the adequate notice of this regular meeting as required by the open public meetings Act was provided by the posting mailing delivery in filing of this notice on January 11th 2024 this notice was on that date posted on the Bolton board in the township office sent to The Courier News and tap into waren and filed with the Township Clerk of the township of laen all in accordance with the requirements of the open public meeting act please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance all right I will call the rooll at this time Mr Desai you there's a spite bomb Miss Keller yes here Mr molfetta Mr Otto here Mr tour you Mr Valentino Mr Weinstein here Mrs Zan here we have a Miss K resolve that the Board of Education approves the public and private session minutes of the January 22nd 2024 second I'll call the role Mr Bai yes M Keller yes Mr Otto yes Mr T yes Mr Weinstein yes and Mrs Zan yes motion passes 60 correspondence and information Dr thank you Mrs an nothing to report in correspondence on the HIV information there were two investigations at Central School one to be a determined incident one investigation at alt not determined to be a buing incident and on a suspension report there was one in school and one out of school suspension those are both out the middle school and that's it for that section thank you good evening and welcome everyone particularly our athletes that are with us here this evening so happy that have you here on behalf of the board I want to extend our appreciation and gratitude to the Somerset County cultural and Heritage commission for its Grant award in the amount of $1,120 which will be used for the transportation of our fourth graders to historical sites in waren I also want to draw attention to two retirements that appear on tonight's agenda Louise Marcano will be retiring after serving in District for 25 years and Patty pillinger will be retiring after nearly 29 years I'm always amazed and ODed by the members of our staff that have given most or all of their professional careers to the children and families of our district I can't thank them enough and extend all the best wishes as they move into retirement also I also want to extend thanks to the central New Jersey um Chinese American associations Alliance who extended an invitation to myself and Dr mingle to the central New Jersey Regional Lunar New Year Festival it took place on uh Saturday February 17th um pretty amazing if you guys get a chance to attend next year I would highly encourage you to do that the performers were magnificent um the music was truly wonderful so a sincere thanks to them for that invitation and with that Dr lingo your remarks welcome everyone Welcome to our championship basketball team we're happy to have you here tonight uh thank you Mr Valar Miss meninger I see Mr laurore in the back and of course coach Fabiano of all our players family members we're happy that you're here tonight I'll save other comments about the agenda so when we get to the agenda let's get right to the Celebration yes let's get to the Celebration uh Mr BL I think you're our MC to this Master of Ceremonies I think I have to wait for the camera quite not that I want that so Dr mingle members of the board thank you for having us here tonight uh to begin with I'd like to point out that there are athletes who competing professionally who in their entire lives have never won a championship it is a rare rare thing to come up and something that that we should take a moment and pause and recognize when it happens um and it was no small feat that that our girls basketball team went through the Franklin team that they they defeated in the championship was undefeated on the season so this was right by chalk right it says they win but but uh what we witnessed a couple weeks ago was something very different than that we're very proud of our uh our athletes for what they have accomplished uh they've did it through through two things uh teamwork learning to work cohesively as a group and depending upon and communicating with each other and then of course the leadership of Coach Fabiano and his directions and his guidance over the course of the Season which they take to heart and and put on the board um and I would like to say something personally about the girls is that in addition to their great play on the court these are also exemplary and model students with in our hallways and in our school community and so the Lessons Learned there carry over into the school and that's the reason we do Middle School spools and we're very proud of before that These Girls Aren't just winning at basketball they're winning at Li and so congratulations I'll turn things over to Mr fa thank you Mr BL thank you Dr mingle thank you to everyone on the board um like Mr BL said this is a special group um that we had um four of the eighth graders were with me in the first season that I coached um three Maya Jolie uh and Dia and I knew just from then and potentially had uh in sixth grade that this would be a special year their eighth grade year and then Supporting Cast for the seventh and sixth graders um a really special team um and like I said at uh Town Hall when we had we were recognized there it was an amazing game uh the level of intensity um the perseverance that they showed on the PT especially going to Franklin which is not the easiest place to play it was remarkable it was and the crowd that was there the support from the parents it was it was amazing so I I can't be more proud of these girls and what they have done over the course of the season and how they they brought this Championship first we have Maya rims GRE and you okay she had 23 points in PS Jolie Anderson Dia pbor Ava trainer Chloe Kiani Marley Edwards haly sober Genevie Cowell natala Zona Jane Li Rivier and last but not least Sonia Baka congrats girls you deserve it yes yes girls if you wouldn't mind we get picture of you back so sure yeah you guys are included that you Happ make sure that hey rais that's true oh sure give everyone thank you for coming I like Bishop left phone yeah there's