a competitive battle all four classes showed great sportsmanship and effort there were some great moves shown in the dance battle and some upsets like the Freshman taking second place in tug of war the seniors took the win in the end and it was a super fun week overall with great participation and school spirit bths hosted the fifth annual District Arts Festival on March 7th National Honor Society members helped the district art teachers set up their displays the day before after school and also attended the event to welcome and guide families there were displays of art from every school in the district and Bandon choir performances from the middle and high schools throughout the night it was great to see the talent of our art students on display bths also hosted The Brick hero Awards the next day March 8th the mayor student advisory committee from Brick Township and brick Memorial presented and awarded several leaders in our community bths was proud to see our students and staff memor recognize congratulations to bths teacher Mrs Irene woic and bths students Cameron Mah and Sophia Gonzalez trelles thank you for your contributions to our community we are so proud of you the bths choir drama club and dance team also performed it is great it is crazy to believe that winter sports have ended and spring sports are already starting off we are proud of our winter teams for their efforts in the postseason tournaments the brick hockey team won their first round of State sectional playoffs but their hard-fought season came to an end on February 23rd in overtime in the second round against Howell the team got together again on the 25th to play The Brick Stars Challenger team at the njsa district 22 wrestling tournament on February 17th bths had four medalists who moved on to the district 6 tournament congratulations to Lucas deia Ricky Gordo Travis trpy and will Walsh another congratulations to coach Lynden bom for being named girls central region assistant wrestling coach of the year at the njsiaa sectional track and field championships several athletes qualified the for the group championships including Jake Hancock in the 400 meters Dominic Anthony in the high jump Sarah barcus in the shot putut K McHugh in both the 1600 and 3200 and Caitlyn Chandler in the p vaa and high jump winning the overall sectional title in the high jump congratulations to Caitlyn Chandler also who placed again at groups qualifying for the meat of Champions and AEL revas who qualified and competed at Nike indoor Nationals in New York in the Freshman 400 meter both the boys and girls bowling teams made it to the state playoffs and four athletes from the girls team made it to individual championships looking ahead career day at bths will be on March 20th during blocks 1 and two there will be over 40 speakers to provide insight about different career paths including the medical business science technology law vocational hospitality and public service Fields this event is open to all students who may sign up on the guidance Google classroom by filling out the Google form bths will also be celebrating the district developmental disabilities spirit week we will kick it off on Thursday March 21st by rocking our socks for World down for World Down syndrome day the other Spirit themes include School Swag Day camo day tie-dye Tuesday passion Wednesday and District Pride day bids for senior ball which is Thursday May 23rd at Southgate Manor will go on sale next week Junior Prom bids were also sold last week the junior prom is Thursday May 16th at Jumping Brook Country Club thanks to our dragon scale Raffles three Juniors and three seniors each won two free prom bids at the highly anticipated drawing two weeks ago lastly the class of 20124 is having a contest to design our senior alumni shirts any senior can create a logo or design and submit it digitally or as a hard copy to Mr L chedy in Room 205 by March 28th the seniors will vote for their favorite artwork once all submissions are in in we can't wait to see your designs be sure to stay connected to events and inside information by accessing our school website SGA Instagram at bths sgaa and our school Twitter at bths dragons you can always see all of our happenings monthly through Dr cajun's Dragon review thank you for this opportunity and I will see you all next month ashg go dragons thank you Amaya next up we have uh Christ mcwade from brick memorial High School Kristen good evening I'm Kristen mcwade brick brick memorial student representative tonight I'll start with the notes from Veterans Memorial Middle School thank you to Mrs Foley Mr sidan Miss Ash and all their students for all their contributions to the district Art Festival Mustang artists participated in the annual District Arts Festival at bths including the first Caravan of creatures masquerade parade the Vets Memorial chorus gave their first performance of the year at the district Arts Festival at bths on Tuesday March 5th the members of the brick memorial Palace club and Unified sports team visited Miss Mrs Guthrie's class on a rainy day they supplied all the sunshine guiding students through stories a craft and a scavenger hunt and a movement break all with the spring theme it was a wonderful afternoon for our Mustangs Mrs Guth three's class is looking forward to their next visit with the brick memorial National Honor Society on March 25th Advanced 8th great artists took a trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and participated in an art investigation tour and an energetic run up the Rocky Steps everyone had an excellent time 10 vets eighth graders artwork is on display at The Brick Township library for youth art for youth art month a closing ceremony will be held on Saturday March 30th 9 to 10: a.m. 8th grader Haley Rush's artwork was selected to be on display at the State Exhibition at grounds for sculpture students enjoyed the March 8th SLE Day activities with positive messages kindness activities and a review of our schoolwide expectations our green and gold program continues to engage vet students our program will continue through March ending right before spring break we are grateful for all for our program teachers who Inspire our students to want to attend and participate in the many activities we provide thank you to the vets middle student council for organizing such a great pep rally for all students on February 29th spring Sports practices have started this week we're looking forward to an exciting spring season upcoming events at vets staff versus student lead and Seed sponsored basketball game Thursday March 21st now onto our brick memorial Mustang news congratulations to the ROTC on a successful blood drive held on March 5th on March 7th the district Art Festival was held at Brick Township High School a special shout out to our Visual and Performing Arts department and their supervisor Miss Jen Lane for their usual amazing display of artwork photos performances and talents for those of you that were able to attend either as a parent a teacher or just a spectator you're able to witness the hard work and commitment that goes into the event truly truly a great job by everyone involved and a big thank you for representing our musang with such pride and respect thank you to Kevin Bettis Tammy Estelle Judy horer John marinari Brent middl Miss Andy Penrod and Lisa Simmons thank you to Mr Thompson for organizing the third annual Brick Township School District bowling tournament with over 30 teams participating this is sure to become a new tradition congratulations to detective Benny Alvarado for for his recognition as a brick Award winner thank you for all that you do for school and our community this week March 11th through March 15th our juniors are completing their NJ GPA testing assessment we have one day left and our and know our juniors are going to excel thank you to all the teachers guidance counselors and administration for their patience and preparation Mrs Pierce and Miss moner met with the entire class of 2025 last week to assist in the preparation good luck to all of our amazing Juniors who are working so hard we know you will make us proud on Wednesday March 13th over 120 sophomores volunteered to complete the PSATs to get a jump start on their post high school plans our guidance counselor Melissa small organized this incredible event our first big PTSA event was held on Tuesday night our PTSA president Michelle pierce collaborated with Lane Mill and Veterans Memorial Middle School ptas to put on an absolutely great night brick memorial hosted the Harlem Wizards versus our very own brick buzzer beaters we had a packed Jam of close to, 1500 people in attendance it was an awesome disc display of what we can do when we are all working together for the benefit of our students and school Community not enough can be said of our amazing players and volunteers who worked hard and had fun in doing so on Wednesday March 20th the brick memorial PTA PTSA will be hosting a dime to donate night at Buffalo Wild Wings Stop in at any point during the day and support our school for March 21st to March 28th our school will be bringing awareness to development disabilities with a spirit week days include rock your socks homeschool swag cam day and Etc the Spanish Honor Society is currently collecting cleaning supplies blankets comforters dogat toys collar and leashes new cat and dog beds trash bags and paper towels to support the Jersey Shore Animal Shelter please drop off your donations to room 208 between now and March 21st career day signups are now open for grades 10 through 12 the event will be held during blocks 1 and two on March 27 please see our bmhs homepage guidance or your class pages to sign up hope to see you there in the coming weeks we look forward to many exciting events including our Junior Prom senior ball and annual Color Run event save the date Mustang players spring musical Matilda which be held from April 11th to April 13th at 6 p.m. and April 14th at 2 p.m. please check out our bmhs website for more information that concludes our bmhs report now on our sports report with all of our winter seasons officially over we would like to recognize some final accomplishments from our Winter Sports Seasons congrats to our girls basketball teams who had an upset win in the first round of the state tournament for the second year in a row when they beat Steiner our girls finish with 16 wins this season which is the second most in school history congrats to wrestler Ben zuba for winning the 25 pound region championship and to Sunny Deo Gavin Martin Mason pernick and Trey talage for also qualifying for the individual state championships in Atlantic City but the major accolades go to our girls bowling team and one of our Junior wrestlers Harvey lington congratulations to our 2024 brick andoral girls bowling team the girls had an amazing 53 to1 record this past season 2024 a South Shore conference Central Jersey group 3 and overall group three state champions incredibly this is