good evening adequate public notice of this meeting was provided by the secretary of the board on May 4th 20 2023 to the home News Tribune and the clerk of the city of New Brunswick the time and location of this meeting and old meeting self dis body are posted in City Hall 78 Bayer Street in your Brunswick ra call Mr General drw Mrs Medina Hernandez Mr Ortiz Mrs sew Mr s here Mr Spencer Mella Mr dno here we have a for moving to item number two the flag salute turning to Dr Johnson to the flag of the United States of America and to the a reminder that our next regular monthly Board of Education meeting will be held on Tuesday December 19th and 2023 beginning at 700 p.m. at new Bruns High School in the auditorium um moving to item number three minutes uh October 17 2023 can I please have a motion to accept meeting minute Drell yes Mrs Medina Hernandez yes Mr Ortiz yes yes Mr Spencer yes Mr dno yes yes motion approved moving to uh item number four the superintendent report Dr Johnson thank you as of November 2023 we have enrolled 9,336 students in October we had five cases of harassment intimidation and bullying there were 130 suspensions our staff attendance was 94% and our student attendance was 92% on November 18th our district hosted Ed Camp New Jersey for the fifth year Ed Camp New Jersey an approach with Teachers Conference together to decide what's going to be learned then set out to teach each each other pedagogical practices in order to posibly impact student outcomes this year we had over 400 teachers power professionals and administrators sign up to participate with attendees from New Jersey New York Pennsylvania and Beyond they all came together to share and learn here at New Brunswick High School I just want to pause and thank Mr Nessie who is a high school teacher teach here and his team for organizing another great event also in November we came together to celebrate diversity honor Heritage and promote well-being from recognizing Native American Heritage Month National diabetes awareness month to embracing duvali and Veterans Day our community highlighted the importance of cultural understanding and gratitude we also acknowledge National School site psychologist week National educational support Professionals Day and substitute Educators Day by recognizing the vital roles our school psychologists educational support professionals and substitute Educators play to provote positive outcomes for students we want to thank our school Community for your active participation fostering unity and supporting our shared values our upcoming New Brunswick Public School job free is scheduled for Tuesday December 5th for all district positions please visit our any one of our district social media platforms either Twitter Facebook Instagram um for more information on October 21st and November 18th we held clinics where we administered 127 flu vaccines to students and 61 and 60 excuse me and 61 covid vaccines to adults our next vaccine clinic is scheduled for Saturday December 16th from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. we thank the new the New Jersey black women physician Association and new buns tomorrow for their partnership in hosting clinics at retro school and fluent covid vaccines to students parents and employees and lastly November 30 23rd will be celebrating Thanksgiving I just want to take this time and all of us need to take time to reflect reconnect and express our gratitude for all that we have that concludes my remarks thank you Dr Johnson can I please have a motion to accept the superintendent's report second Dr Caldwell yes Mrs Medina Hernandez yes Mr Ortiz yes Mrs yes Mr Spencer yes mrno yes yes motion approved thank you moving to item number five this student representative report Miss Jing left fettis good evening my name is Jaylen Perez and I will be presenting the student student representative report we just finished the first markting period all students are now transitioning into second markting period today will be the senior soccer Allstar shortcase congratulations to our select the members Tanya Hernandez Angel Cortez Jes evos Brian FES Jer Palma and Johan aparicio the fall sport banquet was conducted last week honoring all all of our athletes and selective Captain Awards and all honorable mentions senior photos are currently going on and are being conducted very smoothly seniors are finishing up their college applications are receiving College acceptances honorable mentions to Natalie Savala and imanii Staten acceptance to Penn State University this concludes the student representative report thank you thank you so much Miss Perez um moving to item number six the facilities committee report Mr edor Spencer chairperson yes Madam president the facility committee met on November 8th the middle school parking lot during the time were closed for the njaa convention we were able to complete a a repaving project at the middle school the main and upper Lots were completely repaved and new striping applied the remainder of the work is to install reinstall the speed bumps this work is scheduled for this coming up upcoming weekend the high school edition the erection of the structural steel roof joist and roof decking for the high school gem Edition has been completed the exterior block walls have been completed at the weight room portion of the addition and an exterior brick veneer at the gym portion of the addition is approximately 50% complete we are on schedule for the roofing and exterior walls to be in place before the end of this year which will allow work to continue inside throughout the winter last week we had some of the ptech students out to con to the construction site to see firsthand some of the engineering practices there are learning applied in a real world setting the overall completion schedule is still on track for the summer of 2024 the high school fields we reviewed a concept drawing by DMR architect which would add an additional practice film on existing Land We own behind the high school the project would include in8 Lane track field lighting track and field accommodations a small bleacher and some additional parking the reconditioning of the existing Fields would be part of this project we are also considering the possibility of installing synthetic T turf at one of the practice fields to accommodate our practice scheduling requirements last week uh I think it's last last week I saw on channel 12 a school in East Orange had a walk for a young lady by the name of Ruby Bridges she was the first African-American child to attend a formerly white only William France Elementary School in New Orleans School desegregation segregation crisis which was having what happened on November 14th 1960 that was 6 years after the Brown versus Board of Education which was in 1954 I remember