okay and we're off okay i''d like to call this meeting to order will the secretary please call the role excuse me Mrs Beck Mrs Becker Mr sisar here Mr Cummings here miss gu here Mrs Harris here Mr Hong here Mrs Reese here Mr Winston and president LAX here we have a quum please rise to salute the flag I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed and acted upon and accordance with the provisions of this act the East Brunswick board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted at the East Brunswick Board of Education offices written notice was also provided to The Sentinel the New York Star Ledger the home News Tribune and municipal clerk of East Brunswick all Board of Education meetings with the exception of executive session discussions or videotaped for later broadcast it is the policy of the Board of Education that videotape meetings are not edited for any purpose individuals who speak at the board's public meeting should be aware of these videotaping rules good evening um I believe tap is also on here correct this may be an old that I read we're now doing the alternate press for the advance notice yes and the alternate press and the alternate press my apologies for that Omission um I am going to now ask for see through me for a second second um I'm going to ask whereas the Board of Education must discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion at a public meeting and whereas these subjects are within the exceptions to the open public meetings act and are permitted to be discussed in closed section session the Board of Education intends to discuss matters as follows those items listed on tonight's agenda the length of closed session is estimated to be 1 hour after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene and action will be taken now therefore be it resolved that the East brons Board of Education will recess into close session for only the adfor said subjects and be it further resolved that the East brunic Board of Education hereby declares that discussion of the adfor said subjects will be made public at a time when the Public's interest in disclosure is greater than any privacy or governmental Interest being protected from disclosure in accordance with the open public meetings act move moved by Mr Cummings second second by Mr sisar is there any discussion all those in favor opposed extensions motion carries thank you we shall see you in an hour [Applause] okay welcome back and Welcome to our guests I see some celebrities in the first row I'm looking forward to that um but before we get to the exciting stuff we are going to let Dr veski do his report see see if he can be as good as you I was going to say president LAX my stuff is not exciting it's very exciting but all right right all right not as exciting or as good-looking as these students as these kids yeah good evening everyone it is great to see you all the artwork on display in the boardroom this evening was created by students from Central Elementary School the art teacher of these talented students is angeliki caraku Dr Michael gasal is the principal the High School AP ipple team took believe it or not first place in the New Jersey state We the People competition again say it again I'm going to say it on Wednesday January 24th earning the right to represent New Jersey at the We the People National Finals being held in Washington DC from April 13th through April 15th the students testified in front of school administrators attorneys professors and members of the New Jersey government about different aspects of the Constitution from pH philosophical foundations to Modern controversies this is the school's 32nd state championship and the students are very excited to represent New Jersey at the national finals and I see Dr there mhm look at that yeah on Sunday January 28th High School juniors um Adam asido and Kathleen Mena had their artwork chosen to be exhibited at the 32nd annual art administrators of New Jersey emerging artist Gallery at Kane University all pieces on display were judged by Kane University Art education faculty and nine were chosen to receive Awards including Adam asito who received an honorable mention for his piece entitled container the students were sponsored for this exhibit by high school art teacher Lisa gambas and supervisor of Arts education Michelle DEA on Tuesday January 30th the high school was recognized for its outstanding German program the high school was welcomed into the circle of Posh schools and that is an acronym for schools partners of the future joining a select group of only 14 schools in the United States who have earned this distinction with this recognition comes a wealth of opportunities for students to participate in educational projects competitions receive Learning Materials study advice and become members of the Posh Alumni network German language teachers will have the opportunities to attend Reg and National Training receive internship opportunities participate in projects and join in a vast network of Educators who share their passion for German language and cultural exchange the great kindness challenge is a worldwide event that is celebrated recently throughout our elementary schools this program provides powerful tools that actively engage students teachers administrators families and communities in creating a culture of compassion accept unity and respect the students and staff at hamers participated in a week-long celebration of spreading kindness through various spirit days students also began to submit applications for the upcoming Butterfly Effect event and that is an ebef sponsored program where the winners will receive funding to have their kindness ideas come to fruition also at hamers shold every single student wrote on a Post-It and and act of kindness they could do for their community and all the notes were put together to make a butterfly the bound Monroe schoolwide AC of kindness for the great kindness challenge week was two lunch Tuesday students donated lunch bags with kind messages and collected nearly 100 bag lunches to donate to Elijah's promise Soup Kitchen in New Brunswick the school theme at Irwin School this year is great minds grow here and one of the ways that students grow is in their understanding of cultures and ethnic ethnicities within our school Community students in the ESL classes created a project entitled being bilingual is a gift and did writing assignments on why their experience as a multilanguage learner enriches their lives and the lives of others and we are proud of our multilanguage Learners at Irwin school and they make Irwin a special place to learn and grow the eth and nth grade students of the movement mindfulness and stress management class at Churchill organized a mindfulness Fair as their final project they created a space dedicated to promoting mental well-being and mindfulness practices the fair featured various interactive booths and activities aimed at fostering mindfulness stress reduction and an emotional awareness students creatively presented techniques to fellow students and staff that were invited to attend the event not only showcase the students understanding of mindfulness but also provided a meaningful and engaging experience for all participants highlighting the importance of mental health in our school Community The Early Learning Academy also known as Ela has been cooking up some fun Ela students created their very own pizza shop in the classroom and enjoyed working together to see their ideas come to life the students are also strengthening their fine motor skills building relationships and really enjoying their time together Ela students are also working together with friends to build literacy skills and problem solve now the one thing they need to work on is delivering those pizzas to our offices in sports girls swimming are backtack GMC champions nice boy swimming you can applaud for that boy swimming are GMC champions for the third year in a row congratulations to our January high school athletes of the month students were selected for this Honor by the coaching staff based on performance demonstration of leadership effort and practice and of course for modeling exceptional character the girls softball and field hockey project broke around in mid December with site work in process since then these are some aerial photos of the work currently underway the construction schedule estimates the project to be completed by around June 1st of 2024 of course this is weather permitting and without any delays in material suppliers and we'll be providing additional updates as this project progresses and look forward to its completion and we have a video to show you some Drone footage and the trick is not to get dizzy when you're watching yeah you forget how much land we have it's amazing and Mr Juliana is overseeing this project did you want to say anything about anything to about progress or updates or not really do you want do you want to commit to the timeline I just keep my fingers cross because everything is weather permitting you know hope we don't hope we don't get inundated with rain or snow um no and uh and no uh supply chain issues those are the critical issues as long as we don't hit any bumps with those areas we should be fine when the Project's done it's going to be fantastic yes yeah the right and finally the East Brunswick boys and girls wrestling programs not finally wrestling programs ran a fundraiser at at