the fourth overall state championship in a row coach Tory bowton earned nj.com State coach of the year and Junior Olivia salvator earned First Team all state honors and Faith paren earned second team congratulations to our brick morial 11th grader Harvey lington for once again winning the state championship this time at 190 PBS Harvey breeed through the district and region tournament and won every round in Atlantic City by double digits he completed an undefeated undefeated 38-0 season this is his second state championship having won won his freshman year and earning a second place last year as a sophomore earlier this year he verbally committed to Arizona State congratulations to all of our winter athletes on their successes we wish good luck to all of our spring Sports as they officially just started their Seasons today as always please stay current with all of our news and updates on our brickschools.org website subscribe to our musang Weekly Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at BM sang Sports and at Brick Memorial High School on behalf of everyone at brick memorial we wish you a safe and happy spring break thank you Christen next up from our Junior Roc is Cadet staff sergeant Cameron Mitchell Cameron good evening ladies and gentlemen board members and staff members I'm Cadet saff Sergeant Cameron Mitchell your Air Force Junior RTC public affairs officer and I'll be briefing you on what our Cadets have been doing this past month on February 21st we traveled to Veterans Memorial Middle School for a recruitment uh presentation led by the awareness presentation team our sa team color guard and and rifle drill team all perform the vmm performed among uh for the bmms Mustangs I'm sorry the cadets also answered questions that the eth grade students had about JC andal reports indicate that 20 Rising freshmen have signed up for our program so we look forward to all the new Cadets next year on February 29th Cadets participated in Brick and Beyond an event where colleges in this nation's armed forces visit the school among others and offer guidance and opportunities to aspiring students who are interested in going into college or joining the Armed Forces on March 2nd Cadets took a trip to the US Military Academy in West Point New York Cadets visited the West Point Museum and learned about military history in US Army history Cadets were then were escorted around the campus by Cadet Luke plas Lucas plas after lunch who attends West Point and is a cousin to our Cadet Kyle plas if you'd like to see pictures they're on our Instagram and Twitter on March 5th Cadets hosted the American Red Cross in their blood drive campaign Cadets assisted blood donors in signing up getting the registrations and helping taking care of getting their blood drawn we are able to donate 52 units of blood uh thanks to the support of the students staff and family members of brick memorial brick memorial high school and air and the Air Force Junior RTC has been designated a premier Blood Donor with the American Red Cross uh we have held six blood drives collected 302 units of blood uh recruited 414 donors and 50 units average per drive over the over the last six years uh and that's all thank you for your support and we hope to see you next week all right can we have a round of applause for uh Cameron he was just promoted to his new position from Cadet Airman to Cadet Sergeant thank you really appreciate it Miss MCA presentations thank you Mrs wrab the first presentation this evening is is uh pictures and some good evening events from the brick and beyond that took place on February 28th at Brick Memorial High School can we show The Brick and Beyond pleas [Music] please [Music] [Music] it it's it's the wrong video uh my apologies that's an older brick-and Beyond video I'm not sure what occurred um we will work on getting the more current one up in the meantime uh moving right along so yeah no older video my apologies um on March 7th we had the District Arts Festival this was a wonderful celebration of the um fine performing in Visual Arts uh our supervisor Jen Lane does an amazing job in coordinating all of our staff and students in putting this together along with the assistance of uh many of our administrators some of whom were here this evening if we could show the March 7th 2024 District Arts Festival video that would be great welcome everyone to the district Art Festival I'm so thankful for everyone that is here tonight and took their time out of their evening to come see all the Magnificent art this is one of the best events we put on it's amazing because it really has everybody in our entire District involved from grades K through 12 in all of the Arts music drama we got jazz band we got art and graphics and pottery and dance and there's so many things for every age level so every student every teacher every staff member is involved in some way where we display all these amazing talented work that our students have done the Arts are an important part of all of our lives and bringing that to life through our students and sharing it with our community really brings to life our mission and vision for this District which is student centered teacher-led and community connected what brings me here today is the tonight wonderful talent that brick high school students have and also the other talented students that we have across the district District we got beautiful artwork here and I think it's just inspiring for other people to come and watch and see what what goes on and I'm really proud to be um part of this night just as a bystander and a fan really of the students here at BR High School I came here for an NHS event but it became something more it became a conversion of artistic Excellence Across The Brick Township District I'm here for Key Club and Art Club cuz I made a lot of the masks and helped with a lot of the stuff here yeah I have a few pieces in the art show so I wanted to see that and support all the art out here um obviously in the parades as well it takes an extraordinary amount of planning time Jen Lane who is our supervisor of fine and Performing Arts spends a great deal of time starting tomorrow planning next year's event it's coordinating all of the art teachers from all of the buildings um getting all of the children to participate in making the items that you see here today whether it's photography or handdrawn pictures or Pottery um or masks um the performances by the students whether they be Coral or band she coordinates that entire effort and it really does take a village to bring it all together but she leads that charge and she does an amazing job as the team leader for this phenomenal event tonight it goes into a lot of planning I have to really recognize our U vpa supervisor for the district Miss Jen leene she does a phenomenal job in working with all of our art teachers at every building in this District to get this come together all the students are working tirelessly to get their their works of art ready for this event because parents and students are excited to see their art on full display here and it's been a great night tonight and I'm very proud of the district and very proud of our Brick Township High School students go dragons thank you at this time Mr Mosley would you like to come forward good evening school board and those in attendance I'm Earl Mosley I am the district anti-bullying coordinator and this is our semiannual report on training first I'd like to just make sure we all understand what we're talking about when we talk about HIV reasonbly perceived and motivated by any actual or perceived characteristic Grace color Rel religion ancestry national origin gender sexual orientation gender identity and expression or mental or physical sxy disability or by any other distinguishing characteristic pretty simple growing up I was considered short and forey pretty simple I also happened to be African-American but that wasn't part of the problem we didn't have to back then it takes place on school property any school sponsored social or or school grounds as provided for section 16 PL 2010 c22 meaning school property or a school function event anything that substantially disrupts or interferes with the orderly operation of school rights or students now we're looking at the educational impact of the event conflict versus hip one of the misconceptions not everything is HIV just because there's something going on sometimes it is conflict conflict is normal we all will have conflicts so how do we look at it we take this side HIV one-sided one or more stories are victims intent is to physically or emotionally hurt somebody what is the intent of the action and finally what is the distinguishing characteristic so far this year this is what we what we've been looking at these are cases that we actually have presented to the school board these are some of the things that we've seen racial comments sexual lgbtq comments fysical appearance has been regular someone fat ugly however we look at it the internet has been huge we see this going on from all levels now which is unfortunate kids are on their net on their phones and they're saying things that are unacceptable and then it comes into the school and then finally school events and transportation school buses and things like that is where we find some of these things going on these are the confirmed hip that we've actually presented uh we've had none from the preschools elementary schools drum point0 emmer Havens 3 Lanes Mills 2 midstreams 2 osbornville 3 and bmes one once again these are cases that have been presented to the board and been confirmed as HIV middle schools Lake Riv five BM three brick memorial has had seven and Brick Township five once again all confirmed and presented to the board this is the training opportunities that we've been able to provide conflict resolution character development is continuous um mayor's team council at both high schools has been working on some of this stuff Strauss Esme has provided training for staff members on how we operate what are the procedures we use Ocean County prosecutor office has been in providing Internet safety and high school challenge days I will go off go over again later New Jersey Bar Association has been used they have school climate team classes violence and prevention and anti-bullying training and peer mediation challenge day um October 24th at Brick Township and then October 27th at brick memorial this was an event um as you could see Ocean County provided the opportunity it was amazing to have these kids come into a room and just really open up um they were separated it wasn't you didn't get to hang around with your friends but you had the chance to just be yourself um they were paired up with teachers and staff members and the objective once again is to really how do we fight some of this stuff it's School climate how do we establish and improve School climate this is a method that we were using this year and like I said I got to be there for the brick