##VIDEO ID:EaSov5wnyN8## [Music] welcome to this 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 personel matters for the Princeton public schools on behalf of all residents we are always pleased when members of the community attend our meetings the board and the school district operate under applicable New Jersey laws and under 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 a right to limit the time allotted uh for public participation law limits discuss discussion of individual personnel and confidential matters we hope our meetings provide useful opportunities for communication between the board and the community thank you for attending as required under the open public meeting act njsa 1046 at sequentia adequate notice was given for calling this meeting it was authorized by the Board of Education and forwarded to the municipal clerk Princeton packin and the Trenton Times on January 6 2024 was also distributed to the schools and others on the standard distribution list the board reserves rights enter into executive session during all meetings of the Board of Education board policy 168 recording devices requires that we inform those attending this in-person meeting that the proceedings are being recorded this meeting is being live streamed the representative of the sing district is authorized to vote on such matter matters that affect anying District students or affect the governance of the prince of public schools as more specifically designated in njsa 18838 A.1 sending District votes pertaining to Personnel actions refer to high school Central admin and districtwide staff only VES otherwise are considered abstentions in event of statutes amended the law shall take presidents over this bylaw thank you Mr Balden would you please call the RO sure dapon Kendall here Betsy Bagel here Beth Baron here Adam Beerman here Debbie bronfeld here Mara franceski here em harber here Susan caner here Brian McDonald present Robert Christopher here we have a quorum all right thank you Mr Balden um can I get a motion for adoption of the minutes of November 19th 2024 Brian second Debbie daon Kendall yes Betsy bag wheel yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman yes Debbie bronfeld yes Mar franceski yes eminor hbert yes Susan cancer yes Brian mcon yes Rob Christopher yes motion passes thank you Mr Balden welcome everyone to this uh last meeting of uh 2024 um it's a Bittersweet meeting tonight we are saying uh our goodbyes to three board members with 18 years of experience um we have an agenda review before uh the meeting and Mr Balden was like we used to call them departing board members and he didn't like that because kind of like departing like dearly departed so we went back and forth and back and forth and uh he came up with exiting um but today as I was thinking about it I was thinking we should say escaping um so um Betsy Brian Rob uh we of course we have to make a little to do um and so we're going to start Susan is GNA start I'm going to read um a resolution on our um agenda um celebrating Rob so whereas Rob Christopher is leaving the Princeton Board of Education after fulfilling three years of service be it therefore resolved that the Board of Education recognize the contributions that Rob Christopher has made to our district and its students and thank him for his time and effort noting that while cranberry reps do not participate in official committees Rob was an active and engaged member of the board advocating for cranberry with good Insight both thoughtful and helpful and has been an integral part of the current superintendent search he served on the committee to select the superintendent search firm and and I personally would like to thank Rob we've been seatmates a lot throughout his time here and having his perspective not only from cranberry but him having uh three kids who have have attended our high school has given him also added insight and it's really been a pleasure and the cranberry council is lucky to have you joining them thank you so much uh next up Beth is gonna yeah I mean I was trying to get this meeting done by we're gonna take some time no Rob we really appreciate um your you have really taken this on um wholeheartedly and we appr apprciate your Insight as Susan said you represent cranberry but you you really represent all of us and and and do that very well so we're really appreciative of your service and glad we got to serve with you and and I'll say um that uh you you've been a model board member you've been a voice of reason you have a great sense of humor we'll miss you very much but not the complaining about driving over here I should leave the board all the [Laughter] time um Rob I want to thank you for always allowing me to kid with you about being the cranberry rap I'm so glad you have been our cranberry rap but again really your Insight your directness you you always like bring us back you know you bring us back to what we need to do I really wish you the best of luck on the cranberry Council and FYI you are my favorite cranberry rapper wow shots fire Rob I also want to say I valued our partnership um while I've served as uh acting in interim um especially because we share that cranberry connection uh one of Rob's superpowers for those of you that don't know is his ability to listen to all sides and ask thoughtful questions in order to consider multiple perspectives he possesses a faithful and steady presence as well as a delightfully dry sense of humor uh that he uses to bring us back together he's a true advocate for students and teaching and learning at PHS and now we wish him more rest and the best as he serves cranberry Town Council thank you everyone okay um I get to read the resolution for Brian um whereas Brian McDonald is leaving the Princeton Board of Education after fulfilling six years of service be it therefore resolved that the Board of Education recognize the contributions that Brian McDonald has made to our district and its St students and thank him for his time and effort especially for his work in the following areas um the number of years are we stated after each um chair or co-chair of the facilities committee one year finance committee one year operations committee four years long-term planning committee two years that's the chairs and he was member of the Personnel committee for three years policy committee for one Equity committee for three um finance committee for one facilities committee for one negotiations committee for one and long-term planning committee for one I'd say two there the last one okay so that's the resolution and then I'd just like to say um initiate the tributes by saying that I'm really grateful for Brian's six years of dedicated service to the community and our children as a leader on the board Brian brought strong Finance operational and governance experience and deep Community Connections in particular with Partners like sustainable Princeton and Princeton University his calm and steady Presence at the board table has helped with fiscal prudence and student- centered work with zerob based budgeting maintaining AAA credit ratings successfully passing and implementing three important referendums that provide students with safe well-maintained and welcoming schools Brian helped secure a generous five-year Financial commitment from Princeton University that supports Innovative and Equitable programs and supports most of all he has been an extraordinary colleague always ready to listen patiently offer a thoughtful perspective and positive encouragement making us a more strategic and effective in the work that we do for children so thank you Brian for your partnership on the journey these