the regular meeting of the northern burlingon County Regional School District is hereby called to order this meeting is called in conformance with the open public meeting act uh with adequate notice provided as follows notice sent to the Berlin County Times in the times of Trenton on February 15 2024 notice filed with the township Clerks of Chesterfield Mansfield North Handover and Springfield townships on February 15 2024 and notice of the annual meetings advertised in the burlin county times and the times of Trenton on January 7 2024 I will now call rooll waiting for my computer to switch you had an iPad it'd be up already all right very good M Mr figs present Mrs Bond present Mr Amin Mr bucks Mrs gamble Mr narwood here Mrs Janice present Mr Spence Mr Zimmer here Mr Haynes and miss cardinus all right thank you very much uh at this time I'd ask everyone to please stand for for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a Moment of Silence has any Board of Education member received Schoolboard related emails Andor correspondences that have not yet been shared with the superintendent right uh Dr Zuckerman if you could please give us your superintendence report absolutely thank you so much as I mentioned uh last week the 2024 Hall of Fame induction banquet will take place on Saturday April 13th at oconor the start time is 5:00 in the evening board members are invited to attend please let me know if you're able or and or interested in attending and I can forward your names to miss O'Neal in the athletic office there is no cost for any board member to attend but should you bring a guest you would be asked to pay the registration fee for any additional guests again please let me know um if you and possibly a guest are interested in attending it's always a great event for Northern on March 10th through 12th I attended the spring naph conference along with Mr figs each time that I attend this conference I learn a tremendous amount from my colleagues uh I meet as well as the the workshops that I attend on Tuesday we went to Capitol Hill to advocate for the continued support for our impact Aid Bill most of most of the people that we met with were already familiar with and support the impact Aid initiative but we still use the time to stress the need for continued support of the funding we emphasize this by providing examples of how we use the funding to support the needs of our students among other things I am pleased on this evening to recommend Mr Kelvin Ramirez for the high school assistant principal position during his career he taught social studies and Spanish primarily at the high school level Mr Ramirez is C currently an assistant principal in another District while serving in this role his while serving in the role as an assistant principal he started a mentoring program which he has expanded that program during its second year and we're we are excited and look forward to having Mr Ramirez join the high school staff from for the principal interviews We are continuing to move through the process uh to find the next high school principal I expect to have a recommendation on the April Board of Education agenda the air the Air Force Junior Roc instructors and Cadets of Northern Burlington County Regional High School earned an overall unit assessment score of exceeds standards this is the highest rating that is that is attainable during their evaluation on February 28th 2024 Captain Shan Hogs Captain Mark Irvin I'm sorry sergeant major senior master sergeant Mark Irvin and master sergeant Bianca Parker provide an outstanding leadership in administering the the cadet centered citizenship program creating a dynamic and supportive learning environment coupled with excellent community outreach the Northern Burlington County Regional High School Cadets performed exceptionally well during and took great pride in leading and accomplishing their unit goals the northern Burlington County Regional High School Air Force Junior Roc citizenship program is making a positive impact on the cadets the school and the surrounding Community congratulations to not only the instructors but also the students on a well-deserved exceed standards recognition that concludes my report okay just uh make one comment uh I just want to thank you guys for going to the naph conference and I wanted to point out you know I'm uh especially thankful for Mr figs going as well I think the uh the hill appreciate it when they see board members there because uh after all you know I mean you volunteer for the board but then you know you blow two days going down there you know taking off work to go and advocate for the monies that hopefully we get so I just think that you know I appreciate it thank you thank you and the hill visits did go very well the the staff that we met with was you know some some years you can tell there and even with all the rush and all the chaos because that day was the day that Tik Tock told everybody to call your Congressman so they were getting hundreds of calls but they were still so very receptive and they're always so interested to listen so it's so valuable to make it to those visits um at this time Mr Cass if you could please give us your business administrator's report sure thank you well um as I said last week uh we submitted the uh tentative budget so uh that process is underway for the state review we've received some feedback and we continue to um uh respond to their feedback uh last Thursday uh we opened uh bids for the high school uh kitchen and cafeteria Renovations as as you know board uh after two failed um bids we were able to go out and negotiate so it was more of a informal process however everybody was given an opportunity to submit and I'm pleased to tell you that by Friday afternoon um we came to an agreement with Carrie ogren who was our general contractor for the referendum who built uh this cafeteria uh and the details are in the resolution as well as attached um I'm pleased to tell you that um the the cost of the contract is less than the initial bid that we received last May so uh it you know the process does work and uh there's no significant major significant changes uh to the project so outside of that I I want to thank all the board members who have completed their financial disclosure statements uh there's a couple of you still uh left that need to do that and the state is looking to wrap that up uh within the next several weeks so so uh if you haven't looked at it already please do so um any challenges you have let Jill Markley and I know and Jill will help you out so that concludes my report thank you uh thank you Mr Cass uh Dr Karns if you could please give the Middle School principal report good evening Mr figs uh members of the board thank you for the opportunity to do the uh the middle school report I'm just going to hit some of the the highlights from uh from the written report that's part of your um your agenda for this evening um it goes all the way back into to January and February so we're we're covering a lot of ground um one of the things I wanted to point out to you is we you know school security key thing that we want to want to focus on we did a lockdown drill at the very beginning of the school day as kids were getting off you know getting off the buses getting out of their cars to prepare for a crisis during a disorganized time and and that that went well we learned a lot of good lessons from from that um from that drill we worked hard with the Manville Township Police to plan it and then also get feedback after uh after we did it um course selection is is just about done in the middle school we had a visits from the directors to our our eth grade science classes to talk to all the the students about the different offerings that they um have available to them when they are in the high school and our own counselors are working with the uh the current seventh graders to select their courses for next year and we're also in the process of registering our our current not our current the uh sixth graders that are in the various townships getting them registered to come over to Northern another highlight our first Lego League our robotics team did very well they came in first in their Regional Championship and qualified for the uh the tournament that was hosted at Rowan University they didn't Advance beyond that but but just an outstanding season by our first Lego League team and a shout out to our our coaches um and and the uh the students that are are members of that group um we had a blue and gray Spirit Week in in February kind of nice to activity to to get through the the winter doldrums um variety of competitions we split our school much like the high school does based on their last name into a blue team into a gr team we have different competitions in the classes we had a blue gray competition and and the the last period of the day on on Friday of that week and one of the things that I'm particularly proud of is we have a a blue gry competition food drive where students bring in uh food items to you know get points for their team whether it's blue or gray and regardless it all goes to a good cause we donate to the local food pantry over here in bord toown that helps members of our very own Community um Sports the winter season distant memory but but good memory our basketball teams and cheering team cheer leading group had a nice season our wrestling though I want to highlight they went 13- one and their only loss was coming at the uh the championship like sort like the South Jersey Championship Middle School you know uh conferences and stuff are a little bit different than in high school but they did very well bods well for for our high school program in the years to come and finally Matilda uh just this past um weekend we host at our our spring musical our students performed U Matilda it was a nice crowd on Friday night and then Saturday as well the students did a really nice job so shout out to the cast The Crew and the directors of Matilda so that concludes my report are there any any questions that you have that I could respond to yeah I had a quick question thank you for putting together a lovely report and I I noticed that um in the beginning of the report it says something about the nape testing for eighth graders do you know how many students are going to be they pick it's it's over and done with I believe it was um oh my gosh I think it was I looked at other things that I I think it was like 40 students you know that that were selected we had to send them a like a list of all of our our eighth grade um students they had a randomizer to select those students those families received letters saying that your your child was selected for this um to to participate in it so it was a random random selection and they um the nape group brought in people that actually conducted the test their own own equipment own computers and it was about a period long for those students that were were selected we had I think two refused but it was uh you know math and uh and Ela for our eighth graders only yeah does the district get data back on that we will never get any data that that's going to speak specifically to Northern Burlington this is part it's it's put into the rest of of the data from like say New Jersey and it's used to track National Trends thank you other questions all right thank you very much thank you Dr Terrence uh item 2.04 is consent agenda item for the approval of the superintendent reports um standing committees I know community relations met tonight I believe that will be the next meeting we'll have a report on that one um we kind of had an update from the buildings ground Finance Transportation last week following that meeting um and that's all we've had in the interim um there's no new delegate reports um Mr Lee do we have any public comments on agenda items all right all right uh items on the consent agenda are believed to be items of routine nature requiring no discussion and which are to be voted on upon a single roll call vote to the board any single member of the board may have any of the items on the consent agenda removed and placed on the other part of the agenda for discussion merely by so indicating meting prior to the vote to be taken on the consent agenda items removed from the consent agenda are identified by an asterisks and will be subject to discussion by the full board all right uh section five is routine matters 5.02 is approval of the minutes for February 12th regular meeting 5.03 approval of the minutes for the executive session of February 12th meeting 5.04 is approval of the minutes for the January 2nd executive session 5.05 is approval of the minutes for the January 23rd executive session 5.06 is approval of the financial report for January 2024 5.07 is approval of the treasures report for January 2024 5.08 is approval of the budget transfers for January 2024 5.09 is approval of the cafeteria report for January 2024 and 5.10 is a resolution of the board regarding the budgetary major account fund status um as a reminder the January executive sessions are being approved now because of the the during the February meeting uh does anyone have any questions for Section 5 all right uh section six is approval of the bills approval of the bill list for March 2024 any questions for Section six section seven is business and financial uh 7.02 is approval of board and staff travel 7.03 is approval of the contract addendum for the ESS 7.04 is approval of addendum to extend agreement for asss support 7.05 is approval of the Le lease purchasing Finance 7.06 is approval of through 7.08 are approval of Technology purchases 7.09 is approval of the new fuel tank monitoring system 7.10 is approval of the purchase of the V vehicle lift 7.11 is approval to purchase a garage equipment 7.12 is approval of the purchase the driver at automobile uh any question on the section 7 consent agenda items right uh 7.13 is non-consent agenda item for the approval of the award of contract for the high school kitchen and cafeteria Renovations uh do I have any questions on that item before we go to a vote okay so can I have a motion for 7.13 I make a motion second all right now do we have any questions for 7.13 all right uh Mr Cass if you could do a roll call vote please yes sir so yay nay or abstain uh Mr figs yay Mrs Bond yes Mr Armon ente yay Mr bucks Mrs gamble Mr narwood yes Mrs Janice yes Mr Spence Mr Zimmer yes all right motion passes thank you thank you Mr Cass uh section8 is students 8.02 through 8.06 are approval of Auto District placements 8.07 is approval of option two for the 2324 school year 8.08 is approval of the senior early release for the 2324 school year 8.09 is approval of the international exchange student 8.10 is approval of home instruction Services 8.11 is approval of additional high school trip destination 8.12 is approval of the afjr OTC overnight student trip to Boston an 8.13 is approval of the afjrotc overnight trip uh to the Joint Base McGuire dicks Lake Hurst yeah um any questions for Section 8 section N9 is Personnel appointment uh 9.02 and 9.03 are approval of certificated appointment 9.04 is approval of substitute bus driver 9.05 is approval of additional class coverage 9 9.06 is approval of additional work assignments and 9.07 is approval of classroom observations any questions for Section n uh section 10 is change of assignment 10.02 is approval of a change of assignment any questions for Section 10 section 11 is leaves of absence um 11.02 is approval of leaves of absence any questions for Section 11 uh section 12 a separation of employment 12.02 through through 12.04 are approval of resignations 12.05 is the acceptance of retirement and 12.06 is approval of the recision of an employment contract any questions for section 12 all right we have nothing for Section 13 section 14 programs is 14.02 approval of the Hessa agreement 14.03 is approval of submission of the New Jersey purple start schools program application uh any questions for section 14 all right uh we have no items for section 15 or 16 this evening uh section 17 is use of facilities 7.02 is approval of the use of facilities for the stage Hound parents 17.03.2012 get a motion for the consent agenda I'll make a motion for the consent agenda ready a second Mr Cass if you could do a roll call certainly um yay n Ste Mr figs yay Mrs Bond yay Mr Arman yay Mr bucks Mrs gamble Mr narwin yay Mrs Janice yes Mr Spence Mr Zimmer yay thank you board motion passes thank you Mr Gass Mr Lee thank you very much ladies and gentlemen this meeting will now be open to the public for comments please note that the board is here to listen the public comment period is not designed to be a discussion accordingly please do not expect the board to respond to your concerns and questions this evening we take your concerns and questions very seriously and want to have sufficient time to allow our Administration to process and research issues if need be we will however respond to your questions and concerns at a future meeting or have the proper staff member get back to you at the appropriate time also please note that if your questions or comments pertain to litigation students Personnel or negotiations we would ask that you see the superintendent after after the meeting since we do not discuss these items in public please keep in mind that the public comment session is an opportunity for you to share your opinions and remarks with the board and it is not a question and answer session we also recognize that our community may be polarized on some issues we want our school board meeting to serve as an example to our students that each member of the board and Community can deal with controversial issues in a civil Manner and demonstrate mutual respect for everyone's views in that Spirit we ask that all speakers please address their comments to the board directly rather than the audience and all speakers and members of the public show respect for others views and maintain civility during the meeting please state your name Municipality of residents and group affiliation if applicable comments will be limited to 3 minutes per person and the total comment period 30 minutes only those who have signed up on the public comment sign it sheets will be allowed to speak this evening the individual time limits will be enforced so that as many members of the public who wish to speak may be allowed to do so uh I apologize John Flynn sorry wasn't the last name on morning board how are you it's been a while my name is John Flynn from jown New Jersey I come before you tonight because of an incident I had here on March 5th uh my daughter was sick uh I tried to get in touch with several people here at the school board I mean at the school uh my daughter had called she was in the uh nurse's office went down through the chain of command finally because Miss Lopez was in school board meetings and made Miss Hoke Miss Hoke tried working with me uh issues problems concerns was I cannot drive my two emergency contacts ones in Philadelphia she was unattainable the other one was unattainable too throughout the process they kept on asking me to try to get uh next door neighbors to come pick her up my daughter ended up end up telling me I'll just go to Rooms fall asleep in every one of my classes at that time my suggestion was okay we're just going to end up having me drive I can't get a license because of medical conditions I'm just going to drive possibly