memorial one and I was amazed that some of the walls that came down was some came kids um I can get emotional on that one it was it was really moving Ocean County prosecutor has been in both high schools um and they've come in internet has been a huge problem um this is across the country amounts of Internet bullying that's going on so we're trying to get ahead of that by exposing and teaching our kids what do you do how do you handle this thing called the internet uh we give them phones but we never give them instructions on what you should and shouldn't do with that phone so we're trying to help out in that area school-based programs um peer leadership youth prevention Coalition and health and wellness that is provided both high schools um through our um school-based program at the elementary level Kelo choices basic program of 23 lessons kids get to actually interact and it's an evidencebased program really focusing on character education especially at the younger age groups getting them to understand what is good character and how do we model that and it's not going to my last slide here that is my last slide apparently um but our last slide when when you're at home it does have forms and stuff that you know if you're having a problem there are forms out there let the schools know so we can take care of it thank you thank you Mr thank you m were we able to find the right brick and Beyond video okay 15 seconds you can have we're ready to roll in 15 seconds thank you Mr grer [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he okay I need a motion in a second on approval of minutes motion bran second Nicole any board comment Mr Edwards Miss Sebert yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss Benedictus yes Mr Mesmer yes and M wal um I have to abstain from executive session and yes to the regular meeting um reports Mr far Dr phell sorry w wow it's been a while since you Mr phell thank you Mr it was that video that brought me back Dr wal um let me start my comments I I can't believe I said to my cabinet uh a few weeks ago that I now starting my fifth year uh as superintendent and my 12th year overall but my fifth year here in Brick effective March 1st um and uh thank you um part of me thinks it went fast some of it feels like dog years um but I can't tell you how much I really do love being here uh we do have amazing students um such dedicated staff involved parents and a very caring Community um so we got a lot of congratulatory comments I'm going to add to some of them um but congratulations first to our Brick Township High School Marching dragons for winning a state championship level competition they had an amazing undefeated they finished first in all their competitions winning the N the New Jersey Tournament of bands region 7 Championship the New Jersey Tournament of band State and finish in second place at the regional championships congratulations um congratulations to our brick memorial High School Color Guard uh team as they placed third in a recent competition uh in Pennsylvania this past Saturday great job and brick High School yes Brick Township High School will be hosting the next color guard competition on April 6th where both are brick memorial high school and brick High School school color guard teams will be competing um congratulations to our brick memorial high school girls bowling team once again an unprecedented fourth year in a row overall State group three Champs and an amazing 53 in one record this season outstanding job uh junior Olivia salvator and First Team all state and Faith paren second team honors and Coach Tory botton earned state coach of the year so congratulations brick [Applause] memorial a recent drama production at Brick Memorial High School the women of lockerby uh which is about the people affected by the tragic event surrounding the bom bombing of PanAm flight 103 in 1988 uh interesting story um I lived that event personally I'm a 1989 graduate of Syracuse University I was going home in December I was an international public affairs major um and I I kind of put that away and we've had some events at at Syracuse uh that we went up for the 20th 25th and donated monuments and and had some ceremonies on there and I actually had three students I was very close with uh that were on that plane one who I worked with Amy Shapiro and I I got to get to this event before it started and I was telling our drama production teacher and she asked me and real quick she gathered the staff and asked me to talk to them um about now remember this is before the internet cell phones and I remember seeing my professor uh to hand in a thesis driving home listening to 10 10 wins on AM radio on AM radio and listen to the update out of uh JFK airport on the event and I was talking to the students about it and they had their study and they actually had a picture of Amy they had a picture of all the uh the 200s uh people that died on that flight um that was part of their study um it was cathartic for me I think it was interesting for the students to hear it's something I haven't uh talked about in a while if you ever get a chance I didn't even know this play existed the women of lockerby when I was told by my secretary that day that's what I was going to see and I kind of Googled it I said wow I said I didn't realize that's what it was actually about um the students involved in the production whether they were performing on stage designing the sets or managing the technical aspects they gained such valuable insight sites that extend far behind the confines of a classroom if you went that night it was like a circular stage um I've seen a couple Circle stage theaters in New York City um and they set it up similar they had a running stream that they did on the stage really was awesome um and I think they learned a lot about empathy about the world beyond our immediate surroundings and the power about storytelling and how it transcends time and place and how people actually live that historical event so Bravo to our drama Department uh for that wonderful production brick and Beyond as you saw the video I was able to attend the annual brick and Beyond college career fair for Brick schools events um it's collaboratively uh coordinated by both guidance Departments of both high schools and it's for our high school students and parents um I I think it's one of the best events we run as a district and it gets such a great turnout they have counselor sessions College Prep support uh job applications uh one of my first jobs I worked in as a lifeguard was Candlewood Swim Club at a table there um there's something for everybody at that event so so many colleges and trade schools and Military organizations local businesses you saw our own transportation department uh advertising there uh so great job Mr mcnight and Mrs Smith wax museum Vets Memorial Elementary School held their annual fourth grade wax museum a few weeks back what do you vied success each student if you ever been to a fourth grade wax museum each student researches a person who made positive contributions to history they read a biography research multiple sources summarize informational text and present the research to an audience uh dressed like that historical figure and standing beside their trifold poster board students present an informational speech to anyone who activates their character you kind of hit a button and if it's Abraham Lincoln maybe they're giving the get ber address or something um but they give a bio on that on that character it's pretty cool um hundreds of visitors lined up the hallways were impressed by the students depiction of of the life and significant accomplishments of famous people and it's everything from a historical character to sports figures to presidents Etc um thank you to our students F uh students their families and our teachers uh for this amazing evening uh I think it was that same night the fifth grade band concert that combined vetss elementary midstreams elementary and Lane's Mill uh that happened over in the brick Memorial Gym uh such talent on display that night God bless our band teachers organizing our elementary students just warming up if you ever been to a band concert keeping the drummers from drumming and the saxophones from playing and uh so Bravo to Mr rubano uh for conducting this fabulous combined band that night m trial our mayor's cup mock trial great job brick memorial and Brick Township mock trial teams for their remarkable dedication and skill in preparing for this year's case uh congratulations brick memorial High School uh won it this year so congratulations brick memorial on our mock trial win and District's Arts Festival which you saw in recognition of Youth Arts month the district Arts Festival was held last week at Brick Township High School all of our uh schools were represented in this CommunityWide celebration for our Visual and Performing Arts programs the musical Talent creativity was on full display for the hundreds of families who attended this event I heard the parking was across the street on the side in illegal Spots I'm sure as well but it was just packed uh this was the first event I always remember attending right before covid hit um I started March 1st and I believe that Wednesday uh we went to the district I've never seen event that big Encompass the hallways um so kudos to Miss Lane and our staff for this all inspiring event um if you got a chance even heard our jazz band and some of our bands playing it's just it's really a neat night and there's something for everybody and many of our young kids I know my wife's kindergarten class they all had on display you know just standing by their picture that they made and then having a picture taken with their parents or teacher uh it was just awesome um and yes we have another state champion from brick memorial High School in wrestling congratulations to Brick moal Jr wrestler Harvey lington um I think we had six qualifiers for the state and a regional two Regional Champions um but Harvey won the 190 pound State title capping off an incredible undefeated seizing at 38-0 and it's his second uh state championship so congratulations Harvey lington um and Brick Township Public Schools had our professional day on Friday uh February 16th uh thank thank you Dr Anderson District supervisors building administrators academic coaches and the teacher leaders on the DC committee for creating an amazing day filled with opportunities for Collective growth and development the Ed Camp Model provided Choice while focusing on District goals and initiatives and the health fair provided an opportunity for our staff to engage in Wellness opportunities and thank you to our HR department and business department Mr kler and Mr Edwards for help facilitating that as well um you know let us remember the most valuable resource we have is that the teachers themselves have each other and without collaboration our growth is limited to our own perspective so thank you again Dr Anderson and your team for