another phone um there's another phone in the front row white case okay we're used to it congrats good question well that's a very hard act to follow um and it's the best part of uh being a member of the Board of Education actually is to be able to celebrate all the tremendous achievements of our students um moving on we do not have a discussion scheduled for this evening so committee reports will be next curriculum and Technology committee has not had a meeting that will be reported out um so Finance operations and security is the finance committee met on Tuesday February 20th with two committee members and the alternate present the meeting lasted approximately 2 hours and I'm going to break down the readout into sections and ask for comments or discussion from the board on some of these topics uh the first item that we addressed was the Safety and Security 5year action plan U Mr Hegel had presented a 5-year security plan for the years 24 through 2029 for the district based on the recommendations in the report from the Somerset County prosecutor's office which was received last year the plan includes a report on action items that that have been completed to date as well as action items for the future and items that will be included in the capital Improvement plan board members can access confidential Security review documents in person at the board office um this is also an opportunity to remind the public uh that walking through school grounds during school hours whether walking a dog or taking a shortcut is trespassing and administration will be following up on signage on the path the Middle School uh so to alert anybody who uses that path that they shouldn't be using during school hour moving on to the preschool program um as many of you should know the lottery for our preschool program for the 2425 school year has taken place and weight list has been established some of the students that received seats in the program I.E they won the lottery are also students that are eligible for free lunch under one of the ways we determine that eligibility either of direct certification or federal or state eligibility requirements as a public school district and board we place high priority on equal access to all of the district's programs for all of our students for general education students the preschool program is a tuition paying program the finance committee supports a proposal that the 2425 budget include a maximum of $20,000 for preschool tuition subsidy the subsidy will be budget neutral due to the efficiencies and changes to preschool Transportation the subsidy will be open to preschool families who are eligible for no cost lunches the amount of subsidy per family will be based on the number of eligible students but will not exceed 50% of the cost of tuition and this is a reminder that the 24 425 tuition was set at a previous board meeting at $9,500 so that is a maximum of 750 the change to preschool transportation is that for the 2425 school year we will not be able to offer preschool transportation for a fee to general education students last year bus seats were available for a fee however that has become problematic as additional special education students are added throughout the school year eliminating fee based Transportation frees up seats for midyear additions to the special education preschool program the committee also supports an administrative proposal that free seats be offered to janed students that are eligible for tuition subsidy at this point I want to pause to allow the any board member to ask questions or comments on the preschool tuition subsidy program um seeing no questions or comments on that I do want to say that I'm I'm really proud of us as a district honestly that we are making these funds available for some of our navest people students so moving on the next topic of conversation was the 2425 budget pardon me at this time we are still waiting for two critical pieces of information that are necessary to finalize the budget the inflation rate for transportation and state aid by the end of this week we should have these remaining pieces of information based on information currently available I can comfortably say to the public that the tax levy for 2425 budget will likely exceed 2% but will be meaningfully lower than the levy of last year which was 5.99% the next steps in this process would be the receipt of state aid number which will happen later this week followed by the meetings with individual board members in small groups to go over the budget the preliminary budget presentation will take place for the public on March 8th we will then have a public committee meeting where the finance committee will make itself available for Q&A sessions with the public on March 26th and the final budget hearing and adoption is scheduled for April 29th pause here does any member of the board have any questions about the status of our budget polies okay moving on several weeks ago the administration was informed by the town clerk that due to an increase in registered voters and capacity issues at previously used polling locations there would they would need there would need to be changes to the polling locations in town going forward and specifically for the June 4th primary and the November 5th general election it is the responsibility of the Township's election official to secure polling locations we have been advised that alt Mount forab and the middle school have been identified as new polling location we also understand that watchin Hills Regional High School has also been identified as a fing location a meeting took place earlier this month between the District administration and District security together with Town representatives and representatives of the Warren Township Police Department now the purpose of the meeting was to identify and address any concerns about the use of school buildings for poing the Warren Township Police Department has committed to providing a police officer in each school facility on Election Day while school is in session with the primary focus being on