##VIDEO ID:ywcIh5LUrBo## calling the meet in order please stand for the flag Al to the flag the United States of America to the for stands Nation indivisible andice all Mr secretary please take the role M Cherry present Dr Connors present Mrs cordino here Mr King here miss Rasheed here miss Rivers here Mrs Salgado Cowan present Miss Smith here miss Stafford we have nine present thank you hereby it be it known that the Piscataway Township Board of Education has compl with the notification requirements of the open public meeting act for the announcement of this meeting date in place on November the 24th 2024 and the following matters posting of the public notice on the posting board for the Board of Education in the administration building email notification to the newspaper servant Piscataway the home News Tribune in the Coura news email notification filed with the municipal clerk at the municipal building on hose Lane this meeting is being videotaped this recording is not an official record or supplement to the minutes is intended only as a source of information that the public might utilize at a later date to familiarize themselves with the board's activities executive session be resolve the the board ad Jour to Executive session for the purpose of review and discussion of personnel agenda litigation HIV monthly reports and other matters persuading to law njsa 104-112 B can I have a motion have a second we are in executive session e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e it resolved that the board reconvenes to public session have a motion motion second all in favor now in public session good evening everyone thank you for coming coming out tonight this month's student presentation comes to us from Grand View Elementary School where a group of students have taken on the task of helping classmates and even their teachers with technology and here's the principal of Grand View Neil decide to tell us more Neil come forward to your time to shine our students time to shine but I do appreciate it you have to come thank you us so members of the Board of Education uh I'm Neil Desai proud principal of grand elementary school and I extend my heartfelt gratitude uh for inviting us tonight to the board meeting we deeply appreciate the countless hours of dedicated service each of you volunteers contribute to our school and our community on behalf of the entire Grand View Community we are honored to participate tonight so tonight we want to highlight our amazing grv view greatness students who are to my right uh and they're a part of our SWAT team at Grand View and swat at Grand View stands for students who assist with techn technology to tell you more about this program I want to invite Mrs Sandy Desai our digital literacy teacher who oversees this program Mrs [Applause] Des good evening my name is Mrs Desai and I teach digital literacy at Grand View thank you so much for having us here tonight at tonight's board meeting we greatly appreciate the opportunity to showcase this wonderful program the swap team is a program that selects third grade students and encourage them to build the skills they learn in digital literacy to further develop strategies to solve problems that arise with the iPad students develop skills that introduce them to real world professions in the technology field build with on responsibility with technology and create positive peer support for our technology initiative we present to you a video that spotlights our swap team at Grand View you have people at the door behind you hi there are youology do you want to help your classmates with their troubles well we just for you swat stands for students who assist with technology we are a team of teach helpers on a we help ourm Ley Compu or learning about school how to use technology safely and responsibly so if you want to be a tech hero and make a difference in our school dur this team talk to your teacher about how to sign up we can't wait to you to join our team I don't know what [Laughter] to man C's not work to be the problem my camera's not how you do I [Laughter] in my house I I have to call Teck assistance [Music] there [Applause] so um before we give out certificates and take a picture I just want to in conclusion thank our students for always showing Grand View greatness our families here tonight for their wonderful partnership we do um love that you're here our team of teachers for their hard work each day at Grand View and our central office admin team and obviously also our Board of B members for all their support throughout the year so thank you so much and I present to you our students in a little bit thank you was that the uh theme song for Mission Impossible I think it was yeah nothing is impossible I grammed you okay sorry about the delayed parents we're human continue as soon as certificates get here uh did you want to take a picture now and then when they get their certificates take another one yeah let's rock let's wait a minute let's get the SWAT team out [Applause] here so we're going to take a photo okay do you want to give out the certificates first and then we'll take a picture well no we're going to do twoes with team they went under cover and came back with everybody smiling nice [Applause] guard [Applause] un [Applause] we cannot [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Caleb [Applause] [Applause] just like before students another team for bring that out tonight what an incredible crew uh the SWAT team is definitely going to the dist and other schools looking at them enjoy your holiday happy and most importantly get some rest if you can thank you guys I know you have school tomorrow so we're going to tell you you're free to leave at this point thank you [Applause] [Music] abely you know what I'm saying yeah I know I said I know how old you are have to hold yeah definitely my Grand View [Music] kids she's like I'm over these pictures already you know she was wasn't she that's exactly what she said she's like good job students get some rest guys that's right ping her own stroller let's get out of here she's she's like got the break off and everything she's ready to join the te she's like I got this I'm going to run people over but I got this okay on with the next uh part of the agenda student Representatives we have our two Representatives here this evening hi Tyler how Tomi how are you this evening Tyler always starts off the reports first so Tyler winter break hopefully get to there fast as can but before that um next week we are having winter spirit week it's from the 16th to the 20th and as of right now we have a voting for up people to V what typ ofth that Willers out of school and then we will have our spirit we next week and then also next week we are having a decorated contest around the school so students will find a staff member and they will decorate their door and how they find a staff member they just go ask them and they fill out Google form to the contest they spend like a week decorating the door and then on the 18th at 8 a.m. students go around they look at all the doors that are decorated and then they take a V and then the winning staff and students that participated on the door get to win a free breakfast party after the break sad studentsis thep that party next week and the 16th students will bring food snacks DRS and advv production class that I'm actually we are sh a one minute commercial film right now on dangerous driving so like what not to do what to do how to drive safe and then all that type of stuff and then we submit the film for a competition usan and then after that it's just sports are going now fully all the tri outs and stuff is over um so like to mentioned I can't believe the Year is already ending um 2024 is coming to a wrap so there is a lot going on right now um College decisions are coming out this week I know a lot of the early decision applicants are finding out today and tomorrow so that's really exciting um there are a couple students that already committed um and are signing for sports I know a lot of students that already committed for D1 D2 D3 schools which is super super exciting and I believe they're having that during school as well if you want to go and see the signing and support your friends um there's also instant