an amazing collaborative day so off with the congratulatory comments and on again to to some of our more practical subjects like our 2425 budget um as I stated at last month's meeting and I think I sound like a broken record over the last four years um we anticipate job Cuts once again with the continued loss of state aid we're doing our best to minimize the impact on our students and staff and that and the programming during these tough times I assure you like I said last month that we look at all avenues that are in the best interest of all of our students and our staff uh tonight we have a resolution as you know for a tenative uh budget the filing deadline for the tenative budget to the executive County Superintendent is March 20th um the tenative budget I I think Mr Edwards said today in our testimony to the state senate education committee the tenant tenative budget means absolutely nothing uh the tenative budget has no details it basically says because by law we have to balance a budget that we have a tax levy increase of 2% really here's our state aid Revenue here's our balanced budget we now have to figure now we've been going through the process now but we won't have any of the details until April 25th at the budget hearing many things like last year will change in the next month uh last year we got some additional stabilization Aid we got some more retirements and attrition therefore we could put positions back due to breakage and a myriad of issues um so there is really no detail um we actually asked the Senate subcommittee we've been asking the doe for years through Mr Edwards there's no there's no reason to approve a tenative budget since the statute calls for a balanced budget budget having said that for our 2425 operating budget the next ta the net tax levy increase is only the mandated uh 2% I think with Debt Service and some things it comes out to 1.99 98 um but uh we are mandated to have a 2% tax levy uh as a under adequacy S2 uh district and it actually comes a little below the 2% um the budget adoption is is scheduled for our April 25th uh board meeting the userfriendly budget should be up posted on the district website shortly uh thereafter um you know it's worth reiterating this message to that the state constitutionally requires what's called a thorough and efficient we say t& education for all students in all districts and to do that they actually set an adequacy budget amount for every District brick schools will be $ 27 million under adequacy according to the state and their own numbers this is not even close to the state average and way below the state average cost per pupil I said this today and I've been saying it the last through few weeks fully funding a formula that is Antiquated and flawed is the definition of insanity in my opinion today as I briefly messaged I was U honored to be invited to testify in front of the New Jersey state senate education committee uh this was by invite only it's not the normal uh testimony that anybody could do in front of the assembly uh there was about maybe a dozen superintendant from our side and our state Association Mr Edwards and I were present to comment on the school funding formula and answer questions I tried to be positive and proactive and offer Solutions um to the funding formula itself and how they come up with school funding I'd like to say I'm hopeful that there'll be a major change to the funding formula but I don't think that'll be anytime soon um I was a little disappointed today myself personally so in general I do want to talk about this because this is something I I was uh made aware of at the National Convention and that right now in education we're in the midst of a paradigm shift we're experience a huge increase in our atrisk student populations whether it's classified students socioeconomically disadvantaged elll students uh students with uh mental health issues or support uh disciplinary issues um this increase is exponentially greater than any before in time over the last few years and this atrisk population requires more experienced and certificated teachers as well as much more additional Support Services as well as dollars the cost to educate our at risk student populations are four to five times greater than our average cost per student and the supplemental funding as I spoke about are basic these subsidies are basically non-existent to compound the issue we have a growing crisis nationally a major teacher shortage along with less teacher Preparatory programs in colleges and less college graduates looking to get into the education field in the 22 23 school year we had 200,000 teacher vacancies Nationwide vacancies this year we are almost at right now 400,000 teacher vacancies and these were numbers I got at our national uh convention a few weeks back that so that's already doubled as of now and next year it's projected to be over 550,000 teacher vacancies Nationwide in addition nationally there's much attrition through resignations than ever before with more teachers quitting and leaving midyear than ever before in history this is the Paradigm that we live in right now additional Support Services more government compliance issues less funding and now you have the perfect storm uh in education you know it's been said that teaching is the one profession that creates all other professions teachers impact our nation's greatest resource our children our community's children now is the time as a community a society a nation we need to invest in creating an educational environment that creates more opportunities for individuals to enter the teacher profession and supports teachers in remaining in that profession our children are depending us no Mandela said education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world and I believe that and teachers try to do that every day I know we'll continue to work with our Board of Education and the community uh to create the most positive educational environment for our students staff parents and Community as well under these tough circumstances thank you thank you Dr frell uh committee reports Miss mnam policy and planning thank you Mrs wab policy and planning committee met on March 5th at 4:30 in the afternoon in attendance were Mrs Kennedy Mrs de Benedictus Mrs aanon Dr frell and myself the policies that are on this evening's uh board agenda for both a first read and for second read and adoption uh were discussed we will be meeting again uh in may we have not set a new date thank you thank you Dr Anderson cni thank you m wrab the cni committee met on March 4th at 4:30 p.m. in attend were Miss Bala the chairperson Miss Zana rone Mrs Kennedy Dr Farrell Miss Speedy Mr Cuts Mrs Kane Miss Lane and myself um and first we preview the items on the March cni agenda for training and travel field trips to teach placements clubs and grants um and I was thrilled to highlight three new clubs with volunteer advisers and 15 grants that our teachers are applying for for uh next we discussed the midyear assessment data highlights I had each of the supervisors share programmatic highlights and midyear assessment data with the committee uh we also shared interventions and support that's provided in response to the data in preparation for NJ GPA which occurred this week and uh njsla which will occur in May uh Mrs Kane next gave an update on the progress of our reading pilot uh and then I preview previewed the family engagement activities that occurred in March which included The Parent Academy for supporting young readers at home kindergarten kickoff for Lane's Mill in osbornville on March 18th Drum Point and uh and Veterans Memorial Elementary School on March 19th and Emma Havens and midstreams on March 20th I also provide an overview of the professional learning that occurred on March 6th teachers worked in professional learning communities to evaluate their practice and pacing and set goals to ensure her students needs were met and major content was addressed prior to State Testing Miss Lane also provided an overview of the activities that we uh are doing in honor of Arts in our school month and those activities included a photo a day challenge spirit week and of course the district Arts Festival um I also wanted to this year our spirit week uh for the high school and youth art month coincided with re Across America week so we're going to separate those next year um and I just want to thank the Elks brick Elks club for reading to our third grade students they also donated uh a book Freckle Juice uh to each third grade student and they read an excerpt to our class uh progress reports are were posted on March 8th uh and parents um who attend our kindergarten kickoff next week at all of our elementary schools will have a glimpse into the life of a kindergartener the kindergartener daily schedule and curriculum and strategy to help parents support uh kindergarten Readiness to help prepare their child for a smooth transition in the fall every student will also receive a gift bag with kindergarten supplies and so uh our next meeting will be on April 15th at 4:30 p.m. thank you Dr Anderson Mr Edwards facilities and finance oh thank you uh the facilities committee met on March 4th at 2:30 PM in attend was Miss Bala miss wrab Mr Mesmer Dr frell myself Miss MCM Mr picor Mr dubovich from V vfd Architects Miss gallardi from spel Architects and Mr Ur from Neta Architects uh first item discussed was the lake Rivier Middle School air conditioning project Mr y are informed the committee that is waiting to get back the final punch list from the enger and the contractor review up on items before close out documents can begin the veterans more Middle School boiler replacement and air conditioning project mror informed the committee uh that the project has an electrical change order U it was previously reported that it was 81630 but that was actually for veterans morial Elementary School that change orders on this evening's agenda for approval we also discussed through the committee the upgrade cost from jcpnl for the Transformer uh that will be pulling out of capital reserve uh and I also informed the committee that the above totals the above change orders rather did not include njr solar cost for moving the PV monitoring system which we're working on a cost uh yet to date Emma Haven Elementary School air conditioning I informed the committee of the Transformer upgrade from jcpnl that's being pulled from capital reserve uh and Mr y also inform the committee of the electrical proposed change order from preferred mechanical that's still pending veterans more Elementary School air conditioning I informed the committee of the jcpnl Transformer upgrade and Mr y again informed the committee that the uh change order being reviewed for the electrical in the amount of 81630 is still with the engineer Drum Point Elementary School boiler replacement air conditioning uh informed the committee that we got the Transformer upgrade from jcpnl that we're going to be moving from capit reserve and