##VIDEO ID:GLJw5Evqe9o## missano can you please take the rooll here here Jeffrey Mr n here Mrs Perry here Mrs qu here Mrs Reynolds here Mrs here thank you um now I'd like to introduce our Spanish interpreter Miss suette Carter the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of the public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed and acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the board secretary has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted on the bulletin board located in the hallway outside of the administrative offices a notice was provided to The Courier News the home News Tribune and the middlex borrow cler we do not have a reason to go into executive session tonight so we will move on to our presentations we're going to start with um our school Spotlight um the school the high schol school is this month's School [Applause] Spotlight we doing I said to everybody before I walked in because I see a lot of people that I worked with here whether parents or you know former teachers I work appreciate you coming out for my presentation uh no but today what we're going to focus on middle sex high school we're excited to be here today we have a group of students that I'm working with right now and we're going to highlight how we build a positive ening Community here at midd right we find that it works best when we put the ownership in the hands of our kids right our kids are the ones who you know can promote us better than anybody they're the ones who understand how things go and they're the ones who can get other kids engaged so when we talk about building a positive community at middle sex high school we focus on is a couple different things right we have our traditional approaches our teachers do an amazing job of building good relationships with our students um we have oural lessons and we have the normal things that come along with what being School but then we go a little bit farther right we have a program called Breaking Down the Walls and you've probably heard a lot of people talk about it um but you haven't seen it so tonight we have a video what it looked like last year we also have um just the explanation of it breaking down the Walls is really just group uh activities put on by uh a group called ignite to unite and they help us kind of work together to have kids become teacher leaders not teacher leaders student leaders and these student leaders take everybody and they put them in groups and they get them really outside their Social Circle they to connect with one another they get them to form relationships they get them to learn about other kids within school that you might not be able to connect with right so we put them in this opportunity our staff does it as well they join us and we all get to learn about each other we're excited because it's tomorrow but that's our first thing that we do that's pretty major our second thing that we do here is we have a bunch of groups that work with after school work after school in after school activities and what they do is they give back to not only the community within the school but community at large right so they give back to our local community and they build a POS POS thriving Community within our school right so we have a group of students here tonight that are going to highlight all the work that they're doing to make positive engaging um experiences not only for the kids here but within the community outside of us all right let me see if I this large can't make it big all right so I just learned Cana I'm getting better at it I can't expand this but watch the video and you'll get an idea of what Breaking Down the Walls is for us this is last year's experience with our students and our staff [Music] [Music] 3 a lot [Music] a pretty cool I met new people Lear a lot of things about I knowy cool I met people all right so we're having some technical difficulties but but what the kids eventually say and the staff says is I'm learning a lot of things about kids that I never really talk to I'm learning things they're learning things about me we're making connections it's more than just a day at of class right so our kids get a chance to really become leaders um run groups and put themselves in situations that they normally wouldn't be in on a dayto basis all right so tomorrow we have that going on here at the high school we have over 200 students participating in it we have over 15 staff members participating in it ad our s officer we're all coming together and we're going to work to kind of learn more about one another and promote positivity and build our culture um even better than from what it is now all right next we have our National Honor Society presenters all right that's GNA be Blake Thompson Olivia Court Valley sorry Ellis the Guzman and Court Valley I kept messing that one up they're gonna talk about how National a society helps promot positivity and build community [Applause] Al righty so good evening staff good evening administrators I feel like I'm giving my eighth grade graduation speech again but um I am really pleased to be in a position to represent middle SE high school as our president of Our National Honor Society and right here I am joined by I'm Olivia cor or Liv and I'm the vice president of the national H Society thank you for having us and hearing so as members of Our National Honor Society we recognize that it is our responsibility to serve our community we do this through through town and school community events as well as National events for instance as far as local community we H we have special holiday events for young students and those with disabilities throughout our Community for example we host events like our haunted hallways where we decorate our our high school hallways in Halloween decorations to give the special needs Community a a safe space for them to go trick-or-treating and also our winter weather get together where we have we open our cafeteria to Celebration within our entire special needs community and just have a chance for these children to express themselves and have a bit of fun these events allow those in the community to celebrate the holidays and meet new people we also held a mini club Fair during back to school night to try to encourage more involvement in extracurricular activities and from a student's perspective I just want to take the time to thank um the board administrators for taking the executive decision to remove the what's it called um the extracurricular fee that was a really large problem that we were trying to handle um in the past few years in terms of extra engagement and I just really appreciate that you took the effort to remove that fee and ever since then we've increased a large increase in how many people are par participating iner activities as well as different clubs and overall the response in the high school has been nothing but