##VIDEO ID:_U61JhYQG1I## the regular meeting of the northern brilon County School District is hereby called to order this meeting is called in conformance with the open public meetings act with adequate notice provided as follows notice sent to the Berlin County Times in times of Trenton on November 22nd 2024 notice filed with the township Clerks of Chesterfield Mansfield Springfield North hover townships on November 22nd 2024 and notice of annual meetings advertised in the Berlin County Times in the times of Trenton on January 7th 2024 I will now call R Mr figs present Mrs Bond present Mr Armen ente present Mr bucks Mrs gamble Mr narwood present Mrs Janice present Mr Spence Mr Zimmer here miss Pierre president thank you very much at this time I like to ask everyone to please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a Moment of Silence States America to the rep stands has any Board of Education member received Schoolboard related emails Andor correspondences that have not yet been shared with the superintendent all right uh Dr Zuckerman if you'd like to give your superintendent report please absolutely we're going to start by turning it over to miss Pierre for the student representative report good evening everyone my board report tonight will consist of information about our sports clubs and upcoming events for sports winter sports have just begun we do have one student from cross country still competing Layla Gordon has qualified for Foot Locker National High School cross country championships and will be running in California later this month she is only the fourth athlete in New Jersey to ever repeat a Foot Locker appearance this is the top 40 in the country she played seventh this weekend and ran against the fiercest competition clubs and activities student counil and Renaissance are sponsoring the 12 days of holidays we began dress up days for students and staff last week and these will continue until break staff will also receive some holiday prizes and food throughout this time we are also sponsoring families to support them for the holiday season there are snowballs that staff can select in the faculty room to buy items for family amilies in need and some of the offices in the high school are sponsoring families as well FFA November on November 1st 2024 Miss Kester and 11 FFA members attended the Burlington County of agriculture agriculture annual dinner meeting at Marcos at the Indian Spring country club members helped with the 50/50 gave the FFA report and helped give out the door prizes the mindfulness Club had a pot potluck party to foster a sense of community and practice gratitude as we are nearing fall break SL Thanksgiving jot TC the 120 Cadets took their curriculum in action trip to the historical USS Battleship New Jersey in Camden New Jersey the cadets were briefed by crew members and given the historical significance of the stored Battleship and the role it played in the many C campaigns to which the battles served the RC color conducted a color posting for Senator Andy Andy Kim in support of his veterans Town Hall event the NB Color Guard was specifically requested by Senator Andy Kim and testment to their dedication to Excellence in all they do one of the Air Force's core values operation gratitude the the unit wrote letters of support for deployed troops for the holidays in all over 150 letters of thanks were written and sent to the organization to show NB Cadets appreciation for their service to our nation the jotc Drone team had its first official meeting no the 14th of November and 19 high school and middle school Cadets attended the primary focus of the meeting was Li LiPo battery safety and registering Cadets on the drony Ed website interact club sold tickets to host a ping pong tournament and all money raised was donated to the Hyer Foundation to help end world hunger and pro poverty they were able to organize five ping pong teams and sell snacks to Spectators Pier during the month of November Pier mentors had their first Outreach with the Freshman students at Northern they visited them during their PE classes to introduce themselves get get into their small working groups for the year and complete some Getting to Know You activities black and brown student Alliance nb's first black and brown student Alliance hosted their first of many student and staff Fellowship meetings to cultivate strong connections between students and staff of color it was a lovely hour of connection and conversation between our guests and club members we want to continue providing a staff a space for staff to join in on the mission and creating an inclusive and respectful spaces for all of our NB students that's it thank you so much couple other things that I have to to add to those great things that are going on uh this week our winter concerts begin if you find yourself for looking for something to do our band concerts take place this week starting in the middle school on Wednesday night and the high school band concert is on this Thursday these are quickly followed by our Coral concerts next week on Wednesday December 17th at the middle school and Thursday December 18th at the high school all concerts will be in at 7:00 p.m. as I shared in my report to the board this week um we have been working on a board of education handbook the intent of this handbook is to provide information to new and existing board members the handbook contains information about procedures policies Communications and information that's specific to our board meetings as we move throughout the year please let me know if there's things that you would like to add to enhance our Board of Education handbook as we will use it as a living document in addition to the information that I shared with the board via