that was fun m I love it good evening and welcome this is the regular public meeting of the north brunic Township Board of Education for Wednesday November 29th 2023 could we please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all Mr Ali pres Mr Brockman here Mr Carter here M James president miss Keith here Mr Lori here Dr Patel here miss to here and Mr W here we have aara thank you 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 meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the open public public meetings law the public notice of this meeting which included the time date and location was distributed by 3 p.m. on Sunday January 29th 2023 in the following manner posted on the bulletin board reserved for announcements in the board office 25 lywood place North Brunswick mailed to the home News Tribune The Sentinel and the clerk of the township of North Brunswick and delivered to the nine duly elected board members good evening everyone we have two great presentations this evening and I'll turn it over to Mrs choka thank you Mr Lori um it is quite an honor tonight um it's not an occasion that happens all the time we do have our annual teacher of the year um recognition um at which we get to recognize our teachers of the year but that is school by school and on a rare occasion a teacher elevates to a a higher higher um award and so we're very excited that we're able to honor um Julie Mercier from mbts today um for her becoming our middlex County teacher of the year which is a big accomplishment and we're very proud of her so we give her a round of applause and if Mr neller can come up and speak about Miss Mercier for a few minutes you want to come stand next to him you yeah yes because otherwise it won't go on the um prove it's real right good evening everyone um thank you for inviting us this evening um it is a true pleasure to speak about Julie I feel like we uh have come full circle on the last year because this morning Julie was a member of our committee to select our teacher of the year for uh 2023 to 24 school year so um it's really been a great process for her and I really enjoyed the fact um you know that throughout the year how involved she's become and I know she's taken throughout the state actually um I know she's really taken this honor um and the opportunities that come with it very seriously and she really has become a true teacher leader not only for our school but her teachers around the state um she regularly keeps me informed about all the uh things that she's taking part in she's presenting um she present presented recently on growth mindset at Ed Camp which is in Brun government y um speaking to teachers about the growth mindset which is something at nbths that we've really strive to build among our teachers is having that that positive feeling that students can succeed no matter what um and Julie's really taken leadership of that not only in our school but um like I said around the state and we're really honored for everything she's accomplished um and everything we know she will continue to accomplish and we are truly lucky to have her at mvths uh she teaches in addition to English she teaches our tomorrow's teachers programs and I know that she is going to develop a new generation of teachers that we desperately need um she's taking students already around the district um students who probably never thought last summer even that they possibly be considering teaching um and they're loving it I spoke to one today about their visit to Livingston Park last week and she couldn't say great things or enough great things about talking to the elementary school students at Mr Dawson school so I know that Julie's going to continue to do great things so congratulations okay sure um this this process has been just it's really overwhelming uh and amazing um I would love to say that it was all me just kidding no not all me at all um when you win uh at your school which is great you get invited to apply for Middle sex County teacher of the year uh that's not small and um I was able to complete that and win that and then when you win middle level you get really invited and encouraged by the superintendent to go for State um teachers year and um I just just need to give massive shout outs to um Patty van Langan who is an incredible mentor and friend listen to every essay and every video um Jason Swain record for of my video this is not a small process um but don't worry because no one is allowed to not do this process after I've done this process um and when I was honored with uh middle sex County teacher of the year uh Mr stroker said I hope you do the state and I said oh sure yes of yes I'm in and then I saw uh what that application in inail and then I did make it to the finals which was just a really really really great uh professional experience um but I work with the new nbths English Department and we are extremely competitive combined with camaraderie so all of those people were involved in this process I found out I was number two um which is great which is great I don't know if I really wanted to win I have a 14y old 16y old but honestly it it just uh teaching is tough as we all know and um Mr n makes it a lot easier and my supervisor makes it a lot and be Beth is great I love the Jason is in the room um it is I laugh every single day and I have a great time and I hope that what we're doing in this District just continues because we're doing really really really great things in a culture that doesn't necessarily celebrate us so we celebrate each other and I feel like that's what it's about um I'm excited that my daughters are here you are the greatest thing I've ever done and