that time because my younger sister in Franklin they had to desegregate a section of our school district and theyve met a lot of lot of issues with that so it brought a lot of memories for me but um we're still working on on that as far as changing some of the Norms that we have now so I want to thank uh the board for all the work that we do and done and continue doing uh as far as bettering the the school district so my with that I conclude my report thank you so much Mr Spencer uh moving to number uh item number s the athletic committee report thank you Madame President The Fall season completed with boys and girls cross country teams winning the Blue division title for Middle six County our Esports team completed competed in the state semifinals as our second year as a Varsity Sport uh but fell to Kate May High School in the game of Rocket League they look forward to the future and are determined to be back again next season so far we are over 225 signups for winter sport Sports Bas uh winter sports basketball wrestling indoor track and bowling this is a 32% increase from from this point last year as we continue to grow our Athletics Pro athletic programs uh every year we also have 80 student athletes signed up at the middle school level more signups are coming every day as trials begin the first official practice will begin Monday November 27th and the season will begin will open up on December 14th and that concludes my report I need a Reconciliation for October second Dr calwell yes Mrs Medina Hernandez yes Mr Ortiz yes Mrs si yes Mr Spencer yes Mr dno yes Milla yes motion approved thank you moving to item number eight the curriculum policy committee by Mrs Denis Le thank you so much Madam president the curriculum and policy committee met last week we did have three presentations the first one was by Miss uh Melissa pesi the director of Early Childhood she presented the New Brunswick 3-year preschool program operational plan that included a comprehensive description of the following critical components enrollment data and recruitment strategies preschool instruction coaching Coes and content focused coaching preschool intervention and referral and the role of preschool intervention and referral Specialists inclusion of ability diverse Learners supporting multilingual Learners curriculum implementation and student assessment data family engagement professional development the next presentation was by Katie Dem supervisor of physical education health and wellness she presented the get real comprehensive sex education that works program proposal which will be piloted at the New Brunswick Health Sciences technology high school to support the district approved Health curriculum for grade n and Mrs Hill the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction presented the quality single accountability Continuum the qac uh District Improvement plan to address all indicated areas of the district performance review aligned to the academic areas of English language arts Math and Science as well as the graduation rate and chronic absenteeism I know for a fact that our schools with that issue of chronic absenteeism uh they are currently working on that issue uh the resolutions were all reviewed and approved we also covered uh a couple of policies that needed to be revised uh one was the procedures outlined by policy guides uh 3161 and 4161 uh must be followed when board requires a staff member to undergo a physical or psychiatric examination the other one was for food services p8500 this comprehensive policy guide addresses the pertinent provisions of the workingclass families anti-hunger Act Federal Regulations of I'm sorry and the corresponding Federal guidance document eligibility manual for School meals determining and verifying eligibility that concludes my report Madam president thank you so much Mrs sis um moving to item number nine the indication of Service Commission of New Jersey director calwell the the new superintendent Nadia Butler has done a sorry Nadia Rano has done a wonderful job of transitioning um one of the challenges is the the commission owns the health facility in um sville and uh about $2 million of renovations to that health facility in fact you know I I haven't announced it here but I encourage folks to look at that Heth really nice nice facility it's owned by the commission the money goes to really help who are special needs um we're looking to uh continue to expand the programs in fact we've been talking about doing some things with some universities including mine um so it's been uh it's been a good start for her her program I've been still in touch with Mark fste he's always on this board and he's doing well in retirement but he misses he misses the job that's my report thank you so much moving to item number 10 public comments uh Mr John what do we have on the list yes April Nicholas she said I could have her three well you signed up to speak also so you can speak if you want but I'm just joking yeah I'll take my time please State your address Mr crille thank you you're welcome Charlie crille New Brunswick New Bruns today I want to ask about a few resolutions first resolution F the qac district Improvement plan the plan is not attached hold on give me one second cuz we didn't start the timer yet so if I could just yes please continue than sorry about that yeah if I could just uh find out where to get a copy of the plan is it available on the web report the district Improvement plan it says it's attached but it's not attached we'll provide that and how will that be provided can yeah how how how can I expect to receive that can you send it to me via email is it going to be posted on the web Mr General will facilitate that okay thank you move on to resolution AJ uh I wanted to ask what this uh what's changing here it says in tiny print at the bottom it was previously approved in May this is the 8 million for the gym and I see the word outlay in capital outlay is crossed out is that the only change being made and if so what what is that about yeah I'll answer that question yes that is the only change being made that is a resolution that we approved in May for the previous school year our Auditors are in District now and they made the recommendation to remove the word capital outlay and have it just say capital projects got it when you say the Auditors are in District now you mean you've hired Auditors on the staff well we have independent Auditors that perform a yearly Financial audit of the district and that was one of the things they mentioned that they thought I should change the resolution to just not say outlay and say projects okay and the 8 million here uh what portion of the project does that represent is that all of it or it's just a fraction if so what what is the uh what does it