into order um Mary sorry Miss Sebert yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss picala misson here Mr blandina yes oh not Mr hi next in line Miss de Benedictus yes that's I need to my coffee Miss Willam Mr Edwards the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to advance notice of it to attend meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provision of this act the breaktown board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be posted on the administrative office bulton board the the official District website and chb tv20 and San Municipal Clerk's as Park PR time start Ledger at Municipal clerk's office sorry I need a motion in a second to go in executive session motion Ally second Fran Mary whereas The Brick Township Board of Education is performed pursuant to applicable New Jersey statutes whereas the board is charged with the responsibility of Performing all acts and doing all things consistent with the laws and the rules of the state board of education necessary for the lawful and proper conduct equipment and maintenance of the public schools public school property of the Brick Township School District and where section s seven of the open 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 just such an executive session whereas the board has found the action described below to be necessary and proper now therefore be resolved by the board on December 14th 2023 that the public shall be excluded from the discussion of and action on the executive session here and set forth the session will be approximately 15 minutes in the general nature of the subject matter to be discussed is harassment intimidation and bullying reports it is anticipated at this time that the above stated subject matter will be made public if and when it is deemed to be in the public interest that do so and the need for confidentiality is no long is no longer required by the board yes Kennedy yes di room yes Benedictus yes can I have a motion in a second to return from executive session I'll make that motion second plan uh can I stand for the salute to the flag in a moment of silence please I pledge allegiance 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 forward March please remain standing for the singing of our national anthem [Music] so [Music] [Music] the [Music] [Music] [Music] of [Applause] may be [Music] seated fire e thank you again so much for the opportunity to per thank you Mr Capone and the voices of fire thank [Applause] you I think we should have music at every meeting okay often it may appear to members of our audience that the Board of Education 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 matters are presented to the board of education for discussion at the same meeting that the final action may be taken Miss mcar student Representatives thank you Mrs Sebert at this uh this evening we have from Brick Township High School aaya daltona Amaya's very excited I'm hoping she'll share her good news with everyone um I was uh tonight I was just um accepted into Boston University yes thank you thank you and I applied early decision so I will be going there thank you so much uh good evening I'm Amaya Dalton brick tanip High School's student representative I'd like to say I think they left but awesome job to our voices of fire we have so much talent at BT Jazz Dr C and I were talking about it today because as Mr Capone said the winter and choir band concert was last night which I will talk about in a little bit but first I'm going to start with the principal's report from lrms um 8th grade students had a great time visiting the high school on December 7th to see Act One of A Christmas Carol performed by the bths drama club November students of the month were recognized for kindness last month and December students of the month will be recognized for EMP empathy later this month um there's was a lot of academic Awards this month at LMS congratulations to our top scorers from our December 5th Sigma math contest winner winners sixth grade rker Venoy from Mrs javanovich class and Ry Norman from Mrs O'Brien's class in seventh grade nadit sandes from Mrs Cam's class and eth grade Zane voror from Mrs McNichols class also congratulations to our Patriots pen essay contest winners who will be recognized by the VFW on January 15th First Place Madison Taylor Novak second place Sarah Warz and third place Victoria torello um also Venus singana wins third place in the 2023 National chemistry week Illustrated poem contest so some awesome academic Awards there um the LMS interact Club students will be car link to sherock and Leisure Village East on Friday to spread some holiday cheer thank you to all who purchased and donated baked goods for our baked sale during conferences um there's a Winter concert on December 21st at 6 pm at lrms and a little quick winter sports report for boys basketball with Mr Pugi the boys basketball team had a total of 78 boys ATT 10 tryouts this year and 20 made the A and B Teams for this season although the team is still in search of their first win they are learning the fundamentals of the game while playing for the inter Scholastic setting coach Pugi would like to thank all the parents and staff of lrms for their support at the games this season their next game is tomorrow 12:13 against ghosts Middle School away in Jackson for girls basketball with Mrs Henrik and Mr Pugi the team is starting the season off very strong the girls have won with impressive leads in all three games so far tomorrow the girls have a game against goats Middle School at home with a 33 :0 start time it is going to be one of the toughest matchups for the girls this season and they are led by eighth grade standouts Ariana wison Chase stanburry Ilana poo and Ireland morisy and for wrestling with Mr Elmendorf and Mr walski they are currently 2 and 0 with wins over Manchester and Tom's River North and they have an upcoming match against vets Middle School this Thursday everyone on the team is working hard and improving every day so some amazing stuff coming from lrms now for bths the bths student body is jumping right into our second markting period this month following report cards that came out on November 17th students who achieved honoral and distinguished honoral were recognized with letters mailed home signifying their achievement and their names were posted outside the guidance office this is a new form of recognition for our high achieving academic students and the student body definitely appreciated it appreciated it some students were even taking pictures next to their name on the poster taking a look back back the Powderpuff game was on November 16th the seniors took the win but great sportsmanship was showed by both the Juniors and seniors and the game was exciting for everyone that participated and attended on November 21st the National Honor Society hosted faculty Feud a fun game between teams of Faculty members to find out who knows the student body the best it was a super fun night for both The Faculty members competing and the students watching except for Dr Cajun because he's still mad he did not win our annual alumni networking day was held on Wednesday November 22nd sponsored by the guidance department and SGA former bths students took part in a panel discussion with Juniors and seniors about post-secondary education and careers the alumni shared their honest Reflections on personal experiences and offered invaluable advice to us so huge thanks to our alumni and Miss p and guidance for making this event happen as we have done in years past bths ensures that all students have awareness of multiple learning learning and career path opportunities to support this view the sophomores were given a presentation about the Ocean County vocational technical school and the application process thanks to miss walner on December 1st they got to learn about the variety of vocational careers they can start to get involved in while in high school through the shared time programs bts's acting one class performed the great North Pole bake off for Drum Point and a Havens and osbornville elementary schools on November 28th it was a great experience for both the high school and Elementary student students the bths drama club presented three showings of A Christmas Carol this past weekend the production was a huge success and a lot of talent was shown by the amazing cast which a lot of them are also in the choir that you saw bths is now looking forward to the student and staff production in January the bths Winter band and chorus concert was last night at 6 PM another great showing of the talent we have at bths and to add on to our accomp Performing Arts accomplishments this past month four bths students were selected to the 2023 2024 allshore chorus congratulations to Shayla AO Michaela Alvarado Isabelle Isabella drick and Ashley burrow awesome awesome this year's National Honor Society induction ceremony was on Tuesday this week bths is proud to have inducted 22 new members to our NHS chapter and the new inductees are excited to begin serving the community with the National Honor Society congratulations to all the dues now let's take a look at our winter sports winter sports tryouts and practices began on Monday November 20th our winter teams are looking forward to their seasons and are looking strong tonight is opening night for girls basketball boys basketball and wrestling the boys basketball team got the chance to attend last weekend's Mammoth University men's basketball game and spent valuable time volunteering with the autism movement project last week great team bonding activities the track and field team had their first field meet last night and and will have their first racing meet on Saturday congratulations to Caitlyn Chandler who won the girls high jump last night with an indoor School record jump of 51 the girls bowling team won third overall at their first match against Toms River North last week congratulations to Regina Gardner for winning third highest game the boys and girls bowling teams also played brick memorial last week but came up short to the Mustangs the brick United ice hockey team won their opening night game last Friday 9-2 over Toms River North it was a great open night for Brick Puck looking ahead the student government Association is holding some holiday festivities this month the holiday door decorating competition encourages teachers and classes to enter by festively