our home match with Perth and booy boys and girls wrestling programs that celebrated the Marissa Taro Foundation the foundation donated $1,000 each to the Mayor Cohen charity fund and the Perth and booy Ron Bay YMCA president Lex did you have anything to say and I attended my first wrestling match and our girls I've never seen I've never watched the rest but it was wonderful our girls are really good cuz this is twoy old program they are spectacular yeah um I have to say so it was pretty neat and um it's it's a very beautiful Foundation the Taro uh he actually was a longtime uh contributor to Sports in um the home news he was the sports contributor and his wife is a principal in Edison they're very good people and unfortunately they lost their daughter years ago and this Foundation Works um within middle sex County to give funds to um different organ organizations that help with pediatric patients and anything with Pediatrics um they're beautiful people and it was an honor to be there uh but our kids wow they were terrific and what's really nice about this particular match is both teams both East Brunswick and Perth Amboy is they raised the funds and then the uh Foundation matched up to a certain amount so which shows you not only are kids incredible um on the wrestling mats but they actually have kind Hearts to do that as well so it's a great great organization great great to meet great great stuff our our kids are doing our athletes and all of our students and I would like to remind once again the community that we have used our two emergency closing days and unfortunately school will be open on Monday February 19th as indicated on our school calendar sorry thank you I'm just laughing thinking Mother Nature could mess with you and it could snow that day it could and it has happened before yes it has yeah keeps us on our toes look at this we don't play favorites obviously with all of our elementary schools we love them but um there's a couple of Memorial parents up here and um some of my Fondest Memories were the wax museum I still have the pictures and I see some friends in the audience but these are my new friends up in the front I'm very excited about so we are going to hear the third grade students at Memorial Elementary School talk about the wax museum that teaches about important historical figures they get to choose significant figures in American history use online tools print text to gather up the information they plan edit their speeches and then they do the wax museum do they still no you're doing this now so is it indoors then it used to be outdoors along the path okay so so my third grade friends um going to invite you up um Mrs Jones I see your principal's here some of your teachers are here so um however you'd like to to to take it away um Memorial I know hours superar look her she's ad thank you for coming we're very excited uh as they said they research signic historical figures um they make speeches they plan they edit it and then they present it and they did an awesome job so we're exited the coolest thing about song writing is that you have a framework of emotion and you can fill in the blank with pieces of your own life I am Olivia Isabel Rodrigo I was born on February 20th 2003 in maretta California something I want you to know about my early life is I took singing lessons growing up at age 12 I got a part on the show bizarre par I learned how I learned how to play piano and did school plays both growing up later in life I started the Show High School Musical the musical The I got nominated for four 2022 grammar Awards I want three MTV Video Music Awards I work with a professional songwriter and release my debut album a quickly hit number one on the billboard 200 albums chart I'm famous for acting and singing I would describe myself as creative unique and talented for my acting and my music some of my most popular and well-known songs are good for you driver's license and vampires My Wish for the world is for everyone to follow their dreams and never give up on their dream everyone can't be perfect practice does not make perfect it makes progress I'm Lis Lio Andre Messi I was born in roserio Argentina 1987 I was born with rare disease and I started to play soccer at age8 at age 13 I went to train with Barcelona later in life I won two Golden Balls and the golden boo in 2021 I won the Coca Del R 4 to Z and signed a 2-year contract and won the World Cup I am famous for playing soccer and I describe myself as fat smart and talented my wish for the world is for everyone to be a good person life is a roller coaster have fun with it I am C BS I was born on March 14 1997 at Columbus Ohio I really love gymnastics as a kid in fact I won a v in 2012 in 2016 I almost quitted gymnastics because I kept falling on the balance feet I won four gold medals and one bronze of 2016 Summer Olympics when I was 19 I had 17 gold medals in in 2018 I went by four World Championship don't forget if you're having fun after the best M hi my name is Olivia isab I was born and raised in marida California I'm famous for being an American song songwriter singer and actress I also play guitar and piano I'm 10 years old today my birthday is February 20th 2003 I've been singing since I was I became famous at the age of 13 years old I also started in the High School Musical the music the series when I was 12 years old I I started the show with also when I was growing up I took stud my latest oh my God are they cute par come on [Music] up [Applause] what a nice job got guys did great Mrs Jones I noticed something really interesting since my days the historical figures have gotten much more modern my daughter was Betsy Ross and I think my son was Thomas Jefferson wow this was really cool you guys did a spectacular job I thank you so much for bringing U Memorial back to me um and for bringing this wonderful project to all of us thank you to Mrs Jones your incredible teachers um and I'm going to take a quick recess so you guys can get back you may have some homework to do um so thank you again for coming and showing us what's going on in your neck of the woods good night everyone she was and now Joe you get to follow that thank you yeah I always seem to follow you know the kids that do great jobs presenting so uh I'm here to present the 2023 annual comprehensive financial report for the school district um so just a couple housekeeping things before we get into the numbers um for number of years we've received uh independent assessments and recognition for excellence and financial reporting the association of of school business officials International we've received it for 10 consecutive years um every year of that we we've applied for it we've received it governmental uh Finance Officers Association uh we just received word that we received the certification again for the 2022 audit and we'll submit for the 2023 so that makes eight out of nine years uh the only year that we did not receive it was due to covid so um you know I think we have a very good track record going and a consecutive streak so very proud of that so as I discussed the audit um it's important to know that there's different funds that uh the district has to report on the first and biggest fund is the general fund it captures the the day-to-day operations of the district uh salary for teachers special education uh electricity uh gas uh health benefits um so the day-to-day stuff the special Revenue fund um it's used to account for and account for and Report the proceeds for Grants and other Financial um sources that are restricted I always like to say that the special Revenue fund you know it's grants it it's money that comes from outside organizations with strings attached all right whether it be State funds Federal uh ebef PTA uh they give us various funds and we have to do specific things with them capital projects fund uh used to account for uh construction projects but you'll all be happy to know there's not a slide for capital projects this year because we didn't have any expenditures so I was going to leave it in and say you know everybody's favorite slide because it was blank but uh Debt Service fund uh that's used to account for uh principal and interest on bonds uh we like to refer to it as like a mortgage uh when we do big projects like if we go forward with building a new high school or renovating the high school we would do bonds and the payment of those bonds would be accounted for in The Debt Service fund and then we have the Enterprise fund Enterprise fund is unique to governmental entities uh the purpose of an Enterprise fund is to make money it's to run it as a business um it's we provide goods and services that are financed through user charges so the district has four Enterprise funds and I will get into those uh later in the slides so the general fund Revenue we had it for the 2023 year we had 178 million in Revenue uh by far the largest piece was local tax levy just like every other school district in the State uh majority of the the revenue that comes in for the general fund is through local taxes um we had tuition from other school districts and and parents of 6 58,000 you know when I'm standing way over here I think I need stronger glasses uh 628 th000 excuse me uh other of 2.7 million other is comprised of uh interest on our bank accounts uh refund the prior year uh expenses e- rate uh fees that we charge for athletics and clubs uh miscellaneous items that add up to that 