ensuring that no one comes to vote who comes to vote means access to other areas of the building Additionally the waren police will provide additional police officers to support traffic flow and external security during arrival and dismissal the town and the district will work together to publicize times when traffic is expected to be heavy to discourage voters from coming during those times all poll workers will be screened through the visitor management system prior to election day and will be the only individuals with access to bathrooms or any interior spaces beyond the room used for home the district is committed to working cooperatively with the town to meet this need at this point I would like to open this up for conversation comment questions from members of I have a question Mr wein actually have a few um were we told or were we asked that this is where the elections are going to take place um this is not something we hav in saying okay were we told or were we asked if it's one police officer or more than that allowed in each school so that was the that was the result of a joint conversation between us and the Warren PD okay and it's just to clarify during certain times of the day it's more than one but it's at least one in the building okay thanks now might be a good time to men so for the Ben I know we'll talk about this more but for the benefit of the board and the public the information about polling which is coming up here reported out for the first time will be in the community briefing this week including an invitation to an information session for parents of students in the schools that are affected that'll be on March 27th at 6m it'll be on zoom and recorded so that people don't have to be there in real time and will'll include not only District Representatives but importantly the Warren Police that way people can ask questions that are maybe not the forge perview but are important to parents who might have them uh and that'll all go out to parents in those schools for sure Mr yeah just a couple things um first question first question is does this having a budget impact on the school the town can assist on it can they pay for it and then the second one is since the polling staff will need access to a restroom should it where logistically possibly be a designated restroom that kids don't use so there is no crossover between station kids and no opportunity for there to be any incidents that do with them for that so the the exact locations have to be cleared by the county election officials before we can commit to certain pieces that's actually scheduled to happen on Wednesday I believe um there is a a modest budget impact on potentially an overtime for custodial services in the mo but there is also a modest payment to the district for hosting falling places but we have expressed to the township a expect an expectation that we would be made whole for any expenses that come from just just a question about the pluses so I can't remember what time poll's open and close but I assume they're open when buses arrive and they close after buses depart so the traffic pattern and Logistics is accounted for during those steps so that is accurate and that is when there will be additional so there's a couple things there will be additional police there'll be communication ahead of time informing voters when the heavier traffic traffic times are you can't tell somebody they can't come to vote obviously but to try to to help mitigate that um the polls by law are open from I think it's 6:00 AM to 8 PM so that's what we have to work with so and I also want to mention one other piece which is the primaries on June 4th they the the township share with us historical data about voting there are not a lot of people who vote in person on primary day the um so it gives us a chance to work through some of these things before we get to a larger election like the presidential election in November and to consider other adjustments in between um so I'll admit when I heard this I was pretty frustrated um I thought by now it di down that I say a little and I think what I'm frustrated the most about is a lot of schools seem to be moving away from using a lot sorry a lot of a lot of towns are moving away from using schools as modations or they are closing to allow for um and I feel like the timing of this and the heads up that we have is disappointed I mean this is not this date is always the same so the first Tuesday in June first Tuesday in November and I think that's where I that option for us to consider closing has essentially been removed because of the lack of advanced M we June is as any parent knows is an incredibly time at end of your ceremonies moving up things concerts fifth grade celebrations e8th grade celebrations and so to close with this little notice would be I imagine pretty um so I can two things that seem opposing can still be true which is I have trust that Administration and Security will do their best efforts to keep everybody safe I can also feel very uneasy about it I'm I'm not going to lie um you know we the first update for Mrs on with about security we try so hard to ensure that our staff and our students are safe and so even if it's not thousands of people it it makes me crazy um I realize we cannot push back I realize that that would that is not the right thing to do I think it's I respect that we want to be partners and we want to work with the town and the clerk in this request but I am an N of one very um because I feel like without the warning to say hey we have June is that doable you know could you if that's not doable then then you know definitely November at least we have that time to if we decide to close and I just feel like we now have that option removed after we just went through months of figuring out two years of calendars um and everybody knows how complicated that is right you're constantly balancing all these things and so I understand why we are not closing I 100% understand that but I still um am just a bit disin that we are in this situation but I support the direction that