today is December 14th and today is the meeting for the South Brunswick School Board I'd like to ask everyone to please stand and salute the flag I pledge allegiance to to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay just have to do one thing here I apologize it went away my computer's not working very well here okay I'm sorry I have to do the statement of advanced notice and my computer is doing something fcy sorry computers okay the New Jersey open public meeting Act 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 interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the board secretary has caused notice of this meeting including date time and location and be posted in the South brunck Library the board office filed with the Township Clerk and communicated to the home News Tribune and Star Ledger Mr palowski can we have a roll call please jul La Hernandez Miss keep KH Mr Mr Mike Mitchell Mr nathon here Dr Smith araj Miss Lisa Rogers here we have a call thank you may I have a motion to approve agenda Mr Mitchell approval second miss ferara all in favor thank you uh now the board will be moving into to Executive session be it resolved that the Board of Education excuse me I have yeah we did that I'm sorry let me start over be it resolved that the Board of Education of the township of South Brunswick hereby moves into an executive session in accordance with the Sunshine Law chapter 231 of the public laws of 75 104 through6 through1 4-21 to discuss the following harassment intimidation and bullying appeal be a further resolve that the discussion conducted in executive session can be disclosed to the public at such time as the matters have been resolved formal action may be taken at any meeting we have a motion to move into executive session Mr Nathanson second Miss Alicia Khan all in favor we will shall now move into executive session back at 7 and we will be back at 7 pm I'd like to reopen board meeting for 14 may have a motion Please Mr Nathanson motion second who was second Miss thank you all in favor any Nays very good we will reopen the meeting um the next order of business on the agenda is um board minutes of November 16th and executive minutes of November 16th board secretary Mr palowski draft of the minutes were sent out for both meetings um uh this past Tuesday December 12th are there any corrections to the minutes distributed no corrections to the minutes distributed they stand as written thank you um next is the report of the superintendent Miss def oh did I student represent what did I say super oh I said superintendent no she's not the superintendent student representative defon Ley go ahead Fam thank you uh good evening everyone starting off with some news from the high school student council has been busy decorating for deck the halls and and annual student council fundraising event where we decorate the outside of classroom doors for the winter holidays we have completed over 80 orders and are still working hard this is also the second year that we are decorating the board office as well Mr feder's dedication to our district theme of equity has even extended to his holiday door I hope you enjoyed my design we are very thankful for staff supporting our Council and contributing to all of the school spirit in the Halls we've started our December spirit days strong with days that have included don't sweat the small stuff best of the Season Deck the Halls and white out wearing various holiday and winter gear to show our school spirit we have even more coming up next week next month student council will be attending the New Jersey Association of student council's winter conference at TCNJ we will be part of electing the new State student council board we will also have the opportunity to attend workshops presented by other student councils in New Jersey and we will be presenting our own workshops on how to create a deck the halls event and how to start and run a successful student Senate additionally we are excited to announce that we are one of only three student councils in the state who are being considered for the standards of excellence award we will begin the next steps of the process at the convention student council is looking forward to hosting a semiformal winter charity ball on December 26th to support hugs for Brady the dance is open to all sbhs students and will take place in the annex gym and freshman cafeteria with a DJ refreshments and a photo booth the class of 2012 27 is hosting a winter wonderland event on December 14th where there will be a gingerbread house contest classic holid holiday movies and hot cocoa with other treats the class of 2026 and 2027 recently hosted a successful trip to the King of Prussia Mall last Friday 103 seniors went on the American dream Mall trip hosted by the class of 2024 we aren't sure if the staff or students had more fun on that trip our clubs are also doing some really amazing things this month next week hos will be hosting a mock trial for specific competitive events other schools will be participating and an award ceremony will be held at the end all six robotics teams competed this past weekend at Milbourne high school team B qualified to advance for States based on their skill score Deca successfully hosted a tie-dye event with more than 150 club members in attendance um decorating their t-shirts in all shades of blue tie-dye the Asian cultural Club hosted a chit cha chai event that packed the Freshman cafeteria and a good time was had by all the Viking closet is hosting their red carpet prom dress Drive where they will be collecting new and Gently Loved prom dresses formal attire and shoes if you would like to donate please stop by on Pierre's Deli from 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on December 16th please email any questions you have to Carla Garcia sbschools.org the James kimple Center is collaborating with North runs Chick-fil-A for do good December they are accepting donations of non-p perishable food items and personal items drop off locations are located at the SB Board of Education North runswick Chick-fil-A and sbhs main entrance for athletic news the boys and girls swim team raised money and participated in the Marissa tufaro Foundation swim For A Cause charity event the boys and girls bowling teams also participated in the Marissa Taro Classic Tournament and donated toys for their toy drive the teams both took second place in the Edison Classic Tournament held on December 9th the sbhs library is thrilled to announce they will be hos hting a visit by Jeff zentner author of goodbye days and other award-winning novels on January 23rd thanks to the generosity of the SBS PTO Mr zentner will hold three sessions for our students and personally autograph his books pre-ordered forms and other