past six years we will miss you and look forward to Future partnership on behalf of our community thanks [Music] Brian so we also have paron gifts which I'll bring right over but I just wanted to say Brian it's been a privilege to get to know you you're a deep thinker with a great sense of humor um and while you're known for your financial Acumen your care and concern for students we educate is on par and we look forward to partnering with you when you're across the street i' like um it has been my pleasure to serve with Bri Brian on both operations and long-term planning for the last five years Brian has been committed to supporting the district in its effort in long-term budget planning sustainability and Facilities planning we joke that Brian has a unique ability to summarize an issue in a lengthy and detailed manner but but at the same time can in quick order cut to the cut to the issue of any topic we are discussing he always ask probing questions in order to to better our work and everything is Guided by his love of Princeton and making its future as successful as possible I look forward to seeing Brian's work on the council I look forward to continue our friendship and my husband looks forward to a rematch and paddle and Brian I I'll jump in and say we got to know each other because we ran um I mean against each other or we you know we ran for these seats twice together um you are as they've stated a budget guy you're a facilities guy but you are a student guy and I really appreciate the combination and I do look forward to what's possible when you bring this mindset of the Board of Education to the Town Council thanks for serving than you and Brian it's been a pleasure and I'm grateful for your service Brian um um is known for um serving on the operational side of the house with his strong financial background and expertise he also has really encouraged us to think and plan not just for shortterm but long-term for uh forecasts for our fisical health you've been an instrumental leader for past referendums long-term planning and the current referendum to ensure the safety and health of our students and making sure that our students have what they need to maximize their learning experiences and even though you focused mostly on infrastructure all your decisions are driven by your desire to figure out how to best serve our students um you are now going to be a good neighbor across the street and we look forward to collaborating with you thank you all right um can I get a motion for the tribute to the escaping board members I forgot to do that uh Mara second Elanor I know but I didn't do the motion firstent we don't have wait no BET's leaving me skip her on so I I get the uh all right everyone sit back she's been here a while so I get to read the tribute to exi uh exiting board member Betsy baglio so whereas Betsy is leaving the Board of Education after fulfilling nine years of service uh be resol that the Board of Education recognized the contributions that Betsy Bago has made to our district and its students thankful for her uh endless time and effort especially for her work in the following areas board vice president three years and she recently led the superintendent search her second one still under way she's been uh chair or co-chair of the following committees Equity three times policy twice student achievement seven years uh policy commit policy committee three years and then she was on student achievement two years and didn't share it those were Dark Times um the equity committee three years Finance committee they were yeah no they really were I thought you were checking on finance I was no no no no I know you were on finance but I'm saying when she was it was dark times Finance the one year she was never on facilities I just want to point that out somehow she escaped that oh sorry not Escape she did not she did not get Comm she didn't have the joy uh she was on uh the steering committee the negotiations committee the ad hoc Revenue committee and she were I don't even for years yeah personal years where is it I don't know but I it's the first thing on there Personnel committee 8 years right there anyway you see it here no I got off on the printer anyway um so I just I'll say uh so I've had the privilege to serve ready good I've had the privilege to serve on the board with Betsy for eight years um we always say that one of the great things about board service is you get to be friends with people um that you would never otherwise meet and I'll say all three of the departing board members um meet that um but especially Betsy um bets's the kind of person that never has um a bad word to say about anyone I unfortunately do not share that trait and lately I've broken my own role as well a a former teacher um Betsy um shared her experience and uh expertise with us Betsy doesn't love the spotlight no no no no I'm going to finish I was told there be tissues and and not and not the district and not the district issue Kleenex that's what I was promised okay um Betsy doesn't love the spotlight uh she's worked tirelessly to support the district and and the functioning of the board not yet okay it's been a gift to get to know her and I'll miss her advice and counsel she's been a true partner that's all I have to say need more [Applause] okay Betsy where do I start I've really enjoyed working with you these past eight years a few quotes that remind me of you full disclosure my son is in DLI and I'm a former teacher which is something that I really admire about you your lens of always looking at things through a teacher's I um has been very helpful to me in highlighting how our staff sees and experiences things and brings the classroom you know to life for me making me a better board member overall my sister once asked me if we should have more teachers as board members and I told her no they like to raise salaries when they they give away everything everything um and as they sang to each other and wicked who can say if I've been changed for the better but because I knew you I have been changed for good thank you can I give my my Betsy quote this has never happened before seven years of this has never happened before so I'm I don't know what I'll do in the future when new things happen they keep happening for me Betsy enhance and embodies our district mission of joy and purpose and learning it has been a privilege to work with Betsy who always keeps children at the center of everything we do and who always sees the best in everyone and leads by example I will miss her professionalism her lightening intellect her boundless kindness her willingness to jump in and get things done and her brilliant smile I know she will continue to find ways to make an impact for students and I hope she takes some time to rest for the next few [Music] months I'm I'm G to take D's lead I kept mine short so I could get through it um I've had the pleasure to serve with Betsy for the last five years um all that have served with her and she served with a lot of board members she was saying today can speak to her intelligence and her ability to ask the important what if question that to frame issues in a whole new way her constant focus on student wellness and outcomes and the joy and laughter she brings to her work have been an inspiration I'm grateful to have gotten to work with Betsy and I look forward to our continued friendship I I have to say something too um fcy with the heart and soul of a teacher she always puts students first in every decision she makes her open and curious Spirit establishes a safe place for all of us to think out loud and share ideas our bestie not only brings people together but also