positive and then on a national level we build our community by choosing a national organization each year or each chapter to fundraise for and it's usually an organization that someone in town or someone that we know holds near and dear to their heart so last year we did Jack's kids which is a foundation that raises money for families who have a child with severe medical problems or disabilities and they can't afford some of the medical expenses so we raise money for them and fundrais to help support their needs and we did that through the crispy K cream fundraiser last year we might be doing Crispy Cream again this year just look out for that you like donuts no problem with that and we were able to assist families in need some of them being in town and we also work with the American Red Cross for a blood drive each year and so students they get to get to skip class and they get to donate some blood and support the community on a national level as well as in town thank [Applause] you and I am still up here because I I also serve the pleasure of being the president of our Key Club in Middle sex high school um Key Club is something that really excites me within this school and for those that don't know what Key Club is we Key Club is a high is a high school Global organization ation that serves to promote community service throughout the world Key Club is also part of the the k group of service whichs into um Kanas organizations which some of you may know um across the US and across the globe as well as Circle K in colleges so our goal as a key Club is to spread community service far and wide and we and here at middlex high school we do it through any local opportunities we see possible after becoming president last year in my junior year we've seen a large a very large increase in club participation we have a cumul cumulative total of over a thousand service hours just in the in the 2023 to 2024 service year we've incre increased our club membership by 150% and it really shows in the numbers of our community GS and and before going to our new Service events that we organized within last year the Key Club and NHS they both serve very similar purposes we both work with our with our local El to help up with their food pantries which we're currently trying to um reorganize um going into this year as well as organizing um volunteer opportunities for to for both um High School volunteers and any and any other volunteers within our community um just from last year we organized a few new Service events with local service organizations first I want to shout out um the middle sex Public Library woo let's go library because um working with them ever since I was Employee at the at the library I've been since I was a kid I've been attending their their little events for for kids and their educational events and I thought it would be a great way um for our Key Club to help by also um supplying volunteers for those save events that help me grow up as a child I grw up with the library and now it's great helping them back we um also through um different middle SE organizations we worked with the middle sex environmental commission to help with their cleanup um their cleanup events one being mounted Park cleanup I think it was in you know May or June somewhere around that time and then finally we have worked with the Ronald McDonald House in New Brunswick near RWJ for those that may not know what Ronald McDonald House is it is a nonprofit organization that that serves to give a house to the families whose children may be suffering through diseases or illnesses that need to say long term at local hospitals so we work with donon McDonald House through our care and Cooks program to provide meals for the families there and also through collaboration with our Kanas Department we created a new partnership with Piscataway high school we made we made new friends and it's extending our school to present Us in more Realms of community service and for our future goals um we we did a lot last year and we have a lot planned so each year Key Club Key Club New Jersey hosts a new state advoc advocacy focus last year it was focused on increasing education which is perfect um working with the library and also being a high schooler and our Focus for this year is both on global and mental health so we'll be trying to pump out projects and Service events based on just Global health and like mental Wellness another thing we want to start doing um this upcoming year is start fundraising to help expand our club both in in Charity donations and also to help us to help our club grow One Way being our participation with with NJ dcon which is heat club's biggest convention through this event we have different networking events we can get our school um accolate for different Service Awards on the state level and also make new connections and have some of our board members be represented on the state level and finally we intend to direct our Charity donations to the dev Devil's Youth Foundation which I am a youth Ambassador for on the state level and use our our donations to fund other organizations that that serve the same purpose that we have in this high school so I am really honored to be in this position helping many people far and wide and I thank all of you here for all of your help and [Applause] support all right next up we have our Board of represent from middle SE High School Miss karmar who will be presenting the kind hi a very pleasant evening to all the board members all the respected teachers and all the community members myself arar and as Mr Regan told I'm the Board of Education representative and also I'm in kindness Club um this is me doing my presentation for the first time in my entire life so God bless me um I've been uh in America from last two years and to being honest first of all I'll be thankful to all the board members to making uh our middle sex high school such a beautiful place uh in India I'm from India in India we only have academic related uh stuff we don't have any extracurricular activities we don't have any clubs like this um and when I came over here the first thing which I got to know was about the finus club and about the Key Club and many more clubs which are going to be talked in our presentation so firstly thanks everyone for giving us this opportunity so that we can like go outside our boxes and we can like think and we can uh grow so thanks to the board members and thanks to the community who supports them for uh giving us opportunities to uh rise uh and I'll start with the kindness Club um our goal is to spread positivity kindness and joy at middle sex high schools uh I believe like in education it's obviously important that you get educated you go to college you get a degree but it's also important that you do something positive for your community and that's what we do in kindness Club um so uh our club has