information will be to shared with students shortly the sbhs library also was recently featured on CNN to highlight the media literacy education students at sbhs receive the segment features interviews with several sbhs students Mrs magello when one of our Librarians and Mr Johnson one of our social studies teachers the segment is available to view on the CNN website thank you so much for your time I hope everyone has a restful and enjoyable winter break and I look forward to reporting more in 2024 very good thank you so much very good next order of business is the report of the superintendent of schools Mr feder first welcome everyone we have great students going to do some singing We have a presentation from our um Sports and Athletics so it's a great night this is always a good December so we're excited about tonight so thank you all for coming out um I'm GNA start I'm gon to go quick I promise you guys want to get up here um we had a cool thing happen at the high school um this week CNN came CNN came to the high school to film um Jeff Johnson one of our co-chairpersons for social studies department and Lisa manganelo one of our school librarians and they were doing a lesson on um information literacy and how that works in media and it's a great we have a three and a half minute uh video they produce from it even though CNM was here pretty much all day Mr Val believe right they were interviewing kids they interviewed staff but that's a great honor for you know a national one of the most main national news media to come to South Brunswick it's not even the first time that that's happened uh even this year I think we had another station come out to film this so new jerseys uh ahead of the head of the curve on information literacy and what's happening in the world is uh California is looking to add a standard as well so they're looking to get some context of one of the school districts that have already started doing this and doing it so well so kudos to Jeff Johnson and to Lisa manganel oh there's Lisa in the back there [Applause] hey um just impressive awesome I got to see the clip I watched it a few times honestly and um it's it's worth a watch so more information is coming on that and sharing that I I think Lisa and Jeff are probably looking to share that with their with their families as well and kids so just great thanks for putting us on the map Lisa great job um so we are also get gearing up for uh next year's preschool it starts now we need to get to get uh our kids in line we already have a lot but we're still looking to get more kids interested it's a lottery situation so if you know anyone that as a three or four-year-old looking for free full day preschool please have them contact the school district we are sending out a mailer to the community as well to notify that we just want to get as many as we can in we did up our program for next year by 90 students so next year we will providing free full day preschool to 340 three and four year olds next year so that's pretty cool um emergency closing information I have not done a snow day call in three years I'm due I think it's I'm sorry just Jinx I I I feel it's I feel it's coming this year so would you guys like at least one snow day this year kids yes two yes 14 want to make sure um so anyway what we need to do we need to make sure your information is correct tell your parents anyone listening tonight make sure we have your information correct because that's that calls going to come in like at 5:00 in the morning and uh if you miss it you'll be getting ready for school you won't even know it and it'll be too late by then you'll be waiting for the bus in the snow um so again check your Genesis Parent Portal and get that all settled for yourselves again I love I'd love making this announcement when we have students in the audience uh no homework from over break all the way through January 4th Y no tests all right with that said yeah you can clap on that uh if you don't clap loud enough we'll give you homework with all that said everyone thanks for coming out tonight I'm going to turn this back over to president thank you very much any questions for Mr feder no all right very good thank you sir and congratulations again um Miss manganello she's a uh she's a neighbor of mine and every once in a while I hear her reading to the birds out there you know she just she just reads all the time it's a fantastic honor congratulations okay we have two recognitions um this evening uh I'd like to First Call up Mr verel and invite uh the board members if you'd like to take a seat at the first row we'll also be continuing after that with fall Athletics um so we have two pre um recognitions so we could go join in the front so as the board transitions why don't we um transition to the stage also m arula cold I'm always C all right good good evening ladies and gentlemen on behalf of our music staff our super superv visor of Music K12 Mr Robert Sears and our student musicians I'd like to thank the South brunic board of education for supporting our K through2 music program we know how fortunate we are to work in a community that truly values the Arts tonight I would like to share with you exciting news from the high school beginning with our choir our sbhs concert choir has a long tradition of outstanding performances and musical Excellence you can hear them perform not only at our school concert but at many other events throughout the year under the direction of Mr Aldo Aon Zula we are excited to have our concert choir here tonight and they are excited to perform for you we would like to dedicate this performance to all of our Board of Education members thanking them again for their support and their service to our students families and staff in South Brunswick now once they're set I'd like to ask you to please join me and welcoming our concert choir thank you so much for that introduction um hello I'm Alder andul behind me is the honors concert choir and we're so excited uh to sing for you tonight thank you so much for having us here um we're going to perform for you a couple selections from our Winter concert which just happened uh last Thursday if you want to see the whole thing whole things on vtn on YouTube um and we'll be singing for you guys a little bit more next week and this first song that we would like to sing for you is called Sleep by Eric Whitaker which is a very very beautiful piece and it's about um the things that kind of keep you up at night the troubles that go on in your brain that doesn't allow you to get that restfulness that you deserve until finally you deal with it and then finally we find rest or sleep the [Music] with [Music] and I know is [Music] [Music] my I can [Music] by are [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] sh [Music] [Music] what dream may come [Music] dark [Music] [Applause] of [Music] I [Music] sweet sweet [Music] [Music] s s here's another piece called Salo 150 let's wake up [Music] TR [Music] to [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] spee [Music] [Applause] Hallelujah [Applause] and it wouldn't be the holidays if we didn't send you off with a little bit of holiday song and we'll send you off with home for the holidays thank you so much and again we'll be next week we'll be carolling around the high school and we will also be visiting um black Lane for a little performance for uh the um everybody there so enjoy home for the holidays thank you [Music] of [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] to if you want to be happy [Music] in [Music] for [Music] [Music] if you want to be happy [Music] for [Music] the [Music] ayol happy Hol happy [Music] [Applause] Hol thank you so much thank you all so much very all right well done concert choir I would like to move on to our second group being recognized today our sbhs marching band our show is unique creative and artistically brilliant each and every year this is due to the vision talent and hard work of our incredible marching band staff combined with talented students in support of Music parents this fall our marching band presented their 2023 show titled purification which tells the story of a coral reef its wonders the devastation caused by pollution and its remarkable resilience our season began by hosting the sphs 43rd annual Tournament of Champions competition our marching band performed an exhibition to a packed Stadium on October 7th our band traveled to the Ludwig muser classic held at MetLife Stadium where our students triumphed earning first place with a score of 81.6 in group five open competition the Viking marching band also received the caption awards for best color guard and best visual at the North Warren High School competition we secured a resounding first place score of 89.2 prior to our home football game against Edison the South Bruns Leake environment commission and Town Council recognize our students and staff for their shows design and theme which presents an artistic interpretation of environmental concern and hope please join me in congratulating the collaborative efforts of the exceptional staff Mr TJ Brungard Mr Joshua oldum Miss Lauren rure and Mr Jacob Ford in late October we hope hosted and competed in the US bands New Jersey state championships securing second place in the state their Journey continued at MetLife Stadium for the US bands national championships where they proudly claimed Seventh Place nationally absolutely incredible just last month the 2023 sphs Viking marching band achieved a historic Milestone as they performed as the halftime entertainment for the NFL's inaugural Black Friday game let's enjoy a few slides and yes we even had Scott working on that day you can even see our logo the jron there there's there's Scott on the left and it's too bad the Jets did lose on that day Scott I'm sorry this extraordinary opportunity came as an exclusive invitation from the US bands competition circuit showcasing not only our marching band's exceptional talent but also filling the South bronza Community with immense Pride culminating a wonderful season our sphs marching band will travel to Orlando to perform as the halftime entertainment for the NCAA Pop-Tart bowl and in the Universal Studio Studios holiday parade really what a great season so at this time I would like to ask board president Rogers to please join me at the podium to present certificates of accomplishment to our sbhs marching van drum Majors okay so please join me in congratulating our drum majors ashua agal Brian kolquist and Ved lockman Oran conat now accomplishing great things requires a great team thank you to our Performing Arts parent Association for their incredible support throughout the entire season thank you to our staff for another exceptional season to our students we are very proud of you and your musical accomplishments so to end this segment we'd like to watch a video clip for our amazing marching band [Music] [Music] [Music] performing our 2023 program purification us bands is proud to present the South Brunswick High School marching [Music] band [Music] [Music] [Applause] come [Music] e [Music] [Music] w [Music] [Music] oh I'd like to now invite Mr Brungard and Mr Aron Zula up to recognize their students who have successfully auditioned for our region ensemble dropping all right um hello my name is TJ Brungard I'm one of the band directors at uh the high school and we wanted to recognize uh students who auditioned for uh and were selected into region ensembles this past weekend at JP Stevens High School um these students uh by being selected for region band are now eligible to audition for All State band uh as well next month um so we had five students make it uh in band the first we'd like to recognize is Drey denesh next is Ria Gupta uh I don't believe he's here tonight but uh scoring the highest scorer in the region on clarinet Pablo Ramirez Garcia shth [Applause] Mino and Brian [Applause] Krist and now for the choir version of all of that um first we have ger bannery sfic dunan who also had the highest placement of the Bas twos this year congratulations he is not here tonight but uh congratulations to David [Applause] Frederick Riley [Applause] green sahare Carr [Applause] chiali [Applause] Pia Viana [Applause] pilai and stuti [Applause] vishwanathan we also have some Coral students um in addition to the region ensembles uh that uh got to perform in New Jersey All State Choir or have yet to perform in New Jersey All State Choir coming up um in January or February um first student we have is supect [Applause] Donan Sahar Carr shali pandia and um shavali Pia is a candidate for the Governor's award and vocal music for placing amongst the top two in all the state for soprano 2 congratulations wow VI [Applause] Pai we also had uh two students who based on their auditions last school year uh performed in all state ensembles this past November at the NJ uh EA convention uh for the All State jazz band uh he was the lead tenor in the All State jazz band obic [Applause] majumdar and on flute Vishal [Applause] Kumar I we good so as we conclude tonight's presentation i' would like to thank our concer choir our student honoraries and their families Mr Aaron Zula and Mr Brungard for assisting tonight miss Maryann Murphy for creating the certificates and a huge thank you to our board members and Mr feda for allowing us to share the amazing work that our kids are accomplishing each and every day let's have one more more round of applause for Everything music at the high school and I would like to turn it back over to miss Rogers thank