decision day that's going on in schools so I believe the participating schools was ton Hall Montclair Kean um I think there was one more but they students can apply then and they have their interview on the spot and they'll get their decision right on the spot and they also offer scholar so um one of the students here actually got a full ride to Keen which was really exciting um it just shows how wonderful and amazing all the students here at the high school and what they've been doing um so moving away from college finally um Kem club and science National Honor Society hosted their research Symposium today um I was actually one of the speakers there so it was really good experience we talked about networking and internships and um any of the research you've been doing um it was a great way some of the to network and also some of the alumni from the P CP have came and spoke about their works and what they've been doing in college and how they've advanced in their science careers which was really interesting and nice to hear ver actually came so it was nice to see him again um you know he was really big in science National Honor Society as well so it was nice to see and see how he's doing in college um so that was it with um science masteral Honor Society and then PC HOSA and F have been having their sponsorship runs um they've gone to Costco they've gone to College Avenue and they've gone to many other places which has been really nice and after school they're really bundled up to combat the cold but it's a great way to network and you know learn how businesses and interact with those companies so it's a really good way um to put themselves out there um as well as FBI went on a high school Heroes trip which is their second year they're doing it um I was also a part of that field trip and it was really exciting we went to Arbor to talk to the fourth graders about Business and Entrepreneurship um and they were super excited they love hearing about it we just spent the day with them Dr Gay was there he helped facilitate everything it was just an overall really good experience and I know they actually want us to come back and do the fifth graders as well so it was a huge huge hit always really exciting um FBA is also hosting their regionals testings for the state um SLC conference later in uh March but right now they've been qualifying those results come out soon so that was in the beginning of this month um day of dialog which is our Equity team here at the high school we hosted our second faculty presentation this year with English department and the World Language Department which was really rewarding to see how much the students and teachers interacted with each other and that's something we've been working towards this entire year like having faculty presentations and communicating that um so it was a really good opportunity and it was nice to see how enthusiastic the teachers were about that um class of 2025 is hosting your holiday grams um again getting into the winter spirit with stickers cies and plushies just spreading All That Cheer um drama Club hosted their clue show which was a great hit I know a lot of students that went and of course they always put so much hard work in and it shows off so it was amazing um garban night hosted I mean icca hosted their Garin night which was also really exciting their annual event um I know a lot of students that went there and National Honor Society had their blood drive they donated about 100 pints of blood I know a lot of students participated this year um which is really really nice to see all the work and volunteering that students are doing um we also have our induction ceremony for NHS and we have about 70 new students which is really really exciting a lot of Juniors a couple of seniors and it's great to see um all the work that the students are doing here so that's next Thursday so something to look forward to um and then VI League Kem league and all the signs leaks are hosting their exams preparing for that um and just practicing so it's essentially it just wrapping up for this year and the holiday spirit thank you so much for the information coming from the high school is always YouTu do an incredible job of getting information us letting us know or make us feel as if we're actually attending the high school and we are involved in all the activities that go on up there um just want to say have a great holiday season I know you're waiting on decision day to find out where you will be accepted and then making that decision of will you accept which offer and which direction will you be heading in um it's incredible to have you two here like I said it's a pleasure but what it does it gives a sense of youth being in leadership and also showing the adults just what leadership looks like from a young person's point of view um we make sure you always got your eyes and cross your teas and we thank you for that have a great holiday season be safe and I know you guys are both going to leave because you have school in the morning and probably have some exams and stuff to prepare for but again have a great holiday season and thank you again for all that you do we really appreciate it thank you so happy holiday [Applause] okay next I'm going to be doing a president's report for December 12th 2024 our District's partnership with the Junior Achievement organization continue to offer benefits to our students of all age groups just this month girls from the cataway high school engineering Health Science academies took a trip to MC pharmaceutical and raway for a job shadow event for young women and students from all three middle schools visited middlex County College for a career Expo on campus tour then last week about 50 PHS students in the future business leads of America Club visited Arbor Intermediate School for the Junior Achievement High School hearings program the old students teach AG appropriate lessons to the fourth and fifth graders about the finance Business and Entrepreneurship thanks to Dr great for cultivating this wonderful partnership with Junior achievements which continues to yield great benefits for our students thank you to everyone who has come out to support our students during the district's Winter concert series all of our high school and middle school concerts are open to the public and our student singers and musicians are doing a beautiful job if you did not get a chance to see the performance yet there are still four concerts on schedu for next you can find a link to the concert schedule on the homepage of our district website on the behalf of theway Board of Education happy holidays to all once again thank you all for coming out tonight um I'm excited to see people sitting in the audience you don't know how excited I am but we especially being it's cold outside it takes a lot to come out in the cold and say okay we know you invested that way um from all of us board members we would just like to extend a happy holiday to everyone in the audience but most importantly to all our administrators who are here who have to be in this building five days a week and there's no clock they punch they have a job to do they do it they do it with a smile and most importantly it's done for the best benefit of the students and of the teachers so I want to extend a happy Holiday to all of our administrators as well and that concludes my president report superintendent report yes uh good evening everyone uh we want to make sure that we let you know that the volume 11 issue for December's superintendent report is out our superintendent very proud of all the things that take place in our district and you can actually find many of them here we don't have one and we ask that you please look at it from cover to cover it can be found on our district website and all our social media platforms just some of the things inside we see that all eighth graders from all three middle schools uh attended Junior Achievement Inspire career expor at middle sex County College and the three councils attend e Middle School we thank M husbands from ctown Patel from Shore and Dr Kelvin Rogers from Pac also on the 5th of December we also had a non-bound students explore what's next where they focused on opportunities at career Affairs uh for non-oled