been active from last year uh so we don't have as much as uh kind Key Club have uh for the last year and this year and it's going to be uh in our future plannings uh what we have done uh we are bringing in speakers last year uh we bought in uh Bobby petro and he gave us a speech on 10 seconds uh how a life could be changed in 10 seconds I believe like we all makes these big planning for our future all my High School uh peers they're having our we have our plans for going to college I'm sure that we guys over here also we have plans for dinner right even I have my plan for dinner what I'm eating but uh he gave us a speech that don't go and think too ahead because life could change in 10 seconds he told us his real life story how his life got changed in 10 seconds that was motivational for all the students let's grow in our present let's not go so deep in our future it was really a good a good uh motivation for all the student good message uh and we are doing the bulletin bols in our high school I believe that whatever kids see in our in their environment that's what they grow from having positivity in the classrooms on the walls is really important trust me in India we don't have these kinds of stuff we have like that old building we have old brown gray color walls we have those benches which have been going like since my mom was in the school I'm sure so we need to have um positivity in our in our schools and so bulletin boards we decorate bulletin boards we bring positive are and uh in the last slide we also had many bullets and Boards which we made uh for the future of the kids like uh what do you want to do this year be kind be more uh in the in the school like so we need to get the school positive and the National Night Out we did this uh this year in this summer National Night Out we helped with the community on setting the tables and then we helped with the ice cream truck ice cream we all love ice cream right and uh what we are planning to do uh so Dr Mike uh we are planning to bring in Dr Mike in our high school he's a uh real MD doctor he have went through the Medical College he did medical schooling and he's a 12 hours full-time medical doctor and he is also a YouTuber he have 13 million subscribers on YouTube but he's a u Global person right now he spread about the health care because I'm sure that we have so many questions in our minds about our health system but we are shy to ask from our doctors so a doctor like Dr Mike who is online we can ask him questions right and he answers all the questions in his YouTube videos he have 25 million followers on Instagram and we are thinking if possibly we can bring him in our high school the reason for bringing him in our high school was because he failed high school first of all and then something happened in his life which made him to choose the career of medicine and I believe that we all agree that medicine is a really crucial career and we want our high school kids to go in medicine also Sports fantastic but we need doctors we need teachers because teachers you guys do good job all the teachers over here and gratitude events we do gratitude events uh this is upcoming for all the teachers over here we are going to do something very special for you guys and for the board members uh we are uh it's secret so I'm not telling but I'm definitely gonna say that we are going to do something which is going to uh touch your hearts and it's a very small act of kindness from all the uh members in our club and P they fundraiser this m we had a pza day selling and it did it went good and uh we we were able to get money from it fundraiser and uh we are going to do it oftenly uh maybe we are planning to do it before Thanksgiving and um guys come get pza and um yes uh this is something which now we are doing for spreading kindness in our in our students we are going to hand them out a lollipop because we all love lollipops with a note of being kind as I told we are doing it for teachers and staff so we are not letting our kids be like they don't I don't want them to be jealous so we are going to do something for them we are going to give them lollipops and a small note that be kind to the people around you uh this is what we are going to do in our kindness club we are planning to do more this is what we have from these meetings which we did and um as I said thank you uh for giving us these opportunities so we can uh bring our um good nature which we all kids have but sometimes in education we get so busy that we couldn't um participate but because Mr Regan all the teachers and the board member you guys gave us uh this opportunity so that we can uh rise and thank you so much for that and thank you for having me [Applause] today all right next we have Jaylen craiger gonna talk about conne so hi CS I'm jayen I'm a representative for the peer connections group and our slides are a little bit blank because we don't have many pictures that's fairly new but I'll add that to my future plans for this but um so essentially the idea of peer connections is to promote a welcoming and positive environment for all students whether it's a transfer student freshman or just anyone seeking that sense of community within the school so I'm sure we've all seen one way or another that high school can be hard especially like the social aspect and trying to find the people that bring out the best in you but that's actually so crucial it's like academic success it really just allows you to flourish in every aspect which is why clubs like peer connections are so important so essentially as club members organize events that appeal to the school as a whole within the within the club there's an objective to allow every student to feel as though there's like a warm embracing everywhere just to really allow yourself to flourish so in the past we've had socials that bring in a div a diverse group of students um and allow them to kind of discuss discuss similar interests hobbies anything that brings them together so to expand on this this year we're planning on socials that will as as well as these um conversations will break students into groups and allow those interests and hobbies to be separated and then from those conversations we'll gather the clubs and sports and any other objectives in the school that will um kind of just like support these different groups and allow for that sense of community to come in as a whole through those through those different sports and there's so many things in the school that so many students don't even know exist like different clubs different teams you know all those activities that really just do provide that sense of community that is so crucial in high school especially so yeah so yeah this academic success is really sprouted from so much of like the social aspect and you may not even realize it until you're in it but once you have that you can really just kind