e e e e e look e e e e seconds love you bye by good evening I'd like to call this meeting to order this is the north brunic Township Board of Education regular public meeting today is Wednesday April 24th could we please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all Mr Ali here Mr Brockman here Mr Carter here miss James here miss Keefe here Mr Lori here Dr Patel here miss to here and Mr W here we have a quarum thank you the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is disc discussed or acted upon in accordance with the open public meetings law the public notice of this meeting which included the time date and location was distributed by 3 p.m. on Monday January 29th 2024 and Tuesday March 19th 20224 in the following manner posted on the bulletin board reserved for announcements in the board office 25 lywood place North Brunswick New Jersey 08902 mailed to the home News Tribune The Star Ledger nj.com and the clerk of the township of North Brunswick and delivered to the nine duly elected board members good evening everyone thank you for being here tonight we have a few presentations so I will turn it over to superintendent choka thank you Madame President um welcome everybody we're thrilled to see so many people here to see our high school presentations this evening um we're going to start with our nbths model United Nations club with an shadid and Prisha KUB chandani if they could come on up I'm going to set up the screen here I have their slideshow and hopefully we'll be able to get this to go correctly for you and there is a microphone there girls um in the past um we have had conference meetings most many months of the year and we would usually go to the high school as well as Lynwood and all the schools in one year and as we added the middle school and the ECC we found that it was really too difficult to do a conference meeting every month so we kind of collapse the conference schedule into the spring months and this year we're just doing conference meetings at the elementary school so the board members can get a chance to visit the elementary schools and then next year we'll be doing mbte ECC the middle school the high school and Lynnwood so that way every other year the schools get to present but at the same time on non uh conference meeting months we really wanted to Showcase some of the programs and things going on at the other schools that weren't getting to do the conference meeting so that's what this is this evening um I had the honor of attending the model un conference a few weeks ago and um the students did a great job and um we talked about the Spanish program as well and the German program getting to do some some trips and so I felt it was very worthwhile for them to come and share that with you as a board um so you could see and hear directly from the students on the impact so it's important if you don't mind just make sure you're speaking into the microphone because it won't um go to the TV audiences you can just lift that right out if you want let's make sure that's on there's a button on there then just pull it right out there you go perfect good evening word of Education my name is Kisha gani I am the treasurer for the north btic Township Model United Nations club uh and in January this club had the opportunity to travel to Berlin and Prague to attend the 16th annual Nations conference we Ted famous monuments in Berlin before traveling to Prague to compete in a conference with 500 other delegates from all over the world in Berlin we explored historic landmarks such as the brandenberg gate the Berlin Wall Memorial the right sto and the Sai Museum where we spoke with the Survivor of the East German secret police while visiting these places we learned about Berlin's complex history and how the people had overcome challenge after challenge we also gained valuable insight into German's enriching culture and history while in Prague we debated issues with delegates from all over the world debate topics included the war in Ukraine the ethical deployment of autonomous weapons and the Korean War our delegates had a large influence within their committees and we were received an honorary gel as a result which is the first in problem history we also toured Prague and saw its breathtaking architecture we visited orate castles and Cathedrals the Charles bridge and the side of the conference the Yan nuda High School school this trip was a truly enriching experience for our delegates and it deepened our understanding of global issues from heated committee debates to exploring historical sites this opportunity equipped us with valuable insight and memories to cherish I'd like to say thank you to the border of Ed for approving this trip and giving us such a memorable opportunity good evening my name is an shadid and I'm the president of the northw Township High School M the United Nations Club along with accompanying my fellow club members to Prague this past winter I had the pleasure of organizing our fifth annual North buer Township High School mly United Nations conference our conference took place on March 23rd and at our conference we had more than 150 delegates attending New Jersey's best mother one delegates came to compete and we actually had our largest turnout yet delegate debated in our three committees which covered topics that included the Chinese Bon Road initiative child trafficking in Eastern Europe and a simulation of the cuan Missile Crisis from the perspectives of top USA and US Sr officials our committee staff work tirelessly for 10 months to write background guides fun simulations and plan logistics for the day of the event ultimately the conference is a great success on behalf of our club I would like to sincerely thank our superintendent Mrs TOA our northw atach high school administration and the board of education for always supporting our clubs we are so so lucky and so grateful for all the opportunities that you have given us and I'm so excited to see what the future hols for our club now we have a short video that highlights both our trip and our confidence thank you [Music] on [Music] hey yeah [Music] turn it all turn it off oh you turn it off we don't need to save the batteries we okay let's try this one more time uh it doesn't seem to be working but I would just like to quickly say um well for one thanks for having us uh here this evening and uh is it working no for speing in uh to your your busy busy schedule here this evening uh my name is Ben SCH and along with Mrs Andre I the co-advisor of the M United Nations club uh at North bu Township High School uh we are incredibly grateful for your uh your support and uh and allowing us to take this trip uh to Prague uh and for your continued support of our conference