2.01 the matters that were discussed will be disclosed to the public as soon as possible once the reason for non-disclosure no longer exists so move second can I please the r yes this Deus yes this B yes Mr Nikolai yes Mrs Perry yes Mrs Quinn yes Mrs Reynolds yes Mrs Robbins yes Mrs Sher yes okay and now the Board of Education will recognize the the December 2023 Employee of the Month Rosanne sesy from Parker school did I say that [Applause] correctly come on up to the podium if you ask any Elementary School student what their favorite part of the school day is the majority of them will say lunch if you ask any student at Parker Elementary School why they like lunch the majority of them will say they get to eat they get to talk to their friends and they get to see Mrs Rosanne Rosanne sucheski is a dedicated lunch Aid at Parker Elementary excuse me at Parker Elementary School who goes above and beyond every day to make the students smile and laugh she greets every student as they line up for lunch and she make she makes time to have authentic conversations with them at their lunch table the students know that she genuinely cares and in return they shower her with smiles gifts and laughs tonight Mrs Rosanne we shower you with the same smiles and kindness that you give our students every day [Applause] congratulations [Applause] okay now we move we will move on to our announcements um for me I just want to say that I am excited to start the new year um as the board President we did our re re organization at the beginning of this month we put our committees in place and we are gearing up for a great year now our superintendent of schools Dr Roberta Freeman thank you welcome everyone I have nothing new to report surprisingly but we do have a lot of things going on and looking forward to February to sharing some really great initiatives thank you okay and our acting business administrator board secretary Mrs Miss Annette diano good evening I have nothing to report nothing exciting going on in the business office business as usual budget process and more to come on that thank you um now our liaison reports our middlex County SBA delegate Mrs Janette Deus good evening good evening everyone the next middlex County School Board Association meeting will be on March 6 this meeting will be your virtual meeting and the topic of discussion will be teacher shortages I did want to point out that uh next week actually on the 22nd the Somerset County School Board Association is holding their meeting virtually as well and the topic of discussion will be on understanding the board of education's role in curriculum and in education uh so the that might be of interest to some folk it really does prove to be a very um informative meeting and you're just basically participating virtually but it it also is a little bit different they do their meetings a little bit different than than middle sex so I encourage anyone who has an interest in that to go ahead and and um register for that those meetings are free to middlex um to any board member middle sex Town um and [Music] um that's it thank you thank you um now our middle sex Public Library Board of Education representative Miss Aaron Gomez good evening everyone uh there's nothing too much to report we did have a conversation though about moving forward and finding ways to partner the library with the schools in Middle sex so that'll be something that the library director Miss George and I have conversations uh going forward thank you um our student representative Miss Thomas hello so today I will be um talking to you guys about a breaking down the wall program that Middle High School is doing the following video that's about to come out will basically say what the program consists of [Music] [Music] hi I'm JJ from breaking down the walls in the next few weeks your school is bringing Breaking Down the Walls to your campus if you have hosted Break Down The Walls before then you probably know what to expect but if your school's never hosted Break Down The Walls you're probably really curious about what this experience is going to be like well let's tell you a little bit about it first thing is like how does this thing work well when great Down the Walls comes to your campus usually do two to four days of workshops now a workshop is six hours long that means if you're participating in one of the workshops you'll spend probably all day or most of your day at the breaking on the walls Workshop so what is breaking on the walls at breaking on the walls we believe it's hard to hate someone story you want and that's essentially the core of our day it's just connecting with other people sharing stories and hearing other people's stories our goal is really to increase connection and build some relationships build some empathy and understanding across your campus and help your Campus Drive so what can you expect if you're going to participate in Break Down The Walls well we're going to start today by walking in most the time it's a gym an area on your campus but when you walk in you're going to feel a lot of energy from some student leaders that have been trained early we you're going to have a seat your presenter is going to talk to 10 or 15 minutes and after they talk to you you're going to hop up and go to gy FL you're going to start interacting and for about 90 minutes or so you're going to interact mostly one-on one with other people there you're just going to get to have a conversation with probably somebody you've never really met before and I get it that sounds a little uncomfortable but I promise