Administration taking I just um frustrated I felt like I need to say that that's it and Trisha are we I'm sorry that's rich sorry guys Hi and um are we are we offering I thought we mentioned we may be offering the ability for a uh parent to opt to keep their child home if they so choose to as an excused absence is has that been decided on yet it would not be an excuse absence so that's not it's not a state excuse absence a parent can always choose to keep their child home but we can't we can't excuse it unless it's on a list of state excus reasons got it thank you any other comments from board members yeah I I mean I am personally not a fan of talking about problem without a resolution but I don't have a resolution to this so I just want to use a word that Miss kellerer brought up which is a partnership we would like to feel like we are partners with the town this decision was not made through a genuine Partnership if we were told what to do without our input and without the proper Runway to put measures in that we feel are appropriate that's not a partnership that's one group telling another group what to do without proper feedback and time to be able to be true Partners so it's disappointing to have this be told to us and let's be honest probably the most conflicted and passionately driven election year in our lifetime and now we are having it at our school not cool at all Mr T presidential election in November I think Mr Mak an interesting point we have the option to re at the school calendar that attention close that that the calendar is definitely a board um decision there just one thing I want to mention is currently it's a half day for parent conferences so there are some implications contractually that we'd have to work through but that is something we can certainly look at my recommendation would be that we see how it goes in June and use that information to make a decision about that I agree for June I wasn't coming the big is bigger question Mr I just want to clarify were we told we had to or was it a discussion I just want to clarify that with P it's my understanding think you were told it's my understanding that the authority and responsibility for designating fing locations lies with his Township election official who in this case is also the township so that individual has the authority and responsibility for designating fulling places um we do not have authority to V on as board as a board of education but the town did come to us and ask us sure yeah so we had a meeting about the implementation process not about yes or no um I don't think I can say more without getting into legal um but no problem what Mrs Z is saying is that there is an authority that is not us there not the board that gets to make the final decision yeah but there was a I would say a good faith conversation about what do we need to do to make it and and it's my understanding the town committee has demonstrated the commitment and willingness particularly on safety issues to to meet our needs yeah I I would say not only the town committee but I think also the C yeah yeah I I I don't I'm not saying that I don't have confidence in their ability to potentially meet those request I just don't feel like this was done in the spirit of true partnership and I please don't take my uh my previous tone and potential vitriol as directed at this board because it's not uh I I just feel like this was a decision made for us not with us any other board comments on this topic I think just to read just to um sort of complement what Dr mingle said around the the info session correct if I'm wrong the info session that's being scheduled is to help parents understand what the process looks like they'll be you know opportunity to ask questions in advance but if there are like if I was just a parent right now and I was wondering what to do and how did this get to be or I think it's a terrible idea I think it's a great idea that we can't we can't do anything so we you know we're all we always want to hear from people but this we're not the best suited to answer questions about how do you get here why that's we're we're best suited to once it's the implementation of it and how it would work on the day of but not questions around how we got so I just want to make sure people are anything else okay we'll move on to the final item on the finance committee agenda um which was the rod Grant update the district has received final approval on the rod grants for the middle school science lab hbac and has reviewed the proposal from the AR for services related to the rod Grant the architect's fee was negotiated down from 40,000 to 27,000 and appears on tonight's agenda for approval as item V8 also on tonight's agenda as items B10 b11 and 12 are the related Rod Grant approvals of execution and delivery of the grant agreement delegation of authority to VA to supervise the school facilities project and use of capital funds to fund our portion of the hbac work which um as a reminder by virtue of doing this work with the rod Grant we are not paying the full amount that's we are receiving um a contribution from the state and so if this is with great thanks to Mr H and the business office staff is securing this grant for the hbac and on that note the next meeting of the finance committee is um on the 11th of March and that's all for finance um the next committee report is Personnel negotiations and communication committee Miss com thank you I won't be able to say as much so um the Personnel negotiations and Communications committee uh met on January 22nd and February 14th which were our third and fourth negotiation sessions with WTA and we are uh scheduled to have our fifth one on March 13 thank you Miss Keller um at this time we move into the first opportunity for public commentary um this is the first of two opportunities for public commentary I ask that anyone interested in addressing the board please raise their hand or use the raise your hand feature on Zoom each speaker is asked to limit their comments to 3 minutes please begin your comments by stating your name