##VIDEO ID:JGQt61SXAmo## e e e e e e e our students at slackwood so it's all yours good evening we are through our third grade students from slackwood school woohoo we are very happy to we are very happy to be here singing for you tonight we will be singing a song called cold snap because we really love the cold weather and hope we have a snow day this year uh oh not yet we hope we hope you can join us for our Winter concert next week the concert is Tuesday December 17th at 2 p.m. at soate school thank you [Music] want to invite parents one second if parents want to come up and take pictures feel free to get up move around or if this you want the students to face the other way that's fine too yeah I know thank you just come up here we want you this is awesome you share our joy oh what are those I can't wait [Music] the wind starts to blows like it's now your fing freeze your lips and cheeks will CH the sky is turning now the sun has gone away now cuz out of the blue we're getting [Music] the be ready that gra your the STP check the WEA [Music] it starts with just a few ples have wind until your house shakes your windows will Ratt and your free out [Music] everywhere SN we're going to be ready for that c snack your tight the strap check the map the [Music] on grab your skates and your up a sh keep on your [Music] head don't you love it when it's see that snowman's funny no [Music] I [Music] feel we're going to be ready for the house house the check the the [Music] WEA oh wow awesome hello what are those called caterpillar platter pillars oh my I love them thank you thank you so much thank and I do think we're going to have a Colt snap tomorrow so I know that you guys have sent it out to the universe okay we have a few minutes before we start our board meeting so just we'll start at 7 e e e e e e e e e e e e roll call Tom Miss Bose here Mr Clark here Miss Evans here miss Kroger here Dr King Miss pasculli Mr pluta Miss Santos here Mr van heis here you have a forum thank you Tom oh wait a I'm sorry Mr Ryan here sorry here's we call it and you're not here yet uh thank you the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies at which any bus affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon as required under the law adequate notice of this meeting has been provided via email and are facts to the the times the Lawrence Ledger the public library and has been filed with the municipal clerk this notice was provided prior to the 48 Hours required by the open public meeting act the board reserves the right to limit public discussion of personal items and other matters as defined in the law we'll do the flag salute to the flag of the United States of America to the rep for it stands Nation indivisible withy andice for all okay okay first up our student Representatives you um good evening everyone my name is lorenza aretta I'm a senior here at LHS and as a member of student helping onuris we are proud to announce our upcoming bowling fundraiser at Colonial Lane on Thursday December 19th um the cost of bowl is $25 per person and includes a slice of pizza soda shoe rental a $5 arcade card and unlimited bowling for 2 hours from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. um all proceeds for this fundraiser will go towards the construction of three new classrooms at a specific Elementary School in an impoverished area of Honduras this also accounts for getting the necessary materials and tools for building these schools and anything that the construction team may need um spots for dispensaries there are limited so please contact Miss Cass if you are interested and um if you have any questions thank you hi I'm Emily Burns I'm a senior um so I'm going to be talking about Deca so this past Monday and Tuesday Deca students took their multiple choice exams for the district conference um many Deca students are currently working on their written manual events which can either be a 10 or 20 page paper that they will write um students are also doing practice role plays in Deca classes and meetings to help them get ready for the district conference and this de um the DECA members are working very hard to prepare for the district conference which is in early January and are working towards qualifying for the state conference in Atlantic City in March hi everyone my name is Ariana I'm a senior here at lawren high school um this International Alliance is going to be hosting um the Hispanic night this up upcoming January from 6:00 to 9: for all LHS students and Families um the International Alliance Club has done past activities like Garbin night lunar night culture Fest and more and this year will be one of first in a long time to be doing the um Hispanic night international alliance members have been working very hard to plan for this night full of cultural um activities we're going to have authentic food live student performances and more tickets are only $8 and children under 10 are free all proceeds and donations will go towards a nonprofit organization called No More Tears and this is um a wonderful way for Lawrence High School students to come together and celebrate the Latin culture hi everyone my name is Abdul and I'm a senior here at Lawrence High School I am thrilled to share one of the many fun and festive activities happening around our school this one activity is run by the class of 2025 officers this week we have launched a fundraiser called the Santa GRS which has already been spreading the holiday excitement through our school srams are a perfect way for students to send a little holiday cheer to their friends teacher or anyone else they like to surpris us all day season each Instagram includes a Santa hat a bundle of Hershey Kisses a candy cane and a handwritten no by us U the response has been fantastic so far and it's wonderful to see our peers so engaged in supporting the class of 2025 while spreading the kindness and joy around our school thank you hi I'm Payton and I'm a senior I'm excited to announce that the sophomore class has been invited to attend career day at Ryder University on Tuesday January 7 2025 from 9:00 a.m. to 2: p.m. students were asked to choose three sessions they were