##VIDEO ID:0oeFVEuZYIs## e e e e e e e e e e e thanks uh good evening welcome to this public special public meeting of the Princeton Board of Education the board is an elected unpaid group of 10 citizens who set policy and make decisions on educational financial and Personnel matters for the Princeton public schools on behalf of all residents we're always pleased when members of the community attend our meetings the board and the school district operate under applicable New Jersey laws and under regulations of the New Jersey State Board of Education each meeting includes an opportunity for those attending to comment on items on the publish agenda or other matters of interest to them the board reserves the right to limit the time allotted to public participation law limits discussion of individual individual personnel and confidential matters we hope our meetings provide useful opportunities for communication between the board and the community and uh thank you to the two people in the audience for attending as required under the open public meeting act njsa 1046 Ed sequentia adequate notice was given for calling this meeting it was authorized by the Board of Education had forwarded to the municipal clerk the Princeton packet and the Trenton Times on uh on or about August uh 27th and distributed to the schools and others on the standard distribution list the board deserves the right to enter into executive session during all meetings of the Board of Education board policy 168 recording devices requires that we in inform those attending this in-person meeting that the proceedings are being recorded this meeting is being live streamed the representative of the sending district is authoriz to vote on such matters that affect sending District students or affect the governance of the Princeton Public Schools as more specifically designated in njsa 188 38.1 sending District votes pertaining to Personnel actions refer to high school Central administrative and districtwide staff only votes otherwise are considered extensions in the event this statute is amended the law shall take presidence over this bylaw thank you Mr Balden would you please call the RO sure DF Kendall here Betsy Bago here Adam Beerman here debie bronfeld here Mara franceski here Elanor hubard here Susan caner here Robert Christopher here we have a quorum thank you Mr balen okay do we have no minutes um okay so just one second sorry computer issues it's coming don't worry um maybe not such a quick meeting yeah well I'll just I I can't find what I wrote but I uh two things first of all um today is the is the 23rd anniversary of September 11th we just wanted to take a moment uh to remember everyone who was affected by that day um especially our our neighbors in Cranberry um and just you know wish everyone well um and we also just wanted to say something briefly about um the school a school shooting in Georgia last week um and uh you know our we sent our heartfelt condolences to that Community um and here in Princeton we're Vigilant um the board and the community have invested um a lot of um resources into um securing our schools um the this past summer um a lot of the work that was done um was done to enhance security and some of the things I'm not going to go into them but some of the things that were beneficial in the Georgia school um we now have here as well um so there's two facets I think to um School violence I think one is um school security and the other unfortunately is um the social emotional health of our students uh and that's something that we also uh work on and take very seriously um and that's something that um the board and Administration has put um resources is behind um and so we'll continue to do that and I I wanted to thank the community for their support and with that uh it will be a short meeting tonight um but first we're going I think we're going to talk about um I'm going to turn it over to Betsy who's going to talk about um the superintendent search um and all the steps we've taken and Where We Are Tonight exactly thank you very much I'm very pleased to provide an update this evening on the next component of our superintendent search as reminder to our community Dr Foster will serve as our interim superintendent through June 30th 2025 and we are launching a search for the permanent replacement to begin as superintendent on July 1st five search firms applied through the RFP process for the board's consideration and the ad hoc superintendent search committee of the board chose to interview four of those five search firms we interviewed them within the past week it's been a busy week it is the unanimous recommendation of the committee to hire School leadership LLC to lead the search for the district's new superintendent based on Long Island School leadership LLC has led superintendent searches for many high performing school districts in the New York metro area over the past 20 years if they are approved this evening Dr Martin Brooks and Miss Reena Bader will be the lead search consultants for our search Dr Brooks recently retired as the executive director of the Tri State Consortium of which Princeton has been a member since at least 2008 trate Consortium is an alliance of public school districts committed to working together to advance teaching and learning Dr Brooks has worked with Princeton for the past 16 years in this role he told us this evening he visited Princeton five times um as part of that work and this famili this familiarity with our district was evid evident throughout the interview he is well known and well respected both within the district and throughout the region Miss Bader worked as an attorney and was a board of education trustee and the president in marinick New York for 6 years we' believed Marty and Reena know our district and have the experience we need to lead the search for our next superintendent the full board just had the opportunity to meet Dr Brooks and Miss Bader on zoom in our closed session and were able to ask questions Dr Brooks and Miss Bader look forward to presenting to the public at an upcoming Board of Education meeting once their firm is approved the search committee will begin our work with them right away we are especially pleased that they plan to spend two full days in Princeton conducting focus groups with stakeholders and have already chosen tenative dates to do that the district will share information about how students staff parents and community members can participate in focus groups please stay tuned for the launch of a web page on the district website dedicated to the superintendent search which will