##VIDEO ID:WVNxJXp3svw## fascinating we have to dooll yeah mag [Music] one Marco you good AC Froman um can I have a motion to open the meeting to the public motion second can we stand for the Pudge of Allegiance I Pudge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible liberty and justice for all welcome everybody to the August 15th meeting of the Board of Education of Branchburg please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public and media consistent with the open public meetings act and that advanced notice required therein has been provided this is a meeting of the Board of Education of Branchburg at which formal action may be taken the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda and I'll hand it over to Dr Chase for the superintendent report thank you Mr Carpenter um so I'd like to request a roll call oh sorry I missed the roll call that's okay um Mr here Mr grey Mr hollack here Mr Mater Miss noo here Miss Shaw Mr Tuma here Miss Joyce here Mr Carpenter here thank you sorry that's okay so um while summer may be seem quiet without our students our buildings have been bustling with a lot of activity this year we've had for the past two and a half months uh we've had a lot of things going on we've had students on campus for most of July in our esy program and we've had a lot of Staff working really hard to prepare for the upcoming school year so I just want to give you a a little bit of a highlight on some of the collective efforts that have been happening over the summer so with regard to esy we had a really highly successful esy school year we served over about 100 students and about 15 staff members were part of the program uh I want to thank miss all the staff that was part of it specifically uh Jen Jen Anderson and Michelle Nash who oversaw the program and it was really a great opportunity to support our students who need a little bit more time so it's not to regress also we've had a lot of curriculum work going on in the district we've had a lot of Staff in for that we've made significant revisions to math and Ela also social studies and music and also you may have recalled we uh added two new courses to the middle school program of studies so we have been working on those as well with regard to facilities I really want to acknowledge the hard work of sadm and the maintainers and the custodians uh for the work that they've done this year and also miss Vorhees who is our new business administrator getting our buildings ready for the new school year we have a painting rotation going on for some classrooms so there'll be some new classrooms in each of our buildings that have some fresh coat of paint which look great a lot of landscaping has been done and you may have recalled the walking path grant that we received that one of our teachers put in so that walking path at Stonybrook is now up and running so that's a a highlight uh We've also had deep cleanings of our classrooms I've been in several of the class rooms and they the floors are shiny the desks are clean and they're ready for the students to take the seats and we've also had you know annual repairs on HVAC and air conditioning units as well uh with regard to our leadership team we had a two-day retreat with the leadership team where we continue to develop our own learning and professional development specifically we worked on strategic planning which I'll share with the board coming up with our strategic goals and our action items there and we also worked on building out and learning more about the ways we can support our students by implementing positive behavior interventions for our students um also it's been a busy year I cannot believe it's mid August already but uh we're all eager we're all excited for our students to come back and that's really when we the best day of school is the first day of school when all the smiling faces return so we're excited I also wanted to just give you a little bit of a update on enrollment so as of our our District's total enrollment right now is is standing at about 1367 uh so we have a modest decrease of 12 students from the previous year and those decreases are at whiten and Stonybrook which is good because those student those classrooms are there's a lot of use in those buildings and we really don't have the ability to um sustain a large influx of students particularly at Stonybrook but we have had an increase at the middle school we gained specifically 23 students um so we're helping to schedule those students and making sure that everybody's the classrooms are balanced and everybody is in a classroom where there's enough uh variety with regard to you know gender and and balancing of the classrooms you don't want one classroom to have seven students and another one to have 22 so I want to thank the Middle School administration for doing all of that scheduling so um space overall space remains tight at whiten and Stonybrook but we fit all our students in it's nothing alarming at this point but definitely something for us to keep our eyes on with all the new development taking shape in the community keeping a close eye on enrollment which I will be reporting out on at every board meeting from now on so hopefully that'll give you a little bit more detail so that is my report thank you very much we will move on to public comment on agenda items only seeing that there's no public we can move on to governance I have no report but we do have a few voting items we have one approval of minutes two approval of harassment intimidation or bullying findings report three approval of Branchburg Township School District's representative on the Somerville Board of Education um basically that item is just saying that Bindu is going to serve um in Kristen's place that now that she's stepped down from the Somerville Board of Education and item four approval of memorandum of agreement between the Branchburg Township Board of Education and the Branchburg principes and vice principal Association can I have a motion to move those items motion second any questions or comments concerns can I have a roll call please Mr Sai yes Mr holbeck obstain on one and two yes on three and four Miss noo yes Mr Tuma yes Miss Joyce yes and I would just like to thank the uh the principles who worked with us on getting this agreement together we board goal completed yes thank you Terry and Mr here yes next up is policy um we did meet last week uh the first two that are up for first reading um they're basically revised policies to emphasize compliance with New Jersey regulations and ensuring that we offer uh bias free access to employment and education and promote diversity uh uh the latter two the homework policies they are now emphasizing the importance of aligning homework with classroom instruction in the curriculum they aim to reinforce learning and practice skills and develop independent study habits um there are clear Time Guidelines that are provided for each grade level with an emphasis on individual student needs and encouraging communication if work codes are inconsistent there are new rules that prohibit assignments over extended breaks and weekends ensuring that students have uninterrupted down time um the policy also reinforces that homework must be evaluated with feedback given to the students and should never be used as a punitive measure um there's going to take a lot of coordination among the teachers um to make this happen I think uh Miss landisburg is going to be working with them just so that we can all be on the same page going into the new school year um and that is it for the report we have some I guess one voting item it's just policy and regulations first reading um can I have a motion to move that motion motion second um any questions comments concerns can I have a