interested in along with an alternate session in case any of their initial choices are full these sessions will feature certified representatives from various career Fields such as business nursing and music each session will last 30 minutes with a 10-minute passing period between sessions for the most part students will be touring and navigating the can the campus independently this is intended to give them a glimpse into the college experience and prepare them for college B um lunch will then be provided by Ryder's very own dining hall where students and teachers can reconvene to discuss their day this discussion will hopefully offer students more clarity about potential career Fields this was an extremely valuable experience for me and I hope it is the same for them thank you great thank you so much peer leaders um a lot of great things going on I just also wanted to thank Deca uh some of the members of our Tekk uh team and our advisers came to a networking event last night um with the Lawrence Township growth and Redevelopment committee and it was really wonderful to have our students there so I just wanted to say thank you to our Deca students as well um you guys can stay if you want or you may leave but thank you very much and have a happy uh winter break can you believe on the n they were talking about putting their names on diplomas and the certificates and I'm like the school year just started and they're already looking at the end for these seniors almost over um do we have any recognitions and acknowledgements uh this evening um Vanessa marcic is sitting in for Dr clim Who is uh away on a trip so I wanted to thank her um can I have a motion to adopt the minutes of the executive session and regular session from the 1113 meeting second with a motion and second time that was made by Miss Evans seconded by m groger cor Mr Clark yes Miss Evans yes Miss groger yes Miss pasculli yes Miss Santos yes Mr van heis yes Miss Bose yes motion carried thank you um and now we will have Vanessa do the superintendent's report for us thank you Michelle um good evening everyone so it is an honor tonight to stand in for Dr clim my name is Vanessa bcarc I'm the assistant superintendent for student services first I'd like to thank Tanya Damon and our slackwood third graders for that beautiful winter song earlier that we heard I also would like to thank Michaela Amos sfield9576 on your way out this evening speaking of our student artists the deadline is approaching for our referendum art contest details can be found on the flyers in the back of the room here tonight we encourage all of our students prek through grade 12 to participate we look forward to welcoming all participants to an upcoming board meeting to be recognized today we are exactly three months away from our District's referendum vote on March 11th as a reminder the referendum is to expand and renovate our 75-year-old Middle School to make space for our sixth grade uh sixth graders who will be moving into the building at the table in the back you can pick up a reminder refrigerator magnet as well as a form to sign up by vote by mail if you choose finally as we near winter break I want to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of our incredible Lawrence Educators for their unwavering dedication and their commitment to our students your hard work does not go un noticed and we are truly grateful so thank you I'm wishing you all a joyful and restful holiday season and at this time I'd like to call it Miss Giglio to the podium to discuss the grant that tonight will be accepted on the agenda thank you vaness hello my name is Bonnie Giglio I'm the executive director of the ltf um the ltef is proud to present the Lawrence Township Public Schools and the Boe tonight with a for $110,000 for the streamwork scientists grant program made possible by church and Dwight's employee giving fund this grant is awarded to Slack slackwood Elementary and Eldridge Park Elementary schools and was written by former slackwood principal Jean mzy it will provide Outdoor Learning experiences and Hands-On collaboration collaborative Environmental Education opportunities to all students in these two Title One elementary schools the ltef is excited to be able to provide this grant funding from such a wonderful Community partner that we have a long-standing relationship with uh church and Dwight employee giving fund holds a special place in our hearts as it's direct funding from the employees and we couldn't be more thrilled with this project that they've chosen to invest in the Stream streamwatch scientists project that Mrs muy Pro proposed um is an excellent Grant opportunity involving these two Title One schools for Place based learning learning and Environmental Education the program will start in the new year with both schools um the kindergarteners will observe and collect data u in the school while first graders will participate in a stream watch um slackwood goes to a local stream a fourth mile away and EPS heads over to the stream in the wooded area next door to their school both sets of second graders will go to the local will go to Colonial Lake which would also connect the second grade social studies curriculum and finally slackwood and EPS third graders get to travel to the Watershed Institute for a full day of ngjg ss learning experiences thank you to Mrs muy and all the Educators at both schools who will implement this grant thank you to church and Dwight for being an amazing Community partner and to you the board of education for all that you do for our kids thank you bnie thank you so much [Applause] Bonnie okay uh thank you to ltef and all of the people that contribute to um helping fund things in our school and around um the campus so we really appreciate it um next is our board secretary's report Tom Joe would you please load up that PowerPoint okay uh we had our community conversation last week and at our community conversation there were questions as to whether or not uh and what our investment has has been in other school facilities and so the particular facility that was questioned was slackwood elementary school and it is a fantastic building it