##VIDEO ID:ve2oTgucLNo## good evening 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 residents we're always pleased when members of the community attend our meetings the board and the school district operate under applicable New Jersey laws and under regulations of the New Jersey State Board of Education each meeting includes an opportunity for the attending to comment on items on the publish agenda or other matters of interest to them the board reserves the right to limit time allotted to 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 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 princ packet and the Trenton Times on January 6 2024 it was also distributed to the schools and others on the standard distribution list the board reserves your 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 meeting that the proceedings are being recorded this meeting is being live streamed the representative the senic district is authorized vote on such matters that affect senic District students or affect the governance of the princeon 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 the statute is amended the law shall take presidence over this by law thank you Mr Balden would you please call the RO yes D Kendall here Betsy Bagel here Beth Baron here Adam Beerman president Debbie bronfeld here Mar franceski here evanor Hubbert here Susan caner here Brian McDonald present we have a quorum thank you Mr Balden um moving on now um hold on let me get my screen up we're g to move the order around a little bit um we we'll go through the minutes um can I get an adoption can I get a motion please for the adoption of the minutes from September 24th Beth second Debbie D and Kendall yes bety Leo yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman yes Debbie bronfeld yes Martin franceski yes Elanor hubard yes Susan caner yes Brian McDonald yes motion passes thank you Mr Balden can I get a motion um for the minutes from October 7 October 16th Brian second Mara daan Kendall yes Betsy bag wheel yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman yes Debbie bronfeld yes Martin franceski yes Elanor hubard yes Susan caner abstain Brian McDonald yes motion passes all right thank you Mr Balon so we're going to move around our schedule a little bit and we're going to go um to the student board members report right now because they have tests tomorrow and we do not want to keep you from doing well on your tests so Nikolai and Maya take it away [Music] [Laughter] it's live stream though oh that's lovely oh good okay perfect okay so we have our Board of Education report today um it's hopefully not GNA be usually this long or detailed but a lot of stuff has happened in the school and because because of the board so thank you for giving us enough to write about a large report so first off um the superintendent um superintendent Forum I was there um I attended it um and I think the main thing is that the students and parents really appreciate being given an opportunity to raise concerns about the school and also the things I really appreciated about it so um I thought there was a really good turnout um I think there about 30 students there um and there was a decent amount of diversity from different groups and grades um so so sorry um so um when I prepared for this report I actually reached back out to a couple of the students and parents who were like more vocal about it and I think one of the biggest things to bring up is that they really wanted to see a personal vested interest um from the superintendent in the community um of the students the school the parents everything um it didn't feel um to them it didn't feel like the past superintendent was as connected with any of the students and it didn't feel like they had a voice or or were feeling heard on major topics um they also um express interest in having um having the superintend superintendent have a presence in the school so establishing relationships and connections with again like different groups different minorities um they thought uh having like a represent a student represent of council would be helpful um I don't know possibly led by us um and just holding a having a voice in bigger decisions and being able to connect with the superintendent and principal directly um they really appreciated having a Forum like this I think um it was a welcome surprise for a lot of people um I think they really really appreciated being able to talk about some concerns that have been going on the school for a while and um I actually think how holding more forums would be helpful um possibly having like um I think they mention having like a permanent Town Hall session maybe monthly or quarterly would be um very appreciated by the community um so have to bring pizza every time not sure hopefully not um for the parents um they thought that um listening to community feedback was the biggest thing for them for having a super new superintendent um there were a lot of parents willing to dedicate their time and energy into the district but um in order for that to happen the superintendent does have to actually hear them so they also stress the importance of having a qualified superintendent so the importance of having both education and administration experience and to be able to effectively deal in both um finally they really um thought that priority should be given to students voices because um it is serving the community the student Community First and again having like an easily easily accessible place to speak because there are students who have opinions and want them heard um so next we're going to touch on phones and phone jails brought my foot phone which is amazing but uh yeah I think it's mostly what I said last time about we saw teachers using phones as a way to take attendance and so they'll have a big kind of pocket sheet and you put your phone in a slot and that's how they check attendants they don't actually look for you they just look for your phone there and I actually think that works great because it it makes you actually put your phone in the slot which a lot of people don't do when we do have slots and I think that really is the best kind of balance between having phones in the classroom for safety purposes but not being distracted by them um so I said that last time but if I don't know if all the teachers have the kind of pockets to put phones in or if it's a practice math department yeah lot a lot of the math department is doing that and AC choir doing that um so maybe just communicating with the teachers and presenting them that option because I've seen that working really well also I think um at least for me like I haven't seen any students complain about that I think they think it's a very fair decision to have their um phones placed in the phone jail um or the fotel that's what Mr Walsh calls it the fotel photot so I like that funny um but yeah um now um I want to talk quickly about the Wi-Fi um so I did have this amazing speech about it which I promise would have blown your socks off but it doesn't quite fit now that the guest Wi-Fi seems to be cautiously reinstated so I'll just go over my main points because they do still stand um so it was turned off a few weeks ago um without notice for the students so there was like no grace period it was just cut off with a message that it is the responsibility of students to handle their situations better um and there was no situation that was um allowed for like I left my computer at home and I had an essay to write and they were not very helpful with that um also