##VIDEO ID:hJUCNs0brqs## to call the meeting to order with roll call please miss Sebert yes Miss Kennedy Miss D Benedictus yes Miss aanon yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss picala yes Miss wre Mr Edwards the new Jersey open public medeia law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to advance notice of and to attend meetings of the public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act The Brick Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be posted on the administration office bolt board the official District website and channel BTV 20 and sent to the Asbury Park Press to Brick times Star Ledger and Municipal clerk's office motion Fran second Nicole to go into executive session whereas The Brick Township Board of Education has been formed pursuing to applicable New Jersey statutes and whereas the board is charge of responsibility of Performing all acts and doing all things consistent with the law and the rules of state board of education necessary for the lawful and proper conduct equipment and maintenance of the public schools and public school property of the Brick Township School District and whereas section seven of the open public meeting act permits the exclusion of the public from a meeting of the board in certain circumstances whereas the board has determined that the circumstan exist for such an executive session whereas the board has found the action described below to be necessary and proper now therefore be resolved by the board on October 15 2024 the public shall be excluded from the discussion of an action on the executive session here and set forth the session will be proximately 15 minutes and the general nature of the subject matter to be discussed is harassment intimidation and bullying reports it is anticipated at this time that the above stated subject matter will be made public if and when it is deemed to be in the public to do so and the need for confidentiality is no longer required by the board Mary will you call a vote please miss Sebert yes Miss Benedictus yes Miss aan room yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss [Music] picala e e the the G uh yeah there's this velro catching on my clothes excuse me I'd like to um have a motion and second to return to um public session please motion foran second Mike Mary please miss Sebert yes Miss D Benedictus yes Miss aanon yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss picala yes I'd like you to please stand for a salute to the flag and a moment of silence please unit States ofer stand indis often it may appear to members of our audience that the Board of Education acts with with very little comment and in many cases a unanimous vote please understand that before a matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting the Administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with the superintendent of schools discussed it in appropriate Boe committees and only then if the superintendent is satisfied that the matter is ready to presented to the full Board of Education it is placed on the agenda for Action at a public meeting board of education members are given advanced notice to review the agenda and through the chair ask questions or voice concerns in rare instances when necessary some matters could be presented to the board of education for discussion and vote at the meeting um misss MCM will you please introduce our student Representatives thank you Mrs palala thank you Mrs palala uh this evening from brick memorial High School the student representative is Kristen mcwade she's the vice president of student government Association hello everyone good evening I'm student cment president Kristen mcwade and tonight I'll begin with the reports from Veterans Memorial Middle School September was a busy month at bets middle we welcomed all our students and staff back for a new school year students have been working hard in the classroom on the playing field in in our extracurricular clubs the students in the autism program joined the Unified sports team from bmhs as well as their friends from bths and Lake Riviera middle school on October 2nd at the Field of Dreams in in Toms River the students enjoyed partaking in everything that this all-inclusive playground has to offer a bonus is that our vmms students were able to enhance their skills related to parallel play and communication fall sports are underway and all teams have been very competitive in their respective conf our pbsis initiative is underway as Administration and pbsis members have made a weekly live raffle part of our home room procedures Administration goes live on Google meets in every Home Room to announce which students displayed our expectations of respect responsibility acceptance and kindness students are given various prizes as well as one teacher who nominated the student and identifi the expectation the sustainable energy Club has planted its first crop of lettuce greens to donate to seeds of service the bmhs palace visited today Tuesday on Tuesday 10:15 the students in our autism program spent a portion of their day with the bmhs Palace club The Palace visited their old stomping grounds and provided our students with a day of educational Halloween activities and provided and crafts students played Halloween charades which allowed them to communicate answers to the big Mustangs students also enhan occupational therapy skills while making ghosts out of cotton ball Falls as always the favorite activity is the Halloween themed dance party to end the visit and now on to our brick memorial high school report on September 17th brick memorial welcome parents to our annual back to school night in addition before the event parents were able to attend a meet and greet with Mr saruca in the auditorium to learn about our school then the parents went to a traditional schedule of teacher and classroom introductions additionally senior parents were able to attend a special senior college readiness Workshop held by the guidance Department our bmhs Palace in Unified sports visited the Field of Dreams on October 2 we had a great time playing and living that inclusion lifestyle alongside our friends from vets Lake G and bchs on Saturday October 5th many of our Mustang programs helped raise funds and awareness for Alzheimer's at the annual walk in Point Pleasant spearheaded by Mr ornowski brick memorial came together as sergeant Squad in memory of our own Sergeant James TIY we are happy to report that we reached our annual goal of raising over $1,942 which is the year Sarge was born our BH staff is thankful for the opportunity to work with Miss Miss Mary Kane and Miss Fran capaco and learning about different strategies to work with our ml students and sit in on training sessions for sh sheltered English instruction during our PLC meetings last week we look forward to welcoming them back again next week we have some great episodes recently recorded and published on our straight from the Mustangs mouth podcast including my own talk about homecoming a future on another record setting performance by volleyball player Bella melie Mrs shuca teacher Spotlight and our very own Dr frell talking about the week of respect and speaking of which we are happy to report that bur Amura was active in celebrating our week of respect last week thanks to miss Sam West we hosted several assemblies on anti-bullying and our sgaa created an opportunity for Mustangs to be the eye and kind with an interactive bulletin board thank you to Mrs to Mrs G ganini and the Italian National Honor Society who also welcomed back our friends from across the ocean with the famous Italian dancers performed for Su body together we shared the gift of dance and culture we were also happy to reintroduce Mustang money in which students and staff alike can earn for emulating the core values of Mustangs respect responsibility and integrity last week was also our homecoming week we hope hosted a spirit week which included decades Day fanel Day pink out and Jersey Shore versus Jersey that week I dressed up as Snookie we saw our very spirited hallways on Thursday October 10th we hosted our annual homecoming dance this year's theme selected by the student body was disco thanks to miss Sansbury and our Student Government executive board we successfully saw over 650 students having fun and dancing the night away congratulations to our homecoming king and queen Alex par parla Kowski and Ariana lahara and now our October sports report our football team is off to a five and two start they hosted Point burrow this past Friday the Mustangs were off to a strong start that unfortunately didn't go our way in the very end it was nice to welcome back the Panthers head coach Brian stub who was a former Mustang class of 08 who was coached by coach Curry and won a state championship his senior year boys soccer is 8 three and two the boys are having a great season and are see South Division Champions girls soccer is 66 and one with a great win against redb Catholic last Saturday they're looking forward to the shore Conference tournament starting next week and Coach Caruso was on the hunt for his 400th win absolutely incredible girls tennis finished up their season at three and N they were a young Scrappy team looking to improve their record next year and buildt upon the foundation Mr Brennan and Mr Calabro have laid down our gymnastics team is off to incredibly off to an incredible start at 7 and 0 coach Hayes has the girls performing their very best as Liberty Kenny and the rest of the lady Mustangs head into the shore Conference tournament volleyball is off to a fantastic start as well they are 10 and five and have been playing exceptionally well congratulations again to Bella Melby as she became only the second Setter in Brook moral history to achieve 1,000 successful sets in her career as always don't forget to follow us on Twitter and Instagram and And subscribe to our podcast straight from the Mustangs mouth on your podcast podcast app of choice thank you for listening good night thank you Kristen next up we have Paul Cobian Ramos from brick tanip high school she's the student representative uh for um she's the president of the student government Association sorry at Brick tanip High School Paula good evening I am Paula Kobi and Ramos the president of bths student government I am excited to share with you this month's bths Dragon update but first starting off with the middle school report Lake rera Middle School recently participated in the week of respect which provided students with an opportunity to participate in a variety of activities and theme days emphasizing the importance of character education the Ocean County Health Department is currently giving a series of six lessons to the six graders titled we are not buying it we're not buying it it 2 point is a substance abuse prevention program that focuses on developing media literacy skills for students in 6th to 8th grade wnbi uses research and evaluated prevention education strategies to reduce early use of alcohol marijuana prescription and overthe counter medications on Monday October 7th 2024 8th grade students attended an impactful assembly presented by Steven Hill a guest speaker sponsored by by the tiger stola Foundation the mission of tiger stola Foundation is to fight addiction spread awareness and save lives through drug pre prevention and and education all grade levels also participated in an assembly presented by Dr Sarah Allen on brain-based behaviors the assembly focused on Executive function and shared strategies for self-regulating behaviors planning and focusing our sport report for boys and girls soccer both both girl both boys and girls soccer teams have demonstrated superb sportmanship this season both teams suffered very close losses to muli on Thursday but continue to show Improvement and play an ex an excellent ex excellent frand of soccer boys cross country team continues