exudes home and it is warm it is enveloping and I think if you've never been there it'll be a treat there is no other place like it and so I'm going to walk you through slackwood school and the concept the reason we're doing this is to show you that indeed while slackwood school is not a focus of this referendum it is absolutely never far away from our facilities investment and so I'll walk you through this pointing out some of the um the academic areas but this this presentation is designed for a facilities update so here we move on to the next screen and I used the words welcome home and I showed you some of the pictures from slackwood and what you see here whether it's the Vibrance of our kids or the Vibrance of the color of the bookshelves or the room this is what it's like to walk in that building it's a fantastic place so I borrowed the phrase there's no place like home where the sentence and uh here is slackwood school in a collage and and I hope that what we'll do is we'll take this and we'll put this on their website so here we go once you go past the grand entrance of slackwood and you've already driven up and you've seen the Fantastic historical building with the period windows and roofs you're welcome into the vestibule here this vestibule is a security vestibule that we created 3 years ago uh well no strike that about 5 years within 5 years and what we did with the inside of the building is we mirrored the outside of the building it wasn't enough to create a security vestibule but we brought the front doors and the interior doors back to and this wall we created here and essentially what we have is a place where you walk in you're welcomed and then you can go into the main office once you're buzzed in to pick up on the technology also here this is a proximity card reader as we have in our buildings this is inside so the staff can come in there's one on the outside door as well when you come in and you're after you're through the main office you get into our hallways and you'll see these things here and when I say these things I mean the representation of our students this is our students work hanging but interestingly enough in the next slides we're going to show you students from in the early 1920s so indeed it's home I'll point out some facilities things to you while we're here this is a floor that we put in as we removed all of the asbestos in the building and we put in brand new floors this by the way is a picture that was taken sometime around uh 12: in the afternoon on a Friday this is what the building looks like it is impeccable in its cleanliness up here we have even though the building has its its architecture uh is dated quite um quite older than some of our buildings this is a modern announcement emergency announcement system here that scrolls with announcements not just the time and Below right here is a panic button this is throughout the building and you'll find them in all of our buildings and I would be remiss to point out if I didn't point out this um piece of history that is in the same main hallway it exists right about here where we now use it as displayed displays I use the word history some would use character this person right here wrote a note to the principal and it says I love the homelike feel at slackwood my daughter is com able at school so it's I can Echo these things for you but this is what our constituents say oops when you get into the building you're welcomed by some of the pictures that show the history of slackwood and somewhere in here is a picture of Joanne groger when she went to school kidding was that the horse and buggy or the horse yeah that was with the horse and buggy so this is right after you go through through the vestibule doors and you'll see that we we continued on with the flooring here but we also put brand new doors these are metal doors and they're meant to be security doors um and across the hall from that are these doors as well and so while slackwood looks welcoming it's appointed with all the modern technology that we have in all all of our schools what we try to do is we try to blend it in so that we keep the feel of slackwood which is a gem but also bring in the modern effects as well this is one of the things that was probably one of the greatest Joys the typical classroom and again this was a picture taken in the middle of the day what a fantastic place it's alive with color kids are probably somewhere at lunch or somewhere at a special but you've got a welcoming environment that's visually stimulating and now the business administrator talks and says well these Peri these windows are back the period And they also have ballistic glass film over top of them um because this is a facilities presentation but the smiling part is the part that this is a place where you'd want your kids to go to school if you had a choice I can imagine easily choosing slackwood um I can imagine all of our buildings but my love of this building and the way we've kept it with its architecture and its history is unique within this classroom some of the things that you don't see here is a brand new phone system so that we can communicate out and we can also call a lockdown at any time in addition to that the clock that's not pictured here is also one of the clocks that Scrolls for lockdowns um so it's not just a clock it has a dual roll and most recently we put in all new sinks all through slackwood uh in a couple of our other buildings and again this is probably the absolute most important thing and this is my takeaway from this room I'd hope you'll go there soon take a look for yourself the sun shines in slackwood it shines in the sunshine room and so the sunshine room in most of what's happening in there is dedicated to a staff member who had passed on not too long ago but the sunshine room is also appointed in a way that brings cheer um our principles have a lot to do with that whether that was um Miss ladimer uh Mr Billy vmy um and Dr Wendell there's a reverence that happens here of one another building on top of the uniqueness of slackwood and so this area right here you'll see the the period doors but you'll also see some unique to the high school