bound students and it was organized by fway high school counselors also we want to acknowledge um Mr Ji Johnson Chiefs football stand now who signs a deal with bowling G green so he will be going to bold and green and as mentioned previously we had instant decision day and many of the students were able to receive acceptance on that day as well and we thank Rodney West Sir Michael Pernell and the entire counseling department for their work on that as well so please make sure that you pick up a copy of this and you'll be able to see everything that's on the inside at this time we're going to ask we're going to move to uh Mr David Ruben he's going to Hib report and following him Dr lmer will come with the ssds student safety data system report good evening everyone uh twice a year we come before you as the anti-bullying district coordinator to report on the statistics of our HIV investigations and findings over the year we do this twice a year here I'm reporting on the period from January 1st to June 30th there were a total of 44 reports of HIV that were fully investigated spread across uh um virtually all the schools the grand total of 13 of those incidents were substantiated uh my part of my job is to look for patterns anything that might require the allocation of certain resources in a particular way to address problems in an efficient manner instead of just throwing resources around indiscriminantly the good news is that there really have been no discernable patterns of any type of behavior either in terms located to location or types of of HIV Behavior which is good uh I decided to compare this to how the same time period last year went and almost exactly the same number this year we had 44 investigations 13 substantiated hivs for the year prior 43 reports and 10 substantiated hivs so it seems to be a consistent pattern so you have a written report in front of you prepare to answer any questions if none I will turn the floor over to my colleague Dr lotman Who will give us our SSD report one question um in looking at the dispers of the schools um when you compared this year to last year was it similar in that uh two like the two schools that had the highest reports or question of HIV were um quibble and Arbor this year was that similar to last year or I don't recall if it was those two schools in particular I will tell you that statistically the Middle School level is where a lot of the action is compared to elementary school or high school if you look at the HIV findings that actually substantiated you will see that they were all at the middle school and Intermediate School level not at the elementary level not at the high school which is typical because of uh just the nature of what middle school is and the developmental Aid uh you know levels of the kids that are there that's where we find most of the action okay thank you good evening Dr basille board president Miss Cherry board vice president Dr Connors and the rest of the Piscataway board of Education members on behalf of uh Dr anelli I'd like to present our District's semiannual ssds report uh Mr Miller is handing out uh some literature for you uh this report covers a time period just like what Mr Rubin said of January 1st 2024 all the way to June 30th 2024 uh the report that has been handed out to you thank you again Mr Miller um also includes the districts information of incidents from the previous year same time frame January 2023 to June uh 2023 and as Dr basille alluded to before just as quick review ssds stands for the student safety data system uh but from here on and I'll just refer to it as ssds if we eliminate the 13 Hib founded Hib cases that uh Mr Rubin just went over you will see that our district reports 63 incidents during the time period that I just highlighted which uh proud to announce it's almost a 6% decrease from the same time period as last year uh this 63 incidents include five infractions of vandalism one weapons violation uh 26 occurrence of violence and 31 substance abuse counts uh if you want to drill in for each um category starting with violence of the 26 incidents we report uh 17 fights districtwide two assaults uh six threats and one uh incident of inappropriate conduct uh doing the you know searching through all these incidents I found that just under 70% of of these 26 incidents involve students who are receiving additional assistance on regulating Behavior Uh moving over to vandalism uh vandalism as I said before I think the last time we did this report was July if I'm not mistaken um violence has a very uh large umbrella so just a for example the five incidents we had during this time period two were uh property damage uh two were for pulled fire alarms and one was a theft um all five of these incidents once they happened once they reported the only way we were able to really do an investigation and find you know who was responsible for these incidents was because of all the uh camera footage that we have in our buildings so you know to the board of that and I believe I said this the last time I did this report thank you very much uh to the board of ed members for allowing our schools and our buildings to purchase these cameras because they are going above and beyond and keeping more buildings our students and staff safe so again thank you for that uh third category of weapons we did have one incident uh was possession of a very small pocket knife uh and last but unfortunately not least was the substance abuse category where we had the most occurrences at 31 of those 31 occurrences 18 were confirmed use and 13 were solely possession of the 31 occurrence uh the only substances that were reported were marijuana and tobacco and alcohol I'm sorry there's three um several of these incidents involved multiple students so when you take that into account uh you could make the 31 incidents really become 22 because again a number of them um had a lot of students involved but we still for the ssds we have to report um you know each one and is always the case when students are involved with a substance abuse occurrence you know um after obviously the district or schoolwide discipline is is served um the school counselor the student assistant counselor Haven if need be provides assistance for not only the student but the family uh if required and it's not just a onetime thing you know you came back from you know whatever the discipline was it's not like a onetime thing I'm checking on you okay we checked the Box we're done it's not that at all it's an ongoing uh relationship and it's ongoing uh service that we definitely provide again for the student and as well as the family if need be uh the as I always do with uh you know the way I think with I love to compare our ssds incidents with the total amount of school days you know that we do have and again look at time frame from January 1st 2024 to graduation uh last year which was June 18th 2024 uh the total enrollment on graduation day in our district was 7,463 the amount of school days from January 1 to graduation day was 110 uh so if you multiply those two you find the total school days served for throughout the district we're 82,9 which is a huge denominator and if you look at the incident and put that as our numerator you will find that [Music] 0.0076 7% of our school days require uh an ssds report uh to put that in a little more uh perspective if we were to get to 1% which obviously is a very low percentage we would have to multiply our 63 incidents by more than 130 so you know that being said uh just statistically speaking uh taking a motion out of it uh just proves our district is doing a very good job keeping our students staff are building safe you know but with that being said as always you know we're looking for ways to improve to continue to bring these numbers down uh some of the many programs that all of our schools uh participate in we had the week of of respect which this year was I believe the first week full first full week in October all our schools participated we also have the school violence awareness week which was the last full week in October October was a very busy month uh for things like this every school has a safety and climate committee that has sever meetings you know throughout the year to address anything School