you so much um now we have the privilege of having our um Sports Athletics Awards so I'm going to call Mr CJ [Applause] Hendricks thank you Madame President I appreciate it uh good evening everybody uh happy holiday to all Vikings past present and future um thank you for allowing me to come to present about our fall athletic um programs that we had this season um first off thank you to the board of education and District leadership as well as our uh adaman team at the South brenzo High School for all their support um you know our kids really do everything they can to represent our not just our school but our community to the best of their ability so uh we have a couple things that we're going to present tonight the first thing is something new um I'm going to bring up some of our students and recognize our our students who we're going to be awarding with our Vikings sportsmanship Awards just so you have some history on how sportsmanship Works in our County the GMC um we're only allowed to recognize one male and one female student athlete every year uh of all the sports that we represent and we have at South Berns high school so um I thought that was a little foolish because we have such great student athletes that that exemplify sportsmanship throughout all our programs uh and so we decided to award a sportsmanship recipient for each sport at our high school and of that pool we will um nominate a male and a female representative to our conference so I'd like to call up the students who um who are present here today and we'll acknowledge that the students who are not so please come up and line up against the wall please first student we're going to recognize from girl soccer is Miss Eva Kelly from girl tennis uh miam Ruban from cross country Joshua Yun and some of our students who are not able to be here but we' like to recognize uh from the football team Joshua [Applause] Berg from our boy soccer team I us ramanan from gymnastics Anushka POI from field hockey lamia [Applause] Hussein girls cross country Elizabeth wiesi was here earlier but had to leave unfortunately uh for girls volleyball Jazelle Parker and finally from cheerleading Miss Christina Marte um again the the level of sportsmanship that we see our students exemplify throughout the course of a season through ups and downs is is admirable because you know that's all we want we the banners the Championships are all great things but to be recognized for the things that you do when you know people aren't looking or when the focus isn't on you the Great Character the great leadership that we have within our program um all these students are very very deserving of this recognition so we're happy to do that for them um as a as a school you know we talk about you know doing things the Viking Way and making sure that we all understand you know what we're really here for and that's just to create great connections um you know put our best foot forward in everything that we do and to try our very best to make sure that we represent South Brunswick to the best of our ability as well as us as individuals and our families that are part of the community so uh as the athletic director you know I'm very thankful of that I'm thankful for the support that we get again from our from our district um very thankful for the people in our athletic department Miss kimron Miss Kathy Ahern who work tirelessly to make sure everything is taken care of from dayto day um our coaching staff our custodians nurses athletic trainers building and grounds everybody who chips in um is a contribution to the great work that our student athletes do so uh before we get into our fall highlight video which again another point of Pride for us um I wouldn't acknowledge uh another student who's here today um one of our girls tennis players came to me earlier in the summer and talked about a program that she thought would really be a great hit for us you know just a home run and because we do so much great work with our special Olympic athletes with our Unified sports athletes she pitched the idea of starting unified tennis and one of the beautiful things about South Brunswick is not just it's inclusivity but it's ability to collaborate not just as a staff member from teacher to teacher admin to teach teacher but also from student to teacher um and the fact that this student came to me with this idea spearheaded it and said Mr Hendrick if you can back this if you can show this support I think it would be a great experience for our unified athletes um she was hit the nail right on the head uh our kids had such a great experience with it we had such great support from our girls tennis coach John Loi and our unified tennis coach Mr Craig Schwarz who's a p teacher at the high school um you know this young lady was was really really strong in her belief that this would be a great thing and and it absolutely was it was so much fun to see our kids be engaged in such a new way and I know we recognize our unified athletes at the end of the school year but I want to take this special moment because not every kid is doing that and the fact that she did that is um is something that I'm really proud of it makes me proud to be a South brunck Viking so I'd like to bring up and recognize the student who piloted and spearheaded our inaugural unified tennis season girls tennis player Miss Serena shatava [Applause] and again without the support of of our uh principal Mr verella you know and and all our admin team it's it's not possible to get these things moving and I think that support is is super important and I think that's what makes South Brunswick a special place um so thank you to our students who are here to be recognized thank you to the students who weren't able to be here and without further Ado please enjoy our fall highlight Sports video what's up Viking Nation it's Mr Hendrick director of Athletics at South Brunswick High School today I'm here to share some of the many sports highlights from this past fall season and to show you all the many connections that we're making through our South Brunswick Community we've invited our youth programs we've brought out many people throughout the course of our school year to show all of you what it means to be a viking so we're excited to show you what we're all about go [Music] Vikings [Music] [Applause] there we go [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] w [Applause] [Music] [Music] w hope you enjoyed all the highlights from this past fall season we're very excited to continue to show you more exciting experiences that we have to offer throughout the course of our school year our student athletes work very hard in the classroom in the community and also out on the playing field and out on the court to represent what it means to be a viking