decorating their classroom door for the chance to win a prize the holiday card competition has also started every year this competition gets many creative cards from The Faculty departments and student clubs and sports teams and we are looking forward to seeing their holiday spirit this year SGA is also sponsoring a holiday holiday spirit week before winter break next week Monday December 18th is holiday accessories Tuesday December 19th is holiday sweaters Wednesday December 20th is a winter white out Thursday December 21st is our tropical holiday and Friday December 22nd is green and white bths giving dra dragons is also helping out bths families in need this holiday season by collecting gift card donations any bths family who needs assistance can contact Mrs is Walling in guidance and any donations should be dropped off in guidance lastly bths recently announced the 2023 2024 Governor's educator of the Year recipients and I would like to briefly recognize them because I'm fortunate to know both very well our Educational Service professional of the Year Mrs Lauren ananello is so deserving of this honor Mrs I is my guidance counselor and adviser of the senior class so I work with her a lot and I'm so thankful for her support I know I can go to her for anything and she will always always helped with a smile on her face she is also the girls Cross Country Coach and an anti-bullying coordinator for bths so our school is so very lucky to have her the bths teacher of the year is Mrs Courtney GF Robinson Mrs Robinson is my adviser for the student government Association so I help her organize Spirit weeks holiday competitions like the Halloween costume contest and special events like homecoming Battle of the classes and alumni networking day I can say for certain that without her a lot at bths would not be possible she is also an English teacher and although I have not been in her class I know that she is very engaging with her students and especially loved in her teaching to teach class so big congratulations to Mrs anelo and Mrs Robinson and thank you to them for all they do for bths as you can see bths has been buzzing with activity and spirit but students are definitely excited for our upcoming winter break 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 also see all of our happenings monthly through Dr cajun's Dragon review thank you for this opportunity and I wish everyone a happy holiday fantastic job and uh congratulations Boston's a great place to go to school thank you so much my son was up there in Boston the the mammoth University basketball game if you don't know our players that went you know day right last second they beat Northern Illinois at the buzzer at that game which was was one of the number one highlights last weekend on ESPN so our players got to witness an amazing uh game and the allshore course we actually as also have an all state Coral performer which I'll mention in my comments I was at the Winter concert last night uh Mr kler was with me fantastic job so and great job with the the reporting out thank you Amaya we also have with us the brick memorial high school student representative Christine W mcwade good evening um congrats to Amaya too that's the perfect way to you know get your college around the holiday season like who needs gifts when you got into your dream college so yes um tell Santa he doesn't need to stop by so I'm going to start with the Vets report um the bmhs National Honor Society visited Miss G Mrs guth's class on Tuesday 12 um 125 the members of NHS guided students through various holiday crafts the creation of a sensory snowman bag a holiday story and a gingerbread man versus penguin dance battle vet staff through the guidance department is helping out 31 families with Christmas gifts and gifts and gift cards outpouring of support from staff and parents was heartwarming student council executive board members hosted a wonderful pep rally honoring the triumphs of fall Sports the event was full of fun games and prizes bbis winter event started December 11th 12 days of character students are given a special pink ticket to use an AEL for preparing school and showing good character traits reverse ticket events students reward teachers that are showing good character traits winter sports have been in full swing vets had its fall title ibsi parent night on Wednesday nove November 29th approximately 20 families attended the informational session to find out about the services provided to Foster academic success among our students also our green and gold program was discussed students were invited to attend the program and permission slips are being accepted into the new year congratulations to Mr styleman and the band for a successful Winter concert last night thank you to Mr baresi and his staff for allowing us to use the bmhs auditorium for this event vets has three VFW writing contest winners and they will be recognized at a ceremony in January that's ALS vet's teacher of the year Mrs um Katie Katie Guthrie congratulations and vet's support staff of the Year Mrs Stephanie Mata congratulations as well upcoming events at vets includes second marking period Parkers reports open at the end of the day tomorrow and a holiday theme spirit days next week now on to brick memorial I would like to start out with some Mustang achievements as well on November 29th the Italian French and Spanish societies held their inductions for students who excel in their chosen languages congratulations to all the new inductees we would also like to in congratulate Miss Sarah ball who was named brick memorial teacher of the year as well as Miss Samantha West who was honored as as the service professional of the Year going back in time in brick memorial Thursday December 7th the Key Club held their annual gingerbread social one of our most popular events in brick memorial and included an arrival from Santa himself I helped walk in I was supposed to sing Jingle Bells I don't know why they made me do that um congratulations to the bmhs Mustang players for a successful run of run of soldout performances for Mean Girls Jr a special thank you to miss O'Brien and Dr Fitzgerald for organizing and of course the very talented Tech and cast Crews for always putting on a great show we look forward to seeing their talent on stage again in the spring performance of Matilda thank you to the bmhs National Honor Society who visited veterans sorial Middle School for some holiday fun also the holiday trivia competition last night was won by the three wise Don donkeys included in the competition were two teams formed by students from Brick Township High School the teams had to answer 35 questions on various holiday subjects food was also available to order currently in brick memorial the language department is hosting a seal of VI literacy boot camp on December 20th January 1st and 9th World language teachers will prepare the students for the Seal of VI literary test with practice assessments similar to the test bmhs is hosting a door decorating competition on December the 15th first second and third place trophies will be awarded we have over 23 doors entered into our into our competition the mayor's student advisory Council along with other youth service organizations have partnered with Brick Township PBA 230 and wrapping gifts for Toys for Tots sponsored by PBA the gifts will be given to children in our community who are in need this holiday season on Wednesday December 20th we will be having our annual Winter band and concert it begins at 6:00 in the auditorium we invite everybody for a night of music and fun the bmhs Sim Academy is hosting a winter coat collection through December 15th please donate clean or gently used coats along with winter hats and gloves all donations can be made at at the front desk check out our brickmore homepage to vote for our annual Department holiday card competition each department created a festive card in which the students vote for their favorite one the winning department will receive a breakfast lastly our spirit week for December 18th through the 22nd some days include holiday PJs candy cane day dressing in red and white and ugly sweater day I was going to save this sweater for next week but it was too cute not to wear today look at the little dogs um bmhs also has some exciting news tomorrow we'll be bringing back our time honor tradition of Pep rallies we' be recognizing fall Sports achievement hosting games like balloon bus and hula hoop relays and bringing back a teacher flash mob we are so excited to see all of our Mustangs join together and some fun before the holidays and finishing with our winter sports report our winter seasons are now fully underway with our bowling team picking up right where they left off last year and seemingly every year both our girls and boys teams are currently undefeated at 4 and0 congratulations to Olivia Salvatore for being recognized as sh conference bowler of the week by nj.com our Co-op hockey team started their season right with a big win over Tom's River North and hosted our awesome fundraiser teddy bear toss in which they collect for Toys for Tots tomorrow night they host wall as we speak wrestling and girls basketball teams have their openers for this season moving forward our wrestling team will be hosting their always competitive annual Mustang classic and Mustang Zoo tournaments over the break while our basketball team will be competing in the tradition in the tradition Rich wobm Christmas classic finally over the holiday break our track team will be competing in the bill Bruno Invitational this is a state Invitational meet dedicated to our late great athletic athletic director and major track Advocate Bill Bruno Legacy and ideal that bill Bruno has left on our programs continue to hold strong in our Mustang student athletes of today as always please stay current with all of our news and updates on our brickschools.org website subscribe to our Mustang Weekly Newsletter and follow us on Instagram at X atbm Stang Sports and of course don't forget to subscribe to our Mustang podcast straight from the Mustang's mouth on Spotify Amazon music and Apple and Google podcast platforms and remember all of our home basketball games and and wrestling matches are live streamed and our bmhs Mustang YouTube channel that's all I have for this evening happy holiday all and I wish you all a happy and blessed New Year how about it for our student