e pm that's right right for so it was great that it right it really was come okay oh do that happen already okay okay now no for the something 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 Personnel matters for the Princeton public schools on behalf of all Resident stud we're always pleased when members of the Public Public attend our meetings the board and 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 for public participation law limits 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 [Music] attending as required under the open public meeting act njsa 1046 at sequena adequate notice was given for calling this meeting it was authorized by the Board of Education and forwarded to the municipal clerk Princeton packet and the Trenton Times on January 6 2024 it was distributed to the schools and others on the standard distribution list the board reserves the right to enter into executive session during all meetings of the Board of Education board policy 168 recording devices requires that we inform those attending this inperson meeting that the proceedings are being recorded this meeting is being live streamed the representative of the sending district is authorized to vote on such matters that affect semic District students or affect the governance of the princial 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 abstentions in the event uh the statute is amended the law shall take presidence over this bylaw thank you Mr Balden would you please call the RO sure dapon Kendall here Betsy Bago here Beth Baron here Adam Beerman Debbie bronfeld here Mar franceski here Ellen Elanor hubard here Susan caner here Brian McDonald presid Rob Christopher here we have a quorum thank you Mr Balden okay um so we're going to go to um item D1 adoption of the minutes for January 2nd 2024 can I get a motion Brian second Beth D the kandle yes Betsy bagale yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman yes debie bronfeld yes freski yes Elanor Hubbert yes Susan caner yes Brian McDonald yes Rob Christopher yes motion passes thank you Mr Balden uh welcome everyone to our meeting uh tonight um uh before we get started I would just like to take a brief moment of silence um uh big suppor of our schools um and the former CEO of the Princeton Area Community Foundation um passed away yesterday uh at a very young age and I would just like to take a moment of silence he he was a big supporter of our school and and he'll be missed thank you um so one of the things that we love to do here at the board is we'd like to keep the focus on kids that's why we're all here um so tonight um I'm pleased to introduce uh the Middle School principal Jason Burr and um his teacher Kelly one of teachers Kelly Riley who will be uh presenting on seventh grade entrepreneurship good evening everyone so first I love the way you just introduced that Miss Kendall you know keeping the focus on kids um it's it's the most important part of the work that we do uh at Princeton Middle School um I'm very lucky to have so many Fantastic teachers so when I get a chance to come up here and thank them for their hard work with our kids I love to do that tonight especially I bring somebody up with me Miss Kelly Riley who I've known for 14 years and just does outstanding work with kids which I think we're really happy to share uh with you tonight so without any further delay I'd like to introduce Miss Riley who I'm indebted to for all of her hard work hi let's see if I can read my uh thing here uh so I've been at the middle school for 20 years uh teaching technology and as you can imagine it's evolved uh so we are now in our entrepreneurship days uh so I brought along uh three talented seventh graders who took this project above and beyond but highlight really the focus of what all the other children have been doing as well um just a quick overview before I turn it over to the spectacular group um the course focuses on standard nine which is career Readiness in life literacies as well as standard eight and design thinking students spend the first two months learning the basics of being an entrepreneur and experience lessons on character traits and skills I learn simple marketing Finance through profit equations basic design and the power of creating a brand students are then grouped based on a variety of skills and interest and tasked with creating a small business they spend several weeks self-paced to prepare for the launch of their business in the main Commons ultimately students sell products before and after school they keep track of the profits they build a website and select a charity to donate their earnings to they write a formal letter at the end to the nonprofit with a check enclosed and share a professional website with their class highlighting their experience next semester I'm also happy to share that we will collaborate with Miss Don serve classes and her students will continue the research and PR um and present the recommendations in addition to creating PSAs uh to our students to continue the collaboration this past winter our students earned profits of $4,300 yeah and they'll do that twice a year 20 organizations have been gifted with their earnings some of those are share my meals Princeton food pantry St Jude's American Cancer Society and Homefront yeah and as I turn it over I will say coming in early and staying late for students with a ton of work to do nobody forces them they can just do this keep it in school but they go above and beyond and what tends to happen is they don't want to stop once they sell out they get a rush from the experience and these groups here got that rush and wait till you here with her amazing work so I'm GNA first introduce Ray and Raj [Applause] uh I'm Ray Amada and I'm renum and we are two students from seventh grade technology entrepreneurship class uh in this class we were tasked to make a business and sell the products we made in the beginning of the uh beginning of uh October we also chose which organization to donate after we made money by selling our products to our school for our group we made an ornament business called peaceful crafts and ornaments and we decided to donate to save a nonprofit organization that's supports homeless pets we made ornaments out of 3D print and origami I sold items in neighborhood early to test out if the products could s out and made around $300 we sold for the weekend school both in and after school for our business we sold around $400 worth of items in school which we made around $700 in the whole project over the course of this week we learned many skills like working productively in a group problem solving showing creativity more life skills that are very important so we have some products that we made um so for origami uh products this is one of our ornaments um a bird chain um and this is uh one of the uh products as well a flower um for 3D printed objects one of our best selling objects is the co Snowman and the other is the Christmas tree and now we are handing over the microphone to uh Phoebe Kahan to talk about her project should I start okay hi I'm Phoebe Callahan and I a seventh grade entrepreneurship student at Princeton Middle School my partner and I created a brownie business that supports the Trevor Project an organization that supports lgbtq plus lives in class we learned a variety of lessons to build our Business and Entrepreneurship skills some of the things I learned included communication skills time management skills negotiation skills and of course marketing skills in total we earned profits of 1,165 for [Applause] both for both our in school and out of school selling our product was homemade brownies and I was the website designer and Chief Financial Officer I I also baked Nutella the Nutella and Sam More's brownies which were our two most popular products my partner Lyla was the product developer and chief marketing officer and she also helped with the website among other things my favorite part of the class was overcoming my fear of talking with customers and realizing my strength to earn a profit and help others I I really enjoyed making customers happy because of something I was able to Pro to provide for them thank you to miss Riley for giving us this amazing experience and [Applause] and of course I need to thank my partner Lyla because I never could have done it without her so Phoebe no samples for the board no next time next time and I know um thank you so much uh for joining us tonight and sharing everything you're doing and you know when you're on Shark Tank please wear uh princ and public schools gear thank you yep go ahead hi I just want to thank you so much for being here our our favorite thing as board members is when we get to hear from our students so we really really appreciate it and we appreciate your staff your your principal and your teacher being here as well can I ask the three of you a question or one of you could answer you effectively started a business what's something that surprised you about the process that you couldn't have come right up to the microphone if if you if you if something surprised you I mean basically how much we made in total surprised us go ahead did you have something too um how popular it was because I thought nobody was gonna buy from us and just walked past and not say anything but it turned out our business was really popular both of our businesses that's wonderful and the amount we had to remake and make more