2.7 uh State sources state aid uh we refer to it as of 37 million Federal sources of 176 million that's our semi money that we're required to budget um and then we had transfers from our Enterprise funds of just over a million dollar general fund expenditures of 186,000 so the first question might be well how did we only bring in 178 million but we spent 186 so it's important to note that you know with the accounting process and we're budgetary based accounting we had encumbrances from the prior year that were not spent that roll over all right so that's part of it um we had withdrawals from capital reserve right so that's part of it so the revenue coming in does not necessarily equal the expenditures because of the the function of how the accounting works so to go over it uh 190 million or I'm sorry 90 million uh was for instruction purposes for special education uh regular instruction student related Services we had uh 30 million for employee benefits that's health benefits uh unemployment workers comp uh everything that falls in it's important to note these categories are not determined by us this is all determined by uh the state chart of accounts we have to put uh the expenses into these categories uh student transportation of 13, 869 th000 Charter School of over four million uh plant operation and maintenance that's the electricity uh custodial upkeep of the grounds security of 18 million uh district and School administration uh Human Resources Finance Information Technology legal auditor Insurance all that group of 12 million and then uh short-term debt of 8.8 million and then capital outlay of 4 mil7 478,000 at the end of the year we had fund balance of $21 million comprised of the unemployment compensation Reserve uh two reserves for uh to go against tax relief uh for the current 2324 school year and also going to the 2425 school year of 4.6 million legally reserved the 2% um by state code we have to keep that 2% um reserve for incumbrances as I talked about before uh it was 2.3 million just to give you context for 2022 it was 7.4 million so that's part of the reason why the revenues and expenditures don't you know are not the same um and then we had legally restricted for Capital Improvements of 5.4 Million by all means if the board has any questions while I'm going through please please feel free right so then we get into the special Revenue fund uh just to highlight some of the major Grant Awards uh the chart shows what we were uh the awards were in 2022 compared to 2023 uh ebf in 2022 192,000 compared to 23 uh which was 66 almost 67,000 um for PTA and other 2022 was over $2 million in 23 was 91,000 so the big difference there um was some uh Co relief money for technology uh we had to account for it in other and and that was 1.9 million so that that's the big gap there um idea went up by like $100,000 uh the title grants which is nclb uh stayed pretty much stagnant and then the adult basic Ed Grant uh increased by a little bit by about $15,000 before you go on to that slide you said a question um I know the PTA you accounted for that one the ebf that uh dropped by quite a bit was there any particular reason for that the it's not under our control the ebf determines what they fund and how they fund it so um I'm just did teachers put in for Less grants that year do we know not that I'm aware of I I know the ebf has um funded a lot of stuff outside the district okay and just to clarify when Joe says fund things outside of the district direct funds to the teachers rather than flowing them through the district right yeah and we do not account if they pay something directly to a teacher that's between them we don't get involved I just wanted to ask I'm back I guess two pages I'm sorry D how many Charter Schools um come under our general fund for expenditure uh we have the ticka which is the big one and then we usually have two other umer Brunswick right uh in Edison there's one Thomas thank you so and there's like two kids that go to each one or two kids and that varies from year to year okay thank you y so on the expenditure side um again uh ebf we spent $169,000 so the question might come up well how do we spend 169 when we only receive 60 something so the year of award doesn't mean we spend it necessarily in that year um most grants it's a two-year window um with the evf if a grant is continuing and we ask for an extension they're they're pretty uh you willing to do that um so it it doesn't correlate to receive the the money in year one spend it in year one uh PTA uh we spent you know $446,000 compared to the 2.1 the year before and again that has to do with the uh technology grant that I referenced before Federal um we spent 10.6 million compared to 4.8 that's all related to Coit money um that we were spending that we received in Prior years uh projects we're finishing up uh State related money uh those are your non-public um we spent 565,000 uh this past year and then other uh 871 th000 compared to uh just over a million other uh is all lease related expenditures uh and captures everything else besides those main categories there as I stated before I think we have a question for you I'm sorry I'm sorry sorry quick questioner funds when did they end most Esser funds are ending uh October 202 August okay sorry thank you for Tera I keep on telling her she should be doing this next year so uh so yeah they end September September 30th September 30th 2024 y we're at the end and we're on track to spend the the money that we were allotted we're not returning anything okay capital reserve like I said we didn't have any expenditure so there's nothing to report there uh Debt Service as of June 30th 2023 we had bonds payable of just over 57 million they were comprised of three projects the first being uh the 2022 refunding bonds uh there's 4.8 million left uh these bonds relate to the Hammer so Central and Lawrence Brook projects uh that were done back in 2012 the 2020 refunding bonds uh 9.3 million that's for Memorial and then we have the 2018 Energy savings Improvement program of 6.9 million and just because accountants like to make it difficult in the state that those payments are accounted for in the general fund but they're reported in The Debt Service because they are bonds all right um so it's important to note uh the work refunding on the first two issues uh the district is very aggressive uh to take advantage of the ability to uh refinance the bonds at lower interest rates saving the taxpayers money all right when interest rates go low we refinance when we can and it reduces our our interest payments like refinancing your house continue with Debt Service um our debt limit is 350 million which is a calculation of 4% of the average equalized valuation the net debt is 58 million almost 59 um so just in case if there's a question how can we have 57 million in bonds payable but 58 million in that debt it's because how we account for premiums and discounts on the bonds all right so that number it's a calculation based thing and it it doesn't equal exactly but it's correct it's not not a mistake then we have our legal debt margin how much we can borrow um 291 million so we're we're in really good shape there getting into the Enterprises Food Service total operating revenue of 2 .6 million that's from meal sales whether free reduced paid alart breakfast sales um total non-operating revenue of 1.8 million that's uh the grant related subsidies from the federal and state governments uh for being on the uh meal program total operating expenses of 3.7 million net change in position of $700,000 so Child Nutrition had another really good year um um to give perspective on the number of meals that we serve each year the chart represents going back to 2017 uh yellow is the alicart sales uh lunch sales is the purple breakfast is the red uh it's important to note that for 2022 meals were free to all students uh as part of their um the government program 2023 we went back to normal service where uh you know paid was paid free and reduced um you'll see when everything was free we served almost 1.3 million meals uh which is impressive this past year we're just under a million which is still impressive and it's still you know significantly we've had growth every year going back to 2017 um it's important to note for everybody watching at home that this this is a program you know going back 10 years ago that was struggling and had to be offset by the general fund uh the board made a commitment our staff made a commitment to change and you know we those changes are have paid off um and it's something I'm very proud of so um you should also note that breakfast is lower um compared to pre pandemic uh we feel that's a result of the later start times uh kids are eating you know because school is starting at 9:00 so kids are typically eating before they come to school but the later start time I think everybody will agree is the right thing for for students Community programs we had revenue of 3.3 million there's four distinct areas of operation in community programs uh the early morning program 500,000 after school kids uh 1.2 almost 1.3 million Early Learning Academy 1.1 million and other other is all the enrichment um whether it be for students adults all those uh virtual programs that we run uh we had took in 357,000 for that we had total expenses of 2.6 almost 2.7 million so income of 623,000 okay we transferred 398,000 uh out to the general fund uh it's important