as well um I just want you to know how incredibly proud We Are of these kids and how well they supported our school and our community and distinguish themselves um thank you thank you thank you um give a round of applause so uh I want to move this uh along I'd like to hand uh the microphone to my uh German exchange co- advisor that would be Mrs Janice mahalik of nbtm all right thank you so much uh thank you for your ongoing support of all we do with our exchange trip our exchange with the school our sister School in fortime Germany is in its 24th year we started it in 200000 and about every other year when there's not a pandemic we we take students to Germany and this summer 12 nbths students spent 3 weeks living in Germany uh with host families in a full cultural immersion program they attend classes in our German sister School attend day trips and longer trips out into various areas and cities in Germany um last October we then welcomed 12 German students into our homes and our school here in North brunwick to reciprocate the hospitality that we got when we were in for time uh once again we had a fantastic group of kids and speaking for Mr SCH as well as well as the German chapons the coordinators in our sister school um we were truly moved by this group how well they came together and what a fantastic time they all had and had as a group together we would like to uh thank you for your continued support of our program there is just no better way to inspire students to learn a World Language and by offering them an opportunity such as this uh to participate in this type of Exchange program there's so much enthusiasm among the students and the staff as well and in the community surrounding the program uh we are eager to keep the tradition going and we do thank you very much we have two students to share some of their experience with you we have the seni and Abby Eisner who are going to share a bit of their experience in our program good evening board members and audience members um my name is Leni ven Wan and my name is Abby Asner we are both Juniors at mbts and we had the privilege of going on the mbts foram German exchange program this past school year we are so thankful we are so thankful for this tremendous opportunity to create memories make friends and engage with the International Community Community we began our journey in Munich Germany where we bonded as a group together we had the privilege of seeing SCH noin which inspired the Disney C Castle we hiked down zoo spitza and attended the tollwood festival before we headed off to P we were able to visit Dao concentration camp which where we experienced firsthand the gravity of World War II and the sentiment our history classes tried to convey to us afterwards we arrived in Pam and met met our exchange partners for the first time during our time and for time we visited stri guard heidleberg and C some exchange families even took us to straussburg in France we also had the opportunity to attend their school which is called theater H gymnasium it's grades 5 through 13 we got to we got to attend our partners classes meet their friends and we got interviewed by the younger students about ourselves and life in America with our host families we also got to visit the black forest and trip Jo which is in amusement park we did lots of hiking on mountains where castles were built and walked around the streets of Germany with our partners talk taking in the German culture all around us we got to taste their amazing bread so much bread and their amazing gelato they really ate with that we ended our time with our partners with a farewell party that traveled to switzland before we came home we got to visit the lint choca Factory which was really good and ate lots of chocolate we also did two super fun escape rooms that totally scared the life out of us but it was so much fun we want to thank our advisers Mr Ben schull and Miss Janice Mahala for taking such good care of us and providing us with this great experience we had so much fun with them even though we drove them in s sometimes but the fun do not end yes our partners came in late October and the first thing they experienced once they landed was a high school football game it's a good thing we won which made our school look really good the following Monday was their first day of school at our high school they got to experience what it was like at our school and it was quote just like the movies we went on a few trip with them which included the Met Philadelphia and an off Bradway show titled the play that goes wrong it was hilarious and they went on some trips without us which included Washington DC and the Statue of Liberty some of us took our shange students to New York City the American dream Mall Six Flags and lots of restaurants that the Germans don't have they definitely ate too much food that they should have the Germans were also here for Halloween so we all got dressed up and went trick- treating together they also got an opportunity to experience a sweet 16 SC which was mine because they were here when my birthday happened we had a fwell party and then the next day the German Partners they left as you can see this was an experience of a lifetime we learned so much from this trip we are grateful for this opportunity and hope that this trip continues for the students taking German here at North Fric High School in the future we have made life long bonds with our German exchange Partners so much that two of us are returning to see their exchange student this summer and two of the German students are coming back to New Jersey this summer for a visit one of them is my German change partner Lena many of us hope to run it back next year and visit our partners in Germany hopefully the plan actually happens so anyways thank you for taking the time to hear about our great experience and we hope the exchange continues in the future thank you thank you I you have the video for this right girl so I'll start putting that on before you leave get this to sure what I don't know what all that is the thank you see a lot of food I think okay okay that was great thank you again let's give another round of applause to those ladies and our next presenters are um Mia Montero and Isabella Warez for the nbths Spanish program h it's a good the light should be there there we go hello Board of Education members thank you again I would like to reiterate the thanks that were given by my colleague Ben uh thank you for allowing us to be here this evening and thank you for allowing us the opportunities to take our students on these kinds of trips um I would like to thank my students as well uh for being here this evening to share their experience and for all the hard work that they