our facilitator will make it really low risk and comfortable for you to do that next you're going to slow the day down and probably sit down and have some deeper conversations one-onone with people across the room couple parts then you're going to go into some small groups and in those small groups you're going to have a student leader that was actually trained by facilitator about 45 minutes of activities after those activities we're going to eat lunch actually in the gym or space we're in on your campus you're just going to eat lunch with your group your school provides it after lunch we usually do one or two fun things then we do a really like cool activity where you to tell your story and a non-r after that activity we sit down and talk about it kind of De brief on that activity and then we do a really cool a knowledge activity in day and that's the six hours goes by really fast the words you just heard from me images you saw on your screen that kind of gives you an idea of what Breaking Down the Walls is like but I think what's really valuable is when you hear from people that have experienced it here's a couple testimonies there's one thing that JJ said that stuck out to me and it was that what are we going to do after this how are we going to add this on our campus and there were actually people in there that haven't I've never seen in our school building and we got to enjoy that by not only it being difficult but doing together that we're not alone in this but didn't really know about like how is it truly going to affect our school and you know throughout the day I got to see more and more just about like seeing just like strangers and just people who go to the same school you know get closer and closer it was really fascinating to watch whenever you first walked in say it's a little anxious I say you're in there with a bunch of people who you've never spoke to before honestly didn't even realize went to your school then whenever we started going around in that rectangle I could feel the energy rising and people getting more comfortable and confident with themselves I think being vulnerable with people I know a lot of people especially in your teenage years and in high school it's really hard to be vulnerable with people even if they're very close to you I think it's really important to be more comfortable being vulnerable and to feel open around the people if you're interested learning more about breaking the walls and maybe being a participant check your announcements most schools are putting information out a couple weeks before we your campus go find an adult on campus say hey I saw the Break Down The Walls thing I'm super interested in participating they'll get you to the right spot so you can sign up and participate in a Break Down The Walls Mar team Break Down The Walls we'll see you [Music] soon we as a high school share the same core values as breaking down the wall when talking to our principal Mr rean he said that he wanted to do this program because at the base level all humans are similar and once students are introduced to a space outside of their traditional social circles and where connections are there to be made and vulnerability is protected our school culture will be enhanced when I first heard about the program I was so excited because I was like yes because I just love okay firstly I love middle sex high school because all the kids know each other but I realized being here that all they although they've grown up together they don't know each other like this spokesperson was saying you can't hate someone whose story you know and people are who they are because of their stories I've recognized that although kids have grown up together they don't know each other because they dislike each other from things that happened all the way back in the past having having big beef over stuff that happen in the fifth grade and that's okay but I recognized that it is invaluable to have kids who connect together learning together when I first came to this school I came later than the rest of my period and me someone who has always loved school had grades that were suffering because I was afraid to raise my hand because I didn't feel connected to the people around me I recognized that feeling connected to a school Community didn't just make me Shy but it impacted me because I was not willing to step out in my natural passions a school's culture is directly correlated to a school's standardized test scores Sports and behavioral patterns and so as a school we're so excited to par participate in Breaking Down the Walls and witness tangible changes in our school Community when we were telling the kids about this program so many kids signed up I was surprised because as kids we don't really like I guess we're cool we don't get excited so seeing all the kids like Rush up to put their names on the seat was so exciting to me and I'm so excited to work on this program and that's all I have to say thank you thank you um so now we move on to the approval of our board meeting minutes um superintendent recommends approval of the minutes as presented um our regular public meeting and executive session on December 13th um our committee of the whole uh meeting and executive session on December 12th and our reorganization meeting on January 3rd of 2024 um 5 02 superintendent recommends approval of Corrections revisions to previous board agenda items as presented they're noted there we discussed last night 5.03 superintendent recommends approval of items 5.01 to 5.02 as presented so moved second andette please take