to Eldridge Park and slackwood this is a terazzo flooor this means it's a stone floor it's Stone and it's polished up to that shine this is something that would be cost prohibitive for you to do in your home as much as we would love to have or I would love to have those um this is very unique it's not done in schools anymore and ours is in excellent shape and it runs all the way down the hallway and it shines like a mirror have you ever been to Eldridge Park and you walk in and You See It Shine if you walk into the high school and you come into what we call the old busport hallway and you can see it Shine all the way down the hallway that investment was put into this building as well of course we have our modern technology here and even though it might be old hat to some people we have water filtration and bottle filling stations and slackwood as we do in the other buildings as well um and we are not late comers to this we did this uh almost immediately upon uh right around the time of pandemic and so they're across the uh the whole school district moving along this is a place that's unique to slackwood and again there is no other this is slackwood media center but it's also their maker space I use the word Discovery Center here because that's what happens um it's important to put it that way because this is where the pedagogy happens this is where kids learn to experiment and learn for themselves whether tactically or otherwise the library of course our picture of our board President right here smile uh we held our prove that picture no you didn't but it's a good picture of you so um we've also used it for Community conversations so we host uh community events at slackwood because we're proud of it and so um just piggybacking on things that Jen baldari has said we had a community conversation uh that focused on the referendum here um I believe that happened in October so as we move on you might say What happened to the the old library well we created rooms two rooms it used to be uh two rooms with a wall removed and so we put two brand new doors on that and by the way they're new doors all throughout slackwood that look just like this and I know it's not exciting but I gave you a blowup version of a door here this is a security window that's inside of these doors and this is across the entire School we've also put new lock sets on slackwood you don't see this everywhere in the district this is a thumb turn so that you can lock that door from the inside without a key um of course we have overriding pass keys for that but this does not exist everywhere likew has all of that and this is what the inside of the room looks like and the only thing I'm going to point out to you is this here inside of all of our rooms or brand new shelves that we put in with the HVAC and this is one of our new HVAC units here um and maybe I put this in here just to show you that indeed we have smartboards all throughout slackwood as we have every else so the technolog is there oh for my this is the fun stuff you're not going to see this anywhere else it used to be in two buildings it used to be at Le and slackwood slackwood is the only building with the remaining history here this is our Counseling Center and I say the history is because if you pick up the old hardwood floors and again this is the middle of the day this isn't staged we walk in and we took this picture um we came in uh essentially unannounced took the pictures and with a big smile on our face because we knew what slackwood was but after we looked at it for the sole purpose of these reasons our facili investment and its welcoming you can't help but smile this was a great trip this is the Counseling Center uh at slackwood it's private it's comfortable and what's unique about it is it shows some of slack Wood's character what you don't see in this corner right here is their Pantry so if parents come in through here they can come in and Avail themselves of food drive Goods so they can take care of their families but they can do it in private okay if we were to build something like this I don't know that we could today the next is perhaps in my opinion my favorite room in the district this is the teachers room at slackwood it's been many things um but when I saw this 20 years ago these floors didn't look like this the ceiling was uh coming down the paint was chipped the heating pipes were ripped and I spoke with Bo Hitchcock and I said we can't lose this what can we do and he says it's much cheaper to just go ahead and paint it and put a drop ceiling in I said it is let's put it back and B being B we said okay we'll do it so we put the ceiling Back Together We repainted it we Chang changed all the insulation we redid the hardwood floors and this is perhaps uh if you're someone who likes Victorian houses and things of that nature this may be the most interesting room in the district moving on the playground all year long slackwood is the only place where we built a walking path all the way around the playground you can use slack in fact you can catch pepper walking her dog there on weekends so in slackwood when there's snow on the ground or it's mushy here there's a walking path and then we've appointed the area with these pull-up bars here and other gym type things all the way around there's no other school in the district that has that um and I don't know if that was a j Billy um thing it LT well some part of it was probably ltf but not the whole thing um I imagine some pieces of equipment were and Jay Billy probably pushed for that I would imagine being the exercise person he is um this is a picture it's very exciting isn't it of their of the black top I only put it in here just to show you that it's brand new all the black top is new and to take someone down memory lane if they don't remember this used to be to the left side of this laser pointer was the parking lot we expanded the parking lot this way and we put in the walking path that connected with the loop over here um and that was probably done in 2005 so slack Wood's come a long way if you thought we forgot anything about slackwood we have the PE Loop but we also put a brand new metal roof on the building