to note just to go back to Child Nutrition any money made in Child Nutrition we're not allowed to transfer to the general fund we have to keep it in the program and reinvest so that's why there were no transfers out of the food service this chart shows um the contribution to the general fund a couple meetings ago there was a question about you know where is that money going how so I we thought it was important to to show a little bit of History going back to 2018 uh you know $500,000 to the general fund the high water mark in 2019 was over $800,000 then the pandemic hit in uh we lost money that year and also in 2021 uh because you know we weren't in school those programs were not running but we continued to pay pay staff uh 2022 we did make money but we were recovering in that fund um so I'm happy report in 2023 we were able to um you know transfer money out and we're on the upswing so that's a a trend that we think will continue facilities rental we had total revenue of 774 th000 total expenses of 459,000 income equal 314,000 and we transferred 500,000 to the general fund we were able to transfer the 500,000 because of the prior year profit that we we did not transfer and you'll see from the slide just like Community programs we had those three years where we did not transfer um we were not renting out our facilities during Co and the year after um in good part of the 2022 year so we started back up uh we felt the the facility's rental Enterprise was in a good healthy place so we were that allowed us to do the transfer came back stronger than before yes knock on wood we are we're doing very well facil uh I'm sorry technology this is the second year for the technology coverage Enterprise had total revenues of 191,000 expenses of 76,000 uh income uh profit of 115,000 and we transferred 102,000 over to the general fund so those last three funds uh you'll remember the first Pi chart of the revenue was a just over a million dollars of transfers to the general fund adding up those three transfers uh that's where the money came from so Financial facts the district accounts for 25 bank accounts we maintain compliance with all quarterly uh tax filings and requirements we issue over 4,000 tax forms between W2s 1099s and 1095 forms we process over 650 joural entes a year 7,300 club and activity registrations 1,500 athletic and band registrations over 1,000 uh before and after school program registrations process 800 plus after school enrichment registrations over 6,900 purchase orders a year 18,500 invoices are or plus our process a year uh 5,500 uh account payable checks 37,000 paychecks that's comprised of paper indirect deposit 12,000 time sheets 10,000 attendance slips various bids and renewals requests for proposals requests for formal quotes student service providers it's the whole gamut and everything that I just ran through has a piece of compliance that we get audited on so excellence in financial reporting everybody knows the mantra for the district is excellence in academics Athletics in the Arts I think based off of the last 10 years I think financial reporting should also be part of that I won't hold my breath you know maybe I'll just put a sign in my office or something um you a mug so I I I do think we do a heck of a job so I'll leave you with a couple quotes usually I do the puzzle it's kind of gotten old so switch it up a little bit so Perfection is not attainable but if we Chase Perfection we can catch Excellence Vince Lombardi if you haven't figured out I'm a sports guy so yeah uh the strength of the team is each individual member the strength of each member is the team and I have to say it's not an individual whether it a board member Bernie Victor myself it's the team and we could not be here with the Excellence in financial reporting without the team and that does doesn't include finance that includes you know everybody in the district it it takes everyone to have success and then finally great things in business are never done by one person they're done by a team of people so you know it I think we we reflect that and you do could could you actually could you introduce your team have them all stand so we can so uh tonight in attendance uh is Tara Rosen Bing she's the senior manager of accounting uh be shy Lori taggerty is the purchasing manager chetna mahapatra is the coordinator for facilities rental Michael uh cap biano who is the aark manager for Child Nutrition Kathy Ro Mackenzie who's the coordinator of Child Nutrition Carla Hemingway is the secretary for Child Nutrition and then last but not least jod Liberty I want wanted to introduce her last because I think unless she wants to come next year when she's retired this will be the last time she shows up so uh I just wanted to give her a special shout out and uh a big thank you uh she's been in the department for a long while and uh she'll be Miss deal with when she retires Joe maybe you should get Jody to give you a quote to put on next year's that's slide I have a feeling to say something about how great retirement is and so that's it so if there's question I thank you to you and your team excellent job as always you're right you do get I'm gonna get you that mug um does anybody have any questions for Joe okay I just like take you may have the moment as long as it's accolades for J just a just a moment because and his Department uh I I absolutely agree with everything that Joe said um he wouldn't have said if I didn't and say it was okay seriously that's going to be the other mug at but Ser seriously um you know Joe Joe is my right-hand person um and I have relied on uh Joe for many many years you've been with us for over 15 years now 22 years 2 I I've only been here for 12 how could you be here for 22 um but um uh in addition to Joe the entire team here um I do not have to worry a moment about what happens on a day-to-day basis uh with Finance I have complete trust in the entire team um and they support us very well and I am so very grateful for the work that they do they make you look good burn and I all look good I agree we get to sleep at night because these people do a great job and I I want to add one more thing because I think this is important there was a time many many years ago where um we didn't have a team uh we did not have the structure that we have now and it is through the foresight of past boards and the support of all the boards through the current board that have allowed us to maintain the Excellence that we have so I am very appreciative for that support agreed thank you thank you again to you and your team that's why you guys have to stand up and take those accolades because you're kind of those unsung heroes we don't get to to say that enough so and because the party gets to keep on going Scott kelen is going to tell us even more detail what makes our finance department a pillar of Excellence welcome again Scott thank you very much and good evening everyone looking forward to the good news I will be more than happy to um just to piggyback kind of what on Joe was saying um I've said this in the past but I'll say it again uh no other school district that I audit or that I've known of that they can have somebody get up here and do what they should be doing which an auditor should not be coming up here and presenting your numbers we should be presenting what we're going to present your administrator your assist administrator someone internally should present your numbers they're your numbers we just audit them so Joe actually makes my job easier from a presentation perspective because he does normally what I would do so Joe deserves a lot of credit for getting up here and you know you spent a half an hour going over a very very detailed overview of what your school district is all about and if you think about it you're running $180 million organization that's huge um made up of a lot of different areas a lot of different funds and a lot of different things that you you operate look at all the Enterprise fund you are operating all separate entities all separate controls look at all the grant money you've had we've had so much covid money coming in and out of District so um before I proceed I just want to thank Joe for doing what he does and making my job easier from a presentation perspective and he really should accept the accolades of the fact that he's the only one I know in the state that actually gets up here and does this um so you Joe thanks to Joe um also from a perspective of coming in here and preparing for the audit um we have planning meetings we have meetings with the with um the superintendent and Bernie and the staff during before the audit during the audit after the a it and then last week we met or earlier in the week we met with the finance committee to go over the numbers and this is one of our nicest clients by far um you're very very lucky to have the administrative people in place that are here um because I Ed some districts that don't have Pap like that in place and the meetings are not as easy as these in terms of an audit presentation there's a lot of findings and a lot of issues and the financial situations are not as managed as yours are so um again accolades to the administ ministration so we're also several months earlier than we've been in the past um the past couple years the state has been unable to provide us with some information I think last year's order presentation was on March 30th uh this year we're presenting in early