##VIDEO ID:K4LDZjCGNSY## okay I would like to call this meeting to order will the secretary please call the role Mrs Becker here Mr Cummings here Mr goswami here miss gu here Mrs herck Mr Hong Dr James Mrs Reese here and president LAX here we have a quorum please rise to salute the flag I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the rights of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed and acted upon in accordance with his provisions of this act the East Brunswick board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place posted at the Board of Education offices written notice was also provided to The Sentinel the New York Star Ledger the home News Tribune the alternative press of East Brunswick and the municipal clerk of East Brunswick all Board of Education meetings with the exception of executive session discussions are videotaped for later broadcast it is a policy of the Board of Education the videotape meetings are not edited for any purpose individuals who speak at the board's public meeting should be aware of these videotaping rules good evening um we are going to I'm going to entertain a motion for close session whereas the Board of Education must discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion in public meetings and these subjects are within the exceptions to the open public meetings act and are permitted to be discussed in closed session the Board of Education intends to discuss matters as follows those items on tonight's agenda the length of Clos session is estimated to be 1 hour after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene and action will be taken now therefore be it resolved that the East bronck Board of Education will resist into close session for only the affers said subjects and be it further resolved that the East bronic Board of Education hereby declares that its discussion of the affers said subject will be made public at a time when the Public's interest in disclosure is greater than any privacy or government interest being protected from disclosure in accordance with the open public meetings act move by Mrs Becker second second by Mrs quas is there any discussion all those in favor I oppose extensions motion carries thank you so much we will see you in an hour what is that okay well welcome back we are going to start with Dr meski and the superintendent's report thank you president LAX good evening everyone on Monday November 25th and Tuesday November 26th Churchill physical education and health education classes participated in their first ever Churchill Turkey Trot PE teacher Rebecca monturo led the way organizing this event that promotes good Fitness habits and healthy lifestyle students in each period ran a mile and the winners from each period had a chance to win Fitness Day certificates and prizes courtesy of the Churchill PTA and the event was highlighted by Travis Roff running in a turkey costume I believe Travis is on the left there yep good coach it's a very sad looking turkey by the way I have to let him know that the Churchill Champions positive behavior Sports and schools team which is comprised of teachers and assistant principal Alexia Duca organized a fundraising drive for wreaths Across America with a goal of raising enough money to sponsor 100 remembrance wreaths for veterans at Arlington National Cemetery the mission of the re Across America is to remember the Fallen honor those who serve and teach the Next Generation the value of Freedom students donated money in their period for classes the three classes who raised the most money won prizes students and staff at church Hall raised $1,911 and and an additional 23 reads were sponsored online through the organization they met their goal and they were able to sponsor 135 remembrance reads which were laid on veteran Graves at Arlington on National re Across America day which is Saturday December 14th Lawrence Brook Elementary School third grade teachers were the proud recipients of the East brunwick education foundation's three millionth dollar donated to the district through grants now I have to tell you a funny story during the presentation for this this is a check and on there it says $3 million there were a lot of students who wanted to understand why Mr levit was giving a check for $3 million to these teachers yes so so um it we want to be clear it's the 3 millionth uh amount of money three millionth uh Dollar in Grants and so the Lawrence Brook Grant proposal bright books bold writers will provide all third grade students with high interest decodable text which will provide enriching and engaging books targeting phonic skills and comprehension skills learned in the text will be demonstrated through follow-up writing assignments in our Early Learning Academy during a recent unit of study on trees students practice identifying and recreating various parts of trees and their purpose Ela students and their families collected items that fell from the trees and used them in class to learn explore create imprints promote creative expression and develop their fine motor skills Ela students at bound Monroe read the story maybe something beautiful how art transformed a neighborhood by Isabelle campoy and Teresa Howell then students worked together explored color and painted their own classroom mural Sebastian white and James Tom tomasini represented the East Brunswick South River Spotswood ice hockey team at the annual captains night at the presedential center during the devil's game