thank you for all your support and we hope to see you out there this upcoming winter season go Vikings [Music] [Music] thank you again and uh if I could just give one more shout out to our uh building principles at the elementary level um the Middle School principles this year we were able to collaborate and do a lot of Community Based stuff you know I say it a lot it's you know part of being a viking is is knowing that this you know these kids are more than athletes um you know they contribute they give back they run clinics they go speak to little kids at at our elementary schools they can they give back time at the middle school programs um so thank you the building principles at all our elementary schools our prek program and our middle schools because uh we were able to do appreciation nights at our football games um by inviting them out for free with their families um throughout the course of our season and also you know building connections with our youth programs with our P um program so thank you to all the people who were able to make those those moments happen um because to see our our younger our younger and you know future Vikings get excited about Athletics here in South Brunswick is a big deal you know we're at a point now we have to recruit our own kids so if we provide ourselves the opportunity to show them how special a place this is um it allows them to stay home and and and make great experiences here with us so thank you again and happy holidays thank you that was just awesome that was so much fun to watch my favorite time of the year see all these presentations okay let us move on give me two seconds okay next on the agenda is a presentation of our school safety report for the reporting period two then that is January through June of 2023 as well as our Hib self assessment report for 2220 2022 to 2023 and I know that Blair eisan and Jamie Bowmer are all the way here at the podium and they will be presenting the reports thank you hi I'm Jamie bulmer I'm director of Special Projects I'm here with Blair Eisman director of professional development programs and we are your anti-bullying coordinators for the district so I'm we're going to report out about the number of Investigations the reasons or the natures of the investigations what we do as a district to prevent Hib our self assessment grades and then school safety data will be will be reported out by Scott so we're required to report out two times a year and this is reporting period two which is last January of 2023 three till this last June 2023 so here are the numbers so there was a total of 85 investigations and 35 were confirmed hibs now we know this data looks very different than probably ever um and the reason for that is last year the state put out a new form and it's a form called the 338 form the state's reason for the form is to promote consistency among Hib allegations so it's basically creating more investigations that have to be completed so even though you see the numbers the majority of our investigations were not confirmed hips and the information is differentiated by level so it's all elementary schools the two middles and then the high school and this is the same information it's just showing you the amount of Investigations per month and then the confirmed tips from those investigations so it's just the same numbers but when they happened this slide shows you the investigations by protected class so I also in addition to the percentage added you the actual numbers so you can see that there were 30 investigations under the category of other or it's called other distinguishing Factor so examples of that would be things like weight intelligence clothing and even hair so this shows you the same numbers again but it's over the year so from two 2015 to 2023 so this one's by the levels how many investigations by levels and then the confirmed hibs by level and then this is just this again the same numbers but the total number comparison of Investigations versus the hibs throughout the years I'm GNA okay y as always the district Works to be proactive in preventing any incidents of Hib and as I scroll through these slides of different programs and initiatives that take place across Ross all of our buildings I do want to give big kudos to our anti-bullying specialists in each of the buildings as well as our administrators and um really every staff member here in District from Paris to teachers coaches everyone plays a role in Hib prevention and these are just some of the many programs and initiatives that take place and and as Jamie said these are specific to January through June of last year we are also going to report out on self assessment this is done annually as a reminder have what the assessment is here it's a state requirement where we're basically grading ourselves on our Hib policies practices and procedures so each school does complete a self assess ment at the building level with their school climate and safety team the the assessment consists of eight core Elements which are listed there for you the self assessment it's pretty lengthy it's about 35 Pages we do have to include documentation to support the scores that we give ourselves and the data is submitted to the state so these are our self assessment grades for last year 2223 total maximum points that we can earn on this assessment are 78 points so you could see in that far right column where each School lands and the last uh the last row is our district average so a 76 out of 78 and I'm going to turn it over to Scott to share the school safety data system report so this is just um some overlapping information to some of the HIV data this is another required report that talks about if you look at the First Column you'll see it talks about um what goes into this report and that includes things that are considered violence vandalism and confirmed hivs so it just is a reporting period um of um this is the reporting period just from January to June of last year and this just kind of breaks out things that we have to report on I do want to I do want to acknowledge one of the points of Pride that we um that I'll share with you right now are it's not up on the screen but I'll just share with you that our um suspensions which is something we're actively working on specifically at the high school level in 1819 which is the last full year of reporting prior to covid we actually had 507 suspensions last year which was um 22 23 we had 109 so that's a substantial difference um due to trying to do as many other things other than remove students from school so that's just a point of Pride that you don't really see in this in this data um that's that's just information we thought you'd like when you move can you go to middle and high school when you move to the middle and high