put in both into the model United Nations conference as well as into um the Spanish exchange because they actually did presentations in the classes that we got um I would like to say a thank you as well to my uh partner in crime Mr Elvis R Cologne who was my co- chaperon on this trip he helped keep us all aligned as well uh having all of our fun um a little bit of background we partnered with a high school called Victoria Kent in a city right outside of Madrid in umos and I actually modeled this exchange after the German exchange um so I have to say thank you to Ben for all of the guidance and um advice that he gave me in preparing this trip as well so we spent 12 days in Spain and they will be coming to spend 12 days here this October as well I am very excited um because they received us with lots of open arms and I hope that we can give them just as much of a warm welcome as they give to us um lastly this has been a dream of mine ever since I was 17 as well because my own teacher took me abroad and when I had that experience I knew that when I was a teacher I wanted to provide a similar experience to them as well so I can't thank you guys enough for making that dream of reality I thank you from the bottom of my heart um so now I think the best way to hear about an experience is for students to share about what they did so I would like to turn it over to M Montero and Isa the hores thank you so much for having us here today we are so grateful for the opportunity to go on this exchange definitely really helped our Spanish SKS being immersed in that culture it's so different being a classroom Lear Spanish versus practicing those words and phrases every day and trying to think of them on the spot so we definitely are so grateful for this experience want me to just hit the SL so the first city that we went to was a city called too and it's a very historical City we walked a lot and like a lot more than we thought and um we walked up a lot of stairs and but when we got we saw like a lot of like the one of the oldest like castles in Spain and a lot of churches and the inside very it was very interesting to see all the architecture in the buildings and also the differences between like the periods so like you could see the architecture between the Muslim periods and the Christian uh Christian period perod as well and we also went to a museum and it was by a it's like a Greek a Greek artist yeah and he painted a lot of of a lot of really nice paintings that were unlike other ones that we would see before and it was very all right you spent a lot of time in Madrid a lot of walking as well again and this is like the city center so it's kind of like newest like it's very very New York Vibes and we saw a lot we actually me and Mia went to see the inside of the Royal Palace and it was unlike anything we've seen for it it was part of like our exchange Partners parents they decided to take us which was a surprise because it was a very big long line we didn't luckily we luckily did not have to wait in that cuz we had like ticket to your fans but it's really really nice and we also went to a restaurant that was also overlooking like a really nice area of Madrid and we ate outside and we ordered in Spanish and we had okay um and what school we got to go with visit El Del which is the pr Museum in Spain it had a lot of really historic architecture and really cool stuff that like the showed the different periods that Spain went through under different rulers and how like religion really influenced their culture and architecture so in addition to those longer trips we also did a couple shorts during like school hours with our host Partners so we went to two different main places is there was a park like a 10-minute walk from the school called Park Europa and it had a bunch of different monuments that you find around Europe so like replicas of these monuments so there was like the Eiffel Tower and like different Bridges and things like that so it was really cool cuz they're obviously not the real thing but like it's still cool to see those in like a larger scale and then we got to visit the town where Miss Johnson studied abroad which was Al Andes which is also really nice cuz it's like Princeton but Spanish cuz it's around the University but it's like the arit and everything is just so different and our on our one of our days when it was just us so me and me and Mia's exchange families were very close so we were able to do a all together and it was a lot of walking as well but it was really nice time and it was unlike any other like Trail in America because you would see like so much water but like every time you would walk you would just see like a new landscape and it was honestly such a beautiful experience and we we like stopped Midway to like feed the dogs and like our exchange Partners went in the water it was really funny it was really cold and when we got to the end of the trail we ended up um walk into like a church and it was it was very interesting it was unlike the other churches because was very small and and then we walked like well like climbed up like a a hill at the very end and we almost fell down when we got to the top it was it was so pretty like we would see like if you look at those photos like that was at the very top and you could just see like for miles and miles and it was it was like the best Countryside ever yeah so this is when our families took us to Madrid so Saturday we did the countryside and Sunday we did Madrid so you can see a couple pictures of the palace on there we have like the Royal CH yes the Thrones which apparently they don't actually sit in because they prefer stand in cuz it's moreable so um they're not usually photographed in them but those are their Thrones and we got to see the Armory which was like really cool to see all like the shiny armor and everything and then when we were with school a couple of us went to the Jung black area de sanin which is very famous for their shows called ch um and they were so delicious so how Johnson made that request so more food um see the churos going Chate and one very very popular food in Spain is hamon which is pork it's like salamy but very different it's and almost a lot of the families will have a leg of hon in like their basement or something for Pary they'll shave off a fresh piece when they have people com and over so it was cool to just see that and then we had a lot of family dinners with some new really different foods and one thing that I thought was really different was we had we went to their on 50th birthday party and I was expecting like a meal at like a table or something but it was just like a lot of finger foods and stuff which was really different so a lot of times like after