brings out the best in each of us so we are better versions of ourselves but she is a True Tiger Lily so never underestimate Betsy's Fierce and passionate commitment to make sure each and every student in PPS thrives and finds joy and purpose in learning Betsy we love you and are grateful well I'm GNA take a quick moment hang on I was doing so well student achievement I was I was not doing well so I'm going to do well here um I just want to say I have a whole thing written but we're we're short on time no no no it's fine I I just wanted to say my board service has been joyful and purposeful and and I appreciate that you know that is what we want for our students that's our mission and hang on um Board of Education Service is incredibly important to our public education system which is of the tenants of our democracy um okay I have lots of people I have a lot of people to thank and I'm going to send a lot of emails but all of you around this table I did count up early one morning that I've worked with 25 board members over nine years um too many administrators to count and I appreciate um what they've all brought and I just want to take a moment um my family's here as they were um hang on okay so n nine years ago those big boys were really little and they were sorry this is ridiculous they were in first and fifth grade across the street at Community Park they're now sophomores in high school and college and I I want to say to them it hasn't always been easy to have your mom in this role in some days actually it was really difficult but I appreciate you knowing it was important to do and I'm very proud of you and to my husband I thank you for the patience you've had a lot of patience over all the years so I'm grateful to all of you um and and it's just been it really has been a joy to to do this job okay thank you all um so I just want to say um part of the reason we do the celebration is this does take us away from our families you want to have the right people running overseeing the running of the school district three board members leaving tonight are three of those people I want to there's cake over there H and coffee and so when the meeting's over we invite everyone to come and have cake quickly can can my can my kids and then can CH hot coffee yeah no choking exactly one more one more thing all right so we always laugh that you know you guys will have all this time Tuesday nights blah blah blah so I made you oh wow um Schoolboard Bingo amazing this is you know what I just have to share some of the words are redistricting um Princeton University uh school calendar that's one of my very favorite um board committee this is really great thank you the three of us have a plan in January we're gonna uh meet instead of being at a board meeting at some point enjoy thank you all right and up next is the superintendent uh search update oh that's me sorry uh the superintendent back to work back to work superintendent search is ongoing we are in the confidential phase but we will continue to update the community there will be a new person sharing that search uh in January and Beyond and the search continues all right thank you all right and now moving on we're sorry to keep you waiting um and we we usually don't cry at meetings so I just want to let you know and if you watch some of our if you watch some of our meetings we're pretty unflappable but anyway um so right now we're going to invite up um Alexis kuster Shannon Barlo Cecilia Burge and our returning sence supervisor Jackie cats came so you have to come up and they're gonna give um a a presentation about the science of Sido hi um Everybody um I'm Jackie Catz if you don't know me I taught in District for quite some time and I was gone for a hot second but I'm back in January as science supervisor and I'm so excited to once again be part of the PPS science team who you're going to hear from today um the words joy and purpose just kept coming up and the work of Miss kuster and Miss farlo just illuminate joy and purpose so I will let them tell their sourd story but I want to thank everybody here for allowing me the opportunity to come back and and work in such an incredible environment hi I'm Alexis kuster and over here is Shannon Barlo and we actually have two students with us as well we have Shar and Angela who decided to come out to tonight's board meeting and they actually brought their cookbook that they've made so they can actually show it off you guys want to want to walk around and then we have a second cookbook as well that another student you guys one around as well so before you iiss sure you can walk around and show it before you guys eat cake there's some sourdough bread for you to sample um there's plain uh cranberry and orange and garlic and everything cranberry Rob did you try the cranberry I did not all right that was on the not only all right thank you make [Music] sour we had the for your last minut because I heard you've been missing it was a guy that was Bri [Music] I know yeah all right so um this is souro science so I teach biology and I've had the amazing pleasure of coupling with Miss Barlo this year so our inspiration came from the fact that we both enjoy baking sourdough bread and it was part of a PD that I had done with Dr um Joy Barnes Johnson over the summer that was making learning visible so I decided to couple my passion for Science and creativity I also teach forensic science so there's a lot of creativity there with sourdough bread baking and it is a science that you can do in your own kitchen um as I was going through and teaching myself this last spring I kind of realized that there's so much interconnectedness that's just happening in your kitchen the biotic and the a biotic and you could just make it all come alive within your homes so the phenomena that the kids explored and these are all pictures from our classroom um is the hold on the wild yeast and the bacteria that are on the flour just comes alive in the sourdough starter jar as soon as you start adding water and you put it into a warm environment so the students are able to visualize the microorganisms reproducing metabolizing the Nutri responding to the environment they're creating for their starter it's linking all the math skills critical thinking curiosity time management was a huge one that you know students learned throughout this whole process of coming back and forth and feeding it and taking care of it and so of course we needed to link in our portrait of a graduate scals so the three that stood out to us the most as we were going through and putting this project together was creative Innovation we're taking traditional biology and mixing it with the art of Science and baking quite literally and then it's creating curious Learners they're asking really great questions they have died their own experiments they DED their own bread yesterday and today so there's photos to come on that and then they have troubleshot a lot they've analyzed data um and they've been building arguments to make their own Sido Journey cookbox so we talk a lot about yeast in the science Community as being a model organism so their bread pets were basically their own model organisms they named them all sorts of things so the girls had named theirs crumbelina we had others named um yeess Bruce were a few of them um so they bread pets uh they cared from them since September they take care of them they feed them they now live in the refrigerator that was given to us by Miss Burge so was really great and the fermentation jars were provided through PF funds and they have been collecting data on their starters since September so we've learned about ratios we have