good evening it is May 30th 2024 and I'd like to welcome you to the meeting of the South Brunswick Board of Education and to call the meeting to order can we please all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance 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 all right I'm going to read the statement of advanced notice the New Jersey open public meeting Act njsa 10 4-6 also known as the Sunshine 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 discussed or acted upon the primary purpose is for board members to discuss and vote on board business in accordance with the provisions of this act that the board secretary has caused notice of this meeting 48 hours prior including the date time and location and be posted in the South Bruns public public library and the board office filed with the Township Clerk and communicated to the home News Tribune in the Star Ledger it is also posted on the district website Mr parowski may I have roll call please you sure can once I get myself situated everybody here no where did my um file go here we go Miss Julie farrara Miss Laura Hernandez Miss Deepa carthik Miss Alicia Khan here Mr rajer Krishna Mr Mike Mitchell present Mr Barry nathon here Dr Smith araj yes Mrs Lisa Rogers presid we have a quum thank you sir may I have a motion and second to approve tonight's meeting agenda Mr Mitchell move Dr Raj second all in favor any Nays thank you our next order of business um is the board minutes board secretary Mr porowski's draft of the minutes from April 25th 2024 board and executive minutes excuse me were posted on the board Port are there any changes no changes the minutes stand as noted and approved okay next is the report of the student representative Miss defon Lee good evening everyone sorry good evening everyone uh starting off with some news from the high school student council is excited to announce that we received three awards at the njasc Six Flags spring Awards Festival yesterday the community smile award was given for exceptional community service and the 1,000 Club award for our donation to the hugs for Brady State charity the standards of excellence award was received which recognizes our program and our achievements and is the highest honor for a student council in New Jersey we had a great time and would like to thank njac for having us we are also excited to announce the freshman class as the champions for the Powderpuff flag football game that took place on May 22nd a big thank you to everyone who participated as a player a coach or attended the game upcoming spirit days include Pride Day on June 5th throwback Thursday on June 13th and school's out for summer on June 19th we hope to see you all at graduation on June 20th sbhs pandelo players is hosting a cafe murder mystery night tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. dead president Society is hosting a trip to the museum of natural history on June 1st and will be leaving at 10:00 a.m. and returning at 3:00 p.m. uh public health and HOSA hosted a blood drive yesterday on May 29th and today on May 30th from 7:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the High School class of 2025 is hosting a field trip to Six Flags on June 8th for juniors and class of 20126 will have a movie night featuring High School Musical on June 6th from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. in the blue cafeteria they hope to start a tradition as a class to watch one movie from the franchise every year until their graduation um that's all I have for you everyone today and thank you for coming very good thank you uh next order of business is the report of the president I only have two things for the board members I believe that on jsba um convention we've all been confirmed again just to reiterate if there's any changes or cancellations please let Miss Murphy know as soon as possible and the last thing I want to do is um just to say a thank you the last five months have been a test of our endurance as we've engaged in battles with the legislators in Trenton over our funding cuts I'd like to say to the numerous individuals who took the time to address the Senate and assembly budget and Appropriations committees as well as the members of the township advocacy committee I extend my deepest gratitude to you all your unwavering support and commitment not have have not gone unnoticed the dedication and effort you've invested are deeply appreciated not only by the board but also by our staff and students South Brunswick stands as a beacon of excellence in education and for the past 8 years many have labored tirelessly to safeguard the educational opportunities for our children ensuring that our students continue to receive the same level of educational benefits as those before them has been and will always be our top priority excellence and education for all our students remains an un our unwavering commitment so to all of you I again thank you for all of your support next is the report of the superintendent Mr feder all right welcome everyone um real quick I'm going to be quick for now one more thing after uh Dr Mammon goes up um June 4th is our primary election day so we have uh South brunic High School Crossroad South brunic Acres indian fields and Constable are all used we do have security there uh just to make sure that people stay in the area where they do the polling and not into the schools of course but it's usually a very smooth smooth this town is wonderful it pretty goes very smoothly and that's primary day June 4th all the schools are open that day and it's primary day I have to share some amazing news if you have not heard this or the community has not heard this maybe so we have a teacher in uh Crossroad South her name is Bess Lee now Bess is a seventh eighth grade social studies teacher at Crossroads she just received at Princeton University's Commencement the Princeton prize for distinguished Secondary School teaching she was was up on the stage and received an award at Prince University for incredible work she does anyone ever have Mrs Lee out there deserving right yeah I mean incredible incredible human an amazing teacher so we just want to say congratulations to to best she's fantastic so um tonight we have Mr Decker our supervisor of roal language is going to be honoring our sealed by literacy students so that'll be happening shortly um uh the June 13th board meeting is going to be um our retirees are get get acknowledged and honored at that meeting so I I'm going to do a little bit on budget in in a minute but before I do that Dr mad's going to get up there and she has some exciting news to share good evening we are thrilled to announce that um South Brunswick school district has received a joint legislative ceremonial resolution honoring our music education program by Senators Zer assemblyman frer Fryman I'm sorry and assemblywoman jewelist this recognition comes on the heels of being acknowledged by the National Association of Music Merchants foundation for our outstanding music instruction which uh Mr feder I belied you shared at the last board meeting these prestigious this is what it looks like I'm going to pass it around it's really cool State recognition this um recognition from both the New Jersey legislature and the N Foundation is a testament to the dedication of our talented music educators and the positive impact our program has has on our students music education Fosters creativity collaboration and critical thinking skills all things that are essential for well-rounded development the district is renowned throughout the state for its exceptional music education program what sets our program apart and and merits this recognition is our district music staff the work tirelessly to inspire engage and Enlighten uh students and sou Brunswick is really lucky to have them it is their work with our talented students that has fostered a long-standing tradition of Excellence here in sou Brunswick as a community known for excellence in academics Athletics and the Arts we extend our appreciation to our school Community all of you our parents our community our colleagues Administration the board of education for their unwavering support of our music program it is their Collective encouragement and commitment to the Arts that has um enabled us to achieve such remarkable Milestones um really excited and it our our music program really offers just impactful musical experiences for our students and I for one I'm just really proud to be a part of the sou Brunswick district and on behalf of Rob Sears he's not able to be here he's our supervisor of the music program we're just incredibly proud of this achievement and grateful for the continued support of our music program so thank you congratulations I promise I'm going to be quick I'm not going to be quick if I don't put it up there longer re ah we all right so tonight the board is g to have an opportunity to discuss uh the Imp the implementation of a recent bill that's gone into law so the most important thing to people that are maybe not involved in the schools directly is how's what's the impact to me what's my tax what's going to happen to my taxes it's a big deal this Bill gave Boards of Education in districts like South Brunswick the opportunity to go above the 2% cap very rare that we had this opportunity but this is a recent Bill done actually by the same group of people that Dr mmon just mentioned um Senators wicker assembly men Fryman assembly woman drulis along with many others who uh joined on realizing the impact that a state funding formula has had on schools so I'm going just go quickly I'm not going to redo all this if anyone hasn't seen this before this is the state a impact and why it happens so people don't know why it happened but why it happened has nothing to do with the schools it actually has nothing to do at all with school at all yet we lost a bunch of money because the town's value kept growing exponentially actually in 2018 that first um uh cell all the way at the top left we were worth $8.6 billion in town value now 11.4 that rapid growth caused a formula to impact the way the state divies up its money so the state said wow you guys are really wealthy in South Brunswick we're going to start we're not going to give you any more money we're going to take it so ultimately what they did is they took $10 million let's see uh $10 million from South Brunswick so the state of New Jersey said you guys are worth too much money we're going to take your money so they took $10 million at the same time school districts cannot tax above a 2% which is great in in many ways but not so great in some ways in South Brunswick's case it's that bottom number to the right that's the most the cumulative impact of losing $10 million as well as being hit with a 2% cap for for since 2012 is we are right now operating with $30 million under where we should be it's a lot of money 30 million bucks now you guys can all say this in multiple languages correct 30 