okay I would like to call this meeting to order will the secretary please call the RO Mrs Becker here Mr carangelo present Mr sisar here Mr Cummings here miss guas Mr Hong Mrs ree here Mr Winston here president LAX here we have a quum please rise to salute the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the rights of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affect refecting their interests is discussed and acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the East brons 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 York Star Ledger the home News Tribune and the municipal clerk of East bronswick all Board of Education meetings with the exception of executive session discussions are 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 I am actually going to call a recess at this point and we shall um rejourn at [Applause] 7:30 okay welcome back um before we begin with tonight's business I'm going to ask everyone if you could please stand um we're going to observe a moment of silence for Dr John AR Capco superintendent of schools he retired he was here from April 1st 1989 through June 30th 2000 and he recently passed away okay thank you very much okay and moving on to our board business we are going to start with Dr veski and the superintendent's report this evening good evening everyone the artwork on display in the Board Room this evening was created by students from Lawrence Brook Elementary School the art teacher of these talented students is Michelle Lynch Rachel weisen corn is the interim principal on Tuesday November 7th staff members throughout the district participated in professional development sessions facilitated by supervisors teacher leaders and other professional organizations many of the workshops were designed to extend and deepen existing best practices and initiatives we look forward to continuing these opportunities for staff members throughout the school year on Wednesday November 8th Yan maca's 7eventh grade English class boarded a fictitious plane in FLW to Vegas to perform their published realistic fiction pieces I don't have any gambling was involved but they flew to Vegas this was the culminating lesson of their writing realistic fiction unit together the students celebrated all of the time effort and hard work they put into writing over the past four weeks the students did an outstanding job applying the writing skills they learned in class specifically with their use of figurative language meaningful dialogue and descriptive language all of which helped to paint a vivid picture of their chosen small moment the students were excited and proud PR to share their published pieces and exuded confidence in front of their peers when speaking at the microphone from the dim lights to the up upbe background music and the MC hosting the show the entire atmosphere in the classroom helps set the stage for everyone to display their creativity it does look like you're having a good time it does sources of strength mission is to prevent adverse outcomes by increasing well-being help seeking resiliency healthy coping and belonging on November 15th students from the high school program visited hamers shold Upper Elementary School to begin the trip High School peer leaders spoke with the Hammers shold students about how they utilize their sources of strength they spoke about their mentors Family Support mental health physical health of Health generosity and positive friends the trip ended with peer leaders answering questions and connecting with students in a more personal way many current members of sources of strength at the high school experienced this trip when they were in fth fth grade and felt it made a positive impact in their lives now they're giving back to our community and encouraging a younger generation to seek support when needed or help a friend going through a difficult time at Irwin school as part of their pbsis program buddy classes met in November and wrote letters to all our local vfw's for Veterans Day students enjoyed enjoyed writing messages to thank our local veterans for their service to our country I am pleased to report along with Mr Juliana that the high school weight room renovation and Equipment replacement has been completed and with a few minor adjustments that remain to be made the newly refurbished space will be soon open for students to enjoy like that not our gym anymore on tonight's agenda our recommendations to award contracts for the construction of the varsity and Junior Varsity softball fields and field hockey complex the project is estimated to take approximately 6 months to complete and that's with weather permitting and this reflects input from the athletic department stakeholders and we look forward to opening this new facility next school year and before we go any further I've asked Mr Juliana to actually explain because and and to re explain to the board all of the Fe features and all of the uh pieces of this really fabulous complex thank you Dr bki so um just to orient uh everyone to uh to the site the uh top where you see the parking lot that is uh the lower parking lot it is um just below uh the um current baseball field and past the location of the um of the stadium uh in the orientation here the stadium football stadium would be to the right of this complex uh if we start from the top and you can see the marker um we've got the entryway into the complex um a set of stairs leading up this will be um kind of a plateau uh setting for this uh complex so the stairs leading up and then over to the right of those stairs cares uh is the 88 handicapped access ramp up to the complex as well um before anyone points this out at some point in time the bearhead that you see is not how the bearhead will be oriented uh on the site uh it will be oriented so that when you enter the site you're going to be looking at it or it's going to be looking at you upside down so but for purposes of the illustration it would look