congratulations to our November high school athletes of the month students were selected for this Honor by the coaching staff based on performance demonstration of leadership effort and practice and of course for modeling exceptional character thank you to Brownie troop 86 357 and their leader Daniel avato um they provided Thanksgiving holiday food baskets for two District families in need an additional $600 in shopright gift cards was raised in donated from generous community members and provided some of our displaced families with a meal to be used for Thanksgiving the district will be transitioning from using traditional plastic utensils to biogradable starch Alternatives starch-based you're welcome starch-based utensils derived from renewable plant sources like corn or potato starch offer a compelling solution to the Environmental conern concerns POS posed by plastic waste and these biodegradable utensils decompose naturally minimizing their ecological footprint and you have before you a sample of the biodegradable Fork there was a lot of speculation on the board deis tonight about what the fork was all about so nothing to put into this was simply a sample there was supposed to be cake and all kinds of things but um and I want to thank Mr crotchfelt who has worked wirelessly with Aramark uh and I'm going to mention them in a minute but to really research and come up with Alternatives that meet the needs of the district that are durable uh but yet are ecologically significant um and I I think he hit a home run with this because he had a lot of options that he was considering but looking at Cost durability uh and long-term solution I think he did a great job so strong yeah they are strong they are strong it out later yeah if only we had cake yeah that's awesome I think they're edible you don't want to leave it in water you know before you eat or something like that uh sustainability has remained a consistent focus by the district and our Child Nutrition department and over the last several years we have stopped using styrofoam trays plastic line cups and serving boats and plastic straws we've made efforts to be used more environmentally friendly products like napkins that are made of 100% recycled materials that are produced in a chlorine free energy and water efficient process and overall we' reduced our food waste during the 2024 school year we served 5,587 meals per school day while limiting kitchen food waste and that's all the scraps and prepared food that wasn't purchased and we've gotten that down to 2.3 pounds per School per day that's amazing yeah that's significant the district um continues to operate chair tables at all of our schools resulting in the reduction of student food waste and all our new equipment is energy efficient and i' like to thank the Child Nutrition department Mr crotchfelt and the aark team for making these positive changes been a been a great effort uh the East bronswick Education Foundation will hold its annual book fair this Saturday December 7th and Sunday December 8th students are invited to participate in the school run activities make a bookmark craft and enter the a student raffle for their school cupcakes will be available for purchase and for decorating as well as a special drink for purchase at the Barnes and Noble Cafe thank you thank you sounds great this is good stuff weren't you part of Mrs Reese the share table wasn't that one of your absolutely I I want to say say thank you to to Joe Fel he's been working on this a long time yeah I I I'm excited to see all this and uh I had no doubt it would happen but it's it's great to be still be here while it does and and um the share tables I think the students have take them all to them no I I learned that from you yeah that's thank you thank you um I was told that Rishi is at another commitment this evening so we do not have our student Representatives report which is a severe disappointment um I speak on behalf of all right we do love hearing what's going on in the high school so we look forward to that next week um but now we are up to the good of the cause for the public so you guys get to fill in where he would be um telling us really good stuff so I'm going to leave it to you the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest to protect the privacy of all students and staff concerns regarding individual students and staff members should generally be addressed by first meeting with the appropriate administrative staff um you will have 3 minutes time will be kept by the board secretary um and as I always tell you it is your time to talk to us anything that needs follow up I'm going to ask you to please leave your information with the two lovely ladies on the right hand side so who would like to be the first contestant on The pric is right come on down if you could just um all state your name and address for the record would appreciate it algra Sidler 12 South Woodland Avenue uh this is a parent testimonial regarding the district Ila curriculum which I spoke of on November 21st to quote I am a proud and involved parent of a first grade student my concerns first began in kindergarten when we were reading books as night at night as we often do and my child began covering up the words to see if she could guess based on what the picture showed my gut instinct was to stop this because why would we be guessing when we could just sound it out we continued to sound out the words together and I encouraged my child to never cover up