my husband is the greatest Choice I've ever [Music] made so stay there for just a minute stay up there for just a minute and then we'll come take a picture um but Mr Lori would like to read a resolution for you official that we'll go into our minutes so be it resolved by the Board of Education that the following resolution be approved whereas the Board of Education recognizes the efforts of all staff members and wishes to to acknowledge its appreciation for the services rendered to the students and citizens of North Brunswick and whereas the Board of Education recognizes the efforts of Miss Julie Mercier English teacher grades 9 through 12 who has been chosen as middlex County teacher of the year we congratulate Miss Mercier on this honor we thank Miss Mercier for her passionate efforts to support all of our students especially in all of her efforts to assist students in getting accepted to their college choices and for her work inspiring future teachers as the adviser to the tomorrow's Teachers Program whereas the Board of Education of the township of North Brunswick does hereby express its warm appreciation and heartfelt thanks to the dedication and faithful service of Miss Julie Merc and for her tireless commitment to the North Brunswick School District Community now therefore be it resolved that this public Acclaim be given to miss Julie Mercier for her exemplary leadership at North brunic Township School District and for making a difference in the lives of her students be it further resolved that this resolution be spread upon the minutes of this board of education and that a copy of it be given to miss Julie Mercier and we're incredibly proud of [Applause] you come take a picture okay thank you thank you congratulations [Music] again we figured since Mr here we would take mik was like just do your thing then yeah so Mr um Lori and board members one of the required uh reporting pieces is our graduation rate um and as you know Mrs Chang presented the last couple of months on on different test scores um and so this month Mr neller is presenting on the mbth graduation rate and then some of other initiatives that are going on at the high school thank you um it's my pleasure to talk uh this has been a passion of mine since I became the principal at the high school six years ago um was to not only improve our graduation rate um but to stabilize it and uh and I feel like we' we've gotten to that point where we have the systems in place um to keep our graduation rate where it is um and I I do want to thank the board of ed for all of their support throughout the last uh six years and providing programs that have made that possible for us so back in 2011 the state uh adjusted the way they um measure the graduation rate so basically we are measured each year on a four and fiveyear cohort so basically when you have a Freshman Class come in the state takes that number of students and then through four years they measure that number um and then ultimately they basically divide your number of graduates after four years by that initial number and that's how you get your graduation rate um it doesn't matter how many students come in and out of the district they will adjust for new students um but they they measure us on that metric so that's why we tell freshman from the second they come into the high school everything you do counts and we need you to graduate on time um so we really work with them on that because of that metric and the State also does measure a 5year which is basically students who may not graduate um if they graduate in the fifth year they do produce a or publish a fifth year rate for a graduating class right so that's the the formula I just explain so the four-year cohort uh for our graduation rate um I do want to note that in 2017 um we had an 80 .9% graduation rate um and that's I became principal of that Following fall um and that's why I set it to become a real passion of mine uh to never see that happen again um you know it looks bad for the school it doesn't truly show it didn't truly show how hard we worked to try to help those students and I just I said to myself we're never going to have a rate like that again um in 2018 we went up to 89% um or in one year we had a 9% increase and then we have been in the '90s ever since um so you can see 2020 um we had 93.2 and then all the way up to last year and you can see that's where I'm talking about we really tried to stabilize because we've been around 95% for the last 3 years um so we you know like I said uh I really do appreciate the programs we're about to start our Saturday Credit Recovery um this coming or next weekend for our seniors who unfortunately failed a course in Market period one they will now come to school on Saturdays to make up assignments in order to be able to bring that grade up to passing um so we do have Saturday school for them um I will say though uh the class of 2024 they have the least amount of students who failed the First Market period class since we started Credit Recovery back in 2018 um so we're also very excited at the possib that students are finally getting it that we're going to make you come to school on Saturday if you fail um so we're hopeful that that will continue throughout this school year and next year as well um AP testing takes place every spring um so I had the opportunity over the summer to analyze our AP testing scores so AP testing our college level exams administered by the College Board um students take an AP class the entire school year and they culminate that in May by taking the AP test they are rigorous College Level examinations um they give an opportunity for students to learn what it's