kind of odd to have an upside down head so uh let's go um as we go around uh in a clockwise manner from the main entrance uh there's a u flag pole we continue on uh the walkway here uh there are we're now down to the um uh Varsity side for softball visitors uh bleachers um dugouts for both visitors and for home team and then down on the uh far right another set of visitors bleachers uh the dugouts are will be equipped with um with water fountains uh for both teams uh as we continue on around sorry excuse when you say water fountains do you mean traditional water fountains or like the refilling stations where people can I I think refilling stations but I don't recall right off the top there'll be water access okay I can't I just don't recall the detail on that uh one of the things that I'll point out is that the entire uh Field Complex is fenced um so that uh it is a secure area um and then as we come around the lower part you'll see um three um uh uh areas that are blackened out those are scoreboards so there's a scoreboard for each of the two uh softball fields uh they're located uh in the vicinity of those two respective fields and then there's a scoreboard in the center for field Hoy purposes this brown box uh down in the lower part of the uh of the a depiction here uh that is a combination storage on the first floor and the second floor is a Press Box we move along around um to the JV field and then and we replicate essentially what we have on the varsity side so there are there's a spectator seating um the same type of um dugouts for visitors in home and then spectator seating again on the other side above the spectator seating on the top left side of this image you see these uh rectangular spaces these are batting cages two batting cages for softball two batting cages for baseball so we did not have batting cages for the baseball complex so we're able to provide them here um the um uh the water retention will all be underground um and uh the entire site will be lighted so we'll be able to see that fly ball when it's coming coming over and hopefully not hitting anyone in the head um and uh that's pretty much it we're expecting it's going to take 6 months I'm scheduling the kickoff meeting with um the contractor for next Tuesday so that we can start uh having them move forward with their ordering and so forth I can't say when is uh when are shovels going to get into the ground I don't know when that will be they'll need to prepare a schedule and provide that and tell us what those timelines are but this is roughly going to be about six months that's what our Engineers are telling us and of course I give the caveat weather permitting have a couple questions absolutely where are the softball fences going to be meaning they're portable the homeon fences they're the home well you don't just the hole and Chase it forever so um there's no permanent fencing that will be in the outfields there will be movable F yes we'll have that and how many um seats per area for you know for spectators yeah I don't recall the size of the bleachers honestly or 20 I I I don't want to misspeak so I don't recall the numbers um for each of the um soft ball events uh but this entire area along the top of the field where the entry is that's all potential seating so bring your own folding chair you right does this meet other softball field standards in state how abely day the art this is meeting all the athletic standards for the kind of play that will occur on this complex I have to say thank you very much for this cu the girls deserve it really they do yeah yes sir I'm just still trying to or myself where this is I'm I'm still lost on that so what's there now this is well this is where all the tree stumps areals now I got it yeah the parking lot right the parking lot area was the was the old driving range good so and the complex is located where we had um a small Forest if you will and now is occupied by the tree stumps remember the batch mon in my house yeah but that's okay we need them off this side any other questions y oh uh Heather uh Tim you all have questions aside okay um without being too specific and I'm very excited about this because the softball fields were not something that I was super happy with and I'm a field hockey mom so yay but um without being specific do we have security built into this plan because I was uncomfortable with how the softball fields were sew out by themselves but this is also way down at the End by itself all of our polls will be equipped with security cameras okay good so that's something that that was very important in our planning process so this will be a sec site the fencing around the field is I believe 6 or 8T fencing so um you really have to make an effort to try and get in there if you're not supposed to be there but the entire site will be uh outfitted with security cameras TI to our Central system perfect thank you just confirming so the field in the middle the rectangle is field hockey yes fi hockey excellent and then is this large enough that and I'm not sure if this would ever happen but is it large enough that two games could be going on simultaneously uh softball yeah conceivably okay absolutely did you have a question for no okay Jeff just uh two quick questions uh during the six-month period how much parking Interruption is going to take place down in that section we're not anticipating it's going to have an adverse impact on uh the utilization of parking if you're down at that site anytime during the school day there is a lot of space back there so we don't think there'll be adverse impact and one of the things that we'll be manag managing with the contractor is um their entry and exiting during uh School opening and closing so we'll be limiting contractor uh traffic during those periods of time so that we can get buses and staff and students in and out of the site right good and just the second question I know we're still kicking around ideas in the with the