email regarding the high school bathroom situation uh that was discussed at that was discussed last month I've shared with each of you a print out that indicates the location of the bathrooms to help you with a conceptual understanding of the information that I shared with you via email please let me know if you have any questions in response to the public comment from the November meeting I shared a draft of the 2025 26 School calendar with the community relations committee the from the feedback that I received we're going to move forward with the proposed calendar which reflects the the current Year's calendar if that makes sense so we're going to move forward with a calendar that that is very similar to the one that we have this year just obviously with adjusted dates however we're going to continue to have conversations about how we would like to proceed in the future the 2025 26 school calendar will be on the January agenda for your but I will send it to the board ahead of time so you have time to review it and provide me with any feedback earlier this week the we completed the northern Burlington board uh educator of the Year process this year we follow the New Jersey Department of Education guidelines for the Governor's educator of the year as well as the educator support professional of the Year these recognitions are complete for each School are completed for each School this year we ident we even identified the First Northern bir lington support professional of the year we had quite a number of Staff members who are recognized for each award it's great to see the impact that our staff has on our students their colleagues and even the community in addition to notifying the recipients we also notified everyone who was nominated and we also shared with them the statements that were submitted on on their behalf I am thrilled to share with you the names of the recipients at the high school the governor's educator of the year is Dr sha hog Dr Hogs leads our Jr jrc program the educator support professional of the year is Miss Erin seos hian Miss seos is one of our athletic trainers at the middle school the governor's educator of the year is Miss Angelina Asino Miss atino is one of our seventh grade English language arts teachers the educator support professional of the year at the middle school is Mr Tim t tadesco m you can that's okay Mr Tesco is one of our middle school guidance counselors and the northern Burlington support professional of the year is Miss Paulina Zak zenitz I hope I said that correctly Paulina Miss Zen narwitz is is one of our high school custodians congratulations to all the nominees and the recipients after the New Year we will have the recipients attend one of our board meetings in closing thoughts I just would like to thank Miss gamble even though she's not here this evening for her service to the district and our community as this would have been her last meeting and at the same time we want to congratulate Miss Christa appleget and we look forward to working with her I wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday and a happy and healthy New Year that concludes my report thank you Dr zman uh does anyone have any questions on superintendent report all right uh Mr Cass if you please go over your business administrator's report certainly uh the my report includes the auditorium bid summary report the bids came in over budget so they'll be rejected today and tonight and we will the board will authorize me to go out and rebid if uh they go if they come in over budget a second time uh we will follow a negotiation process uh that we're all too familiar with but um again so that's that's tonight we're rejecting the bids for the auditorium due to due to cost considerations also on the agenda uh you'll see three resolutions to approve uh van CLE engineering for civil engineering projects in preparation of the fiscal year uh 2526 school budget uh that entails a synthetic field Turf uh field in the stadium uh it entails uh expanding the irrigation system on on our fields as well as uh the development of a high school Courtyard uh for the West cafeteria um also on the My Board report uh I'm pleased to announce that on December 4th the burlingon County Joint Insurance Pool celebrated their 40th anniversary and recognized the safety efforts of its members Northern had over 15 employees and several board members atate the state of the fund dinner uh Northern was Rec recognized for its outstanding performance and claims management with their certificate of excellence for maintaining a loss ratio below 50% of the 2324 school year also Northern Burlington achieved an Elite 2 safety incentive uh and took home safety District of the Year honors uh the total Awards amounted to Northern was $6,500 and I give a special thank you to miss Pon and Miss Janice for attending this special occasion and that concludes my report uh thank you does anyone have any questions on the ba report yeah I have a question so with rejecting the bids and assuming that um the protocol continues does does that do you anticipate that that would delay our start of everything or what's your what's your perspective uh yeah so the the project estim time is 18 months so uh we were hoping to award the bids uh now so you know if let's say we award in March so you know it's probably delayed three months okay uh through the negotiation process we try to gain some of that back so that uh the auditorium could be available at the end of September end of October okay thank you of 2026 thank you uh any other questions all right um agenda items 2.03 is approval of the HP report in 2.04 is approval of the superintendent reports um we had uh recent committee meetings um Mr Zimmer if you'd like to give an update from the