there we go okay I would like to call this meeting to order will the secretary please call the role Mrs Becker Mr carangelo Mr sisar here Mr Cummings here miss guas Mr Hong Mrs Reese here Mr Winston here president LAX here we barely have a quorum 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 liberty and justice for all the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the rights of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies in which any business affecting their interests is discussed and acted upon in 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 Board of Education offices written notice was also provided to The Sentinel the new Star Ledger the home News Tribune and the municipal clerk of East Brunswick all Board of Education meetings with the C of EX excuse me executive session discussions or videotape 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'm going to immediately go into close session and hope that we find some more friends on this end as I'm sure you will on yours when we come back so whereas the Board of Education must discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion in a public meeting and these subjects are within the exceptions to the open public meetings act and are permitted to be discussed in close session the Board of Education intends to discuss those matters as follows those items listed on tonight's agenda the length of close 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 brunic Board of Education will recess into Clos session for only the affers said subjects and be it further resolved that the East brunck Board of Education hereby declares that its discussion of the affers said subjects will be made public at a time when the Public's interest in disclosure is greater than any privacy or governmental being protected from disclosure in accordance with the open public meetings act so second move by Mr hung second by Mr Winston is there any discussion all those in favor opposed exensions motion carries we will see you in an hour oh you stuck in too see and we're back welcome back and just like I said we have some friends up here that joined us and you have lots of friends out there that joined us and I have a feeling I know why but to get to the good stuff we're going to start with other good stuff because Dr veski is going to give his superintendent report so we'll let you kick it off thank you president LAX and good evening everyone including our young visitors from Irwin the artwork on display in the boardroom this evening was created by students from bound Monroe Elementary School the art teacher of these talented students is toera naiche Kristen Christina is the principal the video newsmakers Club starts each morning at Frost Elementary School for the students and staff these Brave students write their own news reports and present them to the student body providing the essential information for the day and as you can imagine the most important topic is what's on the lunch menu on Friday December 1st the staff and students at hamers shold Upper Elementary School wore their favorite holiday socks to school as part of a fun for iday Spirit day in addition they collected over 325 new pairs of socks to donate to the Ebe ebea be den and I would like to thank the East Brunswick Education Association and the educational support professional Council for hosting a sneaker and boot drive for the month of November a total of 140 pairs of sneakers and boots were collected in addition the ebea hosted a virtual toy drive for the families of veterans of VFW Post 133 in East bronswick and collected $825 so great job just a few reminders Friday December 22nd is a single session day for all students with lunch served in grades K through six I can imagine all the young people sitting up front are really excited about that the district will be closed Monday December 25th through Monday January 1st 20124 school will resume unfortunately Tuesday January 2nd I know that our winter recess is traditionally an opportunity for families to spend time with one another and I would be remissed not to acknowledge that conflicts abroad are impacting many families in our own East brunwick School community we work relentlessly to ensure that East Brunswick Public Schools remains a compassionate and supportive Community for all students and their families and our teachers Security Professionals and administrators are masterful in creating safe environments and Havens for students and I appreciate them for the work they CR they critically do every single day along with recognition to wrap up tonight I would like to take a moment to rec recognize one of our own for her Valor in the very back of the room I draw your attention to the young lady in the very back Roda Omar is an instructional assistant at Churchill Junior High Rod responded to an emergency when she discovered a student was choking her quick thinking and reflexive actions prevented or helped ensure a safe and immediate outcome for this student we are proud of her and grateful she was the right person at the right time as well as all the other staff who helped a sister Rodwell Thank You From A Grateful School community and with her now now we are going to further embarrass her by asking her to come up and Mr Hannis I would like you to come up to the mic and kind of give some context to the Great work that radwood does I don't think you need the stool I was prepping for my small friends thank you Dr veski and the Board of Education and I'd just like to take this moment to just recognize Miss Omar for her actions and share a little bit about what she does on a daily basis Miss Omar is a caring and true professional from the the moment our buses arrive at Churchill in the morning she's always there greeting our students with a smile uh on her face she sheds positivity um throughout the day in the Halls you frequently see her walking with students with a smile on her face and she is always I'm I'm I'm always impressed by her ability to adapt and meet the needs of the students that she works with in our special programs classes she uses her intuition to provide High quality instruction while leaving um room for our students to develop their