million all of you can do it at least two y I got one 30 million so what does that mean for the taxpayer right for the last six years if you are a taxpayer in South Brunswick your taxes have actually gone down by $54 on the school tax side taxes in any town are a combination of school Township municipality and the county that's how it works could be fire in there all those things we represent schools represent 60% so if your tax bill is uh $6,000 3,600 of it is from us okay that's how it works so of that amount that 60% of everyone's tax bill if they had an average home an average assessed home in this town believe or not it's only $200,000 that's the average assessed home and that's how taxes are determined by an assessed value not by what your house could sell for that's the that's the way it works so in this town for six years you have actually have a reduction in the amount of taxes you paid over six years that's good that's good news so even better news next year 2526 so after this coming School Year's 24 25 the next one $5 million comes off of the books what that means is that the town will not need to collect $5 million that has an impact of over $100 per average house it's pretty cool so not only have people in this town seen a $54 incre decrease over six years in two years from now they're going to see another $100 decrease it's a total of $154 pretty much off the taxes not making anyone rich but it's also not hurting to not go up that's a nice thing so here's what the bill does and there's a lot of confusion of what this bill does this Bill said if we've taken millions and millions of dollars from you we're going to give you an opportunity to get some of it back now they've took more than we have the opportunity to get back but we are allowed to go to 2.78% this coming year that's the law before there was any change in the law this year and only this year one time they're letting our district go to 8.95% that they're allowing us to do that now that's scary because if you hear the number 8 point or 9% tax increase people who pay taxes their hearts drop mine would especially if my taxes were like $10,000 and you tell me that my taxes go up $1,000 that's insane that's too much money here's the good news that's not what's happening that's not how it works first of all if your house is assessed at200 ,000 which is the average in our in our town it doesn't matter how much your house could sell for remember the difference there's a value that it's assessed and that is a little everyone gets a little tax card and that tax card says your assessed value so if you had a $200,000 assessed you will see a $239 increase for this next year not a th000 not 10% of your taxes $239 41 I'm going to talk about why that's important for the district now that's still not great no one is saying yay we get to raise taxes no one wants to do this but let's see what it really means next year the year we lose 5 million huge positive tax impact right when you don't have to spend $5 million awesome so let's look at this and this is pretty incredible and many districts will not be able to say this in 2018 and try to follow me here in 2018 if your school tax was $5,000 okay and your house was assessed at an average of 200,000 which is the average in the town that is exactly what happened to your school tax in 2019 you went up $9 2020 you went up another $33 but in 2021 you dropped and you dropped again in 2022 in 2023 You Dropped a little bit more then you had a little bit of an increase in 24 but in 24 after 6 years you you were still paying less tax what else in our lives went down in value over 6 years nothing nothing except South BRS taxes now that leads me to next year in order for the district to become solvent in order for our district to be able to do all the things that you hear about at these board meetings and see what these kids do you can't do it without money you can't I'm not going to get into the whole thing about all that and I've done that for four or five years already so anyone who's been wanting to listen go watch any number of these presentations I've done we have managed to stay above water to give our students opportunities to have a worldclass music program a world-class academic program a worldclass athletic program that's what we provide now to keep that going forward if the board takes the recommendation of the superintendent which is me and I am recommending you take full advantage of this I would not be doing this board members if that was a crazy number and we had been raising taxes every year we'd have to find another way but because of the way this formula has operated because of the ratables in this town that have gone up in seven figures in some years what six figures 100 million sorry 100 million it is allowed the tax base to stay flat and decrease on the school side next year it will go up a little bit if you do this by 241 but here's the beauty the following year even if you raise the 2% statutory number for the 25 26 school year you're dropping $100 this is what I want you to look at if you look at your 8year span from 2018 to 2026 the average home went up 86 will go up a total of 8 total of $86 cumulatively over eight years for that the district gets to continue to do what it's been doing for years if not I can tell you this I had told everybody what was going to happen 6.2 million this year 8 plus million next year cut out of the budget you know what happens when we do that now you you're not going to lose $241 your value of your house drops a lot more let's use a half a percent a half a percent period if your house drops half a percent because people don't want to move to a school district without a music program without an Athletics program without clubs with no high-end academics people live here for those things that's why people live here not everybody but the majority to do that yes it's going to cost over eight years period of time 86 new dollars period that's it if that is too much I am sorry and I wish it wasn't I wish it was still lower but schools are public the only way schools are funded One Way only one way taxes that's the law of the land we cannot charge people to come here we cannot do other things we already charge people ton of things for many things so what happens what is the value of this because obviously it's $239 for the average family that's not fun even if it's only $86 over eight years it's still not fun we'd rather be low but new in New Jersey not every state may be exactly the same but in New Jersey your property values are directly linked to the quality of your school district you might think it's not but if you think of that and you say well it's also connected to how well how easy it is to get to the big cities well it's true it's true and if you take your house and you put it in houses that are closer to New York City along Route One you'll be paying a lot less for your house and you know why a lot L the difference of a school system that's why people drive further for the schools that is New Jersey it has never been different it will never be different you either pay for it or you don't you pay for it one way or the other you either have great schools for a very nominal amount of money very nominal or don't that's the way it goes student programming is part of this when you have good student program you can do the academics you can do the extracurriculars you advance you can support you get kids ready for College and Career that's what you do that's where the money goes you can have Staffing if you don't have the Staffing you can have massive class sizes you're not going to be able to do program implementation and you're not going to be able to provide student supports when you start having low SAT scores which ours are like top 10 top 12 in the state when you start to reduce that number when people look for a house they look that's what people do when they have young families they look for a house in a school system they can send their kid to facilities you can not spend money on facilities um but that's going to be a problem if you think of your own house if you have a leak in the roof one little leak you let it go eventually it's not so little it's going to grow and grow you could have fixed it for a little bit of money now you're going to fix the whole roof that's the way it goes you got to maintain your buildings you got to maintain your grounds but this is the biggie and uh Dave will talk more about this at the next meeting District Financial Health when you've been cut as much money as we've been cut over the last six years the district is not in Financial Health it is not it'd be like in your own budget barely able to afford your monthly and praying you don't need a new car or your car doesn't need new tires because there's no money left if that roof you're just going to have water in your house we are there we are right on the verge of that we have roofs right now that we are not fixing our operations committee has been told that we have things we're not doing we have not been doing that's only going to get worse and cost more later we need to do this my my opinion to the board my recommendation we need to do this I'm thrilled that is only a cumulative $86 over8 years I'm not thrilled that it's a decent or a bigger hit for one year I'm very glad it drops $100 the next year though the future of any District depends as I've shared 8 million is the reduction cut next year 8 million that's the reduction cut so if you don't do this you will be cutting $8 million out of the budget next year and that's all prog pramming and staff nothing else that's what it comes down to and all your facilities will continue to get worse and not maintain the way you want them that's just the nature of the Beast we are very lucky because some districts that they were able to tax had to tax this much money they'd be seeing ,000 $1,500 increases to homes we are actually going to still only see an $86 increase over eight years it's crazy my opinion District excellence and maintaining the outstanding reputation that's what makes South Bron contractive for future home buyers you want when you do choose to move and change your lifestyle you don't want to have to sit on your house and you don't want it to sell for less than it should sell for the way you do that is you have excellent schools and that's my that's my piece no question I just was sharing that's my my report and that does end my [Applause] report thank you Mr feder for your report okay the next order of business is our recognition of the Seal of biliteracy I would now like to call Mr Tom Decker the World Language supervisor to the podium at this time good evening and thank you I'm here with the pleasure of introducing to you our students who have earned the SE by literacy this year in South Brunswick the C by literacy encourages students to study languages it provides employers and universities with the method of identifying students with language and biliteracy