and redid the Koopa Joyce Scott isn't here right now but I brought it before the finance committee and Kevin was the chair then and I said we have the ability to put a a metal roof on slackwood and then we could use and we could put a regular shingle roof on the 50s Edition which is this lower level back over here behind the modular building and I said I'd really like to do the the whole building and I remembered Joyce Scott's response was you have to do the whole building it must be done in metal so and that was the sentiment of all the board members in finance we're going to do this for slack wit and the question was do we rebuild the Koopa and the answer was absolutely we do and so that's what you see here today and of course the W is still missing from that we think Pat Wendell took it so she climbed up so Tom you name this the pepper Evans Loop this the pepper Evans Loop right that's right that's the PE Loop there you go right there so and then some some other not so exciting things the modular building here is this is our modular building at slackwood it's got all new siding uh we did this in the last five years brand new windows it's got brand new HVAC in it which are heaters and air conditioners and brand new decking for ramps and so as I I looked at slackwood I thought almost everything here has been redone and then I couldn't help it to be wonky um because that's what we do um some people judge restaurants by walking in the bathroom business administrators judge the cleanliness and the upkeep of the school by what the boiler room looks like and so this is the boiler room it's the PowerHouse these are two brand new boilers at slackwood that fuel this brand new unit ventilator and of course we still make money from the solar that's on slackwood so this is pretty much uh what I wanted to share with you tonight because the question came at our community conversation well what are you doing at these other buildings and my response to that question is what haven't we done and let us know and maybe we can do it so and I know Michelle Bose wanted us to highlight this this wasn't my idea uh just on my own and I hope that met your your your uh need to show that we do pay attention to all other schools thank you so much Tommy you're welcome he put that together very quickly we did have our community conversation last week and you know one of the things that I learned from that experience and talking to the community is so many people are unaware of how much we do on a regular basis to maintain our existing schools and while we report out on it during our uh committees I think it's it gives so much more you know value to it when we see it um and so I would hope and we're looking for you know come the new year we're going to be highlighting different things that have been done throughout the district and all of the schools apart from anything having to do with a referendum um and you know slackwood is probably I is it the oldest school we have in the district L and alri park you know what I don't know which one is older it's just so amazing when I look at it to see how much we've done to bring it back to its um original state when we could and and that means something I think that's what makes Lawrence a very special place there's a huge history here we have board members who attended these schools and all of our community parents and grandparents that attended these schools so I think um really the time and intention that you put into this and your staff to get us there is is unbelievable so thank you so much Tom for this presentation and for all that you have done um for all of our schools can I just add one thing I think people miss the fact that he is proactive he's not reactive we don't go in repair he is looking ahead and we the public whoever takes it for granted and I love when we do our tours and you see something and you jot it down and then we see it on the agenda item so thank you for keeping us it's a team believe me my team is fantastic um yes I have a question for you did you ever teach PE at slackwood I did got JY floor the gym floor is on the agenda tonight there's a contract to replace the gym floor at slackwood and so that's another thing and then we will do all of the concrete steps all the way around to building and railings this Summer perfect and so the Architects already on that and we should have plans fairly soon for that because I know they were there about five weeks ago great so there's only one more item on the agenda for me in terms of my report and that is the shuttle for l i yes so done he can go home yeah this has nothing to do with this is all new to you for finance so we did go out and we tried to get quotes on the shuttle we did uh we have the list uh we anticipated that the most the shuttle would come in is at $60,000 it came in at 115,000 um and that was the low quote and we had two quotes um that is better than twice what we pay for two runs to two different schools and it is not because it's a shuttle um our regular uh the shuttle is actually an easier thing for contractor to do our main contractor which is Rick bus um did not quote at all on neither of the others they um they have a hard enough time getting drivers as it is and so we are going to look at this point for that kind of money we can hire our own um so we do have uh a bus that we can use and so we'll work towards that if we can hire a driver um so I'm looking at you because of finance and we had our hopes up on this we really wanted this to work and we know that it will once we can find a way to begin but $114,000 is is prohibitive at this point um at least it is the contract we can hire our own yeah if we can hire our own so that's the direction we're going in great thank you for that K turn with the plus we can do it thank you for your uh your patience with that b report thank you so much Tom um now the board president report uh first I'd like to thank Vanessa for stepping in for Robin while she's away um your dedication and willingness to help us out is truly appreciated um I would like to also express my deepest gratitude to all of our Educators staff and fellow board members for everything that you