related and then if if certain patterns come up it's District related and we see how we can work together to uh fix whatever issues we might have um our district does a great job coordinating Dei monthly celebration where all our schools participate we have character education programs we have assemblies on Mental Health Awareness social emotional learning we have violence prevention and something that we've been working on a lot recently is we're in constant communication a with our community outreach team you know through that partnership just this year starting in late winter early spring we've coordinated with this organization that they're going to come to every single one of our K12 buildings to do a presentation on depending on grade level uh we're looking at cyber bullying is a topic we're going to cover social media awareness drug awareness drug prevention and other things like that so we're hoping with everything that our school this is only a little what what I went over is only a little bit of what our school our schools in our district are doing uh you know with the hopes of bringing these incidents down you know to the goal of zero so I I thank you so much for your time and attention and answer any questions um the violence uh change is a little concerning it's almost double the the amount that we had the previous year yes um especially when you're looking at one of those intermediate schools yes um and then and the high school which is obviously much bigger um so I know we're doing a lot but have we been reaching out to our staff and our students and seeing what their perspective is of feeling safe um and things along that lines in our building because um I think it's important to know uh from a teacher perspective from student perspective what their thoughts are on something along that lines because um and again I I realize it's it's not a huge number but when you when you know for the amount of students that we have but um it is almost double of what we had last year and um absolutely yeah like I said in an in an intermediate of four five that's a pretty high number yes so I I am curious to know um what does the staff feel about this you know about um safety about uh conflict resolution things along that line so that we we we get a better picture of maybe something specific about what we can do in that in that school or in those schools to make it to to bring the numbers down you know sometimes teachers have good perspectives on what needs to be done or maybe what's lacking in some ways um to bring our numbers down and I will tell you it's a it's a great question coming from the background you have obviously that's something that's very important to everybody but um you know we're very fortunate enough in this District where you know put him on spot but we have a great working relationship with Mr Toma our union representative so you know we talk almost almost daily uh if there's anything if that comes up you know he definitely lets me know he'll let Dr relli know or anyone else know and we we will address um but it hasn't you know things like that haven't come to a point where anyone's really concerned right I think it's a good idea to always to be surveying staff periodically and students and and and surveying students so that you have an idea of um perspective um I know we we complete surveys I mean this is a new initiative where I am um because we've had many challenges so we've been completing a lot of surveys on um climate absolutely and you know giving a perspective on on how and us and students so it might be something to you know think think about maybe districtwide or targeting in areas where um we want to see maybe a decrease this 185. 7% increase in vience do you feel based on the the previous year that it's significant and is are there any metrics that say if you increase by a certain percentage that uh you have to take any action or is it just something that you report and then you try to explain through the incidents that happen we always you know no matter what even if we have you know with the uh the weapons we had a significant decrease it's still something we're always going to be vigilant about okay always want to look into but you know with the violence obviously the first one um you know the ma the math Brin had the same centers you got um it's definitely something you know we're looking into we're addressing um you know another thing that we do have is you know we we categorize things even it could be pushing shoving it could be a slap we categorize that as a fight so we do have a lot of things like that of these incidents that um you know maybe other districts or maybe it could be borderline you know fight it could have been something else but you know we want to make sure that we label it as we see so we can address the situation and make sure you know as Miss cordino said in the rest of the board everyone feels safe and welcome and ready to learn when they come to our schools I would be interested in knowing what AR's numbers were last year at this time being it out so high this year has a zero simar something with the climate is something seems a little off yeah I want to also say similarly with quibbl toown seems to be you know I know the Middle School idea but by comparison pble town by comparison to Shore or kakac seems to be also having a very high um like definitely outstanding by comparison to Shore or kakac in incidents that were actually like you know categorized categorized yeah so total um so behind the high school which has so many more students the two schools with the highest total incident is are Arbor and quibble town so um you know being the chair of culture and climate again yeah I think that is something to try to investigate as my former board members have mentioned what what is the the you know what is the climate in the school um from the students perspective from the teachers perspective and also from the families you know I think that you know we need to dive into that a little bit um not to make it labor intensive but just to sort of see if there's any feedback that we are not as an administrative team or as a board um not tapping into that we don't know because we don't ask those questions we wouldn't know M chair I definitely get those uh the numbers from last year you want all of them or just is that specific I would just like to see a comparison school to say fourth and fifth graders have that many incidents um at that age if they stay on that path right we can address it to try to fix whatever loophole or Gap there is uh get them support so that they decide this is not the route for them to go that there's other means and Avenue to handle things and to deal with things I know we always say get together conflict resolution and all of that but there definitely needs to be an environment clean up and support given to Arbor to find out what is actually going on what is triggering all of this is it something internally is it all externally at home and if that needs to be the case maybe we need to get some type of parent event going on that we can send some extra support to the parents who may not know how to help their child or deal with their child and their child's reaction is to act out to be violent whatever the case may be uh maybe get the Haven people to go over there and have some sit down conversations but let's get real about it um that scares me what I'm encouraged about with this report is the fact that at least as far as as your report there's been no reports by the uh the police department that anything has rolled over to be formal uh reports to the police have there yeah the only actually I should say this the only one report the only incident that was police matter was one of the threats that took place off school grounds um you know during you know when like School wasn't in session it came across you know us our our our our our vision to and then we had to get the police involved because again it wasn't during school so we couldn't address right away I think the police but I think that's important because we wouldn't want that to increase in any way better that we take care address these these problems now in the Middle School area before that number increases and then begins to be problems