skills it affirms the value of diversity and honors the multiple cultures and languages of our community this year 36 seniors earned the New Jersey seale by literacy by demonstrating that are able to speak read listen and write in two or more languages at a high proficiency level and they know because they all took that test with me in the faculty dining room and I watched them do it and they did a great job in addition to the test they had to meet the high school graduation requirements so I'm happy to say that the students with us this evening have accomplished this in one of the following languages Spanish French Latin Tamil Hindi Arabic Chinese and mayti each student will receive a certificate from the state Miss Rogers would you like to join me at the podium to distribute the certificates thank you students we're going to call you up now for your certificates anusa abro Spanish akara Aid Spanish Rosalinda Assad Arabic David Frederick Latin he's the next one right you good DaVita chandola [Applause] Spanish SE Swami French Jiva Gupta Spanish shisha Jane [Applause] Spanish sanvi kuner Spanish and Hindi Sophia blue [Applause] French sorry it should be okay now Sophia we good AR Mahmud [Applause] Spanish Chia manir French yeah SAR ner French Dro Patel Spanish anahita P Hindi mukil pru taml you going okay yeah okay all right San prani French Rika fuli Madi M Raj laen Vini Ramesh taml Pablo Ramirez Garcia Spanish Kevin sheim [Applause] Chinese haa salanki Hindi [Applause] Jonathan Winfred [Applause] Latin congratulations to all of you uh congratulations to your parents and I wish you the best on your next studies at University next year and I hope you always remember your accomplishment with languages and use that as part of your future so with that I'll turn it back over to miss Rogers thank you again on behalf of the Board of Education congratulations to every single student for that accomplishment and congratulations to every single parent and grandparent and aunt and uncle and cousin on all of you for helping support your children it means everything to them to know that their parents and family are behind them so congratulations to all of you all right we will move on now um we have one more presentation and that is the harassment intimidation and bullying report by Blair ecan and Jamie Bower who are our district anti-bullying coordinators sorry I just wanted to make sure um so we're going to go back to you guys um we know that you have busy schedules and we know you have homework and I just saw a sigh of relief some from someone if you'd like to leave you're more than welcome too but you're more than welcome to stay as well um I leave it up to you and your families but we'll take about a 5 minute moment and if you'd like to leave please do so um just the last person if you wouldn't mind closing the doors behind you we'd appreciate it so we'll take five minutes okay all right I think we can get started thank you hello I'm Jamie bulmer I am director of special projects and I here with Blair Eisman director of professional development and programs and we are your anti-bullying coordinators so twice a year we we report out for our hip data and tonight I will be reviewing some data slides from reporting period one and Blair will be reviewing some hip prevention me measures for our district so again the data I'm going to show you is from July 2023 through December 2023 and here we go there were 25 investigations eight of them were confirmed Hib and then it's just separated by level so it's all the elementary schools the two middle schools and then the high school this is the same exact data it's just it's just shows you when the investigations occurred in each month so again it's the same data this slide also is the same data but it shows you the a confirmed hibs and then it shows you which protected class each one fell into and then these are Hib comparison slides so we went back about five years um we went back the year before covid so you'll see 2019 up through 2023 and again it's the same data it's just the number of Investigations versus the number of confirmed hips so again this is all the elementary schools and then the two middle schools the high school and then your District Hib comparison for those years okay so as always the district Works to be um proactive and prevent Hib as much as possible from the second students walk in the door that first day in September every staff member is working to help build community teach character education social emotional skills um so we asked our counselors who are also our anti-bullying Specialists to share some of the hi prevention measures or initiatives that occurred during this first reporting period July through December of 2023 so you could see from our school rules and expectations to code of conduct policy to use of the responsive classroom Approach at the elementary in middle which is the belief that the social and emotional well-being of a student is just as important as the academic Behavior contracts lessons with counselors sharing of resources with parents Behavior committees our counselors follow a curriculum and do lessons on a variety of topics middle and high school do have sexual harassment lessons we do acknowledge in New Jersey the week of respect and school violence Awareness Week meetings with admin counselors child study team members to check in on certain groups of students we have a district social and emotional committee gender identity support plan School climate committee so you could see there is no shortage of Hib prevention happening in our district we do have staff mandated staff mandated policy training um on Hib every year our ABS is anti-bullying Specialists we have regular joob like meetings throughout the year where we're checking in doing training talking investigations so those are just some of the prevention that has happened this year I do also just want to share that at the end of April we did have a parent Academy um around Hib and that recording is available on the district website under Parent Academy you could see the slides um the presentation was done by John Worthington from njpsa so the slides are there as well as the recording he did a really great job of outlining the law and the differences between Hib and code of conduct so if interested please check that out and we'll take any questions if you have them do any of the board members have any questions about the hi report I have a couple sure can you go back to um the two graphs for a second that one that's a first start so this is the reporting period number one yep right which is July through December because we are currently in reporting Period 2 which ends June 30th so if is there have we seen I've seen a decrease yes in the um number of incidences number of hibs as well um in comparison to this graph where do we get where what do we see in terms of decreases in each of these particular categories are we seeing an increase in one versus the other or are we see a decrease in all have have we noticed any shift in the um protected class categories I think it's pretty even these are out of all the protected categories usually um the ones that we see um but as far as specific percentages over the years we would have to give you get you that data yeah I I person I think it'd be helpful to understand where if there's still a gap in a particular protected glass class excuse me I think that's important also to understand and I think it'd be important to see that it doesn't have to be the I don't know how many years you had up there but I know it was pre-co and Co had a lot of to do with you know everything and it's good to see that we've seen a decrease but I think it's important to see where are we seeing an increase or decrease in the protected class absolutely and what is the plan to address that uh the other thing is you had mentioned the Buddy classes can you give us a little bit more um detail around the Buddy classes what it encapsulates what we do sure so those are at the elementary schools usually an upper elementary class will be buddied or paired with a primary grade so perhaps a Kindergarten class is paired with a fourth grade and they meet several times throughout the year it ties with building Community um forming relationships and they usually get together and do some sort of maybe read aloud um a book around that's on anal topic they might do a craft together practice just socializing communicating and of course the older students are a role model for the younger ones and um it's definitely a feel-good for the younger ones to be able to interact with the older students and how do we do something similar to that in middle and high school I know in high school you have the leadership the peers um but what do we do in Middle School the middle school I would have to check in on that I'm not sure if they have something similar to Buddy classes right or not at the at the middle I know they have their different clubs and alliances and they have a lot of opportunities there for the same type type of community building okay um but I don't know that they have something similar to Buddy classes okay if maybe we can on the next review understand a little bit what we're doing at the middle school and also how we compare nationally percentage wise because I know obviously we're a big school district um there just there is no National because this is a New Jersey Law oh that's true my apologies you're right so how we compare New Jersey thank you there's no comparisons to say a a um District they're not producing the data that way they're not producing okay all right well that's good to know I didn't know that and just to clarify the hip prevention that was on the SL was a mix of K12 so it wasn't all elementary there were um you know lots of preventive measures that are happening K12 not just element I think just maybe just to better understand how where we're seeing increase or decrease if we are at all on the increase side would be helpful okay thank you any other questions Julie hi hi Julie I was just wondering if the state or if you as a group uh cross reference suspensions to the amount of Hib that we have or how do they affect each other we as a group have not um cross referenced investigations to um suspensions okay thank you anybody else no very good thank you so much for your report very appreciated okay and thank you again Mr Decker Miss Eisman and Miss bmer for your for your update okay our next order of business is the board committee I think yep board committee and liaison reports so we can start with policy do we have any update on policy no updates at this time thank you ma'am um the finance uh committee I know met what do we have an update on that yes Madam President we met on uh Monday on Tuesday of this week the 28th and in attendance were myself uh Mr Nathanson m f m f Miss Ferrara uh Mr Rogers board president um Mr palowski SBA Mr feder superintendent Dr Mammon assistant superintendent for