products okay you you all had success well thanks so much for contributing to our community as well thank you so much all right thank you for joining us tonight and thank you to Mr Burr Miss Riley now go home so you can get up early tomorrow all right now we are moving on to the superintendent report yes and and thank you students Miss Riley and Mr Burr for giving voice to students and encouraging them to really stretch themselves and challenge themselves to create um that's wonderful so um among other things um every year the New Jersey school boards Association identifies January as school board recognition month uh so I want to take the time uh to express our deep gratitude for all of our board members for their service to our students and to the Princeton Community uh Authority remember is only granted to the board as a whole yet each one of our board members contributes and offers a unique perspective now fun fact according to a survey conducted by the national school boards Association board members spend between 11 and 50 hours a month on board related duties Princeton board members are actively engaged on a variety of committees including policy student achievement oper operations Personnel long-term planning equity and negotiations based on experience I can tell you that each of our board members devote count countless hours of volunteer service every week much of this time is dedicated to reading policies reviewing curriculum evaluating various documents related to budget facilities transportation and Personnel each of the 10 members whom you elected offer a wealth of expertise and experience from the professional Arena and many members have or have had children in our schools now did you know that a few of our board members are lifelong Educators others served for many years in the field of Finance we also have two attorneys because you can't have just one and an author because each member brings unique insight and personal perspective the whole board engages in robust and healthy debate while wrestling with very complex issues weighing consequences and making thoughtful decisions for the district as one who has been part of difficult deliberations I can say with complete confidence that each of our board members is committed to putting our students first it's an honor and privilege to work with each of you thank you DNA betssy Debbie Susan Beth Brian Mara Rob and our newest members elanar and Adam thank you for your willingness to spend countless volunteer hours to serve the approximate 3,800 students of Princeton thank you for bringing your passion intellect insight and resources to the table thank you for listening as well as speaking for raising questions wondering and challenging your fellow board members and me this important back and forth enables us to make strong and well-reasoned decisions for the sake of our children and the Princeton School Community we appreciate your abiding service your loyalty your leadership and your guidance thank you for always putting our kids first thank you Kathy that was very nice uh and now it's my pleasure to introduce Dr Kim to who's going to talk about a portrait of a graduate okay oh that's my daughter sorry everyone that's not the presentation tonight um good evening everyone I just want to uh Echo Kathy sedman thank you to the board for all the service that you do my husband always contemplates uh going for a board seat in our hometown and I'm going you really know what you're getting into I can share um so tonight I it was such a pleasure to hear from Raj Phoebe and Ray about their entrepreneurship class because it truly embodies our Princeton as a portrait of a graduate skills so uh we have our Focus forward uh forward Focus I'm sorry I always do that backwards strategic plan that takes us into 2028 we have our stateof a district event on Monday night please come out that will highlight all the different aspects of how we're fulfilling the Strategic plan for the next few years and a key aspect of it includes our PPS portrait of a graduate skills so what are they um so here you see that as a collective community and part of the Strategic plan process we have identified in Princeton six skills that we really value here they include critical thinker informed and involved Global citizen curious learner health and wellness Advocate collaborative communicator and creative innovator but this isn't something that we just didn't want to you know talk about and then say Oh we really value these things and kind of put them in a drawer what we started doing uh over the past summer with a committee of Educators and administrators across our district is to really find well what does it look like to be a curious Learner in prek in kindergarten versus fifth grade versus 8th grade versus 12th grade right because it looks very different um so we kind of split out these different skills and we created progressions for them so under each indicator or each skill are indicators that say listens actively to understand different points of view for example we collaborative and communicative uh student we create it rationel to say why do we feel that this is important for our PP as students to embody we talked about as leaders and as Educators how are we giving kids opportunities to have these skills in the classroom to practice them to receive feedback upon them and then we did the by the end of grade three by the end of grade five by the gr end of grade eight and by the end of grade 12 what it should look like so we're going to be rolling these out to staff we were supposed to do that on our February 16th professional development day that got delayed because of our snow it will be now happening in April and they will be diving into what does it look like in a middle school you know literacy class digital literacy class what does it look like in a third grade classroom does it look like in AP Physics how are we intentionally teaching these skills because obviously the content is important I'm the curriculum person standards are very important but ultimately isn't that what we want to see our kids be able to do today that Ingenuity that Innovation that communication right that they'll take them places out in the real world so how are we then providing intentional instruction and feedback on those skills throughout our prek through 12 experience and so we're going to be starting to launch a plan with our Educators to do just that so we did things in different buckets we created those Continuum across the grade levels we also as part of our committee have developed instructional resources for our staff so that they can say hey this is a great resource for elementary about how to give kids feedback on communication or how to challenge them to have a growth mindset um we are in the process of cultivating to each skill and sub indicator as well as rubrics and self assessment tools I really enjoyed that Betsy asked the students well what did you learn because ultimately that is what we want kids to do we want them to reflect on their learning that is the learning um and so that they can self assess and say you know I I think I wasn't taking enough risks often we see kids so anxious nowadays because they want to get the 100 all the time everything is black and white but how can we kind of push their thinking and challenge them to take risks and we do that so well I'm looking at one of our elementary Educators in the classroom one of our steam teachers she really does a phenomenal job of pushing kids in their thinking and doing Project based learning and problem based learning right but that needs to happen across all grade levels and across all content areas one of the other buckets that you're going to hear a lot about is that we want a visual representation of these skills in all of our classrooms to remind our students that no matter what the learning objective of the day is or whatever content you're learning that these six skills are what we want them to embody as upon graduation and so what we're going to do is have a Student Art Contest because once again students first we want the students representation of these six skills so on March 1st during Elementary morning meetings during Pauls at the middle school and during extended Home Room at the high school we are going to be rolling out this portrait of a graduate art contest for students our pto's have graciously said that they would each donate a $25 gift card because we're going to have a winner per building there are six schools and there are six skills and then we're GNA have them come to a board meeting um and present their image they can make it digitally they can draw it it can be sort of an icon of what they think think you know an innovator looks like what they think a communicator looks like and it's all going to come together in a puzzle piece this is designed by Mr pemon from the high school one of our art teachers and in the center there's going to kind of be a PPS logo with a graduation cap in there then we're going to uh create posters of this image and have it across the entire District in every instructional space and every office because if this is what we value we're giving it real estate we want to show that this is what we care about so that students see oh wow there is a connection between Math and Science and English and history and art and music and so forth and so on that we're all trying to funnel up to these greater Umbrellas of