because vandalism and these kind of violence they that can catapult very easily into the community and therefore result in uh things where the police have to get involved so I think if we can uh if we do uh get the opinions of all those areas involved and all those people involved we can stop it before it gets to be a bigger problem any questions all right thank you again for your time happy holidays everybody thank you than Mr we thank Dr L for their report and finally uh Dr relli would like to wish everyone a nice holiday season and a winter break he appreciates all the work and hard work that everyone does in our school district and thank you uh Personnel of Labor Relations Miss n um be it resolved that the following motions identified as items a through H be approved as presented second Mr secretary can you take the Mrs cordino yes Mr King yes M Rasheed yes M Rivers yes Mr Sado Cowan yes Miss Smith yes Miss Stafford yes Dr Connors yes Miss Cherry yes motions Carri uh committee report we have three committees that met uh prior to this meeting we'll start off with fiscal planning and operations Dr Thomas and fiscal PL and operations committee met last night to discuss the 2023 2024 audit the 2025 to 226 budget capital projects and a few more things on the 2023 2024 audit David Ganon from RPF F Conor dav's reviewed the audit process the fincial performance of the district and another successful year with no audit findings uh Mr oler discussed the balance in the capital reserve and the anticipated use of the funds for upcoming capital projects Mr Ganon will present the audit report to the full board at the January 9th uh 2025 uh board meeting the deadline for filing the audit report is January 15 on the 2025 2026 budget school and Department budget submissions were made on Friday December 6th meetings will be scheduled to review the budget submissions over the next couple of months pasaway High School kitchen equipment installation uh Plumbing work past inspections new tiles uh was installed in two locations in the patent kitchen the electrician is scheduled to work on December 14th new equipment should be ready to use by January 2nd facility capital projects the uh PCAT high school media center District administration in spel uh had a project review meeting to refine the technical and desired elements of the immediate Center renovation District administration is reviewing the technology requirements for the Esports gaming room and will review Furniture needs bcat High School intercom clock system the uh PHS intercom system needs to be updated District administration visited Hillsboro High School to review their system and engage spel to prepare a building survey to solicit quotes for new system this project is slated for completion in summer of 2025 our uh Energy savings Improvement program esep Simmons has completed their scope of work rebate submissions and verification will continue for 18 months the final construction invoice should be ready for board approval at the January February board meeting solar panels talva energy visited equiv town to assist solar panel Replacements equ town has some panels that are beyond their useful life and roof sections that need to be replaced recommendation should be ready to for review at the January 25 committee meeting Food Service Universal free breakfast from September through November overall participation was up 116% representing 11,426 breakfast served versus 51,1 163 bre served in the same period last year the breakfast kios is being used in the pasc high school Anthony Commons and an additional register has been opened in the past cafeteria for breakfast and basically it means it's a it's it's a very successful program ad hoc committee on Food Service de the response has been overwhelmingly positive to an email sent on giving Tuesday to inactive families with positive uh meal balances allowing them to donate those funds to the district to help offset families negative balances and I just want to thank um the ad hoc committee uh when we met and we brainstormed um I'm not sure who had the idea but when you get a bunch of people together great ideas come out and that was a great idea and then David Ola took it one step further and actually had the where with realized that the email was going out on giving Tuesday so so now what we'll do is that each year we'll put the same letter out on giving Tuesday and and and and hopefully get a good good response uh New Jersey school business legislative update Dr Connor's discussed bills released from the Senate education committee including one that um that I was following um Senator Ving goala sponsoring its Senate 3917 it's proposing changes in the school funding law and uh Mr Ola notified the committee about upcoming public comment hearings about state school funding um there are um the the the SF which is School funding Reform Act of 2008 has gone through a change or since 2008 called S2 uh but S2 had a uh a seven-year period in which uh money was going to be uh um quote unquote kind of like redistributed a little bit but we're at the end of that period so what the legislators is doing is that they're asking now for uh local Boards of Education or anyone if they want to testify um and the dates have been put out to school districts and I think there's four dates within the next um couple of months um and c local school board uh members um uh will go and and testify and the business office um this has been a great um uh initiative our investment account the committee reviewed the current balance on the November 2024 and that stands for the New Jersey asset rebate management um um system it's a statement in current of interest rates and this is our ability to take uh 20% of certain funds across the um our uh our portfolio and put them into an investment fund and um gain like 5% interest and we have about $20 million in it currently and um and that and that $20 million has has yielded about $800,000 so that's that's a great initiative the policy committee reviewed that we've put a lot of faith in the uh our business administrator who is actually we give that authority to to make those Investments but it always goes through the fiscal plans and operations committee gov deals the highest bid received for the shop bought in the pasato high school wood shop was below the district's Fair Value Estimate and District administration is recommending the rejection of the bid and it's like eBay or something you put it out there again and see if you can get more money it's about a $10,000 item that hasn't been used or it's a $20,000 item that has been used that we first offered for 10 and we didn't get any bites so uh um anyway that uh Madam chairman is the report of the fiscal plannings and operations Comm thank you Dr con next we have culture climate and community relations Mrs S yes the culture climate Community U Relations Committee met on Tuesday November 19 to discuss positive messaging Community Partnerships and wellness Services um under positive messaging uh Gary Miller shared presentation of monthly themes quotes and images shared on the Marquees and and on social media for October and November that was an addition that the committee suggested to um Gary and he has been faithful in putting out those um those positive messages also on social media so that parents when they're scrolling they can see um these things that the district is interested and and inspiring um they were including themes um for Hispanic heritage month um until October the 15th uh Hindu Heritage Month recognizing that was being recognized for the first time this past year um November themes were giving thanks gratitude um following holidays were displayed rashash Shana yam kapor duali and Veterans Day we acknowledge that um the weekly quotes being shared on the social media have been very well received like I had mentioned the committee acknowledged um Mr Miller for winning four awards from the New Jersey school um public relations Association Community Partnerships um Dr Grace shared information about Community Partnerships um including um with Ruckers students from each of the middle schools um have participated in visiting uh visits to Ruckers to engage on Hands-On activities and to learn about health related careers The National Society of black Engineers Junior Club is in process is processing uh progressing well uh at the high school and in Junior Achievement our partnership with Junior Achievement um New Jersey has expanded for this school year girls from the high school engineerings and Health Sciences acmy visited Merc on November the 12th for women in leadership stem event um students from each middle school attended the um Junior AI achievement Inspire career fair at Middle College on November the 13th and 14th other um the committee discussed the existence um of the outdoor libraries and the idea about um opportunities for new ones being built um through other Partnerships um there is I believe two at the moment um schools that have outdoor um Library systems but we would like to make it more Equitable um so we're looking into other Partnerships to get those outdoor libraries into all most of the uh elementary schools and all of the um intermediate schools um Wellness um The Haven uh daytime and evening services are are in full swing with small and they have a small waiting list there are exploring holding student groups this year um the committee discussed possible ideas for future parent webinars um that um will be brought back to um The Haven Dr connley met with um Children's Corner principal um Jennifer stady to discuss uh Service availabl uh services available um to the prek families and in PL site which is a a presentation that we had um years ago here in the district um it was brought up during the wellness that the committee discussed bringing that back the inlane site presentation um for parents um with PCAT community outreach commission um one of our members Miss Kimberly Lane is a member of the commission and she was going to explore possibilities of how we can get that um presentation back into our schools um Communications with families the committee has been inquiring um following up on inquiries from the previous meeting um where we discussed how the district is communicating with families um so Mr Miller um reviewed um the Strategic the district strategic planning Communications plan as well as share details about up updates to the district's Community uh communication systems which will be coming forth right um in the new year and that's my report thank you committee met on Monday December 2nd 2024 to discuss gifted and talented parent resources tv/radio programs and more CAC Dr basille the district received the distinction of a high performing distri Bas on our NJ quality single accountability continum known as qac instructional program largely determined by student performance on njsla testing and we received 83% Intermediate School report card was discussed by Dr basille Dr basille shared a copy of the report cards for grades K to three four and five and 6 to8 the district is in the process of adding a numerical key to the grades for four five report cards so it is Cle families and and aligns to grades in aligns with grades six through eight go go g cognitive aptitude test Dr Basketville and Rebecca Dayton the district is seeking to be more inclusive in capturing students for the gifted and talented offerings the gogat will be administered to all second graders for participation in the LEAP program in the second half of year the administration will look at the students results along with additional qualitative El and special education students will be included students are encouraged to take advantage of multiple enrichment opportunities within the School parent resources was discussed by Rebecca Dayton and Janine albanes Miss albanes shared some Ela resources that will be shared with the families regarding literacy including epic and Storyline Online families are encouraged to help students Journal share what they are working on and write about things that they may not know much about as they grow and explore Miss shared some resources for the math that will be shared with the families including go maath and Math on the Spot TV video class tour Chris Arondo Mr arando shared videos and information about the TV and radio program extensions of a mediate Tech program at the middle school students are content creators with student expressing a key component of the program in the middle schools students use podcasting and video equipment and the high school program reinforces The Art of making film and broadcast are terrestrial but programming is looking into streamlining the program has hosted other districts that may be interested in starting similar programs East Bruns visited Us in November AP Chinese course Edition glenisha gerado Moran a Chinese Heritage course is being considered based on the number of Heritage speakers in the high school Chinese for class textbook adoption AP government and politics American government stories of of a Nation for the AP course second edition AP psychology psychology themes and Variations 11/ by Wayne weaton 2022 honest biology biology how life Works fourth edition experience in education the 11th Edition teacher Cadets a model of homegrown teacher recruitment the district will partner with Team University to offer dual enrollment educational course um we had a spectacular meeting uh with ccul the things that we discuss the direction we're going in uh looking into getting more special education students identified who have talent that is not been exposed or developed or given the opportunity to shine um so we're working on that because unfortunately there's a stigma attached to special education uh when some people see test scores are down they immediately go cost special education well news flash is not um low test scor is just low test scor it has nothing to do with special education students they test the same as any other student they just have adjustments that have to be made for them and accommodations that have to be given to them but at the end of the day they hold their own and they stand up and go toe to- Toe with everybody else um I get excited when I have the curriculum meeting because I get to see what we're doing as a district what we're looking at things that we haven't uncovered or we may uncover we go address it and say okay we need to handle this we need to address this and we need to improve in this so when I get together with that group of individuals and they're committed they're 10 toes deep they they are on those zooms they are not late and they're coming with their questions and they're coming with not just questions they're coming with resolutions as well so that's the good part about working with them and I'm excited for where we're getting ready to going in 2025 and that concludes my report Madam president I mean I remember on that Zoom wasn't there wasn't there but wasn't there a parent of a student from when you were principal at Grand viw oh yeah that was autistic and you gave an example and then the mom came in and told everybody what what that person's doing now as an example what you're saying basket go ahead what was that he's in a um the mother is Educator now currently at she had a Learning Center here in town she still does and she's on the staff at R office and currently he's in a PhD program right wow but he was but but he was artistic he was and he was a Selective mute he uh started speaking essentially when he was in the beginning of wow so like I said we have a lot of gyms and special education that we need to bring to the Forefront allow them to grow and expand and take the cap off of what they can do versus what we think they can do and just let them be the butterflies and fly at the end of the day okay and that concludes all of our committee reports approval of minutes Miss L Letta rers yes B it resolved that the following minutes be approved as submitted the business meeting November 14 2024 and executive session November 14th 2024 Motion in favor com being I see some new faces that I don't recognize I know Mr C over there for good the faces I don't the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and school matters of the community interest in support this position the law establish a period of public comments at every board meeting individuals wishing to speak must State their name and address comments limited to three minutes duration but an individual may speak a