reps very eloquent very mature um fantastic I went to uh the dress where I saw the Christmas cow at at Brick and Mean Girls Jr at brick memorial um fantastic um I'll see the Winter concert uh next week a lot of pride in both high schools around the holiday season I'll talk more about it in in my comments but but thank you that's did a great job thank you so much Kristen next up we have from our Roc C Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Tyler [Applause] McLean e for great job thank you you know our our Junior RTC Air Force RTC is such a service oriented group every weekend I see them out and about um doing something in this community so thank you that's much appreciated you you're up again miss Mac and this too sh thank you Dr frell brick schools is thrilled to honor one of our high school teachers who was nominated last spring for the 2023 New Jersey exemplary educator recognition program the goal of this program is to identify Educators who are valued by their school and community and have exhibited strong Knowledge and Skills an inspiring presence and a Clear Vision for quality teaching and learning after a rigorous selection process Charles pasino from brick tanip high school has been recognized as a New Jersey exemplary educator he is one of only 123 Educators in the state to receive this honor Mr pazmino serves as a social studies teacher teaching courses such as AP geography sociology western civilization and US History Dr Cajun describes him as as an optimistic dedicated professional who fully engages his students in a positive Collaborative Learning environment he validates student responses which Fosters a level of self-confidence and willingness to participate in learning Mr pasino is adept in understanding student influences and barriers to success taking the time to connect with students on a personal level his impact is felt beyond the classroom walls and students and Beyond the classroom walls and students colleagues and parents throughout the learning organization benefit from Mr Paso's leadership he advises multiple clubs and activities and is a leader in curriculum development I was president president the uh National Honor Society induction the other night and it was one of the most extraordinary inductions that I've seen uh in a long time and Mr pasino Heads Up The National Honor Society Brick Township High School always in pursuit of engaging his students he initi iated and wrote the curriculum for the Harry Potter course it is for these reasons and many more that Mr pasmo is being honored as the New Jersey exemplary educator Mr pasmina [Applause] [Applause] always [Applause] last Friday we're going to show the uh we're going to show the educator and teacher of the year um sorry teacher of the year and uh educational support staff member of the Year slides um you can see each member who received the 2023 2024 educator of the year at each of our schools uh we will be honoring each of these individuals at our May board meeting um and then we also have the uh educational support Professionals of the Year listed here for each of our schools to give great recognition to Dr Anderson who leads the initiative itive uh throughout the district to help each School in the process of selecting both the educator of the year and the educational support professional of the year uh as a former director of curriculum and instruction I know what a uh demanding task this is uh but it is certainly well worthwhile and uh exciting to see the outcome and I know that she uh she's thrilled with everyone who has received these accolades this year thank you Dr [Applause] Carol a motion and a second for approval of minutes motion plan second Michel any board comments seeing none Mary Miss Sebert yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss picala yes Miss Rome yes Mr blandina yes Miss D Benedictus yes superintendent reports Dr frell thank you again I want to recognize and thank Mr blandina for volunteering his time to serve as a board of education member for Brick schools for the last three years his commitment dedication professionalism and service to the students of our district is much appreciated and again happy birthday Mr blandina and Miss wrap and again Welcome to our newly Ed uh board member Mr Michael Mesmer congratulations and wel don't you be stand up and recognized I know Mr Mesmer and I I think we're meeting next week um we get to go through all the fun stuff from school boards and throw a lot of information with you and of course our budgeting information and we look forward to some of your experiences helping us and supporting us as well uh we talked a lot about some of the holiday events you know last last week and all the holiday events that we have at our schools I've been to the Christmas carol mean girls junior fantastic job by both high schools we had a great uh NHS induction ceremony Tuesday that I did miss but miss MCM has been to a ton of them as tells me this was one of the best and we had our largest group of uh NHS inducted students uh been at winter coral and band concerts Mr kler and I were last night at Brick high and there's more to come I think brick memorials next week of course there's a few elementary schools we try spread out a lot of the central office administrators trying to get to a lot of these events and then post them uh both on Twitter and to our website but it's it's a great time to celebrate the holidays especially when you celebrate them uh with our students matter of fact I think one of our student reps recognize some of our allshore Coral members but we have one of our Coral members brick memorial High School Kelly Fitzgerald performed with the New Jersey All State course at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and J Pack and the NJ All State chorus is comprised of only 300 of the best Coral musicians in the state and were chosen by audition I believe the end of last year so congratulations uh to Kelly Fitzgerald of brick memorial High School um our strategic plan I'm excited about it's pretty much finalized but I'm going to talk a little bit about it I also want to give credit since Mr sluke is here about a year year and a half ago he said we should put not only only student centered teacher Le but parent involved and one thing that came out of the steering committee was community connected so we recognized all stakeholders not just parents but grandparents taxpayers community members and that's kind of our new little logo Shield uh and the theme of our plan is connections um this th we've attached you know we finalized and it is a draft we attached a final draft to the website um the Board of Ed got it I think of a few weeks ago they'll get the link I think they got the link today and tomorrow they'll get it in their packet as well but we created a dedicated web page as part as the district website thank you Miss mcnamar and our technology department it's really a dynamic web page that you can go through and and for you visual Learners like Miss picala and I think Mr Finelli we can print out for you different sections of it and and uh comment along those lines um it's going to house all the information for the public to peruse as I've continually said you know a strategic plan is a work in progress and it's a living document it's not definitive by any means the plan will be continually amended and updated much of the plan will develop over the next few years and it's based on appropriate funding and fiscal budgeting and as we know we have some concerns with our lack of State funding um many of our our auster goals are predicated on providing appropriate resources and funding and we know this has been a concern for Brick schools with an unknown funding future and everchanging budgets our school district recognizes that we will continue to shoot for the stars with our goals in our strategic plan but we're realistic as to finding the necessary resources so it's a road map for Success at this point and we will continue to reconvene and reevaluate the plan with steering committee public and board members as fiscal sub constraints subside I'm really proud of this uh plan it took a lot of input for from a lot of stakeholders a strategic plan and the strategic planning process is so important I I thought about this quote I wrote in my comments that I read about a month ago said two St here's the quote two Stone Cutters were asked what they were doing the first said I'm cutting this Stone into blocks the second one replied I'm on a team that's building a cathedral which stone cutter are we what type of organization do we want our staff to be part of we want all of our stakeholders to understand our vision and Mission and the big picture so that we can all collaborate for the sake of improvement and success progress does not demand Perfection or the perfect plan only I believe persistence from a a unified and dedicated Vision I was going to try to keep this really positive for the holiday season but I I am going to leave with some of our budgeting because we're getting into budgeting seizing and uh for the four years I've been here it's just not been not been fun the budgeting process here at Brick uh through a myriad of reasons mostly because of S2 but we've initiated our budgeting process once again for the 2024 2025 school year for next year this upcoming budget cycle will be the last under the devastating S2 Cuts we anticipate losing 2.4 million in state funding for the next school year budget I would make it almost 25 million in over 250 positions lost over 5 years we anticipate another 5% cut this coming budget which could equate to approximately 30 to 40 positions reduced we need help we continue to clamor to the state on the inadequacy of their their school funding process we've reached out to legislators County and local municipal authorities for support we continue to fight the good fight but I feel that all of our clamor and is coming on deaf fears so we continue to do more with less here at Brick schools and I I've said this before uh it that seems to be our new Battle Cry but quite honestly I want to stop saying this because I think it's embarrassing that we need to be in this predicament and that the students of brick have to do with less than other students cross the state and this leads to some of the things that came up from some of our parents at last month's board meeting and period of emails I got over the last two weeks