measured pH we've analyzed Aroma we brought in all different things to smell store brought bread to fresh baked bread coffee beans lemon juice so we could go ahead and make a key to go with it and I think we really have a hold of the metric system now because we are really using a ruler efficiently and balances on a daily basis so this was the model that was created by our students a few years back Miss Katz and I went to a conference for a week long that was on modelbased biology so this is the model that has has been used in our classroom and we linked all the characteristics of life to the things that are happening inside the jar they did this after reviewing both primary and secondary literature um and as we've kept it up we keep linking it back to those characteristics life and it'll actually guide us through the rest of the school year so right now we're doing homeostasis and we'll come back in January and we'll do some experiments with that as well they just finished response to stimuli so here are some photos of the students working and a timeline of what we've done so far this school year so we've collected data Aroma pH we started to create our own starter their starters needed to travel back and forth to their homes which at times was challenging for the first two weeks but all in all we had a lot of success we ran a test bake with all of their starters in October we um I think it was on a previous slide we saw different feeding um types of food that the starter would like versus conventional yeast we used all different types of cereal and we put in a bag crushed it up to see how much the bag would rise as it ate um and then in November they designed their own experiments around response to stimuli and now they've been making their own cookbooks that we'll add to for the rest of the school year so this is just looking forward what we plan on doing January February um they'll design another experiment we're going to link it to macro molecules I have a cooking show idea kind of in mind and then uh DNA will be able to make philogenetic trees out of the different yeast that can be found in a starter and then in between the fun Parts have been making crumpets right before Thanksgiving we've also made waffles in October and then of course they all got to bake um yesterday and today so that's great yeah so I just wanted to give a special thanks to Dr Barnes Johnson she really worked with me on this idea over the course of the summer and then encouraged me to link up with Miss Barlo who has been amazing in so many aspects to coordinate this um uh Dr BJ also encouraged me to apply for the PF Grant and nsta which we got accepted to present that in Philadelphia in March um Miss bur yes the national one um Miss bur and Miss marata have continued to indulge this idea and help troubleshoot along the way and then PF granted us um $1,300 to buy a lot of supplies so there's a nice little um storage area in the back now thank you so much to all of you for allowing us to present and indulging our creat ity in the classrooms um lilii donated 100 pounds of flour um so did King Arthur also donated flour and then uh pomptonian which is our cafeteria staff Tracy Hart has been amazing to go ahead and work with and make the whole area accessible to us yep and then there's one last slide okay it's okay so I added these slides today so this was yesterday and today I don't think we sat down yesterday from 8:00 in the morning a lot of the students started in our room at 8 and then brought their dough home with them and shaped it after watching Instagram well they think I should be on Instagram but they were YouTube videos um but they were very excited for them and then those are the loaves of bread we baked and I don't think any loaves actually made it home most of the kids were walking around the high school eating them today so so thank you so much thank you so much uh we appreciate your coming and we always appreciate treats and the bread was unbelievable um oh yes yes please um oh thank you and and while you're passing Al bre I just want to give kudos to miss Barlo and miss kuster and the whole team because this is the Innovative work that makes Princeton Princeton and bringing those authentic learning experiences in so much if you know anything about the Next Generation science standard so much of that really deep work was represented in this phenomena that they're doing and so it seems like it's just a really great way to kind of just open up Innovation and have kids see something really cool and I had the cranberry orange and it was delicious so so kudos to the students and the staff for making that happen and I just wanted to say those of us that um indulged in sourdough bread making during the pandemic um I was one of those people um I also have lit my oven on fire so um it's not something that comes easy and uh so I I realize what's involved in getting a good sador bread and it's very impressive and it's a great skill for our kids to learn and to understand the science behind it is really great thank you and thank you for coming all righty uh we're moving on now to uh the superintendent report uh good evening everyone uh this is going to be a quick report but we just want to highlight um uh the uh link uh on our website to referendum uh information and details just so you know it's pretty easy to find uh there are lots uh lots of information uh uh uh FAQs uh and uh also opportunities to sign up for tours and we have um uh we we had a virtual forum which is actually has been uh is also linked there so if you did were not able to attend on December 9th you can um click the link uh and we have an in-person um Forum on January 11th uh at the middle school at 900 am so we just kind of want to highlight a couple things so go ahead Matt and I'll up you want to just scroll down and has the three questions the homepage projects School logos there's lots of data in in these links for people that want to exhaustively look at each details so I'm not going to click through them all now with the plans lots of information here great how's in growth sure FAQ section and if you don't see your question here there's an email where you can ask that question and we'll answer it too right yes we will we will so each one of these questions has uh the answer that's lot of it's like 25 questions maybe 30 funding and then voting information oh and the senior tax freeze and those are the seven six tabs thank you and questions should be directed to you Matt uh referendum questions or web page questions Christa has really worked Christa gallan has worked very hard on helping with our Consultants to you know fine-tune it's a fine line between having too much information having enough being able to find it um but we you know our community uh likes to have a lot of information so we feel that important to have although it's not the easiest necessarily it's uh Christ has worked hard to help streamline the information here so thank you and and questions uh uh on the referendum can go directly to me we also have um a link uh for anybody and we w we do answer the questions and actually um the frequently asked questions page is live so we are continually revising and updating as we get more questions so we are always happy um to talk about the referendum and always happy to answer questions um and again uh the vote is Tuesday January 28th um most uh community members should be receiving mailin ballots those who uh do mailin uh sometime this week uh and so we uh encourage you um to look at our website or reach out to us or attend a forum uh to learn more information thank you thank you and there's a link under the faq's uh for the