what it's like to take a college level examination and also the opportunity to earn college credit for so the the AP tests are measured on scale of five um five is 3 to five is passing the col board considers three a passing grade students who earn a four or a five which means they've really excelled on the AP test get the opportunity many times as long as their college will accept it to earn college credit for the course that they took so it does give students an opportunity to take AP classes if they take the exam and earn that higher grade to get an opportunity to earn credit before they even get into college so it's something that we really encourage our students to do every [Music] year courses where we accept sell in 20 sorry 2022 and 2023 we have over 20 AP courses these were the courses where students form the highest um AP Bio we had 91.7% of students who who pass the exam with a three or better AP Cal was 96.8% AP Kem was 92.9% AP Computer Science was 90.9% AP Spanish language and culture um 100% passing rate this past school year wow so I will mention the teacher her name is Rosa Perez um I wrote her a letter uh you know congratulating her over the summer because she had it was 16 students in that class but they were very nervous to take that test and she assured them that they would do well and she really prepared them and they had 100% passing rate um also not on this list but AP English Lit and composition which we usually get a very high percentage of students who take that course 83% uh score to three or higher on that [Music] ex I just shove it off um so in addition you can see here uh that the students obviously I just read the percentag of the students to score three or higher four or higher is the students who generally earn a college credit so you can see um that all of those courses were at least in the 70 percent or 70% or higher where that many percentage of students scored a four or five um in addition in the AP English course they were also in the they had 80 in the 70s as well 73% scored for better in that course as well and that's it for test scores um you know as a very out of this as well um but we were ranked again for the third year in a row by US News and World Report is one of America's uh top best high schools um and a large percentage of what they measure is graduation rate and AP test so A Student Success is what really join us to earn that recognition uh something we're very proud of at the high school um that we've you know we've been recognized as one of America's best high schools by again this year so we're really excited about that and you want me to talk about the yeah so if you do tab the tab is open for the other slideshow that you have you just click that you can go that yeah I think you have to back up yep um so Mrs shro asked if I could just highlight a couple two more initiatives that we've been working on this school year um one was uh what our school climate survey which last year um our staff our school participated in the NJ SCI School climate survey as well as every other school in the district did um and then we analized our results and put into action two focuses for this school year all right so the purpose of school climate surveys is to collect and analyze data to a PRI prioritize areas of need in strength in our school Community um we were a little disappointed with the number of students who took it last year I don't know if the two students in this room took it but um so we are we are going to do something a little different this year when we do administer it as um probably having students take it through a class instead of their home room um just to in give them more of an opportunity and more time to take it um the results of the survey were analyzed by members of the school uh Improvement team and mths each School in the district is required to have that and I have five uh members of my school um Improvement team at MBS that analyzed the data and what we found where there was two areas of focus for growth for this school year um overwhelmingly the the school comate survey results from students staff and parents were very positive um but we did Identify two areas of growth and that was academic culture and practices and negative student interactions so for academic culture and practices um what we looked at is it it really the way the students took the survey and the way the teachers took the survey were a little different but they both identified academic culture and practices as an area of potential improvement from the teacher perspective or from I'm sorry from the student perspective they would like to see their teachers continue to make their learning relevant to them they want to know why they're learning what they're learning and how it can connect to their lives so what we did was we surveyed our staff again and we asked them to share best practices what are they doing in their classes that they think make learning relevant uh to their students how are they trying to connect the learning to the students on a daily basis and then we shared it with them um with all the staff at our opening faculty meeting to share so you clicked on that link it's the link to the responses that the teachers gave um and then we shared it with everyone in case they ever wanted to just take a look and see if there's something that another teacher's doing in another subject area to engage their students that they may want to try in their class um from the staff perspective you know coming out of Co um we really we wanted everyone to be successful we wanted students to recover um so we did you know for have lower academic standards coming out of Co which you know most schools did you know around the area so we're building back our rigor and our expectations and that's something that teachers expressed that they would like to see continue to happen um so one thing we're doing this year is we're going to have a grading committee made up of teachers and administrators um later this year to make recommendations for any possible changes to our grading system which would go into effect next year we we always have to go by our the due date of our student handbook so we have to make sure we do that before May so we can print it for parents and students to be able to see um so that's something we're going to work on we also talked about um that we need to do a better job we recognize our athletes we know that um but we need to do a better job of recognizing our students who are really performing well in their classes um so right now the administrators of the high school we're working on um we're going to make it more you know we're going to do a better job of recognizing our students who are making honor rooll and high honor rooll um so that's something that we're going to be working on over the next couple weeks we recognize the students of the market period but that's only a total of 12 students um so we want to do more to highlight the students that are really performing well in their classes so that's something we're going to work on as well um unfortunately you know and and social media has only made it more easier but students can be mean to each other um we know that so that was a concern that was the one category in our school climate survey where parents students and teachers all agreed um that kids can be mean to each other um so we did a very similar thing that we did with the uh academic practices we asked teachers what do you do in your classrooms to spread positivity what do you do in your classrooms to get kids to be respectful to each other and we shared that as well as best practices so someone's you know has students who are maybe not getting along in a group is there something they can do differently to try to to change that and encourage them to be more positive with each other um so we shared that as well but we also have worked um been doing a lot of work this fall um through a number of initiatives to build better relationships with students we we believe teachers can be the role models for students on how to behave appropriately in classrooms and how to to show respect and get along with each other so we've done a lot of PD on building relationships for our staff um through capturing kids Hearts which which was a program we had in August and then heart training which was just offered by ubhc to our teachers over two um meetings after school over the last month um we also revamped our pbsis program our Positive Behavior Support Program um and we're asking teachers this year to focus on specific things in the classroom so if they want all students you know to in a group in a group setting to be respectful and appropriate to each other if they see that happen they can reward students for that so we're trying to be more focused with our rewarding um of student positive student Behavior through our pbsis uh program as well so that's another way we're trying to encourage better student interactions um my principal's Advisory Group is working on some videos right now um that they want to share with students about appropriate behavior with each other um so those that's another way through our TV news um that we're hoping to spread messages of you know have better student interactions with each other in our school all right and lastly um you know our district as a whole has been working on improving our attendance we recognize that especially after covid um it's been harder to get some students back to school um so in 2022 and 23 31% of nbths students were identified according to the state measurement as chronically absent um so we put together uh at our school this year a core team of princip of me uh the aps the Deans the assistant principles um staff focused on attendance so our attendance Clerk and our tenants officer counselors um CST members and coaches that have come together to work with our students to identify them before they become chronically absent um so that's something that we've been doing uh we've been raising awareness we're sending home letters starting with the second absence um administrator starting with the fifth absence we call home home and schedule meetings with parents whether it's virtual or in person um setting up meetings with the families to discuss the importance of coming to school and trying to get students in in school every day and then we have identified teacher coaches who during their Duty period um they will work with the students who were concerned most concerned about with their attendance um and they'll be meeting with those students to try to come up with a plan to get them to come to school you know using rewards um and different incentives uh to try to encourage students to come to school we want and and it's another reason why we're really focused on building relationships with our teachers because if kids like their teachers they're going to want to be in school um and we really believe that so that's something we're working on uh we also have a pilot Home Room in grade 10 they were all students who were chronically absent in ninth grade um and we're working with them they have different incentives for coming to school and so far uh those those students are coming and they're not being They're Not absent the way they were last year um and if that works then we're probably going to extend it to the other grade