skills and then we're going to be tying this yearly to our strategic plan so we're going to this year identify the skills and kind of work with teachers say how do we always how do we already do this how do we intentionally do this and how do we give feedback upon uh with kids on these skills then uh next year we're going to have in uh what teachers have what's called a professional develop vment plan a PDP they're going to pick one of the six skills to focus on uh in their classroom and in their department and they're going to have with their administrator work through well you know Kim you chose communic communicative collaborator how are you doing that in your social studies class how are you giving kids feedback on how well they work in groups or how well they speak in presentations what rubrics are you using how what resources are you using and then kind of collectively seeing the data that we're giving kids feedback upon then NE the year after we're going to continue with the PDP goal and providing targeted feedback to students with one of the six skills then the year after that we're going to do a student growth objective so that's teachers have to through the State Design assessments measuring skills and content that we value so that they would pick one of the skills to get you know design a rubric around and show growth in that skill over the course of the year that students have mastered a lot of our teachers already do this it just might not be one of these explicit six skills and then finally we're going to continue to look at the data and show comparatively from you know this year to 2728 all the different wonderful things that our students have been exposed to and get feedback from students and surveys about how they feel the explicit instruction has worked you know on their own growth and student learning and technically we also could talk about like authentic Project based learning experiences that they demonstrate to an audience from the community some of the different skills that they've honed over the past five years um so there's been a lot of you know work done there's still a lot of work to do um but stay tuned to our public that we will be sending out information of the first week of March to encourage your student to participate in our art contest we want representation from every age group and from every building kids can pick one skill to submit they can pick six skills to submit um but we really want a a really robust representation from across our community and then you know they get a nice little gift they'll have their art sort of memorialized throughout our district and they get to come to a lovely board meeting right um so and be honored uh subsequently um and I just would be remiss if I didn't say thank you um to our committee this is a phenomenal team of Educators and one of the things that uh kept coming up as we were having conversations throughout the summer and this school year is they're like we wish we did this more we wish we got to talk to staff from other buildings and other grade levels and other content areas and so it really help unite folks in a common vision and a goal and um once again we all have different but we're all moving in the same direction and part of our strategic plan which I know Dr Foster is going to do some updates about the specific goals of that plan is the portrait of The Graduate skills portion so thank you for your time and attention we're really excited about this work and you know much more to [Applause] come thank you Dr to um Dr Foster did you have anything else uh no that's for me I think I'm doing Hib in a minute right something under oh yeah we have yeah so right right now we're going to go to the student board members report uh with our student reps Oliver and Alex oh press it okay cool um so want to connect oh no we don't have a computer our it looks like you want to connect um happy New Year Alex and I are as always are excited to be here um we wanted to start our conversation uh with this new board both by running through some quick updates on our side of things and also sharing a student centered perspective on some recent going on at PHS yeah so let's start with um PHS news right before break pron high school held its Winter concert uh at the University Chapel that's the choir specifically uh showcasing the talents of you know hundreds of artists in our school that includes the choir that includes the orchestra that includes you know lots of Student Art groups uh and the Performing Arts as a whole and it was really amazing there were hundreds of people who showed up including dozens of PHS alumni and the concert served as a great reminder of the power of field trips wink wink longtime followers of the Alex Oliver leaz on ship but also uh the power of phs's elective courses to tie the school together which we think is really cool uh for seniors unfortunately the holidays also come with a more bag College's decisions and applications although the college process is stressful and nerve-wracking we wanted to thank our school guidance counselors teachers and Miss Shaw the college and careers counselor for their help throughout the process [Applause] yeah uh other notable happenings at PHS this month include of course the flurry no pun intended of snow days uh which left a lot of kids feeling refreshed coming into the end of the second marking period uh in the high school specifically it was by no means a given that the district would opt to call off school Al together during these two days rather than you know kind of drag us into online classrooms and Oliver and I uh think that the decision to give kids a chance to catch up on sleep and play in the snow and do all of those restorative activities was a really good one uh and we're super thankful for that um moving on to more leaz on specific news Alex and I have currently been meeting with administrators to work on improving field trick access and Equity currently we're working on updating the field trip canvas Page open to students and teachers alike to help them better navigate the field trip process yeah we took a brief break as the board reshuffled but we're back now and we're super excited to work with you all uh and you all so thank you so much for your time thank you so much and I just want to add that Dr Foster is wonderful but she hasn't found out a way to make it snow I talented entertaining and for informative Duo I think you can make anything thank you so much I appreciate it okay thank you um up next is our um first uh public comment session um I have a list of people who signed up so we'll go there first uh but this is your time to talk to us about anything uh you have three minutes um pleas yeah that's oh right it's been over a month um please just let me know your name and the street that you live on please and the the street you live on in the town thank you and up first is Thomas perk right there yep thank [Music] you thank you board uh good afternoon my name is Thomas Park I live in Chestnut Street I have three children in Princeton schools uh we just recently moved uh from New York City to here uh we my husband and I have moved to Princeton for a quieter life Mor in the suburbs and we're very pleased with the board the board's responsiveness and the academic standards of the school particularly Princeton Middle School uh I joke that it's like an Annex of princet University how plumy it is uh what has been troubling me as a same-sex parent of three children is the unrelenting intimidation of children um and by some members of the audience who are here who continue to intimidate the most vulnerable in our community uh most vulnerable children and also targeting groups that have been have received death threats in the past have reported death threats and intimidation uh they uh are claiming to be that they're they're anti-woke but they are choosing to intimidate children middle-aged men who are intimidating children children who are the most vulnerable in the community I don't care about your attitude I don't care about your opinions about this organization don't talk to children don't intimidate children don't speak to children go away from children we don't do that to your children you don't even have a child in Princeton middle school but you choose to intimidate children and you address them you talk to them it's unacceptable if you don't like this school school district or School Board Mr Park y I'm sorry Thomas I don't know what your pronounce are if they don't like it um they can please direct your comments to us thank you they can move to a school district in Tennessee or Texas that's more favorable to their opinions or they can send their children in private school um do not talk to children do not talk to my children do not talk and intimidate any children because that's what you're doing you think you're being Noble and righteous and self-important but all you're doing is intimidating the weakest in the community including groups of people who have received death threats and have been targeted and if you don't understand that I can't explain it to you all I'm here to say is don't forget my face because I don't accept it and it's it's unacceptable and we want allow it thank you all right thank you so much okay um we have Ray yada up next oh Ray okay uh Chris [Music] pots yeah thank you uh Chris pots um po Road my children are at Littlebrook I'm here to express uh support for the parents