potential of a new high school or a renovated High School does this survive absolutely okay that's $4 million that we wouldn't be n vaporizing this is this is a long term it'll be there okay thanks yeah okay Mark a question Bernie um so when we cut the trees down and now stumps was the money that we spent for the tree cutting going to be used for the stump removal too like like how does that money is it going cost us more money right because there's a lot of stump so they got to right was that part of the cost to remove the trees no the the uh removal when we had the the trees fell it was simply to fell the trees and remove them from the site so now there's a new this is part of a separate now the removal of the stumps and all the undergrowth that's part of this project and all the site work that has to occur thanks Bernie okay all right very exciting J thank you so back to my report oh yeah back sorry sorry refocus okay lady Bears now back to Dr Valen so um piggy backing on Mr Winston's comment I want to remind everyone that we will host a community Forum discussing the future of East Brunswick High School Tuesday November 28th starting at the high school auditorium at 700 p.m. I will deliver a 30-minute presentation followed by building tours and a feedback Gathering session in the high school cafeteria and we expect the evening to conclude around 900 p.m. I want to thank Dr Dana zii the East frun Education Association and their pride grant for the refreshments that'll be provided that night and just a further um for the public and for the board um you know we invested in New Field Turf for our football stadium uh last year that also would remain uh untouched uh so all those features on the western side of the campus uh will remain as part of any proposal to either renovate or build new so all this all the money that's being invested in athletics will be will be retained there won't be anything taken out thank you for that reminder the high school fall drama production of she kills monsters has been rescheduled new show dates are Friday December 8th and Saturday December 9th at 7 p.m. on Sunday December 10th the performance will begin at 300 p.m. tickets can be purchased at ebh HS drama. org and I just also wanted to let the board know that last night at the celebration of life for uh Dr Joan magestro who was the superintendent who preceded me uh the stanitz family L stanitz thanked the board for hosting the event I wanted to pass that on to you uh I also wanted to mention that as as people came into the venue last night they were greeted by the um string Court which is um directed by Dr Arvin goel and um Adam good uh with Bello and our students are phenomenal um and I thought what was really interesting is when I left the performance last night left the celebration last night I realized that the oldest performing student on that stage last night would have been in first grade when Dr magistra retired and she was so passionate about the Arts and about having those performances but yet here we are with students who have never would have never known her uh still performing at this really high standard and I think that that's a huge credit to the staff that we have so I just really wanted to thank Dr gopel and and Mr good for guiding those students last night and it really is a state about the quality of staff that we have in East brunwood public schools and I know we're going to talk about American Education week tonight too but we are a very blessed district with a lot of really talented and really significantly accomplished individuals who pass that knowledge on to students I just want to thank them for that we are we have incredible students but you're right we need the right people to to bring that out in them yeah that was actually almost a little concert in itself last night yeah yeah it was very it was very nice nice it was very touching so I'll wrap up with just a few reminders Wednesday November 22nd will be a single session day for all students with lunch served in grades K through six school will be closed on Thursday November 23rd and Friday November 24th and I wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving thank you thank you you want to take a off of me okay hiding in the back we have a resolution of proclamation for American Education week whereas public schools are the backbone of our democracy providing young people with the tools they need to maintain our nation's precious values of Freedom Civility and equality and where is by equipping Young Americans with both practical skills and broader intellectual abilities schools give them hope for an access to a productive future and whereas public education employees be they administrators Teachers Health and student service workers Librarians custodians bus drivers clerical workers Food Service professionals skilled trade workers security guards technical employees or substitutes work tirelessly to serve our children and communities with care and professionalism and whereas Public Schools encourage Community by bringing together adults and children Educators and volunteers Business Leaders and elected officials for a common purpose now therefore be it resolved that the East brunic Board of Education proclaims November 13th through 17 2023 as American Education week Dr zimi want to come on up I don't need a this is I do need a motion Mrs Mr cmings congratulations thank you for everything any discussion all right all those in favor oppos extensions motion carries you and yesterday was um the National Education support professionals day yesterday as well so we always like to highlight our ESP so thank you thank you picture before you escape us thank you thank you so much I beat you this does not bode well for him for the bear crawl just want everyone to know that don't worry I beat him in heels don't worry I'll sorry couldn't resist see Tim Tim's not the only one that's going to kick your butt on Sunday right but we'll wait