to work hard and show Improvement at every meet the Lakers the Laker Girls cross country team is having a great season this year the girls have an overall record of four wins and one loss they are currently undefeated in the blue division with three wins and will be comp competing against Lacy middle school next week for a final team Race before 14 selected Runners will compete in the Ocean County Middle School me of Champions on October 28th the Lakers field hockey team is off to a Fant fantastic start undefeated in the blue division with a record of four wins and one tie the field hockey girls look forward to the remainder of the season with the hopes of finishing strong lrms is excited for their upcoming Fall Festival hosted by the student council which will be held on Thursday October 17th from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 at Lake Rivera additionally Additionally the Laker interact Club is hosting a Halloween dance on Tuesday October 29th after school now onto our high school report this past week bths celebrated and recognized the week of respect there was an activity and focus each day of the week establishing our commitment to providing a safe and respectful School environment in support of the week of respect students were engaged in class discussions participated in the creation of respect respect mural and creation of kindness shells to be distributed along brick Beach students and staff were also supported through several student and staff created videos focused on the key elements of the week of respect in conjunction with the week of respect all Juniors and seniors attended an assembly by guest speaker Stephen Hill where he focused on a message of resilience prevention and education on the negative consequences associated with poor Life Choices the assembly emphasized the critical role that school communities play in fostering safe supportive environments while empowering students to make positive Life Choices bths recognized our custodians on October 2nd for school custodial appreciation day we are grateful for our custodians and and the service they provide bths in ensuring that we have an environment cond conductive to learning under classman pictures were held on September 25th through September 27th any student who missed their picture will have a makeup opportunity on Tuesday October 29th it is important that all students have their picture taken we held our homecoming Spirit Week throughout the week of September 30th with spirit days including team jersey day pink day crazy socks day Crocs socks and birken socks and green and white day students and staff participated in the spirit week to show their unity and enthusiasm where the dragons won with a score of 20 to 14 the homecoming dance took place on Saturday October 5th where all students have had a great evening of dancing and socializing we are so thankful for our Student Government Association and bths cheerleaders for facilitating for facilitating this event and congratul ations to our homecoming King Jude Norman and homecoming queen Adriana bonor this past month we administered the PCAT to any grade 11 student inter interested in sitting for this National assessment there will be a makeup opportunity on Wednesday October 23rd as a reminder this is offered to those students who pre-registered for testing bths hosted an Italian folk dancing troop on Friday October 11th this has been a tria Tradition at Brick Township High School for many years staff and students who attended the Italian folk dance perform had a wonderful experience the performance was highly highlighted by Lively music singing colorful costumes and authentic cultural expressions it was a fantastic opportunity for students and staff to IM immerse themselves in Italian Heritage now on to our club report the National Honor Society is excited to announce its NH chess member of the month Brandon McBride who has Miss skip own State excels at interacting with other people and never being distracted demonstrating important life skills he always makes sure to set himself reminders and turn in requirements on time he's friendly and fun to be around with a bright personality class of 2025 and 2026 are hosting meetings meetings to plan this year's Powderpuff game which will be which will be held on Thursday November 21st on the BT CH football field sgaa is currently hosting a pumpkin decorating contest for classes and clubs pumpkins will be on display near the main entrance winners will be announced on Halloween now onto our Sports fall sports are sadly coming to an end and almost all teams have hosted their senior nights it was a close game this past Friday for the football team losing only by three points to Central Regional football currently stands with a record of 33 girls volleyball is getting ready for the short conference and njs AA tournament girls tennis has a record of 69 and recently competed in the Ocean County tournament for the first time in several years our unified btsb MHS gymnastics team is undefeated good luck in the postseason girls our boys soccer team highlights our awesome goalkeeper Devin Baldwin who has saved 400 saves for the boys vars City soccer team girls soccer has done their annual fundraiser for breast cancer awareness their pink game is Monday October 21st our cross country Champion Kiera mchu has won the girls a South Division Championship meet in the same meet over on the boys Side Junior Aiden re plays 12th overall girls field hockey team is current currently has a record of 56 the field hockey team is going over to Lake Riva next Wednesday to promote the sport and help make the girls that are trying out next year feel more comfortable finally we are excited to share that our marching band member Elizabeth AA won best drum major at the recent competition held at Jackson Liberty looking ahead Brick Township High School will conduct Teen Mental Health First a training for students in grade 10 beginning on Monday October 21st through Monday October 25th this is an evidence-based training that teaches teens how to identify understand and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges in their friends and peers the training gives teens the skills they need to have supportive coners conversations with their friends and emphasize the important importance of getting help from a responsible and trusted adult Red Ribbon Week which will be recognized this week beginning on October 23rd will be observed at bths through October 31st this year's theme is life is a movie film drug free on Thursday October 24th we are asking all students and staff to wear red in support of this Nationwide initiative as a reminder any student in need of extra help or assistance with their academic studies should consider utilizing our NHS peer tutoring Services as well as our academic Su success extra help support offered every day during block five in room 4 405 all clubs are preparing for Fall Fest activities to fundraise for their organizations Fall Fest takes place at Windward Beach Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. there will be food trucks fireworks and bths students sponsored games and activities stop by and support our clubs National Honor Society applications were due this past Friday and all new members will be inducted on November 18th our first peer leadership Outreach is October 30 30th the annual sgaa sponsored Halloween costume context will contest will take place in the auditorium on Halloween Thursday October 31st be sure to stay connected to bths events and inside information by accessing our school website SGA Instagram bths sgaa and our school Twitter bths dragons you can always see all of our happenings monthly monthly through Dr cajun's Dragon review thank you for the opportunity and I will see you all next month oh my God so many thank you Paula next up from the ROC we have Cadet first lieutenant Cameron Mitchell good evening um ladies and gentlemen I'm Cadet first lieutenant Cameron Mitchell the n822 public affairs officer I'll be briefing you on what our Cadets have been doing during the past month on September 13th Air Force Jor RTC participated in the brick memorial High School activity Fair where we explained the opportunities within JROTC on how to sign up our flight simulator Drew much interest also on the 13th Cadet performed a color guard for the Mustangs football team on September 14th Cadets took a trip to Seaside Heights to set up for the simper five a 5K and fundraiser for the Marine Raider Foundation Cadet handed out water to the runners and one of our own Cadet Thomas karella participated in the Run completing it in 19 minutes and 14 seconds and earning first place in the male age 14 to7 category on September 17th both Brick Township High School and bmhs hosted their yearly back to school night which Cadets from their respective schools had stations set up to much like the activities Fair enti students to gain interest in the program and answer questions on September 20th Cadets performed the color guard for the bmhs football game moving into more Rec news on October 4th Cadets performed a color guard at both bths and bmhs home football games on October 5th n22 Cadets participated in the in the yearly walk to fight Alzheimer's in Point Pleasant Cadets walked with Sergeant Squad to show their support for those who suffer from all cyers and to remember Master Sergeant James tyranny on the 11th cadetes performed a color guard at both high schools for their homecoming football games on the 12th and 13th Cadets from NJ 22 took a trip to jbm mdl or Joint Base Maguire dicks Lakers which is a mouthful and helped set up a checkpoint for a joint ruck sack March between the Norwegian armed forces and the United States armed forces the Marchers completed a 30 km long course across jbmdl Cadet set up a tent and handed out water to the March participants camped out in the field and hopefully enjoyed their time on base and being one of the cadetes there it was cold very I spent more time in the tent than anything uh that's it for this month as always we thank you for your contined support throughout the rest of the school year and look forward to seeing you all soon thank you Cameron thank you see you next month at this time we have a presentation on the HIV self assessment from Mr Mosley our ABS coordinator for the district Mr Mosley good evening everyone I will be reviewing our self assessment that we just completed this summer over our HIV programs before I begin I just always like to remember make sure we understand what we're talking about with when we say HIV harassment intimidation and bullying this is the state mandated how it is defined please note perceived motivated by any actual or perceived characteristics race color religion ancestry national origin gender sexual orientation gender identity expression or mental or physical disability takes place on any school on school grounds any sponsor event or School Bus off school grounds as provided by njsa 18 37-15 this also involves internet postings that will come back into the schools it substantially disrupts or interferes the in with the orderly operation of the school or the rights of other students constant question is it conflict or is it bullying there is a clear differentiation between the two conflict mutually please understand mutually competitive or opposing action or engagement both sides are going at it disagreements arguments fights normal part of growing up I was talking with um some of the people the other day and I explained I had a conflict on Sunday with my wife it's normal these things are normal my wife wasn't happy with me it's normal she did not try and write me up for hip it's a normal thing I I'll check later he one-sided one or more students are victims or one person's aggression once again we go back to the definition of bullying when we look at this and finally intent is critical is there intent