February the deadline last year was March 17th this year the state decided they would go back to the original deadline that's in statute which is 125 your audit was one of 28% of the school districts that filed by that deadline so only again 28% of all the school districts filed by 125 as of last week there's just over 60% that have filed so there's still 40% of the audits out there that have not gotten uh presented to the state um so again we had the issue of there's no way we're going to get all our clients done in this short period of time we had to basically sit back and say which ones do we think would make that deadline meaning they're going to have the records ready for us and obviously this was one of the ones that we chose to go that route knowing that Tara Joe and Bernie would have the information and would work with us to make sure we met the deadline um again I want to recognize everyone else in the accounting department Tara and the team that she works with um they really do a great job and they make our our job easier they provide us everything very quickly and they're very very easy to deal with so I want to thank them again for all the time they put in to help us during the audit process um what our role is is to take those numbers and order the different numbers that go through the funds and look at your government as a whole and it's not just the financial side of things there's a lot of different aspects that come into the audit we look at the general and School administration we look at instruction expenses student services Transportation expenses Enterprise operations your internal service operations for your self- insurance fund and then Capital Improvements and Debt Service there's a lot of pieces that we touch upon and a lot of different areas that we look at we look at your um Assa which is your application for state school aad making sure you're reporting your students properly we look at your drrs for your district report of transported students to make sure you're reporting that correctly to the state so there's a lot of things we look at from a control and a compliance perspective what are the objectives we have to make sure we get the information necessary that we request they're provided to us and we have to render an opinion on your financial statements and there's different layers of opinions some not so good some very very good um so there's really four of them yours is unmodified which is a clean opinion which is the highest level that can be placed on financial statements we also as part of the audit have to follow government auditing standards as a governmental entity and that would include looking at internal controls over the way you spend your money uh which is looking at payroll looking at at dispersements and purchasing looking at how your revenue is reported and then a few minutes I'll talk about your grants as well so part of it is to go through to identify if there's any major problems with your controls and if there's any compliance items that we've identified that are all either federally or state regulated uh the last component of the audit really relates to your major federal and state grants and based upon the selection criteria that we has have to follow um this year we had to test the Ida special education program which is always your largest we had to look at your cares act program which is your a your ARP money and your Esser money which I'm happy to report that we didn't find anything you have to give back so I know Bernie wants to spend all the money we didn't find anything that was not allowable that was of what we tested and then we also looked at your acers program which is the the kids that are 21 over 21 that you're requiring to provide some services to and we we didn't identify any exceptions in there either there are four parts to your annual comprehensive financial report used to be the cfer announced the Acer uh the int introductory section basically is a good section which has a good transmitt letter talks about all the accomplishments the financial section is where our opinion is located as well as the mdna which is a real nice two-year summary of your operating results uh from year to year for the last two years and give some explanations as to why things were different your statistical section is an unoted section uh towards the back of the report that has 20 different schedules that talks about different things regarding your um your different aspects like tax levies uh it shows you student enrollment show you and stuff like that and then your single audit section is where we we report on your various grants so the order results of after doing all the procedures on all the different funds and all the different Enterprise funds it's an unmodified opinion the district is in very strong financial position there were no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies identified unmodified opinion on your the way you spent your money for your grants and there are no findings in the 2023 order report therefore there will be no corrective action required by the board and that wraps up my piece of it again overall great audit um pleasure to work with you as a board as well as the administration so thank you very much and I would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have outstanding again thank you Scott does any member of the board have any questions for Scott all right well thank you again and uh who else thank you guys and gals [Music] awesome okay hey we are up to the good of the cause for the public the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues oh did I right oh Matt look at that see you know what I I was gonna I was goingon to let since it's Jody's last meeting here she could do the ethics training for us Jody would you like to as it going present you know what see she's going to come up come on up yes you can help Matt I'm teasing you no I think you no I think she should get to come and help you if you want to do the EIC no that's okay thank you Jody says don't do anything be on the high from your big win so good evening everyone um what I've done is I've given you a a a handout multi-page handout that you can read take with you we update this every year um that goes over the school ethics act the school ethics Act is an act that all board members are Duty bound to uphold when you take the oath of office you promise to support the Constitution of the United States Constitution State of New Jersey within that you you support all the laws of the state of New Jersey in in among those laws um is a whole section called Title 18 Title 18 are the laws that Governor govern school districts and in Title 18 is the school ethics act which CS the conduct of board members the school ethics act has two components one component it deals with conflicts of interest then the other component is the actual School ethics code so I'll summarize conf conflicts of interest um you can think about it you can't vote on your if you you own a business uh they can't come be a vendor before the district and then you vote on it uh if you have a family member that works for the district District you can't be involved in in in voting on certain things and it there's lots of layers of it so for example um there are many districts where you have board members who are elected and prior to their election they have a family member who might be a teacher a par professional Etc once that happens that board member has lots of conflicts they can't be involved in the um superintendent evaluation the assistant superintendent evaluation they can't be involved in any negotiations can't be on negotiations committees can't vote on the negotiation contracts lots of bars there are a whole host of cases that Define it we and what we do is in each of the sections of the law we give you cases and we update those cases every year so that you can see cases that explain when somebody did it wrong probably the most important thing in that dealing with conflicts of interest usually it involves family members so the school ethics act has put out School ethics Act Act is overseen by a department which is within the Department of Education called the school ethics commission the school ethics commission has put out two very very important uh forms and we have them at page four and page five of the handout page four summarizes when you need to recuse yourself totally uh based on a familiar relationship what you can do and can't do this generally arises in the context of the collective negotiations and or the evaluation of the superintendent or hiring of the superintendent so let's just hypothetically say that you have a family member that works for the district the school ethics Act and the school ethics commission has said that because of that conflict not only cannot evaluate the superintendent you can't even vote if there was going to be a superintendent search on a search firm to search for a superintendent you can have no involvement whatsoever there became a lot of conflict over how far what is a family relationship so we we can all it's pretty easy your spouse your kids your brother your sister your mom dad well the school ethics commission were was coming up with all different rulings and what they did very is very useful if you look at page five it breaks down what are familiar relationships cousins nephews sister-in-laws brother-in-laws we've included that chart and the reason we have it we've