the words but to work to sound them out when I saw that however I wondered why would that be the method and so I began to question this curriculum and what my daughter was being taught when she entered the next grade I noticed that she was still learning some of these unfortunate habits for reading and not relying on her knowledge of phonics and trusting herself so we continued to work on it at home for the first marking period she received multiple pluses as her scores which indicates amongst other things the student is achieving be Beyond grade level expectations now my concern is if by the first marking period she is already achieving Beyond grade level what is being done to make sure that the material is appropriately challenging her to her abilities looking into the gifted and talented program for first grade left much to be desired at the time there was no information and it is still very unclear what is being done for the kids as far as specific criteria and what programs are being implemented an additional concern I have is that my child has always loved writing she loves to make lists when we grocery shop write cards to her friends and create stories she asked me when do we learn how to spell and when do we learn cursive handwriting when I raised these concerns during parent teacher conferences this was the response I received from her teachers if I had to stop and correct every child's spelling I wouldn't have time for small groups and the other response was we don't want to take away a child's love for writing by correcting them the entire time while I understand to some degree that some children may be frustrated my child is not she independently has a desire to learn and learn it the right way this is not something that is forced on her it is her own desire so what is being done to teach my child at her level when do kids who are doing well get special attention end quote picture queuing neglecting spelling and the general hindrance of literacy progress are a few of the numerous and well-known issues with balanced literacy since the district has made multiple attempts to deflect these issues away from the curriculum and on to individual students teachers Andor schools I have been working to compile testimonials from parents districtwide so that narrative can end thank you thank you Miss Sidler you could state your name and address thank you uh Dom scani to Morgan place I wasn't planning on speaking tonight so this is entirely ad lived um so two things uh I know you guys had the resource Fair um a couple weeks ago and I just want to say so in 10th in 10th grade um myself and the Student Assistance specialist Peggy hos we came up with an idea to kind of have a fair of uh activities to like d-stress and people with special needs and everything and 11th grade the co happened and you know so we couldn't do it again and I'm happy to see that some remnant of something I I did like five six years ago still exists and is uh happening uh number two I noticed the playground cross at chick the wooden one is uh getting uh I guess replaced um just some history cuz none of you well maybe Miss Becker and Mr Juliana were here for it um so my dad and two of his friends they actually um built that playground for uh special needs students um and then eventually was for everyone um and while I myself I'm sad cuz I grew up on that playground went to chid and my dad was a little disappointed but we both understand that you know it's over 20 years old and it has to has to get uh replace somehow so uh yeah um hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving um you know thanks thanks for keeping my uh my idea alive and uh yeah thank you thanks Tom is there anyone else yes please come on up and uh state your name and address for the record please Kimberly sha 11 Ellison Avenue I'm sorry can you repeat your last name shamama thank you um mine is for um Finance I have some fees my children have over $400 in forgotten ID fees so I went on a payment plan the problem is that I cannot see my children's report cards in Genesis because I have fines um and I think that should be changed I cannot see their report card at all I can I actually can't see their grades unless I go to a special way to see them out of my way so if I go to the grading it says you have fines pay your fines although I pay every week on a payment plan I still cannot see my kids grades their Miss assignments unless I go out of my way but my report cards I can't see any of my kids report cards so I haven't seen their unless I contact their counselor which I'm sure the counselors are busy so I'm I feel like that should be changed I should have access to all my children's all six of them their report cards thank you thank you if you could just make sure that you leave your contact information so we can follow up on that actually if you oh Joe was in the back okay did you want to speak Joe or did you I'll talk to you after meeting thank you okay thank you m shama um is there anyone else that would like to speak to the board this evening okay seeing none I'm going to close the public portion do you mind if I just make a clarification St abolutely could I do that yes please I know over the last couple of meetings we've heard about curricular issues specifically with Ila and and I believe um gifted and talented um I want you to know that we do take those seriously we are we are listening and our curriculum is constantly in review um we will take your feedback we are we Contin