letter that was submitted on behalf of little book Littlebrook families uh regarding the facilities at Littlebrook and the expansion plans for the elementaries in the district I support everything that the letter says um and I know that it's always difficult to project enrollment but I want to just draw a attention to a couple of things and want to ensure that this board is working in concert with the city of Princeton in its zoning decisions which I understand are totally out of your control and the City of Princeton's tax decisions which take dollars away from this board uh when it come comes to Zoning for uh mixed use apartments in uh almost exclusively in the Little Brook District which we fully support um however needs to be reflected in this board's plans for the for the elementaries and with the construction plan that was just announced I fear that you are not adequately addressing even today's needs but let alone 2028 needs when the construction is done of new enrollments in the district um currently with the plans that you've put forward it will still be either third or maybe fourth uh in terms of square foot per student my children one of my children has IEP and currently does small group uh instruction very critical to children who have IEPs in in the hallways and wherever they can find it and the plan that you've put forward has small group rooms which is great but taking away square footage from kindergarten rooms and they're windowless and you're sending children who need desperate attention in IEP often have learning disabilities and ADHD and sending them to list solitary confinement rooms this plan while you know addresses some of the issues misses on many and another big issue that we want to make sure is highlighted is the plumbing concerns no Littlebrook as well as many of the buildings had lead um in the 20122 report and I don't doesn't seem like it's being addressed in the construction plan uh and and should be uh the the realistic modernization of the building as well not just adding square footage but addressing the facilities as core is critical to the safety and success of all of our students so um I'll give back all my time but want to just support that Littlebrook seems to be the small school that that is being left out we have fantastic faculty Mr RZ is a shining star of this district and we need to give them the facilities to actually teach our children thank [Applause] you so we are going to read the letter that was sent to us but we'll read it after we uh go through the list of public comment here um so uh Rob wal waler is up next thanks um Rob waler of Mount Lucas Road I have uh two children at Littlebrook um so Chris I want to just second he said he took half three quarters of the words that I was about to say so that's awesome um couple things though I just want to add to that so um our gym space uh it's not going to be quite as big as you know say CP who is supposed to in the future plan have that same uh student count and so already we're on the small side there and then on top of that we're going to add a divider to split it in half um I'm not sure how many of you have gotten a chance to be in the Little Brook gym but just imagining cutting that in half um when I walked in there the other day I was like wow that's that's a really small gym that our children are going to be having to you know have their uh gym class in um on the same note of play space for our kids so outside nothing we're actually removing some of the outside structures under or the play structures under the new plan which in of itself is concerning but it also does nothing to address the black top space we have which is necessary because of our flooding issues um we all also have many days the day after a day when it rains as well as maybe a day after that where our kids can't go on the grass so they have to only go on the black top which means some of the grades on a given day can't go out for recess because there's just not physically enough room so that's a big concern that we need to figure out as well um I also am wondering you know about what we are doing in the next three years so before this is done you know we have no music room no Spanish Health computer science no room for any of these things um there's kids who were taking the uh njsla makeups in the lobbies and in the hallways um my wife had a parent teacher conference in the lobby of the school simply because there was nowhere else for them to go so I'm just wondering if we're worrying at all about what's going on in the next few years um on the opposite side of that I'm wondering also yeah are we thinking about the long term for all four schools and are we making them big enough enough so that in five seven years we're not having this exact same conversation about how we can increase the school size and uh make everything adequate for everyone um but yeah so I I think it's just important we I I think where we're going is definitely the right direction but you know little Brook's expansion in of itself is smaller than say CP where again we're trying to have the same number of students um also for myself so I although I have two children in Littlebrook actually in the CP district and when we had moved uh my daughter was too old and couldn't attend the Dual language program so we wound up at Littlebrook which has been wonderful um in the future plan it sounds like there's a good chance I may be a future CP parent which is great but so in that same note you know in no way am I thinking we should you know CP shouldn't get as much I just want to make sure we're making sure all the schools are getting what they need adequately okay well thank you and I want you to know that um you know we've received the letter and we're going to be sharing it um with our um planners and and you know we will take all that feedback into account before we have a final plan cool thank you thank [Applause] you um up next is Luke Alberts good evening I'm Luke Alberts Grover Avenue and one of the said middle-age men standing in front of Princeton Middle School allegedly a talking to children to the parent who said as much which children have I spoken when Mr Mr Albert when Mr Albert please direct your comment to the board this is bogus I'm not going to defend my position here if if you're curious all of which can be featured in this week's town topics I'm here rejecting a big section of the high Toops curriculum namely their position on intersection intersectionality and that all relationships are struggles for power this is not an ideology that belongs in Middle Schools this might be reserved for law schools but you know as long as this remains I will continue and I will be in front of the school and I will give interviews and again Mr Park if you really have a problem with me Mr perk my apologies if you do Mr Alber then you should speak with me afterward Mr Albert and bring your list of these children whom I have allegedly or my partner has allegedly spoken with nonsense Mr Mr Albert done well I wanted to ask you a I wanted to share a story with you really quick so I was at uh one of the elementary schools last week and um a mother came up to me a mother of color and she said I wanted to I want to share the story with you and so she has a seventh grade girl and she said her daughter came home you know and she was you know scared and she asked her mother if she should hide hide from what from whom from you from me so I just all I I want to say is is that who she's hiding from from me well I'm just sharing what was related to me and I'm just and let me finish you have a right you have a right to to protest but I would ask that maybe you consider protesting in front of the Valley Road building right here this is where the decision is made it's not made at the middle school well I'm here right now aren't I Y thank you uh Jung Lin [Music] Chen out on so m Mr Alberts please we welcome your point of view and we welcome Mr perk's point of view but if you get up again like that I'm GNA have you remov from the meeting and I really don't want to do that so please stay in your seat good okay uh my name is Jan Chan mome Road Princeton um I'm here to speak about the high Toops curriculum called intersectionality privilege and microaggression that's being pushed onto our middle school students uh we're here to ensure our kids get an education that meets State mandates and respect the value of our community not to indoctrinate them with divisive ideologies the state mandate we're supposed to follow emphas emphasize diversity equity and inclusion they're about understanding and respecting different culture and backgrounds but what hi Toops is offering is far from this their curriculum isn't about exploration and appreciation it's about dividing our kids into categories of privilege and oppressed this isn't a departure from our mandates it's a complete contradiction the backbone of the high tops curriculum is troubling it's steeped in theories like critical theory postmodernism critical race Theory and career Theory these aren't just academic Concepts they're loaded with ideological baggages they promote Division and conflict teaching our kids to see each other not as individuals but as representative of oppressive or oppressed groups this is an education it's indoctrination what's the end goal of pushing these theories onto middle schoolers is it to make them question and dismantle the very fabric of our society