to physically or emotionally hurt someone every year we do this self assessment it's mandated by the state and we look at our programs from July of 2023 through June of 2024 all the things that there's a tool that the state gives us we go through it each school does their individual one there are eight core elements to the assessment core element one hit programs approaches or other initiatives programs tonight you all heard about a program it is mandated that we all do week of respect I will share something I am wearing a shirt that I was supposed to wear when Dr Farrell did his week of respect kindness and on the back what Dr Farrell actually discussed when he did his presentation core element two training on the board of ed approved policy requirement that we do this every year training involves everyone I talk to all the bus drivers in the district yesterday on the same subject other staff instruction programs there's so much out there that we get involved with that we involved bringing here curriculum instruction on hi related information and skills once again that is also something we have to look at because it also has to be age appropriate what we present at the high school will not be the same thing we can expect elementary school or even out preschoolers so age appropriate instruction element five hiid Personnel do we have the right people in place I'm aideed each school has assigned anti-bullying specialist six School level incident reporting are the schools reporting things properly yes we are investigation procedure are we follow following the rules for investigation investigation supposed to be completed within 10 working days are we meeting that requirement and finally Hib reporting every month I report to the board on Hib related matters that are we found to be actual hi once again do we meet that yes this is our scores um I'll go to the bottom here instead of reading all of them each the maximum score is 78 last year you see how last year scores 95% for brick memorial Brick Township 99% very good scores this year we're at the same point we have went through everything we found that we're pleased with what we're doing we are in compliance across the board with the state mandates this tool is also used because we do it during the summer to look forward to see what we can be doing next year so as we went through this all the schools went through it it gives us a view for next for this year also middle school if you notice Lake Riv went up little they're at 99% vets middle 95% maintaining what they did last year Elementary School we have two slides on elementary schools we did split them up for you Drum Point maintained its from last year Emma Havens went up one point from last year and Lanes Mills maintain what they did last year here midstreams maintained osbornville maintained and Bets Elementary went up one point from from actually three points four points from last year can't argue with perfection thank you very [Applause] much thank you Mr Mosley good evening everyone I'm Dr Anderson I'm the director of curriculum and instruction for Brick Township Public Schools um every October schools report out how we did on our Statewide assessment ment results um in August I reported out on NJ GPA and I also reported out on access tonight I'll be reporting about the dynamic learning map results and New Jersey student learning assessment results in ela math and science so once we receive this data it triggers three levels of analysis we right away look at it from a district perspective and we see what um areas of weakness we can focus on in our curriculum we look at the sub claims to see if we need to design curricular resources we look at um how we can better uh support different grade levels with resources um to get better outcomes we also look at it from a school level we we work with our building leadership to create goals and plans and we monitor those plans each month uh through planning meetings and walkthroughs and then we provide that data to our teachers and the teachers look at the data they look at it from their perspective on how the kids that left their program did and how the incoming students will do based on their data so the first um test is the dynamic learning Maps the dynamic learning Maps is um a test that our special education students take in Umstead of njsla uh it's we had last year 5 six of our students took that test they are assessed in engl English language arts math and in science in grades 3 through 8 and 11 in ela and math and in grades 5 8 and 11 in science um they are assessed uh using the Essential Elements which are specific statements of Knowledge and Skills that are linked to the standards at their grade level um this graph shows the results which are reported in four levels the blue is emerging gold is approaching green is at Target or Advanced and last year we had 37% of our students either at the uh at Target or Advanced here's our math data regarding dlm 56 students were also assessed in math and 30% of the students scored at Advanced or at Target and here's science we had 18 students take the dlm in science in grades 58 and 11 and 33% of the students were at Target and so there are many strategies we use to um strengthen our students uh performance on the dlm we do progress monitoring um we design Learning Centers integrate essential elements into lesson plans and use specialized curricular resources uh the teachers have also been provided with professional development to administer the assessment uh by our academic coaches and they um also have opportunities to to attend extended school year programs and which will help them deepen their learning and extend their learning in the summer next we'll turn to njsla and so this is um njsla in English language arts it's for grades three through five on this slide comparing the district to this to the state's performance now um njsla is reported in levels the blue level is partially meeting I'm sorry the blue level is not meeting the light blue is partially meeting the uh yellow level is approaching and meeting and exceeding are in light green and then darker green so the first bar graph shows the district followed by the second one with the state for grade three and then it's grade four for the district and then grade four for the state grade five district grade five for the state so once we look at it as a grade level to determine what kind of curriculum adjustments we can make we also look at it by school to see where we can shift some of our resources and support and so those are um the results by school for grade three overall grade three had a 4.9% increase over the previous year this is grade four Ela and overall the district growth was 5.7% over last year and here's grade five and although we didn't grow over last year we did have a few schools uh score above the state average and some schools uh showing a significant growth over last year here's the Middle School level grades uh and high school grades six through n this graph uh when we analyze the results at this level we saw that uh grade six um we have the greatest need and grade six in that grade span grade seven we were just slightly below the state average in grade eight we were above the state average and in grade nine we're at the state average and here's the disaggregated the data disaggregated by School in grade six we grew 3.6 points as a district vets Mill was above the state average in grade seven and in grade eight both schools were above the state average and finally this slide shows for language arts uh grade nine performance overall we grew 3.9 points as a district and we also analyzed the data according to subgroup comparing the district performance as a whole um with our subgroups uh economically disadvantage is in red students with disabilities is in yellow and English language Learners is in green and the goal is always to to help those subgroups perform on par with the district and so what strategies do we use to have that make that happen well a big part of our program is always focused on a curriculum instruction and also professional development and in terms of curriculum we have some really good core programs that are computer adaptive learning platforms Lexia Core 5 and Achieve 3000 are what we use at the elementary middle school level we also spend time focusing on the sub claims that are weak um we have introduced more interdisciplinary writing um so in science particularly uh to get students to to show better critical thinking and writing skills we've also done document-based questions and social studies so the kids can can do more writing and thinking um um in terms of targeted interventionist support we have a great um uh BSI program that provides support for students who are eligible for those students uh the services we also have our teachers using this data to inform their small group instruction and we build a culture of achievement through schoolwide contests we also provide professional support all aligned to that with our uh supervisors our school leaders um our coaches and you know we create a plan each month we monitor that plan we do walkthroughs to see how that plan is coming along and what adjustments we need to make and what support we need to offer and now on to math this is the njsla math data for grades three through five it's reported the same way as El and that's the data for grades three four and five district compared to the state um so when you disaggregate the data by grades um and by school we showed an overall 4.3% growth over last year in grade three and grade four was the real um cause for success um we we increased 13.8 points over the previous year um last year my team and I wrote a grant uh for the state called high impact tutoring Grant and so that hund that $614,000 was uh targeted toward third and fourth grade that was the parameter of the grant so you can see that those resources really did support uh growth in that grade level in grade five we improved by 3.8 points over last year and here's the Middle School comparison to the state by grade level six seven and eight so we are closing the Gap in grade six we went from six points below last year to 2.5 below this year and we eliminated the Gap in grade seven scoring above the state average and we are now less than two points below the state average in grade eight so here it is by school again grade six growing um 6.1 points and grade seven 5.8 points and grade eight 1.1 and here's algebra students took the algebra assessment in grade 8 and the in accelerated class and in high school and here's the proficiency Levels by school and here's the district versus state math results in algebra and geometry the district scored 2.3 points below the state in algebra and scored 15 points above the state in geometry and this slide Compares geometry proficiency Levels by school both scor both schools scored above the state average and lastly these are the math subgroup results and in terms of math interventions we continue to focus on the tried discuss connect routine because that's what really builds um problem solving uh ability it helps kids evaluate their thinking and compare mathematical representations um based on our analysis we know we're going to focus on algebra uh we we've increased access to handheld graphing calculators for our nth grade students feeling that that was a weakness we also introduced uced a personalized learning platform for grade n uh for students taking algebra um it's called freckle and so whereas we had I ready my path for grades three through S we didn't really have anything and we had EXL for grade eight we didn't really have anything specific to algebra so Freckle we're piloting Freckle this year to help um move those move that uh that data we also are um uh able to provide more Target targeted small group instruction when kids are on those personalized learning platforms and students are setting goals