own independence she helps beyond the classroom by translating often in meetings such as IEP meetings 504 meetings inrs meetings for families that are in need and that goes beyond her regular responsibilities as an instructional assistant but it truly helps our community she's the type of person who does not want me up here right now sharing this with you she's a true professional and selfless in every meaning of that word and she and it was demonstrated when she stepped in for a student who was in need in Cafe in the cafeteria during lunchtime her quick action helped that young lady and uh and I I was thoroughly impressed with how she just immediately went right back to her regular responsibilities like nothing had happened and um on behalf of the entire Churchill Community I want to thank her for her actions every day that she does in working with our students and especially in this instance with helping this young lady who was in [Applause] [Applause] need thank you guys I I'm beyond words I don't feel like I deserve this I just did what I needed to do I would have I would do it over again a million times I hope I don't have to but really don't but that's so makes you a superhero we're really glad you were there yes thank you thank [Applause] you thank you for that further proof that superheroes do not necessarily wear capes and not to make my young friends more nervous because I talked to them before hand and they're excited but a little bit nervous but you're going to follow that but you know what it shows you what adults can do when they grow up and I'm expecting big things from you guys because I know Miss chimowitz has wonderful kids in her school and so we have another treat we are going to be hearing from the Irwin School fourth grade ambassadors they're going to present if you give Irwin some preschoolers a day in the life of little people and for any of you that are familiar with the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Book which is one of my favorites um this may sound familiar so take it away good evening everyone we are here tonight to tell you a wonderful story called if you give Irwin some preschoolers but because they are so little they are already asleep so that is why we are here we are the Irwin School ambassadors as an ambassador at as an ambassador at Irwin school we lead the school each morning in our announcements we also help Mrs showit with um and Mrs weeks plan the spirit days and assemblies the goal of the ambassador's club is to help us become strong leaders mentors and active members of our school Community being an ambassador is a privilege that is open to all fourth grade students at Irwin school before we sh read our story tell you and like to share why we love being an ambassador my name is n and I love being Ambassador because I love helping students out are in school hello my name is Ren rat and I'm a proud irn Ambassador here are some reasons why I love love being an ambassador I get chances to represent my school Irwin and we get to do fun things for example this Wednesday we were doing holiday cheer cards we always do something fun for the holidays lastly I love to share my ideas hi my name is Maria and I love being an ambassador because we get very big and important things to do and we help this the school to be a better place hello everybody my name is jenel and I love being an ambassador because I get to help everybody at Irwin school and I and I get to build me and my and my leadership skills hello my name is Jericho and I like being an ambassador because I help helping around the school and we get to do fun things hi my name is Helena and I love being an ambassador cuz we get to help the kids in the school play is often talked about as if it was a relief from serious learning but for children play is serious work play is the work of childhood if you give Irwin some preschoolers the day in the life of little people if you give wiwin some preschoolers they will arrive in style hang up coats take take out snacks and go free play for a little while here is DJ Emma Charlie Matthew and Aon getting off the bus and getting ready for a great day at Irwin hania anqueela and Brian are getting ready for an awesome day in preschool Laura Emma and Foo pack unpacking and getting ready for the day kimy Jaden Raphael and Sydney from Miss Gilman's class Raphael and Jaden unpacking Matthew DJ and noela unpacking in Mrs allwood's class Emma Ian Ivon and Kyra enjoying their playtime Kimi Raphael and Alisa are um having fun during early morning playtime free play with our friends playing kitchen dolls and blocks then to morning group it's time for learning to start Emma Brian DJ Amelia and Jaden having fun during free play even Nora and Liliana playing in kitchen and Dolls Miss power class Playing House ret Nisha and Elanor building with Legos Laura and Hamza building with Magnetic tiles morning group is so much fun learning all we need to know about calendar and Concepts then off to centers we go Miss Po's class singing Good Morning Song during the morning meeting Miss gan's class singing and listening along to their week of the letter G Miss gelman's class dancing on their fun Friday Mi Miss allwood's class oh miss Po's class day of the week and gingerbread movement break Miss allwood's class during morning meeting and movement break Avery Luke and Phil sorting pom poms in Miss power's class Learning Centers during centers we love to explore shapes colors and letters but soon it's time for snacka what could be better Miss gelman's class participating in building tracing name and sorting shapes Miss Mrs Sylvia and Miss po class having snack after Sak when preschoolers clean up then read books to the cut on on the floor after that time for art to create Masterpiece Galore Miss Po's class and Miss ala's class exploring books Miss ala's class leading If You Give a Mouse series Mrs Al's class exploring if you give a mous series preschools painting when art is done if the weather's nice we go play outside running jumping and climbing is the perfect way to end our day Sydney Raphael and Chris playing playing during recess Jaden Sydney playing during recess Miss po class having fun at recess Emma and Argent is