cni and also also uh Miss L Mrs Lorn assistant superintendent um topics that we want over uh the bill 4161 the impact on Staffing we reviewed uh Staffing members that are coming back next year due to additional funding thankfully um also programming review the programs that uh will also return next year due to addition funding facilities and District projects that have been put on hold that are um that will ensue that will occur due to additional funding as well and then also the Financial Health of our district which we reviewed in detail and uh discussed the financial um impact of the district um how Appropriations and revenues were adjusted uh due to the additional funding uh also on Tab was the second question which we which uh Mr feder has spoken about several times uh which is a remaining item we review uh revolves around Township uh the use of facilities and then finally tax impact uh review of the local impact Which Scott just went over uh shared the 8-year tax impact on the average assessed home in the township and that concludes my report very good any questions for finance committee no all right operations shared services committee update we did meet but I won't have the report until next meeting very good and the education committee um no update right yeah so um no update from education committee at this point Thank you any liaison reports that anybody would like to report on school school liaison Mr Nathanson yeah just uh one thing the New Jersey school board uh Association uh legislative uh committee will meet in person for the first time in a while uh on Saturday Saturday morning and we're going to be live at the school board's office great I'll wait for a moment okay any other liais on M Dr Raj um on 23rd May uh Cambridge School had their first spring concert and keeping with this year's theme of we all belong uh students presented songs from um uh from around the world uh it it was very impressive to see them sing in languages that I had not actually uh realized were uh you know actual languages like congales and uh and uh Mandarin and uh uh Spanish and also a few in English um it was um it was very uh impressive and or inspiring to hear uh them sing so well in so many different languages uh so congratulations to team Cambridge and uh kudos to students teachers uh parents and uh everybody involed great thank you any other liasis on reports yes um go ahead Dr I going call you Dr mitell okay Mr Mitchell I've been promoted um so I was had the opportunity a couple Saturdays ago to attend the uh cheson at the high school uh sponsored by our SBA chess chess club and it was well attended um met the state director of the chess uh Association and um was very excited to get feedback from him and um it was overall a great day the winner of the event is going to Harvard so that's exciting and uh that's it for that um last night I was here for the spring concert of our oh come on me of our uh Crossroads North concert band yep I saw them um Jazz Ensemble and the jazz band and they did a wonderful job as always as said earlier we have one of the best in the state if not the country right here in sou runswick yep and I'm so proud that's why I don't care how tired I am I get in my car and if I'm running a little late I'm going to be here supp our kids because they deserve it yeah and um they work hard they get up much earlier than I do not that much earlier but they get up early to be here and to be there to practice to get ready for days like last night so uh it was worth the the time and effort to get here and uh kudos to the parents we had the best parents in South Brunswick we really do in state of New Jersey we really do and I'm I'm so appreciative of each and everyone that makes sure their child is where they're supposed to be um each and every time so um I also want to give a quick report I sent something out to the board earlier uh concerning the ngba delegate assembly I attended um a few days ago and I want to report briefly just on the resolutions there were 14 resolutions that went through and four failed so I'll just briefly report on those and then I sent you the email so you can read the rest and the logic behind it um so resolution four which is special educ special special education tuition calls I'm trying to go fast that was sponsored by the playing for Board of Education and it was proposed replacement policy language to njsba Manual of positions and policies on education file code number 61 71.4 special education tuition costs providing that nsba believes that there should be a 2% cap placed on the annual tuition increase imposed imposed on the school districts by approved public and private schools that charge tuition to educate students additionally playing field sought to remove the following language from the same file code number 61 71.4 public schools and quote Public Schools should receive fair cons consideration in determining their special education tuition rate that um resolution failed okay the next resolution six really quick it's the consideration of resolutions the planfield Board of Education uh Union County sought revised language for Article 5 section 4 titled consultation of the nsba laws bylaws the board proposed language that would provide for an interm process by which District's proposing resolutions deemed unclear or improper form by nsba support staff or the resolution subcommittee could revise those resolutions prior to the members of the delegate assembly deliberation and vote of any proposed resolutions during an annual or regular meeting that resolution failed resolution 8 payment and Li of taxes the Toms River Board of Education of Ocean County proposed revised language for NBA's Manual of positions and policies on education file code 3220 indicating that all real estate developments utilizing payment in lie of taxes programs should be included in any Statewide equalized valuation calculation that impacts a local education agency's share of State education Aid and determines local fair share and uh that resolution also failed and understand that this particular resolution was in debate for a good 20 minutes so um it finally failed and then last but not least before I turn it back over to you resolution number 12 state aid Tom's River Board of Education once again sought to add additional language to inba's Manual of positions and policies on education file code 3220 regarding the amount of state aid a school district receives specifically the resolution stated that state state aid should be Frozen at the 2022 2023 levels for financially responsible S2 losers who are less than 10% below adequacy spend at least 10% less than the average on administrative cost and are unable to meet the local fair share contribution despite annual maximum on administrative cost and are unable to meet the local fair share contribution despite annual maximum statutory permitted tax leavey increase until such time as the state a formula is study and thoughtful recommendations are made to facilitate a thorough a through should be thorough a thorough and efficient education for all New Jersey public school students that resolution failed and that's my report thank you thank you for that update any questions for the delegate none very good thank you again for your updates okay moving on is public comments on agenda items only the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment 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 online or by contacting the board office to permit the fair and orderly expression of comments we ask that participants be recognized by the presiding officer and preface comments by announcing his or her name your place of residence and your group affiliation if appropriate and by completing the signin sheet please print legibly or we may be able to document your name for the permanent record each statement may be excuse me each statement made by a participant shall be limited to 3 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 participant May address or question board members no discussion between a participant and respondent shall extend the thre minute time limit please note that an presiding officer May interrupt warn or terminate a participant statement when the statement is too lengthy personally directed abusive obscene or irrelevant request any individual to leave the meeting when the person does not observe dequorum call for a recess or an adjournment or wave these rules when business for the protection of privacy or the efficient administration of the board's business 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 the Board of Education May respond or respond via email in the most timely and efficient manner available all questions and comments made will be noted again the first public comment is for consent agenda items there will be a second opportunity for the public to comment on any matter Mr palowski has anyone pre-registered for first public comments I don't I have a registration but I'm not sure if it's for the first or second so I have I have Ken white I don't know if he's here Mr Ken white first or second it's on agenda it's on the agenda yes you can comment on this one it's on the agenda thank you sir again please state your name your place of residence please sign in thank you my quend uh my name is Kenneth White uh 38-year resident of South Bron Township um really no affiliation anymore of with anybody or anything um let pre preface my remarks by saying I'm well aware of the quality of the um South Bruner education system that three kids go through it one was special ed uh my youngest was uh SIM kard from Boston College made the comment that the honors program at South brunza courses were tougher than Boston College so I'm well aware the quality education um I've looked at my tax bills for the last 38 years I estimate I probably paid about 200,000 in school taxes I'm not a mathematician but my most recent tax bill for the school tax was $9,000 a year so based on a 9% increase unless I'm totally wrong that's $810 additional taxes um from last year this year and I'm urging the board to consider consider a not going for the max um I kind of read into all the the back and forth I I kind of shocked that the presentation was to go for the 9% um I you I'm I'm under the impression that with no tax increase with the 2% didn't the state kick in some money or no with the recent bill without the tax increase a couple you want to make a couple comments what's that you want me to help you a couple comments you want me to answer that yes so um the state has taken away 10 million they gave back 630,000 okay I thought it was I thought it was more we hoped it was more but the other comment you made just an inaccurate um understanding of how the math works for the taxes you're not wrong about 9% of 9,000 of course but it's your assessed value so on your if you look at your tax bill you'll see an assessed value oh I know I know all about it but so whatever your assessed value is