as preached in these ideologies but at what cost we're risking the creation of Perpetual conflict pitting one identity against another for what so that our country can be divided and weakened this content is not suitable for middle school students it's complex it's contentious and frankly it's not what our kids need to be learning at this stage of their lives thank you parents we need to take a stand against this our children deserve an education that builds them up teacher teach them respect and understanding and prepare them for the real world not one that tears them down and divide them it's time to reject the high tops curriculum and look for Alternatives that truly align with our state mandates and our community value for those interested in further details on points I've raised visit prep yes.org p p.org you can find more in-depth explanation regarding this issue thank you up next is uh hun Lee did I say your name right okay good if oh sorry to keep you waiting you should on first don't worry about it you can call me Theo if that's easier Theo yeah sure um I'm just here to talk about Mr Ferguson um I had him junior year so last year for Kel AB uh when I transferred to this District in 10th Grade I was supposed to be in pre-cal Exel but because of issues with the teacher that I was assigned Miss tessaro who was later fired blah blah blah um essentially the system doesn't allow me to take Cal BC because based on the system I can't go up a class anymore because due to that issue I had to drop down a level for math so from the point of view of how the system syst works with like choosing courses I was basically not offered the opportunity to learn BC materials when I really wanted to take that course uh last year um but I was really fortunate to have Mr Ferguson as my math teacher last year because he offered me the opportunity that the school wasn't able to provide me because of its systems and he gave me uh his time essentially uh near the end of the year to learn the extra materials essentially like at the end of the curriculum for that's not covered in AB so that I could take the BC exam and I did quite well um just to kind of tell you that Mr Ferguson is really dedicated to the this stuff that he teaches and apart from that I also had a friend who was in regular Cal and I think it's really impressive that as a cal teacher he's so dedicated to what he teach teach es that he's not just like a good teacher for the advanced classes he's able to um make enough of like a thing for people who are in the regular classes as well to make um the subject itself be like worthwhile for them to learn regardless of what level that they're learning at um and he's really dedicated to the things that he's teaching and I was really appreciative of I mean I don't really know who's responsible for directly like picking out who gets to be like the teacher or anything at the school but I really appreciated that um prinston high school has the opportunity to have a teacher like him and uh when I heard about what happened I was actually really surprised because like there's a lot of rumors going around there's a lot of like I don't know what exactly is like happened there's not a lot of like you know objective truths or whatever but what I wanted to provide was just based on my experience um how valuable of a person he is we can have um at our school and also just about how sometimes I think having a person who's that dedicated to the things that he is teaching it is sometimes frustrating to have people who are not as dedicated to learning the things that he's trying to teach them um and I think it's important that you look at both sides thank you um and now is there anyone else who would like to come and speak on any issue oh okay uh I'm H Jong I'm living in uh B Drive uh I'm ph's mom U actually I'm not a native speaker as you can recognize so my English is not perfect uh I'm here to support Mr Fergus um because uh we we immigrated here uh for my daughter's education actually I didn't like the Asian education especially science and math um my daughter was so much Advanced to the science but unfortunately her math was not that advanced it it was quite unbalanced so when she took the AP Chemistry she should learn math calculus from AP cam teacher because she didn't take the calculus but uh even though we immigrated here to California we found that American math was asianization just numbering cating so we were very disappointed and mo decided to move to east coast and we moved to Princeton but she could not find uh perfect match but last year she finally met great teacher um My Philosophy about the math math is not numbering math is reasoning and thinking um the mathematics is uh close to philosophy it's not just technology it's kind of the science um social science uh I'm not uh I cannot find uh the right term uh for the thing uh actually Mr Ferguson was the right person teaching teaching the math in right way he helped student think about the math so uh but it's really difficult to change the all the system already happened in here everyone is accustomed to just numbering and calculating so they didn't some students didn't want to think because they are now accustomed to do it but my daughter uh was taught math as home by me I didn't teach I just support her let her think about it I didn't give her the answer I just let her just think about it that's it oh even though she was not Advanced to the math she had some kind of the um Power for thinking I'm so proud of that point even though she was not really great math student and Mr Ferguson found that thing that fact and he supported so much I really appreciate thank you yeah and I think um you have to think about that point uh the some students probably don't like him but there is some students who really need his teaching can you can you please wrap up yeah so I want to uh tell you um the majority even though the majority of student don't like him or feel uncomfortable probably some of the students really need him and we need to keep him thank you very much Miss Lee thank you yeah Miss friend okay officially well well we take all all comers here just if you please just state your name who you are how long you've been here I've taught her kids so she can speak to me like that yeah Martha friend 976 Lawrence Road I live in Lawrence now lived in grew up in Princeton lived here for many many years went through the school district myself um taught at little BR for 30 years if I didn't say that and my three kids my youngest just graduated this last year you're still a little Brook right still always just making sure um actually I didn't realize we were talking about Mr Ferguson uh my daughter had Mr Ferguson and gave him such a run for his money because she wasn't used to thinking like he was asking her to but in fact in her Calculus class at school she was one of the thinkers there and she thanked him for that so I want to just throw that out there um I had to step away because my eldest is in the National Guard and was deployed on Friday and he just called me so I missed um hearing some our protesters speak uh but I do want to just thank the board thank the district for trusting your Educators for knowing Educators would never allow lessons that harm students um for thinking about all of your students all of your families and that matters greatly you are elected here because we are a Bor at least because we know that you have um the good sense to know that you have these amazing Educators in this district and administrators um and you support them and they're the best decisions that they can make and so I just want to thank you for that because a lot of this is I think about a lack of trust in public schools um and so you guys are showing that you want to just build up the school system that you trust your educators and decisions they make so just wanted to say that and to just point out that some of these fabulous seventh graders I think it was the brownie I don't remember the name of her uh company but it was about more love they had that on the website more love right that's what it's all about thank you thank you Martha is there anyone else for a public comment right now okay sure yeah uh I I'll jump in here for a second uh I want to be clear that I'm speaking here not on behalf of the student body not you know filling my student leas on shoes instead speaking from my personal experience with Mr Ferguson I was lucky enough to have him as my calculus teacher last year and from the very first day it was clear to me that he is a special kind of teacher he's animated he's kind he's passionate about learning in a way that I think can't help but causes students to become passionate about learning as well uh from what I can see PHS is extraordinarily lucky to have Mr Fergus I've shared many a conversation with students who are also in his classes and we always remark on his generosity his engagement with material at hand the hours and hours he pours into this Learning Community I'll share one quick anecdote last year Mr Ferguson took five hours out of his Saturday morning to administer practice AP exams for his calculus classes and talk through any questions that his students have dozens of kids around 40 as far as I remember I'm not sure about the exact number showed up to what was an effectively an optional 5H hourong weekend math camp and they were all excited to be there I don't want to negate the experiences