based on their data teachers are having data chats with them so that they can track the progress towards Mastery the standards and our basic skills interventions are working with our students and we're fostering um a real achievement Culture by having schoolwide contests additionally we continue with our professional development and support um helping our teachers um providing jobs embedded professional development with coaching support model lessons plc's when new staff are um um uh join when new teachers join our staff we provide that support to them so they um receive the professional learning they need to fully Implement our programs and so for our economically disadvantaged population um we also because many of our schools are Title One schools we have have a lot of extended day programs and we have summer learning um that's paid for with Federal funding we also have a really robust multi-tiered system of support so that support comes um through our inrs process it comes through our basic skills process intervention coordinators monitor th those and put those processes in place along with our building administrators at the elementary middle and high school levels they track student progress using those platforms to see what what we need to do to support student learning um and we have um a student mentoring program at many of our schools and lastly here's science our science results um are reported in four levels uh level one uh is uh partially meeting level two is approaching level three is meeting and level four is Advanced um I'm sorry it's near proficient proficient and advanced proficient um here are the grade five scores compared uh between schools and overall we saw just a 0.1% increase and here's grade eight and grade 11 in grade eight we saw a08 increase and in gr at the high school in grade 11 we saw 1.4 Point increase and here are the percentages um based on our subgroups our subgroup performance those who scored three and four which was provisioned and advanced and in terms of science we are focused on the 5e lesson model which supports inquiry based instruction which treats science not just as a collection of facts but as a process um students are engaged in our open-side curriculum and they are um exploring things asking investigating figuring out scientific ideas and phenomenon uh we're using uh incets and gizmos to do simulations so the teach children can um change variables and see the impact on the results uh there's a focus on our science and engineering practices that are integrated into our High School courses and we use Link at Benchmark to track the students progress and um identify weaknesses in uh the data so we can provide uh resources for teachers and again our instructional support um occurs through our academic coach uh who focuses on routines and resources and tracking progress and so how did we do compared to last year so if you compare 23 njsla results um to 24 njsla results in ela um the First Column shows State growth the second column shows um what brick grew in terms of just year to year so for instance comparing third grade students last year to third grade students this year they're not the same cohor right the cohort would be comparing third grade students last year to fourth grade students this year and so if you look um we had some uh strong growth both in um year-to-year with the same grade level and also um year to year for cohort students you know different students in this tracking the student growth over grade levels so if you see an na it just means that you couldn't track the cohort the year before because there wasn't an njsla test and if you see it um in NJ GPA the same is true there's not a a 10th grade test that's just an 11th grade test but there's some some strong uh growth especially in um our cohort growth where we grew 4.5 points and our year toe growth per grade level is 1.8 and here's our math slide showing the growth compared to the state we really um had an extraordinary growth compared to the state seven out of nine uh grade levels or tests with like I said grade four had significant growth with 13 .4 I've never seen double digit growth in my career I was really extraordinary and so for the um year-to-year growth in a grade level or a subject it was 5.2 and for coort growth was 4.6 and our science growth is harder to see the growth because when you make a change the change could occur in second grade and those students don't take the assessment until they're in fifth grade so changes aren't a growth isn't as um evident because it's not year-to-year uh growth it's every it's every fifth grader eth grader and 11th grader so you can make a change and it's still not show up for a little bit of time there's a lag time there still you know we went up in grade 11 and the state actually went down by 1.7 and so from all of that data we create you know the focus for the 2425 school year based on the sub claim analysis based on the grade level analysis based on our school analysis and then we create that plan and we track that progress each month and so I just want to you know thank the Board of Education Dr Farrell for allowing us to present this data tonight uh my team is phenomenal I have um five supervisors uh Manda batty and Mary Kane at the elementary level uh Chad Cuts uh uh Jen Lane Chris Thompson at the secondary level um we have our academic coaches and our special education uh supervisors and coaches and we have wonderful building based administrators and teachers and students who are really working to make this vision of student centered teacher-led and community connected come alive and so we're we're really trying our best to grow our students so that they are empowered to be responsible citizens and lifelong Learners this whole presentation will be posted on the website I know I went a little quickly or maybe not quick enough for Dr Farrell but I I I you know thank you for the opportunity [Applause] Mar oh uh thank you Dr Anderson we'd like the board to consider approval of minutes for the September 12th 2024 regular meeting um is there a motion in the second please motion Nicole second Fran Mary please for the vote Miss yes Benedictus yes Miss yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss palala yes for committee reports um do you have anything Dr Anderson for cni I do I know you're not tired of me yet so the cni committee met on October 7th at 4:30 and in attendance were Mrs Kennedy the chairperson Miss picala Mrs wenner and myself uh first I reviewed the items on the October agenda including travel and training uh field trips and student teacher placements then I provided an overview so they were really lucky they got to see that presentation first uh and um Mrs wner provided an overview of the dynamic learning map results uh I was uh I'm pleased to announce that we are getting another uh 8% of our original uh high impact tutoring Grant award we're going to receive another 8% of it so we'll have uh close to $50,000 to offer additional tutoring services to our third and fourth grade students this year we also were really busy my team and I planning for our October 14th District professional day uh which is aligned to our district Vision Student Center teacher Le community connected um as far as Student Center is going uh goes we actually had some students present at the high school to our teachers about new technologies and and uh it was really awesome to have teachers be filled in from our students about you know what's engaging to them and what platforms they're using um to better meet their needs and engage them we also have a district evaluation advisory Council or diac committee and that's composed of representatives from every school um in the district and every department and we used teacher feedback to design the day which followed an ed Camp format we had 80 talented teacher leaders create student- centered professional learning experiences to help us refine our instructional practices boost engagement and explore new ways to reach each learner um in terms of family engagement uh I provide an overview of the activities designed to Foster Community Connection parents received the notification of standardized assessments on September 30th and progress reports for secondary students will be post were posted on October 11th uh njsla individual student reports were also mailed home on the 12th and we had several Title One Nights a virtual bilingual ESL Parent Academy and a bilingual ESL family night on October 8th in fact Kristen joined us she was a volunteer there that evening it was great to have her and many of the student volunteers from Lake Riviera and brick memorial um it was designed to help parents navigate school and Community Resources so ESL teachers help parents log into Parent Portal and student volunteers um provided child care in the art room at Emma Havens and we had Community organizations such as Ocean County College seeds of service and Catholic Charities provide an overview of the programs that are available for our community families were treated to dinner and every child was able to choose some books to take home and the evening was a great success our next meeting will be December 2nd at 4:30 thank you Dr Anderson Mr Edward do you have anything at all about facilities or Finance no just a few comments uh facilities committee met on October 2nd 3 o'cl miss picala miss wreb Mr Mesmer Dr far myself Mr peuro Mr Duit from V fvhd Architects Miss gardi from from spel Miss Cashman from spel Mr seagull from spel Architects and Mr y from Neta Architects uh first project discussed Lake Rivier Middle School air conditioning Mr y informed the committee that the water pressure issues related to the heating are being worked out now and other other than that coordinate and close out documents as all other work is substantially complete Veterans Memorial Middle School boiler Replacements and air conditioning Mr y informed the committee that the Transformer has been set and uh minor conduit piping has been performed but the bul of the remaining work will not commence until the summer of 25 when the power will be shut down to accommodate the switch gear installation M Haven Young Elementary School air conditioning Mr yor informed the committee that the project is Project is near completion all equipment is installed and up and running commissioning balancing are commencing for the remainder of the units with the coordination with Jersey state controls to provide the district with access Veterans Memorial Elementary School air conditioning Mr y informed the committee that the project is near in completion all equipment is up running the commissioning and balancing are commencing with the remainder of the units uh being coordinated with Jersey state controls to provide the district with Access drump Point Elementary School boiler replacement and air conditioning Mr yo informed the committee that the school was the last school to receive a Transformer and have power restored he indicated the facilities have been working with the assessa the contractor and Jersey state controls to accommodate second shift work to start up the equipment and bring the devices online little by little lanville Elementary School air conditioning Miss gallardi of spel informed the committee that the two UV uh and rooftop units are still waiting for the uh OEM replacement parts that failed during startup spel and preferred the contractor are in contact with the manufacturer daily to get this resolved they're also working on the change order uh that was approved for the 300 amp break for the critical heating component midstreams air conditioning Miss Cashman from spel informed the committee that they are currently out the bid she in IND at that the pre-bid meeting went well and that they had approximately 22 plan plan holders which was a good sign and addendum went out on October 2nd clarifying findings of the ACM reports