levels next year as well um and we're using PBIS reward to reward students for approving attendance throughout the school year so I just wanted to share some of the initiatives this year at the high high school thank you thank you Mr ner anybody um want to make any comments or any questions I have a question what are some of the um incentives that are being offered to the the children for the absenteeism um well we uh we have this year it's an online um reward system okay for PBIS so we have a an a Dean Ali relas and a teacher um asley do who monitor it um and they actually deliver prizes to students in their classrooms um which stud you know believe it or not they they like to stand out like that um so we're doing rewards like that um you know we're going to later we're going to do uh I think we're organizing a a movie for students who have improved their attendance that were on the chronically absent list um from last year so we're going to do a movie and popcorn for them in the auditorium um we're probably going to do a breakfast for them later in the school year um you know just like we want to do more with the recognizing students who are um really doing well academically uh we want to recognize those students as well for their Improvement in their attendance thank you oh I just want to say this is this is all awesome and um really nice to see um just in thinking of like the terms of uh chronic absentee a school climbing and just how the students are interacting with each other so when I um working on teams climbing teams in planfield and in New Brunswick a lot of the the variance we saw like when the schools improved they either had this critical mass where everybody bought brought into like the overall goal and you saw this shift over time but also um in New Jersey we have the uh New Jersey Alliance for social emotional and character development and they Charter and they have these different things that are called like schools of character and dict of character and they're all encompassing of like PBIS um system of support so I'm just thinking like I know at like the high school level and some of the schools that you know we ring at cusp those are like type of um you know uh long-term goals that you know working within the school working within District to get those designations they really show that okay we're incumbent of these things but they're also showing that we're working to really embed that within our district so you know I just think we're we're there and that's like something to really look into if and it's free and it's just really you know working with the folks you have so um thank you and just keep going no thank you I appreciate it um we have in the past worked with Ruckers that's actually where our PB program came from um over the years we kind of drifted away from it but uh we did I did have a couple administrators attend one of their trainings so it's something we might be looking to get more involved with Ruckers again um we have in the past been awarded schools of character for for different things we do like the ESL High te that we do we we were award fullo character for that a few years ago um so it's definitely something that we're we're keeping an eye on than thank than you I have one question one congratulations on those numbers they are Stellar um I think we all should be proud of that um and I just have a question about the uh pilot program for the high schoolers is that a blind study to them like do they know that they were all chronically absent or not I'm I'm really curious tell you that I know is um when when a student hits 16 absences according to our student handbook we take away their credits we've been very um in the past few years especially since Co so last year we only took away credits from students who uh had 30 or ABS so I can tell you that quite a few students in that Home Room met with me with their parents over the summer and I was generous in restoring credit right um with the stipulation that I would never do it again um and so they're now in that and we talked about their absences obviously being major cause of why they were not performing well academically and then they were placed in that home so I'm pretty sure they spread know thank you Mr oh I'm sorry I just also wanted to add um I had the opportunity to sit in on one of these meetings at the high school and it was nothing short of really um very impressive the amount of detail the collaboration that goes in um it was it was very well done and I was appreciative to be uh invited to that meeting and it was kudos to your team they're really doing a very good job Mr neller I would just say as you look for new and unique ways to honor your students um and to recognize your students let Mrs choka know so that we could recognize those students as well we were just speaking this evening and we're always looking for new ways to recognize students here in our public forums as well so please keep her informed so that we could do the same here I will I actually res Dr Ellis yesterday um to meet with her to talk about how we can you know really do a better job of promoting it for our students welcome thank you I mean we're doing great things and it's obvious from your presentation that there are great things going on at the high school and um I think they that will just continue to grow so thank you very much for for sharing with us tonight and uh taking the time okay folks uh Mr W would you move on item number six for us please sure i' like to make a motion to approve the following board minutes regular public meeting October 18th 2023 executive minutes October 18th 2023 second all in favor any opposed the minutes are accepted thank you any Communications this evening no Communications Mr President thank you with that we'll move on to our reports and any old or new business before your administrative report no just our administrative report please so good evening to all our families guests and viewers here tonight our district has been hard at work since our last board meeting in mid- October congratulations to our three board members who were reelected to another three-year term Richard Lori Haley to and Alicia James as we move into December we have winter concerts scheduled for each school December 4th is Jud the 7eventh is Parsons December 11th John Adams the 12th is the MBT Ms School the 14th is mbts the 18th is Lynwood and the 19th is Livingston Park all concerts with the exception of nbtm will be at the high school auditorium at 7 p.m. the middle school concert is at 7 p.m. in the mbtm auditorium these are all wonderful events that showcase the talent of our students and our music department and we hope that you will take this opportunity to attend if if you can next Thursday December 7th is an early dismissal day for staff professional learning there are five such professional learning days built into our school calendar that are also part of our teachers contract for me many parents we understand that this can be an inconvenience and we do often get questions about why we have these days the value of these days for staff learning and professional time cannot be understated it is an essential part of our teachers continuing professional learning in areas that ultimately help them support our students better in the classroom I thank our families our administrative staff and our board of education for their support of these important staff learning days we continue to R remind all of our families of the importance of regular School attendance as Mr neller just talked about for the high school but we are doing that in all of our schools we have to re recognize the importance of attendance and its impact on your child's learning progress principles and their teams are reaching out to parents and students who may have high absence numbers for this time of the year our school teams are here to support you with challenges you may be facing in this area that is it for my report this evening Mr President thank you we'll move to our student report which I think there might even be a spoiler alert about an upset at Powderpuff oh no okay so firstly members of our Key Club and a National Honor Society were glad to serve as student assistances at our parent teacher conferences at the high school um SGL held a successful fall blood drive with New Jersey Blood Services 78 pints of blood were collected helping over 200 people also ESO sponsored the annual Powderpuff football event between all classes The Freshman pulled off an upset being the first freshman class to win since the early 2000s how about uh The Alchemist Theater Company had a successful performance of their fall play she kills monsters uh members of the South Asian Cultural Association put together a lovely display in the Commons in celebration of the Vol Vol members of the human rights Coalition are raising funds for Doctors Without Borders by selling stethoscopes Ste stethoscope pins to the students and staff yeah that's it that's it thank you it's a busy time you guys are doing a great job keeping us posted on everything thank you we'll move to our committee reports and let's let's start with education Dr Patel thanks Mr President so the education committee met on November 15 2023 the committee reviewed the results of njsla the district is looking to establish an Ela task force committee for kids K through 4 multilanguage learners and special education the district is also looking at new options for a pilot program for the science department for kids K through 4 um coordinators presented on November 15 at the middlex county curriculum Council and the presentation was very well received and it went well uh the Sora sub committees are moving into year two and they've established a community involvement program the district is also continuing to is continuing planning the for the preschool expansion program for the 2024 2025 school year and the committee also had a second reading of the policies that are stated in the agenda and that concludes my report thank you business operations Miss James shortly the business operations committee met on Wednesday November 15th uh as to the rod grants for which we have been preliminary preliminarily approved the district is still awaiting our final estimated cost from the doe and then it will be required to be submitted to the SDA for approval at the high school we discussed the ongoing work that has been undertaken for 10 of our season's four units we will have another change order reflected on the agenda um all that's starting at page 19 on the agenda tonight to cover additional expenses as it relates to the the actuators and dampers Hannah is assessing the 500 Wing to address the piping issues there this is an issue to be addressed to avoid leaks and to ensure that we have proper Heating and Cooling we have physical units to utilize if needed to ensure temperatures are comfortable for our staff and students as to the high school TV studio uh per the vendor this is expected to be completed by February 2024 the varsity baseball field has had some work done with the alow aligned mount with home plate earlier this month regarding the pool project we received a $70,000 Grant to conduct this work however the total cost is estimated to be uh above that around $110,000 therefore additional funding is needed to close the scap