address and by directing your comments to the presiding officer that would be need please know that the Board of Education welcomes and encourages input from the Public Public commentary is intended as an opportunity for the board to receive such input but it is not intended as a Q&A session following public commentary if appropriate the presiding officer or the superintendent may make some response for this first opportunity we ask that your comments be limited to items that appear on tonight's agenda there will be a second opportunity for all other comments later in the meeting so at this time seeing nobody in the audience the live audience I'm going to move to zoom if there's anybody in our Zoom audience that would like to make a comment related to the agenda please use your raise your hand feater at this time seeing none do I have a motion to close public commentary motion to close second all in favor I abstain first public commentary is closed um Dr mingle do you have anything you like to address on agend just two items one you you hit on in your comments which is item B7 which is a grant uh for a local history trip for fourth grade students some may remember that this was actually in place preo this grant helps bring up back it's a really nice way for our fourth graders who are learning about State history to see some of there's a lot of great history right here in Warren Township and it's a good way for them to experience that the other thing I wanted to point out was item D2 at the very bottom of the long list of policies that came from Strauss Esme there's one there that says WTS as the source which is us about a year ago or so the board adopted an updated harassment intimidation or bullying policy and in it there were two options for what you do with this a case that is uh that probably can't be supported with facts to become a confirmed case we chose an option that did not give any principle to discretion to not go through the entire process we are recommending reversing that because we have seen several Anonymous um HIV allegations for example which can't be found because there's no victim named and by having to go through the entire process we use a lot of resources to get to a place where we say we can't even finish this investigation by giving the principles the option to say that up front we can save those resources for students who are in the building and needs that they have it's important to note for the board and the public that if any principal uses that discretion they have to report it to me and I have to report it to the board so you would have a record of that and it provides whoever filed it if it wasn't Anonymous an ability to appeal directly to the board so I just want you to know the background of that because it is a change in practice but there are safeguards in place to make sure it's not used to avoid investigating an actual issue thank you Dr Mingo does anyone on the board wish to pull any action item for separate Vote or discussion see none Miss C motion to approve items for for consideration A1 with A3 B1 with B12 C1 through C13 and D1 through D3 have a second second all right I will call the role Mr Desai yes Miss Keller yes Mr molfetta yes Mr a yes Mr Tor yes Mr Mr yes Mrs Z yes motion car motions carry 70 thank you we do not have any unfinished business on the agenda for this evening we do have an item under new business um we are nearing the end of the fiveyear Strategic plan and um looking to have the board approve the creation of an ad hoc strategic plan Comm committee for the purpose of beginning to look at planning for our next 5year plan um so does the board have any thoughts concerns questions comments on that Mr hegler you had a resolution for this that's something I can I can read it if that helps so the proposed resolution would be resolved that the Board of Education approves the creation of an ad hoc strategic plan committee this committee I guess that's probably all that needs to be the actual resolution but what I just for the board's benefit I'll just repeat kind of the the charge of the committee which is to help identify facilitators of that process work with the administration to plan the process and then represent the board on this theing committee for the Strategic plan which was the description that we used five years ago when we did it Miss K would you Mo that resolution motion to approve the resolution about creating a planning committee second yeah um Mr Desai yes Miss Keller yes Mr Metta yes Mr AO yes Mr Tor yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs Z yes motion passes 70 thank you is any board member have anything else for your business nothing's been previously advised okay then at this point we're moving into the second opportunity for public commentary and it is open to any topic you wish to raise to the board's attention again I ask that you raise your hand or use the raise your hand feature on Zoom remember that comments are limited to 3 minutes and please state your name and address from the beginning we have nobody in our audience since we we athletes left so going directly to zoom um use the raise your hand feature in Zoom if you wish to be if you wish to speak Last Chance anybody okay then do I have a motion to close second public commentary motion to close second in favor I opposed abstain the second public commentary is now closed um Miss K would you move us into executive whereas the open public meeting 11 board to meet and close session to discuss certain matters now therefore be it resolved the board of ucation turn session to discuss Collective bargain agreement and more negotiations related to it action will not be taken upon the turn public session the length of the meeting anticipated to be clment be it further resolve the minutes of this close I be made public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists second second all in favor I opposed abstain the board is now in executive session public session second approves no yes yes I okay motion you adjourn second all in favor I I opposed abstain we are you