building's grounds Transportation sure thanks Mr figs uh most of what we covered in the buildings and grounds on finance was um in either Mr caz's or uh Mr uh zuckerman's report uh but what wasn't pointed out was a a um a RICO publication report our printers are really ending their useful life and Rico put forth a proposal where they would have basically an individual that would be able to help assist us in a lot of the um creation of documents banners Etc and ultimately between what we would pay for that and uh the retiring of the old equipment and saving on maintenance and whatnot it makes sense because it basically adds an individual to our staff that's at our disposal a professional that's at our disposal I'm not saying that we weren't handling things properly I'm just saying it's somebody from the outside with um other skill sets uh the other thing as far as the auditorium um which was addressed we did have a meeting tonight with the architech and basically went over some ideas for potential cost savings and potential potential negotiations in that regard so that's on the uh on the docket to move forward with and the last thing really that I should just bring out and I know it was in somebody's report but the Stadium Field uh the regular football field uh that's in drastic need of repair we've gotten a lot of complaints from official officials parents players about the crowning around the field and it needs to be rebuilt and doing an analysis of fixing it and whatnot the fixing it would be between $6 and $800,000 anyway and we have an opportunity to move into a long-term lease to instead of fixing it with just the regular uh regular grass to put a turf field in there and do that with a five-year financing um you know there's a cost to that but we'll be able to move the irrigation the track that goes around the field um is almost at it at the end of it useful life so we'll be doing it approximately a year maybe two years earlier than we would have had to anyway but because we really need to address the uh the football field it just makes a lot of sense to do it now as part of the project and then also in that project we would be able to remove some of the irrigation that's currently in that field and move it to other fields um that's basically it thank you very much um any questions yeah so Kevin moving to Turf um if we're not for for those of you who are football aware there's been a lot of back and forth on the benefits of turf versus grass is that in our best interest for the health of the kids because Turf these days has been kind of well it's not like the turf from the vet right when that company right and just a rug on top of cement yeah um when I played soccer you know or not not when I played when I coached soccer you know weed a lot of those turf fields and I think they're they've really improved a lot and those were some of the questions that we put forth so I don't I think overall we're okay doing that okay and the okay I just I just know that there's been a lot of controversy with that I mean I mean not notwithstanding the commentary on on North Jersey and and that Stadium but other just challenges of playing versus that I I hope that if we go that route we'll do a little bit of um feedback to the community so that they understand why we're doing it and that the safety is not an issue and uh I think that'll go a long way for not only the community but for the players so in in addition to that if I may um we we part of the the concerns that have been raised by by community members and also by by the officials is the um some of the uh the the clumps that are that are that are formed in there and then some of those aren't safe for for for our students either um so there are also new materials of of different turfs and I'm not pretending to be a Turf expert or or to have all the answers but there are different options that we can look at that that um don't don't have us using a um a carcinogen fill uh we could use we could look towards a natural fill they also have a new material that is recently being laid that doesn't even have need a fill so there's other other potential options that we obviously discuss as a board but I agree with you completely once the board approves it then we'll have a communication plan that also goes out to The Community as well good deal thanks I'd say another uh important attribute is that currently the field is used for football pretty much exclusively um putting in the turf field will open that field for all of the other sports be able to share that field so you know your lacrosse your field hockey right now they're constrained with where the drainages that they lines won't even be able to be put out on that field so the turf opens it up to a much larger spot of the athletic student body um as well as even you know if there was a desire to rent for third party um it's just much more uh Stronger Andor more durable so it's one of the things we talk about too um Mrs Bond do you want to give the curriculum committee report tonight or you absolutely thank you very much Mr Fix um so we met on December 2nd virtually um and also in attendance at the meeting meeting uh was Dr mccan Dr Kars Mrs droke Mr conoz Miss Peters and Dr pente irvan uh we kicked off our agenda that evening with proposed implementation of choice um in regards to the English language arts instruction and text selection so the committee reviewed the situation that took place a few weeks ago at the middle school with a text that was used as part of the ELA classes this book has been used for the past four years the use of this text satisfies the requirements set forth from the state and allows the teachers to support the skills being taught in connection with the curriculum the committee also