that's the number that gets taxed not your value of your house but does but if so 9% it applies to what 9% um doesn't doesn't really work that way but what it looks at is the assessed value if you look at the assessed value of your house whatever that card says right but that that times x equal $9,000 there's something that multiplies times the assess value that makes it 9,000 I don't I'm not going to take up the whole time what I can do is if if you're still here at the end I'll be glad to show you specifically how yours would work now we got a Ranger game at 8 the good news it's not 9 % of $9,000 okay all right that's that's my two cents you can't Mr White just very quickly Mr White yeah I don't know if you were here during the beginning of the presentation I was okay so take a look at that again and again if you have any questions just email Mr uh feder and he'll be more than happy to explain thank you no one else has registered no okay so are there any audience members who wish to make a public comment on the first on the consent agenda anyone oh yes sir come on up again state your name your place of residence your affiliation if necessary and please sign in right just helps us with sign yeah there should be a sign in sheet there okay just take a moment if anyone else would like to speak feel free to stand up and get ready off the agenda H can it be off the agenda off the agenda just the agenda the second question the second public question will be anything you want to talk about okay hi my name is Mike hansy I live on Taylor Road I've lived there for 27 years I I want to say and same question right so you know I do a quick back of the envelope and my tax increase would be a little under $700 uh based on eight and a half percent I mean I see what you're saying about the $86 but six of the eight years you referenced are prior so that money's already been spent right my savings is already been spent but um basically so South Brunswick to me South brunsick is not an overly rich town there are a lot of people who live paycheck to paycheck and there's a lot of people who scrimp and Save and work multiple jobs to live in this town specifically because the education is so good so I think we owe it to them to not take a dollar more than we need to to take so on that note just looking at things a little bit last year's budget 1667 million based on what I could find on the on the website and then based off of the patch report from the 21st the new proposed budget's 170 million right so that's roughly 2% 3.2 roughly percent increase same patch article says uh school aid 14.2 which if I read the budget correctly is a 3.5% decrease 3.5 million per $3.5 million decrease from prior year so that leaves basically a $6.2 million shortfall uh to make up the 170 well that's a 5.1% tax increase and I think even on your schedule you showed a 5% tax increase would be roughly the $6 million so if 170 is the target budget 5% is what you need to get to that my reading is correct I couldn't find any more detail on that proposed 170 it's only what was in the patch article 8.9 is going to be as your schedule showed 10 million right so that the extra 4 million before anyone can be comfortable can we know or where will we when will we see what that extra $4 million is going to because like I said you know this isn't Princeton or Montgomery there's a lot of people in this town that $200 even five 600 is going to be a lot for them and you know so with one one piece of math the um 5% that you're describing you're describing it as an additional when you add that to the 2.78% is actually that would be 7.78% no I'm just saying 5% in total but that's not correct that's what I'm trying to say it was even up on yours right no I I know you're showing the 5% but the $6.2 million short already included the 2.78% all right so where I got my 5% last year's tax levy 121.5 million to get to 127.66 is a 6.2% $6.2 million increase which is 5 .1% increase on just the tax levy number so okay so so point is is I don't have any real detail the the proposed budget's not out on the website so I couldn't go through the individual line items or I couldn't find it if it's out there I couldn't find it so all I had was the patch dollars so I would would really rather the public be able to see a little bit more detail understand what that extra money is going to go to before you know the and the public could get behind it and and be okay with the board voting for that 8.0 so prior prior to our uh public hearing which will happen June 13th uh 10 days prior uh we have to post in the local paper and we'll post on our website as well our budget that will uh go over during that hearing so you'll see you'll see that you'll see is it going to be 174 I know I'm not supposed to question but I'm questioning um sorry so 166 plus you know the additional 10 minus the loss of state aid would be roughly 173 174 is that what's going to be the new proposed so we're going to post it you'll be able to look at the whole thing and then on the night of June 13th we do another bud a second budget hearing this year because this is a new thing we already did one budget hearing we're going to do a second one that'll include pretty much a lot of the answers to your questions okay that that post is 5 days prior just so you know 5 days prior to junee 13th so sometime around June 8th that'll be out okay thank you for your time thank you so much excuse me next hi good evening Vanessa from kzel Park um when will the board discuss and vote on the um actual tax increase so there's going to be some time to discuss later today but the actual vote is June 13th okay it's not a vote on the tax increase it kind of sort of is but the vote is on the proposed budget so we present a budget the ones that you the previous one included a $6.2 million loss right this budget will produce a recommended amount of increase because that's what the bill allows the district to do that's what it would be voted upon June 13th on June 13th okay so I moved to this town for the school district and I'm sure most of the community moved here for the school district um we produce from the school district children who go to Fabulous colleges because of the education and if the board when you discuss this you have to look at what our value of our homes will be and sell for and this is a lot on you on your shoulders it's what our children will have and we have to also look at the fact that you said that we might if it doesn't if they don't vote at a certain um percent agree on it the community would have to pay more for different items like sports food increase so if you were to go to the highest level would they have to pay into that um we we did announce um that there'll be no more fee increases and no new fees as a result should this all go that way okay there will still be fees the existing fees but no new we were increasing all of the fees and adding new fees that would not be part of the new budget so then the parents or the community who have children that are School in school district you're paying a small per increase of your taxes instead of paying for the extra fees for other items so basically what I'm trying to say is I'm in support of the higher amount the cap that you can do this because this will extend further out for us instead of going at a lower end we'll be back here again next year and the morale in the entire School District from teachers to custodians to Paris wherever you are working in the district the morale is low and people can see it and feel it so I'm in support of the hire and I you know I understand everybody has a certain income but if you don't go with the higher amount what will our town turn into and what will your homes turn into because people won't want to move here and buy your homes that's it Dave's leaving to me I'm done thank you thank you for your com thank you for your comment uh next thank you David Sone uh I live in Dean's Pond Crossing one of the topics that I thought was really interesting was around the bullying and maybe I didn't read it right and I'm not sure if there's anyone here could answer it one of the areas that I looked when I looked at it it says confirmed a Hib by protected class and it says sexual orientation One race color two race two gender three now I do see investigations picked up in October doubled and what I'm asking is is where does religion sit in that number because if we're saying there's no that's great but it just didn't make sense now these numbers that I know these are actually confirmed that we're speaking about here yes but even if we look at the investigations I don't know where religion sits in there and the reason why is no matter what majority of for example in marbor there's a huge amount of the board was just approached about bullying for religion it happens everywhere and I don't know I don't see it here and I don't know if anyone knows if there's a reason but for me it's a little concerning that on October you had a double a double number of reported cases so I don't know if anyone on the board question could answer that or someone can get back to me on it because it it is a little concerning comments Mr scone thank you what um we'll do is we'll follow up on that okay um and we'll address that directly to you yeah I would appreciate that sure thank you thank you next I I'm barendra I'm resident of South Brunswick for last 13 years you just sign in also thank you sorry um and I'm here representing a group of students from South Brunswick I myself have two kids going through the school district and they have a few comments in terms of some of the school uh Sports curriculum that they would like to be part of so I just bring them on and they could present their thoughts yeah hold one second just let know I don't understand so we're going to make an exception yeah for we got to get them to sleep eventually so uh normally this would be something that happens in the second public comment however ready yep so they're really ready kind of making me nervous but yeah go ahead and then after this it's homework three minutes per is it 3 minutes per speaker or 3 minutes per the group um like five minutes for the group all right 5 minutes 5 minutes for the group 30 30 minutes 30 minutes you got can't be here for 30 minutes I got your timer your timer started 5 minutes ago my bad okay um hi um my name is shui I'm from South Fric high school and all of us here we wanted to talk about um our passion for Cricket so we all really love playing and it's something that we all enjoy doing so so much um it kind of brings like life out of us it shows us like something that we should enjoy doing and we love doing it so much and it brings up like us together a team bonding it makes us like play for not really a team but more of like a whole like um group of people connecting together and not as One Singular person it helps a lot with that those kind of team bonding but also understanding each other and also growing