um that is also reflected on tonight's agenda the paneling has been taken down and we are trying to address the seal in as a primary priority the grant is putting a huge dent in the work to be completed however the board will be motioning as I indicated for tonight uh the use of pool Revenue funds and maintenance funds to cover that balance of $40,000 as for the middle school we discussed that we need to approve an estaple certificate also being motioned tonight related to the Middle School solar project at Lynnwood we again discussed the chiller's project uh after close review we are amending the the project costs we have been communicating out that we have been exploring the most appropriate for this site considering the two Source options and the sounds that can be emitted um based on our selection we have our engineer of record who has looked at the project with ideal comp with ideal completion in the summer barring any unforeseen supply chain issues as for the roof we are finalizing details such as where we do stage uh when we will start the work as far at the time of day and District leadership will be having another meeting with all stakeholders to determine the details to minimize any inconvenience to our students families and staff as for for our elementary schools the lp playground equipment is to be shipped this week which was November 18th so last week or the week before uh we are discouraged that we are we're expecting a November installation but are eager to receive this as quickly as possible Parson's playground equipment was ordered by the township to replace the equipment which was taken up we are still hopeful to have fruitful conversations in that regard um regarding the district's ability to use such equipment Courtyards are being analyzed out of our fund 63 account um and we are in receipt of an LP Logistics plan from Matrix new world upon further review and discussion we hope to modify an entry Exit Plan to eliminate the car traffic and pedestrian tap and pedestrian traffic to ensure the safety of our building and also to increase parking at that location the committee discussed our short range facility plan our last long range facility plan was completed in 2021 we overviewed the plan with the committee and we are thinking ahead to work through our 3 to five our 3 to five year plan in conjunction with our our architects data Gathering is required to prioritize our needs and to maintain our facilities in a fiscally responsible fashion the district has been invited to partner with the tranga program um to assist with our newcomers and that conversation is ongoing the committee also began looking closely at our transportation cost to determine if efficiencies can be maximiz that maximized in that area that conversation is also ongoing finally we reviewed our respective accounts to ensure fisical health so that we are prepared to meet the needs with numerous upcoming projects and because the district has not engage a demographer study in quite some time we are also considering beginning that process to have a look at our demographics areas of increase or decrease and to plan to meet the moment as our populations expand and that concludes my report thank you backwards chronologically 5:00 pm meeting Mr when Human Resources thank you Mr President the human resources Community Relations Committee met on Wednesday November 15th to discuss various personel and Community topics um firstly for all those on tonight's agenda who are resigning the board thank thanks them for their service and wishes them well as of Wednesday two weeks ago um there were still a number of openings in the district for the current school year openings have been posted on our website and on social media we discussed the status of these positions as well as the different options being looked at to fill these positions we also discussed upcoming leaves of absences six uh teaching periods stiens and updated job description for Web Master position and finally we had our first and second reading a number of updated policies all of which are in tonight's agenda and that concludes my report thank you Mrs Keith anything to update is on regarding negotiations none at this time Mr President thank you and Miss to we a bunch of us attended a middlex county school boards association meeting last night would you like to update us yes um happy to attend that meeting it was yesterday evening as Mr Lori um had mentioned so we received um a greeting from our um New Jersey school boards Association vice president of uh for finance Dr Tom Connor um who spoke a bit about the attorney of the day program that um njsba offers it's um a program on their website through the services tab then the legal tab essentially they have attorney an attorney on demand that could essentially provide accurate answers on school law of course cannot give us legal advice but we could ask questions um to this attorney um we then received a board of directors update from um uh Lou Hong who is from East Brunswick Board of Education um he is the uh Delegate for the board of directors he spoke a bit about finance and some improvements for next year he also discussed the unsung hero award that the um middle sex County School boards does um every spring and he also spoke about the addition of some field service representatives for us in the near future we then received an update from Patty ree who is our current field service representative she spoke about State mandated training obviously the programs and trainings that we all have to go through as elected officials um being on school boards um we then had two presentations one on polling location in schools and the