have done throughout this year everyone's hard work and commitment to our students and Community does not go unnoticed I hope that everybody has a wonderful restorative holiday break everybody has certainly earned it looking ahead I wanted to remind every everybody about an important event that is coming up please mark your calendars for February 4th 2025 we will be hosting a community Town Hall at the Lawrence Middle School to provide information on the referendum this is going to be a great opportunity to learn more and engage with this important topic uh please remember to check the ltps website for updates and additional information about the referendum vote on March 11th um I also would like to take a moment to thank our UDA for his service to our community and the board uh we wish him the best I know he's not here tonight but I still would like to thank him for his service and at the same time I want to welcome Olga Martinez Olga we are honored to have you join us and look forward to our journey ahead together um finally as we prepare to to turn our the page to 2025 I'm excited about what lies ahead for Lawrence Township this year will be a year of continued growth and progress I'm looking forward to working alongside with all of the board as we do the best for our students and Community I'm grateful to the board for their dedication and support over the year and for the community for all of their willingness to give us feedback and share their uh ideas with us it is greatly appreciated and we'd like to see that continue in the new year thank you to everybody who's here um and that's it for me uh Community reports um community relations community reports community relations and legislative affairs community relations and legislative affairs met on uh December 2nd at 8:00 a.m. in attendance for myself Amanda Santos Joan groger Rob pluda and Diana pasculli as well as venessa parak Dr Robin clim and Jen Baler um not much to uh on our agenda that morning we did have a nice presentation by some LHS Administration about a new Vape monitoring technology uh more information will be coming out about that shortly and we discussed our upcoming uh Community conversations one of which we held last week on the 3 at Lis and the next one will be uh probably here uh for our LMS and LHS uh community members that will be on uh January 14th at 6:30 so look out for information regarding where that's going to be well that's it great thank you Amanda um this evening we do not have a student board member report although Edison is still with us yay um New Jersey Schoolboard Association okay I'll try to keep it as brief as possible on Thursday November 21st Mercer County School boards held a hybrid meeting at Trenton Board of Education building at this meeting Maryanne Freeman our service representative for Mercer County awarded Trenton Board of Education to Carol e larrison Master board certification this is the second certification that Trenton school board has obtained and uh we we are just so wowed by their dedication and commitment to making them cohesive as a unit um we then moved to the program topic which was about social emotional learning supporting during challenging times presented by George Scott phenomenal pepper thank you for being there and his big question was how are the children doing he said if we can answer that in a positive way then we can make sure our children are ready to learn they are uh have the ability to learn and be successful it was very impactful uh Mercer County Schoolboard Association is looking for three members to serve for the 2025 uh nominating committee if you're interested in serving you can go to their website fill out the submission and please send it back in no later than the 31st our next County meeting will be the January 23rd it's um a virtual meeting and it's an introduction to AI in an educational environment should be a good one December 7th delegate assembly I went to Workshop was 8:30 to 11:30 held at Mercer County Community College there were 16 resolutions submitted we move six forward I have the book here I was going to give you a quick overview on them but I promised I'd make it quick um some interesting topics one of them has to do with us when we open up our meeting talking about public publicizing in printed newspapers well the newspaper printed newspapers are slowly dissolving so we're carefully cons well they're going electronic so what we're trying to do we got the approval with a resolution to move it forward for legislation to now look at accepting electronic submissions so stay stay tuned there was one about military enlistment um students that they receive an additional absence excused absences is to participate in that which I thought was pretty interesting uh next Saturday I'll also be attending the legislative meeting uh 9 to 12 and I'll share all those updates when um that meeting occurs great thank you so much student services student services meeting was held on December 4th in attendance was Vanessa Barak and myself arel Clark saved the date for March 1st of 2025 we'll be um LHS will be hosting the transition to adult Fair currently we're looking to have a our previous and new vendors to have an attendance uh there will be guest speakers it's an open event but please RSVP to help us with our numbers uh keep an eye out for flyers and additional information starting in January um position vacancies we've added to the district a float nurse the float nurse has been added to the district to help offset the sub needs for field trips vacancies and other needs the F fosa graduation requirement High School seniors are encouraged to complete the the fosa FASFA or its waiver form mentioned on the guidance newsletter a parent night to help walk through the fosa process was previously held in October and may be available again in the near future dual enrollment with the Rowan College of bernon County through partnership uh high school students have the opportunity to take college courses and earn credits courses include honors Wind Ensemble AP French AP Spanish AP Chinese uh counselors are reviewing the process with students for the next two weeks in classes