school you know in in in you're talking about nearly 5,000 students and you're talking about 180 days for 5,000 students and when you look at the safety of our schools and especially in the in the second schools you know you're not seeing numbers of concern and that that's kind of how I use this data this is a compliance metric but I try to look at the data to say what what is it really telling us when you have one incident of a weapon and and that weapon was not a gun when you have um you know yes we have kids that are suspended yes we have kids that have bullying situations harassment and all of that but we're talking about how many instances someone do the math you're looking at 5,000 students times 180 days it it is remarkable at how amazing our kids really are and how well the staff does in working with them um with all that said um to talk a little bit about the HIV in general so looking at a recent HIV and just to give you a basic idea of what we deal with with the state's compliance metrics I'm going to give you a generic sample of what happened so a generic idea is a 7-year-old says something mean to another seven-year-old which hurts the child's feelings and let's say it crosses over into um something to do with a child's the other child's physical appearance certainly not good certainly not condoned certainly nothing we want to see but things do happen when kids are learning how to behave and be social and they make mistakes well that particular mistake will cost about a 20 to 30 page HIV report to be generated it will take about the equivalent of 7 to 10 hours of Staff time and while the spirit of the law is my opinion spoton we need to do whatever we can to help children learn how to kind of do this right and to not really get to the point where their actions are so you know off that they hurt someone to that degree but kids make mistakes and what what could be handled in a way exactly how it's handled talking to the children doing restorative things letting children know support them if counseling is needed but now it's costing 7 to 10 hours of time and probably if you broke that down into money probably thousands of dollars per HIV being spent to build paperwork in in examples as simple as what I just said seven-year-old says something else to a seven-year-old they should not have said should not have said but we want to help those kids I'm just not sure how 28 Pages investigations five conversations with the parents about a matter like that is doing more what it's doing I will tell you what it's doing is it's bringing out sides of people that would otherwise not exist it's putting people in a position that they should not have to be in to manage a a situation that can be managed that families who want to support kids so this is Scott speaking I know I sit in the superintendent's chair but why why this is frustrating for schools is even though we agree aund I I've yet to meet an administrator staff member teacher that does not agree that this is real bad and that this needs to be addressed but the process we have to go through and you as board members you see these and when you read the volume the voluminous amount of words that are being put to paper because a seven-year-old said something they should not have said to a seven-year-old you know that that it's it's it's Troublesome that we've presented this to legislation to the Department of Education and it goes completely on deaf ears to the point where not only do they not listen but they make new laws about existing laws that force it to go even more so that direction so now you saw 85 HIV reports up from what 20 25 30 40 18 but 35 to again we follow the law we do that and the reason we do that and the reason these things are so um done to this level with you know the the the these two are like investigative you know like it's almost like IIA they're they're like the internal Internal Affairs having to monitor all this and the reason is is because you know if you don't do it right that's when you can get in trouble from a legitimate lawsuit a legitimate situation where the right work wasn't done so we do the right work I think to the whatever degree there is um but I'm telling you when you see numbers like this I have no idea if this means it's worse or not these numbers don't tell me what does tell me is our extreme behaviors from students is up that has nothing to do with any of this data that is nowhere to be found in here because that does not really come into these reports but the extreme behavior is up the behavior of adults is up you can see it look in the media I say this all the time look in the look look on any social media platform everything is AR raised with that said the state felt let's add more paperwork cuz that's all this was is more paperwork to an already extremely cumbersome set of tasks associated with just how we can better support kids so again I'll end it and sorry for my dietry but I'll end it with Spirit of HIV law absolutely spot on agree with 100% but when you have legislators writing school work it's not it does it goes like this it does not work and kudos to the two of you and your teams we know what you guys go through we know this uptick with the 338 and all this has been extremely cumbersome it's and I'll tell you what as we lose more money you know those all you saw that long list of things we do to try to prevent that's the stuff that will go by the wayside it's the little things that will go by the wayside the tier one level work we do to help that will that that's what will be lost but don't worry we'll stay compliant and do 500 investigations a year which you know I don't know but I'll stop there thank you both thank you any questions for them I sure leis if you want any questions for us does anybody have any questions questions here I I I just have a comment I well I do agree with you 100% in terms of the amount of effort that the state has put on us it's in every District I hear from other members um and and it's extremely frustrating um to the point that you just made though is that it seems that the world is becoming more hateful in Anger the anger has increased we saw it in November we addressed it at this board um during the election period so while we have this extraordinary amount of paperwork to do and we're going to do everything we can to continue to get to the legislature to say pay attention look at what we have to go through what and I'm not looking for an answer today I it's just a general question and what can we do to get to the parents because this Behavior I don't Behavior starts in the home you're not you know what I'm saying so what can we do is there a forum and I know it cost money I get that but is there a forum that we could do to say listen the Hib law has changed they've