bid opening was on October 11th and the award for that bid is on this evening's agenda osor Ville air conditioning Miss Cashman informed the committee that they are currently at the bid she indicated the pre-bid meeting went well the bid opening was on October 11th and that project is also on this evening's agenda for approval warm wolf early childhood development center air conditioning Mr y informed the committee that an aggressive design path has been followed that will share the same bid schedule as the Herbertsville Early Childhood uh Development Center he noted that surveys are complete and aiming to have the project out the bid in January with the award uh to work for with the award for work shortly thereafter for work to beginning the summer of 2025 Herbertsville Mr yor inform the committee uh same stuff I just mentioned about Warren Wolf I won't read that again osbornville kitchen Edition I informed the committee of the letter that we received in regards to the funding and that we needed to make some moves in regards to funding through the general fund of the Food Service Enterprise fund um that will require the June board secretary's report to be and July board secretary's report to be revised those are both on this evening's agenda for approval uh the chargebacks will allow the operating fund to then put the money into cap Reserve which will then allow us to use that money to fund the kitchen Improvement and upgrades for the projects um so that's on this evening's agenda Miss Cashman also informed the committee that that we were out the bid and that the bid was opening on October 11th with the approval on this evening's agenda midstreams kitchen we talked to the committee about the same thing in regards to the osbornville kitchen project uh Miss yor also then informed the committee that we're currently out the bid and he noted that the uh the pre-bid meeting was on September 10 and addendum was issued September 25th the bid was on October 11th and the pro project is on this evening's agenda for approval Brick Township High School long jump Mr procur informed the committee that the schedule was delayed due to rain and AT&T the contractor is saying that the work should be scheduled to commence within the next two weeks SDA mer mergent need projects Mr proro informed the committee that the rooftop unit is scheduled to be lifted on the roof on October 3rd while the school is closed work work will be completed by October 4th and the next meeting for facilities is November 4th 3:00 those lucky contestants got to stay for finance thereafter um Mr Mesmer Miss WRA Miss palala Dr farell and myself first item was the community solar and building performance project I informed the committee that dco energy is still working on the projections for the future HVAC projects and their electrical needs Brick Township facilities and the committee that the township appraiser is still looking at a couple of properties um these properties are being reviewed for potential expansion of the preschool program electric School Bus Grant I informed the committee that we have preliminary options to uh have a company that would provide the infrastructure software and the vehicles we have another company that would provide the infrastructure and we would purchase the vehicles a third option is that we would purchase the infrastructure and the vehicles and operate ourselves uh option one which is a company having that owning the infrastructure software and vehicles looks like it would be about a million 62 a year uh down to where we do everything ourselves would be about $759,000 a year and that's inclusive of the grant funding that we received from the EPA uh I did note to the committee that we are going to have to add $600,000 a year to uh the budget for diesel buses so going the electric route looks like it would be about $159,000 more for the school buses insulin litigation I provide the committee with information on the class action litigation regarding the insulant procurement um I noted that entering into the litigation had no cost to the board of education and the law firm representing the case would receive 30% of the proceeds uh able to be obtained through successful litigation the committee concurred that the agreement should be sent to the board attorney for review and placed on the next board agenda for full board consideration new advertising accounts um informed the committee that Shore District advertising has brought forth Floor and Decor ocean 6 and stats Physical Therapy uh also noted that Wang Orthodontics has elected not to proceed with their advertising negotiations Miss Bala provided the committee with information that should be considered by the board when entering into negotiation with employee groups have Labor agreements expiring at the end of 2425 and the next meeting is November 4th at 3:30 thank you um Miss mcer policy and planning please thank you MRSA the policy and planning committee met on October 8th at 4:30 in attendance were Mrs Kennedy Mrs de Benedictus and Mrs Zana rone Dr frell and myself we discuss the policies and regulations that are on tonight's agenda for revision and the one policy that is a CO policy that is sunsetting which will be abolished once again they're on the agenda this evening for a first read um additional items that were discussed was an update to the 2425 school calendar uh it was brought to our attention that we had missed placing a half day prior to a holiday on the calendar for Memorial Day weekend and so the calendar has been updated uh we're looking to adopt The Brick Township Public Schools nursing Services plan which is required each year that um we we approved that plan there is the Hib self assessment that we saw the presentation on this evening approval of the School Safety and Security review statement of assurances uh this assures the county and the state that we have Safety and Security plans for each of our schools and the approval for the 2425 alcohol edu agreement um which is a program that allows our high schools to work with our school students on uh programs to stop um alcohol use and controlled substance use our next meeting has not been set as of yet but we will set it soon thank you thank you this will be the first opportunity for public comment and will be for agenda items only the board invites thoughts and reactions on agenda items each participant is asked to give his or her name prior to making a statement all statements shall be directed to the Pres presiding officer comments shall be limited to 5 minutes and each speaker may only speak once the board will not during the public portion of this meeting discuss ma matters involving employment appointment termination of appointment negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance of promotion or disciplining of any specific specific or perspective or current employee Andor student does anybody have a public comment on agenda items only go ahead Mr Finelli thank you pck Finelli did you miss me I never missed two meetings in a row before before I ask my agenda question we just have to clarify what you just said about only being able to come up here once why is that per per policy one when you say once not once per meeting once per session once for the public uh comment portion on the agenda items once at the end for any educational item and that is why that's that's the board's policy okay would you please read what I cired and tell them what you're reading from you sent me a copy of a district policy 0167 read item three and item three says no participant may speak more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard you can remove your finger from your mouth so people can hear you I I think everybody heard me I don't need you to tell me how to do it thank okay so would you would you like to read that last part again about more than once got the clock yeah that's how that's how the board has always done it so all right board policy says we can come up here more than once as long as nobody else wants to speak on the same subject so what she's been doing saying you can only come up once and it's and has prevented me from coming up once is actually violation of their own policy and been discriminating against me so until such time as that policy's changed we're allowed to come up more than once as long as nobody else has their hand raised you agreement with that I don't agree with it but go ahead what don't you agree with I don't want you to waste time don't I'm not wasting my time what don't you agree with the board has the discretion to handle the public comment in the way that they want they have to follow their own policies they can't make them up and if you and I both know in order to change a policy it has to be on the agenda and voted by the board so don't tell me did they have the discretion to do what they want they don't they have to follow their as far as I could tell Mr finale this is not an agenda item uh we're open for public comment on agenda items openly right now thank you I'm clarifying what we can do when we come up here and and if you try to change the rules I'm going to have everybody down your throat that I can think of all right the policy says we can come up more than once it's very clear don't try to enforce something that's not policy because you feel like doing it but you'll pay the price are we clear I hope so you can keep that by the way it doesn't surprise me that nobody up there knows what your own policies are oh first question actually it's not a first question it's a comment um I've talked about field trips before and in the last in two meetings 823 and 8 and 10:15 you've approved 115 field trip 84 of them are for two schools I've said this in the past until such time as your test results and everything are really up where you want them to be really got to start looking at field trips versus classroom time second item uh is the Surplus operations number one June 18th you had $2.7 million in Surplus October 15th you now have $4.5 million in Surplus that's an increase of $1.8 million in Surplus my question is number one where did this extra come from and number two why didn't you give it back to the taxpayers in the form of a lower tax levy uh number 12 the new Oprah form one of the things that says on there is have you ever been convicted of a any indictable and I'm not sure whether they meant indictable or indictable offense my question is what difference does it make to somebody putting in an OP request if the answer to that is yes or no why is that question on there number 17 tools of the Mind what grades does that include and how much ises that program cost number 19 New Jersey stride it says there's an exhibit attached but there was no exhibit attached so my question is did brick belong to this before which it was CJ pride and how helpful has it been recruitment of diverse Educators if you've been around for the last five years that's been one of my favorite topics getting diverse teachers in here which which flat out haven't done and HR Director of transportation is that a permanent assignment and the person getting the assignment are they getting a pay increase or pay decrease or is they pay pay the same that's it for my agenda items thank you Mr Finelli I'll start with the back uh yes that's a permanent assignment director of Transportation no increase pay no change in pay pay stays the same um I'll answer the ones I know too and anybody can add to tools of the mind is our curriculum used for our prek when we started and created our prek uh curriculum which is the state one of the state um I think it's one of three or two State maned curriculum if you want to add to anything with tools in the mind so that is our prek curriculum that we review and adopt every year talk you're talking about tools of the mind yes yeah tools of the mind um is our preschool curriculum that is paid out of the Pia Grant um so the preschool