there is a payment requirement with assistance as available the window for sign up is currently open until January 9th 2025 uh the cpad group special education parents Advisory Group they will be having their introductory meeting on January 8th and in that meeting there will be a guest speaker that's our report great thank you so much ARA uh review of communications none um this is our first opportunity for public input you can please state your name and write your address down and please limit your comments to three minutes thank you my name is Dan Brennan at T KNX Court also an employee of the district o so I had some questions about the uh upcoming referendum I was wondering uh would would it be fair to say that the budget is tight due to the referendum we're not I mean we don't even know yet why don't you just ask all your question I mean is that a comment or a question this is a question I was I was I was just asking I guess I don't understand what the question is you clarify what you're looking is the budget tight because tight meaning our budget or the referendum budget the district's budget there's yeah there's no there's no connection so it's not because of the ref there's no connection between the referendum and the general operating budget at all okay I was curious about that okay okay thanks um my next question was uh or I was curious um what are the benefits the students of Lawrence have by sending uh five administrators to China I was curious if that could be answered looking at I'm looking at everyone I don't I don't know I well I don't answer questions the board chair directs me to do yeah we um we we send our admin we have sent our administrators to China many many years it's an exchange program that um impacts us to help to broaden the our our own experiences as Educators we learn from them and they learn from us okay I'm just curious how that benefits the my four children that attend the school district I was sending them to China how that benefits the greater Lawrence good I'm just kind of curious about that okay I'm I mean I can quickly answer if it's okay of a importantly minimal cost to the district because uh it's predominantly funded by a grant second the the relationships that have been built they've sent uh an Entourage over here we're reciprocating and going over there and it's facilitating the schools my own kids were the beneficiaries of that because they actually set up Skype um and I don't know if it's FaceTime or whatever um program so it basically it it's and certainly for the Chinese language with all this you know global politics and that sort of a thing um it gives the kids the ability to actually kind of integrate with languages and stuff like that I know both of my kids you know did that when they were in the elementary schools um so those are kind of some of the benefits that are also you know that are there um they're also when they actually sit and meet with the students and they meet with the administrators over there um there's some interesting kind of techniques that they're doing over there or have done that actually then comes back here and then and then they go through so I mean I don't want to take a lot of time on it and I know it's been covered previously I could probably go on for an hour and a separate reason to answer that question but um if you contact me offline off here I would be happy to tell you um my experience having visited I believe 15 different schools there um so does it report get like presented back to the board that we can all learn from from my time no from 2015 five administrators that are there now I can't answer your question with respect to them I can answer your question with respect to your original question in terms of what are the benefits I can do that from my experience um so I would recommend that people go and I can and I'll fill you in this is so I just I'm very just curious about how students of Lawrence benefit from yeah I I understand and I can tell you that so what happens on the agenda at this point is it's it's a comment section it's not a question answer section so people that when when they seem resistant to give you answers it's because the board knows it's a comment time it's not a question and answer time that's why I offer to do it offline um it's not because I'm concerned about doing it here it's just not on the agenda to be done that way and in addition you know I can understand that you have questions you know this is a public input you can make a comment about it if it's not something that you think is better beneficial for your students you're absolutely entitled to that opinion but at this particular moment we're not going to sit here and justify you know things that we have had in previous board meetings we already did discuss this in our last board meeting but you're certainly welcome is something to bring up Community conversation well I think you can talk to Dr clim when she returns from her trip she is the lead educator in our district so I I would suggest that that's what you do when she comes back okay okay because I just don't see how somewhere so culturally different than Lawrence Township how our students will benefit that trip thank you for your comment thank you any other comment okay we do not have any board discussion and work session items um Personnel committee report okay Personnel met December 4th 8:15 to 9:25 in attendance Rob Dr Robin clim Sean fr Kevin Van heis aend Del Clark Robert Puda and myself Joanne Koger we reviewed new hire recommendations for the receptionist secretary to the office of superintendent Transportation specialist and third grade excuse me uh I have l e i I typed the wrong letter I think it was Eldridge Park um we discussed assistant superintendent hiring processes Genesis rollover continues to work on this uh business office is providing ongoing opportunities for staff to get acclimated with the new payroll shift initial Staffing meetings have started and we're planning for the 26 25 26 school year uh we continue to engage positively with ltaa leadership regarding negotiations and no changes were recommended for policy 3280 which is liability for student welfare