of expand in school feel like less of a drag soorry we have lovely staff but sometimes a day it can feel a little bit but um so yeah so that really just allows for the day to feel like you know school can feel like a second home essentially which is the goal and that's what we work towards as your [Applause] connection right next we have andson inclusion so good evening everyone thank you so much for being here it really means a lot um it's I'm great that we have I'm glad that we have this opportunity to showcase so much of the stuff we've been doing at this High School me and Olivia are co-presidents of the diversity Equity inclusivity Club um in our club we want to make it a priority to make sure that everyone in our school feels welcome personally I came here in e8th grade and I mean I felt so alone I came here during during quarantine um I feel like there wasn't a lot of people that looked like me and then when I came to the high school and we had our first diversity I mean it was just great I saw so many like different cultures I saw Jamaica the Philippines India Puerto Rico I mean it was just great seeing everyone represent their cultures and it definitely made me feel like school was a safer and a better place for me to be I talked to so many new people and it was just it was great to like finally like see people who look like me and even like people who don't like learn more about their culture a lot of for diversity day we encourage students to come um make food from their culture and then also put maybe some interesting facts on these little boards that we make like as shown here um it was great learning like different things about new cultures uh we see we see each other every day but I feel like a lot of us know each other very superficially so it was great to know a little more about people I think it created a lot of a sense of pride in our school and a bigger sense of community I mean also we had a lot of teachers even parents show up um it was just awesome to see like everyone interact with their culture and I'm excited for a lot of other things we have planned and our second biggest event that we do with the Dei Club not to give you guys djao me being up here again and to talk about it again but is Breaking Down the Walls our advisor Mrs and Mr Regan and Mr B they work really hard to and and the board so thank you but they work very hard to give us this opportunity and um it gives students the opportunity to be vulnerable with one another and open up to each other and a safe and light-hearted environment I know School sometimes seems scary and a lot of people it's like the worst part of their day and we don't we don't want that we want people to enjoy coming to school and being comfortable and seeing faces that they have to see every day and saying hey I know something about you and you know things about me and we can relate to each other in ways that they didn't know before so with the things that we do during Breaking Down the Walls it's like bonding exercises and little games and pride chants that we could do at the football games and the pep rallies and everything we want to bring that into the everyday environment at school rather than just at these little popup events or the Friday Night Football or pep rallies once a month or whatever we want to bring like games during lunch or like just opportunities for bonding and having fun and being together so with Breaking Down the Walls that's an amazing opportunity to start that and as the Dei club we plan on bringing that into an everyday aspect of school so thank you [Applause] final presentation will be from Hello all um I don't know if any of you guys have met me most of you probably have because I've been here since kindergarten um and we have such a tight neck Community here in the town um and some of you also might know me as that one guy that likes to hand out flags and pins uh more the administration than anybody else um but I'm a junior here at middle SE High School um I'm also the rescue father of three wonderful cats but anybody want to know that um but I am the founder and most importantly I'm the founder and president of prism um I created prism mostly out of necessity it's nice to have people that relate to you it's nice to have people that you can see like you in your community I came out as a transgender about four years ago and when I came here I saw a lot more people that look like me I saw people that identified with how I identify I saw people that could see my experience and really Elevate that with other people's experience if that makes sense um and prism we do a lot of fundraising stuff we do a lot of fundraising stuff and stuff to help out our community as you can see on here we do uh free Pride items for teachers and students around pride month uh which I feel generates a lot of positivity towards the career community in our school uh we have our annual history of Pride board that me and the other members help put up every year right outside of the main office um anybody who works in the main office knows that it is a project and that it takes about a week so um I hope everybody enjoys that um and um I think our pride board um I don't really know what to say about it it's fun and it shows that you can appreciate where you came from and how you came here and then uh we also do handouts just general handouts like accepting yourself accepting others understanding a family member who came out but we're not exclusively for the queer Community we're not exclusively for the gay community or any aspect of it um this year specifically this month is um domestic violence awareness month we will my club and Amnesty International another club that I run here at the high school um will be partnering with the Domestic and Sexual Violence Shelter saith and sound of Somerset um and sorry bobul right now but um so um this will be a townwide project we're we're communicating with the police department at the moment we're communicating with the fire departments the rec center uh we're going to have collection bins placed outside of all these places uh hopefully here in the high school um we reached out to Safe and Sound uh they're doing their inventory this week so they're going to tell us what they need for the survivors what everybody can benefit from from in the group whether that be like snacks clothes even like body wash deodorant you know shampoo conditioner these are the Necessities that domestic violence and sexual violence survivors don't really get when they leave their situation I mean when you leave a domestic violence situation the cops not gonna be like hey I'll give you a second to go grab everything you need like that's not it doesn't happen unfortunately and it's very cruel it's very sad that people are put into these situations but unfortunately it happens and I think safe and sound Somerset is a great resource for