expansion Grant we have to adopt the curriculum it is mandated by the state in order to get the actual preschool expansion uh funds so that is the curriculum for that which includes training materials um and they're actually providing us with um some tablets for assessments just prek just prek okay uh the the Oprah form is the state form I don't know if you want to I mean that's what we get from the state they Chang that the state gives us that form for any open public records request and that's the form we're using so I don't know what they do when they send in and check it off because we send it do do do do you have to use that form I think we do yeah yeah yes they they modified the law they modified the law to make that a a mandatory State form okay so suppose I fill out the form and I put I I answer yes for that I say yes to that one about an indictable offense what happens with that anybody know NOA have to ask the state on that all right well Jim I'm not specifically picking you out because you're not voting on this tonight but everybody else is so you're voting on something but you don't know it's kind of one of those silly things though I would have to say that I don't even know I mean I've read it and I discussed this with Mr moneger why the board has to vote on this the law was passed it requires a state form within the law it says that the board must adopt this form the board doesn't have a choice but to adopt it there's vote on and adopt that are required anyway whether you vote on not this is under statute the new Oprah form um one of the other questions you asked well there's two uh I'm going to kick them one to to I believe Jim and Jim and then Bill kler uh the Surplus increase which is inclusive in our budget when we budget for the year whatever we utiliz or didn't utilize that we have that laps into Surplus remember in last year's budget we show it as a fund balance when we create the budget for this year but I don't know what else you want to add to that it's just a transfer of funds in that so this is dealing with what I mentioned during the facilities committee report speak to the mic Jim sure this is what I was talking about with the facilities committee report so we have Surplus within our Enterprise fund which is our cafeteria operation we wanted to use that money to build a kitchen at osbornville lary school because there's not one there and expand the one at midstreams because it's tiny um and we were told that we can't do the capital project out of the Enterprise fund that we have to transfer costs from the general fund to the Enterprise fund so move the money over to the general fund transfer money into capital reserve to then pull it from capital reserve to fund the projects so that's what we're doing oh this is a game of follow the money this is the shell game yeah and it's not my shell game again it's coming from the state of New Jersey that that's how they want it done they don't want the money being spent out of the Enterprise fund and the last item is the NJ stride which also was formerly known as CJ Pride the Central Jersey Pride um I don't know if Mr kler if you want to add to any of that but we've been a member now for a few years uh based on your recommendation it opens up a candidate pool three or four years ago uh to try to lure and and we always want to hire the best candidates I say that all the time um but it does help us advertise uh to a more diverse population thank you yes uh Mr Finelli it is an organization of professional HR director throughout the state of New Jersey for public schools um we've been a part of that for I believe six maybe even seven years uh right now it is the largest Professional Organization in the state of New Jersey uh they provide workshops uh professional development um uh think tanks for um exactly what Dr Farrell said uh to make sure that the candidates that we're uh we're hiring is a strong candidate pool that represents the you know our home school district so I don't know if that answers your question um well it it doesn't answer the part of is it working no it's not working I know you don't pay a lot of money for it but fact of the matter is this is something from day one when Dr Farrell got here and one of the board members brought it up I didn't bring it up about the diversity of teachers you virtually have have whether we're you know uh whether I'm recommending a certain candidate over another certain candidate but it definitely there's a major shortage across the industry and education in general uh that's number one it has more to do with economic structures right now uh than I than I believe cultural um and this broadens our reach it's just another tool to broaden our reach so I I totally disagree that it has not helped um because I do believe it has has it helped to the extent where we're comparable maybe to other districts or similar student population no we're getting there don't we're getting there you don't look at the same reports I do five years ago you were at 3% did past year you were at 3% you have no no impr no significant Improvement in the minority te you shaking your head no those are the numbers I'm just I'm not going to be baited and get into a Q&A Mr Finelli uh you are 100% wrong in that you're looking at State numbers that declare a certain teacher whether they're bilingual or a minority candidate you're not looking at the total cultural picture and that's what we do thank you for your comments nice answer does anybody else have any comments on agenda items only yes go ahead thank you uh good evening my name is uh Charlie bacon I'm not sure if I can talk about this I'd like to I have a few question questions and concerns about a committee report is this the time to speak about that that really wouldn't be an agenda item part but at the second public comment that would be uh appropriate time for that conversation all right thank you sure would anybody else like to make a comment on an agenda item tonight seeing none we'll close this portion and uh we'll move on to um um the agenda Dr Anderson uh would you please introduce curriculum and instruction thank you Miss picala under curriculum instruction the superintendent recommends that the board approve following items one through four thank you can I have a motion in a second please motion bran second Mike any board comment mayy please for the vote Miss cber yes Miss stadius yes Miss a room yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss picala yes Mr Edwards would you please introduce the operation section of the agenda uh yes uh this evening the superintendent recommends items 1 through 27 may I have a motion and a second please motion Nicole second mik uh any board comment on the operations portion of the agenda seeing none Mary would you please um Miss seber yes Miss D Benedictus yes Miss um I need to abstain on operations number six vendor id11 457 number 7 scheduled ID 21452 21411 and yes on the rest Mr Mesmer yes on everything Miss picala yes Mr cler would you please introduce the human resources section of the agenda sure will thank you Mr picala uh tonight the super intendent is recommending items 1 through 47 for approval thank you does anybody want to make a motion and a second for that uh section of the agenda please motion Nicole second FR any board comment um mayor would you call a vote please miss cber yes Miss Benedictus yes Miss room yes Mr mesar yes Miss palala yes got some people yes oh yes let's who are happy new employees so so we're we're thrilled to um to Welcome to The Brick Township school team uh Christopher cordano uh Tara McCarthy Amanda Fernandez Amanda and of course we are also thrilled to uh introduce our new director of Transportation Dr okone Dr okone Dr okone is joined by his lovely wife and his daughter this evening um thank you for bringing your family thank you for supporting Dr okone we look forward to you having a successful run in that position Dr oan excellent thank you welcome and congrats [Music] um we appreciate you um stepping up for that position Dr o thank you um policy and planning M mcnamar thank you Mrs fala the superintendent recommends that the board approved the following items under policy and planning 1 through six uh is there a motion in a second for the uh policy and planning section I'll make a motion meline second Mike okay thank you is there any board comment seeing none Mary would you uh please call Miss cber yes Miss Benedictus yes misson yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss picala yes this is the second opportunity for public comment each participant is asked to give his or her name prior to making a statement all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer comments shall be limited to five minutes and each speaker may only speak once the board will not during the public portion of this meeting discuss matters involving employment appointment termination of employment negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance of promotion or disciplining of any specific or perspective or current employee and or student um is is there anybody that would like to make a comment okay Mr finale thank you you didn't give us an opportunity to ask questions change in that policy and I'll tell you right up front I didn't bother reading the 15 pages that are there so if you could just tell us what changed in that policy anything else Mr Finelli what anything else oh yeah okay um a question just on the on the test results when you say you're looking for a 5% Improvement next year is that 5% of 5 percentage points Five Points so if you're at a 40 you're looking for a 45 oh that's what we've been doing okay I just wanted to clarify that uh at the last meeting you discussed disproportionality again and you voted on a contract I'm sorry I wasn't here um you're bringing in a company for 6 months to help you fix the disproportionality and discipline my question is who who really owns the disproportionality in discipline because you're spending $358,500 my way of thinking is a taxpayer I'd like to know who owes this $358,000 um I wanted to briefly go go over the people that live in Brick got their tax bills last week and I know every place you go they talk about well we're only increasing at this percent that percent I just want everybody to hear the numbers that our taxes went up last year in Brick I'm talking percentages not mine personally right the county tax went up 4% the library tax while it's not a big amount of money went up 133% the county health tax which well it's not a big amount went up 177% the county open space went up 5% the school tax went up 6% um the municipal open space stayed the same the local open space went up 4% and the fire department went up 2% so everybody in Brick no matter what your taxes are they're going to see a 5.2% increase in their taxes in one year me personally came out to $192 a day or over 700 bucks so we're not talking Small Potatoes anymore we're talking big money um and uh last but not least I watched the uh League of Women Voters question and answer session so three of you get points for showing up and three of you don't get points for showing up right and it was the other people that didn't show up what you might know or might not know is that we as a public at submit questions to the League of Women Voters and they decided whether they want to use them or not I submitted two questions both of them got used one of them was grouped in with a couple other people and the other one was verbatim my question was asked all right and if you watched it maybe you could figure out which questions were mine and which weren't but I'll give you a hint right the three people that were there got points for showing up but they lost all those points and a lot more for not answering the questions and it was like watching Trump and and Harris on on their debates where somebody asked a question and they don't answer and my specific