Mr y inform the community that the project switch gear is being stored at the warehouse leans Mill Elementary School uh HVAC project Miss scy already informed the committee that the project is on pause until the completion of the switch Gear replacement required the extended building shutdown midstreams air conditioning osbornville air conditioning Warren H wolf and Herbertsville air conditioning I informed the committee that these projects are on hold until all electrical upgrade proposed change orders for Neta projects have been included osbornville kitchen Edition uh Miss gardi from spel informed the committee that Mr Williams and herself um Our Miss Cashman will be attending the township planning board meeting which was last night uh by the way as a side note the planning board approved the project no issues there uh drawings have been submitted to the health department for review and then we be forwarded to the building department for approvals the bid advertisement is set for March 22nd uh with a pre-bid on March 29th and the bid opening oh thank you is it got nuts in it did you give me a peanut cookie again and bid opening will be on April 19th with award on April 25th board meeting Brick Township High School kitchen hbac and the Drum Point kitchen HVAC uh Mr pror informed the committee that the projects have been issued proposed CH I'm sorry purchase orders with Hutchinson HVAC to complete the work the material is on order and once it has arrived at the fa facilities they'll discuss installing which may be as soon as April Park and lot assessment I informed the committee that we had a follow-up meeting with remon Vernick and due to the nature of the procurement process for the projects of this nature it would be highly unlikely that any of the work would come to portion this summer so as a result of that was determined that we would give the engineers additional time to complete the overall assessment back to us since we won't be looking to do any of that work at earliest until summer of 2025 I did inform the committee that we currently have $80,000 was 130,000 for parking lot improvements at Herbertsville um which we're going to be working with a co-op vendor to perform those improvements uh such as um minor Milling they are repaving and striping Mr Coro informed the committee's meeting with the school administrators and the engineer on the parking lot evaluations uh March 11th and 12th and 14th and he informed them the committee that he was meeting with the contractor for Herbertsville on March 7th midstreams Elementary School kitchen I informed the committee that the revised Food Service budget is on tonight's agenda and attached to that will be the recommendation to be moved forward with Neta for the project at midstreams kitchen Brick Township High School track and long jump I informed the committee that the facilities is expecting to have Surplus available from snow removal KN on wood that we don't have any snow between now and the end of March been 70 degrees out hopefully we're done and therefore we'll be able to move that money into uh equipment to be able to do the um track repairs SDA emergent Grant needs I informed the committee that we received an School Development Authority emergent Grant we have identified two rtu units to use that money for one at Brick mmor High School rtu rooftop unit number eight on the Green Cafe and one at veterans Mo Elementary School library that's on this evening's agenda for approval uh and then use of facilities I informed the committee uh that our facilities we use a scheduling proc electronic scheduling process through software through brightly formerly known as school dude uh it's a module the district uses called facilities scheduling direct and once application has submitted via the website it goes through a number of approvers before it is ultimately accepted and our next meeting date is April 15th at 2:30 we then went to finance committee which Mr Mesmer Miss W Miss picala Dr farell myself first item of business was the transportation operation assessment I informed the committee that Dr jenko has agreed to stay on with the transportation department through the end of April even though Dr fral tried to get him to stay on till the end of June if he's listening out there we're still hoping uh Dr farell indicated that the posting would occur at the end of March with hopes of approving a permanent person at the April board meeting for a July 1 start date uh Dr F informed the committee of the bell time schedule changes that would include be included in the 2425 budget he noted that no changes would occur for high school or middle school preschool tentatively these are all tenative preschool right now would be moving from to an 805 start with a 205 dismissal it's currently 840 and 240 veterans more ele El school would move up to An Early Elementary tier and the early tier will be 8:35 a.m. start with a 3 P.M dismissal the second Elementary tier would move to a 915 start with a 340 dismissal uh I also uh noted that the change is a savings to the districts of approximately 250,000 so that will be included in the 2425 budget uh also in the 2425 budget uh we formed the committee that we held meeting with theil Engineers a record to discuss the midstreams elementary school property um this rear section of that property appears to be mostly Wetlands we're going to have discussions hopefully in the near future with the township about potentially obtaining greenacre funds for that property as a potential Revenue source to the district I informed the committee that the resolution for the 2425 budget would be on the agenda this evening and I reminded the committee as I probably shouldn't have said but did that the tenative budget isn't worth the paper it's printed on said that in testimony today at the Senate education committee I think they were a little shocked Dr fra when I said that but it's true I mean it's it's a ridiculous process we submit a tenative budget to the county superintendent um you know I've said this for years now we have to do the budget to the Department of Education through a computer software program that contains multiple edit checks that we can't proceed with submission until every edit check has been cleared once all the edit checks are cleared it gets sent to the county office via paper yes paper still so they can hard sign it to send back to us so that we can then change everything between now and April 25th to adopt the final budget it just the whole process makes absolutely no sense um anyway enough of that I I figure I take this moment during the March meeting every year to let you know how I feel about it in case you've forgotten you're welcome uh so the final 10 the Ten of budget is tonight and the final adoption will be April 2th Dr farell already spoke about that in more detail Community solar and building performance I informed the committee that we have a request for proposal out on uh that issue we're hoping for responses back next week March 20th uh just as a reminder what we're hoping to do there is a revenue alternative Revenue source to the district is look to put Community solar up in the parking lots where um the electric that's generated from the solar panels would be sold to the community rather than us using it because we're already using our fullest potential on solar as it is uh AAG legal I informed the committee that AAG legal is an employee benefit employee paid benefit there's no cost to the board in this employees can purchase legal insurance for utilization of attorneys for Wills closing and other Min legal issues and informing committee that we want to have a contract Amendment um with the current vendor to extend the contract through August 31st that way people are on a September 1 through August 31 plan so they begin work in September and end in June they are already paid for the months of July and August versus what we have now where they begin getting the services in July and August prior to making payments in September and then if they leave in September we have to chase them for the money so it makes more sense for us to have the contract end August 31st that's on this evening's agenda for approval Revis revised Food Service budget uh discussed with the committee that we're revising the Food Service budget to include the midstreams elementary school kitchen as I discussed in facilities we also now have the The Point Pleasant buau Board of Education shared service agreement and we also got a grant that we received for purchasing of local produce uh which is through a company called Common Market which is also on this evening's agenda Brick Township Soccer Association shared service agreement I inform the committee that the soccer association will once again enter into a shared service agreement for the use of the fields here at vets uh that's on this evening's agenda we discussed a settlement offer with a in a litigation matter uh two I'm sorry two settlement uh offers for litigation matters uh 23 324 budget I discuss with the committee a shortfall that appears to be occurring in our medical due to uh reduction in employee contributions we discussed the budget history uh as to far as where we got where we were and how we got to where we are with tax levy and how that's impacting the 2425 budget I reported to the committee which I'm happy to report to everyone else these evenings I know was a question about it last month that the October November December and January treasur and board secretaries report are on this evening agenda my office is very caught up at this point we're right on schedule again um I would like to give accolades to my entire business office there was a lot of hard work that was put in to get this caught up to the point where we are to have January on this evening's agenda so I'm very proud of them and also happy that we're caught up I I don't like being in the situation we were in Six Flags contract that's on this evening's agenda um just inform the committee because I know that's something we've done business with Six Flags before they've never required a contract they've always just accepted a purchase order uh they are now requiring contracts so that's on this evening's agenda it's been reviewed by the board attorney so we're good there Southgate manner that's on the agenda for uh revision they're just changing the time of the prom so that require that's the only change in the contract and finally the facilities uh Department would like to transfer money for equipment uh two things they want to uh use some of the money that they AR if they aren't going to use for snow removal to buy two 40in Auto ride on floor scrubbers the amount of 22,000 and change and also uh a well pump for the veterans complex for the sprinkler system in the amount of $1,122 committee concur with both transfers so we're moving ahead with those and again our next meeting is April 15th 3M and thank you for the cookie thank you Mr Edwards first public comment section on agenda items