added more standards if you will or or um requirements um the little words are now big words in terms of um falling into the hi category to get the parents to understand the shift and to see and if you could go back to the bar chart where you showed Elementary that one that one concerns me and the reason it concerns me is that blue line because if we seen in eptic and I don't know what they are because you know they're I don't have the CATE or the whole report obviously but when I see that increase like that at the elementary level that tells me it's going to carry over to middle school and high school do so what can we do that concerns me I hear you and it should let me do a little data check though look at the numbers I get that it's a bar chart I get that I know it's only 18 if a data presentation I don't know if I'd be using the barart I know that's what they gave us but the bar chart is a different of can you go back to the bar chart for a sec go back to the bar chart you're looking at that you're looking at from around 8 yeah to around 18 right a school of 4,000 kids I get it but my concern is your concern is about it's going to continue to go up so one of the problems that I think we're all facing if I'm just speaking is social media has Chang change this game correct and the words coming out of little kids' mouths it's horrible is unbelievable that how they've ever so so often they don't even know what the words mean but they're coming out of their mouths it's unbelievable so absolutely what do we have to do to get families to understand that kids here and uh Lisa they're they're listening to information if you watch Lisa's and Jeff's little video would see NN you know they're they're trying to teach kids at the high school level and in the Middle School level how to discern information they hear and see but when you're six you can't and you're allowed to watch whatever you want or allowed to hold a device that has internet access and you can go boom boom boom it's different and and I don't know what that answer is I it's a good question how do you say to how do we get the parents to understand you know these are the words the kids are saying and you know does our where do we start and end right what's our responsibility I get that um but there's there's got to be a level of responsibility because the schools we're the kids are in school you know a third a third of their time so they're picking it up and that blue the concern I have is that whomever is saying that that makes up that blue line is going to encourage others and it will incre that's my concern I hope not but that's where I am so you I just what can we do and from a parental you know the K like you said six-year-olds are going to be six-year olds and they're going to pick up the words because they're being set in the home and on social media and I think it's you know it's got to be brought out to the parents say pay attention listen it's happening yeah although this would just be one small piece to supporting parents we are looking to plan a parent Academy in the New Year it's got to be more than Parent Academy because they don't all come so does that mean it has to be a video and sent that as a link on a Thursday all that you know and I know you know we have a great team and I commend you all I really really do but it we there's got to be something else there's just got to be so thank you thank you yes Julie than you fores all of it um I just have a quick question um do private schools in the state have to report as well what was the question if private schools in the state have to report as well believe so I don't I I I'm honestly I'm not 100% sure yeah I would I wouldn't bet either way actually yeah I'm not 100% sure whether or not they do I know Charters do Charters have to report it may behoove the state to do like demographic studies of the contrasts to give themselves an understanding uh of you know the hard maybe the overwork that you're doing um I don't know could be reflective of whether they're demanding too much thank you great job really I know you all are trying a question thank you yes bar I just so Scott brought up an interesting point because this device has changed everything uh you know if you think about it originally when I first had my cell phone I wasn't able to do any of this except make a phone call mhm so you know it it it changed because parents want to have access to their children and they seem to be getting younger and younger who has the device even even now if a kid is on Facebook they have access to Tik Tock which is on Facebook now so it's just getting every year it gets worse and worse and and I think that has a lot to do with it plus having a thousand stations on television doesn't help right you know and I'll date myself but when I you know I was a kid uh I had nothing close to a thousand stations so you know well it was it's what makes it difference and unfortunately because if you look at those bars now they don't make they don't have categories based on uh if if the person ties if the kid ties into he he or she heard it on Facebook or something like that well when we do an investigation we do identify the type of we call it a gesture so whether it be a verbal comment a physical act um and we do also know if it was electronic yeah oh okay and do we have do we track to see is there let me restate that are there metrics associated with that we have our own spreadsheets where we be interesting to see what that is to your point you know the impct we'll be back in the spring for our second report so we can include that for you because that would also be helpful for parents to see too yeah this is the impact of that device y thank you thank you thank you any other questions thank you so much thank you okay moving on uh to our next item we have board committee and liaison reports I do realize that we've only had three um committees that met uh business Ops education and advocacy so business operations U Mr Nathanson if you'd like to give us a short update um that would be great I don't do we meet we share service I don't know if you want to okay shared services mat and we had a real great meeting and we're waiting to uh uh get some feedback from the township so we can proceed on some uh shared services okay thank you uh there was an education committee report but unfortunately uh Miss Mrs Dr Raj um fell ill this afternoon so we'll have to get that at the next one um and and then we've added the advocacy committee to um this particular group um just a quick update on that the advocacy committee met last night as well this was our second meeting uh we provided an update to the group that we have on this committee it is a Citizens committee um we've provided them an update on uh the South Brunswick shared