##VIDEO ID:VJxvG8XBdRA## 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 guas here Mrs herck here Mr Hong Dr James Mrs reee here and president LAX here we have a quarum please rise to salute the flag I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republ for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all good timing okay 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 in which any business affecting their interest is discussed and acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the East bronck board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place posted 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 of executive session discussions are videotape for later broadcast it is the policy of the Board of Education that 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 everyone it is so much fun to see a full house especially with our young visitors today and some of our older visitors um and we're going to start with the superintendent report so thank you president LAX and good evening everyone the artwork on display in the boardroom is evening was created by students from Lawrence Brook Elementary School the art teachers of these talented students are Michelle Lynch and Takara iichi Rachel weisenhorn is the interim principal on Friday December 6th Irwin third graders invited me to attend their community's expo at the Expo students gave presentations to their families in the Irwin School Community about their diaramas each diarama represented an urban Suburban or rural community those in attendance could leave compliments and enjoy learning from our students about their project this Expo was made possible with the grant with with the grant for materials from the ebf and we are so grateful for their support along with board pre by excuse me along with board vice president Heather guas and I had the pleasure of attending the Mu Alpha Theta math Honor Society induction ceremony on Thursday December 12 and I must say Dr bashour was there of course at the high school muaath Theta is an organization of talented students who have been recognized for their scholarship and service each of the 67 inductees have met requirements for membership including distinction in college prepatory mathematics in addition to all other academic subjects and have demonstrated their ability to work hard as well as show initiative and reliability these members have the opportunity to share their talents with their peers as they volunteer their time to provide countless students with additional help in their mathematics courses our own aramar District Chef Jim Nao made guest appearance at each Elementary School in November in an effort to introduce more culinary diversity to our students Chef Jim and the Child Nutrition staff prepared and serve a chickp Tika Masala quesadilla this event was fun exciting and tasty but most importantly the feedback we received from the students was memorable let's take a look at some of the highlights from the visiting Chef [Music] experience hi I'm James LOL the district is a chef for arar for the past 10 years I've been on a mission to make school lunches awesome here in the East Brunswick Public Schools what I really love about working here is the incredible diversity in our community with students from so many many different backgrounds we have a chance to create meals that celebrate all those different cultures and flavors to add some culinary diversity to the elementary schools I featured a special menu item and personally served it to each school during lunchtime the featured entree was a chickpea Tikki Masala quad I like how the texture is the rad and the cheese balls are my favorite and the Yer is my favorite it's like so sweet and I like to dip it in it I love it so much why because it's good I like how they I like they changed it up and added these and there's new options like tomatoes and this in the end we feel that school shouldn't just be about books tests and homework it should also be about trying new things and having different experiences allow us the Child Nutrition department to be your child's culinary tour guide throughout their time in the East Brunswick Public Schools thanks for watching in the full video can be found on our website under Child Nutrition the student services department facilitated a holiday gift drive for our displaced families in the district a total of 20 families participated with 38 students getting special deliveries from their wish list of holiday items we are so thankful for the generosity of the East Brunswick Public School staff for their participation in providing happy holidays to our little ones besides the fun gifts each display student also received a Walmart gift card thanks to the generosity of the mayor's charity Fund in residents of East Brunswick and I do want to give a special shout out to M Daniel block and her entire team who assembled everything and these bags and Gifts were spread throughout this office and offices and they were sent on their way today uh so they're they're everything's good right [Applause] in in addition I would like to thank aramar who has partnered with us and our Child Nutrition team for providing tremendous grab and grabb and go holiday meals for these families as well and tomorrow 61 meals will be delivered to our displaced families to enjoy over the break so that's awesome as well so thank you to Aram Mark and child special thank you to our student assistant specialist to gather who gathered all the information about the wish list items and of course as I mentioned help deliver all the goodies just a few reminders tomorrow Friday December 20th believe it or not will be a single session day with lunch serve for students in gr grades K through six the district will be closed Monday December 23rd through Wednesday January 1st school will resume on Thursday January 2nd and I'd like to express my heartfelt good wishes to the board the community and our entire staff for a healthy and happy holiday season thank you thank you Dr gaski so this is exciting we have some champions in the house are the students here yes all right you want to do this over there I know the coaches are going to help us give them out yeah why don't we go ahead and we can move around front thank you of course you guys want over absolutely I love being around greatness all right so before we can completely acknowledge you I have to do the business portion of it so I'm going to ask a resolution from the board move that the Board of Education approve the following resolution where is skillful play along with motivation determination and exemplary sportsmanship led the East Bruns of girls tennis team to the group four state champions and whereas the girls tennis team had a 19-1 overall record and a 12- zero in the GMC also earned Team of the Year honors for the greater middle sex conference the girls tennis team were the group for state champions and where is this accomplishment attribute to the dedication and commitment of the team has brought local and state recognition to their school the district and to the community now therefore be it resolved that the East Brunswick Board of Education recognizes and commends East Brunswick these East Brunswick students their coaches Corey Whitmer and dibra manino for this outstanding achievement and I'm going to ask you to before I ask actually thank you Mrs Becker thank you Mr Hong who Brave to get in here any discussion all those in favor oppos motion carries and if I can have the proud coach out your students from me please all right Andrea ban Pisha Patel anvita Shankar sopia clz kellyanne [Applause] mossi Caitlyn Wang Stacy arapova simmer Raina jasen [Applause] Su Kayla [Applause] Yang and Dia GNA would you mind I know they're not here but just of course yeah Sophia Wang Grace Shin Maya anger Ria Joi and shupa sha congratulations ladies you brought great honor to you spons of public and I like the cheat sheets on the back of the sweatshirts that's what thank you coaches too can we take a quick picture sure and any parents that want to take pictures guys we have to go smaller like yeah we're a little too wide somebody get come some of you get down in the front usually what do we look at so who do we look at the middle couple more photo up photo good job honoring our student athletes is what it's all about right they're the total package and I see some of our friends from Lawrenceburg waiting here so I'm hoping that we'll see some of you back in a couple of years it's always fun when you have the high schoolers here and a night that learn across the district is here so um special treat for the board and for all of our accompanying guests um Lawrence Brook is going to share a presentation with us this evening so they got it you got it um good evening hi um my name is Andrea Ford and this is Jaclyn Moore we are special education teachers in the self-contained special programs classes at Lawrence Brook we are also the advisers for lb allies our peer budy program uh we're truly honored to be here today and we're especially grateful to the east Bruns Board of Education and our district for granting the lb allies program recognition as an official Club at Lawrence Brook this year while the program has existed for several years this is the first year that lb allies um has been an official club and can expand now because of your support the goal of the lb allies program is deeply rooted in our Lawrence Brook mission to help all students feel included and valued our lb allies Foster a positive welcoming atmosphere where everyone can Thrive learn from each other and build lasting connections some of our allies are here tonight to share with you more about the essential role they play and why they have dedicated their time and hearts to this program lb allies are fourth grade students who volunteer to spend time with the students in the self-contained special education classes once per week we attended weekly club club meetings before the school day starts where we learn more about our buddies we learn and communicate during these meetings we also create special activities to do when we visit their classes in ail we go into every classroom in the school and teach all of the other students about acceptance and inclusion our teachers asked us why did we become lb allies here are some of our responses I get to help about other kids and help them learn to make friends because I like to help people and this is helping people a lot I get to help other kids and have a great time like coloring with the kids and doing other stuff like that it's just so fun they are so special and great kids I think it's so fun to be a mini teacher and when I want to be a teacher when I grow up I think it's so fun to teach other kids that are so special please watch this be please watch this video to hear so how some of our buddies feel about lb allies I love L Al B are my friends and and and are fun I like drawing with my lb allies because it is fun I like all allies because they are nice with me I like lb r y always because they always should play with me I like playing cantic sand with Mom and them I like with they come to my classroom because we had fun I I like l i like [Music] because we need more kids to be and S our last friend was a little hard to hear but what she was saying was that um she likes lb allies because she needs more friends to play with and so that was really important for her thank you for letting us share about lb allies with you we hope that every school could have a program like this job guys thank you yep oh can we get all of our friends and Mrs WIS go your proud principal we'll take a quick picture you know all of you did a great job public speaking that's really tough just to speak in front of did a great Jobe wa there's a couple I was an elementary parent I remember these days every par every picture they let you get thank you so much great job you guys [Applause] and thank you I see Lindsay over there to the Education Association for providing us with these amazing learning across the districts really is wonderful for the board to get to see the kids in all the different schools that we don't necessarily get to see I'm sure that you guys want to get home because there's probably a thousand things you want to do before your last half day of school for this year um so we're going to I'm going to ask the board members to just stay up here if you don't mind but we're going to take a minute recess just to let our friends that do not want to stay for the business portion of the meeting um go on and get home with their evening there we go poor Scott has to follow that um and Joe all right I'm gonna turn this over to Mr Juliana so we can have our annual comprehensive financial report and auditor report for 2024 thank you Mrs LAX good evening tonight we're presenting the results of operations for the fiscal year ending June 30th 2024 and the board auditor will present the results of the legally required audit we begin with a review of current issues and factors bearing on the district's future we'll start with financial position and Enterprise operations The District closed fiscal year 2024 in excellent financial position and maintaining a legally accepted fund balance position cost savings and Cost Containment opportunities are regularly sought which ACR to the the annual budget and controlling costs in addition the district's Community programs Enterprise and the facilities rental Enterprise have provided valuable programs and services to the community while generating revenue and an annual net income as well as maintaining a healthy retained earnings balance while the covid-19 pandemic had severely curtailed Revenue gen generating opportunities during the fiscal years 2020 and 2021 the two Enterprises retained earnings provided the financial wherewithal to sustain these functions throughout that time over the last several years through 2024 the community programs and Facilities use Enterprises have resumed generating Revenue to support the annual budget the Enterprises are financially stable enough to meet their obligations and continue its business type operations into fiscal year 20 2 and Beyond state aid not withstanding the current financial position and the benefits from the Enterprise operations the district faces general fund Revenue issues for the foreseeable future this is largely due to the substantial reduction in fiscal year 2025 state aid as well as unanticipated costs that could not be projected to support services to special needs students students these factors along with overall operational cost increases required significant budgetary reductions that included the elimination of 51 positions it is impossible to accurately forecast the future impact of state aid as it will not be known until the New Jersey Department of Education releases fiscal year 2026 state aid data in February or March of 2025 the state aid formula is complex and includes many diverse factors used in its computation so what can we ascertain at this early date two things first district enrollment is higher than last year second based on published reports from the New Jersey Department of Treasury East Brunswick's equalized property values have increased inreased to 10228 billion in 2024 from 9.425 billion in 2023 an increase of 8.52% unless the state legislature and the governor modify the state aid formula these two factors will have an impact upon state aid student and enrollment this the demographic the district's demographic study was updated in January 2023 and projected grade byg grade enrollments over a 5-year period from 20 2223 through 2026 27 the studies projected year-to-year increases in enrollment will have serious consequences on District facilities and classes sizes the study reports Baseline and adjusted projections the second one taking housing growth into consideration the table on screen exhibits the studies's enrollment projections from the 2022 23 school year to the 2026 27 school year the Baseline depicts a 121 student increase and the adjusted depicts a 443 student increase keep in mind that those projections are not actual enrollments now let's review where the district currently stands with student enrollment the next table on screen exhibits 2024 2025 actual enrollment in comparison to the 2022 23 projected enrollment in 20242 the total enrollment already exceeds the 2627 Baseline projection by nearly 21% prior to the grade level realignment grades K to5 class sizes were being being pushed upward to undesirable thresholds and the availability of classrooms for new sections was virtually non-existent the grade level realignment approved by the board 3 years ago provided the foresight to make available sorely needed classrooms at the elementary level traveling up and down Route 18 we see major development activities which include a substantial number of residential units the tyes developers urban renewal LLC project known as Legacy Place on Ty's Lane continues to be ahead of schedule and is leasing apartments for occupancy the number of students that development will ultimately yield is not known but can be substantial what we do know is that as of today December 19th 2024 the Legacy Place development has brought 65 new student enrollments of which 42 are in grades K to4 also under construction is the vermella East Brunswick Phase 1 located at the former Gap Store site which was approved in October 2022 to consist of 306 multif family units with a mix of up to three bedrooms as we are already experiencing with Legacy Place these projects and any additional residential construction will bring more students into the school district therefore information is critical to school facilities planning property values in taxation for the first year for I'm sorry for the fiscal year ending June 30th 2024 local property taxes provided 7326 per of the funding to support the district's general fund operations general fund operations are the regular operating budget the general fund tax levy is the amount to be raised by taxes its increases are capped at 2% annually plus possible adjustments as defined by the New Jersey Department of Education such as are attributable to health benefit increases earlier I discussed equalized property valuations municipalities across the state are at varying degrees of property valuation some are closer than others in maintaining property values at True Value on their tax records for East Brunswick overall taxable property values are recorded at 18.83% of True Value based on the certified table of equalized valuations for the 2024 tax year as published by the New Jersey Department of Treasury Division of Taxation payment in Le of taxes while the township government is pursuing significant Redevelopment along the Route 18 Corridor it is our understanding that those developments to date will not be added to