included this for you is it's just a good place to look if you have a question what I've told the board before and I'll tell you guys again if you have a question ask talk to Dr veski get you get me on the phone we'll give you legal guidance if it's something that's so unique that there's not an answer there's not a case out there that can give you us give us guidance and there's literally hundreds and hundreds of advisory opinions and decisions we have the ability to write on your behalf to the school ethics commission and SE and advise your opinion I caution all of you if you vote and you had a conflict we can't retroactively seek our advisory opinion and get you a gof free from jail card you you you're already you're already in trouble so if you have a question it's always better to put on the brakes ask Dr veski he'll reach out to me we can research the issue and if it's a very unique issue and actually happened here we had one of the most unique issues number of years ago you had a board member who was a phenomenal athlete uh I think in college and high school and as a as as a board member she was a referee for njsa events and she never ever refereed any East brunswood case but then she thought to herself well if I go to a county meet and I'm at the county swim meet and an East Brunswick kid is swimming am I in violation well I can assure you there was no ethics opinion on that at anywhere no advisory opinion we went wrote on her behalf and got an advisory opinion and they said she can do that that is not a conflict so we do have the ability prospectively to make an ask to give you Guidance the school the code of ethics which is in containing the school ethics act um is contained in there and let let me summarize and I I use this analogy I'll use it again I used to use the uh king and queen of of of Spain not doing that we're going to do football because we're coming up on the Super Bowl you guys are the team owners you own the team you sit up the Box you have the nice big chairs you have like the nice meals and stuff maybe Taylor Swift stop by I don't know um and you hire a head coach and that head coach is that gentleman right there and that head coach then goes out and gets the players the quarterback the the defensive lineman whatever you know Dr fesi deems fit and comes before you and recommends this is the team I want this is who I want as quarterback but he runs the day-to-day operations you don't you you don't see Jerry Jones or Robert Craft walking down from the booth going on the thing asking Bill belich how to make a play they don't do that neither do you you do not run the day-to-day operations board members get in trouble when they attempt to run the DayDay operations it's your job you're a policy-making body you draft policies and what are the policies they're the laws of the school they are the laws that Dr veski and all the staff and the students have to follow and it's Dr ves's job and his team to make sure that those are followed so you set the laws and say Dr veski make sure these are followed and you can change the laws that's why you have a first reading and a second reading and those are are really you're setting the Rules of Engagement for how this district is operated your job is to make sure the districts are well-run you don't run the day-to-day operations you make sure they're well run and what you do is there's only one person that the board evaluates in fact there's only one employee that the board hires Dr veski the board doesn't recommend anyone else's hiring they approve Dr ves's recommendations but only Dr veski can make recommendations on who to hire and who to terminate and who to non-renew you can look at his his recommendations and say we agree with them or disagree with them but it's not the board's job to make hiring decisions you hire Dr veski and if things are going great you reward Dr veski if things aren't going great you say goodbye to Dr veski that's the job you he is your coach very much like the NFL teams are winning the coach stays teams are losing the coach goes I mean it's probably the best analogy I can use in the in the code of ethics I have cited a number of cases there are more and more cases where board members are getting themselves in trouble utilizing social media I there one case happened up in Bergen County the board president had a Blog his own blog and he didn't care for the uh Association president and he decided that he was going to be very critical of the local Association the nja and he had a a disclaimer this is my own opinion it's the first amendment I can say whatever I want I'm not saying on behalf of the board but he kept going after this Association president well the association president was an employee of the district and ultimately School ethics commission said you can't do that you you you can't just put up a disclaimer and then just bash people that doesn't work you're off the board they removed them six months removal off the board because the other thing that you guys are is you're elected officials you have by far the biggest impact in town on the tax base you have by by far the biggest impact on your property values but you're also an employer you hire him but you guys are an employer and so as a board you are Duty bound as individual board members to protect your employees you might not always agree with them but those discussions happen in Clos session you protect their confidentiality you protect their reputations and that's in the code of ethics the other thing um and I've given other examples there's another example where board member did an opted piece um and this happened right before the pandemic in which uh he was supporting some candidates and then went after a sitting board member um and said don't vote for this person this person's no good these are my own opinions I'm I'm speaking on my own behalf School ethics commission said that wasn't sufficient that was not a pro disclaimer and you were bringing ill-repute to the board you have a firstman right to say things but when you choose to be on a board you have to confine yourselves and follow the school ethics act in school ethics code um I've have been asked questions I I I recently uh prosecuted a case um in which a board member was censured she her term had ended two years before the censor so even though you're off the board the cases still go on I'm involved in the case right now the board memb has been off for almost two and a half years that case is still pending they don't just go away they these cases go on um people don't give up their first amendment rights when you're a board member but you have to remember that when you're speaking you have to make sure that you're speaking on your own behalf not on behalf of the board but if it touches the board what the school etics act says is well then you're not really you really are speaking on behalf of the board and the school ethics Act is getting stricter and stricter and stricter about this because as we all have witnessed in our Our Lives social media is dominant mean you like news I don't you read the news anymore you can't go to the news stand anymore you go on social media and whoever wants to say something people read it on Facebook live or Instagram or not Instagram what the heck is they call Instagram yeah um as you can tell I don't really use social media but my point is is that more and more the cases are involving board members uses of social media and the one thing the when when I one common denominator that you'll see in school ethics act cases is when you go after an employee like that one board member is doing up in North Jersey or you reveal confidential information about an employee or a student that's the school ethics commission has zero tolerance they will remove you from the board so um again if you have questions about the school ethics act please ask Dr veski we can give you specific legal gu uh advice I'm not going to give you legal advice tonight on specific instances because that is attorney client privilege but the school ethics act in and of itself um there's a plethora of cases that we can look at give you guidance to make sure that you don't misstep when you're doing it but ultimately you're the elected official you're the person who's Duty bound to read it follow it and make sure that you you you live by the tenants of it that you're making sure that the district is well run not running day-to-day operations thank you very much any question questions thank you very much Matt all right and if you read it and you have questions just ask Dr veski I'm glad to get on the phone thank you very thorough and now it is time for the public portion see I'm glad I didn't jump ahead of you all right Bernie so the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment and educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest to protect the privacy of all students and staff concerns regarding individual students and staff members should generally be addressed by first meeting with the appropriate administrative staff in order to permit the fair and orderly expression of such comment the board shall provide a period of public comments at every meeting of the board it is limited to 3 minutes per speaker and we remind you that anything that needs followup will be um directed to the lovely ladies in the front so we can reach you um that being said is there anyone this evening wishing to speak to the board a quiet crowd