other on new sickly law um the first again polling locations in schools was presented by John Mitch who is the municipal clerk of Woodbridge Township which just so happened to be um the township that we were in last night for the county meeting so we thank them for having us um they talked a little bit about uh different basically laws um and recommendations if we are utilizing our school buildings when it comes to um voting and having you you know polling be done in um our schools so there is not a uniform um kind of program or ruling throughout the state or the county they're working on legislation we've heard legislation to um potentially close on primary day as well as uh election day but again very up in the air right now um but again great presentation and good to be a part of it and then the last one was actually on the new leave Law which was presented um by one of our uh great attorneys from Bush Law Group Aaron mandal um his presentation was great um on the new sick leave Law essentially it's not a new law um it's an amendment to an existing law very interesting I can uh share the presentation out to all of you on the side when we do receive that uh from uh Patty our field service representative so it was a great meeting to be a part of um highly recommend it if it allows and your schedules um the next meeting is virtual and it's in March so we have a bit of a break and then um the unsung heroes uh night is in uh April and that concludes my report for the county meeting Mr Bush kudos to uh Mr Mandel he did a great job presenting last night yeah I appreciate that I'm going to make sure I mention that to him when I speak to him yeah please do thank you Mr Ali would you like to move on item nine to approve all the reports we just okay I would like to make a a motion to um approve our administrative reports our student report and our committee reports second all in favor I any opposed all the reports are accepted thank you so with that we'll review tonight's agenda folks perfunctory review again as we always do we've app we've received this in email changes at the day is tonight are in bold print we'll begin reviewing we're already on page two so Pages two and three pages four and five pages six and [Music] seven pages eight and nine Pages 10 and 11 pages 12 and 13 Pages 14 and 15 pages 16 and 17 Pages 18 and 19 Pages 20 and 21 Pages 22 and 23 Pages 2 4 and 25 on pages 26 and 27 any questions on the review of tonight's agenda if not we'll bounce back to page two and we're on item 11 we'll open it up to the public with any questions on tonight's agenda only you'll have three minutes if anyone would like to approach seeing none would someone like to move to close this portion of the public meeting so move second all in favor I anyone opposed the session is closed Miss James would you please move on consent agenda sure I move to approve the following consent agenda items Personnel curriculum miscellaneous Finance items 1 through three policy and transportation second any further discussion before we take a roll call we'll take a roll call then please thank you yes Mr Ali yes and I would like to I yes to all cons agend items with the exception of curriculum instruction item 1 point I L L for which I abstain uh Mr Brockman Yes except for item 1j which I included in Mr Carter yes to all consent agenda items with the exception of Finance item one bills list college board for which I abstain Miss James yes Miss Keith yes Mr Lori yes Dr Patel yes Miss to yes and Mr W yes all the motions and resolutions have been approved thank you we've moved to page 26 item 14 we'll again open it up to the public this time for any matter once again you'll have three minutes hi everybody my name is Beth hner president of the north BR Township Education Association uh the nbca just wanted to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving I hope everyone had enjoyable holiday um and to extend our congratulations to the um three newly reelected uh board members congratulations uh we look forward to uh working together uh and Contin working together with the board event thank you thank you thank you anybody else this evening seeing none with somebody please move to close this portion of the public hearing move second I'm sorry second thank you Miss to all in favor I anyone opposed this public session is closed thank you and with that we'll be going into Clos session whereas section eight of the open public meetings act chapter 231 PL 1975 permits the exclusion of the public from a meeting in certain circumstances and whereas this public body is of the opinion that such circumstances presented do exist now therefore be it resolved by the north brunic town Board of Education that the public should be excluded from discussion of an action upon the here and after specified subject matters the general nature of the subject matter to be discussed is as follows Personnel matters it is anticipated at this time that the above stated subject matter shall be made public at such time as the need for non-disclosure no longer exists this resolution shall take effect immediately would someone please move to Glow into close session so move second all in favor I anyone opposed we may go into post session thank you everybody they're new new you got to work out the kings in the beginning you know Tak a little time service was fine right yeah oh yeah we get a motion to go back into Open Session please second all in favor anyone oppos we are back in session and with that can we get a motion to adjourn please so moved second all in favor I any oppos we are closed have a good evening everybody whatever and then you have to get a c tomorrow I'm