regarding class CL sizes um from parents mostly osbornville Lan midstreams um last month the subject of class sizes came up at at our board meeting and this topic seems to come up every year around budget cycle time also I've recently received some emails from parents voicing their concern to large Elementary grade class sizes I want the parents to know that we do hear you as administrators and we agree um a recent National report highlighted the fact that stud students need to feel safe heard and valued in order to learn research has shown that rigorous instruction coupled with effective student teacher relationships can meet students where they are and grow them to get back on track this can only be done in the environment where the class side is conducive to individual attention and interpersonal relationship building by student and teacher however this is a challenging imperative as we continue to experience the difficulties associated with the negative effect of S2 on our budget and the reduction of Staff over the years leading to higher class sizes brick schools is substantially under adequacy by 24 million I know many of you have heard me say this for the last few years brick schools has an efficient cost per pupil of 50,500 it had state aid reduced by 50% under S2 over the last five years as brick further Falls below adequacy it would take brick another seven plus years after next year after 2025 catch up to other districts class sizes will continue in in increase in Brick averaging around 30 in Elementary classes with some as high as 34 it's worth noting that even though brick as a district is not considered high poverty or title one six of our schools are considered Title One the state Administrative Code mandates that high poverty district elementary sizes cannot exceed 23 that's an actual statute um and that's for uh K to3 and grades three to it's 21 and K to3 for those districts and 23 and four to five and they do have the state funding that supports those districts to do this to me this does not make sense so a title one designated suol of which we have six of them if it's not in a title one designated District can have higher class sizes like we do in Brick than mandated by the state classrooms and class sizes are indicative comparatively based on the school building where they are not the district this was something I talked about in my white paper last spring as well uh in the end consequently staff will have to be reduced again and programs will be cut to balance a budget which is the law um but these are lost opportunities for our students brick schools is efficient yet effective with one of lower cost per pupil and administrative costs in the state brick students are held to the same standards yet deserve the same opportunities as other students in the state then brick schools forced to do more with less with the same expectations another quote I saw at the last County Roundtable where superintendents were talking about expectations and relationship building the classroom uh the superintendent for Lavalette uh Lisa gison Dr GIS had this quote up there it said relationships before rigor and I think we tweeted it out grace before grades patience before programs and love before lessons this isn't some you know fuzzy feeling uh nurturing point in education we all know we have those relationships with an adult Advocate outside of our home as we all grew up that has a positive influence on us we as educational leaders can only Foster an environment that promotes that student teacher relationship and an environment that promotes these relationships on an interpersonal level level is something that can help be successful in in a myriad of of out exit outcomes for our students it's just hard to accomplish this when you have high class sizes our student sta staff and parents deserve the same opportunities as other districts to have reasonable class sizes so that our learning environment is more conducive to building these relationships and in turn helping improve student performance our student staff parents and entire Learning Community could continues to strive to do better and aim for excellence in all we do we need to do better in obtaining and providing the financial resources so we could pursue our goals for improvement growth and success and I've said this a myriad of times to Mr Finelli and others you know I I don't want to compare ourselves to others I want to compare ourselves to us I don't care who's doing better than us we need to do better than ourselves from last year and improve each year and the Strategic plan is going to help help provide us with a road map for that continuous Improvement so that we could continue to improve year-over-year despite these fiscal challenges as I say to our cabinets it's us verse us I do want to end on a positive note so happy holidays as we say goodbye to 2023 and ring in 2024 uh let us reflect on the importance of caring kindness and resilience to quote Michael Josephson approach the new year with resolve to find the opportunities hidden in each new day brick schools is committed as always to finding those hidden opportunities and working together to preserve and the best service to our students staff parents and Community many of our public see one night see our student Representatives which I love that they're here now for the last two years but I see this you know 20 nights a month at a all kinds of events from Athletics to a packed bowling house um to our students art displays to Coral to even in the classroom and those exit outcomes are not just measured on standardized test scores happy holidays to all of our student staff parents and Community best wishes to you and yours for peace happiness and health in the New Year happy holidays thank you Dr phell m m you want to go first with committee reports you can do cni policy however you'd like thank you Mrs cber the uh policy and planning committee did not get together this month however I did send out one of my famous emails that said all the policies that were on for a first read last month they were on for a second read this month um and uh asked if there were any questions uh it's an extraordinary committee uh they do a lot of reading I'm sure it puts them to to sleep um but uh they they all got back to me in a very timely fashion so we're we're ready for that second read this evening uh for policy and planning uh as we can see Dr Anderson isn't here this evening so I'm going to continue with the cni committee report um the cni committee meeting was held on December 6th at 4:30 in the afternoon in attendance Mrs palala Mrs aan Ron Mrs Kennedy Dr farell Miss batty Mr Cuts Miss Kane Miss Lane Mr Thompson and Dr Anderson uh Dr Anderson reviewed the items under travel and training field trips student teacher placements grants uh clubs for brick memorial and curriculum revisions the new standards for career Readiness life literacy and key skills called njsls clicks and computers and Science and design thinking standards were integrated into all of our subjects in K to2 curriculum our NJ qac District performance review Dr Anderson explained that the cni department did a self- evaluation for instruction and programming no small task the NJ dooe calculates the score for achievement scores for indicators 1 through 7even prior to their on-site visit the cni department evaluated indicators 8 through 16 and earned 40 out of 40 points for curriculum and policy professional learning highlights from workking period 1 Dr Anderson shared research related to professional learning each supervisor provided an overview of first marking period accomplishments and goals for the second marking period in ela math science K to2 in celebrating success Dr Anderson explained that one of our high school teachers received the 2023 exemplary educator award and we honored him here this evening and that was Mr pasino um on uh December 8th all schools announced the governor 's educator of the year uh Dr Fel sent out congratul um tweets uh for the 2023 teacher and Educational Service Professionals of the year uh so that everyone could applaud the uh excellence in in education in Brick District assessment update Dr Anderson indicated that the fall block for njla administration uh started the week of December 11th in terms of parent engagement Dr Anderson highlighted all of the parent achievement activities that recently occurred these include the Seal of by literacy parent information session on no on November 27th the STEM Academy openhouse on November 28th BSI family nights bmms 1129 mvme on 11:30 and progress reports posted in Parent Portal on 12:15 which is tomorrow uh the next meeting is to be determined thank you and have a good evening thanks Miss mcamera Mr Edwards facility and finance thank you uh facilities committee met on December 4th in attendance was Miss Bala Miss wre Mr blandina like to fire myself Mr dubovich from V vfd Architects Miss Cashman from spel Architects Miss gallardi from spel Architects Mr Williams from spe archit and Mr y froma Architects first item was the lake River Middle School air conditioning Mr yor informed the committee that the project is substantially complete and the close out of the project has begun uh the Veterans Memorial Middle School boiler Replacements and air conditioning the Emma Haven young air conditioning Veterans Memorial Elementary School air condition and the Drum Point boiler replacement and air conditioning Mr y informed the committee that the remainder of the project is scheduled will be completed in the summer of 2024 Lan Mill Elementary School air conditioning Miss G already informed the committee that the remainder of the project is scheduled for 2020 Summer of 2024 rickm high school parking lot reconfiguration I informed the committee that parking lot lights had been installed and the project is now 100% complete and working on punch list midstreams air conditioning Osborne veille air conditioning waren Wolf air conditioning and Herbertsville air conditioning I reminded the committee these projects can't move forward until the active Neta projects have been concluded as the contingency remaining on the Neta projects is the amount to be utilized for the local share to support the rod grants that were received osbornville Elementary School kitchen Edition Miss Cashman informed the committee that the project is nearing the end of the design development phase and indicated the