tonight we had such wonderful presentations nobody wants to have it a shot so that being said I'm going to now close the public portion moving on to our agenda items of the evening may I please have a motion for the one item on the board of education motion is that Lori second second by Heather is there any discussion okay all in favor opposed extensions motion car carries I have three items this evening for curriculum and instruction I I apologize for the minutes I should have abstained if the vote's closed sorry but that's it's okay it's not a problem we'll forgive you it's not actually a a problem you can vote on minutes even though you didn't attend that's is that right you can okay look at that we've yeah we've always so you don't have to abstain just a little tidbit of information you don't necessarily have to you're voting on a minutes if they're accurate you can vote on them thank you that's good to know all right we learned something new all right curriculum instruction who wants those three items come on somebody's got to take them so moved Mrs guas second Mrs herck is there discussion on curriculum and instruction this evening there is there is Mrs gu kick it off oh I would just like to thank Dr Bley and the administration for expanding our Orton Gillingham trained teachers um I know it's an expensive Endeavor but it is amazing to have this many teachers in the district available for our students that need this it's a very specific specific training and well worth it so thank you thank you all right um I believe this is just a Voice vote so all those in favor I very quiet crowd tonight opposed exstension motion carries bring us to financial services we have seven items this evening oh so moved mve my Miss second second by Miss Eric and is there any discussion on any of the seven items on finance this evening no this when is a roll call vote so I will ask the secretary to please call the rle Mr sisar yes Mr Cummings yes M guas yes Mrs harck yes Mr Hong yes Mrs ree yes president LAX yes motion carries bringing us to the one item under Human Resources uh no we have an addendum as well and we have an addendum as well may I please have a motion for the items this evening Miss gu I'll second and Mrs ter is there any discussion will the secretary please call the role Mr sisar yes Mr Cummings yes Miss guas yes Mrs herck yes Mr Hong yes Mrs Reese president LAX yes motion carries and bringing at home student services we've got three items this evening oh so moved and Miss gu and Mrs herck discussion yes yes Miss Boss I was very excited and happy to see that we have a Unified sports club happening at this is what one is Churchill right um it's a fantastic program if anybody hasn't had any contact with it it is bringing together uh students with and without disabilities on the same team oh for recreational activities and I've seen so many students um develop relationships that they wouldn't have otherwise and many good special ed teachers came out of the high school students that played on the Unified sports so I'm really happy to see this year that's great thanks for bringing that to our attention that's a really if I may that's something that um uh Miss uh sulana Loro uh and also uh Mr Malta were very passionate about and theyve came come together and brought student services in to uh to really make this happen so uh we're very fortunate that they did this I think it's going to be fantastic for our kids and our families so very excited about it that's wonderful thank you very much great job yeah yeah thank you um this one I believe is a roll call vote so I'm going to ask the secretary to please call the role Mr sisar yes Mr Cummings yes Miss gu yes Mrs herck yes Mr Hong yes Mrs ree yes president re yes motion carries and lastly we have new and or old business Community reports information items and for the good of the cause for the board Miss CLA I'm just feeling talking tonight go I got sleep I don't know uh I shouldn't I have a sick child um I just wanted to say that it was exciting to be back at Memorial and participate Memorial hosted the cake decorating contest last Friday um it was really fun to watch and at Churchill it's much bigger now and I appreciate the help from chatna who has now left but she was a big help setting that up but it was just great to watch the parents be involved with the kids together and to watch so many children eat so much icing that I didn't have to take home with me so that was awesome um and I also wanted to say that it was just a side note about the kindness week but I I only see one elementary school right now but it was nice to see during the kindness week one of the challenges one day was to come dressed as your kindness role model and so I'm there a pickup and you you're sort of like anticipating who the kindness Role Models I expected to see more Taylor Swift I have to admit than what I saw but what I saw was just children pouring out of the building building dressed as their teachers yeah beautiful which was really beautiful to see it was I my own went dressed as her teacher um but we have a small Shrine to her at home we love her um but the number of teachers that came or the number of small people who came out wearing a lanyard that were obviously their teachers was just really touching to see what role models the teachers are for them and how positive it is that's great teach are good teachers are good I just wanted to give Kos to the east brunic Symphony Orchestra uh you know Miss Beck gave him a very wonderful uh description of what they were going to do and we all attended a bunch of us were there and uh Cheryl brass who is one of the uh founding forces of that uh Orchestra I give kudos to her and to the district also have many high school teachers that performed um and those that were there maybe you could add but I I thought Mr Riser Mr Li Recreation Department the mayor I mean it was just a whole our district it just was a wonderful group event and it was Westside Story and then there was classical music so there was something for Star War Star Wars so and and I they hope to do more classes so that's something again the township and and the school board School working the district working together so it just was a beautiful night it really was I was excited when I saw my kids um Orchestra teachers on stage yeah it was really cool so I'm like well I guess they really did know what they were talking about huh right they were wonderful they performed beautifully they really did I mean the quality of the performance was that of like the city so yes Mr Cummings I was digging the Jurassic I think it was Jurassic Park uh them song well well it it was just an amazing to your point it was just really incredible um I had a couple things that I just wanted to share and piggybacking off of Miss gu's points as well I was dreski in your presentation on kindness week I I actually saw one of my children in one of those photos uh which was pretty cool and I'm going to talk to him about you know bringing that kindness to the home so he's doing it at school that's great and love to you know work on the other side of things but um very very cool and then um I also volunteer uh when I can at Elijah's promise so I I am on the other end of of you know taking those bags that were put together by the bound Monroe Community and handing them to people in need so it's really special to kind of see how that all comes full circle uh and you know I can see when I go there obviously the Great that is just so close in our own backyard here in New Brunswick um so just kudos to that Community for doing that as well I wanted to share uh just one other thing I as many of you know serve as the representative for the human relations Council in town and we had our first meeting in January it was a really great event and we have a lot of really exciting initiatives planned for this calendar year that um you know I'm just encouraging people to keep an eye out for that activity and I'll be sure to share it here but just some wonderful opportunities to continue to celebrate you know the amazing diversity that we have here in East Brunswick and and the richness of all of that and just one final shout out to Joe and your team every time I come here I just get more and more impressed with the various layers of of what go into making this this whole community so special and so and every report that I continue to hear is is you know above the Mark um that's really awesome so you know congrats to all of you and thank you for all of your service thank you Mr s oh sorry oh mine was brief I forgot um last night was the parents orientation or the parents welcoming to Hughes and for years of you know being a parent listening to their parents be nervous about moving from their small neighborhood you know snug warm cozy elementary schools into hamers shold and now Hughes there was always a bit of trepidation with the whole town coming together and last night I was home and several of my friends have their first child moving up to Hughes and my phone was exploding with mess messages written in all caps um the sources of strength with like hearts all over it whatever our children did that were representing sources of strength was outstanding the cares program was outstanding and just the further the night went on the more texts I was receiving about how positive the experience was how excited the parents were to send their children because it was just the