email vote 2025 at Princeton k12.org thank you and we really appreciate all your work on it um nights weekends holidays we appreciate it we'll try to get the board not to bother you over Christmas wait till the 26th if you need anything okay all right now uh did you have anything else no great okay so we're moving on now to our student board members report um lovely well we uh that's loud isn't it it's kind of nice it's a lot of power um two times ago we spoke for like 30 minutes the last time we weren't here so this time we have the perfect in between we're going to keep it nice and short for y'all um but there were two things we wanted to talk about uh the one I was really interested in is this AI plan I know y'all have been working on I just kind of curious to ask where in your eyes we should be with it in the schools right now because I've seen a few teachers have kind of tested it out like we had a Thanksgiving activity where was like oh go tell School AI how you're going to hide the turkey and then but you know we're not it's not integrated into the classrooms yet and for assignments we don't yet have clear guidelines as to how much AI is allowed so I was just wondering where that should be I can help answer that um so the guidelines are done and so they should be shared in like syllabi and things like that so that's really good feedback for someone like me to work with our supervisors and I can follow up with them tomorrow saying after winter break let's make sure that we're all on the same page because um on the website which is now down we have an AI section and there is a like a scale from zero to five of like how much AI can be used where you can like use it for brainstorming versus using it for like a full draft and then getting revisions so kind of just saying to students hey we're doing this assignment on a three like you can use this for AI you canot use this for AI so that should be clear um for teachers we just got the platform up and running in early November and had PD about it so it's a little slow to start um so we're going to do another PD in January then offering a lot of different AI sessions of of how they can use School AI um and then we are also going to be piloting chat gbt Z which is an AI detection tool yeah yeah yeah yeah but kids can use it too to like improve their writing and their feedback loop so we had 38 staff members sign up for it at the high school so that will be coming in January as well we're going to be piloting that that's great um for the student would that be something that's shared with the students at large or would just be like on the website available was it like will that be something that's said in classrooms or is just something that found on the website the the scale yes it should be shared with students so that's something that when we can meet um with teachers again right after the break we can make sure at every department meeting that we're reiterating that and that that's the expectation I think some and and I don't mean this in a snide way I think some teachers are denial that AI is here right and then it's not being used so we want to be clear with our expectations for sure that's great and then uh in in general I think this is I guess more school specific but we've still kind of been talking about the idea of some sort of academic integrity Council that would work and I've been thinking a lot about like if you because because one way to look at it is you could kind of focus on enforcement and but the problem with that is if you have like students deciding the fates of other students that's not going to go well and as well I think that because it's become such a problem at our school if you start raining down zeros on everyone doing it it's going to be a very noticeable effect and so I'm trying to just keep thinking of ways that we can really ingrain the values more than um and of course like values correspond to practice but I think the more that we can get these values out and like you said make sure teachers are sharing them and like even even just on the bottom of a test having people sign their name and say yes like once again I'm going to this Honor Code I think that always makes a difference so I'm just gonna put that out there yeah yeah we love that um Miss Burge is your hi is your admin yes to speak with that I I you know the board supports that something we've been talking about for years is academic Integrity um and we know it needs to be improved yeah but miss bur is uh your contact I actually had a really great conversation with Miss bur yesterday about this um and one thing that I brought up that we might consider um as part of this council is um possibly having students and teachers working together on like specifying or making a more detailed outline of parts of the honor code that are a little more vague so like skipping on the day the test like how many skips results in like an honor code violation or like giving answers to friends like how you can enforce that or defining like exactly like like the scale like how much ai ai uses too much um so like possibly having students have a bigger involvement in that um could lead to um like just a general larger awareness of um just like having academic Integrity how do you think that's going to be received by the students um I'm hoping it will be positive eventually I think I think right now I think a lot of kids are very dismissive about it yeah because they've just seen like so so many of them are cheating that they're oh like new regulations like what does it matter because we've had regulations in the past and so new ones and so I think it is again about really putting those values into the students maybe it helps to focus on the people who are just coming into the high school who haven't been indoctrinated yet you know I think also um for academic Integrity like at least what I've noticed is that it's like I don't think anyone feels good about cheating I think it's I think it's not like an inherently positive thing to do so I think um really like making it a priority for teachers to like reach out and have that like communication and be able to say like okay if you need help like you have I have office hours you can come reach out to me like instead of um feeling like I think like we have a very um high standard of achievement at at Princeton High School and I think um maybe having like that understanding that instead of cheating there are other the other ways that you can um kind of help when you're feeling a little bit like stuck I think um that might be something that we can talk about yeah um and then our second thing um was so we mentioned in our last report um how students um might want to speak up a little more about um anything that they might find um important at school so um our last uh student council meeting we actually had Miss Burge um come to our meeting and we also had students um who felt who who wanted to I think student councils um meetings have always been open they just haven't been very like clearly broadcasted to the student body so we did start doing that um which we had our first student show up we had one yes we did we did have one person I think um so that was very very exciting for us um we thought it was a huge success um it's an ongoing process trying to get people who aren't in student counsel involved because this week we've had Spirit Week where each day you do something different the day was anything but a backpack day and it was just the student council walking around with like shopping carts and everything and everyone else back unfortunately so I think still we're looking for better ways to communicate to the student body at large because everyone's getting so much information because our schools system like so much great things are happening but it's difficult for students to keep track and stay involved in all of it yeah but even so like I think student council has some really great input about the bell schedule which is what we specifically focus on um like they appreciated the consistent the consistency and like the same weekly schedule and um they I I think we thought it was super important for science classes having that 90 minute block for labs um but they did mention that sometimes those walk days were not split up super efficiently in some in some classes and so they proposed adding like a little more of an outline or structured time to classes like English like breaking it down with worksheets reading um writing time that kind of thing thank you thank you thank you um you know we really um I just want to say I really reflect on things you say and I I'm just so pleased that you know just to hear how um how much you're leading especially when we talked about the cell phones and that you have a flip phone Nikolai like I'm your biggest fan just so you know and Maya how you put your your phone away um you're leaders and so theil the evil one I don't even I don't even know where you get like a flip phone but they're are they yeah but um we really appreciate you're sharing um you know your concerns with us and things that you want to do and I look forward to to seeing what you do for the rest of the year so thank you and you're welcome to stay for cake I know it's a busy time of year so and thank you for the time that you spend we really appreciate it all right all right now moving on to our public uh first public comment on agenda items non-agenda items um if you would like to speak to public comment just come up to the podium just state your name uh the street you live on and if you could please keep your comments to three minutes we'd appreciate it thank you than [Music] you okay I don't know is it on yeah it's on okay can you hear me yeah okay um so I'm Karen oconnell I live on hibbon road and I'm here tonight to ask the school board to take note of the town's continual passing of ordinances that create Pilots the payments in Le of taxes for new residential developments the next vote for an estimated $40 million payment reduction is scheduled to be voted on this Thursday unlike property taxes Pilots approved for developments do not have tax dollars earmarked for schools they generally last for decades on a reduced payment schedule on December 19th Princeton council is planning to adopt a pilot for the property at 108 Stockton if passed it will allow the payments to flow to the municipality if history Pats no payments will go to the schools this is a particularly ter terrible time for the town to be adop adopting Pilots our school system desperately needs investment and residents are currently being asked to pass an $89 million referendum in support having Council approved Pilots while schools are in need creates a mixed distressing message the developer will get a significant tax break and none of his reduced payments would by law go to funding the schools at the same time the developer is adding to the cost burdens of the school system taxpayers are left to pay higher taxes to make up the difference Pilots are intended to encourage new development in underserved communities No One Believes that Princeton meets that Criterion so approving Pilots here makes no sense for our town um I have eight reasons do you want me to go through them yeah sure go okay okay so there are eight reasons for the school board to ask Council to stop creating these payments in Li of taxes and to ask them to vote no next Thursday this Thursday um one loss of critical school funding a significant portion of property taxes goes to Public Schools a pilot agreement diverts those funds directly to the municipality this leads to number two increased financial burden on taxpayers with schools not receiving funds from pilots from the pilot agreement the shortfall has to be made up by homeowners and other property owners this creates an unfair financial burden on residents who already are paying high taxes uh three impact on educational quality reduce funding limits of schools District's ability to provide adequate resources technology and extracurricular programs it can also impact class sizes special education and after school opportunities directly affecting student outcomes four disproportionate impact on Children and Families a pilot agreement that neglects schools harms families and the children the most it prioritizes short-term Municipal gains over long-term development of the community future Workforce and citizens five strain on growing School enrollment new developments often attract new families to the area increasing student enrollment in in local schools a pilot agreement does not provide funding to support the growing number of students this can further create overcrowding and underresourced classrooms six lack of transparency and accountability pilot agreements can lack transparency making it difficult to assess whether the finan cial benefits to the municipality outweigh the cost to schools and taxpayers seven Equity concerns diverting funds away from public schools may disproportionately impact lower income families and underprivileged students in our community eight it's my last one undermining Community priorities a thriving school system benefits the entire Community home values are higher businesses attract employees and families are drawn to the area weakening schools through a lack of funding damages the long-term reputation and desirability of the community so Princeton Council seems to have an unending appetite for these Pilots while the municipality itself May benefit from the shortterm from a pilot agreement the long-term consequences on schools children and taxpayers can be significant please get involved before it's too late thank you Karen we appreciate it thank you [Music] thank de and I got the red sweater memo um I feel like a skunk at a garden party you're having such a lovely meeting and I want to take this opportunity to thank um our outgoing board members outgo exiting board members what did you say escaping escaping okay's your name and you live uh Joe Butler 18 hibbon Road not coming over Hib Ro need for the minut okay thank you I also am here to speak about the pilot agreement introduced by council with the developer of the Seminary properties Pilots were never intended for use in a town like Princeton and certainly not for Premier Pro properties they were conceived for and make a lot of sense for True urban areas with abandoned factories and warehouses in brownfields the law was meant to concentrate public investment in distressed Urban centers to assist in the rehabilitation of the older municipalities of the state the fact that Herring properties had to create an LLC called an urban renewal entity in order to qualify to receive the pilot tells you everything you need to know we have known for two years that the developer would be receiving a pilot we just didn't know how bad it would be we also didn't anticipate that we would that the announcement about the pilot would coincide with the district's referendum in the interest of transparency in addition to being an educational consultant I'm also the president of Princeton Coalition for responsible development pcrd is legally challenging the Redevelopment ordinance associated with this project we are also legally challenging the master plan as you recall public discussions were cut short in order to pass this urgently needed master