continuing to look at things to make sure that we are meeting the needs of every single student in this District so I didn't want you to think when you speak go the cause nothing is happening behind the scenes thank you I appreciate that I do have days ago um Mr Juliana I believe we had a conversation that there was a an oer request attached to that correct I sent four out today okay you sent four request out today okay okay all right follow is there a time delay Jenna with Oprah requests maybe is that no she just sent them oh okaya I'm not sure we can if you don't mind we can talk after if you're around we can talk after no I just want to make sure that you're getting the answers that you need okay all right um I'm going to ask for a motion on this evening's agenda motion thank you Mrs harck second by Mrs Becker um and is there any discussion on any item on this evening's agenda Mr Hong so for the uh Financial surfice uh agenda item five there a uh several account coding Corrections so Mr Julian can you please uh elaborate what it this is and help us understand it yes absolutely so this is uh regarding account coding Corrections so um that would be on the monthly um Financial transfers uh report budgetary transfers so um let's start out with uh with um the Department of Education uniform chart of accounts uh that is a document that sets forth with how expenditures are to be categorized so uh it's very strict uh it sets out the criteria for categorization of expenses and so when um a budget manager needs to make a purchase for necessary items um and if their specific account doesn't have enough funds a transfer is necessary to put the funds into that account in order to initiate the purchase so that's what would be uh that's what would be construed a account coding correction it's strictly the movement of funds from one account to another to facilitate that acquisition thank you thank you very much and can I comment uh other two items another item sure absolutely anything on the agenda sure I'm sorry kind of slow take your time to help you so again the financial surface item uh 14 and 19 I just want to thank the community program team Amory and her team so this program is now just provide our students the opportunity to learn more and it helps parents to re release their uh Child Care uh responsibility give them more flexible time for the job and additionally you bring us quite good uh money to our to sub to addition to our budget so I want to thank Amar and her team so every year they bring you millions of dollars to our school district which you know is benefit the student benefit the parents benefit the the school district so I hope emry and your team please keep doing good job yeah I really appreciate as a parent as a taxpayer and as Board of Education member thank you thank you um and right next to it um the gift from Lawrence Brook um Vicki did you want to speak to that I know that's your home school I was going to thank the PTA but if you would like to do that yes I'm sorry I'm still looking agenda since my new one was taken viciously um PT work really hard really hard and anyone who's been on a PTA knows it's the same 20 people who do everything particularly the PTA board they do every single event they spend the whole summer planning Out programs for schools their sole purpose is to make the school year better for the kids and the staff they do teacher appreciation events their presence is in the school for every single event and I said the same 20 people volunteer the entire School Community eventually gets involved in the PTA and it's it's a really nice way to establish a community but fundraising is really hard and takes a lot of work and the commitment that the PT make towards read towards purchasing things for this district is incredible and I'm proud of all the schools but um yeah uh Lawrence Brook was my my my boy school and my school I was in the PTA there too so um it has always been a community school it's been the Hub of the community and I know that we have parents in the laurenbrook parents and um thank you so so much for everything you do if you would take that back please to all the PTA members and to the school Community it's wonderful thank you give me my agenda okay um I'm going to ask the secretary to please fill the RO that's okay yeah I just wanted to comment on uh number two on the agenda bylaws um I really think that these are favorable for us as a community uh and for the board as a whole and I just wanted to you commend the work that was done to to bring those forward um I think the the ongoing orientation and trainings for newly elected board members and Refreshers for current board members are really uh significant this is as people know and certainly people sitting up your nose it's a tremendous amount of uh information overload at times so I think that those will be really wonderful for us as a community and and the other things as well to be uh you know more engaged and and and take steps to help you know make sure that communication is coming out clearly and and people have a clear understanding of the many many facets that go into operating a district of this size so I just I just wanted to say that I'm in favor of those and I appreciate the work that was done around that thanks Tim okay then I'm going to ask the secretary to please call the role Mrs Becker yes Mr Cummings uh yeah just excuse me and I'm going to abstain from three the minutes for the previous meeting noted Mr goswami [Music] here yes yes uh Miss was yes Mrs herck yes Mr Hong yes Dr James yes Mrs ree yes and president LAX yes with it extension on Board of Education item number one noted motion carries motion carries thank you leading us to committee reports information items and for the good of the cause for the board um I'm going to put Leu on the spot I know Dr veski um mentioned the three millionth dollar that the Education Foundation was uh generous enough to give and to bestow and I was fortunate enough to be there with Leu um at Lawrence Brook when the students did think that Mr levit was the wealthiest man in the world and was giving them $3 million um but I just want wanted to ask Leu if he could say a little bit about the event you get to talk to the kids yes you know I was seeing a lot of pain that day but I was very happy to be there is BR Education Foundation makes East BR a very special you know uh people knows that the B Bo of ucation cannot fund every program but our great teaches always come up with good ideas how to Pilot those ideas we need fund we are so lucky we have the ebf in past more than 20 years they found all those programs give out grants totally $3 million you know it's great amount of money additionally that night you know I went to the May Cohan charity fund those two nonprofit organization make East brons really really special no Community close to us can copy it so e BR people are very generous we are so proud of all donors all people in East bronic you know I I miss uh lvit he is great leader he did this for 17 years 17 years is not short time you know and I'm really impressed by him you he is my role model I really want to help people serve our community as a volunteer and uh you know the children there was so excited this a huge check $3 million it's they're really excited they believe Jack Le is billionaire and ask he's going to donate another $55 million I I told that is your target five more million dollar thank you thanks Dr James thank you while we're talking about the ebf I just wanted to add on to the um portion of the superintendence report where you mentioned the book fair at um Barnes & Noble it looks like there are still some volunteer spaces particularly on Sunday for that book fair so if you have some friends who like books or want to be in close proximity to coffee all day on Sunday um maybe you could pass that on and they could come join us to support this good cause with your um time it will be a lot of fun a lot of kids come out you can help decorate cupcakes um and I know the ebf would really appreciate um having some extra hands there especially on Sunday um and then I just wanted to say how excited I am about this sustainability initiative um and how I hope we will keep this going and really try to reduce our plastic use in other ways and and make sure we stay strong on the recycling front this is just um really exciting and really necessary and uh my kid doesn't eat school lunch cuz he's gluten-free but I'm going to be uh keeping this Fork to spread the word so um really thank you for doing this and I mean all seriousness this is this is really um this is important to our schools to our society so um this is a this is a big milestone for us so thank you thank you and and you're right I will tell you something else with the Barnes & Noble book fair I know that it's Barnes & Noble books but just for everybody the holidays are coming there's toys there there's journals there they have so much more than books so a lot of times I used take my kids and do some of the holiday shopping so see you there see you there Mrs GL I wanted to follow up on what Mr Cummings had said about the change to the policies I just wanted to thank the board because it really was an examination you know we brought the discussion to the board last week and it really is a discussion about what would be better to help the board continue to grow and it's interesting because a lot of these ideas came out of um little or discussions we went to at the con or at the convention and just really examining our own practices and looking at what would facilitate our group and what would help us as a board streamline some of our practices and I just appreciate the willingness of the board to participate in change and Improvement and that just comes out of the discussions that happened in closed and people's time at the convention so thank you thank you um so before I ask for a motion to adjourn um I just wanted to say to Heather and to page I know we have one more meeting um got some big changes coming um I wanted to thank you guys I know I'll see you at the next meeting but just in case it gets lost in the shuffle um it was really difficult to come on um hit the ground running and be here and I'm impressed with both of you and I love the questions you ask and your commitment to the community and I hope that the community still gets to see you guys um and I'm sure they will CU they're both but you know and that's the way it should be and and maybe one day you'll be back up in these seats um but I did just want to say how impressed I was with your professionalism your commitment to the students the staff and um I've enjoyed working with you guys over the past months thank you okay well then I'm going to ask for a motion to adjourn our power meeting yes that would that be Mrs herck okay second thank you Mr Cummings is there any discussion all in favor opposed okay motion carries thank you guys so much stay warm get home safe