project will placed out the bid on January 2nd with bid openings to occur February 2nd uh I noted the project would be awarded at the hopefully at the February board meeting so that construction concur in the summer of 24 uh not right now thank you uh Brick Township High School kitchen HVAC and drump Point Elementary School kitchen HVAC I informed the committee that both of these projects will be done through a purchase and Co-op Mr piry and Mrs Richardson are waiting on finalized pricing in order to proceed with the purchase orders midstreams kitchen Edition I informed the committee that myself Miss Richardson Mr picoro held a meeting onsite with the three architects of record all three are going to be preparing preparing Design Concepts and project budgets for the committee to review I also requested that the three Architects include an alternative concept whereby the existing kitchen could be made into a storage area for the school to utilize for the multi-purpose room uh parking lot assessment the committee discussed the three responses received from the civil engineers of record Remington Vernick Bright View and CME I recommended that we proceed with remint and Vernick as Mr oros is from the firm and uh was with the engineer that previously worked on the last um parking lot assessment 10 years ago and and their fee for doing the service was also the best of the three at 23,46 as compared to 6,290 and 48,800 respectively the committee concurred and Remington Vernick is on this evening's agenda for consideration next meeting is currently scheduled for January 8th at 2:30 next we moved into finance committee um Mr glanda M wad Mr Bala Dr farell and myself Wellness competition we informed the committee that the second competition is ongoing and it schedule conclude December 15th which is tomorrow so we'll have winners and results on the 18th going out um we need a Santa Claus outfit for Dr phoh and we're all right we're going to go out and deliver deliver some gift cards to the winning team um you don't have to walk far when you come to my office by the way although you didn't do your steps did you yeah we're not winning Dr Farrell Transportation operation assessment I informed the committee that ciso the company that uh did the assessment for us met with Transportation uh they provided they were providing a draft report but we didn't receive it in time for the committee meeting uh we do have it now by the way so we do have that draft report it's being reviewed it will be discussed at the January committee meeting and hopefully presented at the January board meeting 2022 23 audit I informed the committee that the Auditors are finalizing their work and we expect to have the audit completed by December 5th which it was and we have one Auto recommendation which is the same Auto recommendation from the year before and that is we have too much money in our cafeteria operation the Enterprise yeah spend more money which we are trying so you know so in all fairness to miss Richardson in the cafeteria uh when we got the audit in March of 23 you recall everything was delayed last year when we got the audit in March of 23 we laid out a plan to start spending that money on Capital Improvements which he's working on first ones will be coming forth in the summer of 2024 at which time we'll be spending down the Surplus that so our plan is still the same plan it just happens that it's going to go over probably three years we'll probably have the same aut recommendation again the following year uh because at the end of 23 24 we won't have spent the money yet because the projects don't commence until the summer of 24 so 2425 budget uh Dr far already discussed that as well we've met with the program managers and they're still going to complete their uh submissions To Us by January 12th this year we gave him a little bit more time since it is such a arduous task in completing um I know Dr Cajun was very happy that we gave him the extension thanked me multiple times um no comment special education uh MC route we have a fund transfer that we're transferring from medical benefits we did receive funds through extraordinary Aid that could cover these costs but the special education transport ation that goes through MC which is our our co-op in the Maman County area uh are over budget by $ 63,9 193 uh summer Transportation came in 34275 higher and the school year routes came in 261 234 higher so um we're not seeking a resolution from the board at this time to transfer the money from extraordinary Aid We're Going pull the money from medical benefits and hopefully as we watch the medical benefit account through the year if we do need your time to transfer the money from extraordinary we would do so at that time and the next meeting again is January 8th 3 p.m. and happy holidays now I'll take a cookie now we want the cookie thanks Mr Edwards public comment on agenda items this will be the first opportunity for public comment and will be for agenda items only the board invites 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 students do we have any commment on agenda items only no nothing all right wow Merry Christmas don't worry we'll talk about it later Donna okay okay well I'm sure we can work something out all right so no comments on a items all right we'll close that out [Music] um you're right though um Miss MCM curriculum and instruction thank you Mrs Sebert under curriculum and instruction the superintendent recommends the board approve the following items one through five I need a motion in a second motion Aly second any board comment sorry the process of improvement for the Brick Township school students is um arduous there are 65 courses updated for our students uh for next year I think that's a lot and I think that's a lot of work and I think it's it's what our students deserve as far as the approval for the uh bmhs paig Turner Student Book Club I read the the um um approval application and I love any application that says we're going to improve our students love for learning for reading and I think that was really cool to see on the agenda this month and and I wholeheartedly support it thank you miss picala any other board comments Barry Miss Sebert yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss picala yes Miss aan room yes Mr blandina yes M Benedictus yes Mr Edwards operations see the superintendent recommends items one through 2 I need a motion in a second I'll make that motion second Victoria any any board comment yes again I'd just like to highlight what um Mr Edwards said during his um audit report that um we do have one recommendation um to um spend some more money on our um uh Food Services Program in the district um I I just can't get over that administrative practices and procedures financial planning accounting and Reporting and so on uh applications for state school aid Pupil Transportation have no recommendations that our financial department is just working so great with the resources that they have thank you Miss Bala any other comments see non mared Miss cber yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss picala yes Miss room uh I'd like to abstain on number six scheduled ID 22292 22335 21244 and the rest yes Mr blandina yes Miss Benedictus yes Mr kler Human Resources thank you m let's try that again all right thank you Miss ber uh tonight under Human Resources the superintendent recommends items 1 through 32 for approval I need a motion in a second motion bran be Michael any more comment yes I'd just like to comment on number 12 to ratify staff um to ratify staff supporting special education students there are many many people on this um uh motion that we're um going to ratify all our students students wouldn't have access to all of our programs if it wasn't for these people and I just want to thank them uh I think we have truly inclusive programs in Brick and I think it's because we work so hard to um make the opportunity available to our students I agree any other board comment seeing n Mary yes yes yes yes yes yes Miss mcar yes let's uh welcome some of our newest members to our staff um I believe we have in the audience this evening Mr Chris nater Chris Katie nol Katie [Applause] here Nicole do I have Nicole tell me your last name deuso there you go um do I have anyone else that I may have missed any other new hes that I missed thank you Mrs welcome congratulations and welcome yeah welcome to the fam uh Miss MCM policy and planning thank you Mrs Sebert under policy and planning uh recommend that you approve items one the super intendent recommends approval for items one through two I need a motion in a second motion Ali second mine any board comment are you guys tired of reading reading gu Mary yes yes yes yes yes yes public comment this is the second opportunity for public 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 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 anyone for public comment Mr finale anybody else come on up we let we'll be nice right PA and rockowitz um I just had a few things to touch on um that I discussed last last week but I just wanted to reiterate it again um that I know you briefly touched about class sizes being really high and they are extremely high and I know that's affecting the learning process every day in my daughter's class every day we have a huge Behavior problem that doesn't seem to be getting addressed and I am one of many parents that is getting very upset about it um it seems to be a problem at recess in classroom and that's all I want to say about on that but I just want you growing problem every day and we're all very concerned about it um and we don't feel that anything is being addressed um I also wanted to talk about I I have talked to many moms um since I and I've been trying to encourage people to also sub I do feel that I've been doing it for three years and I know that theas inas has not gone I feel that we can definitely draw more people in if we actually increase it and keep it competitive with other districts around the state I know we can't go up to as high as say Edison's and perano I get that but we definitely should I think raise the bar a little bit and I feel that you definitely can get more subs in the classrooms and it wouldn't be such a good problem anyone else for public comment before Mr finale the floor is yours effective it's low but you can hear going in and out going in and out going in and out last five years