for the bear crawl um thank you so much doctors and Vicki and your staff um we are now up 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 should provide a period for public comments at every meeting of the board public participation is not an opportunity to engage in dialogue with the board um and I do always like to remind people that you will have 3 minutes to speak if there are any issues that need to be further addressed we ask that you leave your contact information with the two lovely ladies up front and any uh followup can then be uh given to you that being said is there anyone this evening wishing to speak to the board yes okay this is why I always wait to pause just if you could please state your name and address for the record please Rose Cruz 22 Perry Road I didn't really prepare a statement tonight but uh we had our cpag meeting last night um special education parent advisory group and one of the main concerns that came up was transportation and just because everyone um remembers things more when they can see it I wanted to bring my son's favorite toy because the bus is the greatest thing in the world to him but it seems like it's not for a lot of kids in our district um specifically the ones that are in special education they get bused across town because they're in different programs and whatnot and I think that they end up getting contracted buses a lot of times they're not District employees they're they're just night and day apparently because everybody loves the East brunck transportation department there's no question um but there's obviously a stark difference between the service that they receive from the contracted buses um I I don't really have an answer or a solution for this but I I feel obligated to bring this to your attention again I don't think it's the first time that you've heard it um we do have a a growing group and there are a lot of parents that are willing to volunteer if given the opportunity if there's something that we can come up with um Thinking Out of the Box um you know helping out uh with the transitions of at bus stops or um drop offs at school um whatever it is we're really looking forward to working with a new board member that is part of our group Lori herck and uh all the other members of the board and um oh and um thank you again so much for the student services committee meeting that we had uh a week or two ago um it was such a pleasure to hear all the wonderful things that are happening in our schools and uh um I'm just very delighted with all the progress that I've been seeing in this District thank you thank you Miss Cruz and if you would leave your information um then maybe we can get some follow up and address that issue with you is there anyone else this evening wishing to speak to the board okay definitely not then I'm going to close the public portion and move on on to our agenda this evening may I please have a motion for items one and two on our Board of Education items move by Mrs Becker second by Mr carangelo is there any discussion okay this is a roll call Vote with the secretary please call the RS Mrs Becker yes Mr carangelo yes Mr sisar yes Mr Cummings yes M gu yes Mrs Reese yes Mr Winston yes president LAX yes motion carries may I please have a motion for our one item item on curriculum and instruction this evening move by Mrs Becker second by Mr carangelo um and I just want to remind you that I would like to make sure we do schedule the um presentation on the flex school we are working on that awesome any other discussion on this all in favor I I oppos abstentions motion carries bringing us to three items this evening for facilities Mrs Becker and Mr carangelo is there any discussion we all have the discussion on uh your pictures from earlier so thank you for that um I believe it's a roll call vote um right is that oh wait a second it is a Voice vote but we can certainly it is a Voice vote no no no no no my apologies let's do a roll call just for the heck of it no we have we have roll calls coming up okay all those in favor I opposed extensions motion carries may I please have a motion for financial services Mr carangelo and then Mrs Becker is there any discussion this is a roll call vote Mrs Becker yes Mr carangelo yes Mr sisar yes Mr Cummings yes Miss gu yes Mrs ree yes Mr Winston yes president LAX yes motion carries may I please have a motion for human resources two items this evening one item I'm sorry we did not have a second item oh okay look at that see we forgot one okay for the one item Mrs Becker and Mr carangelo is there any discussion will the secretary please call the RO Mrs Becker yes Mr carangelo yes Mr sisar yes Mr Cummings yes Miss guas yes Mrs Reese Mr Winston yes president LAX yes yes yes yes motion carries leading us to Student Services may please have a motion for those three items this evening moved by Mrs Becker and second by Mr carangelo is there any discussion okay this as well is a roll call vote Mrs Becker yes Mr carangelo yes Mr sisar yes Mr Cummings yes Miss guas yes Mrs Reese yes Mr Winston yes president LAX yes motion carries bringing us to committee reports information items and for the good of the cause for the board so oh okay I will defer age before younger age go ahead Mrs Becker oh you're talking to Mark yes he is older than you I just wanted to um remark on what a lovely evening it was um last night Bittersweet for the reason that we were there but um to c i to celebrate the life of someone is really a wonderful thing um to be grateful for what you had with them while they were here what they gave and certainly Joan magistro gave so much and um Dr U veski spoke beautifully um and uh so did the other people and it was just a very moving evening it was but Hanks stole the show the story even knowing the story of how they got together oh it it was like a romance it was one oh my God it was so touching it was how do they meet you'll have to watch the video we couldn't tell it as good as