then discussed proposed instructional models that may be used in the future the workshop model will allow students to have choice in the books they read while still allowing the teachers to convey the skills they are teaching while allowing the students to select the book from a pre-selected list so we're excited to hear the next steps on that from Dr pente Irvin um some exciting things we heard from um the director um on the proposed program of studies changes to the 2025 2026 program of studies um so they share their updates to the high school course of study and the updates include new courses changes in course sequence as well um some of the highlights from that discussion include agroscience adding a crop rotation production course and an a apprenticeship so that's really cutting edge unexciting um for our program here and then in addition a change in a course sequence for business uh some additional proposals for future AP classes were presented to the committee including AP seminar adding that to The English Department adding AP micro and macroeconomics um and AP African-American history year book two data science expected to be taught for the junior senior year so that's also again our really cutting edge and meeting the needs of our our student population um next Dr McAn and Dr Kars uh presented a credit recovery option and a chronic absentee plan um Dr CA discussed the number of recent the number of uh the recent number of students who have been absent 10% or more uh during the course of the school year since the district has um more than 10% of the students who have been labeled as chronically absentee uh absent the district must create a plan of action all right and action plan so Dr Kars and Dr mccan explain what they're doing and their buildings to address the chronic act absenteeism uh and the action plan so that was good to hear um in terms of you know having the school kind of coordinate some responsiveness to those plans um next up for discussion we had inquired previously about artificial intelligence and Dr Zuckerman discussed what has been shared with the proposed changes to the acceptable use policy um that's been um up for discussion for a while and also the development of an AI toolkit that has been shared with the policy committee uh the directors then shared how their teachers have been using AI in their classes and where they're seeing this go as we move um and we get more involved with the generative AI tools out there in education uh next um we had inquired about a feedback on professional development and the ongoing implementation of the new schedule and support for teachers so two of the highlight there that they presented were you know the ongoing lesson plan review and observation feedback that the teachers are getting uh and also that the administrators are conducting co- observations to um discuss the interrater reliability of the evaluation model so that was really uh nice to hear that um those are ongoing discussions still um during the implementation phase of the new schedule um and then the next uh board meeting and the next meeting for the committee will be um sometime probably in January with looking at the middle school program of studies um and I believe the high school is having a um evening on uh January 9th Thursday for the high school program of studies presentation so look out for that U keep that On Your Horizon um and that is the extent of the report uh thank you Mrs Bond um I have a question Dr Zak or Dr Stella um my install the data science um obviously Super Value I know a lot of people working in it um but I saw it says it replaces the algebra and trigonometry are the top I mean to me as an engineer trigonometry is fundamental does that get rolled into a different mathematics course or is that deemed not as I'm gonna I'm G to deped Dr Stella on this one thank you okay good evening the algebra Advanced algebra and trigonometry course that we had had for a number of years was designed to be a fourth-year course uh to prepare students for a college algebra and we've been finding that the usability of career exploration in the data science and the evolution of that uh would would serve our students much better we're also hearing down the road that we would like to consider having that as a pathway in Li of of some students taking Algebra 2 because the state does provide that as long as it's a course that builds on those skills so we're you know being more responsive to our students needs to you know industry um you know expectations of what our students are ready for postsecondary so um so yes sunsetting but no not replacing those content Aries okay thank you very much um anyone have other questions on curriculum all right thank you um at this time I believe we have um presentation for our PA students so I'm gonna ask uh Mr conoz to come up so we are we're extremely proud of all of our programs um and we recently had several of our our students competed at the national level however that could not have been done without participation at the state level for our FFA so Mr kanowitz is going to explain and we're going to bring up assembly woman Andrea Katz after that to also provide some uh additional acknowledgements yep great segue good evening everybody um I am lucky enough honored blessed to be a director that gets to um reap the benefits of our agriculture program um we've got um Miss Nan Hamilton Department leader um and I'd let her do the rest of the introduction of her wonderful program thank you all right um well thank you very much um kind of put me on the spot here yay um anyhow um I'd like to thank the board for everything that you do for the agroscience program here at Northern um we were we had a a winning a mechanics team and I'll put