question that I asked was as a board member what would you recommend to improve the test scores in the brick school district and I got from no answers to one that says test scores are just indicative of the students showing up and having a bad day that was an answer that was given now if anybody that's on the board or wants to be on the board really thinks that's an answer or really think that's the problem the test scores are only indicative on students having a bad day stay home don't go on the school board the other thing that was brought up is uh class sizes are indicative of of success I don't know if you've been here when I asked the question of what what is the optimum class size but I asked it at this meeting and I got no answer and I said is it 30 to1 is it 25 to1 is it 10 to1 is it 1:1 I got no answer nobody wanted to say whatever that answer is all right so if you really think everything has to do with class size test scores have been around for 100 years they show what students learned and what they retained and they're going to be around for another hundred years thank you for your comments Mr finel your time your time is up I tell you what if you if you shut me off I'm going to sit down and I'm going to raise my hand again and then I'm going to come up again you really want to play that game okay we're not playing games here this is a board meeting it's the same process we've done for years I don't care if it's the same process it's a violation of your own policy it first of all it's not because I'm not going to debate you but the policy also says the presiding officer May wave these rules to maintain an orderly operation of the board meeting this is how we've done it for years you get up to 10 minutes five on agenda items five on there and when has anybody ever giving you a hard cut off at five minutes at no no did it to me the last time I was here and she did it to me when I wanted to come up again every time is don't interrupt me I let you talk every time somebody hits the five minute Mark the presiding officer and it's been several different ones over the years says you've hit the f- minute Mark please wrap up your comments which usually buys you another 20 30 seconds to finish your thought so that you're not cut off mids sentence and and we've always done that to accom odate the public to have interaction with the public I mean 10 minutes a meeting I think you've always had plenty of time in this form to be heard both both with your questions and your comments no no all right well you don't have to agree with me but but that's the math on I don't have to agree with it because it's not true okay thank you you answer my question he will at he will at the end I told you that last time at the end of second session whatever we can answer we will the second public session or I will make sure someone in the cabinet gets the people or gets their questioned answered in a timely fashion question answer the end I don't I said I will at the end of this second public session I will gather a lot of questions some I can readily answer at the end some I may not or I'll have a Cabinet member I think we did that last month we had like Dr Anderson see someone in the audience it was very specific so we'll get you back my name is Charlie bacon good evening Dr frell admin and board ofet uh these questions and comments concern me about the EV buses so I have a opening remark I want to make I have some questions and some recommendations at the end and I I guess my biggest concern is the federal government has no problem given this District $5 million in fact when that law was passed it's five billion across the entire United States and I've talked and many people in this room have talked about this as well what I'm concerned about is additional funding for more teachers and to reduce the class size and quite frankly what I'm going to talk about is the EV bus and my concern around that as well okay the first thing uh I want to talk about is the assessment of the current electric grid availability I realize that's outside of the jurisdiction or the purview of this board but I think it's pretty important as this state and other states are starting to go more over to Electric whether it's going to be buses in this case or cars we don't have any analysis of this grid right now whether it's is capable of doing it we had I believe two Transformers explode yesterday and where I live off of Princeton Avenue we have numerous blackouts or interruptions in service or brownouts so that's a concern I have and I think that's pretty important to explore that and the other thing is since evb buses have started to uh get out into the United States have we explored the analysis with other districts what are their problems good or bad Minnesota's going to have different issues with the cold as well as we are too the other concern I have is the technology with EV you read every day that it's changing my concern with graving a grant and potentially uh going through this with EV buses is the technology going to change where if we would have waited a little bit it might be better served all right so that's another concern I have the other concern concern I have is what is the life expectancy of an EV bus and batteries do we really know they haven't been out in the industry long enough to really I don't know evaluate that the other thing is the uh what I have here is the range of a fully loaded bus not one that's not fully loaded and is this District if we go forward with this comfortable taking a sports team or anybody out outside of ocean and Mammoth counties and are we going to get back is there going to be a proper facility to recharge if we need to what happens if we're going on the Parkway in between exits and there's an accident so that's that's some of the concerns there I'd like to know if possible uh Mr Edwards I know you're kind of in the early stage of this what is the cost of an EV bus with and without Chargers I think that's kind of important bottom line how many buses can we get get with the grant at $5 million if we have that number that would be greatly appreciated is the district looking to get other EV buses on top of the grant money I think that's important as well and something else I'm concerned about is uh have they done any evaluation if these buses get into a crash we're going to be dealing with batteries and there's a lot of concern around that so that's one thing I wanted to mention this is important to me and um about China and Chinese companies are dominating all the precious metals that we're going to need to put these batteries together and as they can take more and more of that market share across the world what I fear is the prices of batteries they're pretty expensive now are going to get worse so in closing I recommend a detailed study be conducted and a public I think this is worthy of a public hearing and what I mean by the study is do an evaluation the pros and cons stay with diesel buses for now what are the pros what are the cons of EV all right and then the last thing if possible I'd like to get a copy of the Grant application the contract with the government and the technical specs of these buses and I don't know if you'll do that through a forum of uh through my email or I have to do an an Oprah public request act so those are some of the things I'd like to bring up and somehow I managed to stay under the five minute Mark which is unusual for me so thank you thank you Mr Baker is there anybody else that like to um make a public comment okay I think I got some um well first the disproportionality as we said last year and the year before um I I said it last year I probably was a little too negative about to the state but um when the state checks anybody and they're in disproportionate in a certain demographic or uh or atrisk population from a students they mandate that you have to utilize not taxpayer money but our Ida funds that for that and I'm going to have Miss grunger kind of add to it and they I don't want to say it's a racket but they only have a few approved vendors that you can utilize at certain price points um we're in another year of that I think uh I'm hoping it's the last year each year you go like usually a three-year basis on this I think I said the same thing uh last year and the year before not a fan of it don't have a choice um and some of the numbers comparative to State and I started looking at some some of the the points they put on it just doesn't make sense to me because it's a simple mathematic number I don't know Jen if you want to add anything to that one on disproportionality but going on for a few years um the Ida Federal grant which is they require a percentage of us to spend money in cceis which is early intervening services not a choice when I actually uh come up with the grant funds it tells tells me the exact amount if I'm off $1 it rejects when I submit it and says go back do it again because you're off a dollar it requires us the good thing is that we have to meet with the state multiple times during the year we submitted a 62 page plan showing the data of growth and it looks like we are trending in the risk ratio in the percentage we hopefully should not be disproportionate based on last year data of all the work that we did so we are hoping that the work that we're doing is making an impact and we will no longer be disproportionate we do not make up the risk ratio the New Jersey Department of Education they make up the percentage of the risk ratio and they change it all the time and we don't have a choice I wish we did Mr Finelli I would love to use that money on our students here who have special needs and provide them more services I beg the state for me to do that and I cannot I am required to so that is your answer the the uh all all of it all of it it's all under the Ida Grant there are there some some other districts not for me to get on my horseback but there's some other districts um to get on my soap box here there are some other districts that have different student population demographics and Wei and I couldn't believe they I think Jen was actually at a district years ago where it was inversed and uh you know they they they said you are disproportionate in a certain um population and demographic so uh not a fan I don't like the way they take a state average and then look at a point and even if you're a point four points in our district and our population and demographics may be different you're considered what's called disproportionate and they kind of account your idea money your other questions you had on some policy changes I think uh Miss mcar can answer them as well Mr Finelli the uh board member number and Term Policy that was revised was revised to provide Clarity for regarding the filling of a vacancy um it didn't really change the way we do it it just tried to change the language to make it clearer for people um in terms of the attendance one that has to do with the state department um putting in legislation that allows New Jersey public school students in grades 6 through 12 an additional state state excused absence to attend a Civic event we have so many things that can be State excused absences and this was just one more that needed to be added school thing this was me to clarify something missed the Mark I don't write the policy we just we just adhere we just adhere to the laws Mr finale ask people could you explain this to me and they there this whole page is one sentence so it it was supposed to be that was the purpose of the revision thank you um and again if you have further the second public comment session what I've been trying to do over now almost a year is gather questions if we can readily answer them if we could get back an email if I could put someone right in touch with a parent right afterwards if it's more personal and and child specific we try to do that at this time uh I want to get on to Mr bacon