services committee meeting that we had as Mr Nathanson just reported as well as we gave a quick update on the status of legislation in Trenton um we were able to form five team team or groups with this team um they included uh student Communications resident and business communication Township communication lobbying legislator legislature excuse me and just just to uh bring together information on like districts or schools that are going through the same thing um these groups identified and Divi and identified Their audience that they were going to speak to either in writing or verbally um they pulled together existing presentations to create talking points um to identify really what the most compelling message will be to the audience um that they will be speaking to so the group for example that was doing students would obviously be speaking to the students to engage them and to look for support um in the effort for the funding funding formula that's coming up to see if we can get um some changes to existing laws any other comments on that Mr or Mr feder okay any comments on that board comments on committee reports all right so the board committee reports will be posted as stated uh next is public comments on agenda items only the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comments on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest complete copies of policy 0167 which govern this portion of the meeting are available to the public at the auditorium entrance online or by contacting the board office to permit the fair and orderly expression of comments we ask that the participants be recognized and to announce their name place of residence and and group affiliation if necessary um each statement that is made by a particular individual shall be limited to three minutes no participant may speak more than once on the same topic Mr palowski will indicate when you have 15 seconds remaining all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer no par partipate no participant May address or question board members no discussion between a participant and respondent shall extend the thre minute time line limit if there is one it is our plan to listen to each member of the public once all questions and comments from all members of the public are made the Board of Ed May respond or respond via email in the most untimely and efficient manner available all questions and comments will be noted the first public comment is for the consent agenda items only there will be a second opportunity for the public to comment on any matter uh do we have any members Mr palaski who pre-registered uh not at this time very good are there any members in the audience that wish to make a public comment no there are no comments so we will close this portion of the public comments next order of business is old business seeing none we shall move on to new business new business there is none therefore we will shall move on to the consent agenda review by Mr palaski please this evening's uh consent agenda is um not as extensive as other meetings we have a very quick uh review we have approval of some transfers some financials the bills list we have uh some chapter 192 193 funding for our nonpublic we have a nonpublic technology uh order for nuron school um motion 16 were abolish ing a bunch of polic policies and motion 17 we're adopting new policies we have a budget calendar that we're going to approve an athletic shared service agreement with North Brunswick for some hockey that they will play with our students um for approving the reappointment of the High School faculty member Lori uh is it budoo for to serve the South brunsick Township Commission on the Arts accepting a certification of election results we'll read out loud when we do our reorg meeting M approving the lease purchase process for some uh Chromebooks approving the authorization for the use of the request for the RFP process to go out for an elll program uh Consultants approving out of District tuitions extension of Professional Services or HIV reports we have the approval of the resolution for travel and related expenses for reimbursements student field trips um an Lea plan uh for the American Rescue plan act we are approving the uh revised allocation of Ida basic and uh preschool funding and we're approving the revised allocation for the esa funding um and then you have your personnel so that's our our consent agenda thank you so much are there any questions or comments from the board to Mr POI regarding the consent agenda seeing may have a motion to pass the consent agenda Mr Mitchell motion second Mr um Krishna second all in favor any Nays okay consent agenda's roll call I oh that's right I'm sorry my apologies it is a roll call vote my fault roll call Mr fasi we can do that uh Miss Julie Ferrara uh y um accept policy 2270 can I do that did you did you hear her yep 2270 uh who do you miss Alicia Khan yes Mr Mike Mitchell yes Mr Barry Nathanson yes and Miss Lisa Rogers yes and Mr Roger Krishna yes motion carries motion carries thank you and again apologies for the mixup okay uh the next agenda item is public comments this is is a second opportunity for the public to comment on any matter um you are reminded of the previous statement made regarding public comment rules of policy 0167 again at the podium state your name spell your name and announce your place of residence and or your group affiliation if do we have any members who have signed up for second public comments no no Mr py no none are there any audience members who wish to make a public comment for the second no very good good if there is no comments we will close this portion of public comments okay there is no further business to be discussed so to note our next board meeting is set for January 4th 2024 will we have a the reorg um we will be moving into executive session so I will be reading that comment just prior to that I wish everyone a very very restful and winter break and a happy and healthy New Year we will be moving into executive session so let me read the comment and I will need a motion be it res hold it I got to read it first be it resolved that the Board of Ed of the township of South Brunswick moves into executive session in accordance with the Sunshine Law chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 njsa 10 4-6 through 10 4-21 to discuss the um to re-enter into the hi appeal discussion be it further resolved that the discussion conducted in executive session can be disclosed to the public at such time as the matters have been resolved formal action may be taken at any meeting May I have a motion to move to re-enter SEC executive session Mr Nathanson and Miss Khan all in favor we will now move into executive session thank you South brunic enjoy your um your winter break I