those who need it what's really wonderful about safe con s of Somerset is they do not service just Somerset County residents they service people from anywhere so middle County residents hund County residents you could be come from out of state be in an abusive situation and go to safe and sound I got a lot of questions about that when we started uh promoting um another thing that I think is uh really crucial to mention in this situation um is that uh recall it sorry that um the survivors are given the opportunity to write wish lists so stuff that isn't normally donated that they need so like even stuff like like say like perfume or cologne or something that would make you feel more at home like say like oh I would really want a pillow people can buy things off these specific wish list for specific people to make them feel more at home um and I'd like to annunciate the fact that um domestic violence sexual violence and even issues within the queer Community like homophobia and trans siia isn't a homegrown issue it comes from everywhere it's not something that just happens here happen in the state happens in the country it happens all around the world and I think that um doing my part here and helping the community of our town is the first step in something bigger thank [Applause] you all right so as you can see we have a these are a few of our p we have a lot of passionate students that participate in these events support and build our community so a big thank you to everyone that presented I think it's important to note that you know without our club advisers and our teachers who are there to do the work with them I don't know if we'd be where we are today so thank you our teachers thank you to our students thank you to support [Applause] from that was wonderful okay we're going to move on to our district employee of the month Dr Freeman will now announce our district employee of the month for October so to keep the spotlight on the High School Mr Christian bin from the middle from the middle sex high school could you please come [Applause] forward Mr Bolan is our district Employee of the Month each morning as students enter through the front doors they are greeted by Mr bolan's warm presence Mr Bolan is a reliable fixture in the school Community whether it's helping students in his role as classroom Aid covering duties or stepping into various roles he consistently goes above and beyond earning the trust trust of both staff and students alike his commitment to Excellence does not go unnoticed outside of school hours Mr Bolan is a dedicated coach for the JB girls soccer team and middle school wrestling further demonstrating his passion for supporting and mentoring our students the respect and AD ation he receives from Administration teachers and students is welld deserved and this is why we are thrilled to honor him as District employee of the month thank [Applause] you to youy birthday you happy birthday dear Christian happy birthday to [Applause] you double exciting okay we'll move on to our announcements um so my announcement for tonight I have we have some exciting things to um announce not to steal the Thunder but I know there was one person in the audience last night who was very excited about this um we were approved for preschool expansion [Music] Aid so this is additional Aid that we are going to receive to be able to offer um free preschool to the residents of middle sex um so we're very excited about that um and kudos to Dr Freeman and Miss Gomez for applying for that funding and getting it approved so we're excited about that um and then I'd also like to let everybody in the audience know that we have started a new page on our website it's called the board Corner um that is where we are going to answer questions that are asked at board meetings questions that can be answered obviously there are things that we cannot um speak on because they're covered by confidentiality but any questions that we are able to answer um we will put those answers on the website so that not just the person asking the question gets the response everybody will be able to see it so we're very excited to be able to offer that to to the community and that's all I have for tonight so now we will move on to Dr Freeman thank you that's right Madam president after competitive application process I'm excited to announce that middle sex B has successfully been awarded preschool expand that means that means we will be offering free F re preschool to District residents for the 2425 school year the district is proud to announce we will be opening a class at the baby spa on Union Avenue and another class at my very own school on Lincoln Boulevard I know everyone is excited but before you start contacting the district more information is forthcoming please note that currently the district has a preschool weit list and the children on that list will be considered first additionally for the 2526 school year a minimum of two more classrooms are slated to come on board with our community collaboration partner big hugs this evening you will see the creation of four new positions which are all fully funded by preschool expansion a these positions were part of the application and approved by the New Jersey Department of Education the program must begin 75 days after the receipt of the approval a letter therefore the program will begin upon return from winter break on January 2nd 2025 again we are thrilled to provide this to this program to our preschool families thank [Applause] you thank you and now we move on to our business administrator board secretary Miss Annette jordano good evening welcome everyone I have no announcements from the business office particularly I have nothing exciting announcements prior to may but I hope everybody is having a good evening and thank you for being here thank you we will now move on to our liaison reports um first we will have our middle sex County SBA delegate Miss Janette De Jesus Mrs Janette good evening everyone on October 7th midle County School Board Association held a to a meeting in BGE these meetings give school board members across middlex County a to come together share ideas and learn from each other it it's also a time when we receive legislative updates on important bills and regulations that we as a board need to be aware of we are fortunate to have our field representatives and other njsca officials join us as well at this at this meeting on October 7th East Brunswick School District gave a fantastic presentation on artificial intelligence and how it is empowering our Educators Dr Palo supervisor of educational technology at East Brunswick shared how his district has embraced Ai and is teaching students to use it as an educational tool one of the big points he made was the importance of fostering digital citizenship from an early age starting as young as kindergarten the key takeaway