only this will be the first opportunity for public comment and will be for agenda items only the board invit thoughts and reactions on agenda items each participant is asked to give his or her name prior to making a statement all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer the board will not during the public portion of this meeting discuss matters involving employment appointment termination of employment negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance of promotion or disciplining of any specific or perspective or current employee and or student any one for public comment Mr Campbell can I pass out these diam is it are they on agenda items yes okay then um why don't you give them to Mr Edwards if you want to give them to me we'll pass them down I was going to pass him down to you oh my God each okay Mr Campbell you're on T tonight number 22 midstreams uh Elementary School kitchen replacement you have it set up for three almost 3/4 of a million dollars for little old kitchen at midstreams unfortunately I guess you haven't kept track with the different uh parents and so forth midstreams over the years they want a cafeteria that 3/4 of a million dollars plus probably another six not million not wait a minute here it's three4 of a million and plus another 600 would give you a very nice Cafeteria on the northwest side where they got the property what it does with the diagrams I gave you the first diagram that's where it is now that's the original the second diagram is where I put the cafeteria in and two classrooms and ran a hall through those classrooms where they had to go through the classrooms to get to the classrooms now that is a pre Concrete Construction it comes completely furnished what that means it will come with a commercial kitchen it'll come with restroom facilities and whatever you want inside whether it be uh unit ventilators lights Heating stuff like that whatever you want and they'll throw in the panel solar panels This is a concrete all the way around it stays uh it'll withstand 175 miles an hour so it's pretty sturdy but you can set it up any way you want the last page is a diagram of the area and I thought you might want to Doodle around with it and come up with your own ideas but the bottom line is don't waste 34 of a million dollars on a little old kitchen just turn it into a faculty room we've been down this road before few years ago but it it just doesn't make any other sense because that school has always been the stepchild of the district so I'd suggest you take a look at it take that one that's on there tonight and table it till you get a chance to really digest it all right next upgrades that you mentioned for the five schools they they the electrical upgrades that or just for the sub panels for the new projects I don't think they have anything to do with the main electrical system I've harped on this a million times they're old and one day you're going to get a fire in there in one of those wires nobody's inspecting them I just want to be on record I told you so so when something goes wrong cuz you haven't had a check out hey it's on you but I've been harping about that for years and I'll take care of the rest on the second half thank you thank you Mr seriously give it a shot cuz I'm going to tell you those parents have been waiting for that thing for years it's an embarrassment that room over there I don't think it's changed since I was on the board thank you Mr gamble sure thank you Mr Campbell um first of all the part of our strategic planning discussion as talked about the cafeteria I could tell you that due to doe rags and other aspects it's a lot more than 600,000 but that is on our radar um for that we've talked about it um Mr Edward if you want to expand a little a little bit on that we the kitchen was a pressing issue that we needed to do and that we've been budgeting for the cafeteria is something that is part of strategic plan and we have some ideas and Concepts that we spoke about the other thing was the upgrades to the main electrical panels um I know you spoke last month or the month before correct it's the we're it's upgrade service it's Transformers it's the it's the electrical room I'm not sure of what Mr Campbell's referring to is actually the wire throughout the building that's that's I think what he's referring to we're not replacing the wire throughout the building right um you know we have had folks look at that uh internally and externally and there does not I know Mr Campbell differs in opinion on this and he's differed in opinion on this for many years um that they do no one has recommended that that work needs to be done so there's no need at this point to do that work but as stated the last couple months all the panels were done as part of the HVAC so thank you I'm not sure if if I'm understanding the findings of certified we've never had an we've never hired anybody to come in and do a formal assessment of the of the actual wiring in the walls um what we've done is through our own electricians and the contractors that we've worked through we've assessed it and no one has recommended that that needs to be done a formal assessment of the wiring so Mr C opinion is that it needs to be done our professionals say that it doesn't need to be done we're relying on our Professionals in all due respect okay can we put that as an agenda item if you don't mind oh Victoria is not here for facilities just to discuss in committee thank you thank you Mr Campbell anyone else for public comment Mr Finelli yeah I was going to you got to walk off the cookie I'm not done yet I was in a good mood until Tom [Music] spoke I have that effect on people lately I I only had four hours to go over the agenda so I don't have a lot good good for you uh first of all it appears title 19 is working we're recognizing the girls bowling team uh Tuesday night we recognized the girls soccer team that won so looks like title n n is working um under curriculum and instruction item 12 I realized that's a grant you're looking for $100,000 to refurbish a courtyard could somebody tell me what was involved in refurbishing a courtyard I have no idea what it looks like under operations number 14 really doesn't matter I noticed no that you're still doing perfect attendance for Food Services two questions are you doing perfect attendance anywhere else in the school district and what is it you need to qualify for perfect attendance uh number 30 under operations getting stabilization aid for $864,000 there's so many numbers in that thing I'm not sure I understood it but what I think I understand is you're getting $864,000 in stabilization Aid and you're using that money to pay for employee medical contributions and employee benefits because you didn't collect enough money I'd like somebody to explain that whole thing um under the budget and and I realize this is only tenative budget if I'm reading it correctly you're reducing last year's tenative budget by $2 million going from 160 million to 158 and you're increasing the tax levy by 2% which would be $2.4 million is that correct okay well it's a little under 2% say what it's a little under 2% uh okay um and and the last one I probably know the answer but I'm going to ask it anyway in your Preamble all the time you have this whole big thing about Hib and meetings and and sometime or other it's going to go to the public and there's two agenda items on there tonight about I know you had a meeting Monday which was h be and uh I know that you're not going to talk about a lot of this stuff but my question is I'd like to know if the two if the two people I don't need to know who the people are I don't need to even know what the issue was I just like to know if the people won their appeal or didn't win their appeal in other words did the school board overrule the school administration or not that's what I'd like to know if you can tell me that and that's all I have thank you Mr Finelli first one was the $100,000 wrote them all down we got them I got them go ahead Dr phoh uh I will tell you I asked Dr Anderson and Tim purio so I I think Jim can add to this as well we're submitting for a grant for $100,000 to do the courtyard many of our Courtyards that we do we either get donations PTA elves we're doing some of the extra board planks advents L we did vets middle um so this is a substantial Grant if we could get it uh to improve the courtyard um you want to add to that a little bit because I I've never seen this specific Grant so yeah he uh as Dr Farrell said Timo is applying for an outdoor picnic see to speak in the microphone I'm sorry um Tipico our um facilities manager uh is applying for an outdoor picnic and food area in the brick High School Courtyard there's a center Courtyard so they're creating an outdoor picnic and food area for students to eat lunch okay um and I know you you spoke in the operations in our uh Food Services we provide um food to perfect attendant students Miss mamar who oversees our attendants and data and a ton of that you can add to that oh that wasn't that no that wasn't what was you said perfect attendance in the food service line item yeah two questions employees are you doing it anywhere else in the school district and what do you need to qualify for perfect attendance three months six months thought you're talking about students because we smoke G it's it's perfect attendance is only for the transportation workers union they're the only ones that have in their contract and it's measured quarterly tww so perfect then it's quarterly you get the stien when you say quarterly how many months is that three three yeah so you get get an award if you come to work 60 days in a row roughly uh it's more than that right it's 90 three months well the Food Service workers don't work 12 months a year do they no they're 10-month employees so they they would actually they get one your to your point they do get a perfect attendance award for the month of September but that's by contract and it's negotiated so one month you're saying after one month they get a they get one quarter of their perfect attendance statement if they're here yes I I I just I just wanted to share with you when I worked for zerox we also had a perfect attendance thing and you had to be come to work 12 months in a row to get it so that's pretty liberal I realize it's in the contract but okay so just I think you also I think you have to realize two things one is I would say um it's a it's a really nice incentive for the folks that are doing some of the Ling PID jobs such as cafeteria workers and it's also not a large amount that they're getting it's a very small amount so I'm not sure what they paid you at Xerox after working for 12 months but I don't think our cafeteria workers are coming close to what you got yeah so we we got a free dinner I don't think they could buy a free dinner with what they get okay I I by the way I I know the Food Service workers are probably the lowest paid people in here so I really don't have