Lake school district has had to borrow $175 million from the state to stay afloat nobody's fixed their problem so as as d call on you would say you're small potatoes okay at the last uh meeting by the way today we agreed it's okay to disagree oh is it the holiday season is that disagree what what I'm what I'm going to say but I'm going to say it okay right and U had the chance to really go over your last uh student assessment and action plan right you remember the last meeting u i I asked the question why why there was only a 5% 5% then going over it again I said targeting 5% or are they targeting five percentage points which there's a big difference difference 5% of 30 is 1.5 five percentage points would be 35 and Dr trow told me no it's percentage bumber all right I was hoping he was going to something else uh and and I and I don't I don't think that's enough I I don't think that's just stretch why I don't think that's anywhere category uh in science no assment 58 and 11% of the students were not making Target which meant 17% were a rather small number but so what's 5% of 170 n what what you're targeting what your expectation here is Bri not even improve that one percentage Point that's all you're trying to do uh not going to cut it just to give you some Lang 4 35 [Music] so my expectation is always I'm not looking for you to lead the world average that low and the state is doing that never going to be average because you're never going to out of your book of excuses let me give you a book of excuses our budget slies are too big population is growing he's here set us back too much AB since his bed how many students are close to don't how much you're going to give them that number while it's by this school board and SCH have a budget of60 million size is number of teachers nobody's saying you don't have the room in the schools waiting if you want to give out negotiate the money and give out those benefits and give out are affecting the amount of money that's it you control it right thank you and and in my my neighborhood there were schools spend the money you're making a decision thank you Mr finale Merry Christmas any other public comment okay we're gonna close out what what I gotta I gotta wrap it up couple I gotta wrap some things up com yep at the end of the public comment yes that's what I was instructed the last time Dr phell so uh Mr Finelli we agree on a lot of things I want to make sure everybody understands there are no excuses first of all there are facts that happen to be challenges we've been working with this budget the last four years I've been here and we we haven't made excuses we've been cutting positions cutting the budget because nothing has changed so there's I want to make sure that's clear there's no excuses and we are actually in a better and I'm going to give props here to our business administrator and our fiscal constraint here because there are neighboring districts that I'm going to not name very close neighboring districts that utilized more than 20% of the federal money for operations right took in one-time Revenue sources to pay to keep teachers and all that and they're hitting a fiscal cliff two big districts we didn't do that we took the minimum we were supposed to we took 80% onetime Revenue sources put them into one-time Capital expenditures like our HVAC which we didn't have so we wearing at that fiscal cliff that many people are hitting this coming year because it'll last loss of ARP and federal money and the reductions in S2 we talk all the time this board and my cabinet about what I call an FTE to give you our lingo in budget lingo and FTE is a full-time equivalent it's the average teacher that makes a 60 Grand and it's about 30,000 in benefits so it's about $90,000 for an average FTE in our budget when you're cutting four million plus that's 30 plus FTE when it's 80% of your budget it's simple math there's no expenses they're going to hit4 million is that an excuse no it's a fact and by the way we have cut that we have closed three schools since the time 3,000 has been reduced repurposed one from Herbertsville closed lauron and repurposed Warren Wolf we have done that but since S2 in 2018 our enrollment is not a reduction of 3,000 and it doesn't meet 50% reduction in the state is that an excuse no i' I've been labeling facts that have happened I haven't gotten anything so I haven't used the excuses when you looked at test scores I said this to you last year we talked math a lot and I love when we have our conversations but you seem to think it's out of a hundred all the time it's not and we agreed that we're not at the state average in a lot of scores and that is a Target in our strategic plan to get above the state average and we start with math and L science is only three grades and everybody tell you you really got to start with reading comprehension and L before you can even improve math because of word promps before you can get into even science and other curriculum items and it was you were correct it is 5% across the board and was updated on the um website for you when you when you told me that um and we are doing that but so remember last year I I Ed this example I said if I said to you um brick football lost fr Friday night you'd say they lost and I said they lost 20 to six you said well they lost right that's the Metra but if I said they lost 20 to6 to the New York Giants or Ruckers University that's a different comparative statistic we're not when we look at a 5% increase you're right on 30 points that's 1.5 5% over a three-year plan you know that's actually four and a half Five Points on the 30 gets us to above the state average we would like to get to 100 but it's it's not realistic the elll one bothers me the most because this is an issue that nobody's bringing light to in this state in the five year four and a four years I've been here we went from 90 to almost 700 elll Learners in this District this is under title three Federal money which is immigrant status the total money we get for that is about 17,000 the cost to educate that student above our so it's 15,5 average student it's about 45,000 to average this to educate an English language learner with the support that were mandated to do with that many of the English language Learners come in in January last year we saw 40 40 because that's the southern hemisphere summer they come in in January they count on our test scores by the way in May many of them don't even they deny the services they don't count on our October 15th number which gets us St funding which is a small percentage but it doesn't count on that that's a huge issue because if we have gone from specific satellite programs of our elll program say one Elementary School one Middle School to one high school we're now almost offering these programs in multiple schools different class size requirements different in support inclass support teachers different learning requirements right and it's not just Spanish by the way it's different languages um these are some real constraints that our state and our department of education has not answered to me in the last four years will it change probably not and that's where we agree right I'm still going to be left with the same challenges they're not excuses and I don't feel they're going to change for the next budget cycle and we'll cut teachers again and unfortunately our class sizes will go up and my wife who does kindergarten with the maximum by law of 25 will complain to me again because we should have more in that and it just it's kind of a never ending cycle here but we we will improve and we're going to improve our test sizes I just want people to realize we're not comparative when we look to other districts and we' look at the test SC that's all I want to say I told you also I agree they do keep score here and it is our student performance and they got to be better and we have to do better so we always agree with that um I I agree no not that's not true because you're looking at two different metrics that that's not true we're going to get there and and I'll go through the numbers with you specifically and I actually because Dr Anderson isn't in today we're going to get some more and I love having these discussions but I want the community to help with our support we've been clamoring the legislator I mean this I had own night of last year and a half Mr blendin know we've been going the last two years hard on this S2 and we we're making some inroads uh on some numbers the budget is so simple so we talk budget so everybody and we have a new board member who's uh well experienced in budgeting and finance but it's this simple we can only raise we have to go out with 2% we can't go out more we can only raise 2.4 million in a tax that's all we have to go out with it can't go less can't go more that's 2.4 million this coming budget cycle is our last underes to we lose 2.4 million roughly in state aid so that's a was so you say okay that's 0% however our salaries and benefits on average go up about four to 5% that percentage is what we have to now cut just to keep status grow and maintain programs our high schools we have a principle here will tell you we argue we are not Comprehensive High Schools anymore we're becoming I joke like medieval study holes math science this some people say that's great that's the way it used to be what that that's not the way education is today and it's not the way it is in neighboring districts um so that that's what's happening we're getting to a point where just supplies and expenses can't meet the number right it's people and now we're getting to a point where non- tenures aren't going to be those cuts we could get to a point where it's a reduction in force meaning tenured and certain elective areas and even dual Roman are are going to be reduced so we just have the core State graduation requirements and then these more experienced tenure teachers would bump if they have a certain certification to another level and that would bump on down to Elementary level and quite honestly most of our new I I'm glad the recent hires left but most of our recent hires are working the hardest for the less salary are the people that end up losing jobs at the end when we go through the process so no we're not queing I know we talk I know so but in the end and we could talk up that that is a contributing factor a contributing factor is that I get it but in the end the mass amount of cuts