all AI is here to stay and we need to help our students use it responsable a slideshow of the presentation will be available on the connection site on njsda thank you and now our njsba delegate Mrs Sharon Schuler so um I am the school board delegate um the next delegate assembly meeting will be in December however I also was reappointed to the New Jersey school board's legislative committee I'm the alternate for legislative district 21 we moved from 21 from 22 to 21 this last year um so it kind of lost my spot and then I got it back um so um I was thrilled to be able to go down the Trenton on Saturday the the 5th of October and we had a um great meeting they had um two legislators that were there from District um 16 uh assemblyman Fryman and assemblyman delucis they were both from um as I said legislative district 16 um they talked about a variety of bills that are in process are being watched by school boards um they talked about the um educator evaluation review task force um New Jersey school boards did have a seat at that table and the the final report was with the recommendations was due on dece on September 30th and they actually met the deadline now the Department of Education is reviewing the recommendations um and hopefully we'll have some changes that will take place for the 25 26 school year um some of the other items that they were looking into is um it was already approved that you can do a second question um on a special election and that would be for subsequent year funding because of the way our elections run sometimes our fiscal year is not the same as what we're when we're voting um however it is still pending a proposal that it would right now it's just for special elections it's pending that it would potentially be available also at a November election so more to come on that um bills worth um noting that are moving is Staffing shortages one of the things they're looking looking at is right now there's a 2year limit to reenroll um if you're out more than two years you have to reenroll in the pension system and you end up at a different level the state is looking into whether they can expand that to 10 years and you would go back in where you were before they're looking to hopefully get people who might leave to have children and want to go back and they don't want to go back in at a different level on the pension system again more to come on that um one of the big things that they did talk about was the um they increased the eligibility numbers for School meals um but what the state also did was Implement that one state organization had to report to the other state organization and anyone that was in the New Jersey family cares the Medicaid Program was Auto automatically enrolled in free and re into their information was automatically enrolled so 151,000 students across the state of New Jersey were automatically reenroll and eligible for free and pre um lunch breakfast and lunch and another 12,000 received reduced um credit and that was the family had nothing they had to fill out it automatically came through the Medicaid um program um and I think that was it that I have I also am was also reappointed to the legislation subcommittee so I have three meetings coming up that will be um there's 17 um resolutions proposed for the December delegate assembly so they all get reviewed before they go to the delegate so just a couple things you'll be busy now our middle sex Public Library Board of Education representative Miss Aon Gomez good evening everyone I don't have anything to report for this month but I do just want to say how amazing it was to hear from all of our students I think it's one of all of our favorite things and I just want to say thank you for all that you do for the school Community because it it's just so much growth from when I started here a while ago so it's just so a while so it's just so amazing to say so I just want to say thank you and now our student representative Miss Parmer hi I didn't know I have to say something you know what you did yours so thank you no you did a great job you're good okay now we will move on to approve our board meeting minutes um we are approving minutes um in 5.01 from last month um 5.02 is Corrections and revisions to previous board agendas um superintendent recommends approval of items 5.01 to 5.02 as presented so moved second anybody have any anybody have any questions on those okay Mr Yordano can you take the role Mrs Bry yes Mrs Deus yes Mrs B yes Mrs Jeffrey yes Mr Nikolai yes Mrs Perry abstained from executive session and Committee of a whole on 9917 yes to the rest Mrs quinnn uh the same for me abstained from Committee of the whole and executive session on 9917 and yes to the rest Mrs Reynolds yes Mr Scher yes thank you okay we will now open the public comment portion of the meeting comments at this time are limited to agenda items only please come to the podium and put your name address email address and subject of your comment into the record book before speaking please give your name address and subject of your comment to miss Anette Dano business administrator board secretary direct your comments and questions to the board president you may speak on two separate topics for up to 3 minutes each evening everyone uh first like to thank or congratulate Mr bowan on his uh where he went on his uh teacher of the or District uh staff member of the mon uh great great teacher uh thank you to all my peers coming out today to present um their respective clubs uh a large amount I'm a part of uh my first question tonight is going to be on 9 94 uh last night of committee meeting the agenda had a $500 a day interm principal uh and I checked this evening is no longer there which was it tabled is it fully off it's that's Personnel so we can't comment I think answer uh the uh next question is going to be on the 912 uh preschool so for the fiscal year 25 we got that 629000 preschool funding which is great uh and we made all these positions uh is this an expected obviously going toward this fiscal year uh is this expected to be a yearly awarded thing and if or if it is and we don't get it uh what is going to happen to the pre are we going to pick up the bill on the preschool front are we going basically think those offerings not as once you're approved for prek pre preschool expansion Aid it comes every year we will it's not an it's an initial application and after that it's a follow-up application for expansion so our universe for prek is 250 students so we are expected to have 90% of that number in five years so each year there's an expansion and each time we grow the state will provide us with the funds for the program all right and is there any plans to like if we continue to grow is there any plans to uh increased job positions on that I open guess what we added uh like we added a uh social worker and social worker and preschool Community parent