at a a better social way of talking to people and I also recently got to play um representing New Jersey in regionals I played in Maryland um and we won all of our games and I would like it if they could also continue talking about their passion for the game thank you for your comment hi my name is vihan m I'm from Crossroad South Middle School I'm here to talk about the history of cricket here so Cricket in fact the first International match was played here against Canada in 1844 and I find it surprising that Cricket hasn't been implemented into our school system here we've also had two kids from our school district go to the under 19 cricket Cup in South Africa and play so that is a very big deal here and I firmly believe that we to implement Cricket in our school districts so other kids can enjoy and finally learn this sport which is overshadowed by many other American sports like baseball football even soccer Victor all right hello everybody my name is Von BN I'm a freshman at uh South High School so me personally I started uh playing Cricket when I was about 5 years old and um I think it's developed me a lot as a person you know physically and mentally um you know like um maybe 3 or 4 years back um I used to struggle a lot with my own confidence but I think like after I started touching the cricket ball and the cricket bat I think like my confidence levels have like soared and I think I've just because of that it's um helped me like perform better under uh pressure and that's also helped me perform better in the um in the classroom and uh also um Cricket's kind of been like a getaway sport for me uh from like stress or anything if I like don't like how like any like how my life's going like right now if I have like I know like finals are about to happen and stuff and it's like a lot of stress and um I think like when I play cricket it's like I forget about everything I'm just focused on one thing and I think if if it's helped me this much I think it can definitely help uh my other peers um also um you know perform well and uh just do good hello my name is AD harur Krishna I'm a freshman in the South Brun High School I would just like to say the T20 Cricket World Cup is happening here in a week in New York and Cricket is also a recognized sport of the Olympics and it will be part of the Olympics in LA in 2028 so I believe if this school district uh introduces Cricket as a sport I might have the chance to participate in the Olympics that was adorable I can't stand myself um my name is adrit um I go to South bronck High School um I'm a freshman and I think as soon as I touch the cricket ball as soon as I first touched the cricket ball um I've been able to think clearly I've been able to deal with failure I've been able to perform Under Pressure um my I've developed leadership skills and compassion and I've honestly developed a big sense of community within my cricket team I I really like to share these benefits with some of my other friends and peers um and also share the experience of playing Cricket with other people who haven't played cricket and are willing to try another sport also other schools have implemented this um like High School North and High School South have also implemented this sport um as a school Sport and I would like that to happen here as well [Applause] good evening everybody my name is Kevin Joan I am a freshman in South Bruns High School um Cricket is a game that helped me grow as a person it helped me communicate better with my friends and it made me more confident as a person like everyone said um Cricket's a very important important part of my life and um I wish I could expand that game to all my friends in my school Community here and yeah that's it good evening my name is ahan BW and I represent Crossroad South Middle School and I would like to make a statement about Cricket so I play cricket over the weekends and I play for two different teams and when you and I would highly recommend you come watch our games and you will see once we hold a bat or a ball we you will see our energy dedication and determination on the on the field and you will see that us cricket players no matter what we will do we will fight anything we will do anything to player sport thank [Applause] you hi guys my name is par toari and I play uh for cric L um Academy and I'm also in South BN High School um Cricket is very big thing in my life um it trained me as a person it gave me a sense of U Pride it gave me some uh something to work for it gave me it gave me a lot of things um and and cricket's a great Sport and you should implement it into your uh curriculum hi my name is yuk Patel uh I I represent cross North Middle School and ever since I started Cricket 3 years ago uh my parents enrolled me and they like introduced me to the sport and without them I wouldn't be here and it like helped me like control like my confidence my anxieties and like most of my like physical health and it like helped me like communicate more with like people in my community and stuff so like if cricet comes into our school then it would be like really good cuz then I other people can like if anyone also like suffers with that type of stuff stuff they can like communicate with other people and like get like learn more from each other and like build more as like people themselves thank you what you I wish I could say I was in seventh grade but I'm not so thank you members of the board for giving them and us the opportunity to talk my name is Vishal Patel I live in doown pen pania but my wife will say I spend more time in South Brunswick New Jersey than at home because which is true I've been coaching some of these boys and girls for the last 3 to four years and I have seen them grow leaps and bound just not from educational point of view just playing the sport gaining confidence gaining that Community Cricket it puts you in different role every single day and how you overcome that how you face that challenge how you problem solve on your feet every time you are faced in a unique situation is what that sport teaches them and I consider myself an educator just like you guys I'm a coach and I feel it's a lot of responsibility and and I've have seen how playing this sport has helped all of them just not in just not in cricket but their parents can say in a lot of different way socially in education and as they said some of the kids from this school district have have represented presented the country this year so it would be great to see a lot of these kids play the sport for the school that they go to and a lot of time the challenge is a lot of their kids the parents say that because it is not recognized in school they have to give up and they have to choose between an activity that is recognized in school and something a sport that they dearly love and they come to a stage in middle school or high school and that's when they see the the big that's when we see the biggest Dropout so it would be amazing if the sport can be introduced in this school district and if you need any help I mean we have started this program a while back I have been coaching for the past 10 12 years now if you need any help we will be here to get this sport started and please come watch them compete any of the weekends I mean you might have seen some of the grounds they are right very close to you and what is this sport what is this funny looking people doing up there right so please come and watch please encourage them I mean and please consider their requests thank you so much I'm gonna ask we're going to give you a dispens you have a little one with you too right yeah come on you have a comment you had a comment before I did you come up yeah I just want to make comment to them I just want to make a comment to these boys first of all oh oh I'm sorry I you're right my apologies you were the first one oh my God I'm so sorry um first of all I want to say to this entire group of CH of students that's what I should have said you did a phenomenal job just now it is not easy to step up to that Podium and talk about something that you're passionate about and that you're asking anyone it doesn't matter if it's a school district the state the federal government for something it's not easy so I commend you all and I commend you the coach for pulling this all together um so we don't make the decision here he provides us with a recommendation and we say yay or nay if it's a yay I want to ask you if you promise one to teach us I don't know how to play cricket and and that um we'll play against you if it happens but you have to remember one thing when you're when you're presenting and you want somebody to do something you got to take a page out of your chess club buddies you need to end with that tagline called Equity begins with me so we want something that's Equitable then that's something that we will look at so again I commend you all for stepping up and to the parents um they spoke beautifully so you should every single one to be be proud of your of your children thank you guide us how to get started please do if you can guide us how to get started want him to send you an email you can send me an email sure send an I'll meet with all the all the students you got to I I I'll tell them to Hound you yep his his email address is on the district website you can find thank you thank you all to the young lady and to the boys thank you good job good evening Dr feder and Bard um thank you for having us um my name is Jennifer kogan I'm a speech language pathologist in a special needs District but first of all my first job is a mother in South Brunswick um we uh survived our first year of kindergarten that was fun um and he also went to your preschool program and he was a Pig in your expansion program so thank you for letting us be a part of that um I'm here tonight to talk a little bit about my experience as a mother um I also treat um other children in our town and I speak to a lot of mothers um there's a commonality and I know mothers really wanted me to speak up and be a voice for them in regards to bullying on the buses that's why I didn't know where this fit in because I was told hm yeah I was told that it's not a Hib right unless it's one of those categories and I understand that I'm actually finishing my Administration program so I'm we very well vers in Hib however um when a 10-year-old um intimidates and you know physically hurts a 5-year-old on a bus it's very scary especially when you're first you know going out into kindergarten and it's your first bus ride right big bus so I don't really know how you guys structure it and I know there's a lot of budget cuts and there's a lot of things going on this is probably the least of your concerns but for us mothers it's a very high concern because it's always pushed under the rug there are investigations conducted and we're told that nothing is founded it's a he said she said but in the meantime as a parent I'm scared for my child so he survived this year but