parents um so kudos to the H or the Hughes staff for making it such a welcoming experience the parents were I've just never seen a group of adults so excited about the transition usually there's some hesitation and I know we talked about with the grade realignment you know what would the reception be and what happened last night was really positive so thank you to the people who organized thank you you know actually I was there last night so why under the door you did not text me yeah but I was too excited to text so when I walk in the door the the little Ambassador there Hy out Flyers show you big smiles make the parents very relaxed make this the little ones so excited they want to jump into the uh to the port with those uh little ambassadors and the program itself come I there last year and this year compare with the programs this year is much much better I should give Mr penko a lot of credit he and his team prare very well not just answer the questions the presentation and the setup everything was beautiful so I want to give him a lot of credit and this Saturday is BR art corelation is hosting a Chinese New Year party from 11: to 4: in public school and there will be a lot of good things there and my friends sponsored program you guys will have a lot of fun I promise so please this girl share some uh culture there and enjoy some food maybe you get some great gift I'm going to see you guys there because I will be there thank I have my tiger from last year thank you Mr sisar just a couple quick things I won't be as long as I normally am um I'm glad you brought up the uh the thing about the minutes um you're going to hear me talk from time to time about Robert's rules our policy 164 at a conct the board meetings it's what we're governed by it's called parliamentary Authority Robert's Rules of Order newly revised so whenever there's a question of policy and procedure that's like the Bible um and I think that's one of the things you brought up I don't even think and it wasn't bringing up toight till you said it but I don't even think a vote needs to be taken on the minutes if there's no questions from the floor of the presiding officer I think can pass it through but that wasn't my point of this um last week or two weeks ago there was a question about yielding of time let me explain something from Robert R it's called obtaining the floor when a member is recognized to speak by the chair that member holds the floor until they yield their position so they really shouldn't be interrupted by anyone during that time much like we do for the uh the session up here um I just wanted to clear up a comment that was made about only uh 10 times that we had a security committee meeting in four years uh so I went into what the public could go into and be honest with you I only did the past two years because that's what was available to the public there was three in 2021 there was four in 2022 and the comment was actually made that there was none in 2023 I have April 20th May 22nd August 31st October 12th and December 14th in 2023 so I don't want the public to have the impression and any anybody from the public can check where these meetings are it's either in the closed session notes or the agendas that we actually had much more than 10 meetings in four years and to say there was zero in 2023 gives the impression that we haven't talked about security at all in 2023 in the meeting setting and that is false and the last thing I don't want to go through the whole email that a gentleman sent us I'm not going to give his name but uh he said he applauds the board for openly discussing disagreements um you know it shouldn't be where uh what you say about some of the comments I won't say that but disagreement is good if we all sit up here and we just push everything right through I think as long as we respect each other respect each other's time I think I think we can disagree in a meeting that's a good thing when we're talking about1 180 $190 million trust me folks so that's where I come from when I'm up here I do not intend to be divisive but I do have my opinions and I take it very seriously with every dollar that's spent in this district and the way things are are run by policy so that's all I have to say about that so thank you if I could president Lex U Mr sisar just just to clarify I think the number that you're referring to for security meetings that included closed you you said it included closed session uh meetings as well right the numbers that you quoted those are the only the close session other on where it was listed I don't have access to the other things so probably 12 in the past two years plus the 10 that were so it's probably in the realm of 22 times cuz we extracted when we when we extracted the committee meetings we extracted the committee meetings that we had set up independent of the board so that's what the number was that we reported so that's I just wanted to clarify that so I'm not debating Mr sar's Number we can go back and reconcile but there certainly were discussions in Clos session that we had as he said that related to security we do have them on the closed session and that's to to the point is that's one of the reasons I wanted it because every meeting that you just referenced in 2023 was a committee meeting of the whole board not a meeting of the security committee correct and for yeah for clarification we try to set it up at other times and I I said this in the last meeting board members weren't available and it's tough to get here so Dr veski had come to me as a chairperson and says hey Mark do you mind if we move these into closed so we had about the same number of meetings last year um and my only point and I was going to bring it up but but by getting rid of the security committee it removes an option it's all I was saying I didn't say it's bad to talk as a board I didn't say it's bad to have the meetings I just think having all of them it encapsulates them into a group of people that we can only Talk Amongst one another it prohibits us from going out to other experts And discussing stuff that we discussed in closed session and I won't go into the depth of that but that's what it it truly limits our options to have us security meetings and ideas it doesn't it doesn't at all make this the district less safe as far as the day-to-day operations yes um and just to to remind you one of the reasons people can't always make meetings because we all work so when you call a meeting at 5:00 on a work day for some people I think that's probably one of the problems which was another reason that they work so well in our closed session so I think we're we're both saying the same thing it's just that quite honestly IED it for good purpose yes but the but the the meetings the reason we have them in our Clos session is the entire board is part of them and it's not um taking away from the work day and that way people can be there because you shouldn't call a meeting and have no one show up that's a that's a tough way to do things so Mrs herck I will Echo the everything that was said about the sympathy Orchestra I loved Romeo and Juliet and Harry Potter so it was really great to see it was really great to share the experience with my daughter and to see so so many of you there as well as so many people in our community and our Administration so it's really great to have that collaboration uh last weekend I also attended the uh geology museum openhouse at Ruckers and I ran into some East Brunswick students there so it's really great to see um utilizing our resources when we have a great University so close to us that enables us to see like artifacts and fossils and and rocks and students doing presentations and being involved and that's really great um I just want to throw out um the special education parent advisory group we have our next meeting on February 7th at 7 p.m. at Churchill and they're going to talk about um there's going to be a transition planning presentation so just wanted to make that announcement as well so than thank you very much okay can I mention just I didn't even think about it I'm looking out in the audience I'm looking at our director of technology I just want to mention something very very quickly he's like and I'm not going to put I'm not going to put you on the spot Nick um a number of us from the district were in Atlantic City last week at an event called texo and it's an event where School District officials get together and they talk about the latest technology that's available uh for schools and a lot of resources and the thing I wanted to say is I was down there and I couldn't believe how many people I ran into who looked at my badge came up to me and said I'm an East Brunswick graduate and they were there with vendors technology vendors and so I just wanted to say that that the expanse of East bronswick that education and related to the corporate sector is quite awesome and and these people are not just local either they're spread around the country coming back to Atlantic City to be part of these presentations so I just want to mention that pretty neat yeah thank you and I didn't get anything free as a result of it either oh I'm sorry they should have they got a good education from us right yeah um I'm looking at my ladies we get to go for a motion to adjourn so move and Miss GL and Mrs herck who wants to go home all in favor ah there you go opposed extensions motion carries thank you everyone have a great night