involvement specialist preschool worker and preschool Specialist or it might be how are many positions we created will there is there plans to add more if we expand as far as teachers we have to expand as as many children that we have so yes the program will expand than you're welcome good evening carollyn mle president um on 9.12 there might have just been a little jump of the gun I know that Dr Freeman you and I are working on that uh n it's 912 number three the pit Orchestra director we're good to go I have M approval on that however the second one the graduation coordinator National knowledge study I've drawn that up for you but I don't have any approval on that yet so I have to ask you to table that for this thank you good evening I'm I just wanted to say congratulations on that preschool Grant I do have just two little questions about how will the public be made aware of that program and are what are the requirements to apply okay as for agenda items 9-12 number six I just wondered if somebody could um explain to me what it means when it's inactive and to create do you want to comment on I know you were talking about the the role um so the state has um um instituted a position control roster so every position in the district has a certain number that goes with it we created a lot of positions over the summer this is codifying the position control Roster number that goes to them most of them were already created and all part of the budget um most of them are active people that we did hire there are only a few that are still outstanding to be hired okay and what does the inactive mean they're no longer that position is no there's nobody in that position so just nobody in it correct okay um it was quite a lot to read and I may have missed it but I need ask about the um Food Service policy that's going to be I think it's going up for the first reading tonight um I don't see anywhere in this policy um how the board will take care of AAR um for people that owe the money I want to know what the board policy will be on that so we don't end up with our $41,000 bill again I there is a procedure in place I'm sure we can get you the exact how it works okay it's not in the policy though or did I miss it I would think it would be in this policy but I don't see it so and this policy you so the policy is the policy and then there are regulations but in that policy there is information on on steps that need to be taken and this one that I yes can you tell me where I you can do a search and and find it you want well I have it all printed here do you know where it is here off the top of my head I don't it's 14 pages okay I I may have missed it and I apologize if I did I'll go back and reread it but if somebody can get that information to me that would be great and this is also first reading of this policy so it won't be adopted okay and also if someone can explain to me what the so I believe it's on page eight eight okay thank you I I won't hold up the meeing I'll read that on my own um if someone can explain to me what the summer food service program is and who's involved in that we will make sure that you get that information I don't have that okay thank you my okay um we will now close the public comment portion of the meeting oftentimes it may appear to members of our audience that the Board of Education takes action with very little comment and in many cases a unanimous vote before a matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting the Administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with the superintendent of schools if the superintendent is satisfied that the matter is ready to be presented to the board of education is then referred to the appropriate board committee the members of the board committee work with the administration and the superintendent to assure that the members fully understand the matter when the committee is satisfied with the matter it is presented to the board of education for discussion before any final action is taken only then is it placed on the agenda for Action at a public meeting okay now we will move on to our Personnel report by our committee chair Mrs Sharon Schuler uh thank you so much the committee did meet on Tuesday the 8th um as most everything is um personnel only so much I can share one of the items that I did have and shared last night was about the position control roster and that information um we did discuss that at at last night's Committee of the whole meeting so this evening I would like to make a motion to approve as recommended by the superintendent of schools um d n is appointments contractual I'm sorry 9.01 I don't know where it got deep 9.01 appointments contractual 9.02 classroom AIDS uh 9.04 substitutes 9.05 extracurricular co-curricular state 9.06 leave of absence 9.07 end of service 9.09 salary adjustments 910 extra contract teaching assignments 911 Community School 912 has um a variety of items one through six um however we are t number three number we're tbling the graduation coordinator and the National Honor Society advisor off of number three yes um that will come back at a a future meeting um so as recommended personal items 9.01 through 9.12 as presented so move second does anyone have any questions comments I have a question I just want to be I just want to if I recall correctly we spoke about this yesterday all those positions are funded through the money that we're receiving from the state it is a separate budget ande it is yes yes okay okay M gano can you take the RO Mrs Pary um I have to abstain from 9.12 number three that's not right let me just sorry number five that's obstain from yes 9.12 number five yes to the rest Mrs yes Mrs B yes Mrs Jeffrey yes Mr Nicholas yes Mrs Perry yes Mrs Quinn yes Mrs Reynolds yes Mrs Scher yes okay we will now move on to our education report by our committee chair Mrs Brenda Perry good evening the superintendent recommends approval of the education action items 11:01 through 1113 has presented so move second any questions or comments on those items okay Miss Yordano can you please take the role this is foren yes Mrs yes Mrs B yes Mrs Jeff yeah Mr nck yes Mrs Perry yes Mrs Quinn 11.9 refuse for Gary brener And yes to the rest Mrs Reynold yes Mrs SCH yes thank you we will now move on to our policy action items 12.01 is first reading of bylaws policies and regulations 12.02 is the second reading and Adoption of bylaws policies and regulations 12.03 is adoption of bylaws policies and regulations and don't have 12.4 superintendent recommends the approval of policy action items 12.01 to 12.04 as presented so moved second any questions or comments on those items Mr jordano can you please take the role Mrs keny yes Mrs de yes Mrs B yes Mrs Jeffrey yes Mr Nichol yes Mrs Perry yes Mrs Quinn yes Mrs Reynolds yes Mrs Scher yes thank you we will now move on to our excuse me facilities and finance report by