the role oh I'm sorry any questions okay yes okay Mrs peny yes Mrs Deus yes Mrs B yes Mr Nikolai yes Mrs Perry yes Mrs Quinn yes Mrs Reynolds yes Mrs Robins yes Mrs Sher AB thank you okay now we will open the communication from the public comments at this time are limited to agenda items only please come to the podium and put your name at address email address and subject of your comment into the record book before speaking please give your name address and subject of your comment to miss Annette G orano acting business administrator board secretary direct your comments and questions to the board president you may speak on two separate topics for up to three minutes each uh I just had a quick question on agenda item 6.0 six uh I noticed in the December agenda in this agenda that they're no longer employees are no longer named and they're referenced by employee number uh is there a reason for that a legal reason a union reason is there reason or is it like courtesy of the board employee confidentiality like was it was there pressure from anyone or was it purely no no or it just a board like it was a decision that just to for confidentiality of of our employees to include the number we are a really small District so sometimes people can figure it out and just to to give confidentiality to our employees and then on agenda item apologize 1411 uh I don't know if you can answer this right now because you're uh civil attorney isn't here but do you if you can ever get back to me on a case number or case title of the settlement I cannot find that case anywhere was it handled through a arbitrator or is it in court or'll get all right okay um I will now close the public comment portion of the meeting often times it may appear to members of our audience that the Board of Education takes action with very little comment and in many cases a unanimous vote before a matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting the Administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with the superintendent of schools if the superintendent is satisfied with the ma that the matter is ready to be presented to the Board of Education it is then referred to the appropriate board committee the members of the board committee work with the administration and the superintendent to ensure that the members fully understand the matter when the committee is satisfied with the matter it is presented to the board of education for discussion before any final action is taken only then is it placed on the agenda for Action at a public meeting now we will go on to our personnel report um our chair is that's um Mr nck thank you Danielle good evening everybody the Personnel committee met on January 9th and we'll meet again on February 13th superintendent recommends approval um Personnel action items 9.1 through 9.12 as presented shall move second any questions discussion Anette please take the r this parenting um Rees on 9.12 numbers five and six yes everything else this yes Mrs B yes Mr Nichol yes Mrs per yes this Quin yes but 42 number five what number was that five 912 number five 92 number five sorry Mrs Reynolds yes 9.12 number five 9.1 number five recuse yes to everything else I was trying to find was Mrs Robins uh yes everything Mrs sherff yes okay we will move on to our education report by the chair Mrs Perry um good evening no no news new news to report um our next meeting will be on February 20th um the superintendent recommends the approval of Education action items 111 through 1113 so moved second any questions discussions andette please take the rooll um abstain on 11 .12 for myself yes everything else Mrs yes Mrs B yes Mr Nikolai yes Mrs carry yes Mrs CL yes Mrs Reynolds yes Mrs Robins yes M Shain to 11.01 and yes to everything else we have no policy action items tonight we going move on to the facilities and finance committee report by the chair Mr n thank you Danielle good evening everybody um the facilities and finance committee also met on January 9th and we're going to be again on the 13th superintendent recommends approval of fillers and finance action items 14.01 through 14.12 so move second any questions discussion obain on 14.01 check number 035 42 yes to everything else 14.11 what we discussed thank you Mrs yes Mrs B yes Mr yes Mrs Perry yes Mrs Quinn yes Mrs Reynold yes Mrs Robins abstain from 14.11 yes to everything else Mr shff yes okay any ongoing business I just had a question um name Miss Thomas when is that event happening it's going to be happening at the end of the this month and how many students do you guys have going it should be around 120 students so it's going to be hard to pick out of all the people who signed up but they said that they're planning on having majority sophomores and juniors since they're going to be staying here and seniors are about to leave so yeah good idea cool thank you any new business um at this time we will open the public comment portion of the meeting second portion comments at this time can be on any topic please come to the podium and put your name address email address and subject of your comment into the record book before speaking please give your name address and subject of your comment to miss Anette gordano acting business administrator board secretary direct your comments and questions to the board president you may speak on two separate topics for up to up to three minutes each quiet okay I will now close the public comment section of the meeting we do not need exec again okay I'd like to make a motion to adjourn second all in favor yes I know it's time now all in favor the