second time after all others who wish to speak on the topic have been heard the board may require that the individuals registered to speak prior to the beginning of the meeting participants May submit materials of their position all statements in or questions shall be directed to the presiding officer and no participant May address or question board members individual all speakers are required to express themselves within a civil matter with due respect and for the dignity and privacy rights of others whose legal rights may be affected please note while this is not the board's intention to Cle comments on matters of legitimate concern to the school district the scho the public should be aware that if their statements violate the rights of others under the law governing defamation invation of privacy they may face personal liability to the injured party if speakers are uncertain of their legal ramifications of their comments the board urges them to seek guidance beforehand for their own liid advice uh anyone in the audience yes ma'am you already know the process and the routine I'm excited to hear what you have to bring us this evening um as always I came with nothing but when I listen in and I have some questions or just a comment um my name is D Patel I live in piscar um it's not really a question just uh I want to express my gratitude to board members for taking a proactive approach on asking about the school incidents and hearing everyone's concerns makes me feel good as a parent um from my personal experience from Arbor my son was in fifth grade uh last year uh in Arbor last year Counseling Services can use help and they I shouldn't say School parents don't have the information available option available outside of the school counseling so that that can be easily looked into without waiting for any alarming numbers my background with process Improvement I believe in proactive actions I do not believe in waiting for alarming numbers and acting on it thank you anyone else wishing to speak from the public comment side not can I have a motion to close comments second all in favor I public comment is closed plan and operations Dr Congress he resolve following motions identified as items a through F be approved as presented Mr secretary please take the Mr King yes J yes Rivers yes Mr Salado Cowen yes Miss Smith yes Miss Stafford yes Mr cordino yes Dr Connors yes M Cherry yes motions carry uh we do not have anything in policy this evening so we will skip right over that Mr K be resolved that following motions identified as items a through C be approved as presented secretary M Rivers yes Mr Salado yes M Smith Stafford yes Mr cordino yes Mr King yes mred yes Dr Connors yes Mr Cherry yes motions carry P Services Mr C be it resolved that the following motion identified as item a be approved as presented second Mr secretary can you take the RO Mrs Salado Cowan yes Miss Smith yes Miss Stafford yes Mrs cordino yes Mr King yes Miss Rasheed yes Miss Rivers yes Dr Connors yes Miss Cherry yes motions carry administrative andary Miss Stafford we resolve that the following motions identified as items a through e be prevented be approved as prevented second Mr secretary take the RO M Stafford yes Mrs cordino yes Mr King yes Mr rash Sheed yes M Rivers yes Mrs Sado Cowan yes M Smith yes Dr Connors yes M Cherry yes motions Carri old business anybody with old bu I well I guess I've got some business ideas I'm like I'm like isn't that old business so I'mma close Old business and we're going to go to new business and with that being said I'm going to go to the podium um as we all know tonight is the last meeting for two of our current sitting board members Mrs cordino and Mrs Rashid um I'm going to call each one of you up one by one uh say a few words we know I'm not longwinded we know I don't write long speeches hope wow so the plaque says in recognition of your service and personal dedication to the children of the Piscataway Township Schools through compassion commitment and exceptional leadership your contributions built character and Rich students for all of Piscataway students and this is being presented to miss nany cordino a member of the Piscataway Board of Education from November from January 2022 to December 2024 Nancy oh Nancy see Nancy has that tough exteria that if you don't peel back the layers you don't know underneath is a soft person who is truly looking out for the best interest of students what she was able to bring to pis gataway as a teacher and things that they had gone through in London was unique and different her willingness to be on ad hoc committees working on the lunch program debt and trying to sit at the round table and us come up with resolutions to help this situation and not hurt it any longer I cannot forget you have come in your support with curriculum which you sat on and again being able to be a parent be a teacher and be a board member hitting on three different things and yet trying to navigate between the three to come out with something that would in the long run benefit all the students of his catway you achieved it I give you credit credit where credit is due I would never downplay it I would never deny it policy I didn't hang out with you in policy now so I can't give you the information on policy but I can tell you you guys changed rewrote a lot of policies updated a lot of things I know you did a lot of hard work over there but sitting here in this boardroom being at meetings coming forward not just presenting problems but also trying to come up with resolutions to help the problems made an impact it made a difference sit there you take your notes and I know when you start writing heavy oh she coming there's about to be some words but there're going to be words to question you about what the question was and why are you giving me a question instead of giving me a resolution to the question that's what the difference is that's what you brought to the table um I have no doubt in my mind you're going to be back yeah I said it so get ready I know y'all going to be out there doing some work she said you saying no but she going to doing it again so on behalf of the Board of Education and all of your sitting board members here is your plaque we thank you for your years of service we appreciate all that you did um and let's see what the future holds now look you you still got to sign on on curriculum you can't go nowhere we still need some inside that's a long committee it's a long committee but wait minut just wait a minute you don't have to come in for the first 15 minutes because we're just going to be reviewing the minutes doing the pledge allegiance and getting settled so you come in about 6 45 10 to 7 we we'll be good to go we be rocking the rolling but so expect I appreciate that all right so we'll make sure we still send you an invitation to come join us and hopefully you will um like I said what you bring as a teacher what you bring compared to the parent but what you learned and what you presented as a board member made a difference so like I say when someone can tell you things that they've gone through in their district and you're able to feed off of and not make that mistake it saves us from going through it but it also saves the students from having to live through it and us having to clean up afterwards so for that we thank you I thank you um I learned a lot being on the board um it was definitely a different perspective than what I was used to um you know I led from hard work everything I do I give 100% so you know it I appreciate the acknowledgement so I definitely did learn a lot I I spend a lot of time away from my family oh yeah um so I appreciate your board um you know so I can say is I'm still very busy um at my job um taking on another leadership role so we will see but um but I'm looking forward to spending more time you know with my family and you know not leaving early and leaving events and things along that line but I do appreciate all of your kind words because um I feel like I do give 100% I did I I gave credit where credit do I I I appreciate that it's been it's been a a really um incredible experience okay all right glad to hear that thanks wow come on down you did it once you must have liked it cuz you came back a second time