represent that $8 million is for two projects that is the first pay for the gym right so we had put $1.8 million in capital reserve 75 million approximately is towards the gym and then the balance of that will go towards the fields we took out $8 million from that capital reserve account and we put it in the fund 30 accounts and the general fund in order to start paying the bills and doing the projects so out of that 8 million about 5 A5 million is for the gym and another 1.4 million is towards the field activities thank you you're wel and uh finally I wanted to close the loop on a topic I brought up last time uh Raymond trig uh was in fact paid for substitute teacher work here in this District on uh at least five days this school year with one of those days being a half day and so I wanted to ask for an explanation of uh how he came to be on the PVE and uh I'm just curious if any kind of Investigation is going to be done into that the superintendent has the authority to hire people including temporary substitutes subject to board approval Mr tra was hired and when the list of approval came up um there were some objections by the board and it was not uh approved on the full list of approved substitutes however he did work and under the theory of quantum maror which means what you earn um he was paid for the days he worked well thank you for the explanation I want to thank Mr Jan rone for responding to my opah request on this topic and uh yeah just wanted to ask if there's going to be any investigation done into that your time is up well thank you so much thank you we do we have any other uh Miss Linda St hi Miss St please State your address yes good evening my name is Linda St I love 12 Boulevard and I've been informed it's going to be easier to hear me which is great because I'm going to have to talk really fast um I also will be interested I didn't really understand the explanation of how it came to be that more louder um that uh yeah that Rond TR work as a substitute in this District I am frankly horrified my daughter will be horrified um she always tried to show me there was something all right so um I was looking at the long range uh facilities report and I had a question because I've been asking about Lincoln School school and what is the plan going forward and I noticed that it was the only school that um as a result of the proposed you know the new school and the additions and the renovations and everything would still be under of course I can't bring up the photo of it now but I'm going to add live it it it will still be under the um the FES for um adequate square footage per student it was the only School in the district they actually signal it out and said this is the only school that will not meet the requirement so I'm wondering did it in fact does it not in fact meet the requirement and why would that be if we have 300 if we're under capacity 300 at the new school I'm just uh and also is there in fact a plan to replace Lincoln School which was originally supposed to be the first one replaced um I'm curious if maybe um the idea of a laboratory school is back in the picture with buckers that would be great I've never understood why we had an elementary school in the shadow of The Graduate School of Education that made know even when we had a professional development agreement with them it was shot down as our whole school reform plan which maybe where they backed out of the laboratory school I don't know I'm sure they weren't pleased when that happened um because we had a working relationship um uh but yes in the meantime I also had wanted to ask about um item E I also wanted to know um for the 130 students that are suspended is that a number of students or is that the amount of days cuz students could be suspended for anywhere to two weeks I understand so is that a total number of days or a total number students okay well okay and then and then is anything different being done to address these students that are out of school well I think your time is up but I can tell you that the district and staff is always addressing kids Behavior so but I different something different since the last time I had I didn't hear what she said okay well thank you so much um moving on to item number 11th at president's report um I just want to take the time as we heading into Thanksgiving in the beginning of the holidays to really and as Dr Johns had kind of stated before and pck it back know what he said about taking the time to think and be grateful for certain things I'm certainly I was actually rethinking about my first time that I had a Thanksgiving um and I was like what is this right we had a turkey we had a whole culture coming as an immigrant child uh and it kind of got me thinking about that even though right we have so many new cultures that get to adapt this holiday so grateful that for my myself and I and and I think that even the board that we have a board and people that the whole District um they really look after our children and every day they in and out they're really working for their Futures to be as healthy and as hopeful so I just want to take a moment and say thank you to everyone here so with that um moving to item number 12 the consent agenda can I please have a resolution to approve a2n a n second Dr calwell yes Mrs Medina Hernandez yes abstain from resolution M and R so noted Mr Ortiz yes Mr solce yes Mr Spencer Mr dno yes Milla yes motion approved I'm actually re uh uh abstaining on a am moving to item number 13 the finance uh finance committee report Mrs say please thank you madam president the finance committee along with all members of the new Bruner Board of Education had an opportunity to review the finance committee report and I like a motion to approve the report as if remov cwell yes Mrs Medina Hernandez yes abstain from page 30 so noted Mr Ortiz yes Mr Sol yes Mr Spencer yes Mr yes I have stay on pages 78 and 24 7 and 24 Miss yes AB seen on 39 please for the record motion approved thank you moving to item number 14 resolution for close session whereas the open public meeting act New Jersey sa 10 4-6 provides us certain matters of a public body may be dis discussing close session and whereas the board of educ board of education intends to discuss matters as follows personal matters and matters of attorney or client uh client privilege now therefore be resolved that the offer set subjects may be shall be discussed in close session by this board of education and its administrative staff in the minutes of set close session discussion will be made available to the public when the reasons for the nondisclosure in accordance with public open public meetings act no longer EX can I please have a motion for close session Drell Hernandez yes Mr Ortiz Mr sis yes Mr Spencer Mr yes Miss yes we're now low session