I pulled him off the bus in around October but we have the means to drive him there are other mothers or parents who are not able to drive their kids to school thank God for my husband he's able to take him to school and pick him up every day but there are others that are not able to do that and the busing is an issue um I was in contact with the director of Transportation she was absolutely lovely I was in contact with the principal in regards to situations that had happened I think my bigger uh question or concern for you guys as a board is we need to look at who's monitoring these kids on the bus and telling me a bus driver that's driving a big wagon down Route One is monitoring absolutely not they're not they're kids that are getting punched as my sued there are kids that are getting threatened intimidated all of it and it has nothing to do with their race with their religion it has to do with a big 10-year-old bullying a tiny little 5-year-old who has no idea how to defend himself so I know a lot of other districts have cameras on the bus other districts have Aids on the bus and I know this costs money so this is clearly not a conversation for maybe this year or for this budget but it's definitely I want to plant a seed in your heads to say this is a problem and US mothers in South Brunswick are saying it to each other but it needs to be said to you so thank you for your time and thank you for listening and I really hope you revisit this problem thank you very [Applause] much my name is Prasad dander and I'm from Kendal Park I'm just add piggy bag on the kids what they presented and one of the biggest point they forgot to mention in this is Cricket is known as a gentleman's game all across the world so these me lot of these coaches including my wife who is also a coach they spend lot of time make gentlemen and gentle and great women out of these players they take teach them how to accept the failure so which is one of the recognition of sou Bruns School District we make good kids out of good citizens out of our kids Cricket does that and I would highly recommend should be it thank you thank you for your [Applause] comment I just have to say we we kind of went off script a little bit so this first public comment was really about anything on the consent agenda so if that's part of that that's fine but there'll be sign time for the second public comment so up to you come on is there anyone else after okay okay the kids just threw us off blame them um hello my name is Nathan K I'm from M Jun can you put the the microphone up H please thank you so much um yeah I'm from n I'm nithan Kanan from Mama Junction and I was wondering if South School Districts could consider um some better uh Less Car dependent urban planning um because to help deal with the budget cuts and other things um like climate change and all environmental concerns um has been found in various studies that um improving the walkability of of the suburbs or improving the walkability of a town can really raise home prices and can really increase Revenue especially if there's more mixed use housing instead zoning instead of just exclusionary zoning with just residential neighborhoods and just commercial um places like how we have like the Target and the subway next all that next to each other and then we have all the residential area next right next to each other if the commercial buildings were with the residential areas then those could increase revenue for the district in a myriad of ways of property taxes and other tax revenues that those businesses will have to pay and it could be a more long-term solution to the budget cuts is by increasing this walkability increasing this um mixed use um zoning and I think that the district should really try and consider such urban planning thank you so just a a quick Point um that whole uh planning and review would actually fall under the township the Town Council um the South Brunswick School District does not have any control over um public transportation it has control over student transportation to and from schools so my recommendation would be you should address this particular issue directly to the Town Council and you go online to the township and see exactly when the Town Council has meetings that's where that would be presented if you will but thank you I appreciate your comments are there any other comments for the first public comments no then I will close this portion of the public comments section out okay the next um the next uh segment of the of the agenda is for old business um specifically this was on funding bills in the second question and at this time we have covered old business so if there are no more questions under funding and budget I would like a motion to close the funding bill second question under old business and remove it as we will be voting June 13th may have a motion it's done all in favor great so that the the funding bill and the presentation will be June 13th excuse me June 13th will be the presentation of the budget at that point Thank you thank you for your U motions new business seeing none the next section will be the consent agenda review and walk through Mr palowski where's everybody going yeah don't you want to hear this fun stuff the best part of the meeting come on come on he gets so excited over this part this is my time to shine and everybody's walking out keep hurry up keep going going quick you don't want to miss this exit stage just close the door behind you the last person that would be nice thank you so much yeah all right go for it shut the door so nobody can hear me nobody in the hallway all right everybody so tonight's consent agenda is um is packed full of goodness so we have um the first couple of motions we have our approval of transfers financials our bills list we're accepting some donations from our pto's Constable Brooks Crossing and also from our Education Foundation I would like to thank the Constable PTO for Their donation of $7,000 71 or $7,000 71 $ 7,713 and our our Brooks Crossing PTO donated um $1,830 and uh they're putting it to good work in our schools also our Education Foundation uh donated an amount for our preschool book drive we have uh motion 15 is an approval uh to with with to resend a withdrawal from capital reserve and um an approval to withdrawal from maintenance Reserve that's just shifting um the accounts that we're pulling funding from to support a Cambridge uh Elementary School uh roofing project that'll happen this summer we are in items 1 16 and 17 uh recording and rejecting bids for non-public transportation and uh awarding bids for transportation for our esy programs uh we're also doing out of District student transportation vocational student transportation and we have uh an award uh of a vocational student transportation Awards also as part of all of the those bids and part FPS or excuse me those bids we have one 18 is an approval of an athletic trip transportation contract that's for next year we're approving uh some Transportation contracts for our esy programs and our vendors um APC transport and may Transportation we're recording and awarding uh time and material bids I would say just for everybody for the record when we came into our budget situation this year we did go out for every single bid contract RFP to get our best prices possible and uh we did our all of our time and material bids all of the the contractors and vendors that we use all came in flat um so that uh in today's day and age that's kind of unheard of so I'd have to take our hat off to our vendors they did a wonderful job uh coming in and helping out the district uh with our contracts for time and materials so we are authorizing the disposal of some property we have a rusty old truck that's no longer Road worthy if anybody's interested it's available on gov deals we have approving and extension of Professional Services for uh bigger picture and for some of our special education services for our students that need um educational um assistance we're approving the renewal contracts for nursing and evaluations that's also in our special education Department again all of those um responses that came in for those Services were some were actually lower than last year right so we have some we have some vendors that that are now on our a list we will be contacting them prior to to others we're approving a sidebar a couple of sidebar agreements we have an abolishment of some positions in 117 we're accepting change in conditional retirement for an individual staff member we're approving some employment contracts we're approving some student field trips uh we're recognizing the harassment intimidation bullying reports we're approving a resoltion resolution for travel and related uh expense reimbursement for all of our staff we have um an award contract that I want to talk a little bit about in 1.23 our operations committee uh met a couple times the past excuse me you could do it after motion to discuss got them all discuss oh okay we'll do a motion to discuss um so one 1.23 um Awards of contract to maso's Food Service uh we'll do a discussion motion on that um after I'm finished with the review we're going to accept some T student tuition we're approving an out of District placement and approving a motion for our budget transfers uh last year we built our budget on um some transfers that were necessary from other accounts in our um in our revenue and our fund balance and this uh motion 126 approves that those budget transfers to support the current year budget we're accepting um some students in for the school year for prek and then you have your personnel and that's our consent agenda so I would do I would like somebody to make a motion um automatic motion it's an automatic motion great automatic motion to discuss 1.23 just a motion for the consent agenda second and then oh you want okay I thought you were going to have a discussion AGA move to a motion to move consent agenda Mr Nathanson Miss um Ferrar second all in favor uh oh no I'm sorry I have to do a roll call sorry that's my fault sorry okay first we have to do the discussion yeah so and and before we do the roll call so we have a motion in a second so now a discussion on the ENT agenda Mr POI okay so our operations committee met uh a couple times this past week and um past couple weeks and we did an RFP this year due to our budget situation to look for and put out on the street Our Food Services um Chartwells uh is our current food service provider um they've been with the district for almost 30 years um we at this time uh looked at their proposal and we had another uh company that came in and gave a second proposal um it was time I felt uh along with the committee to move in a a different direction with the food service based on the quality of the food based on uh some things that happened during the actual process and just the presentations that were provided uh to the committee so what you're seeing in um item 1.2 23 is an award for mashio