Justin on the spot to um you know say who his team is I know who they are but I want him to do that um so they went out to Indi na Apolis Indiana in October and went to the National FFA convention and it's an eye openening thing especially for kids that number one have never been on a plane that's always exciting you know like as a as an adviser I've been there and you know when I hear somebody yell in the middle of the plane hey we're up in the air I'm like oh gosh that's one of my kids you know so um really really um an eye openening experience this year there were over 80 880,000 FFA members out in Indianapolis um a really really cool thing Indianapolis loves FFA um the kids get to go to Lucas Oil Stadium they get to go to all these different they went to a concert they went to all these different things but also they had to compete in egg mechanics so that's why they were there but they get to meet um people from all over the country you know if they can find somebody with an Alaska FFA jacket that's Co even Puerto Rico so you know a lot a lot of different things um there's an expo there's colleges there they're all like swarming over these kids because these kids can do things all right they're learning here and that's the cool thing about our program so let me um introduce Justin Naylor he's the um coach for the egg mechanics team so Justin thank you thank you um so again we had the opportunity to go out to Indianapolis this year um my team consisted of Jack Smiley um who was present you might as well come up Ryan we had Ryan craft as well who's present Conor lovenduski who does not seem to have made it tonight as well as Adam sentac who had graduated last year but being on the current year team our end of year is October so that is why he was able to participate um we also uh qualified with Kurt van modder who was unable to attend and continue going so we had a filled in his place with Ryan who did just as well so as without him we could not have done this so again for those guys congratulations cuz they had to beat out everybody else New Jersey uh to make it um but at the competition uh what these guys had to do was I only got a little bit of a view of it because it is a hush hush thing these guys obviously know more about it but what I can tell you is the team activity consisted of concrete which was building a form and essentially creating one of those concrete bumpers that you see in the parking lot so they had to build that from scratch um the individual activities included welding uh which was flux core no gas this year so flux and stick um work on a John Deere zero turn lawn mower had to figure out why it didn't work as well as some other maintenance aspects to it uh another activity was land making sure that they could do meats and Bounds uh and the fourth activity which one was and know was electrical that's right electrical motors um making sure to wire up an electrical motor for the current uh the Avail what what the motor was wired for um it's hard to explain because I just I Know It uh having done it for 12 years uh 110 or 220 and choosing the correct size wire and breaker and then the fifth one was that's right small diesel engine compact equipment so they had a diesel engine that they had to do valve adjustment on so you got remember these are all timed activities 25 minutes at the most to do this entire to do each one of these so uh the written was what was the written an hour two hours one hour to do 50 questions uh so lots of math involved with that so so with that being said I'm going to ask assembly woman um cats to come up but as she's walking up I'm also going to have another plug for the a apprenticeship program that was mentioned in the curriculum report that is actually going I mean you heard all these skills that these kids have which is truly amazing but our a apprenticeship program is to have our students working alongside of our facilities Department to be able to not only help with the with the turf management but also possible possibly repairing equipment possibly helping in other ways that I really don't know so I mean but I it's going to be it's going to be truly beneficial to the kids and also to our to to our district as well so with that being said Assembly women cats thank you for having me um my three favorite groups as an elected official are farmers dogs and kids so we're covering two of my boxes if anybody need has a dog and then we can make it a trifecta um no but really our Farmers um what farming is going to look like for these guys as adults is not going to be what their parents or their grandparents saw is farming their kids are not going to see farming in the way that we see it now it is ever evolving and ever changing the AI that is coming in I don't even fully understand it um but it is coming in and is going to be helping us to be able to grow more fruits and vegetables um here in the great state of New Jersey um our agricultural um friends here in New Jersey also support our our local economies um in the assembly we've combined our agricultural committee with economic development which is very fitting because especially in this area of the state that is a very large driver of our economic um well-being so I want to thank these guys for what they're doing because you are the future of farming I've talked to a lot of farmers um through through my work and they're all looking for people to continue the tradition and that's what you're doing so the work that you're doing going out to Indiana and representing us is so awesome to have the best of the best going out there and representing the best state in the country um or at least I think so but you're the Next Generation you're going to continue to grow the best corn the best tomatoes so that we