of my peers but with that being said I feel confident like I cannot fathom a situation in which Mr Ferguson would intentionally cause physical or emotional harm to a student it just doesn't Square out with me uh I I've talked to him I I feel like once you share a conversation with the guy you can see the genuine passion he has for helping kids learn and I hope that PHS recognizes the positive impact he had on our school community and on our Learners in the last year and a half thank you [Applause] no I I didn't have Mr Ferguson so I don't know um is anyone else have a comment come up to the microphone please and state your name and word your address sorry I didn't sign up but I just want to uh Echo your comments I'm sorry my name is sh living uh 640 Prospect Avenue um um some of you may recognize me I'm a a critics to the Boe in the past few years for quite a few things um I I agree with you that the Boe and the PPS administrator in general needs to build rebuild the trust from the public uh for many things uh I mean lot of lot of us participated this process in the past year there are so many things went went through last year with the uh firing of the principal uh in the middle of the in in the middle of the school year and then the uh um things happens in after after after school program and then uh the math curriculum uh which get some of the board members elected uh through the through the election and then uh there there are also something related to the the leaving of the last uh superintendent um uh things do happen and I do think that in the past few years that um many people myself included that um the district or the Boe uh generally ignored the public um I mean we had uh hundreds of people participate uh during the principal firing episode uh the support was overwhelming but for whatever reason that person was still fired uh it had impact right whatever the also the student that had um uh I I hope I hope the Boe recognized that whatever your decision is it has impact to the community and sometimes it has impact at personal level uh the uh abrupt believe of the superintendent I think at least that shows the Boe did not do their due diligence when doing the hiring right um there are rumors I don't know if it's rumors or it's a it's a for the reason of her hiring but there's one thing I know for sure that what she brings in or the decision of the Boe hiring her brings in was the um the not not a very stable environment for the children for the student that's I believe the Boe needs to do focus on not something that divide the community uh this high top hiring thing um I agree the sex education lgtbq Community needs to be protected and needs to be discussed those are the topic but the intersectionality from my uh personal experience from my cultural experience that's not something that we should bring to children at this age so that's just my uh a few minutes uh thank you very much thank you is there anyone else in the public who now we have another public comment later but Mr Balden is going to read that letter that we got this morning from uh me many parents from Littlebrook School dear Princeton Board of Education members Littlebrook parents have reviewed the proposed expansion plans that would like to offer our feedback Littlebrook is presently pinched for space and where concern that Littlebrook students will continue to be squeezed into an insufficient building under the new plan among the district's Four elementary schools Littlebrook currently has the greatest number of students and the smallest building the proposed plan would bring Littlebrook roughly up to the current square footage of Johnson Park for perspective if the plan is for Littlebrook and CP to serve the same number of students we would like to know the justification for spending uh nearly double to create one school that is more than 25% larger than all the others uh key disparities in proposed plan the proposed new classrooms are 100 square foot square feet smaller at Littlebrook than the proposed new classrooms at CP what is the research for the disparity under the proposed plan the Littlebrook gymnasium will be 200 squ ft smaller than the CP gymnasium further it will require divider so Littlebrook students could effectively have half the gym space students as I'm sorry as the rest of the students in the district the proposed plan at Littlebrook includes creating small windowless learning space I.E small group rooms Partition by partitioning off kindergarten rooms a similar pre-existing space is better suited for storage than for students meanwhile the proposed Planet CP includes two large uh 720 square foot small group rooms with Windows other concerns we'd like to see a firm commitment to increase parking at Littlebrook upon expansion the current parking lot does not service the staff we have today we'd like to see a firm commitment to improving the outdoor place base at Littlebrook the current plan would involve removing a large albe an outdated Place structure we are opposed to any expansion plan adds more students to fewer playground structures additionally due to flooding issues at Littlebrook many days are limited to Black Top only recess any plan should prioritize a sufficient amount of black top outdoor play space for each child using the space at one time currently there are no flex bases at Littlebrook teachers spend their prep hours in the school Lobby students are uh taking makeup njsla test and CML test in the main lobby because there are no other larg of available space we don't see that the proposed plan fixes these issues the plan does not address current plumbing problems that exist in a part of the school an old sanitation pipe runs on top of some classrooms causing bad odors in the affected classrooms and the front office updated Plumbing should be a priority when trying to add on to the current space Magnolia is a small residential Road prior to expansion uh with the district study the will the district study the impact of adding more daily traffic to this road today Little Brook students do not have a dedicated music room nor Spanish room uh nor Health nor computer science lbook students receive occupation Therapy Services in the hallways and cafeteria we are pleased that there will be a large Music Room in the plan however there will be three full school years until that time we request that the district make interim enrollment decisions that better balance out the Four elementary schools so that little Brook students can receive equal education opportunities thank you for allowing us to participate in this planning process and to bring forward our concerns for Littlebrook future Littlebrook students thank you signed by numerous parents it looks like somewhere around 30 or so thank you Mr Balden all right now moving on uh going back to the agenda um we're going um harassment intimidation and bullying uh and then item I2 harassment intimidation and bullying hearing can I get a motion Mara second Debbie de and Kendall yes betu bag wheel yes Beth yes Adam Beerman Deb bronfeld yes Mar franceski yes Elanor hubard yes Susan caner yes Brian McDonald yes Rob Christopher yes motion passes thank you Mr Balden okay moving on to uh jwan governance and I will turn that back over to Dr Foster for the semiannual student safety data report from September to December uh good evening everyone again um this is a requirement uh for the state of New Jersey to report on uh student safety data uh and um if you can see it's just a a quick overview of these are the incidents uh that take place and and uh there are def definitions for each of them uh and you can kind of compare uh year toe uh and then it shows uh whether there was an increase or a decrease um this is obviously uh data that uh building administrators take a look at um and uh raise questions uh do their research and obviously um think about how to prevent uh more create a safe environment uh prevent uh uh more incidents from happening um and that uh can include professional development for teachers first to talk about what does that look like safety in the classroom it can talk about um students understanding Hib laws understanding bullying understanding conflict uh how to resolve conflict maybe more love uh and um yeah exactly uh and so uh this is just a report um that we have to uh share with the public what what I can say is I know we will ask and wonder a lot of questions uh internally uh with our with our administrative team okay thank you Dr Foster um it does look like uh things have leveled out um 13 14 is is is high still but it's been much higher so yeah that's a you know because one of the things uh we hear a word violence and first of all we do take it seriously I'm not diminishing it but that would be like fights uh between students uh usually is um where that is identified yeah all right thank you do Dr Foster any any other questions from the board looks good to me compared to other schools it's quite low and I think comparatively to any other a lot of schools in New Jersey okay thank you okay um moving on now to um the committee reports and we are going to start with long-term planning with uh Susan will be giving the report tonight I am I'm new to be a co-chair to long-term planning um my report will be very short as um we met on Thursday uh January 25th at 5:00 pm uh we received an update from the administration and The Architects um as they continue to refine plans at PMS uh