plan as far as I can tell the only urgency was around Paving the way for this project I know the school board had concerns about the master plan and the master plan process but I understand why you might have decided to keep your powder dry but I don't know how you now go to the community to ask us to support A90 million $89 million referendum without taking a stand on the pilots the town is not going to quit using this mechanism if people don't stand up and call it out for what it is they claim that this property would not be developed if it were not for this giveaway does anyone really believe that it might not be developed exactly like they want it but that's not the standard where might else we see a pilot Westminster choir College the textile Research Institute they're not going to go away and why do I think you ought to take some stand either public Andor legal first and foremost it's an equity issue our schools are one of the most important reasons people want to live here and they are why Princeton is a good stable investment for developers how can a developer contribute nothing the school board has done a tremendous amount of work and a tremendous job on the referendum I applaud all that you've done and I support it but I fear the schools will need an ever increasing amount of money to operate partly due to increased enrollment and the public is going to get tapped out and angry people don't understand the details they only know that the schools will be taking an ever increasing share percentage of their taxes in part because the town is taking a windfall I think that by not speaking up now you are making it more difficult for yourselves in the future and more difficult for future school boards they aren't going to quit when is enough enough Pilots are hard to explain especially hard when you're up against a disinformation campaign think about how hard it will be the next time a pilot's introduced and then layer on top of that an explanation about why you didn't say something for the three or four previous Pilots people on Council keep dropping hints that there will will be or that there is money here for the schools setting aside that this is a terrible way to govern to have the schools beholden to the town for a handout it also seems that it isn't true you have nothing to lose and a lot to gain by pushing back someone has to stand up for the residents thank you thank you Joe is there anyone else for a public comment all right so I have an email to read they sent it to the wrong let's see if I can get through it so it's from Jessica viea and it's to Betsy and Brian Betsy and Brian I was trying to make it to the meeting tonight but parental duties prevented my attendance please know that I am internally grateful for your work and diligence during your tenure on the board of education um and there's bolded areas I'll try to emphasize Public Service roles such as your such as yours require unrequited dedication the long hours and often empty meetings can be depressing on the flip side controversial issues and challenging personalities tested your patients regardless your constant focus on the prize the objective of making our school system a better place for our kids has made a huge difference in our community I'm not sure what I would do without Betsy's emails which often would remind me that we had an upcoming PTO meeting perhaps instead she will text Sue and me to grab a coffee Brian I hope you're ready to make some some real changes in town in your next role as a somewhat active member of our community at large I hope you are all ears and then this is in bold capitalize listen and and then it's lowercase Capital uh lowercase bold thoughtfully consider the opinions of your constituents I'm sure you will your track record in this Boe role has demonstrated unbiased professionalism let us all remember and then it's bold cap keep the kids as our top priority and then regular case and we will will be all right thanks again from all of us Jessica VI stock Street thanks Jessica all right we're moving on J1 harassment invation bullying and then uh K1 board committee highlights and we're going to start let's go first Brian where don't you go first sure the operations committee met on December 4th um from 8 to 9:30 we had a great meeting and as usual uh Matt and Janine took lengthy notes which I will try to Briefly summarize um on the uh agenda tonight or no not on the agenda tonight but as part of the 2022 referendum uh we are awarding a bid of 500 77,000 it is on the agenda um this is important to get the heating and cooling systems to work in harmony at um Princeton middle school and by moving forward with this we'll also save energy costs and be more sustainable um the highlight of the 2023 referendum i' call to's attention is the PHS cafeteria project and if you haven't had a chance to spend some time there please make that time it really worked out wonderfully and we're grateful to um our architect and to the contractor for delivering that um uh one thing that is not completed um is the PHS security vestibule project the vestibules are in place um we have had a supply chain problem with the glass so the glass that needs to be installed in the doors will not be received until February and it was not possible to change vendors so I just call that to everybody's attention as one thing that um we're still waiting on um also on uh the agenda for tonight is approval of Bus video cameras um this is an important um step forward with respect to our focus on uh security um uh most importantly we got an update on the budgets for the 22 and 23 referenda um we are on or below budget for both of them and are grateful to uh Matt and to Dave and our profess profs for such hard work we heard an update on playground projects which are moving forward and we talked a lot about sustainability and rather than tell you everything about sustainability I just want to remind everyone that that's a regular topic um that we have on our agenda and it is in part due to Stephanie ch's advocacy uh many years ago and we have a great partnership with sustainable Princeton and there's a lot um going on and I'll ask Janine to send out the notes um so that you can see those and we even got to talk more about solar projects for the roofs which will be coming I don't know how soon but they are definitely coming you know to to our district um and I uh oh the most exciting part in close session I'm sorry I almost forgot this um Matt reviewed the draft copy of the June 30th 2024 un audited C1 form with the committee and that was uh that was really special time riveting so that concludes my final uh operations Comm you said it was gonna be brief everyone always makes fun of accountants I don't know why um so we're gonna switch it around so next up is Betsy Betsy's always last so now well it's usually alphabetical order right I know um student achievement um and first of all it's been a great pleasure and a joy to run student achievement for many years that is the heart of I mean all the Committees are very special and important but it is the heart it is the heart of what we do sorry so we met on Friday the 13th um in person we had a wonderful iners meeting at 11: a. um we reviewed uh John McMichael came from the high school with Cecilia Burge uh to review the the of studies for 2526 it's hard to believe we're talking about 2025 2026 um and that will be published for students soon uh Micky Mickey chrisly attended student achievement to give us an a programming update regarding outcomes from the special education review and we wish Mickey all the very best in her retirement I know that's upcoming but uh we appreciate her