on tonight's agenda you'll find approvals for resignations unpaid leave of absence Subs teachers volunteers nonre staff staff to attend open Sayad training uh student technicians yay and the 2627 school calendar you'll see appointments for sub assistance confirmation of sub staff edps staff or Am Pm destination substitutes and Eagle staff hiring to to there are transfers for staff members two extensions for change of leave Replacements adjustments for account numbers and an EDP payment amendments for start dates and one correction for a stipend amount we have one retirement for uh this section of our Personnel Karen O'Brien is an occupational therapist at Ben Franklin Elementary School she has five and a half years there at Ben Franklin has made a difference in her students lives using her training we thank her for her time at Ben Franklin and wish her well in her retirement and with all of that I'd like to move P1 through p34 please second Tom with a motion in a second Mr Clark yes Miss Evans yes Miss groger yes Dr King excuse me I can't help it she's shouting from that's right Miss Pas yes Miss Santos yes Mr vanis yes missos yes motion carried CIA APD and student services CIA APD met on December 2nd at 8 am in attendance were Mr zonard Dr clim Dr bar EXA Miss Foose Miss pasculli uh Joanne groger filled in for Michelle King and myself Dr clim shared that she met with our board student representative Edison and another high school student on finalizing and reviewing the draft 2627 calendar which will be posted on the district website app for you to access Dr clim also shared the great success we had with our early childhood advisory Council led by early childhood supervisor Miss agnita Paro this committee will be setting the vision for the growth of the preschool and will start by surveying the families before goals are drafted Dr clim wanted to note that the Early Childhood team has worked exceptionally hard on this year's operational plan and will be holding the annual lottery for positions in for the preschool uh in February we're opening another nine classrooms to benefit our families Dr Barry EXA shared with the committee the roll out of open SED and hang on one second I'm going to tell you what open Sayed is in case you forgot open Sayed empowers Educators to go beyond traditional Science teaching methods by bringing together leading science researchers and Educators to craft curriculum that is aligned to how students learn best this is uh all new up up and cominging stuff uh the curriculum on this agenda let's wait his intent R out has taken into consideration the work and expectations on the shoulders of our elementary team and he plans to extend more beta testing opportunities to our teacher leaders leading into the next school year on this agenda is curriculum for high school electives and Dr Panos and her team of Educators worked hard to provide expanded options for the growing interest of our students and I just want to go off script for one second and say in the last few months Dave Adam came with some really exciting things happening in the high school the next week we heard Mary Dr pan Co rolling out some phenomenal initiatives in her department and now Dr Barry EXA doing this for science I mean if you don't all want to go back to school I don't know what it's going to take but uh really uh this is not my first rodeo and hats off to Dr clim for doing so much in such a amount of time yeah we do have a lot of great new programs and classes high school it's amazing what we've got going on um the committee also received a district update from Mr Zonar our interim assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction on his work to solidify use and efficiency of our data warehouse we are moving one policy to the second reading tonight which solidifies the district's role and accessibility features now of available on our website and our app uh with that I would like to move ois 1 through 7 is there a nine did I see that wrong yeah there's o one through n o one through nine second Tom with a motion and a second Mr Clark yes Miss Evans yes M Kroger yes Miss pasculli yes Mr PL did it again Miss Santos yes Mr van heis yes Miss Bose yes motion carried thank you um this is our second opportunity for public input see none uh new business did we speak fin oh oh my God I'm so sorry it's okay we don't need to pay bills sorry yeah so uh I mean actually a way to keep these meeting shorters is cancel the finance committee meeting then I don't talk no it's uh Finance meeting was actually canceled but we are uh again still proceeding with all the normal day-to-day operations and a few of us still gathered for our uh morning coffee and breakfast so uh it was a good time but with that I will move spbm 1 through 22 second um with a motion in a second Mr Clark yes Miss Evans yes M grog yes M pasly yes Miss Santos yes Mr van he yes Miss Bose yes motion carried okay now new business Che up the public you'll see we have a resignation before that um is there any last opportunity for public I'm sorry we're just waiting right on I'm sorry it's all right okay seeing there is none there you go new business now we'll jump on resignation a date adjustment DP adjustments substitute approvals leave adjustments third grade teacher for Eldridge Park School volunteers a vacation payout destinations approval and a retirement Patricia Nelson she works in the superintendent's office and anyone that's had the pleasure of going into that office has come face to face with a beautiful person who has a gorgeous smile can do attitude um she served in the position for 17 years and 10 months months and she's always positive helpful and just a joy to be around we thank her for her dedication to the superintendent's office and we wish her many years of happy and healthy retirement all the best to Patricia from the school board yes with that I'd like to move nb1 through nb16 please second a motion in a second Mr Clark yes Miss Evans yes Miss Kroger yes Miss pascoli yes Miss Santos yes Mr van heis yes Miss Bose yes motion carried um a motion to adjourn so moved all in favor I I does anyone want to look at the thank you e e e e e e e e