problem the the 864,000 stabiliz a Aid um many times when we get stabilization Aid which we've only gotten the last two years we bring it into this year's budget it could lapse help us with a myriad of things this year because we're transferring it specifically to our general budget for the uh chapter 44 employee benefits offset of the contributions from employees coming under a state mandated legislation from three years ago that they have the right to have What's called the Educators Health Plan um which offers something we had to offer something similar in a self-insured which we had to do um and we was was went through some State litigation for a while and uh this year we are under um the employee side contributions to that so what we're doing is taking our stabilization Aid which we had which would go to our general budget and usually lap laps into Surplus for next year and we're applying it to that if you want to add to that Jim at all I I think that's I think the only thing I could say to you here is uh you know you got to thank your legislators for this this was legislation chapter 44 which was uh you know portrayed as a cost savings measure to the taxpayers um they recently issued a report that indicated that it did save the taxpayers money and yet the State Association of school business officials did a survey of all the school districts in the state to determine who saved money they wanted to see what that data looked like and uh overwhelmingly it was like 80% of the districts that responded said they did not save money uh New Jersey asbo has opened that report now from the Department to find out who how did they determine that money was saved and I think at this point the Department of Education has requested uh 30 extensions on the Oprah sounds very familiar to the issue we were going through with state aid when we were trying to get the information that they didn't want to release so so uh yeah chapter 44 has impacted our district the same way it's been impacting other districts it's a reduction of employee contributions and when the employee contributions are reduced the board has to pay the difference the the overall cost of the healthcare didn't get reduced and so there's a fallacy there within chapter 44 that was somehow going to save money it doesn't save money so yeah you can thank your legislators for that one just to back just to back up one minute because I I hear this all the time it's in the contract it's in the contract when going back one thing about this wasn't a contract this was a no I'm going back one one thing you were talking about the perfect attendant it's in the contract and I hear this all the time it's like those things don't miraculously appear in the contract these are the things that this school board this has been on not not this school board this has been in the contract for well a long time let me make a recommendation you need to start looking at what's in the contracts and and and start renegotiating things that you really can't afford anymore I'm not I'm not talking about this one particular but I hope not because this one particular is minuscule and it's the best thing we do in MO I'm not talking about this one I'm talking about I always hear it's in the contract but it's in the contract because it was negotiated and if we can go in that's different than this though okay uh I don't know if I understand this whole one about number 30 but so the the you you asked about hip appeals and I'm going to ask my board attorney to chim but uh there's a process in the state since 2011 um for harassment intimidation buling whether it's the investigation but it's all about the process there is a part in the process where um parents right or students can appeal uh the decision and there's an entire process that the board attorney actually runs uh the hearing I don't I mean Ben you could jump in um uh whether we could say airm or or denied I think we stated but I don't know can't get into the details get any of the details about thing but to answer your question the two that you're looking at on the agenda were affir affirm meaning meaning the decision up was upheld that's all I need to know thank you you're okay any other public comment thank you Mr Finelli any other public comment before I close out seeing none okay Dr Anderson curriculum and instruction thank you Mrs wolrab wait we ation I'm sorry we did a motion in second first oh did you sorry no she has to introduce it yeah I wish was [Laughter] here under curriculum instruction the superintendent recommends that the board approve the following items 1 through 12 I need a motion in a second motion Aly second bran any board comment seeing none Mr Edwards Miss cert yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss D Benedictus yes especially number four putting a number four with a heart around Mr Mesmer yes and Miss wreb yes Mr Edwards operations uh yes this evening the superintendent recommends operations 1 through 34 I need a motion in a second motion Nicole second Fran any board comment see none Mr Edwards Miss Hebert I have to abstain from operations number five vendor ID 9797 but yes to everything else Miss Kennedy I have to abstain from operations number five vendor ID 12714 yes everything else Miss Miss D Benedictus yes Mr Mesmer I have to abstain um numbers one through four yes to everything else and Miss wall I have to abstain for number five vendor ID 8927 and number 15 yes to everything else Mr cler Human Resources thank you Mr rreb tonight under Human Resources the superintendent recommends items 1 through 36 for approval I need a motion and second motion Aly second Mike any board comment seeing none Mr Edwards Miss Sebert I need to abstain from 14 and 15 yes to everything else Miss Kennedy yes missa Benedictus yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss warab I also have to abstain from number 14 and 15 but yes to everything else Miss mcnamer policy and planning thank you Mrs warab the superintendent recommends that the board approved the following items under policy and planning one through three I need a motion in a second motion Ally second bran any board comment seeing none Mr Edwards C Bert yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss D Benedictus yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss wre yes second public comment section this this is the second opportunity for public comment each participant is asked to give his or her name prior to making a statement all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer comments shall be limited to five minutes and each speaker may only speak once the board will not during the public portion of the this meeting discuss matters involving employment appointment termination of employment negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance of promotion or disciplining of any specific or perspective or current employee Andor students is there anyone for public comment okay you want to uh quick John sler 950 Soviet Court did the calendar change with the two days that the school had off what were the dates oh was only one day sorry we just added that's what I thought yeah any other public Mr Campbell all right this doesn't cost any money but uh when are you going to get uh some quotes on the rest of the windows on the schools doesn't cost anything but it doesn't happen overnight either after having been down this road in other words we're working on next year okay and how are we incorporating life skills in the middle school I mentioned a few I like to see them Incorporated somehow some way it's a vital you're made or broken in the Middle School okay um vocational programs the lower cost ones with the visual and the handson we how much money do you need to run a program program on law enforcement and safety when you can get the course of study up in free hole bring it on down here and get kids interested in it there's a lot of jobs in that area a lot of jobs it's not a big deal and what about something like uh the CRS commercial residential Services handson we have so many indigenous people coming in here along with the other 60% that don't really get much it's all geared towards the top Echelon we need more in the vocational area that's not being picked up by the counties I've harped on this and harped on it and nobody moves on it am I getting impatient I think I have a right to nobody moves on it same with the visual arts you got to expand that too and the next one the biotech we don't need a CTE person we have people in this District that can run these business visual arts program can run the aquaculture Hydroponics you see it all the time I saw it again up here in the flick tonight this doesn't make any sense nobody's moving you got to do something to make things attractive if you get nailed with no school well yeah school choice we're going to get screwed we don't offer to everybody when you have cr and being revised it's the same courses again being revised each year but they're not ones that are more lower level courses everybody's geared towards that uper 20 30% oh this is for Mr Edwards boilers if you have three boilers or more in a building they work on demand if you have two boilers in the building do they work on demand or do they run all the time Jim do you know that we're going to answer what we can at the end okay I'm sorry it's frustrating that's all thank you anyone else for public comment Mr Finelli my comments tonight strictly to do with the Strategic plan you can take it as constructive criticism or not I really don't care for those of you that weren't here I've been waiting four years for this all right and just to refresh your memory the first thing that was done was a demographic study was given to our architect Netta for $20,000 which is twice what the previous demographic study cost and I was kind of up in arms about this whole thing you're spending twice as much money I had two demographic studies in my hand that were done and nothing happened with them and then we went to an architect which that really helped tell me how they're really good at demographic studies well now I know how good they are not very first of all it's 58 Pages the average person is not going to take the time to read it you want to make a comment about that okay and he comes to the meetings number two already some of the information in there is stale uh as an example Dr farell quotes 500 elll students but if you look at that there's 333 the police chief is wrong the board members are wrong uh it needs if it's an updated document it needs to be updated right um I've read thing four times and as far as I'm concerned there's nothing in there about demographics except the enrollment projections I mean and you don't need somebody outside to tell you how many students you have in a school you have that information the only thing I saw in that 58 Pages was their projection for uh student enrollment and I'd like to talk about that first they gave nine years of pass history where student enrollment