can tell Iowa how much their corn sucks um so I just want to thank you for everything that you're doing um and it's just my pleasure to be here and and to give you these These are ceremonial resolutions that you can hang on your wall and your parents will probably love it um so don't lose them on your way out um but I also have one for um Mr conwi withs because you received an award um yourself you didn't make it out there to the National right but oh you did go out to the na he he made it to the National Conference as well um but thank you for the work that you do because representing our school and our state out there is so very important because like I said we know that we have the best so we you go out there and you show them that we have the best so thank you for for what you're doing and keeping agriculture alive here in in Burlington County so really thank you so much and I think Dr mccan also has certificates from the district as well all right from the board congratulations and excellent work uh it's amazing and awesome to hear um at this time we'll take a brief recess so we can get a picture um if I can have a motion for brief recess a motion to have brief recess in a second all those in favor iend or no extensions all right uh we'll take a brief 10-minute recess and return thank you than you I got get e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right we're going to get ready to resume the meeting e all right can I uh please get a motion to return from Recess motion second all those in favor I all opposed abstentions all right uh Mr Lee the public comment on agenda items ladies and gentlemen this meeting will now be open to the public referencing agenda items only 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 or 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 you're your questions or comments pertain to litigation students Personnel or negotiations we would ask that you see the superintendent 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 Schoolboard 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 date your name Municipality of residence and group affiliation if applicable comments will be limited to 3 minutes per person and a total comment period to 30 minutes only those who have signed up on the public comment signin 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 Christina drum Christina drum Springfield Township I am a Springfield Township Board of Education member my uh opinions here are of my own and do not reflect any of my board um I come before you uh with concerns about um the agenda item pertaining to the turf field um I find it um very ironic considering the fact that um so I have three children that have gone through the school uh my youngest now being a senior so I've been here for quite some time and um off hand my apologies for not having you know the details at hand but I do know that in the past Northern Burlington had received um a significant donation to actually build a turfield here at Northern and in the past it was actually turned down because of the fact that we are an a school so with taking in such a significant funding it was my understanding that uh receiving that donation it would actually jeopardize some of the funding that we receive um as an agricultural school um other than that I do there are definitely pros and cons as far as a turfield um you know I have a daughter who plays soccer and I can tell definitely tell you firsthand that she definitely um can appreciate playing on a turfield but also hates it at the same time um it has its pros and cons you know from a player's perspective from a parents perspective um to even as a professional um there are many ACL injuries that can occur um from a turfield there's multiple studies out there that you're um you have a higher rate of ACL injuries um that occur from a turfield versus a grass field it can occur on both just as it just as you can uh sustain um a significant concussion from the impact of a Turf versus grass and and also part of that too is that with the turf field you also have um um you're now being provided a higher speed of velocity that the athlete is able to achieve on Turf versus what they can attain on grass um you have the differences you know that comes into play as far as like the type of cleats that they wear and the actual grip of the field versus the slippage which leads to those ACL injuries as well um so I would definitely I would you know urge the board to definitely look into you know the different options um as far as this as well as you know what is the cost um of this as you know and what will the cost be after the lease is over let alone we have a grass field as an a school I thought we were you know the idea was to basically maintain that status and what would the cost benefits be to Simply maintain what we already have fix the crowning you know of the field what's what's involved in that to basically you know um maintain what we already have here at the school and relating it back to uh the injuries even consider looking into other schools that have turf fields and what is their injur their level of injuries that they um incure because having as you know you have a um you know students who are get injured if they go through the schools um Insurance to basically you know from their injuries what's what's that back cost also because you know of making this change thank you thank you Mrs Trump um but I'll end public comment um um just a few things just to really re iterate some things that Mr Zimmer said in in his report just to that go kind of like to to your point even just fixing the the the existing concerns of the drainage that that is sinking the the crowning that is happening on the field we got an estimate of approximately $600,000 um that and then we have to regrow the grass and and so on not saying that that it's it is not a a possibility it certainly is that six roughly $6 $800,000 for that then possibly possibly also having to um redo the the track on any damages the redoing the track would be the same if both if if doing going to turf or or fixing the field so some of those costs stay the same we'd also have to replace in in that cost is also replacing the drainage because once you uh scrape away the the field the the once you fix the crowning then you're going to also have to replace the the the irrigation system as well so that's why those costs looking at TH those costs we can um I think as the board discussed there's a current lease purchase that is expiring so we're going to roll that lease purchase into it so after the five years then there wouldn't there would be no more than the annual upkeep of of a turf field again that that was the discussion that the the finance buildings and grounds committee had for for an extensive period of time which was referenced in in uh the report that Mr Zimmer gate but I certainly hear you and and lots more to look into as well all right um moving on uh consent agenda items on the consent agenda are believed to be items of routine nature requiring no discussion and which are to be voted upon a single roll call vote to the board any single member of the board may have any of the items on the consents agenda removed and placed on the other part of the agenda for discussion merely by so indicating prior to the vote to be taken on the consent agenda items removed from the consent agenda are identified by an asterisk and will be subject to discussion by the full board 5.02 is approval of the regular meeting minutes for November 18th 2024 5.03 is approval of financial report for September 2024 5.04 is approval of the treasurer's report for September 2024 5.05 is approval of the budget transfers for for September 2024 5.06 is approval of the cafeteria report for October 2024 and 5.07 is resolution of the board regarding the budgetary major account fund status um are there any questions or comments for Section Five all right section six is 6.01 approval of the bill list for December 9th 2024 any questions on Section 6 all right um section 7 um 7.02 is approval of board and staff Tri um I'll come back to non-consent uh 7.04 is approval of change order number one um for vcea file 2107 MFD 7.05 through 7.07 are approval of Professional Services for vcea 7.08 is approval of Professional Services for Rico 7.09 is professional service agreement off duty police officer Services 7.10 is approval of high school media center spring book order 7.11 is approval of the middle school media center book order and 7.12 is acceptance of donation for the a department um are there any questions on the consent agenda items for Section 7 right uh 7.03 is non-consent agenda item authorizing the rejection of all bids received and authorizing the rebid of the High School auditorium project uh can I get a motion for 7.03 I'll make a motion to reject the bids and go out to bid again and a second second second all right um open the floor for any comment or discussion anything anything further anyone all right um all those in favor 7.03 yay all opposed extensions all right 7.03 passes all right uh Section 8 students 8.02 is approval of option 2 for the 2425 school year 8.03 is approval of the senior late arrival early release for 2425 school year 8.04 is approval of home instruction services and 8.05 is approval of overnight wrestling trip uh any questions or comments for Section 8 all right section nine Personnel appointments 9.02 is approval of non-certificated appointment 9.03 is approval of substitutes 9.04 is approval of of coaches 9.05 is approval of additional class assignments and 9.06 is approval of additional work assignments any questions or comments for Section n all right uh section 10 10.02 is approval of change of assignment any questions for Section 10 we have no items in section 11 tonight uh 12.02 is approval of resignation and 12.03 is acceptance of retirement any questions on section 12 section 13 uh 13.02 is approval of supplemental stiens uh any questions or comments for Section 13 section 14 programs uh 14.02 is approval of affiliation agreement with Rowan University 14.03 is approval of the supplement to the uniform me memorandum of agreement 14.04 is approval of Substance Abuse Prevention program for 2425 14.05 is approval of the 2526 high school program of studies and 14.06 is approval of Teen Mental Health First Aid memorandum of understanding uh any questions or comments for section 14 all right uh section 15 policy 15.02% use of facilities 17.02 is uh approval of use of facilities for NJ Tigers basketball 17.03.2012 [Music] [Music] certainly uh yay nay or abstain Mr figs uh yay with abstentions on 7.04 7.05 7.06 and 7.07 good Mrs Bond yay Mr arm manente yay Mr bucks Mr gamble Mr narwood yay Miss Janice yay Mr spencec Mr Zimmer yes all right thank you very much board motion passes thank you Mr Cass um Mr Lee if I a public comment yeah 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 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 opinion and remarks with the board it is not a question and answer session we also recognize that our community may be polarized on some issues we want our Schoolboard 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 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 to 30 minutes only those who have signed up on the public comment sign-in sheet 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 Christina drum Christina drum Springfield town Township um I'm a Springfield Township Board of Education member all the opinions are of my own