Food Service of Chester New Jersey to provide um food service for our students next year moving forward there is going to be a transitionary phase um I spoke with chart Wells today they're aware of this motion um they're professional we're going to transition them out and chart Wells or excuse me um mashos will transition in um we're not expecting any hiccups but with any anything I think we need to be a little bit patient and just understand that um with change to this magnitude they're serving uh food in all of our buildings um they're going to be doing some new things uh with some breakfast maybe uh but their snack program a lot of things may be a little bit different next year but the quality will be uh the same if not better but along the way we will or may see some bumps so we're just asking everybody to be patient with that and know that this is um an exciting time and a little bit of change in South Brunswick but um something that uh the business office uh and the operations committee uh dealt with and worked tirelessly on for the past couple of weeks we had multiple multiple meetings and it wasn't a decision that was that was easily made but it was one that was done with the best interest of the district that in um in uh in our hearts so with that I'd like to thank Chartwell for all of their years of service they did a wonderful job they built an amazing program um they're a wonderful company um but unfortunately at this time uh I think we're we're looking for a little bit of change so that being said that's your motion 1.23 move any questions no moved we already moved it I just want to open it up is there any questions that the board other than the committee that was there has hold please oh I just want to make sure other oh okay any questions Dr Raj uh I have a comment um actually there's the there's a large uh vegetarian population in the district and U uh I would uh uh I would hope that uh there is more vegetarian options uh that mashos will introduce I did check the website uh uh for Edison I believe the the one that I got earlier in the morning um they seem to have vegetarian options but I hope they continue to do the same here in South Bruns absolutely they acknowledge that during their presentation as well oh okay okay thank you for that Mr M anyone down here M um Miss caric I think part of my question was asked by Dr Raj closer please closer you want me to go okay so part of the question was asked by Dr Raj but the other part I is do we get to uh did the committee assume has seen the the menu that they want to uh we we had food samples yes we had you did and you left the rest of us out of those food samples huh yes next time you got to get on that commit how does that happen like these guys get to get the food samples and we don't get anything when there's three assignments next year you you just want to get on the right one that's not going to happen Okay so next year we still need the food samples then Lisa let's make a note of that but uh okay so my question was um will we get to see uh so when do we get to see the their offered menu for you know for the district they they'll put menus together over the summer and I let me tell you if the board would like a tasting we can arrange that mashio is mashio is one of those companies they actually said during their uh presentation that um they would they would love to to provide some food for our board meetings if or a board meeting if everybody would like a sample so we might be able to work something the recommendation for pizza hamburgers and it's not on the they don't have any of that all right so we I think we should we should take them up on that offer okay um just Dave um question for you can we provide to the board at least the implementation schedule so that they all see how this would move forward can we get that online once I once I once I the one that they showed us you know that once that out with them that would be awesome and then this way you all could see what the implementation schedule looks like I think that would help the board as well Mr Nathanson I I just want to make a comment as a chair of operations how good of a presentation they made and they showed us very simple things that they're going to do that you know was is amazing and coming from being the old man on the Block you know the CH Wells and I don't want to see any bad about Char Wells but TR Wells never did any of that stuff so you know uh I I think like David said it's the right time for this move and uh if I had the samples here I would I would have brought it but that night I didn't have dinner before I came to the committee and I was full by the time I went it just say it was very good very good and also um Dave just please um accept our thank you for doing a great job and Stephen we know that both of you worked really hard late nights going through those rfps they were not thin they were big thick books so we appreciate your work on that and the um summary that you gave to the committee so thank you please extend our thanks to him it's a big kudos to Steven Corso St he did an amazing job any other questions before we move on no okay so we will take roll call Mr parowski to approver the consent agenda for more um for today sorry Miss Julie Ferrara accept Miss Laur Hernandez absent Miss DEA carthik yes Miss Alicia Khan yes Mr Raja Krishna yes Mr Mike Mitchell yes Mr Barry Nathanson yes Dr Smith araj yes Mrs Lisa Rogers yes motion carries motion carries thank you sir next agenda item is public comment this is the second opport un for the public to comment on any matter 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 complete the signning sheet and again you are limited to three minutes Mr pelski do we have any members of the public that have pre-registered I think everybody spoke very good anyone in the audience yes oh Mr Fric oh Excuse me yes I I know supposed to know I know it's hard when you know the person hello Chris RN Kendall Park can you come closer to the mic yeah really my mouth's not big enough um we we all know that um the ethics case for Mrs mea was supposed to be heard on May 21st and it was postponed and so I was wondering if we could get a status on ITF if not that's fine too I was just this a public comment we're not going to make this we're not going to make uh comments on legal matters ah okay so we only do that for some people okay okay thank you next hi Vanessa kendle park again I have a quick question about this meal will this affect the actual School bucks no thing okay thank you good question same same thank you anyone else public comments no then I will close this portion of the meeing for the public oh oh so sorry I was putting my head down go ahead [Laughter] sorry my head didn't go all the way that way it'll be quick that's okay I just want to leave my name is Kathy avansi I live on Taylor Road been a resident of 28 years all I want to say and I just wanted to leave this little note okay so I I'm an accountant I deal with budgets all the time um So based on what I know you were saying that that in order to have Excellence you need an $170,000 $170 million budget I'm listening to everything that you have here tonight Awards except you know teachers getting awards at Princeton obviously you're doing the right thing the thing that I'm having a problem with and I know you said you're going to explain it you said you needed $170,000 $170 million to continue this Excellence but now you say well we have this extra money but we should take it I don't follow it that way because you're just saying we need this money right now this is the money you need it's 5% I believe that we're saying that we need the increase and the taxes but it just seems like we're grabbing this extra money and say okay we'll figure out what we're going to do with it but in the meantime it's causing the residents of the Town more money I'm I'm a Believer in this is your budget you're true to it you've been saying all along that this is what you needed and now you got the money but now you say no know I want more money so and then someone's going we're going to be back here next year all right so let's let's wait for the next year and see where we're at with the decrease that you're talking about with the $5 million and okay let's see where we're at and then we'll re-evaluate and see what we need I I'm a person like that let's we take it one step at a time not saying okay we got this money right now let's just grab it it's a one chance deal we are talking about the residents here we are talking about increasing in taxes and I know Mr feder and I do respect what you're saying it's not $86 for me I you to take the tax amount what that gentleman was saying about the I think he said $9,000 he's taking the $9,000 from his tax bill which is the School portion of the tax he's doing a fast calculation and he's coming up with his number for me it's $700 it's not 85 you present something like that which I'm not saying whatever and you're saying the valuation of the houses in South Brun is about 200,000 I am taking the what my tax portion is mine is about 245 my tax would be $700 what I'm saying is I don't mind paying extra tax for excellence in the school my kids went one of my kids went out of District I believe in the town I believe in this but just tax us the amount of money to get to the part where you've already developed a budget and saying this is what we need to continue our Excellence not saying okay this is what we need to continue excellence and well we can get this extra money let's do it and let's just see I'm just leaving it like that you have a budget you were upset that you can't couldn't reach it you were getting rid of teachers you were saying we had to cut this stuff but now you got it so just charge us what you need not extra for something that you can't even tell us now what you need for that's all I wanted to say thank you want a comment no no thank you for your comments you're welcome anyone else okay I will close this portion of the public comments okay so just two points before we adjourn to Executive session uh the Education Foundation is having their bikon on Sunday so if anybody wants to join um please do so our next scheduled Board of Ed meeting is set for June 13th where we will uh discuss the points uh that were just mentioned um if you would like to attend that would be great and now we will be moving into executive session please remain seated until I am finished be it resolved that the Board of Education and the township of South Brunswick hereby moves into an 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 following student matters be it further resolved that the discussion conducted in executive session can be disclosed to the public at any time as the matters have been resolved formal action may be taken at any meeting May I have a motion and second to adjourn to Executive session motion Mr Mitchells second Dr Raj all in favor any n thank you and good night South Brunswick e