our committee chair Mr Todd Nichol thank you Mrs try um good evening everybody the finance facility and finance committee met on the superintendent recommends approval of facilities and finance action items 14.01 through 1410 so move second to 142 I'm sorry um any questions or comments on that those items um Miss Yordano can you please take the role Mrs Bry abstain on 14.07 number one yes to the rest Mrs D Mrs B yes Mrs Jeffrey yes Mr Nicholai yes Mrs Perry yes Mrs Quinn yes Mrs Reynolds yes Mrs SCH yes thank you you um does the board have any ongoing business any new business okay we will now open our second public comment portion of the meeting comments at this time can be on any topic please come to the podium put your name address email address and subject of your comment into the record book before speaking please give your name address and subject of your comment to miss Anette gordano business administrator board secretary direct your comments and questions to the board president you may speak on two separate topics for up to three minutes each uh just a quick thing for Mrs Reynolds uh just want to know I I know accidents happened but you voted on your sons on 905 which you might want to make a motion to revote on that but say Kevin and Ryan are on 95 I know it's probably we were voting on the position not the person but you're absolutely right uh all right that's the first comment and then the uh second one will be going to sound like a broken record at this point uh there's obviously a lot of teachers here uh a lot of them wearing nice blue shirts uh these teachers want to contract and want to contract now if this was any other job uh they would be striking obvious you can't do it in a public sector job at least in uh I'm sure some of them may come up and ask for a contract soon and a contract now but that is all [Applause] Carolyn mugle mea president um one of the great Joys that I have in being part of the mea is the service that we're able to bring to the public um we've got our pep coordinator here and she coordinates a lot of the grants that we use as service to the public um one of them was the uh being candidates night last last week and we are working without a contract and we all know that but what our service is to this community is still more important and we continue to do that even though we're working with an expir contract I personally would like to thank the people that participated in it because without your buyin we can't hold it and then we can't get that service out to those six people so thank you to everybody that participated and uh we look forward to our mediation date on the 11th and securing another contract thanks [Applause] I can't do two things at one time uh good evening everyone uh members of the board my colleagues the community um first I want to say I'm so proud tonight it was so beautiful to see that the the speeches were wonderful every one of you there's so much that has been bought to the community I've been a teacher for a little bit over 20 years I don't remember 21 22 which I get lost um but we've done so much as a school I've seen the growth I've had some of your children as students some of them that are doctors already one is a teacher a teacher here is my colleague who was my student back way back when so we've gone through a lot in the process in education and to see what you presented was wonderful by the way safe and sound I was a volunteer for that and they do serve middle sex Community uh very closely so it's something to really support um my point here tonight is to speak to you I don't come up very often um because I would like to speak when I have something important to say or in my mind it's important to say um there's so much that we do as teachers and when I came to the presentation for meet the candidate a number of you mentioned that the hard work that we do how valuable we are I think it's all theoretical and with with all the respect it's all theoretical because you are speaking from presentations from what you see but I don't know if you really know what we do when you go to a a museum it's different from actually going to seeing a painting so I think it's important for board members I know you're busy and I appreciate all your time the meetings that you're going to that you mentioned that's a lot but if you would visit the schools and see the Vibrance not only in the high school but in the middle school at Woodland in the elementary schools and maybe you do maybe you do but I invite you to go there and see what we do it is and miss hazus you mentioned it it is more than just teaching the social aspect the the emotional aspect it's taxing I actually just finished work at 5:35 a number of us do that so when you are talking about contract please consider that we are teachers yes but we're also people that work really hard for our kids for the community and for our principles Mr rean amazing and I I I will give him a Kudos I just met one of you students who graduated recently and teachers at the high school he said the calculus course he's taking at college and this is a great College uh and the chemistry course are so easy because he's so well prepared this is what the teachers at the high school did this happens in all areas it's not just the high school it's the middle school it's the Intermediate School it's the lower school I invite you to come into my classroom I would love you to Shadow me one day it's more than just me speaking to the students giving a lesson sitting with them and teaching them curriculum it's a lot more than that so I invite you all to visit my classroom when you have a chance thank you thank [Applause] you laa thomasy um I just have a quick question about the job description unless I missed it again reading it but the job description of the attendance and transportation officer I would hope that under that job description would be that that person would be taking care of re-registration and if it's in there and I missed it I apologize but if not I would as you to consider to put that in this part of the job description is right I'm not really sure now who does it thank you okay we will now close the public comment portion of the meeting we do not have a reason to go in into executive session so I'd like to make a motion to adjourn really quick Dan do I have to do anything for oh yes I'm sorry yes we go back we'll just go back to that really quickly um so we can we revote on number nine Personnel action items um Mr J you want to retake the role on number nine person Mrs we're at nine okay so I have to abstain from 9.12 number five yes to the rest Mrs Jesus yes Mrs B yes Mrs Jeffrey yes Mr Nikolai yes Mrs Perry yes Mrs Quinn yes Mrs Reynolds okay I've seen from 9.05 Kevin Reynolds and Ryan Reynolds a yes to the rest Mr SCH yes okay now I would like to make a motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor