e e e than e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e I delete them all delete delete delete I Dynamic right now reconvene from um executive session be it resolve that the board reconvenes some public to public session motion have a second second all in favor we are now in public session yep nothing there nothing there okay we're going to start the night off right president's report it's going to be very short it's going to be very brief but please join us at the athletic department for a Collegiate athletic signing event on Wednesday May 22nd 2024 it's from 11:00 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. in the Anthony G gymnasium family and friends are all welcome signing seniors will wear their college gear I'm so looking forward to this to see the class of 2024 do their signing to watch the excitement of the families but most importantly to encourage the kids to go do their best like they've done here in Piscataway so looking forward to it so anyone who can come join me there I'll be there with some Palm poms in a loud voice don't worry about it I won't embarrass you at all but I'm going to make my presence known and cheer them on and that concludes my president's report for tonight next on the agenda we have the superintendent's report sure um so just to to pick get back on the athletic signing when uh the list get gets out a little closer we're still almost a month away uh from that um and they're Ever Changing especially with kids uh you know still choosing colleges to go to uh there are multiple signings throughout the year and this is the last one for for this particular year so you'll get a list from me on the kids what schools and uh you know and a reminder how when it gets closer so I have uh just two things uh for my uh superintendance report uh you have a yellow um program and you had an invitation in your binder last month uh this is the kakac choice and and Dr Richie did a wonderful job uh if you look there's 29 students in here and the program is designed to recommend and and honor students who just make um a teacher's day better for whatever reason whether they ask them how they're doing whether they smile whether they're hard workers whether they're polite one in here uh is a recommendation and and a honoring a kid because he held the door for someone who had her hands full right so it's just really nice and and and many of these kids um you know won't get recognized for academic Awards or or athletic awards so it's really nice that they're um honored for being good people I think that's really really important uh we talk about it all the time I mean we could uh one of our goals is to is to produce good citizens and and this is a a really good attribute to that so when you get a chance read through it um nothing for you to do nowh for you to go but I just wanted you to have what the teacher said about these kids and the second part is our annual Wellness summary report by Dr Laura heck I will turn the floor over to her and we'll have a little picture PowerPoint when she's done uh you all have a uh two page actually four page stapled together the report she will review that and uh answer any questions that you might have thank you so I'm honored to reintroduce myself as a district wellness policy coordinator is one of the responsibilities that I have as the uh supervisor of counseling and Health Services so I provided the report that you have before you which is going going to go into more detailed information about our alignment across all of our school buildings with our district wellness policy 855 we are um our district policy is aligned very well with the healthy hunger free kids act and the smart snack standards which is in accordance with the guidance that is set forth by the United States Department of Agriculture um so the members of the district Wellness committee included myself as a District's policy coordinator this year there was one principal one nurse two parents three students one PE teacher and our food services manager each school has their own School wellness policy coordinator and they collaborate collaborated with our committee to provide the information that is contained in the report that you received so the goals in our District's policy are aligned with nutrition promotion nutrition education physical activity and our nutrition guidelines so our Wellness Community collaborated to support each of the schools in pisc datway to evaluate their compliance and goal attainment and also their progress made towards the goals in our policy that are set forth offer recommendations to any changes that they might suggest for our policy and provide an action plan for the following school year so I'm happy to report that all of the policy goals in our district policy have been attained for the school year and all of our schools continue to develop a very strong commitment to educating students regarding Healthy nutrition providing activities that involve physical activity throughout the school day and Beyond encouraging overall Wellness in students and health and wellness education activities are developmentally appropriate according to the grade level and they also engage our families and our community members so the slides show here before you just give you a little bit of an overview at the different grade levels of some of the activities that we'll see in place that aligned with our district policy and demonstrated our progress and attainment of those goals I want to give credit to our board student representative Toni who actually created this PowerPoint for us so she's our PHS student she put this together for us so starting with our elementary schools we'll see here at nolwood what some of the things that you'll see throughout the building as well as especially in the cafeteria and on the lunch line are the posters that align with a balanced plate and Healthy nutrition we have students participating in a Zumba class that happened to be a very fun glowing Zumba class that they shut the lights off for afterwards and it was a big hit there they have a wathon some of these things are connected to fundraisers that were going on at no wood this is just a brief snapshot of some of the things that no wood did this year Grand View had some things