playing on the Seesaw the [Applause] end take picture all right nice job very good wow these are all the teachers that actually teach [Applause] those [Applause] want to because the next thing is public hearing on okay well um two minutes I am going to take a two-minute recess and when I say two minutes board members please don't don't leave your seats um so that our Young Learners can go home and um and study thank you so much for being here you guys were phenomenal you made us very impressed up here and we are excited to see what you will do as you um enter in the Upper Grade so go enjoy good night you all stay Dr Figaroa is going to be doing our public hearing on the student safety data system um report and after he is done I will open it up to the public for any comments on this report only the public portion on anything else will be to come so Dr figeroa take it away thank you president LAX on an annual basis uh school districts are required to report at a public hearing the number of acts of violence vandalism and substance abuse that occurred in the previous school year this report also meets the federal requirement of identifying persistently dangerous schools we report incidents of violence vandalism and substance abuse on a board to the board on a monthly basis at this meeting I'd like to review a summary of the incidents that occurred during the 2223 school year uh in terms of violence the total incidents of violence that would be fights threats assaults were up from 47 to 54 acts in the 2223 school year vandalism incidents damage to property false public alarm and theft were up from 10 to 11 in terms of substance abuse incident counts increased from 25 to 71 the 2223 school year um this is largely due to vaping and the easy access to Vapes and vape paraphernalia in terms of harassment intimidation and bullying the 2223 school year there were 193 total HIV investigations throughout our schools with 77 confirmed hivs in the previous year uh there were 155 investigations patients with 60 confirmed hivs activities were available during the course of the school year to prevent School violence and highlight the importance of school safety in addition our Administration and staff review policies and regulations safety crisis procedures and important topics promoting student safety regularly some examples of the activities are uh sources of strength peer and adult mentoring program activities gay straight Alliance safe space positive messages school spirit days throughout the District make a wish letters Mentor programs cultural organizations peace pledges cyber bullying programs uh SSO and ebpd video safety Clips Peacemaker of the week OAS anti-bullying program with focus on class meetings violence prevention week activities and respect week activities I'm happy to report uh that due to our effective training of Staff the work performed by our director of school security operations Paul natalicio and our security team supervisor of student services Danielle block and our student assistant Specialists our supervisor of counseling and career Readiness Vanessa amuro our school counselors nurses teachers support staff and our administrators we continue to make significant strides in training and understanding the needs of our students we have more work to do and we appreciate the work of Dr veski and the support of the Board of Education in summary East Burick Public School schools are safe schools but we continue to look for ways to improve our school climate throughout the district we are continually working on additional ways to educate our students and our community on social and emotional health as well as substance abuse uh which are concerns at both the state and National level we have strong administrators well-trained student assistant Specialists and school counselors caring teachers nurses support staff wonderful students and supportive parents we continue to look uh proactive approaches to addressing the safety of our 8,358 students and our over 1600 staff in our 11 schools thank you Dr Figaroa I appreciate that is there anyone in the audience this evening that would like to speak on this topic and this topic alone okay to board any questions on the board okay all right um thank you Dr fig we are going to move on to the good of the cause for the public the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment on 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 for public comment at every meeting participant will be limited to 3 minutes duration elapse time will be determined through the use of a timing device operated by the board secretary um and I do always remind you that this is the time to speak to the board um do not take our silence as not caring about the issue you are raising anything that needs followup we'll refer you to um the two lovely ladies there that will'll make sure we have your contact information um and anyone coming up to speak to the board I will ask you when you come up to please state your name and address for the record that being said is there anyone this evening that would like to speak to the board okay seeing none I'm going to then close the public portion and I am going to ask for a motion to combine this evening's agenda moved by Mr Winston second by Mrs gu is there any discussion on anything this evening on tonight's agenda on any of the sections no okay then I'm going to ask the secretary to please call the RO Mr sismour yes Mr Cummings yes Miss guas yes Mr Hong yes Mrs Reese yes Mr Winston yes president LAX yes motion carries leading us to committee reports information items for the good of the cause for the board and I just want to make everyone aware um next gen acting um there is a rising star and I apologize for looking at my phone Rising Star resilience project I will be um giving this to Danielle block to um share with our Student Assistance specialist um it is for children um 12 to 177 uh that may be in need and resilience is something that they've experienced um something in their life they need to get over and acting is always a wonderful way for children to work through some issues so next gen acting they are one of our local Community Partners here in East brunwick and I will