he did we couldn't tell it as good as he did but now that we tease everyone you have to let them know so um he told the story but the first time he saw her she was in the office talking to a secretary and he talked about how it took his breath away the most beautiful woman he hadd ever seen and he goes through all this about how he finally they get to a point where they they meet each other um because she showed shows up in his classroom and then I guess at some point later on it turns out that she says do you know the first time I ever saw you she saw him at that same time I have chills now she saw him at that same time and thought he was this you know most gorgeous person she had ever seen and it was one of those just kind of like you know Kismet like you know something you're seeing from like a movie side from you know he said she said but it was actually really beautiful so and she raced Porsches did you know that no she had a Porsche and she raced Porsches she was pretty y she was Rockstar yeah yes so that was and our students did not disappoint Dr veski is right and you were incredibly eloquent because as you said you've known her all the time that you put together um about a week about a week yeah and you were so um amazing because you did you brought it back to the family part of it which obviously um hearing from her family last night you realized how important it was we got to see the side of Joanne as a superintendent but you know the retired Joanne got to enjoy more of her family and you got to touch on that that that's the one thing I do remember is we talked business a lot um you know and there were little pieces you know that we had these conversations or even a whole day but she always wrapped it up with some conversation about her family and uh that was a consistent in her life and uh so even though we didn't know each other a long period of time I knew that about her it's pretty cool lots of good stuff this week actually um Barbara and I went to the veterans um tribute which is always something they need to move that earlier in the day though I think they'd have a better a better turnout but that was beautiful and actually I say Heather raising your hand but I did want to also touch upon one other thing um the Diwali celebration um it was a beautiful celebration that's one of the things I love the most about this um Township but um we do have a surprise coming up um at a future meeting uh family that I met there Dr ves's been in touch with them and you guys are going to see some pretty spectacular kids we talk about how great our kids are um with a really neat initiative that they're going to bring to us at a future board me meeting and I'm not going to say anything more because I'd like you to be surprised by these spectacular children and I'll turn it over to Mrs squ all right I I have more than I wanted to have and yet here I am um I wanted to say just as a parent the sources of strength trip to Hughes it benefits not just the students at Hughes but my daughter my middle daughter um was there as one of the high school students and it's a program that gives back in both directions it's not just for the younger students it also really really helps um our high school students as well and it builds them as people it was nice to see her back involved I was sitting over here having a proud parent moment going that's her in red I see her and I'd also like to thank my friend Hughes who sent me pictures of her quietly from there she was so embarrassed when she found out um I got to to enjoy visiting the high school and Memorial Elementary School during um the American Education week which was something I hadn't gotten to do in a very long time and I had the very strange scenario of going from uh High School Spanish class on a block to Memorial that was doing stations about a friends of 10 add it was very very different first grade and 11th grade but I would like to say based on that that if there are any Elementary parents that were not considering going to see the high school on the 28th you really should um I've been talking to my friends at Memorial and they just feel very detached from it like they're very happy in their neighborhood school I'm sure all the elementary parents are very happily nestled in their neighborhood school but this impacts us as parents of the little people and you should go see the high school because um I was really really enjoying there I am sitting in Spanish being very grateful that my Spanish is decent because otherwise that would have been a very difficult to follow class I will say and I'm very grateful to the teacher who let me attend but um I was looking around and I was sitting looking to my left and I thought to myself I had this moment of oh look at those shelves they're so retro it's like the metal kind underneath the window sill that have like the curved top and then the storage underne and then it hit me I'm like no those aren't retro they're just really old um and there were there were a lot of moments like that where I was loving what wasen inside the high school but then like really looking at the physical high school and just wishing that more Elementary parents could go there and see especially if you're in one of the newer buildings for the elementary school and you've got a slightly older child so you're in Hughes and you see that you know come come see the high school cuz my mom went there and when she went back the last time to see something in the auditorium she's like why is it no different she was a little stunned she's like this is the same so come see the high school um the other thing I wanted to talk about was uh our student services committee meeting I did not talk about it at our last meeting at length because there was um quite a great deal of other things happening and I wanted to keep it separate I did want to thank all the people that were there again uh it is a long meeting but so worthwhile so I really appreciate