kill myself kill other people get sent to jail for driving with without a license their remedy was well we'll have the school resource officer driver that means the school resource officer is going to be out of the building for up to an hour where he's now an Uber driver now I know as police offic serf my kids in the back of that car he had she has to be handcuffed that ain't going to happen so I asked to have um Mr Zuckerman here contact me uh I was told by Miss Hoke I had to go through the chain of command well the chain of command was broken because Miss Lopez was in a meeting he never got back to touch with me another day I asked to have him contact me once again he still has not gotten back to me I also asked Miss Lopez why can't I have my daughter Drive herself home cuz she's 17 she drives to school apparently regulations she claims will not allow her to drive and sign herself out of school I asked what regulations she said she'd have to research I still haven't gotten back then now I asked under title 18a or title 6C she still has not gotten back to me while I drove myself here that day possibly killing myself getting suspended driver's license further destroying my life I sat there and waited for my daughter to come out a kid signed in with no parent he was 17 so at this point I'm coming before you guys a to deal with an issue with chain of command that has to be broken because that is his policy he still has not reached out to me since March 5th I have not gotten anything from management Board of you know whatever you guys going to call here Administration returned back to regulations whether it's 18a thir a 6C however it is and I'm still trying to deal with why can't my 17-year-old when she drives here under emergency situations she's sick you guys would rather have her sit in classrooms sleeping possibly infecting everybody or risking me driv and killing myself or other people thank you have a great day Mr Flynn if I may um I apologize I never rece I was aware of the situation from Dr Lopez I never received a message that you wanted me to call you uh directly or I certainly would have done that and I'm happy to arrange the time for us to be able to speak further about this on that day that's fine I called you second day next day and your office left your a message so I'll talk to you Christina drum Christina drum Springfield Township I'm a Springfield Township Board of Ed member these comments are my comments alone and have no reflection of my board um one of the things I wanted to just point out um is that last week I know it was brought up as far as the um budget presentation that was put out in front of us um I did try to look for that presentation I guess the areas that I was expecting to find it it was not it was not readily available um since then since having been here my husband has now informed me of you know where he was able to find it but I mean we probably spent like two hours trying to find that presentation so we can review it um and it would have been nice to have had that posted prior to last week's presentation because it was really hard to follow um it's also been brought up before about having on the agenda old business and new business it always seems to fall in deaf ears as far as stuff that has been discussed at prior meetings and I know it's been brought up that this is um going to have to go before you know the policy committee uh when is this being added as far as you know that being um resolved it's an ongoing issue and it never seems to be addressed so is this a policy of the board or administration at what point Point are we going to rectify going over that um the same applies to the parking lot situation concern that I've brought up several times before and this morning I've witnessed it where I had to drive my daughter to school she normally drives with another Junior and is they Park on Island Road there's about 46 cars that are currently parking on Island Road of your Junior students and I waited for the Bell to ring and I gave it even like an additional 5 minutes and I drove through both parking lots you have I can understand that you may not have enough spots left over in the west parking lot because that is pretty well occupied by your seniors but when you have over a 100 parking spots still available in the East parking lot why are we not allowing our Juniors to have the availability to park in the parking lot but you're having these students walk all the way from the access road past you know the middle school in order to get to the high school I just don't understand why we're doing this to our students um and it never it never seems to get resolved again it just goes back to Old business it's never brought up it's never discussed and nor do I get any sort of com you know contact after the meetings um still waiting to find out what is the $30 goes towards that we're expecting our students to pay for their parking spots I've talked to other students who go to other high schools and they don't have to pay for their parking spot so what are we utilizing that money for and if it is going towards something that's beneficial for our students why aren't we taking advantage of that and capturing it even with the junior students do I agree with it being them being charged no but again just many unanswered things um and then it also circles back to the bathroom concern has there been has that been brought up in committees um it it's again it's just fallen on de's ears and I do expect a written response thank you so M drum at last week's meeting I did give an update on on the bathrooms um that we did meet with the community relations committee this evening a detailed resp uh detailed report will be provided at at next month's meeting um we have met with forums of students to be able to speak about that we have made adjustments based on the feedback from the students students we will continue to monitor that situation to be able to make sure the students have access to that um I have spoken to you about the uh about the parking lot situation I've I've spoken to you about reasons for that I have not gotten back to you for the $30 and that is my fault I will make sure to to do that promptly all right um board we have a April 22nd regular meeting with a Personnel committee prior to that um tonight we do not have an executive session uh with that can I have a motion for adjournment motion all those in favor I all opposed extensions right thank you have a very good evening everyone