went down 896 students which is just about a 100 a year and keep in mind in that number you added 500 prek students so that number would have been worse 896 and then 500 added in their projection for the next seven years is to lose 39 students somebody got to tell me how that's going to happen all of a sudden you went from that to this you're not going to lose any students at all all I think that's ridiculous second of all uh and we had this discussion so I understand now what I didn't understand before in in the demog in the uh strategic plan it talks about improving attendance by two and a half percent and after a long discussion with Dr Farrell uh I understand now that what he is saying is he wants to improve attendance by two and a half% year-over-year my way of thinking there's a difference between attendance and absence and when I look at the absence reports for the school district it's broken out by different categories and and you know these people are really bad and everything else and if you're going to fix attendance speak the same languages as as the reports come in so people can understand them and let me give you an example if if you don't know very quickly our friends down south Tom's River who has I guess just as bad an attendance problem as you have they have 14,500 students they started doing things last year these are their numbers these numbers are staggering I almost didn't believe them in the elementary school in 2022 now keep in mind they have 14,500 students so they got a lot more than brick Elementary School in the year 2022 they had 39490 days absence just in elementary school they improved that to 33,000 in one year which is a 16% Improvement in the middle school they had 22,000 days they improved that to 18,000 another 16% Improvement High School 34,000 they improved that by 133% their total absence for one year was 96,4 196 days they must had empty classrooms all day they approved that to 81,000 so actually they went from 6.65% six 6.65 days absence per student to 5.6 that's the kind of information I would be looking for right very simple you improved the absence or you didn't improve it and by how much I don't think targeting anything by two and a half% is Meaningful at all but then I understand what Dr F was saying 2 and a half% all right um you can finish up your thought okay let me see if I have anything else yeah okay in the in the goals that reduce class size forget it you're going to reduce class size no matter what you do don't waste your time trying uh um restore teaching positions you can't restore them if you wanted to you can't even get them forget it take it off you ain't gonna have you're gonna have bigger class size deal with it and I don't know if I if I asked this question before or not not how many of the school board members know what the what the word pedor pedagogy how how do you pronounce that Dr Farrell huh pedagogy how many of you people on the Schoolboard know what that word means come on be honest none of you shame on you I didn't know what it meant either right right the way you speak by the way it it means the art of teaching 81 years old I never seen that word before and I never heard it before don't use them big words in here we're simple folks one thank you now I would even say the last thing thank you do uh Mr Finelli um Dr phell yeah just a couple things um Mr Campbell uh Dr Anderson can talk to you afterwards a little bit about some of the things we are doing life skills uh in the Middle School in our curriculum programming and some of the things we're doing there um you and I have spoken often about academies and Vocational programming and I love it but we got a bigger problem here as Mr I can't I know you don't want to hear it but I mean we are not a comprehensive high school anymore on either side of town the the thing the offerings are getting down to the core minimums just to maintain the the mean the main programs we have in our strategic plans we talk about a developing Academy on student interest it may be that it could be a couple different areas we talked about um digital Communications things that the OSI County vocational not so I agree with you we're talking about it but I have to tell you you know I'm impatient too but it's not going to happen anytime soon because we can't afford it and here's the other thing you think it's something simple of moving a teacher but we're not filling our base core classes and filling them with the teachers we're getting rid of some electives if we don't have a number of students interested in them so um I hear what you're say I love it it goes to the idea as I said to Mr Finelli our strategic plan is a great plan in the sense that we're looking to be the best at what we want I know it's a big ask and I know many of the items in there may not come to fruition anytime soon but we we went after that plan and said we want to be the best we want to have the best education programs and we kind of listed everything I also said to Mr Finelli because I spoke to him about this is any comments on the Strategic plan email me because it's kind of my baby there's nobody really else to blame I kind of put it together I put together everything we put in one big slide you don't have to read them all because I'm working on a small trifold and then another print out for anybody so we're working on different Avenues but I I welcome all that feedback on any of that I said um and we are it is a work in progress so everybody should know about strategic planning um it's something we'll review with the steering committee like I said we have dreams and hopes here and next year we realize okay we lost more in state aid we're going to do here class sizes are important to us important on the elementary and it's just it's not fair right now and the state has a statute for Title One schools not to have more than 23 and we may have up to 34 in some classes and tested grades it's a goal is it a realistic goal right now no I'm sitting here telling you looking at the budget we don't have the money um I I also want you to know the elll numbers are right from the beginning of the year because they include bilingual and some other things in there um know that our elll population comes in very Transit mostly in January they don't count on our roles in October 15th with no money because that's a summer the summer southern hemisphere summer is in the January and they they have to test for us in May um and count towards that um so I want to thank you I've been waiting for comments on a strategic plan I want more of them you can email me on each one of the comments I will update bring to the steering committee re-update where we got different versions coming out that are easier to read but we really want to shoot and put expectations high and then peel back so we're going to put ideas in there with the acmis and things of that nature so thank you for that um and I just got a call excuse me oh you said enough um I actually got a call um Mr Campbell from a parent whose child she was so excited child was accepted into the law enforcement um Academy for uh high school so there are you know right now these are the opportunities so um but uh congratulations and I'm not going to say her name because we can't but congratulations um any board comment Ally I real quick because it's late um I want to say that I attended brick and Beyond it was an amazing event um Mr mcnight thank you for all of your hard work and your counterpart in Lake Riv who I apologize I don't know your name um but and Mr mcnight I couldn't have forgotten the evening if I tried because I think I got 75 emails reminding me about it but I do appreciate that it was a fantastic event um the art show Jen lean amazing Harlem Wizards PTSA at brick memorial um great job with that event I loved working the door and seeing all the little kids it was so fun they were very excited from um Lane's mill Happy Anniversary Dr Farrell um I will forever associate your anniversary with covid-19 I'm sorry to say um like a reminder with that right so that's it everyone just have a fun and safe St Patrick's Day weekend and a very restful spring break we'll see you in the end of April thanks bye does anybody else have for comment I just want to be inv okay one real quick Mike no it's take your time yeah yeah I just wanted to uh there's one thing I was excited to vote on this month um actually one last minute thing that we talked about yesterday Dr frell uh extra security cameras in Lanes Mill Elementary School uh brick police right on behalf of them so I thought that was awesome yeah so just wanted to shout that out and thanks to Rick police thank you that was that was good to bring that out for anybody else Fran of course um no I just no you're f um I think it's super cool that all the Arts are being um put on display I had so much fun at the Arts Festival ran into a couple people and um thank you so much Dr for um talking about our Winter Guard and our marching band it's so important like I keep saying some kids they're just not the they're not into sports they're not into the academics they're into the Arts so let's build them up let's let's support them let's let them have their thing and yay coach Tori we love you um but so and encourage your kids to become whoever they want to be and encourage them that if it is the Arts that they're not some bang geek or they're not some drama nerd that that's just who they are and enjoy it have fun be who you are um and have a great spring break I'm sure we all could use a little break um be safe and we'll see you next month thank you wait one more thing because I always have to say this again annoy the legislators annoy annoy annoy annoy annoy Dr frell annoyed them for about an hour today and it you know can you just mentioned the transition fair for specialed oh yeah good yeah the transition fair for special ed is on March 21st at Brick Township High School at 5 o'clock is a wonderful night even for our kids that aren't transitioning just yet we've got wonderful people there um I think we're trying to add some last minute additions to that as well but it's a great opportunity to for our special ed moms especially to actually see what's the next step especially when you have no idea you've been in that Arena before I have um a file about this big on it and I actually needed to look and reference so you get a lot of really great inform information there so it's worth it's worth your time Wonder absolutely okay uh 329 9 through 45 is spring re uh spring recess schools closed our next um meeting is on April 25th here it is a public hearing on the 2425 budget uh starting at 7 o'clock this location I need a motion and a second motion second alley Grand alley J did you get that yep misser Miss Eber yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss D Benedictus yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss W know I don't want yes sorry Dr Ferell distracted me everybody have a great spring recess happy St Patrick's Day e