school like after we would go into school with our exchange Partners we would have like after school with them so we would walk around town and often like me as partner she went to like her brother's soccer games and I went as well and we also like walked around the city a lot like we were able to like walk to theall all like was was 45 minute walk and then one day we walked to the mall which was 45 minutes and then they decided they wanted to go somewhere else for dinner so we walked an hour there and then an hour back to the mall to walk off dinner and then in the mall so it was just a really great 10 p.m. experience um and then the middle picture if you can see it is her little brother and one tradition that they have at birthdays is they jump for however many times however old the person is turning so since the aunt was turning 50 he jumped 50 times crazy they definitely took us in as a part of their family so I just added it as a little fun but like a lot of Tears were shed at the airport when we were leaving cuz they literally become your second family after a couple days talk to my host family almost every day still talk to mine as well like um it was my it's it's my birthday today so happy birthday well they they remembered my birthday and I got a WhatsApp message saying happy birthday and it was really unexpected because you were even though like we didn't like we only knew them for two weeks they would still have the connection and Remembrance to to say happy birthday was something simple as that and honestly at the airport a lot of Tears were shed like it was really bad and that's it twoes this are just like friends Memories We got to experience a lot of different classes so we made a lot of memories like their PE class they dance so we danced with them I know Mr Reyes definitely participated in that um and it was just different to experience like Spanish classes and become friends with their friends our final thing just being a part of their family was just a great experience so um we went out for lunch a lot and then we have both of our exchange Partners so I'm on the road with my partner with my partner Alba and we would honestly they honestly we just like a second family T like they are such they were so inviting so so welcoming and they they at the end of the trip they said hey if you want to come back to Spain we have a spare we have a spare room just give us 20 minutes heads up so they just like like they actually like we could feel the love as soon as we we went to Spain and as soon as we left and we just want to thank Miss Johnson and Mr re for uh giving us this experience cuz it's definitely very memorable and it's not just like a one time experience it's like for every lasting and we can't wait for them to come in October so we can give back that same welcoming feeling and that love and we show them our life in America so thank you to all of you and thank you to Mr and Mr re thank you so much ladies that was great presentation and I'd like to thank all the the students for presenting and our and our uh advisers for going on the trips that's that's a big leap of faith to take High schol students on a trip to Europe um but at the same time it's creating amazing relationships and experiences that will last a lifetime and can take them on to any future endeavors so thank you and we look forward to seeing your Spanish counterparts come in the fall yes anybody else have any comments yeah I'd love to um so this definitely brings it back for me because I um when I was at the high school I did the Spanish trip um we didn't have an exchange program back then I would have loved that but we did um I think it was eight or nine days in Madrid um there was probably about 15 of us with two chaperons and um a lot of the pictures that you were showing girls uh brings it back to that time for me we went to Toledo also we did um a lot of walking I do remember that um but it was a great trip and I think about it all these years later and um it was my first time out of the country so um it was def a great experience and as a board we love to have um performances and presentations like these because it really um makes what we're approving makes all the things that we're seeing on our agenda a reality so we all really appreciate you coming out um and showing you know your lives and your experiences so we appreciate that thank you all right we will move on to our next presentation which is um our final budget presentation it is not the long presentation that I did last month um because we we've done that there are actually no changes to the budget that we are presenting to you this evening um I am doing fewer slides than I did last time so as you know um we get our income from several different sources um we have local tax levy which is capped at 2% by state law so those are the taxes that are um school taxes that are paid by the township residents um we get money from the state which is called state aid and then we also have grants and entit ements which are basically funding from the federal and state government in everything that we do we try to balance out fiscal responsibility and educational Integrity we have to balance out the needs of our programs our students um our staff and our facilities uh we have lots of different things that are vying for our dollars and our attention so some of the priorities and challenges as we mentioned before increase special ad and L Services health care costs have gone up dramatically um over the last few years um and even though we are self-insured it is still a large expense for US Safety and Security costs obviously that's a priority in this District um offering competitive salaries and teacher retention is very important to us Charter School costs continue to go up as due Transportation costs as you pay your money at the gas tank um our gas tanks for those buses are quite large um we continue to have to make sure that we're maintaining our older buildings um keeping up with the latest of technology and making sure that our staff are giving opportunities for um the professional learning that they need to be to be the best teachers in front of the classroom we also need to be sure that we're updating our curriculum materials and making sure that our curriculum uh meets the latest standards from the state as those continue to change um we have goals in our strategic plan that we were always working towards and also the postco academic and mental health challenges have also been um something very important that we've we've promised our staff and um our families and our community that we would continue to support um through our budget so our proposed budget has a general fund of 148 m75 316 which includes General expense capital outlay and Charter School costs our grants and entitlements from both federal and state sources are just over $10 million and our debt service fund which is like our mortgage is is 9.26 million so that general fund is 88% of our budget The Debt Service again that mortgage and the tax levy is 5.5% the preschool Aid which is a separate budget to itself is 4.2% Grants and entitlements are 1.8% uh and that makes our total $ 167 million budget so if you look at it a different way the tax levy our general fund broken up um is 59% almost 60% is our tax levy state aid is 39.1% and we have been very very um appreciative that the state has funded the formula more in the last couple of years and that North Brunswick has been um recept received all the that money from the state um so we were underfunded for many many years and it's nice to see that they have have met our funding needs um this last couple of years um we're taking money from our maintenance reserves um miscellaneous revenue and semi money which we get back from the state um by inputting uh that's that's money for Medicare and things for speech services and special education services um so our general fund again was just over1 148 million and these are the areas that are funding that um a lot of the general funding Appropriations includes money for salaries and benefits and as I said previously in my presentation um we are a staff this is this is where the majority of our our money goes 70.4% um is appropriated for Staffing we have a large number of Staff we approximately um have a thousand people who work for us here in North Brunswick um and this is their salaries and benefits um operations is about 10.6% um the charter school cost overall 9 million point dollars of our money goes to Charter Schools that's about 6% of our budget other places you know miscellanous things um 4.1% special education instruction and services excluding salaries is 3.2% so that does not include those salaries which are included above tuitions for other schools are 2.9% those again have seen a huge increase both special ed costs and tuition costs for out of District placements have nearly doubled um in our projections for next year um capital is 2.2% University Behavioral Health um which provides a lot of mental health services and counselors and therapists in our school buildings um is now moving from an Esser funded cost to a local funded cost so 1 Point almost one it's really almost $1.1 million um is funding University Behavioral Health Services in this District um so that is a big expense this year coming off of um Esser being funded from that and coming into our local budget this year so that's our total uh general fund Appropriations so we did get that extra money this is how much we got $1.2 million in additional revenues in this budget um and that is something we need to acknowledge so 9.5 million of that was a state aid increase um $1.7 million is at 2% uh tax levy increase uh for $1.2 million $1 million dollar of that automatically goes to the charter school so in District it is $10.2 million that we are increasing our spending so what do we do with that additional Revenue um $2.5 million have gone to salaries 1.8 has been uh for tuition for special education students and ancillary services are 1.5 million health benefits 1 .3 there's the charter school again 1.0 1.1 and ubhc 1.0 continuing maintenance a million doar and all other a million dollars so that money um you know it's a lot of money and it would be hard for me to spend it on my own but within a school district where we have a lot of needs in many different areas that money does that extra money does go very quickly so the tax levy impact for the 25 budget um with the allowable increase of 2% is a prop a full proposed 2% um the tax levy impact is 6.6 per $100 of assessed property value which is about $884 a month or $106 per year for the average North Brunswick assessed home value of $160,000 um and if your home value is higher obviously if your assessed home value is higher the tax impact is higher this is the total budget for approval 167 million 4 you know we know it was a lot of hard work um we appreciate you breaking it down for us your commitment um with your team to putting together a comprehensive budget for us um and we know it's a lot of work so we appreciate that so thank you um I will open it up to the public uh to do a public session on this final B uh budget presentation at this time if you'd like to come up to the podium and speak upon the uh final budget we ask that you come up state your name sign in and you'll have 3 minutes oh think so my name is Jennifer herck and I am the NBTA negotiations chair and as you can see the representatives and Leadership of NBTA have joined me here tonight I came to you last month before your 2425 budget was officially adopted I did that although we were then and still are now in active and quite civil contract negotiations we felt it was important to Step Beyond the bargaining table's boundaries and without breaking confidentiality address the full board because the full board adopts the budget that drives the settlement I spoke because we were alarmed when we did the math from your budget's presentation and so a low percentage allotted for staff salary increases from the additional 11.2 million in funding I spoke to Advocate using the banked cap funds the board knows and the members behind me are getting a crash course in banked cap funds what it is and why we advocated making use of that additional money to fund your budget I asked what the additional tax burden would be if the board utilized it I'm not sure that we received an answer to that we believe it would not have had a substantial impact on the taxpayers of North Brunswick we understand that you have constituents who want no tax increases but as members of the board you have a responsibility to fund the programs so that the students in schools can be successful how would a zero tax increase keep programs in place and I'll remind the board that among this group of Staff members sitting in front of you tonight you also have constituents who work here live here vote here tonight we see that the board chose not to utilize that available money and to say we are disappointed would be an understatement but just as you have entrusted us with your number one commodity in North Brunswick the children we are trusting you we are trusting that you have another way to fund competitive increased salaries for the current and future staff of North Brunswick schools but please know this if your solution of doing so comes in the form of budget cuts NBTA will not be to blame especially since we brought this issue and a solution to your attention weeks ago we want the parents and guardians of North brunic students as well as our staff to understand that if services are cut the responsibility for that lies slowly with this board of education thank you I will now translate the mbta's statement Jennifer conf for [Music] cap [Music] for for brwi for if I can't if I can Madam president absolutely there any other members of the association wishing to address the board this time okay um I I think on behalf of the bo I'm the board attorney I'm Jonathan Bush on behalf of the board I think we appreciate certainly the certainly appreciate the membership of this organization which is essential to the operation of the district and I think we agree that negotiations are are going on in good faith and we're working very hard to try to resolve um any outstanding issues but I I I also it's my job as the board attorney to make sure that that's very clear especially to the leadership that we do have ground rules for negotiations they were signed by both parties in December uh and number 10 I just want to point out says there shall be no statements about the content of negotiations or proposals or positions to the press or the public unless such statements are mutually agreed upon uh and the rest of it deals with impath which clearly we're not at and hope to not ever be at with you because again our relationship is incredibly important uh to to both the association but I can speak on behalf of the board to the board um and so you know I just want to make sure that that's clear because we want to continue to move forward in a in a in a progressive way towards something that that works obviously for for both parties and I'll turn to the president now thank you would anyone else from the board like to miss ke anything uh yes my name is Colleen Keefe I am the chair of the negotiations committee um my committee and I as well as board we are very very interested in working with the Union uh it has been a collaborative process We are continuing to explore avenues that is beneficial as Mr Bush said for both sides and we do value everybody and again we are continuing to look forward to continued collaborative negotiations with all of you thank you yes we appreciate you all being here this evening I agree with with uh what chair Kei had just mentioned um you all mean a great deal to us you take care of our students every day um I was a student in this District as our some of our board members we appreciate and know the importance of you all as as employees to us so we will do everything we can to continue our collaborative negotiations over the next couple of weeks so thank you all right at this time we'll move to uh item number seven Vice President James I'll turn it over to you oh I'm sorry number six thank you I'd like to close the um public portion so could we have a motion to so adop that thank you all in favor I anyone oppos this session is closed thank you my apologies now we'll turn it over to Vice President James okay I am moving to authorize the adoption of the fiscal year 2425 School District budget as submitted to and approved by the New Jersey Department of Education second I'm going to take a roll call Mr Ali yes Mr Brockman yes Mr Carter yes Miss James yes Miss Keith yes Mr Lori yes Dr Patel yes Miss to yes and Mr W yes the budget is adopted thank you um Mr Lori could you please take item number eight sure Madam president I move to approve the following board minutes the regular public meeting minutes of March 27th 2024 and the executive minutes from the same night March 27th 2 second I'm sorry that was Mr W yes thank you all in favor I anyone opposed the minutes are accepted thank you are there any Communications this evening no Communications all right I have my administrative report great we could take it to there all right and I I can truly say this good evening to all of our family's guest and viewers here tonight usually it's uh whoever's out in the internet but now it's we actually have a real audience which is wonderful we are pleased to announce that we were the only one of the only high schools in the area to have participants in the United Way tax preparation program 13 nbths students volunteer their time to help file add extensions and participate in the in the preparation process leading up to the tax filing deadline of April 15th this gave our students the exposure and the opportunity to learn a possible career path and give back to the community at the same time and we are very proud of their efforts as we head into the last two months of school there are a lot of activities ahead showcasing our talented students spring concerts actually begin April 30th with our John Adams Spring Concert followed by the high school PR spring concert on May 16th May 21st is the high school spring band and percussion concert and the middle school concert middle school has their band concert on May 14th followed by their chorus and orchestra concert on May 21st Lynnwood school has their chorus on Orchestra coner concert on May 23rd aside from our concert series we have our District Preschool art show at the mbtc ECC on April 25th it's tomorrow and our district art show will be held at mbtm on May 9th at 5:30 p.m. keep please keep a close eye out for more events via VIA parent square and Via our school website um this evening I would also like to recognize Miss Genevie green a longtime Jud teacher and academic support teacher um who was well known and um admired in The Jug Community she has been acting as the interim Dean at Jud school since January and following a full search Miss green has been chosen to fill the spot permanently as the instructional dean of Jud school and she is on the agenda even this evening for approval and Miss green is here tonight with the Jud team if you'd like to come on up Miss green I like your shirt by the way it says Dean green justing good evening I would like to begin by thanking Miss choka Miss ke as well as the board members for this wonderful opportunity I'm deeply honored and humbled to accept the position of instructional Dean as this role represents a professional milestone for me I would also like to thank Dr Glover and Mrs alderin and I am incredibly excited to roll up my sleeves and continue to work alongside both of them in fostering a culture of collaboration creativity and continuous Improvement like many of you I'm rooted in North Runway so if you happen to see me around town at a basketball game or a softball game feel free to say hi to me Jud schools Dean green thank you congratulations and that is it for my report this evening Madam president thank you and congratulations Dean green all right we'll move over to our students good evening good evening how are you good good thank you for coming no problem um so s celebrated our final pep week of the year after Spring Break um students participated in theme days and we held our final pep rally on Friday April 12th we celebrated our spring athletes and our Juniors won the spear cup for a clean sweep of all the pep rallies this year um secondly uh The Alchemist leader had a successful run of their production Greece Mr nbths was held on Friday April 19th Lance KOLO won for the second year straight being the first repeat Mr mbts in school history wow uh next the class of 2026 held a successful pocketbook Bingo SLG basket auction on Saturday April 20th this week we will be electing our sgo and class officers for the next year elections will take place on Friday in Home Room uh next uh the pain in words is sponsoring an annual Coffee House event this Friday at 700 p.m. in the comons um nbths says South Asian Cultural Association presents an innovation show on Saturday May May 11th at 600 p.m. experience South Asia Asian culture with food dances skits and more uh yeah and you can buy tickets during lunch and when you come in yeah yeah that's all it thankk you thank you um all right we'll move to our committee reports we'll start with business operations Mr Lori thank you madam president and the business operations committee met on Wednesday April 17th and among the items that we discussed um we started with an ongoing discussion from several months ago about our 3 to 5year facility study report where we're looking at all of our schools for accessibility and site related issues uh mechanical site visits have been happening we hope to have reports in a couple of weeks and after the reports are received we'll need to start scheduling meetings to discuss findings I say we but it's not us it's it's the administrative team um we talked again about the rod grants that were approved by the SDA uh on April 5th the grant agreement will be worked on next with Miss Hawk and Mr campano our architect of record there are a couple of motions on our agenda for this evening it's important to note that at this point in the calendar year we've got motions for fiscal 24 and we've got motions for fiscal 25 and they are denoted as such on our agenda this evening uh one of the uh fiscal 25 motions has to do with a transportation bid uh several Awards to Mercy ABC road to success in Monto uh those are on page 17 under transportation item number two and uh also for fiscal 25 are the Lynwood MRC classrooms so Northeastern Interiors is going to build two classrooms out of a small portion of the uh lywood MRC and uh again that's a fiscal 25 motion because it's contingent on next year's budget um that is on page 14 under Finance item 4A uh for this year fiscal motions uh the Jud prek Courtyard is on there this evening uh it's broken out into which rubber surface and its drainage repair because of the different funding mechanisms for it uh and that is on page 14 under Finance on item 3A as well as the Parson Courtyard um which is also on page 14 of Finance item 3A we discussed an interesting uh federal tax credit that is available and I'm going to defer to cheating on my phone for this one um it is federal tax credit 179d which is actually a tax credit for commercial entities um we as a school board can't take advantage of that necessarily because we are not a taxpayer however uh Schneider Electric that has done our esip work for us can and we are working collaboratively with them to see if they can pass a portion of that credit on to us so looking out for every dollar that we possibly can um and then a few ongoing status updates we've talked uh for what seems like a while now about the recommissioning of the nbths Season 4 units um two of those have been completed to date at Lynwood the roof repair the major work is completed we're investigating some minor leaks with our vendor uh and then from a district perspective the ongoing work on our demographic study is still in progress which we hope to have completed in a few weeks uh we talked about our fiscal 25 budget already this evening and then the bids for the uh lawn maintenance uh will be opened on May 14th and that would conclude business operations for this month thank you thank you uh Human Resources Mr Brockman yes Madam president the human resource committee uh met on Wednesday April 17th to discuss various personnel and Community topics for those on tonight's agenda who are either resigning or retiring the board thanks them for their service and wishes them well as of last Wednesday certified vacancies for the 20242 school year were posted and include positions at the elementary middle high school and preschool levels for which alternate route and traditional route teaching candidates are encouraged to apply the district also continues to seek out candidates for several bilingual teacher positions at the elementary level Miss Kea shared a detailed spreadsheet with the committee on the status of the open positions for the 2425 school year and most are currently in a final interviewing stages any new or current educator interested in joining our team can view our job openings on our website and social media Pages our administrative team has participated in two job fairs recently with CJ pride and Rucker's Graduate School of Education as they continue to recruit staff two more virtual job fairs will take place before the end of the school year sponsored by New Jersey school jobs the final recruitment video was shared and will be post uh pushed out this week on The District's web page YouTube a page and social media sites there are also several reassignments for this year and next year and we thank our staff for taking on these new roles our human resource department continues to actively recruit for substitutes and several new ones are listed on the agenda and we welcome them all to the district we discussed any upcoming leaves of absences for the next school year and how positions may be filled via daily substitutes long-term substitutes or six uh teaching periods we also discuss the process of interviewing hiring of recently posted administrative positions and two of those final candidates are listed on tonight's agenda we welcome them to their new roles and wish them success Miss ke provided an updated update regarding the nbths Hall of Fame due to the conflicting schedule with the inductees Miss ke and Mr neller are looking for potential dates in June for the induction luncheon uh the committee also reviewed the second reading of several revised policies related to equity and and the required comprehensive Equity plan that concludes my report thank you thank you uh the education committee Dr Patel we'll move to Vice President James in Dr Patel's absence I did chair this meeting on April 17th the education committee met on Wednesday April 17th the committee Revisited the high impact tutoring Grant update which is being finalized njsla is slated to begin in May of 2024 beginning with the high school administrative is preparing staff for the administration of this assessment the committee also discussed grant funding for Esser those funds are soon set to expire as our ARP funds and those funds are being allocated for use the committee discussed the solar eclip the solar eclipse which was a districtwide activity and obviously a national event a website was created by a supervisor to share information with students that addressed the significance of this Celestial event shared safety information and the district also made good use of Grant funds by purchasing solar eclipse glasses which was made available to every student to ensure their safety should they partake in the viewing the committee discussed the NBT nbths mission statement for Middle States accreditation that process is specific to the high school which is an extensive process with the committee developed at the B at the building level during this process the high school mission statement was revised beliefs updated and the profile of graduates was also updated the process will conclude with the high school being judged against a comprehensive rubric pocket talks were delivered to the schools pocket talk is a small portable device that provides translation services in approximately 84 languages that will assist helping to deliver service to families and students in real time these were purchased using title 3 funds the committee discussed dual language plans for the 2425 school year dual language programs remain at Parson and LP the committee discussed the challenges that have been presented as it relates to maintaining the Integrity of the program with appropriate and consistent Staffing however at present the program remains Administration will explore Alternative Program options such as bilingual and Es ESL should that need arise the committee discussed a wrapping up of non-tenured summative evaluations using the Marshall rubric also there has been a respiratory virus update encouraging the use of core prevention strategies such as hand hygiene and additional strategies such as masking and distancing however should a student or staff contract such a virus they are to stay home and away from others until the symptoms have been improved and the individual has been fever free for 24 hours so that is a drastic change from our previous uh Co protocols that individual should also take aded precautions thereafter these are more relaxed protocols and are a good sign postco and we thank our students and staff for their cooperation finally the policies and regulations were presented for second reading and discussion and that concludes the education committee report thank you Vice President James uh for filling in um Miss Kei any uh formal negotiations report this evening um other than the fact that the negotiations team it on the 15th of April with the Union um regarding ongoing negotiations not nothing further thank you uh are leaz on to the uh mayor and Township Council Mr Carter anything this evening uh just the next town council meeting is on Monday great thank you uh and then finally our leaz on to the middlex county school boards Association and the New Jersey school boards Association Mr Ali yes thank you madam president so we do have um next week the New Jersey School Board Association we will be having our middle sex County award celebration where we'll be honoring our very own Julie Mercier for her minow County teacher of the year award so that's going to be amazing um all teachers staff um our superintendent's going to be there so everyone's welcome to come who was a part of the school her family so please you know show support and love CU this is amazing and um it's going to be uh at 6 o' if you're coming in person there will be dinner so just please register and if you're going to join hybrid um just starts at 6:45 and it's to be in Colonia and then additionally um there would be other awards that night for other school board members and just other Schoolboard um amazing people who um work in the district and who work in the state so it's going to be just a great night of awards so um hopefully we see some of you all there and that's all Madame President thank you thank you looking forward to it um at this time can I please have a motion to approve the administrative student and committee reports so moved second is it Mr Alie you will get that one because I heard two from the other side um all in favor I any opposed all all the reports are accepted thank you uh at this time we we will review our agenda for this evening um we do receive the agenda prior to anything um change is in bold um so we will review the agenda at this time starting on page four and five uh six and seven8 and n 10 and 11 12 and 13 14 and 15 some of those policies that were reviewed were on here as well on page 15 16 and 17 Page 18 and 19 that will be all so we can uh jump back to page four and I will open it up to the public at this time on agenda items only if you'd like to approach the board we ask that you come to the podium this will be on agenda items only we ask that you state your name sign in and you'll be given 3 minutes seeing none can I please have a motion to close the public portion of the meeting so move second thank you all in favor I anyone opposed this portion of the meeting is closed thank you um Mr when could you please take item number 15 sure um I would like to make a motion uh to approve the following consent agenda items person uh Personnel one and two curriculum 1 and two miscellaneous Finance items 1 through three policy in transportation 1 and two second going to be a roll call Mr Ali yes Mr Brockman yes Mr Carter yes M James yes yes Miss ke yes Mr Lori yes Dr Patel yes Miss to yes and Mr W yes to all consent agenda items except miscellaneous item 1A harassment intimidation and bullying report for April 2024 for which I abstain thank you all the Motions are accepted thank you at this time we will jump to page 19 at this time we will have a public session on any matter if you'd like to approach the board on any manner at this time we ask that you come up to the podium uh state your name sign in and you'll be given 3 minutes all right seeing none can I please have a motion to close the public portion of this meeting some second all in favor anyone opposed this uh public session is closed thank you and we'll move to item 17 can I please have a motion to adjourn the meeting still movees second all in favor I anyone opposed we are adjourned thank you thank you all thank you all e