community park and Little Brook the team continues to take feedback like we did today uh from the public from members of the public from school teams and um we had a board discussion as they continue to develop plans uh we're hoping it's possible that on February 6th at our budget meeting that they'll be able to present um potentially updates to where they stand as they continue to develop the plan for our district so we appreciate uh when people send in feedback to the plan thank you okay thanks is that meeting uh in person or online I don't know it's a budget meeting the sixth the sixth the budget meeting we're we're in person okay and at six o'clock uh 7:30 7:30 what inv live and in person please come join us for um not just a budget meeting potentially budget Workshop but also an update to the long-term planning for anyone who's interested we'd love to have everyone come join us thank you that's after February 5th which is our state of the district so as long as I'm plugging I've got to plug uh the state of the district so please come 6 to8 Princeton High School thank you Dr Foster um and the best entrance to enter is the pack right I think actually no no okay um so I'm glad you glad you asked theack it's an expo style so it if you it really would make more sense if you come in through the front the tower because um all of the Expo tables will be um in what we call the new Wing which is how many years old now a few years old years yeah um so it'll be great and we also have live performance okay great well I think I'm gonna have a friend go in the front entrance and I'm gonna go in the pack entrance and we'll see who gets her first all right thank you uh next up is operations uh Brian is gonna give the report yes sorry it's uh uh not as short as many people would like um the operations committee met for 2 hours by zoom on Wednesday January 17th at 8 in the morning and just a reminder that operations was created three years ago by merging the finance and Facilities committees and our main administrative point of contact is Matt balen our business administrator we received an update on the 2022 and 2023 referendum projects the 2022 referendum the projects continue to go well and we are under budget Matt will be updating the budget for us at our next meeting the Princeton High School Princeton Middle School Johnson Park and a small portion of the Riverside roofs are all moving forward and will be replaced the summer with some work beginning sooner for approval tonight is the elementary school HVAC project which came in very close to budget with escalation these are primarily rooftop units at CP lb and rivers side and pending equipment availability the work will be done over the summer in the 20 23 referendum three separate bid packages have gone out for the cafeteria all this is all at the high school the cafeteria the security vestibules the doors and the hardware we reviewed a non- referendum facilities project at Princeton High School that would be paid for out of our maintenance Reserve this is the renovation of the old Princeton High School training room which when complete will free up one classroom and create additional training space we then discuss sustainability with Jenny lmer from sustainable Princeton this month we fully roll out a districtwide Energy Efficiency campaign to engage students teachers and staff as energy stewards reducing energy usage throughout the district planning for rooftop solar arrays is underway and those projects May commence in 2025 once all of the roof work has been completed four schools have received certification from sustainable Jersey and the remaining two are applying for certification I'm going to skip a couple of things um we then went we then went into closed session we we then went into Clos session and met with re representatives from DCH Services regarding the upgrade of the 10 gigabit Network um this is a lot of work that includes among other things new Cisco switches extensive new uh and replacement Laing and additional Wi-Fi access points this was a very thorough discussion and the project is on tonight's agenda for approval with the recommendation of the operations committee we then met with the district's Auditors nisso voia noo noia nissia and discuss the audit the acfr which is the annual comprehensive financial report and the AMR the auditor's management report there were no findings requiring action and they were very complimentary of Matt Janine and the business office this is on the agenda [Applause] for this is on the agenda for approval tonight with the recommendation of the committee finally received a brief update on the budget internally a lot of work and many meetings are taking place and this will be a topic for the committee and the board beginning next week and for the next three months uh we next meet on Wednesday February 7th at 8 in the morning thank you Brian I have a question go ahead yeah the classroom that you guys were talking about um is that near anything like to me the training is like the bowels for school oh okay oh they're not near each other remember okay okay okay so the original training space is in the lowest level and um there are a number of issues with it and they needed to create a new space okay borrow a classroom so they'll be re um renovating the original training space and giving giving it a lot bringing it much uh more up to date and that will free up the classroom that had been the classroom fabulous fabulous okay I I wasn't sure if the classroom is down yet oh so it's near the classrooms thank you um with the boilers can they be retrofitted um boilers and also um there's going to be people on the ground overse and accountability in the summertime make sure everything goes slly as possible yes that's uh the accountability I'll I'll take first that's a great question um our uh New Roads construction our construction manager will have two people on site um among the six buildings at all times so right now we have one but during the summer the heavy season there will be two and they can pull in more people if they need to that's addition to in addition to the whole project team and the architects who also are round and about but two full-time project managers um with respect to the boilers um Matt um I know we have work going on at the elementary schools and um that is something that is also being contemplated for the referendum that were is perspective um but Matt can talk about um boiler replacement and whether uh rehabing or replacing makes the most sense well if we're talking about the elementary schools uh we're still awaiting final award under the uh psng uh direct install program so we're hopeful uh that should be in the next couple weeks okay thank you so we're anxious uh to move forward on that thank you anyone else okay uh moving on now to personnel with uh Mara okay the Personnel committee met at 8:15 on Thursday January 25th we discussed a variety of topics including the transition to a new communication Group which the district hopes will streamline the communications process and lead to cost savings and approval is on tonight's agenda we also discuss next steps in finding replacement for our current interim assistant superintendent of HR Rebecca gold sadly um we have no more extensions allowed um so she does have to leave us so her last day will be June 30th and we are working to find a suitable replacement big shoes to fill um also on tonight's agenda we have Lauren freden freedman's transition to the tenure track position of PHS assistant principal that's being vacated by Dr man manano Dr M Dr M thankk you um as a Franchesca really should anyway uh Miss Freeman was serving in a leave replacement position uh and finally the district will be holding a job fair next month for eight our next meeting will be closed as all of our meetings are on Thursday February 8th 8:15 thank you thank you uh next up is policy with Beth um a policy committee met on January 24th welcoming Adam Beerman and Elanor hubard as new members um Adam and Elanor joined board members uh Betsy Bago Susan caner and myself s on the committee as board members um and we work with Dr um Dr Foster and Matt and um our other business administrators we heard from uh the director of guidance John McMichael regarding a proposed addition to policy 5600 student discipline code of conduct to reflect current District practice with respect to non-disclosure of student Behavior infractions to post postsecondary institutions based on the belief that past decisions are not necessarily indicators of future Behavior we will return to this topic at our next meeting we move several policies that reflect recent changes in the law or current District practice on to first and second read which you'll see tonight on the agenda noting that regulations implementing these policies require one more more time for administrative review the committee asked for more information when available on District implementation of the threat assessment teams which is policy 2419 and how these teams will be integrated into other existing systems of support for students the committee discussed the annual Board calendar and requested that in the future the board's reorganization calendar includes set dates for two goal setting Retreats as well as dates required for the annual superintendent evaluation the committee next meets at 3:45 p.m on February 7th and the public is welcome to attend thank you Beth um next up is student achievement with uh Betsy Bago thank you uh we met early in the year January 9th at 10:30 on Zoom we welcomed Elanor to the committee we welcome Debbie back to the committee Susan and dfna and I also serve on the committee and we thank Dr to for all of her ongoing work to move the items um in this committee uh we spoke about the Middle School adult living skills program which was terrific we heard about the elementary math pilot of the reveal math program and also some new ideas for College counseling and how to organize that program at our high school so uh two to be announced but that would start for next year uh but we thank our staff very much for joining us we then adjourn to close session uh we meet next February 9th at 11:00 a.m. thanks great thank you and um just briefly um for the eth committee we meet our kickoff meeting for the year will be February 12th here in this space at 6m we welcome the committee the I'm sorry the community and the committee to join us thank you okay thank you Brian I just wanted to ask a quick question about student achievement in College counseling um is there a resource component to that in the past there's been a question about whether we have sufficient number of Staff dedicated to that important function talk quite about that so the idea is thinking about how we have one terrific college counselor for all of our students and how we can sort of think about programs she can offer students especially junior year maybe in more of a um module program where she meets with some students together rather than a lot of one-on-one and also bringing in our school counselors more into the program to work work with every student so the idea is to provide more services to all of our students as well as students uh not interested in a four-year College path After High School but other other uh post-secondary options as well so uh we gave some feedback and I think they'll come back to us with with some more specifics thanks thank you um so moving on now um policies um first reading and second reading and then uh Personnel the super tenant recommends um and all of this is discussed um in committee and Personnel is um closed so it's not discussed in public but the rest of our committees all have open sessions um so again if anyone has any questions stop me but I'll go through it um M1 appointments M2 resignations M3 transfer reassignments M4 P salary guide M5 press AIDS M6 Personnel items M7 curriculum and instruction M8 student services M9 leave of absence M10 substitute student placement M11 athletic appointments that's for the spring Sports so spring is coming uh M12 job description uh and M13 settlement agreement uh moving on now to curriculum and instruction and one Grant application Esa for fiscal year 24 uh application Amendment Esser 3 and uh student uh day field trips then we're moving on to it bless you 01 special education agreement and then we have um 02 and 03 res resolution for residency appeal uh moving on now to um P1 the annual School District audit that um Mr McDonald mentioned uh M2 um is that P2 sorry that's an action item can I get a motion Brian second Beth uh sorry Susan I was right at you look yeah D Kendall abstain D Kendall abstain Betsy bag wheel yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman yes Debbie bronfeld yes Mara franceski yes Elanor Hubbard yes Susan canther yes Brian McDonald yes Robert Christopher yes motion passes thank you Mr Balden um P4 uh P3 is the fire and evacuation drills P4 is that 10 gig network. Mr McDonald was talking about uh P5 is registration travel agenda P6 is the formal bid award hbac which Mr McDonald was talking about uh p7 p7 the tech Consulting contract p8 Professional Services attorney uh P9 strategic uh communication Services which Mara was talking about and then uh we are again applying on uh P10 for an EPA clean School Boss application fingers crossed Frost all right now moving on to our next public comment is there anyone left who would like to speak to us yeah sure thank you please just state your name yes he was here before right I know po Road Little Brook hello I have already said what I came here to do um but after having been to my very first Princeton Board of Education meeting wel done and saw what happened tonight I was also here before the meeting started in the group and I luckily sat next to a group of people that were very vocal tonight lucky is not the right word I would use um and I noticed that one board member in particular Mr Beerman um came over before the meeting started and was very friendly with the anti- inclusive group I don't know what else to call them shaking hands and joking oh you'll lose one vote if you can't do that I don't know exactly what was said but I feel like like the people of Princeton deserve to know that and of course diverse political views are completely welcomed but in the case of a board of education um it's often difficult to understand where board members actually stand on really important issues like this one seem to be excuse me excuse me so I just want to make sure that what I saw here is reflected in the record and people people understand that's all thank you very much and um usually our board if you come early you get a good seat and um usually our our board meetings are much calmer well I don't really think I can say that but anyway they we hope them to be all right uh and with that is there anyone else who would like to speak oh a comment oh sorry sorry I was talking to yeah so I I I agree it looks like this is the perfect time to talk even nobody nobody hear you talk but uh so what what I really want to say is that I just want to have I have a quick comment right I look at the uh the uh the the material that that's supposedly to be taught by high Toops I think as a board right we shouldn't be introducing such a divisive topic into this uh because we see it all over the news when when other District introduce this topic to to to the school there are argument right whether wherever you come from there are argument I don't think we need to do that there are I mean uh I don't know if the if if if there's any contract renew coming up or something going on we need to at least look at their curriculum and say just get rid of this right the other portion is fine but this portion just hold on right this case are too young 12 13 14 year old uh I I don't think if a lot of people are talking about love today in today's meeting right if you introduce a pressed and privileged is that really something we want to teach people about love right you basically divide people into groups right cuz I came from China I mean I I some people told me on Facebook you should not be using oppressed versus oppressor right because there's really no oppressor in this it's a privilege but still if you are a privileged or you are oppressed the natural question will be what are you going to do right if you are oppressed what are you going to do if you are privileged what are you going to do think about I'm not white think about if there's a white kid sitting in that classroom right he was very close to the center of the power in that wheel these are 13 year old 14 year old how do you want them to feel right what do you think the the topic will be on the playground whether it's a joking around whether is just a play around it's not going to be comfortable at a certain point why do we want to do that so my point is it is what it is it's already presented to the school to the to the kids when when the renewal comes up maybe need to talk o them well this material we probably don't want to introduce to the school so that's thank you very much thank you I'll just I'll just say the material regardless of who is um presenting it will continue to be presented in our schools so there'll be no change I'm sorry who's next did you want to speak yes Rob waler Mount Lucas um I just want to say thank you for exactly what you just said there um since we had a vocal group in one way I want to make sure that the people still here who are supportive of what the board is doing are vocal as well so thank you all thank you moving on now to um R1 which is the uh consent agenda can I get a motion Betsy second Brian DNE Kendall yes betu Bagel yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman uh yes debie ronfeld yes Mar franceski yes Elanor hubard yes Susan canther yes Brian McDonald yes Rob Christopher yes consent agenda passes okay thank you um so we have S1 closing comments of the board I'll just say that uh February 5th don't go in the pack you'll miss everything six o'clock there's baby is there Refreshments so we are providing beverages so that student organizations can sell some delicious baked goods because we didn't want to compete and also please bring canned goods for yes we can thank you and so uh people should bring cash right oh yes bring cash no no venmo I don't think yeah exactly thank you yeah okay and then um on uh Tuesday the 6th so that's at the high school six o'clock on Monday it doesn't look like there's going to be any snow so think we're good and then Tuesday at 7:30 we're going to go over the budget that'll be fun and um and then we will have some time to talk about long-term planning yes did I miss anything anything else coming up next week sorry yes we'll talk later all right and with that can I get a motion to adjourn please Mara second Beth all in favor right have a good night thank you Cass