and have no reflection of my board and feel free in the future considering there's only two of us out of what 1300 students same rule applies as the prior public comment um because I'm sure everybody would like to get home at some point too um I'm coming before you with an article that was published on December 2nd and it came from oversi house.gov um and I'm going to read some of the article um and project some of um our intake or opinion I guess on it um the select subcommittee of the coronav virus pandemic concluded its 2-year investigation in the covid-19 pandemic and released a final report titled after action review of the covid-19 pandemic Lessons Learned and a path forward um I think this board should review this report it's very informative um as many of you may know in you know the years um prior when we were dealing with the pandemic um I that definitely had prompted me to come to these meetings and to really fight for my children's uh level of learning here in the school um based off of what learning were lack thereof had um transpired um the article shows that um it basically talks about social distancing mask mandates and lockdowns and it reads the six feet apart social distancing recommendation which shut down schools and small businesses across the country was arbitrary and not based on science during closed door testimony Dr fouchy testified that the guidance sort of just appeared as far as the mask mandates there are no inclusive evidence that masks effectively protected Americans from covid-19 public health officials flip-flopped on the efficacy of masks without providing Americans scientific data causing a massive uptick in public distrust lockdowns prolonged lockdowns caused immeasurable harm to not only the American economy but also to the mental and physical health of Americans with a particular negative effect on younger citizens rather than prioritizing the protection of the most vulnerable populations federal and state government policies forced millions of Americans forgo crucial elements of a healthy and financially sound life we basically all know the results of um you know basically not teaching in person what it had caused and I can tell you for sure that you know I feel that maybe not all of my children you know were significantly impacted but I still see the results of what this you know we had endured based on not teaching within the school the article continues to say that covid-19 misinformation the public health officials often spread misinformation through conflicting messaging knee-jerk reactions and lack of transparency the Biden Administration even employed undemocratic and likely unconstitutional methods including pressuring social media companies to censor certain covid-19 content there's definitely much more to this report um the reason I bring this up is that there are people on the board that went along with a lot of these recommendations and it caused you know harm to our kids and they're still you know dealing with um our like knee-jerk reactions here um we you know the parents even students had pushed back um basically trying to fight for you know greater education within the school um and these were only recommendations but the board decided to put the breaks on and you know there there was Kickbacks to what you basically followed which were just recommendations of the government officials um you know I'm just asking that you know with moving forward I have a daughter who's a senior we're getting ready to be done that you know with the students um you know and and what the board does moving forward I know we're as that but I'm just in as a general rule of thumb to basically have some common sense let's not you know jump to conclusions as far as like recommendations and think a little bit further into you know what decisions we decide um as it you know impacts the students and their level of learning here at Northern and hopefully we can learn from our mistakes then move forward thank you thank you Mrs drum yeah Mr figs would just like to make one comment and I'm not gonna like open this that that'll be the end of public comment goe Mr zmer so I wasn't on the board at that time and I had my own feelings but I reached out to the super at the time because I did have my own feelings about it and the other backlash that I was getting from different people in my community and he said they did a poll and it was basically 50/50 so while I may or may not you know have agreed with the what board did it was a divided community and frankly I don't know what else you know you could do I mean you know all the pressure that was coming down I I honestly don't know what the you know what choice the board had at that point um I'm just saying I didn't I'll tell you I didn't personally agree with it but it was it's a 50-50 community and that's the way it came down so I guess you have to air on the side of caution thank you Mr Zimmer um at this time future dates we have our board uh reorg meeting January 6th um does anyone have any uh old business they would like um sent back to committee or to be discussed during the January meeting and with that any new business they'd like to refer to a committee all right um we have no executive session tonight no just also a reminder um Mr Cass January 28th is that the I believe it's the I believe it's a 28 it's in it's in my report in case I'm wrong just for the um the um board retreat which is where we do the annual ethics training and some other trainings by the um New Jersey uh school board's representative all right thank you everyone and uh have a happy happy holiday season winter break uh can I have a motion for adjournment motion to adjourn a second La all those in favor I all opposed extensions all right thanks everyone