the regular tax roles instead those property owners have agreements with the township for payment in Li of taxes otherwise known as pilot as such those properties will not pay pay property taxes for a lengthy period of time and they are not counted in the overall valuation of Township properties instead they will make pilot payments to the township none of those funds have been dedicated toward the support of the school district Additionally the exclusion of pilot properties from the overall tax base affects the remainder of property owners who would not realize the benefit of pilot properties offsetting property taxes Charter School the charter school based in East Brunswick opened its doors at the beginning of the 2010 2011 school year hatia International Academy Charter School was approved as a grades K5 school and has s since expanded to be a grades K to8 school it is unfortunate that this charter school was granted an initial Charter several years ago in this suburban community having one of the best school districts in the state if not the entire country the charter school did not serve any educational need then and it does not now during its 14 years the Charter School's existence has required the cumulative appropriation of 38 milon 45482 from the East Brunswick Public School District budget this state mandated diversion of local Financial Resources has come with significant and dilars impacts to the school district and the local taxpaying community the time has long passed to argue the merits of whether or not the initial Charter should have been approved however the community should be reminded that the students enrolled in the charter school would receive a superior quality of Education and supports if enrolled in the East Brunswick Public Schools it is a fact that increasing amounts of this Suburban communities local funds and state aid allocation must be diverted to support a charter school for which there is absolutely no justifiable educational need so we'll get into results of operations next and so at this time I invite Mr crotchfelt director of financial services to review the district's results of operations for the fiscal year ending June 30th 2024 thank you so yes I am Joe crel I've been the director of financial services for the district for the last 18 years I've been in the district for 22 and a half years um my 23rd audit that I've been involved with hard to believe when I still think I'm like 25 but so um just going to go over some of the financial highlights um it's important to understand that the uh annual comprehensive financial report is comprised of a number of different funds um in the reporting everything that is shown in the report is governed by whether it's uh gap which is generally accepted accounting principles uh gby which is the governmental accounting standard standards uh board fby the Financial Accounting Standards Board uh then we have to comply with state of New Jersey and also uh Federal uh reporting requirements so I'm happy to say we comply with all that so I'll start with the the general fund uh the general fund captures the day-to-day operations of the district um we bring in Revenue we uh this past year we brought in18 million almost $189 million in Revenue that was comprised of uh mainly local taxes and state aid um you'll see local taxes of 139 million state aid of 42 million uh which was an increase from the prior year of about 5.5 million but as we've talked about at length over the last several months uh for the fiscal year 2025 year our state aid was reduced um ultimately about three just over $3 million um we've had uh major transfers in from our Enterprise funds of 2,250,000 and I'll talk about that in a little bit uh other which is interest on uh Investments uh happy to report we brought in 1.5 almost $1.6 million on uh interest on investments um we'll have to keep an eye on that as interest rates start to come down it's better for maybe us personally but not our investments uh and some tuition that came in for uh students that we receive and please if you have any questions on any slides please just interrupt we had $192 million in expenditures uh the vast majority uh going directly to student uh instruction uh General and special education student related services making up $96 million which was an increase of over $6 million from the prior year the another important thing to knowe I'm not going to read every number on the screen the uh district and School administration Human Resources Finance Information Technology uh that 12.1 million um that is a decrease of over $500,000 from the fiscal year 2023 so we're always trying to uh make sure we're maximizing the dollars that go and impact students the Charter School uh $5 million almost which was up over $500,000 from the prior year uh student transportation 14 million that was also an increase uh as we've uh talked about you know over the last several years uh we're continuing to see an increase in cost for uh transporting students especially with contracted routes so the the fund balance that you see of $18 million it's not uh it's different than a business where oh this is our retained earnings this is our profit that's not how it works we we don't make a profit uh in the general fund these are balances that we must maintain they're all legally um tied something uh the most important thing to note is the bottom right hand corner uh which has the 2% we're uh required to maintain a 2% fund balance which is 3.8 million uh reserve for incumbrances uh 1.8 million that's a decrease from the prior year those are open purchase orders those are obligations that the districts have um has made at the end of the year uh but the items might not have come in or uh if it's you know equipment maybe it's in transit or small uh capital projects are not completed those purchase orders stay open uh it's required because of budgetary accounting uh goes back to the the gasby thing that I was talking about before um we have uh legally reserved for Capital Improvements that's our capital reserve fund of just over $3 million uh for FY 26 we had 5.5 million so it is a decrease it's nothing to be concerned about it all depends when uh projects are being done uh the plan planning where we are in the process of of completing things uh unemployment compensation uh we're required uh not like other businesses school districts are usually self-funded for unemployment so we retain we have to keep uh money and Reserve um so we we have a healthy balance there um it's also important to note we couldn't take that uh unemployment compensation balance or the capital reserve and use it to offset other expenditures it's all restricted and has to be done um used for uh specific purposes 4.6 million uh is currently being used in this year's budget to offset the budget uh and there will be 3.5 million uh as of you know the the end of the 24 fiscal year that will go to the 2526 budget before you proceed on that I just want uh reiterate something uh you talked about the legally required unreserved of 2% that's the maximum that a school district can retain um it's the um kind of like the uh the emergency box on the wall the glass box and you know in an emergency you break that glass box and you grab what's there $3.8 million it's not much but that's all we're allowed to retain so I think that's an important thing to underscore right the next fund is a special Revenue fund uh this fund accounts for all of our grants it's used to account for and Report the proceeds from Grants and other financing financing sources that are restricted or committed to expenditures for specific purposes uh in the past I've always referred to the special Revenue fund it it's money we receive that have strings attached all right it's not money we just pering we can do whatever we want with we have to do very specific things um whether it's money from the state of New Jersey from the federal government uh even from the PTA you'll notice on the agenda when the PTA gives us money it's for a specific purpose we have to ensure that we use that money for that purpose and if there's any change we have to go back and get permission uh same thing with the ebef so this slide talks about the the major Grant Awards uh as you see ebf uh very consistent uh that 67,000 uh for the fiscal year 20124 is money that we received and managed uh the ebf does a lot of other uh Grant Awards specifically or directly to the teachers uh we we have a process with them depending on the dollar amount what they're purchasing um PTA and other um the difference uh it went down this past year uh about 50,000 49,000 uh other we get money from Target uh if the PT you know if you sign up for the Target Awards program it it money comes into the schools uh various other local uh organizations that gift US money parents gift US money sometimes or equipment um Ida Ida is uh we use that for special education tuition in this District uh you say 2. 3 million uh it was an increase of about $200,000 which is great but as we all know the the federal money coming in to support the special education programs uh is not enough to keep Pace with the increase in costs so it's great that we receive more uh but it's not you know if our special uh special education tuition and costs are going up 10% we're receiving you you know 2% of an increase from the federal government um the title grants uh or No Child Left Behind as I used to called uh we had a significant decrease from the prior year down to $600,000 I am happy to report that for the fy2 year it went back up two prior levels um we did spend quite a bit of time talking to the federal government on to why there was a decrease um and we didn't get much of an answer um but we did investigate and the numbers the number uh the important thing there uh our Title One Grant is based off of at risk students everybody needs to understand that the state of New Jersey's uh thresholds for lowincome atrisk students is different than the federal thresholds state of New Jersey um the they do whatever the percentage is of poverty um whereas the federal government does poverty levels um it's not based off of our low income reporting that we do the federal government takes various reports compiles it uh income tax reports and whatnot to determine the levels then the the last major award uh is the adult basic education grant which we've seen increases year-over-year uh over the last several years so special Revenue fund expenditures had about $63,000 from the uh ebf and expenditures 98,000 and those numbers are small way over here so uh 98,000 from PTA and other the federal you'll see a major decrease went from 10.6 million to 6.6 million that's a result of the uh covid related grant money coming to an end right uh special Revenue fund expenditures uh we will receive grants uh in year one and typically you have until year two or year three to spend them so um you know we we didn't receive those Awards in the prior year they were older running out and I'm happy to report you know with all the co money uh we we spent that money uh and and made sure we we maximized it to the fullest extent uh State uh this you know $611,000 in expenditures that covers your non-public uh funds that flow through the district even though we uh cannot control how nonpublic use those funds the state funnels it through us uh we're a middleman uh and you'll see various resolutions for certain purchases for non-public on the agenda and then other uh other is interesting it goes back to the compliance piece I talked about before it's not a grant it's the Student Activity funds so a couple years ago uh whoever gby fby state of New Jersey whichever pick your the one that you don't like the most uh told us that we had to report the Student Activity funds in the special Revenue fund thank you um so it's interesting to see that you know we we we had almost $900,000 worth of expenditures just from our Student Activity funds you know that that's a significant amount and a testament to you know how involved the the students are in the amount of uh fundraising and and things that they do capital projects this is my favorite slide uh tell you in a second used to account for and Report financial resources that are restricted committed or assigned to expenditure for Capital outlays including the acquisition and construction of capital facilities and other Capital assets typically um everything accounted for in this fund relates to bond issues so if we do major construction when we were doing construction on hug and Memorial it was accounted for in this fund um for the FY 24 we had no revenues or expenditures in the capital project fund because we don't have any of those type of projects active if if we issue additional debt for say the construction of a new high school it would be accounted for in this fund Debt Service fund it's used to account for your principal and interest uh weer refer to it often as our mortgage uh when we do issue debt so as of June 30th 2024 we had bonds payable of $53 million was comprised of the 2022 refunding uh issue of 37.5 million that we refunded bonds to capitalize on better interest uh several years ago um for that was a Hugh Central in Lawrence Brook bond issue the 2020 refunding bond issue uh which has $9 million left that was from Memorial and then the 2018 Energy savings Improvement program of 6.5 milon this is interesting because this was not funded with bonds it's funded and PID through the general fund from savings due to improvements to the energy system solar panels whatnot but to make it complicated we have to report these Bonds in The Debt Service fund not in the general fund so the state New Jersey limits how much we can uh take out in debt you can uh have 4% of the average equalized value uh the current debt limit is $366 million we have uh 54 in net debt um it takes into a calculation um of how much is out there that represents 14.91% uh which means we can legally borrow $312 million um that would maximize how much we can borrow and that number does change from year to year um depending on you know how much we pay off the equalized value uh for reference uh like I said it's 312 million this year last year was 291 million so uh as we go further down the line with principal you know we pay off more and more principle that that dollar amount will increase Enterprise funds used to account for operations that are financed and operated in a manner similar to a private business uh costs of providing goods and services are financed through user charges so we have several uh Enterprise funds Child Nutrition Food Service uh we had total operating revenues of 2.7 almost $2.8 million non-operating of 1.9 million the non-operating consists of your interest uh on investments and then the subsidies from the federal and state uh governments um for every meal we sell we get uh or that is purchased provided to a student we get a certain dollar amount total operating expenses of 3.8 million change in net position of 862,5kg [Music] which is hard to believe because it wasn't a long time ago uh 10 11 years ago we were talking about Outsourcing the whole operation uh because we're losing money and the state of New Jersey uh requires that you know this fund be self-sufficient uh I think it's a testament to uh the board uh being very supportive the partnership that we have with Aramark and evocate who is our uh consultant um we've really turned around this program um and I think this chart here shows you know speaks volumes uh it goes back to FY 2018 uh before the pandemic you can see we were doing uh under 900,000 meals a year uh comprised of breakfast lunch and alart equivalents 2019 we increased over 900,000 pandemic hit of course we we went down we were uh all grab and go meals for the fy21 year and then when we returned in fy22 all meals for were free so we served over 1.2 million meals almost 1.3 FY 23 we went back to normal business so of course we dropped everything back went back to you know the free and reduced paid uh traditional meal setup so it once we went back to normal we expected our meals to go back to pre pandemic uh levels and it didn't and I'm happy to report in fy2 24 we served over 1 million meals um you know and that's a testament to uh I saw Kathy step out I would give her a hand uh Mike who is the director of food operations for Aramark uh Tim is here he's relatively new to the staff he's uh the assistant director and then Carla you can wave Carla uh she's the secretary um and Kathy which the board knows uh she's the coordinator and they they just do an excellent job along with our staff and you know I would be remiss if I didn't say part of turning around the operation was the partnership with the Union at the time to um you know there there were staff Child Nutrition staff at the time that took uh pay freezes uh their red line and that allowed us to to really change how we operate Community programs one more thing about Child Nutrition any money that we make in Child Nutrition we cannot turn over to the general fund to the district it has to stay in uh food service and that has allowed us to make a lot of equipment purchases uh recently we just awarded a bid to redo the service lines at Hugh on tap uh we have the service lines at Frost in warnsdorfer so uh it's great that we can reinvest into those programs Community programs total revenues of 3.6 almost 3.7 million Community programs is comprised of four major areas early morning program uh 549,000 after school uh $1.3 million Early Learning Academy 1.4 million and then other 357,000 so the first three programs all saw increases in Revenue uh the other which is a catchall is enrichment the the oneoff programs that we run for the students uh stayed the same uh but we did see an increase in overall Revenue total expenditures of 2.7 million resulting in income before transfers of $900,000 the fund transferred $1.2 million to the general fund to offset uh operations this chart shows over the last several years since 2018 uh the the transfers over to the general fund as you can see in FY 2020 21 and 22 we didn't transfer anything because of the pandemic um Mr Juliana spoke about that earlier uh because of the um financial position of this fund we were able to maintain offer programs pay people during the pandemic and continue to operate uh FY 23 we did uh do a transfer at the same time we were building up our retained earnings uh and we are in a very healthy uh Place facilities rental total revenues over a million dollars this is a a record for us um to to bring in that much revenue from the JM Pac and the other small rentals we do but it's mainly J and Pac uh is a testament to the staff the commitment of the district uh we are already booking for 2026 we do no advertising and when I say we're already B we're booked all right like there's three weekends that we don't book because of