over just the last five years compared to Romans of 250 plus is not not Equitable to compare to other like districts that's been my premise I stand by it we're going to get through this this is a strength of mind we'll get through it we'll come out stronger and better it's just going to take us a little longer but I also want you to know as a taxpayer stakeholder I have many of parents as you heard many and I've gotten many of emails just in the last since the last board meeting about class size so they're also a constituency that wants to see reduction in class sizes and it's really a tough job for us to do in the long run but we we agree with you and there's a lot of data out there that I know of that I could share where there are best practices with specific class sizes by grade levels right in K to two three to five and as you get older they could be a little higher but nowhere near 31 and 34 at certain grades and uh that's tough for a teacher especially when you have a one teacher room so I'm sorry I promised on the second comment session I wasn't going to comment back but thank you thank you thank you for thank you for your comments both of you dialog is comment we're going to close out public comment now thank you I am just going to kick off board comment thanking everybody for continuously showing up even if it's for free cookies even it's to listen to the farell and Finelli show that goes on every month yeah I think we have something going at this point but thank you happy holidays and if the board doesn't mind I'd like to start with Mr blandina tonight I might be a little more lengthy than normal uh first of all I want to recognize the RC uh we see them every month they do a great job with the introductions but additionally I have become personal with them because they assist with an event I run each year with the prayon festival had an opportunity about two weeks ago to go up to the school to present them with their donation and they also help me fold I have a large 20 by 30 foot American flag that was folded in properly during the parade and I can't fold it myself so they folded and did a phenomenal job but they do a great job here each month I also want to recognize the choir for uh that unbelievable performance they put on here tonight uh uh they and their director and their leader and uh M Dr Cajun and I'm sure uh my Al there they do a great job with everything uh he's always known I have a um a attachment to Brick Township High School uh I see Mr Kon looking back then he agrees with that but uh I ain't going to apologize for that but great Township a great town and many many more great things are going to come um Dr farell I want to thank you for ending the revolving door uh as was pointed out we had several superintendents in uh position for short periods of time uh we now have Dr Ferell here for four years you said it Mr fineli and I want to thank Mr Finelli before I go fire going thank him at the end but Dr Finelli because he I'm Dr Finelli I called him a doctor now Mr Mr Finelli you come through more positive that I that's like all of us that's like the rest yes um on any case um you you had been more positive and you bring some Enlightenment to what we need and I want to thank you I was going to do it later but I thank you Mr saluca for being regular attendees at these meetings um you do a phenomenal job we don't always agree but at least you're here and you hear and hear uh Dr F's responses don't know agree with them either but it's uh um a dialogue that we all enjoy it's at least somebody's here um to the rest of the directors the the you you all I have your heart in this uh I've sat on finance and Facilities we we've accomplished things there I'm going to go over that shortly but all the directors have a love for what they're doing here and it shows each and every month each and every day uh Dr fow is everywhere there were superintendants I remember back in the day where you didn't see anywhere except at a Schoolboard meeting shame on them but I thank him for that and everybody in book tangum should recognize that he's everywhere can be and when he's not miss mamero Dr Anderson Mr kler Miss scer are all over the place and that's what you need to lead the school and that's what we have I want to thank the principles who do a phenomenal job the teachers who are the backbone of this whole operation I believe the clerical staff The Bu bus drivers cafeteria workers and maintenance uh staff throughout all the schools who do more with l yes and it's a shame we're just going to speak about that a moment ladies I thank you for being here we do understand the high one thing you can help us all with and I've been saying this I've been consistent for three years here we need to keep calling the governor's office if we make them know your name who you are when they pick up the phone the members of the legislature the Senate and assembly education and tell them Brick Township is tired of being short change cuz we are all right they need to start funding us properly so they can do the things that need to be done I believe on the local level they know what needs to be done but the state is not supporting us and shame on them um I want to go on to the board here I've enjoyed serving with all of you I think it's a a a great function we do with little pay or no pay um I want to say the things I'm most proud of some of things I have direct involvement in serving on facilities and finance um the roofs we finished uh many roof projects that were started I remember when they were leaky back in the day when I went to school here uh parking lots uh I take pride in bringing up something earlier on in my tenure about buses backing parked between cars backing up to them I think we stop that hopefully we don't get no more crazy plans with uh buses being kids getting on buses at the end of day and cars backing up into the buses that's crazy I don't know why any an engineer would do that um that's something I take pride in the roofs and the ventilations Dr F spoke about um funding we didn't use the funding to highest staff because we would have lost that staff the next year we used it for things that are making the daily operations for the teachers the students and the staff that's in those schools ventilation systems the improved parking lots the the AC unit so which we're trying to complete if uh uh we can find the money we hope we can find the money somewhere maybe that state if we keep making those phone calls to give us some of that money uh I intend to still continue on that course even though I won't be here in the future um I'm working was talking to somebody tonight about it uh hopefully we can get to the state level make that move to the board members thank you all for your uh compassion your family you know we all come from different Avenues on this board but we all work extremely well and extremely hard together for what's right for Brick Township and that's what we love um uh keep the politics out of the schools don't let politics in influence influence your decision keep the focus of what we're here for the stakeholders the children the teachers the parents the taxpayers Mr Finelli and Mr Luca keep them in their thoughts with the ideas they come with each month um for those who regularly come here we thank you for those who watch on TV each month I thank you and I think it's a great thing to uh our new board members Ali was appointed after Missy uh resign last year congratulations on your election and to Mike we've spoken several times since the election I want to uh offer my assistance to you any way I can you have my number and I hope you do call it when you have a question and I'm get to give you an honest answer my opinion you may not agree with it we don't agree all the time but that's discussed sometimes in the committee meetings and so forth so I want to congrat ulate both of you you're going to lose one mic you're going to gain another mic how about that all right it might have been confusing with two mics up here uh but in any case congratulations to Ally and Mike um and thank you the voters for giving me the opportunity to serve the town I love to the people I love and the taxpayers the children are what's most important remember that I will be around I will have to make a decision now if I'm committed to something else on this night I will go serve that function when I was here on the board I don't think I missed one meeting uh at the end I take pride in that I gave away up other things I an 84 year old mother at home that I worry about every time I leave the house last year you see me went out here I only knew why I ran out the door was meline she took a fall I had to run home but I did get back before I had to vote I did miss the Mr finelli's words that night only meline so me go out the door nobody knew where I was going I I made it back but uh so I missed Mr Finelli didn't and I didn't get to hear you sp I missed that so I apologize for that uh but thank you again the voters it's a pleasure and I will see you in the future here thank you very much thanks Mike I'd say we're GNA miss you but I'm thinking you might lean this way on like you know board nights right I will always but to believe be honest with you there are nights where I gave up things that were very important because I felt it was important to be here so uh we plan on seeing you we plan on seeing you yep thank you uh Fran hello um I'll start by saying but I don't feel like oh there we go okay um the voices of fire tonight were amazing I love having the students here they're so talented um Maya congratulations Boston you that's fantastic um um there was so much going on in our district in the last couple of weeks it was great um got to go see Mean Girls Junior they were very fetch um my girls love them um and the um bets middle band last night was amazing and it was really cool that some of the seniors could come and play along with them kids loved it um and the technically brick the brick United cheerleaders oh my goodness I don't know if you guys know the division 12 they placed first in the champions in the entire country and um yeah yeah yeah yeah and the division 10 they got third congratulations girls you guys kicked it um and the brick ballers they got first as well we're amazing we've done so well these last couple weeks um so I'm going to do a little bit of a compliment sandwich so now we're going to get to the good stuff