happen once we are up and running with school leadership and there'll be a survey for our community as well so thanks to those of you who have reached out with questions about that part of the process um we are holding off on the approval of the job description this evening we had said perhaps we would do that at this meeting but we will be having Dr Brooks and Miss Bader review that and coordinate with other um aspects of the search so I'd like to thank my board colleagues especially Debbie Mara Elanor and daphna as well as Dr Foster and Mr Balden for the hours interviewing and I thank the full board for their Collective efforts to help select a firm to lead our superintendent search thank you thank you bety and I think we all want to thank you um for your very very organized and uh diligent search and scheduling of all those meetings I think Monday how many of you started at 8 8 AM and uh yeah and Betsy finished around nine o'clock okay all right so um we're we're we're lucky to have you leading this for usk you very much yep all right so now um I'm going to move public comment to the two people here you want to come and talk to us you have to come to the podium you have to say your name and and you don't have to tell me the house number just the street you live on so we can confirm you where you live Jessica Vieira you could probably you probably have this memorized Jessica Vieira Stockton Street but you're on the corner of Ed I am yes you may as well give the number I'm sorry uh I just wanted to say thank it's kind of Bittersweet say thank you to Kathy because Kathy has come to our she's like superwoman she's got her cape on she comes to our rescue and has really been a source of stability and an amazing um addition to our district so it is Bittersweet we're eager to have some new I guess longer term stability but um thank you Kathy because you really I'm looking forward to another year uh because we're not rushing you out yeah I did have one concern that I wanted to raise and I didn't know if that's was what this was going to be about but it is the elephant the room and you know I love to point those things out um and I'll keep it to under three minutes but I will say that the timer's not on because Matt knows I'll be as succinct as possible um what does that say about you in a world uh where we're trying to pass a referendum and that we're worried about density in our schools and Improvement to our district um and in a world where this Westminster choir College thing has come to light I worry about the success of our referendum without any further color from our trustees and our Council so I know most of you in the room and I know you're bright and I and I consider you friends and I trust you implicitly otherwise you wouldn't be sitting in those seats but I just encourage you to really try and tease out as much information as you can share as possible with the community I was just at the nasau club at an admissions meeting where I was asked oh so now we're going to spend money in a referendum and on Westminster choir college so that's the view in town and I think it should be talked about and should come to light as much as possible something that you all know but we definitely want to set our te ourselves up for Success on all angles so again thank you for all the work you guys do but the more communication and the more information the better so thanks thanks Jessica um so we do have a statement um that Betsy was going to share Betsy and Susan we're going to share tomorrow at PTO um we did share it with the local press but um since you asked uh so this is this is uh what we have to say on that topic um the proximity of the Westminster choir College property to our school buildings makes it a unique opportunity for our schools and one that the district considered in the past in 2017 the board looked into purchasing the property for school expansion however after review by Council and Architects it was determined that the property would be in litigation for many years the board withdrew its offer to purchase the property and with community's approval successfully pursued other plans to increase capacity at Princeton High School and Princeton Middle School in the past few days we have received questions from community community members about whether the municipality's recent announcement solves our school's pressing capacity issues again after review and discussion with our professionals um and with deference to the judicial process we think it is likely it will be at least a few years before the ownership of the property has been completely settled and utilization of the property can truly be to be discussed as a public Board of Education there are also various educational facility requirements that need to be satisfied and approval is obtained as a prerequisite to the acquisition and or use of a building for educational purposes all of which take time because our classrooms are at or near capacity now the board will continue with our plans for a referendum in early 2025 to expand capacity at our schools we still believe this referendum is the most cost effective sustainable And Timely approach to meet the rising enrollment in our schools without this timely referendum we would need to consider other options including trailers and redistrict redistricting to solve the district's current needs as our community grows we are excited to welcome new students to our schools all right all right and with that CH since I'm here join the party no um I didn't come here to speak what's I'm sorry yes Chris santarpio nassal Street uh just to comment to Dr Foster it was just amazing to see you uh the first day of school at Community Park Elementary and when we spoke you had indicated that you visit all six schools so it was just a true Testament to your leadersh and your visibility here in the district and it was just wonderful to see so we appreciate that as I'm sure everyone else does so thank [Music] youting um can I get a motion for for Award of the competitive Contracting super superintendent search consultant School leadership LLC Mara second bet d Kendall Betsy Bagel yes Adam Beerman here we go yes Debbie bronfeld yes Mara franceski yes Elanor hubard yes Susan caner yes Rob Christopher yes motion passes unanimous School leadership uh know you're watching thank you forward to working with you and uh your meeting with the community to determine what the district and the community are looking for in the next superintendent um again thank you to Betsy um and with that any anything else I get a motion to Mar second all favor no got thank you good night