everyone's time especially the staff because they've already done a long workday and then they pull together all these presentations and we just all leave it's really really informative about what's happening but we leave feeling good about what's out there and working together um there was a great deal from health and PE and an Adaptive PE Workshop that was happening um Mr Malta has rolled out well Mr Malta and Athletics have rolled out a digital repeater form um as a parent who has more than once come over to the board office perhaps in the we hours carrying that packet to drop off it's nice to see that it's digital now and a lot of the elements are now visible up on Genesis well it's just a whole new level of uh turning in the Athletics forms which is fantastic he also talked about the GMC Summit that happened which is really just great the idea of putting together our athletes with athletes from other places um and they share the accomplishments of our teams which are surreal we have really talented talented athletes who I think sometimes because we have so many winning teams it just starts to all get lost like oh another GM see oh field hockey won everything again okay yeah it just becomes so normalized um but it it's not normal how talented they are it's amazing um cpeg presented and spoke and I just wanted to speak a little bit more about that um cpeg we just you know call it that a lot but it is the special education parent advisory group and while it is mandated by the state the districts have them um our districts is really just doing phenomenal things they've grown again they're bringing parents together and based on our conversation that night I did actually go to the website to see how accessible it was um I tried it both at home from my computer and like how hard is it to get onto from my phone like is this easy to find and it is easy to find and there's a great deal of information there um which caught the eye of my Littlest who's always nosy if I'm in my phone so she sat and navigated the site for me and she's like I like this one um but it is accessible and they're coming up on a resource fair being held in December and I know having been a special educator for a very long time that parents often feel um isolated at times so becoming active with cpeg or at least seeing the resources that they're putting out there can be very very helpful the other thing that made my head just explode in such a positive way our guidance Department went and visited colleges they went and they came back which is really Hands-On concrete information about what colleges are looking for from our students which was phenomenal because they took Private Tours they took group tours they talked about which colleges went out of their way to get information about East Bron before we got there they talked about things that I had never even thought about you know with SAT scores being optional what are the colleges looking at our counselors at the high school now have such concrete information to give our students but the thing that was most amazing to me they talked about the essay but they were talking about that you know when we went through school there was a lot of how many activities do you have like how much can you line up in the way of activities and now colleges are also looking at as an activity if you have family responsibilities like you can include that now and so many of our students do um you know you may not be able to belong to every Club if you need to be home helping in some way with your family and that's become a part of the application process that I've been living in the high school system for a very very long time as a teacher and I had no idea so that was really just eye openening and I was so glad they were able to take those trips and that the district facil facilitate them being able to do that um sources of strength modified things for moving to Hughes which I thought was amazing there was a lot of thought and effort that went into changing the program to match the students that it's working with um and there was also a look at transitioning Hughes transitioning expectations not just keeping it the same but putting younger students in there which the amount of thought that went into it and the way they rolled out the week of respect was really inspiring it it was a ton a ton of work but we are not just putting younger students into the same building and rolling the same program so I would like to thank everybody for letting me defer it for an extra week but it was such a worthwhile meeting that I did want to take up some time and comment thank you thank you oh did you okay Mr Winston Mr a couple things um it seems like it was forever ago but at some point recently we went down to the school board association thing uh where we all got together when was that was that September or October octob October right sometime recently and uh one of the great things about these that's a gathering where Schoolboard uh members along with administrators can go and you get to to to have a little one-on-one time with a lot of uh a lot of people we normally don't have access to regularly and I did have a chance to sit down with um a terrific 30 minutes with our architect I can never pronounce the name of peton pin and in that 30 minute meeting there were a couple of other board members there as well I learned so much about what this High School thing is going to be uh this mission that we're on and I'm looking forward to the 28th because I really think there's a lot of misconception what that $470 million looks like apparently because I in in speaking with uh one of the principles of the company he explained exactly what that includes so I know there was an initial kneejerk reaction when that number was published and I made a comment that I'd like to attract and apologize to them for and I said I don't really have a lot of confidence and I was wrong and and listen if I'm wrong I admit it and I do I