holidays so there there's people literally calling non-stop to get in um so we can be selective and uh you know it's just it's been a great uh operation total expenditures of $567,000 uh income before transfer $467 and we transferred $879,000 over to the general fund this chart again uh shows what we've transferred over to the general fund again we did not rent out our facility in uh at the end of 2020 21 or 22 uh started back with operations in 23 um and and you know we're like I said we're we're I think we're doing amazing technology this is the uh Insurance we're self-insured for the uh technology for the laptops parents can pay brought in total revenues of 236,000 total expenditures of 119 uh income of 117 uh we did transfer 162,000 over to the general fund so Financial facts uh this doesn't change much from year to year so a little redundant uh as a district we manage over 25 bank accounts maintain compliance uh with all of our tax filings we issue uh over 400,000 tax forms a year at 4,000 what I say 400,000 sometimes it feels like 400,000 um process 650 journal entries that doesn't mean we have 650 mistakes journal entries is a an accounting function all right so so I don't want people to get the wrong idea um process 7,300 club and activity registrations 1500 athletic and band registrations uh a th000 before and after school program registrations 800 after school enrichment registrations uh 6,900 purchase orders a year 18,500 invoices processed issue 5,500 checks uh 37,000 uh paychecks are issued that includes direct deposits uh which as an efficiency just to note we don't issue many paper checks anymore everything's done direct deposit try maximize the the dollars uh 12,000 time sheets are processed 10,000 attendance slips uh bid and renewal requests for proposals uh it's very uh intensive as far as what the requirements are what we can award how we can award it uh to ensure that we're in compliance request for foral quotes and then all the student service providers so last slide I'm sure some people would like to cheer and other people please wake up so we can finish um it's important to note that for the 11th consecutive year we were awarded the uh asbo International Association of school business officials International uh certificate of excellence and financial reporting and for the ninth year and nine out of 10 uh the one year was due to covid uh we were awarded the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting uh by the government Finance Officers Association so those awards are totally independent we send the the reports off they they judge it based off of their criteria um it's something that we're we're very proud of uh we were just working on the the paperwork of submitting the report again for both organizations so uh high hopes of receiving those Awards again so that's the presentation before any questions I do just want to recognize you know Tara and L are in the uh audience uh terara is the senior manager of accounting Lori is the manager of purchasing and you know along with the other staff that are not here I I can't express how grateful I am for their hard work how proud I am to be a member of the team and it's truly a team and and yeah just very fortunate I I think we as a district are very fortunate with the level of Staff um the the level of Education the amount of CPAs we have on staff um is something that goes unnoticed sometimes but it should be recognized absolutely can you L stand up so thank you I want to add my appreciation because Joe is absolutely right we function as a team and um you know there's no I in team as as often said right Joe yeah um and I want to also extend thanks to Joe because this is uh Joe Joe has been Joe has been a great person uh to work with over these years and uh as well as with Tara And and Lori we have longevity I mean there's a lot of history in this team and knowing um you know the ins and outs of the district so um that helps a lot in terms of you know the planning and um compliance and that's one of the things I say pretty often you know when we have the opportunity and that is you know Finance is for us a completely compliance business we are scrutinized annually you'll hear from you'll hear from our Auditor in just a few moments but it is the only area that is subjected to uh the kind of scrutiny uh that that will be talked about um and we're very proud of the fact that we um we step up to the bark and we have done so consistently so thank you to my folks I appreciate everything that you do and thank you to the board the superintendent being in compliance dealing with us saying no or we can't is not always easy and we do appreciate the support absolutely I don't know you want okay so I have two questions one for you one for another one for Mr Juliana so I'm going to ask you first so amount that $188 million general fund there is about $2.5 million transfer y can I understand it as this $2.5 million depends on multiple factors number one we need the need to balance the the budget second we have the Surplus from facility r Community program and we have the money and then when we need we can transfer it to balance our budget can I trade it is this way or is this way yes the the thing that always has to be remembered is we cannot transfer to the extent where it it puts those operations at risk we were very um we were lucky enough to have retained earnings to get us through the pandemic if we didn't those you know Community programs would have had to cease to exist and then what would all those parents do um facilities rentals you know we we could have recovered a little bit easier uh but you know I think about Community programs the board supported um the planning of keeping a healthy retained earnings um to to get through you know because at the time if you recall we had we were required to pay staff even though they were not working all right that that was something that was very clear that was the direction and we were able to do that if we did not have a a good retained earnings it would have been disastrous for this community um so it's saying oh yeah we have this money let's use it over here because we need it but we just can't grab it there has to be planning there has to be you know some conservative thought um and not just looking at what's right in front of us but a year out two years out five years out okay so uh I personally a big supporter of the community program so I want to State it again the community program is not just bringing the financial addition to our budget most importantly this program provide our students a new opportunity to learn new subject additionally provide their parents they help they need for their day Child Care need so for this for those reason combined you know I'm if possible we should enlarge the community program so this is my personal opinion you know I I I cannot give enough credit to amme and her team they are doing beautiful job helped us as public school district help the parents and help the East Bron Community okay now it's my question for you okay so you mentioned the pilot program uh pilot property you know I believe they are paying tax but the tax go to the pilot fund that's correct and they don't pay the school tax let's say this way that's correct that's that's what I that's what I my question is when the state or Department of Education they do the socaled equalized property for E bring with those so-called pilot property includes this equalized property for the community if it does we got screwed that's the that's the way it is because you increase the equalized property with those the school funding formula but we don't get school tax for this soal pilot property they end up with huge difference so I don't know you may not have the answer but at least was us to to do some homework find it out if this pilot property was calculated or included the equalize equalize East brons total property value so as that's is my question and my comments thank you sorry rewind back to community programs for a second um I know we were down for uh morning care and the ask right the ask Encore even after Co because more parents were working from home they weren't bringing their kids in but this year we actually made a larger contribution right from Community programs to the general fund then even in the past so are we I I can't remember where we were last year compared to this total revenue are we back up to pre pandemic level now or we just contributed more over we we contributed more um you know the first year coming which was FY 23 coming out of the pandemic uh we were conservative on how much we transferred over to the general fund uh because we need that retain we had to build back up that retained earnings we went pre pandemic 1.5 million in retained earnings down to like $100,000 so it it takes time uh it's also uh enrollment is still down from pre pandemic uh but costs are down because it's all labor driven you know we we try to stick to a 12 to1 ratio uh with students uh depending on the program that that's not all programs it all depends on uh what's going on with the program um so the more students we have the more cost we're going to have but we do gain efficiencies uh and it's constantly monitoring it you know and I I agree amarie and her team does a great job but it's not just Community programs Financial Services has a huge oversight in that and um you know I am fortunate enough where Community programs reports to me uh and there's a lot of conversations of reviewing numbers what can we offer what are we doing what can we do different how can we save money how can we expand can we get another classroom for ELA uh can we get three more classrooms for ELA you know those are conversations and balancing the need of of all the district and those parents that are looking for for child care so um I I just want to add you know to to reinforce on that point because the Enterprises don't function as an island there is real integration to make sure that there's balance and oversight and making sure that you know the ideas that are coming out to provide programs are good for kids but also good for the district um and I cheaper than any competitor absolutely it's the it's the it is the best deal in town um but I also want to add um to Dr James's question uh regarding where the numbers are in terms of the um the ask and the uh early morning program on balance when we we look at the um Early Learning Academy we've got waiting lists we don't have enough space to be able to support what the parents are asking for out there so um you know if we had the space we'd be able to you know fill those classrooms thank you gentlemen so uh about the facility rentals so I am one of your customers too so I will just want to uh thank you for the entire team because there are few names I would like to take because those names were not taken so first is Chet mohapatra she is wonderful and she will follow up until you pay the money so will you cannot get into the building until the money is fully paid and she's really awesome and she does a great job and Karen Kean I remember your name and I forgot the person's name who is sitting third row be above Kathy yes Kathy so these people are always there when I host the events I have been hosting for last two years and I will continue to host more and uh this is the only opportunity I could thank you all and security team more security team admin everyone has been phenomenal the at uh the theater inside the the technology team everyone does end to endend job and thank you to you you have a great team uh this is from the position of board member I'm thanking you and as a customer too I'm thanking you thank you so hopefully maybe next year I will also get some some availability for other events coming up thank you so much again thanks this is the best theater in around the area I agree thank you Tim so I'm sorry I I I should apologize I should thank you Mr juliani and the team the entire team are doing beautiful job to keep such a very complicated system under control you know I spent quite good time trying to figure out how difficult this is is still challenging for me thank you just now I I forgot I should thank you first before I ask you question it's my fault I'm sorry you were right it's a very complicated thing and there is a reason why I have no [Laughter] hair thank you I'll get that out of the way you and your team um it really is quite impressive I know you don't have a crystal ball uh but do you have any inklings are you talking about how a change in the federal Administration may impact us moving forward just everything I see on social media which is you know depending who you you listen to so you know you've read for example one of the things that has been bantered about has been uh the potential of block grants but there's no way to know how that block grant if it were to come about how that gets divvied up so you're right with what you initially said in terms of not having a crystal ball we don't have that um we can just guess and it's you may as well just throw some numbers on the wall and throw darts at it and see what you hit because there's no way to project what that would be and much the same as with the state aid just you know what's coming from the state without what might be coming from the federal government we don't know what we don't know the state doesn't share any of that information and just to kind of put a little bit of color on that the way the state determines its state aid is they come up with what's the pot of money that they want to distribute and then they play with the formula to to figure out how do they make it work so they back into whatever the aid ends up being um there's no way to to to forecast that you know we can look at what the last year's formula was which we have um we've got that down in an Excel workbook and plug-in numbers but there's a lot of hesitation to talk about that data because there's so many variables in it that we can't speak to so just just one thing I did want to mention about there's been discussion about school vouchers um if you look at States uh throughout the country that have experimented with that or implemented that in the past um you know T people typically don't tend to migrate away from their school their home school very much there might be some specialized schools that people will select but um that's something we have to keep our eyes on in terms of forecasting what that impact could be to East Brunswick schools for the future yeah I think so any other questions I did I'm sorry um I wanted to thank you because this presentation is always so accessible to people where this is not our line of work I mean I know that this is a monstrous budget and I know how many people are stakeholders in the schools and how many people are employed by the schools and you do make it so that it's understandable for everyone um I did have I did want to say that I'm a huge Community program supporter both as a board member and as somebody who pays for Community programs um and Ela I have talked to people in the community who are just wishing we had more space to open more classroom especially in their neighborhood school you know there might be a slot available but it's not where their other children go um I I'm talking to more people who are saying that my own child even parents that are working for home the kids that are occasional use booklet people are now switching to every day because the program is so strong the kids want to be there so it is amazing what Amry does the program sells itself absolutely she's always trying to we're doing this it's not good enough let's you know push the envelope and it shows children that cry and I'm not saying mine but I'm saying mine children that cry when you try to pick them up from school and it's too early to leave they don't want to leave as I can really when I leave here I cry yes I those are tears of joy aren't they I have been turned away by my youngest who would like me to leave her there a little bit longer which always makes me both sad and smile um so it if she really does sell the program the program sells itself um I would not be surprised if we don't see a rise there my question though is about the pilot funding or the pilot monies so the new properties that are not paying taxes that would contribute to the school's budget as homeowners property taxes do that it goes to this pilot fund instead you said that this could go on for a certain amount of time do we have any estimate for how long they will not be like are we aware of how long they will be doing payment in Le of taxes fortunately the township doesn't consult us or share that information and and it VAR it would vary on the agreements you know it depends on what the Agreements are between the parties uh but we don't have that information and I wouldn't Venture a guess on it is this generally a few years or is this generally they're 20 to 30 years in length that answers that thank you so much can can I just jump in there um thank you and your staff you all do an excellent job and thank you your presentation was great and very like Miss squa said very easy to understand so I appreciate that I'll jump in on the pilot only because for um New Jersey Schoolboard we had our delegate assembly two weeks ago and one of the things that they brought to the table that many towns and that many school districts would like to see is that a representative from the board or the school administration have a seat at the township table when those pilot Agreements are being made with economic developments and I think um actually the vote there got like 100% to zero um so that's something that we're telling New Jersey school boards look we want you to man know we want you to go out and tell the state and the townships like that this is something that we are passionate about we think that we should have a seat at the table at least even to know what to expect right like we shouldn't um worry or have to think about how this is affecting our incoming you know students current students and incoming we should be able to be prepared and know um exactly what it is that's on the table when these Pilots you know or these economic developments are coming so um I'm hopeful that maybe within the next year or so we'll see that I don't think it's out of the realm for for us to go to the township and ask if we can have a seat at the table we'll see um to be determined I guess but you know I did reach out um to admin to ask um Dr reesi and Mr Juliana earlier after this had happened if we had been approached and asked um to be included in discussions and as far as I can tell we haven't been um so maybe we'll try thank you thank you no so Scott Cleland from pkf of Conor Davies is our independent auditor and Scott I turn this over to you thank you I appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight uh to present the results of the 2024 audit it's actually nice to be doing it in December again as opposed to uh January February and sometimes March over the last couple years due to the fact that the state was kind of delinquent and getting us the information we needed to finish the audits so uh your audit will be going final it's actually probably it's gone final yesterday so it's gone out the door or actually today is the final date uh so your report is going final the due date was extended this year till January 15th um which obviously we're going to be well in advance of that and that's again we had to pick and choose which of our clients we thought we could get done before the end of the calendar year and obviously with the strong administrative and management staff you have there it was an easy choice to say Let's Get East Brunswick out the door uh before the end of the calendar year um before I get start I want to thank Dr veski and Mr Juliana as well as Tara and Joe for uh all their work during the order process we ask a lot of information from them they have to fill out a lot of forms for us they meet with us throughout the course of the uh the audit uh we're here for several weeks and as Joe mentioned it's not just looking at a checkbook we're looking at a lot of different areas we're looking at controls that you have over the processing of transactions which are important how do you prevent something from going wrong we're looking at your cash receipts and revenue Cycles we're looking at your purchasing and accounts payable Cycles we're looking at your payroll Cycles which is obviously the largest cycle you have here uh because that's where the majority of your dollars come from and we spend a lot of time I don't want to criticize Joe but we do spend most of our time with Tara so she's the real Cog out there but next year she's doing this presentation um but anyway it's it's a great as Joe continues to say every year it's a great team effort that we feel we get here as well when we come in we know if we have a question during the order process that we can go to someone here and we get an answer that's reliable and I can't say that about every District that I do audit sometimes you have to talk to 10 different people before you get the answer you need here most of it sent to Joe and Tara and you know within within a few minutes they're down in the office we work out of and providing us with the answers or an explanation as to why something was done in a certain Manner and that makes the audit process very very easy uh from a team perspective as well as putting the financial statements together and I'll say it again there's not any other District that I audit and there's about 15 or 16 of them that are personally mine where I actually get up here and tell you what we do from an order perspective as as opposed to reading you the numbers Joe's the only person that I work with that gets up here puts the effort forth and really as you can see he understands the operations of this district and has the answers and has the knowledge to be able to get up here and off the top of his head rattle off numbers and and provide you the information that makes it helpful for you as a board to make decisions going forward so again I want to give Joe Kudos again for being able to get up here and do that and that's technically what's supposed to happen in the order process I'll get questions from board us too well how you come up with that number well that's not my number it's your number I have to look at whether it's right or not here I feel like I'm actually looking at a number and saying that's right I didn't create it you did they're your financial statements not mine have to put an opinion on it as to whether those numbers that are presented to us are accurate materially accurate anyway here we are again with the another audit and as I mentioned filed on time well in advance of last year I've already recognized the staff uh you have a large District as as the numbers presented themselves almost 200 million if not more and it's not just one area there's different funds they all have to be accounted for differ and we as Auditors have to abide by the regulations that are set forth by the Department of Education that are placed on us to make sure that we do do the procedures necessary to make sure that districts are following the compliance regulations and it is very very highly compliance regulated these are all the areas that we touch upon at a minimum we look at your general and School administration how costs go into that struction costs how your transportation money s spent your Enterprise operations that Joe went through Capital Improvements uh Debt Service and your internal service operations so we're looking it each funds separately and each has its own purpose and restrictions what's the objective kind of mentioned it already we're going to come in here uncover look at look at different transactions in all your different areas look at your final numbers look at how the operations were run we're going to put all that together and then we're going to render an opinion and we're following generally accepted accounting principles in rendering that opinion and if there's things that are not accurate or not off it could render something that be other than an unmodified opinion your district has received an unmodified opinion which is a clean opinion we also as part of Regulation and compliance we also have to test governmental internal controls in in place at your district and we follow government auditing standards in doing so and then we have to rep report back whether we had anything that we identified as being a finding that needs to be brought to the attention of the administration or the board and I'm happy to report that there are no findings again this year uh in the AIT report under regular standards or as under governmental auditing standards and then lastly we have to spend time annually looking at your federal and state grants and it's not the same Grant every year it rotates based upon uh whether the federal government says it's a high-risk program and wants us to look at it uh this year from a Federal grant perspective we looked at your acers program which is the 25 and older kids that or 21 to 25 year old I think they are right that that you have to still fund we looked at that uh years ago last year and year before we spent a lot of time looking at your eser money which now is no longer there so we did not look at that again this year so we have to look at various Federal programs and state programs to make sure that the money you spent for those programs were in compliance with the state or federal regulations uh the caffer that I believe you received a copy of has four sections introductory Financial statistical and single audit uh the introductory section is really your section of the report that provides an overview of the district the financial section is the area that we look at from the financial numbers the statistical section is 20 different pages and 20 different tables in there talking about tax levy debt limits and so forth and then the single audit section is the area that talks about the federal and state grants that we looked at AO results the opinion we're placed on the financial statements is unmodified that's a clean opinion this is in good financial position there are no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies identified during the course of our testing there's an unmodified opinion or a clean opinion on our testing of your state and federal grants and then no other matter findings identified in our in our procedures and will not be reported in Auditor's mat report therefore there will be no required corrective action plan with that I'd be more than happy to open it up and again you have as I keep hearing and I I see for myself you have a very very strong Accounting Group here which makes everyone's life a little bit easier so with that I'd like to open up to any questions you may have and thank you very much for allowing you to present tonight thank you Scott Scott how long have you been with us now oh probably about 10 years maybe 10 years yeah probably about 10 years this is my 40th year doing these Audits and and in these years you're always impressed you're always giving accolades to Bernie to Joe to their departments um it's it's nice to hear it doesn't get old it's yeah it's nice to do the same presentation every year pretty much it is I because I don't think you know and unless you're in the financial word I don't think a lot of people really understand when you talk about the unmodified and clean and and and all the accolades that you give us you give these guys and and when I say guys I mean their Department um it's not something I'm sure you don't see this is not in every District correct am I correct you're absolutely correct we really are okay so if I could I just want to add one thing Scott has been the partner in charge of our engagement for the last 10 years we've had different seniors uh it's not the same person on the ground doing the audit testing managing the report ultimately you know Scott is a partner of a major firm um but there is a rotation um so it you know I just want to make that clear and the importance of that is that you don't have the same people looking at what we are doing year after year it it changes it up it gives fresh eyes different yes fresh eyes exactly and that's really I also make the comment that we don't run from our problems if we do have an issue we don't hesitate calling to try to find guidance if we do have a problem we have audit findings we've had audit findings before we are not perfect but we take immediate corrective action and we try to address and approve I've said this in the past we strive for Perfection mhm it's not always obtained we are not perfect but when issues do come up we don't ignore them we address them and you know sometimes there it's very effective there's a problem let's be better you know so I I just want to make that clear so there's no Mis understanding from the public standpoint and even Beyond you know the you know if there's a problem um there's a lot of proactivity that takes place um as we talk about issues that may be unique we'll reach out and consult with the auditor beforehand how do we handle certain things this is what we think and go through the steps do you agree or is there another way for us to do things so we engage this is not a once a year you know hello come in do your thing and leave we're constantly engaged with with Scott and his team and that's really I think an important piece of being successful at at what we're doing yes um Lea so Scott thank you very much give us a peace of mind so my question for you is if there is any F Finance uh mistake or irregularity are you going to find it we have almost $1 million 1 million transactions every year so if anything you know is abnormal are you going to find it we're going to find anything that's material materially misstated in your financial statements which is our which is our requirement yes okay thank you give us a confidence you have been with us for 10 plus years so I'm sure you are doing the similar things for other school district can you give some example what kind of mistake or the abnormal the other school district did and you cut I could go on for an hour or more with that so we've had issues with federal and state Grant programs not being spent properly and actually question costs um because we found that there are certain costs that were incurred uh for a federal program where they weren't allowable and we had the question cost and they ultimately had to give the money back to the federal government uh we've had issues with purchase orders not being properly approved um we've had issues with quotes and bids not being done properly um we look at a wide arrange in wide VAR variety of things that we're focused on from a state perspective as well as from a uh accounting perspective that we have certain obligations as an independent firm to perform certain procedures and we also do certain procedures we change them up every year too so they're not they're not the same exact procedures every year because we don't want to get into a situation where clients know exactly what we're coming in here looking for so I'm very confident that if something material came up we find thank you very much okay thank you very much thank you so much we appreciate it um oh it's good oh did you have did I miss sorry can I make just one final comment sorry sorry I want to thank Mr Juliana and having the vision to create this department Mr crotchfelt to uh assemble it and have all of this T all this talent in finance uh because I know from my rule as being superintendent you have to depend on these people every single day to make the right decisions and I just sincerely appreciate that because that's a vision that was supported by the board of education at that time and has continued to be a focus of boards after that and I think it has been um just just in a single term Visionary so thank you thank you again Scott happy holidays everyone happy holidays I see we she joined as I'm going to save you for later we're going to get this stuff out of the way um we're at the public hearing on the student safety data system report Dr veski yes so we are actually reporting uh six-month period January uh 20124 to June 2024 uh so we are we'll just be talking about that six-month period I will I will also point out to the community when I reach a certain point we'll be looking at full full year comparisons uh so before I get into it I do want to thank Karen Keegan who helped assemble all of this information extracted it from our reports and we worked together to assemble it and she she worked to assemble it in a meaningful way for the community so the first um actually Encompass first sheet actually encompasses all of our elementary schools including hamers shold upper elementary school and you'll see at the second line from the bottom we've included Hughes there with a total for all the elementary schools but let before we begin let me talk about some of the column uh descriptions one I want to talk about the violence column uh so we are reporting based on state criteria so the state says that violence includes assault a fight kidnapping robbery Distortion sexual assault sexual contact contact uh simple threat and criminal threats so that is all in the violence category vandalism encompasses arson computer trespass damage to property false public alarm theft and trespass and then one of the bigger categories to the right you'll see other incident leading to removal that is anything that isn't covered by our HIV that isn't covered by weapons offenses or substance offenses and that involves any disciplinary removal for at least one half of day so anything from a half a day beyond must be reported um you'll also see that we have HIV alleged that in our nomenclature on the East Brunswick side is nonf founded HIV it is investigated but it is unfounded and HIV confirmed is pretty clear it's it's one that's investigated in has been confirmed to be an HIV so um one of the things I wanted to point and there are a lot of numbers you'll see that we have on the Hib confirmed for elementary schools we have some some samplings in there we have singular cases in our elementary schools but I want to point your attention if you go down to the second col second row from the bottom and the uh second uh column from the right for Hughes other incidents leading to removal we jump from our elementary schools to Hughes we jump from singular events to 30 at Hughes that transitional grade that transitional period for our students going from their home elementary schools to Hughes has been identified as an issue that we are looking at and we're tackling this year so as I said this information is from January 24 to June 24 this is a focus Fus of ours and has been this school year so hopefully the next reporting period we're going to see some some positive gains in that if we go to the next slide this is our secondary schools in the same comparison and again we have um issues of violence and we have substance abuse vandalism we have occasional weapons here and I want to talk I'll talk later about uh the types of weapons that we're discovering we have a number of hibs that we investigate but again if you look at other incidents leading to removal uh for a Churchill Junior High School you see that number jump to 146 we're moving from 30 at hamers to 146 at a junior high school and then coming down a little bit at the high school that has also been a focus at Churchill and I think we're going to be reporting positive results I talked to Mr Hannis uh often this school year uh and this school year is looking much different than last school year did so I just wanted to draw that for comparison if we go to the two-year comparison um this is a full year 2022 2023 to 2023 2024 I want to look at the columns uh the vandalism column uh we have 14 reported instance uh for the 23 24 school year and I wanted to give the public a context for those 14 so we had five damage to property incidents we had three false public alarms and that could be things like pulling the fire alarm we had one trespass and five thefts and then if we look at weapons we had nine total for the 2324 school year that included five knives that were discovered on students two pepper sprays recovered on students and two tasers recovered on students now I want to make emphasis on the knives in any in every case that we found a knife it was not for harm to somebody else it was a it was somebody carrying something to display what they had and has as has been in the news uh with the availability of 3D printers we have had a couple of knives produced on 3D printers and brought to school in backpacks so they're still a weapon but they are student created on a on a private 3D printer and they are they're very accurate um so that's something we're paying attention to if we go to the next slide we're talking about just the number of hivs that are investigated but unfounded uh among our elementary schools and secondary schools tools and the number that are investigated and confirmed we see relatively consistent distribution uh with 47 total that are unfounded and uh 42 uh that were uh confirmed and this is again January 24 to June 24 and if we look at the next slide this is the actual full year comparison over two years 23 24 and 2223 again the thing I wanted to point out out was the column uh where we have HIV alleged and as you recall HIV alleged are hivs that are investigated but are unfounded we are seeing a decline in the number of hivs that are reported and and then not found to be HIV so we're trying to emphasize what the HIV law was for and trying to point um you know we're looking at code of conduct student discipline and not necessarily moving right to an HIV right away but we're still using the HIV uh investigation wherever it is needed uh and if that is mentioned in uh context of a conversation with a parent we we fully engage that process um you know or an administrator can do that principal can do that at their building so I wanted to reassure the public we are investigating everything but we are looking at situations where we have SIMPLE disagreements between students or among students that might be code of conduct and not HIV and just quickly on the last slide um not going to mention everything but I I want to mention two important things sources of strength has been a really uh reliable program for our school community and I applaud our teachers and our students who are engaged in that they're doing really good work and they're having an impact on other students and this year um in student services they have uh actually deployed the displac students group uh so we as our displayed students grow and we mentioned earlier in the superintendence report the number of individuals and families who are getting gifts for the holidays that they normally wouldn't be able to get uh this is a very unique group has very unique um uh circumstances that are out of their control um so hearing their voice working directly with them is another very effective way for for mediation of student conflict so I applaud everybody for doing the work and thanks Karen once again for assembling all this for this six-month hearing so that concludes the uh the presentation for the hearing do they still do the uh sources to strength the trainings because um way back when we started the program some of the board members we were able to go to the training so I don't know if you would open that up again because some of the board members might enjoy yeah that wasn't that long ago that we did that I think it two or three years maybe three years ago we did it before it was F it was before Co um I it was a church show where we we were all gathered because I remember yes I'm just yeah just a suggestion for some of the board members might enoy I think it's great I I learned a lot and yeah thank you um so this you you want to talk okay um I just want to confirm so are these all student to student hivs is that is that the right way of looking at this no not necessarily we' had um other crossovers where we've had student to staff okay that could be incorporated into here anything that's that's investigated as an HIV okay and then um I think the the two-year comparison is really helpful um and it's really nice to see that in in most cases obviously we're seeing a decrease uh which is fantastic outside of the other incidents leading to removal that's a pretty significant increase um is there you know I know there's no one answer to all of this but can can you help us understand kind of what maybe that represents um I think that we we are seeing um Pockets anomalies of frustration among some of our students in terms of their their success in the academic environment we are actually looking and we'll be talking this next year uh with the board about some options we might consider for engaging our students in different ways so that they don't feel like everything for every student is Just One Singular track looking at individualized student needs um especially in our track to the high school um to make sure that they stay engaged when they need to stay engaged but that we're not keeping them in things that they're really not interested in does that make sense it it does it's it's complicated I mean I don't expect an answer to it I mean I think that we collectively you know these things are are occurring everywhere right they're not just in our schools so um you know but we have to account for it and we have to figure out what to do about it so I think these additional resources that are being put in place are vital to our you know wholeness and wellness as a community and I think our our staff is doing a remarkable job in trying to mediate uh conflicts when they occur um but we we are still like every large organization we are struggling with the the social media impact and a lot of um a lot of conflict occurs outside of school it it originates outside of school on social media and then comes and it it's resonating inside school and we're responsible for all that if it if it happens outside of school um but is related has an impact on the school environment that is our responsibility so the scope of responsibility for schools has changed dramatically since the implementation of the HIV law we admire why it was created and and what it's done to protect students but it has become burdensome on on the staff um with the amount of investigation that you have to do in the compliance pieces that you have to do a question sure was the jump driven by one school in particular or it's kind of sced around the the two the increase in the two-year comparison to the other instance wasn't driven by any one school um it it's usually spread throughout our Secondary School um I have not so much a question but a comment to build on to an earlier question I just wanted to say as far as the the frustration with our Churchill students and the high school students about um frustration on social media I just wanted to thank I'll report out later on our student services meeting which went on it's a rich rich report went on for a very long time but one of the things our student services department is doing amazing things and they're even addressing there's a girls group at Churchill and one of the things they're working on is detoxifying social media like I think I think our student services is beyond excellent at targeting specific needs and working with very small groups instead of trying to do something sweeping but individualizing what like you were saying and I do think it'll have an impact on the numbers next year we're hoping we're hoping um so this this is actually a public hearing so if there's any members of the public that would like to speak on this and this um issue alone we will have a public portion for everything else but if you have anything you're welcome to come to the podium and you want their name in um address for the record usual the usual um Dom scani to Morgan place so like I noticed um like hamers shold was um or Hughes as it's called now was um pretty high and I want to know what's kind of being done about that because like when I was in hammerel like I was bullied and like it seemed to be like a big thing so clearly if it's still happening now it's a um systemic issue so you know what what is going to be done to specifically Target that issue in general because um sure kids are coming from all over and and um and uh coming from an elementary school uh going to the middle school but I feel like there has to be something that's being done you know so that's my question thank you Tom so we don't I mean we're not doing questions and everything or you want to tell um it's just comments just comments okay are there any other public comments at this time okay then I am going to close the public portion for this which will bring us right into the public portion um good of the cause for the public the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment and 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 you have have three minutes um and I remind you it is your time to talk to us and at this point I will invite anyone in the public to come up and speak about any issue that they would like and if you can all just state your name and address for the record please alra Sidler 12 South Woodland Avenue uh this is my second testimonial on parent language arts curriculum experiences to quote I am a parent of a second grader and an Ela student my concerns for my second grade student have grown over the last three school years when she began kindergarten she was excited to learn to read every night we would choose books from her reading but soon after starting to read she would grow frustrated she would tell me I don't know that word without trying to sound it out or even look at it I couldn't understand why she thought she could read a word without even looking at it at parent teacher conferences I mentioned my child's frustration to her teacher I was concerned that something might be wrong and that she needed more help but I was assured that she was right on target I was told that at this stage the students are simply encouraged to look at the pictures and think about what what word might might be best and guess the word this sounded strange to me but I am not an educator and assume that there must be some evidence to support this method then in first grade her progress report reflected that she was not achieving the expected reading level I began to speak to other parents and was made aware of the missing piece phonics I brought my concerns to her first grade teacher where they were dismissed as silly and assured me my child had caught up and would be just fine at the same time my child began taking a Greek language course 2 hours every week within one school year she learned a new language a new alphabet how to read Greek how could she struggle so much with English her first language but be excelling in Greek the difference was that Greek was being taught with phonics at its core there was no guessing how to say a word her teacher taught her to look at the letters and sound them out it really was that simple since then I have spent a lot of time with my child working on sounding things out and I have seen great improvements her latest report card reflected that she is now exceeding expectations in Reading however now in second grade writing is her new source of frustration I reviewed several pieces of writing at parent teacher conferences full of spelling mistakes while there are some corrections being made if those Corrections are not happening in real time how will the child form the necessary connections to become a writer when asked about correcting her work at home I was encouraged not to in an effort to foster a love of writing this has been difficult for my child and my family like many others I work and have another child to care for spending time teaching her phonics that should be prioritized in the classroom has been a major source of frustration for all of us she is confused as to why I am telling her to sound things out when that is not what she is being told to do in school she is offended when I am correcting her writing when in school she is able to write without anyone telling her something is wrong and lastly it is not fair that after spending six hours in school she needs to spend more time undoing what I believe is the Damage Done by this curriculum end quote I just want to be clear I'm not trying to sell anyone a story I'm imploring you to understand that the district has already bought one thank you thank you Mrs Sidler hey my name is Donald Simons I'm River Road in East BR I got a complaint to make about your transportation department I've called there about numerous times about school bus drivers not using the Amber lights 200 ft before a stop I was told by your transportation department that your person in charge of it told the school bus drivers not to use the Amber lights when the light is red and I called over and she said it's more important for them to have the leftand turn signal on than it is the Amber lights when they in the left- hand turn lane I called last year about it and I was told that the state lowered the school bus Amber L from 200 ft to 175 ft I call three different School Bus districts I called sville PR Township and South BR Township and they all told me it was 200 ft not 175 ft I think this lady who's in charge of it should be released from her job because she's not taking the student safety thank you Mr Simons um if you want to leave your information with um Janet and Karen over here maybe they can get some clarification for you and follow up I called the superintendent's office okay I talk to the secretary she called over and they told her that the Amber lights can cause blinding to drivers I've never heard of that I drove a school bus back in 1972 for FAL Regional High School District and I've never heard that before and it's not in the state record that you can't have it on I don't know what kind of district there she she's running last year she's supposed to be uh at the school bus stop on River Road on a Friday and I stood out there never showed up and that so I mean your dorm school bus company they don't care I've called them too and the school bus drivers still aren't using the amberl for 200 ft they're still dropping students off going across three lanes of roadway which from what I understand they're not supposed to do and I get the comer from the bus driver they're not my they're not my responsibility well if they're not his responsibility whose responsibility are they okay so you you know I I went and I I called the road department up and and I had a a school bus sign for River Road put on the eastbound side going on Main Street and I got one put on the westbound side going on Main Street and that just before the school year started this week that's what I did I I I I called enough and I made enough complaints that they did it what' she do nothing I mean you had a school bus hit by dump truck last year in the back in October and this is still the same problem with the school bus drivers not using the Amber lights for 200 feet okay we're gonna look into this then because I I'm not aware of that so um you have his information so we will do some research for you all right thank you and we'll get back to you thank you long time no see welcome back um to to Morgan please um so I I'm not entirely sure if this is indicative of the the language arts programs but I I'll indulge so um graduated three years ago uh first day or first semester of uh freshman New Year College go to Ruckers um the professor was like all right like write me an essay on this and me having all the East Brunswick writing knowledge in my head I was like okay this this is how you do you boom three pages five sentences topic sentence boom boom boom um to then I I got like a zero on the paper and we we talked about it and I was like oh like and this is what I learned High School this this and this and then he looked me in the eye and he said your high school failed you your high school did not prepare you for me um and I learned that everything everything uh writing wise I learned in high school was pretty much wrong so I had to retach myself and like did you know you can start a sentence with and you can use I like you you don't have to have a topic sentence in the beginning and and all these rules that we were taught like it's not um allegedly uh according to the professors and and I've had multiple writing courses where it it wasn't the same as here um so I think you know if if our whole thing is you know prepare students for college and everything and especially one that majority of the students go towards you know we should probably look into you know is is this outdated is this is there a new Norm you know um yeah thank you thank you Dom uh good evening I don't have really have a complaint I would just like to thank like most of the board of education for spending their time and dedication into helping the community and making schools a better place for students like me that's all we have to say thank you sweetheart can I ask your first name and your grade please uh Andrew and grade thank you thank you Cheryl brass N Scott Drive last name again please brass thank you like the instruments good evening we look forward to welcoming you students staff and the public to a celebration of the Arts an inspiring concert presented by the East Brunswick Symphony Orchestra in partnership with the East Brunswick Education Foundation at jmac on January 12th these two nonprofit organizations will highlight the outstanding achievements of Arts education within the East Brunswick Public Schools and will showcase the collaborative Spirit of our community performances include the high school chamber orchestra and the professional East Brunswick Symphony Orchestra several of the music faculty perform in the East Brunswick Symphony Orchestra It's a Wonderful opportunity for students and families to attend a professional orchestra concert here at home at an affordable price and he their talented teachers perform as they experience a magnificent concert in addition to the outstanding music education our students enjoy through a partnership with our East Brunswick Recreation and Parks Department the East Brunswick Symphony Orchestra offers adults 18 and up the opportunity to continue their musical learning seamlessly through participating in our instrumental classes and the East Brunswick Community Symphonia the East Brunswick Community Symphonia is a multi-generational Orchestra and is the only Community Orchestra in Middle sex County we look forward to seeing you at our next concert on February 23rd for tickets and more information please visit e bsomusic.org we greatly appreciate your support thank you board members for your commitment to the school community Through Your volunteerism by serving on the board of education wishing you and those you love a happy holiday season thank you so much Mr Bress good evening board Jeff Winston 44 fresh ponds already sprunck so tonight I'd like to come and talk about the word accountability I'll start with a comment that was actually made this evening by Miss herck and I I I appreciate it very much in fact Mayor Cohen did attempt to sit down after a meeting that was held uh back in September of 23 with Mark sisar and myself as Citizens uh that request was actually operable there was a letter sent to each board member and you can see that request and that request was sarily uh dismissed by your president LAX and in fact she even brought uh or attempted to bring some form of an Ethics violation in which thankfully uh legal counsel advised that was not appropriate so that's accountability accountability in things like as a former board member Mark sisar and I did leave the board back in March and in the tap article Dr veski mentioned that he's going to work on his immediate priorities of March of 24 9 months ago n nine months ago 2012 yeah he was going to finalize the budget he did that and we did cut 50 people uh he was going to continue to refine the proposal for the new high school Andor EXT uh reev uh renovations to the high school that has never appeared on the agenda since we've left uh since I left office recruiting and retaining the highest quality staff there's no doubt he's retaining the highest quality staff the teachers of our district are unmatched I assume recruiting but let's not forget about the 51 highly qualified