um forward on that information and if you know of anyone 12 to 17 I believe the deadline was extended to January 17th um is there anyone else that has anything this evening oh Mr sisar I guess I'll be the self-appointed holiday guy committee even though there isn't one um yeah I just wanted to reach out and I don't speak for the other board members but I'm sure they'll Echo it um we have the holiday season coming up you know we're we're blessed to live in this community and um you know everybody spend time with your families your friends you'll get through the holidays and then I want all our students and staff and everybody to come back into the new year uh bright and fresh to continue the Excellence that we have in our district every day so thank you to the staff admin my fellow members students parents everybody East brunic is a wonderful place so happy holidays new years's and all that kind of stuff thank you yeah you're still on my closing line but that's good I like that uh Mr H so on December 6th uh we had a fair good curricular committee meeting always I appreciate Dr buly and her team so the the meeting is not just talk about the new class it's exchange of ideas by different teachers from different background with different experience this is good way for our young teachers to grow and it's very good way for us to learn the new idea from different person so that's why I'm always so excited to join Dr police curricular committee meeting thank you very much okay so last night uh ebf uh had a monthly uh trusty meeting I'm always glad to be part of them so this is holiday season so when you think about gifting so please think about ebf this team leading by Jack Le to provide our school a lot of additional resource which this board couldn't provide so they they tried very hard to raise every penny and they spend every penny to for our schools so I wish you guys when you think about giting okay think about ebf and they are planning a pie dinner ear next year think about try to get your friend a business locally or nationally chip in so it's help ebf and it's actually event help our students so please think about it and this the end of this last meeting of this year so this guy is's now here but I Mr corela he served our community our school our community without pay for three years so you know we're here you know we volunteer so I appreciate his service and I will remember him so I want people know that we are sitting here with sa sacrifice our family time we are here work for our children we have no personal again so I wish people remember uh Mark Kula and appreci his service and I personally thank him and I will remember him and I wish everyone a happy holiday that's the holiday season again than about ebf thank you thank you Mr H Mr cumings I just wanted to real quick I didn't do this at the last meeting and I that was a mistake on my part I wanted to thank Dr veski and Dr Vanella uh the November 28th Forum at the high school I thought was a very productive opportunity for people from across the community to come together voice concerns and then the ongoing efforts that that the district allowed for people to continue to share their feedback I know that there's plenty more to do as we head into 2024 but I thought it was really a well-run uh event and I thought especially the opportunity to tour the high school I myself have never been that in depth in that space so it was really unique to walk into some of those classrooms and you know see and kind of feel to the best of my ability you know what it would be like to be a student there um just a really really well-run event I thought and I just wanted to thank you Dr veski for pulling that together with your team you could also ask in the future Jeff Mark and myself because we were students in that it's only a few years ago right and speaking of that building actually um I don't know if anyone got to see the play she kills monsters I did get to go last week and looking at our fourth graders you see what happens when fourth graders turn into high schoolers who have incredible Poise when they get up on that stage and it always amazes me when I see our students and I forget that I'm watching high school students and not professional actors because there's some really great talent there so can I say one more thing sorry I'll you've gone over your allotment I'm sorry I probably did I apologize um thank you and this kind of is a piggybacking off of what Mr sisar was saying but I was um we were unable to get the at hamers the other night they had the uh choir concert not excuse me not the Symphony concert orchestra concert and I was heading in as people were heading out cuz my son's uh artwork was featured on the wall so we we were able to get there just at the tail end but uh Mr patranco patranco was there and and he was just gleaming you know with the excitement over the turnout and the you know all of the families I mean the parking lot was just jam-packed so it's it's events like that it's it's you know stuff that we see here in the front that you know to your point it's an amazing community and we're so fortunate for you know all of the the services that we have in place here and just the the goodness of the people and I just want to highlight that and Echo that CU it's you know there's there's a lot of negativity out there as well um and that can bog you down but you know we're moving into 2024 and have some really great stuff in the pipeline so I'm really excited about that and and grateful to be working with this group of great group of people and with the great you know Administration and faculty across across the district so thank you all right that was worth letting you have an extra all right thank you you're welcome well piggybacking on U what Mr sisar said since I'm glad to have um a self-appointed holiday a uh person um I'm going to call for a motion to adjourn um thank you Mr Winston and Mr sisar all in favor opposed exstension motion carries and I will just say as I said I spoke a little too soon um whatever lights brighten your homes this holiday season I wish you peace and health and happiness and we look forward to seeing you in the new year so everyone get home safe thank you