think we have chosen the right the right group um I I I now realize what exactly 470 million gets us it's not just a building and I think that's an important thing and I'm sure I would expect Dr veski probably to spell a little bit about that out and I think that's great so with that it's simply uh you know call I'm just apologizing you know I I I do have confidence there secondly we recently came through an election period uh the winners have been chosen sixth gr candidates ran uh looking forward uh it's Miss Eric uh joining us up here and with that I've learned tonight and you always know when a board memb leaving because he leaves his laptop behind uh like uh like a Mark and I did see your laptop go so I just want to thank uh Mr crelo uh for the time that he served on this board I think you honorably uh expressed your opinions clearly and it's been great serving with you so uh with that said not to diminish uh anybody coming on but and I'm sure I'm looking forward to the same but I want to acknowledge the time and effort you put in over the last uh several years uh in that so best of luck to you and everything you do and I hope you stay uh involved within the community well I think the uh thank you I think the driving little tits that's all Mr Cummings thank you um it's funny like Mr Winston I I was trying to recall I was at the uh human relation human relations Council and I was like was that two months ago was that a month ago so the time lapse is uh it's real um but I did want to just report on that I was really honored to serve and uh attend that meeting for the first time this was in October um and it's a great group of people I'm really excited excited for ongoing growth with that group um a great diverse group from you know across our uh district and our community here and um one of the things that I just wanted to share real quickly was prior to that meeting started starting excuse me um the some of the students they host a thing called which many of you are probably familiar with already coffee and conversation and they had invited uh three individuals two of whom I believe are teachers in our district and one of whom is on the administrative or teacher former teacher yeah yeah and invited each of these people to speak on the topic of metamorphosis and it was a really beautiful I really encourage everybody to watch this it's on their Facebook page um but they gave these just incredible testimonies of their own Journeys and the shifts and the bends and the unexpected turns that life can throw at us uh when we sometimes least expect it and how some of the challenges that we see in front of us are actually some of our greatest opportunities and it was just a beautiful uh event on so many levels and you know just Kudos especially to the young students who threw that together uh you know the skills that they used to bring together just this really incredible event to um share that and and give that to the community so I just want to give them a huge shout out uh for their effort and um really looking forward to ongoing work with that group and really looking forward to bringing that back to all of you um as I continue my time here so thank you thank you Yes mine is very brief I need to apologize I have I misspoke at our last meeting and then I forgot to correct it at this meeting as I was reporting um at the last meeting I spoke about there's an interdisciplinary class happening that is both mindfulness and meditation but it also went with is it Ila was cross was the cross-section with uh it's the PE it's the PE music and PE and music I thought okay I know it was interdisciplinary but it was mindfulness and yoga and it was specifically aimed um for student wellness and I said that it was every place but over at Churchill and it's actually at Churchill so I owe Mr Hannah a huge apology it's again where he just gets left out it's at Churchill thank you for that Sor to Mr Hannis no worries Mr sisar we all know what next week is um so to everybody out there have a great Thanksgiving with your family those you love um to our staff everyone out there to admin up on the de and everything you know we we are thankful um been in town since meginness school in kindergarten all the way through you know graduated 10 years ago with Mr carangelo and uh you know um it it's it's a great town you know people come here basically for two things the the education system and the safety you know and you ask any realtor you ask anybody and that's that's why they come to East bronic and it's just a very good place you know it's a warm place and I think we're we're going to be approaching 60,000 residents soon but it still feels like a small town so just stay off ruit 18 but uh you know I'm I'm thankful for a lot of things in my personal life that I won't get into but uh you know to everybody out there everybody working hard and the schools hang tough you know we're we're getting back we're getting there so that's all Happy Thanksgiving everybody okay that's it for tonight well since Tim didn't bring it up and I mentioned it we'll see you all at the bear crawl everyone I don't know if there's room here for my trophy um any student to beat Dr I'll be happy to move over right there he's going to be limping when Dr veski Falls he can go on my massage table then I will take care of you that's right Mr carangelo when you pass the Finish Line we'll take care of just come right to my table veski what have you done to deserve this am I going to follow my own or is somebody going to push me oh I see people are voluntary to push me yes I'll be there to push you do yes no we'll help you up well yeah show the finish line so well um mark thank you for those incredible words about Thanksgiving I could not have said it better so um with that I'm going to ask for a motion to I'm looking at my two a motion to adjourn Mrs Becker Mr carangelo is there any discussion all in favor I motion carries there you go get home safe all right