individuals that were walked out the door and lastly something about positioning the district for the next decade this is all focused around accountability you have an opportunity the township delivered a mandate to this Township and I don't think it was necessarily the candidates who or the incumbents who were necessarily leaving what it was was the township is simply tired of not accountability they're simply over it they wanted accountability they wanted people to speak up on this board and not allow this board and in this District to be run off the cliff for personal reasons there will be a president vote to add new president this President and past presidents have stated oh there's no power in the presidency it's only one vote we all know that's not true the board president sets the agenda it's highly important I think it is vital that we recognize the fact that Heather gu and Lori LAX were the ones who unilaterally without board approval went and spoke to Victor veski to do that contract that was pulled back that's a fact that happened we don't need an extension of what Miss LAX has done on this board for the last six years I think ideally an individual has who has experience and leadership as someone like Mr Cummings or 10 seconds thank you or uh or uh Lou uh should be considered thank you very much for those who have served I wish you all the very best thank you thank you Mr Winston is there anyone else that would like to speak to the board hi neighbors Jamie Falco 6 Garfield um I just wanted to take a moment since this is the last meeting for a couple of you up here thank you thank you for your time thank you for everything you've done for our district those of you who haven't served as long you're still greatly appreciated thank you thank you Dr Falco is there anyone else that would like to speak to the board this evening no okay seeing none I'm going to close the public portion and now the moment you've been waiting for um she came in a little bit late but we would love to hear what's going on at the high school as we enter the holiday uh break yeah I just want to apologize for I thought it was at 7:30 I oh don't apologize we're happy to have you um hello everyone it's been some time since we last met and I'm thrilled to share all the exciting developments and events that have unfolded over the past few weeks I'd like to start about I'd like to start by talking about one of student C most successful events over the past few years that happened this month on December 4th the student council hosted our inaugural Holiday Market this event gave students a chance to sell goods and raise money for organizations clubs and even their own businesses with over 36 vendors on the day of the event the media center was packed with eager buyers looking to purchase goods from their peers and vendors with a variety of goods here were some notable organizations and what they sold from to day the save organization a group of students within ebhs focused on environmental sustainability ran a thrift shop where they sold used vintage clothes this is what I bought you guys um the art club with an ebhs sold bare themed ornament and cards I purchased my own and um our special needs program created clay coasters that could be used uh over the holiday break and I thought they were very cute so I also bought these um um overall the event was very successful with vendors selling over $800 and many boots selling out the goods that they had the event was a great success and it was truly heartwarming to witness the holiday spirit and the gift of giving in action speaking of the gift and giving my AP environmental science class took this gift in full stride through the district's adopted family program which Dr VY talked about earlier we were able to choose one disadvantaged Elementary School student and raised money for him across the three class periods me and my fellow environmental science students raised over $750 just for one student [Applause] with this money my fellow classmates and I were able to go out and purchase winter coats shirts pants toys and gift cards to Walmart and shoper for the student fellow environmental science classmate Noah Adelman says it was awesome to see the three classes come together and raise so much money for student who is less privileged me and my classmates were super fun we're super happy to contribute to this to the student and make sure that he had the best holiday season possible Mr Murray and the environmental science family is thankful for the district for giving us the opportunity to uh to give others um to give towards others and we hope to keep this act giving uh for future years um the class of 2026 class Council recently conducted their election for the senior year executive board the last few weeks have been full of constant campaigning by all students involved class Council candidates snap pictures behind pictures snap pictures behind frames and slogans in order to spread the word about their campaign students use caty slogans with song lyrics and social media trends to drive their campaign and make it more engaging voting occurred Tuesday and Wednesday with a record high 496 votes going towards this election it was a hard-fought battle and all the candidates worked very hard I like to congratulate the new board and wish them the best of luck next year in office as the weather has become more and more painfully freezing our high school sports have moved inside where sports like basketball wrestling and swimming and hockey are kicking into full gear there have been some notable winter sports victories over the past few weeks our hockey team which plays alongside Spotswood and South River recently landed a thrilling 4 4-3 overtime victory over Princeton senior and captain of the hockey team Daniel noov says the CBR hockey team has great players and the rest of the team looks the rest of season looks promising the support we get from our fans has really helped us get the performance and results we needed boys basketball has their home opener tonight where they face a tough mopin team with the holiday break approaching I like to wish everyone a joyous holiday season may this break bring you celebration and connection with your loved ones i' like to thank the board for all their hard work throughout the entire year and success in the new year thank you thank you are so I'm making awe of you you're so well spoken I really hope you do something that you get to do public speaking he's going to be onsite reporter I'm thinking that you may have to start giving his superintendence report for the rest of the year not that you don't do a wonderful job Happ for you to do that so you really do it's amazing thank you amazing wow that was worth the wait wasn't it y yeah it really was okay um I'm going to ask for a motion for all items on this evening's agenda so move by Mrs gu right second second by Mrs herck is there any discussion on anything yes Dr James you may start I I was just wondering about um item number four on the curriculum and instruction have some very exciting new horses there I apologize Dr Bing for not asking about them in dance I was just wondering if you could perhaps say a little bit more about the uh Mandarin and the exploration of music I think those would be very interesting to the public yes absolutely um the exploration of Music course is being offered for our students who are not um maybe interested in performing but they are interested in music and studying um about music um so that class will be offered um for for those students as an opportunity to get involved with the music and the music program but not necessarily performance-based and the Mandarin Our World Language Advanced Chinese course and um contemporary Chinese cultures so these courses are also being offered in the sequence of um Mandarin uh the world language program for our students um in the 11th and 12th grade when they finished um the highest level of Mandarin 5 being offered thank you yeah real quick I just want to speak on number four um regarding the sustainable Jersey uh certification so it is a impressive initiative um that I'm really looking forward to learning more about and and um certainly celebrating as we go through and and just want to commend the district for taking this on um done a lot of work with this stuff in the past and and it's I I want to it's not a warning it's more of a let's go and and do this type of type of uh announcement but it's a lot of work right um to to really do these things and to do them well and I think we saw you know we continue to see steps towards these goals uh which is really great for us as a community and I'm just really excited to see where this may go I think it's a great first step and um I want to wish the people who who will be working towards these efforts um all the best I I think just on the topic as well one of the best things about initiatives of this nature is that it really calls to mind you know the idea of neighbor and and impact and what that means and so um you know this is a great thing for us to be thinking about as a team and as a community so thank you for bringing this up this GL oh okay um I wanted to further I believe Mr cumming's comments or build um I also wanted to say that one of the new courses that was suggested and these things because of the way the budget is these things are all you dependent upon the budget and what comes through from the state but one of the courses that was proposed is in exploring human humans environmental footprint which which I've heard repeatedly throughout the community and I congratulate you for being so responsive to the community's requests is really to teach the students at a younger age about how to be more sustainable what it is our impact and what we can do about it um as far as Sustainable New Jersey I was so happy to see us moving forward with this this has been a project of the board's for a long time I remember talking about it with Susanna when she was here she was passionate um but if you have the opportunity to read up on it their website is very very accessible the goals um what the schools are looking to do and it's just it's an interesting it's an interesting read it has a lot of information and really I recommend you to look because it's great what the district is doing and I'm very grateful for Dr veski putting this together I know I had hands down here oh okay go right down the we'll go right down the is that okay two three uh I wanted to say thank you for the district I I forget the number here but Mammoth university has added as another school where we talk about um you know encouraging students high school students and college students to take a track we do that here at the high school level and now we're bringing that as well to another school at the college level so having them come here to the district and to prepare and then to remember us when it's time to become a teacher so that we have that wonderful pipeline of students coming in so appreciate that and I also want to add on number four partici participation in sustainable Jersey as uh as both our uh my wonderful colleagues have stated it's been a a you know long time goal of this board uh to have uh to get on board with sustainable Jersey so I'm happy I was here for this meeting it's exciting and again is a first step it is a it is a long road but I must say that our district has been working on a lot if you look look at the list of all the things that they require we have been doing these things uh in in the background for sometimes so thank you to Dr fesi and his team and the district for everything that they're doing thank you so the for the financial surface I item number two so I want to thank Mr Giuliani and the contract on site Fleet surface YC is bronic so everyone knows that the inflation is here I check out the CPI index today so for last 12 months is 2.7% but they got this contract for uh there got no increase so it's really big big game for us so it's 20 24 25 25 26 they kept the same price so which means a lot for us and as for the uh for the sustainability of New Jersey program Dr FAS would you please elaborate a little bit about how what this Pro program is how you are going to employ it um Mr hung thank you um this this is um actually the the overview of sustainable Jersey um this document and they have 22 categories uh within that uh analysis um and as was mentioned before as as Mrs Reese mentioned we have done a number of these uh these things um one major issue that we undertook uh was actually putting solar panels on some of our skulls and renewable energy uh so we have in in fact one of the latest issues that came before the board was adopting uh or introducing uh starch-based utensils to our child instution department so that it become completely biodegradable uh so those kinds of things as was mentioned we have done in the background we're going to document all of these things it's a three-year recertification Pro process but you can also recertify or continue to certify every single year and I think um as we get into documenting all of these things we'll be keeping the board AB breast of that but and my recommendation is that we continue to work towards recertification every single year um and relooking and adding new elements to this uh so we stay current and documented we can communicate with the public that that the uh the board is good stewards of the environment and and the community's resources thank you L think this board put a lot of effort about the environment protection so we adapt we switch from plastic folks to the St based uh folks and then we just participate the suspendable Jersey program and very excitingly we are going to offer a new program exploring humans environment footprint Dr buly would you please introduce something about this new program and how you're going to employ yes Mr Hong we are very excited about offering this elective uh semester long elective to our seventh graders um the teachers and supervisor have been collaborating on Concepts that they felt that age group would be interested in and with student input they um are excited to offer this course um at Churchill for our seventh grade students it will be uh based on uh not really need to be based on um any budgetary issues a current staff member will be teaching it and any supplies or materials needed will be funded through the the regular budget and this offering will be the third science elective at Churchill we also have forensic science and astronomy so we're hoping that there'll be a lot of student interest and the course will be successful thank you I I believe many student will like this class than you very much did you have I'm also going to jump on the sustainability sustainable Jersey schools bandwagon I know this has been a focus of the administration and the board before I got on the board um some of us had the opportunity while at the um convention to talk to some representatives from sustainable Jersey schools and I'm happy to see this on our agenda because um as has been mentioned Dr vesi and the district have already been working hard on a lot of these sustainability initiatives and put putting this resolution on our agenda acknowledges that it acknowledges our commitment as a district as a school to sustainability and schools and the community and allows us the opportunity to also try to connect with grants that may come from the program and technical assistance and um so I'm happy that it's it's here um and also as we're talking about things that came out of the convention I also I know was mentioned at our last meeting but since it's the second reading of some of our revised bylaws I also want to take the chance to just say that what a positive opportunity it was we attended some really great workshops which lended lend which led to some really great discussions and updating of some of our policies and I I think um especially for on boarding and committees going forward um I think that it'll will create some great dialogue and some great opportunities for us to work together thank you Mrs Becker are you guys still working with kmn keep middle sex moving um so keep middle sex moving is a TMA a transportation management Association in the state every county in the state has one I used to work for them years ago and then I worked for the one in Bridgewater so one of the things that uh transportation management associations do is they work with school districts because that's one of the things I did when I was there they work with school districts in trying to promote uh sustainable practices and also to help them with the sustainable Jersey project for instance in the past I know we we've done a walking school bus at a couple of our schools um we have bicycle rodeos all those things also there still should be a place in the application that if you have made contact with the TMA and you have worked with them and talked with them and explored ideas that's that's points on your criteria so um kmn will be a tremendous resource for you if there's any issues with the application um there's also a group at Ruckers within the environmental and Transportation uh school that is kind of an oversight of the school programs for the transportation management systems they have a tremendous amount of resources also so you guys should definitely take advantage of that thank you I have a question about this calendar so I have been meeting many teachers during the last 2 three months so few people bought this to me that there are some festivals or celebrations which are non school days for the students or 10 year 10 months teachers but there are a lot of festivals which are declared holidays so what happens when this is a festival for certain community but the school is only closed for teach students and 10 months but those teacher has to attend as a nonprofessional or professional development Le so they cannot celebrate their festivals because but because they have to attend is there any thought we can put together and sometimes when there are not sometimes those festivals can be considered as a holiday for those people who are celebrating but they are teacher who has to attend the professional development days because if you see I not asking any particular Community but there are festivals like Chinese New Year there are schools are closed but if there are Chinese Teachers or Asian teachers they have to attend the professional development suppose say Diwali it is school is closed but the Indian teachers they have to come to school because the development is Eid there are lot of things but we can put a thought into this and we can think I just want to bring this I'm not saying that I'm not approving this I want to bring this maybe we can put a thought when we are designing the calendars or policies for those community of teachers who celebrate those festivals they can celebrate their festival with their family rather than coming and applying for a leave or coming in attending the do the staff have the same I know um before we CL certain holidays it was an excused absence for students do the staff have the ability to not be there for professional development if there I'm going to ask Mrs tibit to I mean first of all staff member can always take a personal day but looking at the calendar this year we did rotate when the professional development days were so that they don't continue to same fall on those same holidays so you know there might be a year but then the next year going to be on that same holiday so we're going to be mindful of that going forward okay if it is taken care of fine but while I was discussing many many of them came up with this kind of problems that we we cannot celebrate because we have have to attend those professional development days but some other festivals they get a holiday but we don't get we have rotting okay we sck together then good and and just want to make a comment about the calendar in general we are we are compressed between two dates one is the actual first day of school and then graduation which is now dictated by the availability of the Cure Arena because we had talked to the board previously about the viability of looking at graduation on our own field but that cost was much higher than going to the Cure Arena and cure Arena gives us that protection against weather that we know we will have graduation on that day and we will have a secure environment and it will also allow us to have more um family members attend graduation but in that window uh it becomes very complex with the number of holidays that the board has already approved to fit everything in and especially the complexity of lunar holidays um that change year year so that's I just wanted to present that Dynamic this is is a very thoughtful process we try very hard Karen mandler works on models of the calendar uh throughout the year um and she she has been she has been asking about even going out in future years and getting calendars established so people in our community understand what our dates are going to be because they like to make plans and holidays um so I just want you want everybody to know how complex it is but there are very few variables that are left in the the calendar these days with all of the celebrations that are already included um so just want to make that a public statement thank you yeah that's always a challenge okay then I'm going to ask the secretary to please call the role Mrs Becker yes Mr Cummings yes Mr goswami yes M gu yes Mrs herck yes Mr Hong yes Dr James yes Mrs Reese yes and president LAX yes motion carries bringing us to committee reports information items and for the good of the cause for the board I okay all right I am going to try to be Swift with what was a several hourong committee meeting um I am reporting out on our student services committee meeting from last month uh it is related to Dr ves's HIV report in the number of things that are being offered by the district to support our students I also think that in looking at this we have been talking I've been talking to Dr veski about wanting to include more Community stakeholders in in this committee and possibly others but in this one because the number of things that the district does that are that is just so phenomenal for our students more community members more parents should get to hear all of the presentations um it is extraordinary and I wish we could share more of it firsthand instead of just turn the information and talking as fast as as I'm about to because it's late um I would like to say that oh I would also like to thank Karen Keegan for the extraordinary minutes because my my written is crazy um I wanted to say that at the elementary level there was a great deal of discussion about what's being done for our different learners but we have a much larger number of teachers that are Orton Gillingham trained which is incredibly important and the board has talked about that a great deal so that was amazing to hear um in grade through 12 there was a lot of discussion on the work being done for integration inclusion and transition uh the unified Club is on for the second year I believe it was at the high school um and Daniel can correct me if I'm wrong but we have a larger number of students signed up to participate um they're working with our students I want to say our special needs students uh on their transition on creating a portfolio which would include creating a me a resume the recent evaluations copies of the referrals uh places for the parents to have all their information that they might need after graduation but also letting the students do some of that work because it's important for students to have ownership of their own transition which I really applaud um the rest of the meeting was spent so much on addressing um Multicultural needs so uh Vanessa aruro was talking about the Multicultural committee at Hughes which divided into two subcommittees one for diversity and one for Multicultural and I appreciate that the Committees are self- selecting their topics uh what they want to talk about and are very student centered um at Hughes they talked about different projects that have happened to celebrate multiculturalism there was a huge collage of student hands that I did get to see it was really amazing um but they are they're prioritizing what the students say they need in these committees at Churchill they have established many different counseling groups but there's one for our displaced students which is a need we've discussed over and over again um and I think that this preventative work this supportive work is so critical like Dr veski was saying for to react to what our students need prior to there being a problem identified so the number of things that they talked about about goal setting and community support and developing relationships and Community Resources for these particular students um uncommon and the international Club working together was also exceptional um there were initials initiatives at Churchill for the international night uh supporting multilanguage Learners there was somebody from the middle sex County College representative to come talk to parents parents and teachers who might not understand the process they talked about the Church Hill Unity project which is a collaboration between gasp and the international Culture Club um they had a celebration or they planning a celebration for juneth and pride together with shared activities uh that will celebrate identities and showcase them uh gasp at Churchill and the high school both uh honor the Day of Silence with a shout out at the end which is amazing there was also a girls group at Churchill that I just loved this support specifically for girls at what is a difficult transitional age um and these groups are small these are not huge groups of students but they're really these are really identified needs and individualized which I appreciate in a district this large but the girls group talked about um building community and resilience and detoxifying social media um there was a major occupation new explore Readiness group that is very much centered on exploring different careers for students that just weren't sure um and this is really the initiatives that the counselors were so extraordinary and they spoke with such passion about each of these projects uh can't believe I'm talking this fast at the elementary school Central talked about uh very important peers and developing respect there and fourth graders that are giving up recess to play games and work with their self-contained peers in the week of respect there was talk about recipe for what respect looks like at Memorial they've developed they have a fourth grade peer leadership program they spoke about at Hughes there is a climate initiative I love this I would like to steal this idea for everywhere but the positivity station the positivity station is amazing um for different events there's a station set up outside the cafeteria where students can come and do uh small activities for the week of respect um Veterans Day every month there's something at Churchill they participated in Penny Wars for slone ketering um there were support programs developed for the high school Flex program I think that is everything again Karen thank you because I never could have made sense of all of my notes but basically my takeaway from all of this is there is so much thought and passion put in by individuals throughout the district to meet students needs before there is a problem it's just to support them all and this my greatest hope for this committee is that we're able to include more community members on it so they can see firsthand very nice this H well that's the end of the year time flies time real flies you know when I think about I was first elected I had a meeting with Miss Baker she told me said to be a good board member you need read this document if you don't read the document how can you become a board member un unbelievable Miss Ser this community this board 24 years years 24 years almost a quarter of century can you believe that you know I she has been my mentor and know she taught me how to read this Finance report she told me read it line by line if you don't understand it call Miss Julian so well I'm sorry she she she will now join us uh two weeks away but I'm going to personally I really want thank you thank you as a board member for for your teaching thank you very much as a community member you taught me how to be a volunteer thank you very much as a parent you said the RO model for my children thank you additionally Miss race 9 years 9 years is not it's really long time you know this is my eight year you know when I look back how many meetings I have I look at Miss R she always propeled she read the document take notes and we had multiple communication talking about the B topic you know I learn a lot from her so this is the way as board member we help each other to understand we help each other to talk about the future of this community and this school district and this the board thank you very much barara and additionally this two uh Dr James and Miss go Swami thank you very much for the time you shared with us thank you my friends [Applause] it is always very Bittersweet and you know you should feel like a teacher because it's true and I've been on the board a lot longer than you and I still remember Vicky sitting in my um kitchen with the agenda going through every single thing as she did for every new board member that came on and I always said to you didn't matter where you sat you were always a leader you're always a mama bear and um you are a historian you've served in so many roles on this board don't cry you will be missed you will be you have a legacy behind you of the 24 years that you have mentored and taught so many people on this board and done so many things for the children of this District um it will be very strange to come back in January not see you up here but um I think your legacy will live on and where's Barbara you can't even see Barbara right over there um oh did you oh um yes it's it's very hard to say goodbye to board members the the best part about it though is that we still get to be friends so um you've done a lot you and I Barbara and I traveled down to Washington DC many years ago when we were still trying to get later start times and we worked our butts off and did all the research because it was something that was important and now the sustainability I'm glad to see you say that because you are someone who absolutely is you're like a dog with a bone when you find something that means something to you it's it's amazing to watch you with that your you know the girls coding the things you've done in community program so um yes you guys will all be missed it will be very very very different up here without you um but what's one thing that we always see is and in the years I've been here there's always an a a changing of the seats and we have some wonderful people that obviously are likeminded in terms of wanting to serve this community that will be up here um um we're looking forward to working with them some of them are here this evening which we appreciate but um my newer friends it's been it's been fun yes I will not say too much because I sat down and and wrote instead um and I will just hand that to you but I did want to say um there is there is something that is amazing about being on this particular board and I'm looking forward to working with the new people but I am sorry that you will miss miss the opportunity to work with with Vicki and Barbara and ponos and and Heather but from Vicki it most districts don't have the opportunity to have someone on a board of education this long and your experience the number of things that we have considered where she's been able to say we explored that we did this here's what worked here's what didn't part of the reason the district is so excellent is because she serves as a historian and guide and I cannot imagine what it would be like without that I also want to Echo as a huge Pitbull Advocate Barbara is the softest gentlest Pitbull I have ever met in my life she sees the good in people but she will also not take any garbage from anyone and she manages to do it with a soft touch and I do think in my time on the board I can tell you every single thing that Barbara wanted to research and investigate for our students because she is fastidious in her research and tenacious and I know that your work will carry on because I never look at anything about student life air quality the things that Barbara has looked at will last because she's just given us so much information and time and passion so thank you both and thank you did you uh so as was mentioned this is my last meeting as well so I just wanted to say a couple things and these are not prepared remarks so Lord help us all um but I did uh I did just want to thank the the community of East Brunswick for giving me the opportunity to to be here I talked to so many of you during this journey and I I genuinely appreciated all of the questions and and comments and and Outreach um there's there's the show parks and Recreation I think I quoted it to Tim before um and the woman Leslie nopes she says uh you know when people come and yell at me what I hear is them caring loudly and I said that in my mind many many times up here and you know I really I really learned I only got to sit up here for seven months but I really learned what it means to to be up here um and I I want to thank everyone who who supported me um and I want to thank this board for for giving me this this opportunity right um you interviewed me very pregnant and you gave me the chance to sit here and and look I I thought that the biggest challenge would be the fact that I was about to have a baby right I was like this is really crazy timing but you know I have a supportive husband and I have a long maternity leave and I really want to do this and I care about our schools so you know what let's just do it right that was my calculation and then I get here and I'm like oh no the baby's not the biggest issue what what just happened I mean if I had had a crystal ball I probably would not have gone out for that appointment right you know to be honest because I didn't know about the budget cuts I didn't know about you know the board's solutions to them right and and how fraught they would be no one could have known about the yearbook I mean it was a it's been a wild ride right BOS um but but honestly I'm so glad that I didn't have a crystal ball because I I really I I grew a lot as a person I learned a lot about human nature and I learned a lot about this district and all of the amazing things that we do and how hard it is I'm trying not to curse to sit up here it's so much harder than I imagine truly and I know I was here at a fraught time but the learning curve is extremely steep there is so much information no matter how much you think you know and there are so many pedantic details to do this well takes an amount of time that few people will ever see and so you know look I I didn't always agree with everything that everyone did up here Barbara and Vicki they tried to give me advice and half the time I didn't take it I was like a recal teenager but you know all of that aside thank you Barbara and Vicki it's really commendable to sit here for so long and you know to sail through times that are are good and bad right election seasons and boring times and tough budgets and good budgets I mean you truly are amazing people and I I commend your your work um and it's just it's just been it's been an honor and a privilege to be here and I I feel that I have more to do and I hope one day I'll come back and get to serve a real term sorry this is what happens when I don't prepare um but you know in the meantime um I wish the new board all the best and and I know we have big things coming up in the next couple of years things that are really important to our district things that are really important to my young family and all of yours and so you know I hope that you will all work together and and find that space for common ground and and really make the the progress that I think we all are are hoping to see so uh thank you again ponage it's it's been great to be on this roller coaster with you and uh Vicki and Barbara again thank you so much for everything I've learned from [Applause] you thank you is brasic thank you the community school teacher board who trusted and interview me so hard for a no salary position uh so when I was interviewing first of all let me share some Journey most of the things which she told is also same for me also so I will not repeat those again I'll give you through a different Journey maybe you'll laugh enjoy so first time I was interviewing for something which where I will not get paid so so and again in my normal job interviews maximum two or three here nine people are interviewing so there is another thing but anyway the journey was excellent and uh knowledge because I don't belong to the school industry so I know more but you will not believe before the interview I have not prepared myself in my job interview so much what how much I have prepared for my board of education interview but anyway it was a roller coaster for me for before the interview and then again the before the election was another round two rounds one from the Dana's interview session there many preparations we have to do but anyway I learned a lot so I feel again if I'm when I'm coming back which I will be I'm trying I will try my best I will be more prepared than what I am today and Vicki the next day when we joined after first meeting she took us on a video call and she spent hours to for make for us to become ready and