in the middle here sorry guys um S2 has completely messed us up um almost a decade to recoup is totally and completely unacceptable um we in midstreams their little motto is enter to learn and leave to achieve well our kids enter to learn but they're getting the shaft at this point we need you need all of you out there we need to as Mike said harass everybody who will listen it's not it's not your job to be their bestie and to have them not angry at you like you said they need to know who you are they need to go oh God this is Mr Benedict is again you want them to know you call call them harass say we are getting the shaft our kids are the ones suffering and it's not fair it's not okay to have 30 some odd kids in a class because then exactly as these parents said we have the behaviors we have teachers who don't want to come to to work and they are the backbone of our schools and it is messed up the way that we are being treated the way that our kids are um you know we we're going going up against the world when these kids leave as says Le to leave to achieve they're not going up against just whoever's sitting next to them it is people it is students who are in these privileged schools who have gotten all this money and who have gotten all of these benefits and all of these amazing things but our kids haven't because of some stupid government shaft and it's not okay and parents need to go we all need to go everybody you even if you don't have kids in the district you're still paying taxes and when you go when somebody is selling the house next door and they go to look up at Great Schools and they see that abysmal number two next to the school that is in their District they're not going to buy your house so that is horrible on you that affects everybody that affects not just the schools that affects our town in general and we need to do better and we need to do better for everybody for our for our taxpayers our steak closers everybody our students in general um so call harass be a pain and my last little I have to end on a good note merry Christmas happy Hanukkah happy crza happy new year's whatever you celebrate all the happiness to everybody out there thanks friend meline I had a classroom with three different crafts in it I wanted to quit as soon as I walked in but I stuck it out because a lot of the parents were ill and they couldn't handle it it was beautiful great fun next year I think it's going to be done differently though Dr frell um I also went to see the um Bri tonship High scho Christmas Carol oh my God I stood up because I just could not believe this was a high school play it was outrageous the kids that uh did the play it was there wasn't a thing about it you could in your mind you could think you were in New York City it was done so beautifully those kids were fabulous um really enjoyed myself now I'm going to go on the other note the classroom sizes kill me I have grandchildren in the high school I am on this board to try and make a difference and our funding is horrific it is ridiculous that we are not getting our fair share and that we have to be concerned about letting teachers go again joke is a lot of people don't realize we did get 700 new students this year they keep saying well you know that that's no big deal because you're below the amount that you originally had the children that we had have now are different children and they have different needs so the amount is different so yes there are behaviors because some of those children don't speak our language and we need behaviorists we need speech therapists our teachers need help it's very sad what our teachers are going through our teachers are exhausted um you know and and to be honest with you most of our teachers are underpaid so as much as we want to say our funding um and our health benefits that's part of the package to be a teacher that's part of the package to um to run a school it is a business and I know that we don't want to spend the money for that but if we don't spend the money for that we're not going to get good teachers we're not going to get good substitutes as you said I I have the same feel I'm a senior I don't want to put that money out either but I also want my grandchildren educated I also want my grandchild children in a safe environment you know and and some of the things we just have to do we it it it's it's heart-wrenching had we gotten our proper amount of money it would be easy but we're not looked at that we deserve it why I don't know but we do need to call the governor's office and we do have to be a little bit spend Thrift on some things but we can't do it on our teachers we can't do it on our Paris they are in an environment right now that they didn't go to school for that's not what they went to school to become a teacher for it's ridiculous 32 children in a classroom and yet you still have to teach the children who are not speaking English there's no you know it's it's it's an environment and these teachers are my heroes because they come in and they do it you know it's heartbreaking but anyhow um I get phone calls all the time because I've lived in this town all my life I get people that walk over to my house I get emails I do want you to know that I don't answer you because there's steps that you have to go through and I say this to you all the time there's steps that you have to go through you have to go to your teacher your principal then you can go to the superintendent's office but when I do get those emails or those phone calls I call Dr frell or I call Stephanie the board president and it doesn't go unheard but I might not answer you because I don't have the proper answer and to be perfectly honest with you this board is not allowed to contact you but we don't throw a blind eye on it we do send it to where it has to go and if you don't get any answers and you continuously follow all the rules please have no problem but send me another email I'm used to that um I do want to say um happy holidays to everyone and please keep call the governor's office we need that funding that funding was um happened before I got on the board before a friend got on the board and um the only way that could change is if we all get together like Michael said and continue to call the governor's office we need that money I don't want to see another teacher another par professional or anyone leave this District because that only makes our class sizes larger and that's not good for anymore thank you happy holidays thanks meline Victoria I um I have a great um affection for our high school Representatives they really let us know um daytoday how everything we do affects their lives and and all their um other students lives so I I just want to thank them for coming again this month as far as the Strategic plan goes uh I want to thank you for your leadership Dr phell I know how rigorous and comprehensive the project is I participated in it and what I have to say about the draft is woohoo thank goodness leadership is a huge huge key in in this District right Dr cun so I appreciated participating in that in the that I I I see that this is a draft and I just think vision is very very important for the um students and and faculty in Brick since we last met I had the opportunity to attend three New Jersey school ball B Board Association programs the leadership conference in November the delegate assembly on uh December 2nd where the school board looks at policies that we want to adopt to recommend to the New Jersey Department of Education and I I'm glad I represent the district in that I think it's very important I also attended the Ocean County school board meeting that was held here hosted by Brick that featured um a discussion on Business Administration and our own Jim Edwards was a presenter and I was very proud of our district that night on a sad note I'd like to remind everybody that this is the 11th anniversary of the gun massacre at Sandy Hook um through my board of education involvement I have become friends and a donator to Ian hawkley Ian lost his son Dillan at that Massacre and he works and the parents from Sandy Hook work every day to try to end the gun violence in our schools and the thing that shocks me the most when I talk to Ian hawkley is that he believes what we all believe it could never happen here but it did so I just want to remind everybody about that it's it's a very sad thing in our um a reality for our children today as the calendar closes I want to wish all the administration teachers maintenance cafeteria clerical bus drivers parents students a very happy holiday and a big thank you I'm privileged to have served on this board eight years I'm um really looking forward to seeing and what happens next um I'm going to miss you Mike I'm glad you you did represent our kids for as long as you did I sat on facilities and finance with Michael he always had something important to say he always had Insight he always had a perspective that um brought more to the administration and um what workings of our school district so thank you Michael that's it thanks Victoria Alie you're up bringing it home and I'll be quick um the chill I had the chills from the voes of fire they were I stood here and I was like oh my God don't cry because that would be really embarrassing they were phenomenal great job guys um Mr blandina thank you so much for your service to our children and our community and I look forward to seeing you at the on the other side of the table we like swapped places a little bit so um uh the sub pay I literally just texted Dr phoh earlier today about that so I know we've had sub conversation last month so because that's what what I do in my school district but right um uh happy holidays to all of our students staff and families Administration um our community members merry Christmas and happy whatever you celebrate and I look forward to seeing you all on January 4th it's a big day for me and Mr mesner and Mesmer I'll get that Mesmer Mesmer um and uh that's it thank you good night and it's not even nine o'clock just thanks Ally all right calendar uh December 22nd early dismissal uh December 23rd through Jan January 1st winter break school is closed and as Ali stated January 4th is the reorg meeting here at 6: pm. so looking forward to seeing everyone then and in the New Year can I have a motion and a second to adjourn motion to tr I'll second that Michael Mary yes Ken yes yes yes yes yes happy holidays every