because there's some great questions and I asked a lot of them in the last two committee meetings and I Mr Edwards is going through this huge analysis I'm going to give you a broad stroke right when we first got the $5 million Grant we were like Wahoo right well it's based on each per bus so it does cost us per bus okay that's number one so even though we get 5 million we don't just get a lump dollar amount of 5 million and say we want to say ah you know what if the buses are e 600 Grand or whatever we'll only get so many buses and use utilize a five minutes it's per bus so I want to say 300 what's per bus which is not the it's not the total amount of the the electric bus right so it cost us x amount now the the cost analysis which Mr Edward's been working on and doing and and we've been talking the same thing is the cost analysis is still in favor of utilizing that money right to purchase some vehicles uh even when you ACR it and you lost you look for a maintenance cost and a cost savings because we have to replace our diesel buses anyway and there is a lump coming up in a amount from 20 years because of the time frame all this analysis is being because I've been asking uh similar questions the infrastructure grid we got to get a vendor to put so there's a lot entail now we accepted the grant we'll submit for another one and accept it doesn't necessarily mean we go in and go uh you know fully in with the grant we always apply for Grants get the money and look at it uh I do think there's a huge benefit here but there is a cost side and there is an analysis side looking at this uh long term uh I I'll let Jim if he wants just add there there's a life expectancy I remember Jim telling me the difference between the Diesel and the electric bus there is some maintenance savings not as much as you would think um but the cost savings for us is up front by utilizing grant money to pay for a bus that if we didn't get that grant money I'd have to pay the whole amount for a diesel bus which is some odd Grand or whatever so did you want to add any a couple things to that um what's the life expect of the electric bus 12 years and Life to Diesel's 20 dies 15 so it's 15 for diesel 12 for that so we're going to look at a whole maintenance savings cost analysis for that my gut still tells me there's a benefit here um by not doing nothing and leaving money on the table this is federal money not State money um which we never get in education right so I don't want to look a gift horse in mouth but we are we're ongoing we've been talking about that looking at the analysis so we'll keep you informed on all that is there anybody else who would like to make a oh you're on board comment comment oh we're ready we're on I'm sorry I'm I I slipped um no it's time for board comment no actually it's time for no it's time for board comment um U Mike do you have anything you like to uh say tonight nothing for me want to go to Yankee G the first pitch happened already Mike yep um yes meline so I do have one thing to say um I went to a great assembly strengthening our community I was very upset oh I'm sorry um I went to a great assembly strengthening our community the prosecutor's office was there um our school teachers school guidance counselors a lot of people were there the brick police the mayor our superintendent um our attorney um it was it was very very good for the parents to hear what the schools are doing for their children it's for mental health it's for bullying I was very upset that there maybe were 15 people in the audience it is um I hope the parents watch it on TV we were going to put it on did we do that y yeah um the parents should really watch it it has a lot to do with the kids with phones has a lot to do with bullying and it was really a beautiful day to hear the police talk and everybody talk about what they're trying to do to make a difference um another thing is a comment was made that no one up here knows about the policies we work very hard on the policy committee to know the policies and we question and we get answers and we question and we get answers um you might not agree and I might not agree with a policy um I might be reading it the same way you are but um it's it's we do understand what we're saying it's working with everybody on it so we're a group we're trying I understand your frustration that's all I'm going to say thank you what it says thank you meline uh fan so I too went to the strength our community it's really it was I was a little bummed to not see a lot of parents there it was really informative um and something that really struck me is how much our whole you know we're trying to be Community Central and we really were it it had all the teachers and the Specialists and the police and uh our attorney just everybody kind of working together and um just actually has such a heart for our children which is amazing um and I would strongly suggest to watch that that whole recording it was really really informative um and it was just a really really cool thing to say and so the thing I was so excited about tonight was in the last few years we have not seen on those charts so much green and I've never seen that dark green color it made me so excited our scores are getting so good and um Miss Anderson when all this uh the high impact tutoring came out I I got right on there and I'm texting her I'm going oh my gosh did you hear about this and she said she was already on it um and it's so great um my daughter actually was one of those that benefited from it and it is so great and I am really looking forward to that extra few dollars which would be fantastic because we I mean our kids need it the scores are much better but they can always be improved um and I hope everybody is getting in the swing of school because I am exhausted um my my U calendar is nauseating but um I hope everybody's getting into the swing and I hope everybody has a great evening and see you next month thank you fan Miss Nicole I'm gonna Echo that calendar comment because we just talked about it that when did it turn October so I don't know what happened through September but you all have been keeping us family is pretty busy this month um I want to jump off of her uh fr's comment about strengthening our community um uh I have a daughter who uh is has cble py so she does cheer with our Challenger cheer program and on Friday night um thanks to miss ball and Miss Puchi and special thanks to Mr saruca who's being quiet in the back um the kids have the ability to experience homecoming experience a Friday night game get to check out the band and bring everyone together to really experience that and you know we value the the cheerleaders that we get to steal every Sunday um that are like fighting to come and spend time with the kids you know you think about high school and you know they want to give up the one day they have off but no they're spending their Sunday morning you know at a. hanging out with our kids and cheering and putting glitter on and running on the track and even the more where the I have been sleepy I'm on Hurricane duty this week um the memorial wrestlers actually played against the kids this Sunday so they have halftime show in case you want to embarrass them a little bit more um I have them dancing to Thriller uh but it really is like it it's just showing how we've advanced in the community especially over the past couple of years we've been pushing things and showing that like our kids all have the ability to do it and with the help of the students with the help of the advisers and just the buyin like you know you think about days that we've been to school and what it took to get involvement and for the kids to interact and like these guys are just showing up they they are raising their hands they're showing up and it's really nice to see so kudos to your crew over there because they have been absolutely wonderful to the kiddos right I almost cheed he did he was in The End Zone by himself if anybody got a photo of that I have a couple um but it was definitely it's definitely a cool thing to see over the past couple of years um welcoming Mr okol like that's you know I love seeing the transitions within the district um the opportunities like we've done some great placements and Mr philipone has actually stepped in a lot to help help us too but I'm excited for school boards next week I get to hang out with this crew right here and some of these guys as well um got some lineups and get to see some friends across but we also get to celebrate our superintendent of the year on Wednesday while we were there so we will make sure to bring in all embarrassing photos for you while we toast him while we were there other than that shout out to all you PTA people schools fundraising tag your board members in on all of those fundraising I love pie and I just found out the Mustangs are doing a pie sale so I will buy your pie tag Us in we would love to support you trust me I have to support my own kids they don't bring home anything cool so if you got pie and things like that I'm your girl ch's like yes let's go send me in you send me in we got all of it send it in thanks have a good night guys thank you Nicole I am I just wanted to mention I was away last week when we had that uh strengthen Community but and I I did hear the tenance was low I don't remember if it was last year or the year before at Lake Riv was it two years ago the prosecutor's office came out to a PTA meeting and it was a couple PT right and we had a a very good it was District R we had a very good turn out um people asked a lot of questions but the commitment from the people from the prosecutor's office to to the school districts they just go above and beyond and I understand it was a great presentation and maybe next year we could put out invitations through the pto's or something you probably did that already right of course um uh I have a couple New Jersey School Board Association highlights I'm now a member of the board of directors I attended my first board of directors meeting uh we passed policy for the school boards I attended a labor relations Forum um updating me I've every year I do this so that we learn the most about the co the tools that um School boards offers us in analyzing our contracts and seeing what other like districts are doing it was great to be sitting next to my buddy Billy Kiser um the Ocean County School Board Association meetings are very good we have a couple um scheduled I encourage my other board members to attend we're going to have all the Schoolboard Bas at our virtual one in January February I don't know but Jim's gonna be the star everybody should everybody should log on um I'd also like to um make note that I am I appreciate the people who have supported us and come out to these events the sporting events are really fabulous and so many people come out and I think you know the the community really comes out in addition to the parents and the teach teachers um the calendar events coming up uh first most importantly is October 19th uh that's this Saturday that's William kiser's birthday y uh the school board uh Association uh conf Workshop is next week November 7th and 8th the teachers convention will be held and schools will be closed November 14th is our next regular meeting here at the professional development center at 7 pm Mrs palala may I for just a moment sure can we all just uh I know Mrs Sebert uh alluded to it but can we congratulate Dr Farrell on being named the njasa regional superintendent of the year the next step will be for him to be submitted for State superintendent of the Year congratulations Dr [Applause] Farah thank you Mrs Paka you're welcome thank you Miss MCA all right can we have a motion in a second to close the the meeting to return the meeting motion bran second Nicole Mary Miss sver yes Miss D Benedictus yes Miss yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss picala yes thank you