to highlight as well they had a live garden growing in the school which they then took from with the students were involved in that and they made lunches that they you gave out to the kids and they explained you know how this aligns with nutrition standards and our balance plates they had a presenter come in for a fun assembly about making healthy choices um they had a wathon they also had a Danon that the community was involved in as well over at Eisenhower we had a family fitness night where we had our our family Olympics I think Nancy joined that as well in the hallway we um had over there was still there we have a path that little path that you'll see it's a sensory path so the kids at different points during the day aside from PE and aside from Recess might just need a little break so that's a sensory path that they're able to walk around on and there's little the steps that prompts them to go forward you see they one of the teachers showing off her steps towards our our district goal of um the steps that we were walking we have our buddy ball program which is a fantastic program that I believe you're aware of that occurs at Eisenhower school which engages members of our students with special needs as well as student volunteers that come to support the sports that are involved there we have a great parent turnout and a lot of support for that at randville we'll see the students um on the bounce balls Dr slifco is a big fan of basketball so part of his positive behavior supports is that he engages kids in basketball games there you'll see the posters at Randol phille as well in our four five schools again you'll see posters throughout the visual aids are so important at that age to just go back to that shared language of what we expect and what we teach with regards to nutrition we have them also at MLK and you'll see them throughout the district again this is just a little snapshot highlight on some of the things that you'll see that demonstrated our alignment with our goals um in our Middle School kakac had this great event where it's a fundraiser where we had basketball um this group that comes and does trick shots and involves the students in that that was part of a a reward system they had in place there at Shore they they they boast their reset days so students that have demonstrated academic progress are able to engage in these reset days where they have a lot of physical activan games it's so nice to see the middle schoolers out there almost playing recess again and at quibbl toown we have similar events as well um quibbl toown had a parent Fitness night they also had a fundraiser as well with the the basketball component and then we have there our B our football coach coming down to recruit some kids maybe have some interest in going out for sports when they come up to the high school and at PHS our our older kids still like to play so this is an example of the field day that they had in their gym time at Piscataway High School it just emphasizes the different aspects and opportunities for physical activity so all of the schools attain their goals we thank for putting this presentation together for us today um the schools have developed goals to continue to demonstrate their Wellness activities into next year the wellness committee does not have any recommendations to change our board policy it is completely aligned with the healthy hunger free kids act and the New Jersey Department of Agriculture culture and we did a great job this year and we'll continue doing that moving forward thank you thank you for your support next on the agenda it's public comments uh for school district's budget the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and school mans of the community interest in support of this position the law establish a period of public comment at every board meeting individuals wishing to speak must State their name in municipality comments are limited to 3 minutes duration but an individual may speak a second time after all others who wish to speak on the topic have been heard the board may require that individuals registered to speak prior to the beginning of the meeting participants May submit written material in support of their position all statements in or questions shall be directed to the presiding officer and no participant May address or question board members individually all speakers are requested to express themselves in a civil matter with due respect for the dignity and privacy rights of others whose legal rights may be affected please note while it is not the board's intention to stifle comment on matters of legitimate concern to the school Community the public should be aware that if their statements violate the rights of others under the law governing defamation or invasion of privacy they may face personal liability to the in to the injured party if speakers are uncertain of their legal ramifications of their comments the board urges them to seek guidance before from their own legal advisor can I have a motion to open public comments motion can I have a second second yeah and I see no one here for public comments may I have a motion to close public comments have second second and it's public comments is closed next on the agenda um Dr Connors yeah public hearing and final adoption of the 2024 2025 School District District budget and I just want to remind everyone that on March 14th we sat here and um our business administrator and superintendent gave a presentation on the24 uh tenative budget and we went through it um it was submitted to the um executive superintendent of the county and it was approved and so tonight what we're doing is we just uh opened it up for public comments but there were none but now I will ask um and then everybody in their packet got the book which is the uh fiscal year 2025 operating budget so I will say be it resolve that the following motion identified as item Bay approved as presented and this is the resolution approving our School District budget and certification of the 2024 2025 tax levy second Mr secretary King please take the vote Mrs cordino yes Mr King yes M rashed yes Mrs Sado Cowen yes Miss Stafford yes Miss Rivers yes Miss Smith yes Dr Connors uh yes but I will point out that there is if this is the new it's two