and you decided to hang out and pleas in the playhouse with us um in recognition of your years of service uh personal dedication to the children of the Piscataway Township Schools through the compassion commitment and except exceptional leadership your contributions built character and enrich students for all Piscataway students Miss Sarah Rashid you were a member of Piscataway school board from 2022 to 2024 presenting this plaque to you is a Bittersweet moment because this was a chapter where what you brought to culture and climate gave us a spend on how many different events are out there how many races are out there and to acknowledge every race within the district being we're so diverse the Diwali presentation you spearheaded from behind the scenes said a lot of people were not aware of being on the foundation uh to get all the sponsors to cover the cost of it in addition to that being open about wanting to do something but not being able to do it was a real Challenge and and I know it's a challenge because I run into them myself um what you did with culture and climate represented the town and the district itself because with all of the different things you could have been involved in or not listening to the words of no we're not going to be able to do it you said okay we can't do it this way there's next year and there's another way you were here as a board member and again you were on policy you and Nancy were hanging out together like I said I wasn't over there with you guys um I'm not sorry I wasn't there Dave no offense to you but it's okay I don't have to be everywhere you accomplished a lot your thoughts your input with the food service um given the good and the bad of it but always seeing a bright side to it makes a difference you're heading over to a territory of the unknown that's how going that up but at the end of the day it was a pleasure working with you and I'm glad we had the opportunity to do the things that we've done in this District working together um and looking forward to seeing where you go being a counselor at large woman now that you're going up a level on us so for this I present this award to you I'm excited for you it's a Bittersweet moment as I stated and I got to give you a hug cuz that's my P not going to cry you're not going to cry not going to cry no I refuse to allow you to cry but anyway it's been a pleasure thank you once again and looking forward to keeping up with you and seeing what's going on thank you I want to thank everyone I want to thank everyone it has been an honor to serve on the board I have learned so much um and I come in as a different person I came in as a different person I leave as a different person and um learning from everybody on the board um you know all the U the district the teachers the principal superintendent everybody um learning from them watching them how professional how you know they always bring the best foot forward um I know I'm going not I'm not going to be on the board but the district is in good hands um you know the board is their heart is in the right place uh the teachers are amazing and the whole District you know their heart is in the right place so I know the district's going to do well um I will still I'm still a parent so you'll still be seeing me around and I'll be on the public comments now hey have a party all right but thank you thank you again [Applause] okay okay uh now David alera has some new business yes Madam president thank you I have an item of new business uh a couple of hours ago I got a um an email from the township attorney and I'm going to go ahead and read that it's addressed to the superintendent the Board of Education it was sent to myself and Dr relli uh it's regarding notice of proposed resolution to move School Board election to piscato board of education and members this correspondence Shall Serve as notice that the township Council shall be considering a resolution at the upcoming Township council meeting on December 17th 2024 at 7:30 p.m. at the pasca Township municipal building 455 hose Lane Piscataway New Jersey to change the date of the annual Board of Education Election from November to April with the change taking effect in April 2025 pursuant to njsa 19 colon 60- 1.1 School elections may be held either in November coinciding with the general election or in April as a standalone election contingent upon the adoption of a resolution by the township Council the township Council believes that this proposed change will better serve our community by fostering a nonpartisan environment an April election ensures that the focus remains on issues directly impacting the school system free from the influence of broader political contests that occur during the general election cycle in accordance with the open public meetings Act njsa 10 4-6 this meeting is open to the public and members of the Board of Education along with members of the community are welcome to attend and provide comment ments during the public participation portion of the meeting thank you for your attention to this matter if you have any questions or would like to discuss further please don't hesitate to contact me very truly yours Raj Gomer I'm sorry could you repeat the um announcement of the date of that meeting again yes it's uh December 17th which is next Tuesday at 7:30 at the township 730 yeah okay thanks so um the statutes permit either the township or the Board of Education to pass a resolution to move our School Board elections back to April um and it sounds like they're going to consider the issue um and appears from the letter they they think it's a worthwhile change so they'll consider it and potentially vote on it at that meeting next week Mr Ruben I saw your hand up yes um I learned about this about an hour and a half ago when Mr ala did um there is a statute that allows for a transition like this assuming that certain eyes are dotted and te's are crossed um I was not expecting this when I came to the meeting tonight so I was not prepared to discuss this but what I'll be doing over the next day or so is circulating a memo from me um first of all satisfy myself that the township has adhered to the right procedures which they may well have um what impact will this have upon terms of current city board members here and other issues that obviously are interested the board so I will be circulating some information once I get a little deeper into this so stay tuned thank you Mr anyone else at new business yeah mam I had a couple of items um the first was um earlier this evening um at es scataway high school was a middlex county school boards association meeting and it's been reported in the past that our school board because of uh a couple of initiatives with the administration and and board members themselves uh are a high performing board and we received at bcat high school from the middle sex County School Board Association via the New Jersey Schoolboard Association our board certification which was an effort over the last couple of years to obtain 16 credits and and meet certain criteria doing evaluations Etc and so we received that plaque tonight uh the there is one more level you can continue uh to pursue 10 more credits within the next couple of years and it's called The Carol e Larson board certification from the New Jersey school boards Association so Madame President I am volunteering as someone who was involved the New Jersey school boards Association as one of the executive officers and knowing the workings to coordinate um for new board members coming in and for board members here to pursue our Master board certification um and continue to be a high performing board independent of any partisan politics uh that's my first announcement the second announcement is that um it's winter sports up at the high school I would highly recommend that uh what we got in your packet was winter sports senior nights let's um as board members show our um you know support support of our uh athletic um and athletes and if you can please attend some of these senior nights because I believe that you know our our parents and our community really appreciates it and that's uh my two items M thank you anyone else bus no hands rais can I have a motion forment motion have a second all in favor the e e e