roll call please Mr yes Mr holl yes M sowo yes Mr Tuma yes M Joyce yes Mr carier yes next up is curriculum in instruction we have not met since the last meeting um but we do have voting items we have one conferences and travel two approval of revision of 2024 2025 out of District program three approval of tuition contract to the hunon County vocational school four approval of student teacher five approval of service agreement and six approval of 2024 2025 out of District Pro program can I have a motion to move those motion second any questions or comments can I have a roll call please Mr s yes Mr Hollen yes M noo yes Mr Tuma yes M Joyce yes Mr KP yes thank you uh next up is Personnel Mr Tuma do you have a report no report uh Personnel committee meets next Thursday Thursday thank you sir um we have some voting items we have one approval of teacher educational specialist evaluation model two approval of principal District leader evaluation model three approval of statement of assurance four approval of 2024 2025 non-athletic stiens and five or five approval of 2024 25 athletic sens six approval of 2024 2025 School Improvement panels seven approval of personnel eight approval of recision of personnel nine approval of revision of 2024 2025 athletic stien 10 approval of resignation 11 approval of additional extended school year hours 12 approval of revision of resignation 13 approval of extra duty pay 14 approval of Summer teacher Academy 15 approval of additional summer curriculum writing 16 approval of new staff orientation hours 17 approval of Mentor 18 approval of revision of leave 19 approval of substitutes 20 approval of transfer 21 approval of additional summer hours 22 approval of revision of extended school year hours and 23 approval of principal's contract can I have a motion to move those items motion second any question questions or comments about any of those one one quick question on the uh the building or the school Improvement panels can you just give us an idea of of what they're going to be looking at and what their goals are sure so the school Improvement panels is a requirement under achieve NJ which was the teacher teach NJ 10e Reform Act uh for Teacher evaluation and essentially these panels are supposed to be building based groups that oversee and provide input on professional development that mentoring process and originally the law was stated so that these this staff member these staff members would give input on evaluations but because they're in the same collective bargaining agreement as their peers um that has taken a shift just across the state at that point in time so it's a requirement under the law at this point left over from T andj and how often will they meet they meet about a few several times of a year okay thank you cool anybody else can I have a roll call please Mr Sai yes Mr harach yes M noo yes Mr Tuma yes M Joyce yes Mr carer yes next up is finance and Facilities Miss Joyce do you have a report I have a brief report um the finance and Facilities committee met last week um very briefly we um we did I think uh Dr Chase mentioned the uh update on the summer facilities work is going well so we got that update um a couple other highlights of the meeting we uh were told about that uh we're going to start implementing a breakfast program in all the schools so we're very much looking forward to being able to feed the kids in the morning so your kids will all have a chance to actually buy breakfast as well as lunch um what else did I I think that was uh those were the oh and the the audit there the audit dates were set um so the audit has already begun and there will be more audit dates coming up in October that's it thank you very much I have a question for the breakfast at school how would that change the flow of things because the kids I should have said we got an update that we're going to be serving breakfast and the administration is working out the details on how it's going to be implemented I'm like go they go right in like five minutes before the valley yeah exactly we did that did come up in discussion so I'm sure they no I could just tell you briefly it's a grab and go it's not a sit down and eat per se except with the little ones who we know might need a little bit of more support initially but we're hoping it's just it'll be something like a don't like a um well all of the breakfast is aligned to the nutritional guidelines so they make it appealing for students but it's not as sugar filled as usually so there'll be some pancake muffins um some doughnut sticks that they could grab and go and eat while they go into their classroom so we're not anticipating it to impact instructional time at all thank you very much anybody else I guess I should wait until we all right so we have some voting items we have one bill list two secretary and Treasurer reports three line item transfers four approval of inventory and valuation Services five approval to pay bill six approval of sale of solar Renewal Energy credits seven approval of kitchen equipment at Branchburg Central Middle School eight approval of resolution authorizing the Disposable disposal of equipment and nine approval of donation from pencils for Progress can I I have a motion to move those items motion [Music] second any questions or comments question yeah on item number four the approval of inventory and valuation services and I guess this is more towards Stephanie school districts don't have assets everything is expensed as incurred so what are they going to inventory and what type of schedule are they going to put together well they they through definition have fixed assets which which is anything valued above $2,000 per item okay so if you buy a desk that's worth more than $2,000 then it would be inventory with a label and then those all those pieces have to be evaluated and depreciated every year so we have a company that does it for about 800 bucks I believe it is $860 and what they'll do is we'll give them a list of any new items or any items that we disposed of they update their report and they give it to us and then the Auditors incorporate it into your C next year I'll give you a little preemptive uh look inside my thought process I always recommend every five years maybe even sooner that they come onsite and really do a full inventory to make sure that over the years we have missed adding or deleting so that the valuation God for there's a fire or any need to replenish anything lost that the valuation is up to date okay thank you sure um before before you vote I also want to thank uh bring your attention to the approval of donation from pencils for Progress because this is uh Wyatt Kovac is actually a student not in Branchburg um but he has started a nonprofit whereby he collects donations and he delivers materials to places where there's need so um all the donations from this actually came from Readington School F either Flemington or Readington school district and then we in turn will host a donation site for him moving forward with our student council so um he's a future entrepreneur in the making pleasure to meet and thank you Ro Qui I said if he's watching he'd uh I'd thank him publicly really well done yes thank you anybody else can I have a roll call please miss thei yes Mr hollenbach yes Miss noo yes Mr Tuma yes Miss Joyce yes Mr corpier yes that brings us to our second public comment and I will close public comment um and we'll move move on to board leaz on reports we have nobody from Somerville uh PTO Miss Shaw's not here Somerset County ed services I do not have a report and likewise for uh School boards Miss Choice do you have anything for Branchburg Township no and bef no report no report um can I have a motion to close the meeting motion second all in favor I thank you