partnership uh Kim to shared with us plans for the December 23rd early dismissal day I'm talking about the school calendar which will come up on my on my bingo boor um and it is a 4our day it is a Monday we want we want everyone in school because we have some wonderful things planned not we our schools have wonderful things planned for them and um we thank our our teachers and our staff for preparing can I just say if you want to acknowledge and um respect Betsy service please send your kids to school on Monday wow that includes Charlie Bago who may be listening at home um and then finally uh we Priscilla Russell attended and we have an Italy field trip for the Italian students for next November that's on our agenda this evening and we Jing to close session I just want to thank my committee this year Eleanor Debbie Susan and daphna it was a wonderful year and it's a wonderful committee so check it out in the new year thank you uh next up let's do personnel the sorry the Personnel committee met on December 5th we discussed 10e and non- tenear reviews at all six schools and many other Personnel items and Mar and I would like to thank our committee daphna Betsy and Brian and our substitute Susan and we will miss both Betsy and Brian and their input to the Personnel committee for these past several years so thank you thank you policy Beth uh I would like to thank the policy committee we did not have a meeting this month so I have nothing report but I want to thank my committee members it's uh um Adam and Elanor and Susan and myself and who else oh and Betsy thank you Betsy L I forget Betsy oh right and then you have a long-term planning report and I have a long-term planning report so so you want to wrap that up and then yeah so thank you policy and no report and long-term planning we met today we're continuing to talk about educating voters on the January 28th referendum which is a result of years of planning as we all know um and we want to um ensure that people understand where they can get information which we talked about this evening and the projects um remind people that the projects utilize nearly $20 million in state funding to solve the capacity challenges of community growth and also replace end of life hbac at PHS which will save us approximately $200,000 a year in the operating budget um and we encourage the public to inform themselves and review the district website and to attend the January 11th 9:00 am inperson Forum at the PMS Auditorium um that's the next inperson event but we have things going on all through the next weeks thank you and thanks to that committee that would be Brian Susan Mara Debbie myself and our guest uh appearances by daphna Betsy and Elanor so thank you everyone just about everyone about everyone yep except cranberry um those deserve it all right moving on uh L1 policies for a second reading then moving on to Personnel M1 retirement uh I just want to say uh Teresa cross has submitted her retirement it's effective July 1 2026 she's a planner um app we appreciate um she will have completed in a year and a half 29 years in the district um uh Teresa is one of those uh consumate uh Educators where my both my children uh were at Littlebrook where she's the educational media specialist uh we wish you all the best Teresa we'll have a long time to say goodbye which love to do all right moving on M2 resignations M3 appointments M4 transfer reassignment M5 Personnel items M6 leave of leave of absence M7 Stu substitute student placement M8 curriculum instruction M9 student services then we're moving on to N1 the PHS uh program of studies um and this should be on the website right at some point once it's approved once it's approved uh it's great reading I think it's like 128 Pages um but it just showcases all of the offerings at Princeton High School which are very impressive and two is student overnight trips moving on to 01 special education agreement 02 educational placement of pupils 2425 and 03 educational placement of pupil at princial Public School 2425 moving on to the business P1 financial report P2 fire evacuation drill P3 registration travel agenda P4 settlement agreement P5 formal bid award perimeter heating controls at PMS that Mr McDonald was very excitedly reporting about uh P6 sprinkler inst sprinkler installation contract award Cooperative purchasing and then we have uh p7 which is the Bus video camera award that Mr McDonald mentioned and now we're moving on to our second public comment is there anyone who would like to speak no one all right um so now um we're going to move on to the R1 approv the consent agenda can I get a motion Susan second Beth dine Kendall yes Betsy Bagel yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman yes Debbie bronfeld yes Mara franceski yes Elanor Hubbert yes Susan caner yes Brian McDonald yes Rob Christopher yes consent agenda passes all right thank you Betsy before I close it up sure closing comments of the board I have one really quick comment I I forgot to thank the superintendent search committee by name Rob Mara Elanor and DNA um you put in a great amount of ours and it's a tribute well it's a service to the community and to the board and I was really appreciative to work with all of you um and also in my comments I just really wanted to say to the staff who work with our students we appreciate you and I appreciate you and I've appreciated doing this work for nine years knowing you're there with the students so I appreciate that what do you appreciate about them their care I'm sorry I have to be specific yes no because I I need bety to cry more than I do no no no what do you care they take great care of our students at every at every role in our district and and we know that you are the heart of what we do and we appreciate that thank you um and again congratulations very best wishes to Rob Brian and Betsy we will miss you um please don't come here and like go us in the audience like we know um but we'll miss you well I'm sure we'll seek your guidance um I just wanted to say before we adjourn I wanted to wish um this is the darkest literally the darkest time of the year and as you celebrate your festivals of light whether it's Hanukkah K Quanza Christmas and uh dwali was just celebrated we wish you a very peaceful and joyous Break um and thank you for entrusting us with educating your children and with that can I get a motion to adjourn Clos session oh we're going into closed session but after cake right okay can I get a motion motion yeah can I get a motion to go have resol second Susan resolved that the Board of Education approved close the close session resolution whereas njsa 10412 allows for a public body to go into close session during public meeting and whereas the Board of Education the public prin princ public schools has deemed it necessary to go into close session to dis discuss certain matters which are exemptive from the public and whereas ad minutes to the close session will be released when the need for confidentiality in accordance with njsa 10412 no longer applies and uh the Board of Education of the principal Public Schools will go on to close session after cake um and we'll adjourn from there uh yeah for the following reasons to discuss Personnel matters uh there will be no action taken none and I apologize that you felt you had to speedread through that um no it's all good okay all right I want to be the guy who reads the legal ads on TV the legal disclaimers oh yeah very good very good you have a good voice all right and so do we need to vote on that or what are we doing here no no no that's just part that's it we're going to close session that's it we're done thank you thank you