errors there's two errors yes on terms of the reading of the be correct I'll fix it in the minutes yes uh yes M cherry yes motion carries thank you Personnel of lab of relations Mrs Sado Cohen being resolved that the following motions identified as items a through C be approved as presented second Mr secretary can you take the RO Mr cordino yes Mr King yes Mr she yes abstain from b m Rivers yes m Sado C yes Miss Smith yes Miss Stafford yes Dr Connors yes M Cherry yes motion Carri public comments from the floor um have a motion open public comments from the floor have a second second okay second of public comments being I see no one in the waiting room for public comments can I have a motion to close public comments motion have a second second all in favor okay we have no committee reports this evening so next on the agenda we have the approval of minutes Miss Loretta Riv yes be removed pleas resolve that the following minutes be approved as submitted this is meeting April 11 2024 executive session April 11th 2022 second all in favor we appr School planning and operations Dr Connors be resolve that the following motions identified as items a through C be approved as presented second Mr secretary can you take the role Mr Kings yes Mr she yes Mr Rivers yes Mr yes M Smith yes M Stafford yes cordino yes Dr Connor yes M Cher yes car policy Miss Smith there was no policies right no curriculum Mr King resolve that the following motions identified as items a through b be approved as presented second secretary can you take the RO yes Mr Sado yes Miss Smith yes M Stafford yes Mrs cordino yes Mr King yes Mr red yes Dr Connors yes Mr yes okay next we'll have there's nothing under uh people Services there's nothing under administrative and auxiliary old business anyone with any old business um Madam uh president on our board certification I have some good news um our field representative from New Jersey school board sent us uh where we're at and what we're trying to do remember we had four years to actually do this to get the 16 credits um because we had also uh done uh the strategic planning and the board self- evaluation um she added some more credits to that so we are 12 out of 16 so there is a possibility that we will be able to finish it in less than a year AES and so my next step will be um I will recommend I'm going by that um list yes this list of topics why a couple of years why not a couple of months well no they give you four years to complete it wants to finish it with but he wants to finish this year okay December right yeah as long as he doesn't bring up the month of May or June we're okay yeah what what they're doing is that they realize that there's elections each year and that the boards change so they allow like a longer period so you get at least seven me board members president present in the um superintendent and then they give you that leeway um but I think it's great that the group of us all together be part of it so we would have all been part of it and um and when did we when did we start the process April of last year okay so uh so did pretty good this is we're doing pretty good yeah so in one year we're 12 out of 16 yeah and and um everybody has these topics so what do I try and make it timely you know like the policy was the last one and I'm going to I'll I'll pick a couple more that um whatever's going on so and that's good news thanks Tom fantastic I pleas some things for the administration to do we have to do uh we have to we have to do that policy check and um and then just show that we've uh satisfied Department of Education uh some monitoring and in good shape very good anyone else with any old news what anyone with any new news something uh we had our qack visit from the county uh yesterday and uh went very well and I want to publicly thank the the cabinet uh Dr B lman David Olivera Colleen um fabulous job I met with Carl Anderson yesterday and each one of his County members met with their prospective people from the county uh they weren't here very long because of the efforts of bill and his team putting things together beforehand uh but just want to let you know it's it's a big deal for us to make sure that uh the county looks at Piscataway in a positive light and that we're doing things according to the policy the regulations and uh you know things went things went very well yesterday so I just wanted break thank you do uh Dr vanelli um just want to acknowledge everyone Dr basille for the work that you put in for qac uh but the whole organization of Piscataway that has to do their part and everybody contributes a little and we achieve a lot um and let's just keep that momentum going which we have for many years here in piscatway with cusac and it's a great feeling to know okay when they come in they're here very shortly they get what they need to get and they're back out the door so that's giving a light and Shining a light on the individuals involved in the job great job that everyone's doing okay anyone else any Madam president I'm g go to Nancy first time I I CAU you I'm just say I had a couple um I just wanted to make uh uh a comment uh to acknowledge our um board president um for being able to spearhead um many of our women attending the women's leadership the inaugural women's leadership conference that we attended at New Jersey school boards and um showing great leadership as our Madam President we were all there and and really did learn a lot and were able to um process some of these things that we'll be able to utilize over the next year to and on our board so thank you thank you n you Dr Connors uh just a couple advertisements um it's important for board members to be out into the school community and uh in our package uh there were a couple things one was the piscato high school spring Sports senior nights so I emphasize again if you can make any of these senior nights that's great and then the second thing is that something that happens every year that the uh superintendent hosts is our uh volunteer recognition night and so if you could make that that's great as well so it's May 6 it's May 6 6 pm he anyone else any other new business if not can I have a motion to adjourn Mo I have a second second all in favor [Applause] wej many times this month already yeah e