come and sit in this seat thank you Vicki Barbara always been so much supportive Barbara's husband Larry he was one of my he became my best friend in this PO more than Barbara and and um and um what to say this was a nice Journey but uh I committed something to miss block for those supplies I gave a bag of supplies today to car okay I wanted to ensure that before leaving I bring that back um and one more thing the acceptance for a new person to this board by these all members was phenomenal everybody accepted us very well being no knowledge we learned in the course thank you uh thank you Mr superintendent Bernie president LAX and entire team member and this guy is she I never got a time to talk to him but I have been listening to him so so many things every day the last but not the least that I will going forward miss these Thursdays okay so now I'm prepared okay this is the today I have to go I come rushing from the office to get ready for this meeting listening to the small kids ceremonies photography sessions he talking so much about the new things happening in his his his area learning a lot of things but yeah it was a good good journey happy New Year and merry Christmas to everyone and welcome to the new members who are there present here okay I'll be quick there everything sorry let just keep going down the row here um everything that everybody shared is is is resonating deeply with me about the profound impact that the four of you have had on this uh team and I just wanted to say thanks as well uh you all brought your own incredible gifts and attributes to to this space and um you know it was just an honor and a priv privilege to to experience this with you and I'm just so grateful for um the opportunity to to work towards this you know shared goal of of you doing the best we can for the kids and the faculty and the administration everybody who's involved in this um wonderful community so uh I I will real quickly just Vicki I think about a week or two after I was elected I was sitting in your kitchen for my training and uh you know I'll always remember and cherish that um you know your your your spirit and your compassion and your your desire to see people here be well is very profound and and inspiring so thank you Barbara the same goes for you I I've loved the opportunity to work with you um you know to to debate things and to disagree and to find common ground and um you know I just think you have such a tremendous skill set and and again your caring for this group of people is is just immeasurable so thank you and to our two youngest members it's it's really been a pleasure you've brought so much to this group um and and you dove in you know you dove in and you gave it your best and I I just I think that that's beyond commendable um you you've brought and and enriched us profoundly so I just want to thank the four of you um it'll be different without you things evolve and and that's part of life but uh I'm confident that we're going to keep moving in a wonderful Direction and we'll you know are all made better because of your presence here so thank you I just want to say to Heather and ponage it's been great working with you but I know that you two are are uh symbols in our community and are always out there and there are many events that uh we'll share with you um as you know individuals and um you know like you said maybe in your future up here again um for Vicki she also onboarded me and answered um you know sharing her she was you know some people keep things inside or to themselves they think that sharing their knowledge um puts them in a better spot because they always you know because they're always empowered to have all the information but Vicki was not like that um she shared with me everything um it's easy to see her dedication to our community to the students in our community to our district um there's you know nothing I ever felt that I couldn't ask her or go to her or say like why this why this tell me about this or just sit on the phone and like silence and just say like Vicki I don't know I don't know I don't know what to say but the one thing I think that she has taught me the most is about how important it is to be good at boardsmy and how um you know no matter what our you know no matter how we feel about certain things or um you know our our thoughts or opinions it's important to always be a good board member and um you know being having respect for the people that you sit up here with um knowing that you're all here to do the the job of helping you know our district and supporting our district and um so I I contribute my boardsmy goals to her um because she is really a token of that and um for Barbara you know uh when she asked me to serve on Student Life committee with her I I think I was like speechless because I was a new member and I've enjoyed my time working with her and the sustainability thing um you know we were asking questions at you know the booth and trying to figure things out and talking about things and I see her passion um I see the way she cares about students and kids and um you know throughout my time working with her she has never hesitated to say like stop we just like the first thing should be the kids and the students and how is this affecting them and and I think that as a role model in our district you know that stood out to me and so I treasure my time working you know with both of you um you've definitely contribute positively to this board and to this district and to this community and and and I will miss working with both of you you want to speak first or should I speak can I say something before they individually say guys have I I know A lot's been said and I've I've told each of you privately what I thought of you right but as superintendent I've had relationships with well with Vicky you were part of the original board that hired me and I remember almost 11 years I know it's too can't regret it now but we had that conversation right in front of us a table set up in my first interview with all of you and I left here saying if that board is interested in me I want to work for them and I think Vicki at that time represented and Lori was on that board too represented a board that that cared about each other and that's what I hope for the future of of any board is that relationship or the the interpersonal relationships that everyone has because if you have that you can move this District forward um you know Vicky and I would have long conversations and she was either fortunately or unfortunately president of the board during Co and learned how to use zoom very effectively even even at her age she learned how to use zoom now I know I'm going to pay dearly for that at least he didn't say Advanced age right right but um because I'm not saying goodbye to anybody tonight because I will say hello to you in a different relationship at least for a while and you know we all have relationships that will continue into the future but but Vicki didn't always agree with every decision I made and there were times that she actually called and said I'm not going to support a decision or a recommendation that you're about to make for the board and here's why and we would have active conversations and sometimes she made up her mind she wasn't going to change her position which was absolutely okay because there were times when I said I'm going to pull a recommendation because I know it's not going to advance because Vicki had given me some insight and Barbara we've had conversations throughout her entire tenure Barbara will text me or call and say can I just talk to you for a few minutes that is never just a few minutes that is you need to look at your obligations and set aside some time because Barbara is very passionate about what she wants to say and I think that's what I wanted to leave the community with is is that which already has been said but as superintendent of schools you cannot have longevity in a job like this unless you have good relationships with members of the board it just does not happen and if you look nationally at at districts dis size and how long superintendent stay it's fractions of our relationship and there are people that will debate that and talk about you know there needs to be other options but I I applaud both of you for the success that we've achieved during your tenures thank you well M mine is a combination because you know I wouldn't prepare for something like this so it's a combination of what I feel now plus a quick well you're not going to say quick but a prepared remarks but uh I'm going to miss you all I mean that's from my heart and it's been you've been part of my life for all these years I'm not going to cry um uh first I want to say to Vicki uh Vicky also gave me a lot of good advice when I first started I wasn't always receptive um she but she had a wealth of experience and she always looked out for us she always had the best interests of the kids and she had the best interest of the district at heart she's very resilient and to last 24 years kudos to you um to give of her time for that length of time for a volunteer position long after her kids had left the district um to make the kids of this District her kids uh that's always been her goal and I salute you uh my friend you did a beautiful beautiful job uh to uh Dr James and to Mr gas Swami it's been a pleasure uh we ran together and what I must say was the most um unusual election uh I have ever partaken in and I always like to make it a nice comment about these things um but you have wonderful qualities and you are such active members of the community and I am sure that whatever Endeavor you pursue you will be successful and your hearts are in the right place and you're always looking out for the kids and you're involved in so many things outside it's amazing that you have time for this as well well you contribute to the community so many ways so I it was a pleasure to get to know you better and to run with you this in this past election and I I wish you only the best um now I'm going to go to my prepared remarks um let me start by saying it has been my honor and privilege to serve and volunteer for our school Community making sure that all our students have access to the tools they need to succeed in academics Athletics and the Arts has always been the driver driving force behind my efforts as a board member I am proud of the many quality of life initiatives our district has initiated over the years and the key role I played in supporting them among these initiatives are later school start times mental health programming coding classes in clubs dual enrollment classes improved indoor air quality and inclusive school calendar and programming by the way it was very hard for me to list all that because I don't like to brag I don't like to list my daughter said to include it so I said this thank you Dr veski president LAX vice president guas my fellow board members our district District administration teachers staff parents and students for all your support throughout the years I am proud of the work we have done to support the students families teachers and staff of our excellent School District I am not a professional politician I ran for this position because I believe in the power of public education to provide our children with the tools they need to live successful and rewarding professional lives even though my campaign was ultimately not a successful one please know my commitment to public education and our community will remain strong I hope that the important work we began in the student life committee will continue in some form going forward I hope this includes providing additional tools for students to manage academic stress encouraging additional community service opportun unities at all grade levels and further anti-bias programming aimed at inclusion and mutual understanding I also wish the new board only the best of luck in their future efforts to continue to serve the East Brunswick School community and before I go I have to say a special to president Lori lax I'm GNA get for clamp a little of a clamp but I remember the time she came to me I was president pres of the frost PTA and I was very happy and I enjoyed the being the president of frost PTA and she said to me I think you'd be a good fit for the board please consider you know the board and honestly I don't regret it I really don't and I thank you for always having confidence in me and for all the good work you've done and you've really done an amazing job and I'm very proud to call you my friend but also to be with everyone on this board the new members and the previous members who've been here I won't say old the previous members who have been here for many years I've learned something from each and every one of you I mean I we are very fortunate that our board has people with so many skills and Mr Juliana and and our attorney and I mean everybody who's been here they're all Class Act people and I really am very thankful Dr Bo I mean if I forgot some please please everyone I have to say this District uh is a wonderful district and as and as a resident of East Brunswick we should all be proud and I think it's a testament to our district that so many people ran for the school board and again I wish wish them only the best because is our students Futures that we all agree that we want to see the best for them thank you [Applause] every time I thought about what I was going to say tonight I I couldn't so I just said well I'll just say what what comes to me so first I have to say to the woman who approached me about being on this board 25 years ago Nancy not a big time commitment just two meetings a month are you kidding me and I will forever be grateful to her because this this is one of the best things I ever do with my life you can't do something this long without it being a part of your soul and I don't know if that means that I leave a part of my soul here or I take a part of the district with me um I learned a lot I help move the process forward I work with four superintendents including Dr V and countless board members teachers Sports staff administrators I say central office staff and most important the kids every year of graduation as soon as pump and Circumstance starts to play I tear up you just can't look at those kids and not think wow I had something to do with this and to the voters every 3 years you had the faith in me to keep reelecting me thank you so this current board Miss Barber first of all I had the privilege of running with Barbara several times and I will say that um with the exception of uh someone who's no longer on the board um Barbara was a dream of a running mate intelligent organized kept me sayane which is no easy task as a board member um passionate caring agreeing to disagree because she felt so strongly and the Heart behind it and the intelligence behind it I know that we will still be friends but it is rare to find that that combination of heart and intelligence thank you thank you I I could talk for hours I'm not going to I promise so to the rest of you thank you for being my second family Dr V it was my privilege to be your president during the pandemic running the meetings from the loneliness of my family room um you're amazing leader I owe a lot of learning to you and the other superintendents I was blessed to work with Bernie you've been here since the beginning back in the day when a board member started they used to get these huge loose leaves of policies I mean literally thousands and thousands of policies and they came in these binders the size of Texas and I I Bernie called me and said you have to come pick yours up and Bernie carried all my books out to my car for me and then he told me that the district would send over a file cabinet that I could keep him in it's resting away in my garage somewhere but thank you for everything you taught me to the rest of you you guys have been awesome you did jump in at a terrible time the rest of you the current central office staff what I've learned from all of you you have been my second family I've gone through a lot here and no matter what I went through you guys were here there's one person two people that I just have to thank and that's it my two sons because if the amount of time this I spent on this if it was at the expense of anyone it was at them and the night they didn't want me to go out and my little one was in Nursery School when I got on the board he just got engaged and he making like eight times the amount I am it's amazing how time flies but my kids I miss things they had things at school or sports games or and I miss them and they gave me a Buy and they appreciated having a model for volunteerism and understanding how important it is to give back to your world but I thank them so much they are the best thing I ever did and to my friend Lori you are a great leader a better friend an incredible friend but as equally a great leader I'm so proud of you thank you from [Applause] you this is rough this is very rough you guys have done so much but for the new people coming on this should be a very very warm and exciting thing to watch because it's very real what goes on up here in the relationships and we learn from each other and I know a bunch of people said that we don't always have to agree we can agree to disagree but you learn from a lot you're going to learn a little less without Vicki here because now I the historian and I don't have as much as she has um but yeah you guys are something else um wow we do um have a need for close session see we screwed you all up this time right we did a we did things a little backwards um so whereas the Board of Education must discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion at a public meeting and whereas these subjects are within the exceptions to the open public meetings act and are permitted to be discussed in the closed session the Board of Education intends to discuss matters as follows those items listed on tonight's agenda the length of Clos session is estimated to be 1 hour after which the public meeting with the board shall reconvene and action may be taken now therefore be it resolved that the East brunic Board of Education will recess into close session for only the affers said subjects and be it further resolved to the east brunic Board of Education hereby declares that discussion of the affers said subjects will be made public at a time when the Public's interest in disclosure is greater than any privacy or governmental Interest being protected from disclosure in accordance with the open public meetings act and it's going to be moved by my friend Mrs Becker and seconded by Mrs reee is there any discussion all those in favor against extensions motion carries thank you and to the Comm um whatever lights um blessed your home this season please enjoy happy and healthy to everyone we'll see you next year