the school is a dead zone for Mo the most of the school is a dead zone for phone service leaving no way to contact or access the internet and also no options for emergencies in contacting parents or friends in the school um I think we've seen a lot in the news about um tragedies and crisis happening and um we don't obviously we don't want to think about it but in case the worse does happen um um I think it's important to be able to contact um not only your parents but your friends within the school um just in case um it also makes impossible for um to use personal devices for helpful things like iPad note taking um a friend of mine mentioned that she didn't have the funds to purchase notebooks and stationary for all of her classes because she spent months saving up for an iPad to use just for the tech office to cut it off um I think the main concern is just being able to contact the parents in case of emergency um most of your parents I'm sure you're familiar with having to stop by the drop off lunch or drop off I don't know an extra jacket um which is a process made much longer more complicated without the use of our phones and um finally I think it's also just about trust and knowing which battles to fight um I think like um there's always going to be students on their phones when they shouldn't be um and we've had hopefully have resolutions but kicking every personal device off the Wi-Fi is just not the answer um instead like we have Solutions with restrictions or phone jails which Nikolai did tell us about um fourth on our agenda is the Hispanic Heritage Month um so this was a topic brought up to us by some of the students actually um so if you don't know it's an assembly that usually runs all day in um all a classs um about the different aspects of Hispanic heritage um it's entirely student ran and organized um the teachers do have um final St the decisions but it's um run by Latin Latinos unidos and um they spend a lot of effort and a lot of time energy organizing every year so this year unfortunately um the administration said that it took too much instructional time away from school and that it was not educational to spend that much time hosting an assembly um which um I think is important to notice that school spirit is something really important at least the PHS Administration has stated that school spirit is something really important to them and these Heritage assemblies are some of the few times a year where students readily participate and um are happy to be there in the assembly everyone has fun everyone learns about the history of these groups and I personally disagree with the fact that they're not educational or beneficial to the school um so it was postponed for the time being with um there were being a couple different options to run it um either being tiger time after school or split up into two days in Home Room sessions so it's not to disturb class um but the leaders um of the group of Latinos un you need those um sorry um they mentioned that um in each of these instances um the event is being downgraded whether it be from student attendance or um just not being able to organize as many outside Educators that volunteer their time for the school so um professional dancers singers and bands have expressed interest in possibly being a part of the assembly which is something they couldn't do if it was two different days um and um a major factor in the cancelling postponing of the assembly was the fact that it is purely club brand and by students and not um pushed for as much by parents but that isn't really the fault of um Latinos unidos because this those members parents um some of them have to work long jobs with long hours and are unable to effectively Lobby for this ass to continue um it is passed Hispanic Heritage Month has already passed it ended on October 15th um so they're hoping to run it in December um but they also expressed interest in having um this be uh an important matter for black history month because Black History Month has also been um pushed to just either just two different Home Room days or to the same opportunities um T time or after school so they're really hoping that this is um able to be a priority for um the administration um fifth is men's volleyball so um they have they want to Charter a V's volleyball team they talked to principal Burge and Mr dis dibinsky already um as well as a sports conference that P sarta which is njsia so they approved the chartering a team to play sub varsity only which is just JB um they've taken the initiative of finding space to hold practices both at the high school and the middle school when possible and um all they need is official board approval to start fundraising and looking for coaching um so they're not currently here but I do have word for them that they'll probably be here for like comment next next sorry next meeting um so I think they just wanted to bring this to your attention um a little bit earlier thank you so we really appreciate it um for The Boy The Boy boys volleyball um so we have a procedure for new clubs and that would go through student achievement committee so um that's Dr 2's area so um I would um direct them to Dr two got it oh yeah they would meet with Mr binsky who would then bring it to student achievement right yeah and Dr Foster of course and right and then it would come up to us but um generally our I think it's threee um a club has to go on its own for three years and then once it's viable it'll become board approved so um check in with Mr dubinsky and speak have him speak with Dr 2 to get you to get whoever wants to come on the agenda for next month so by its own do you mean that should function as just like kind of a school club under miss lagus or I think they have been a club already School sports [Music] okay you're already doing right and so I think the next step would be Mr deiny okay which I think they did speak to yeah thank you thank you and um with regards to the Wi-Fi you said yes it's fixed um I think so what they did originally was just kick everyone off the Wi-Fi like they just said they didn't have it working at all and now I think um devices are allowed in the Wi-Fi I'm not sure because I talked to the tech office um and they said that they were still they still wanted to um eliminate the guest wi Wi-Fi for the most part so I'm not really sure what they're planning because when I spoke to them it was still off and they wanted to remain off so I think it may still be off but there's a password circulating among students I haven't been on it I think um I think well I thought you could log in with your credentials those so those that's I think that's what they shut off the credentials aren't working yeah okay so maybe we can talk to tech office about we'll have we people look into itk so and we we we share your concerns so thank you for bringing them to us um and as far as um Hispanic Heritage Month and and Black History Month what would your um preferred um how would you like to see it celebrated um I think when I talked to um Azie from alos he expressed that it' be best to have it run as an all day event or at least like four class periods because if you have it as just one um like hourlong assembly you can't fit the entire School in there you can only fit two grades maximum and um it just becomes very crowded so um to have it run as one day and also having everyone being able to participate I think they mentioned having like four like having like I think what they did in the past was having every gym period go to the assembly which I think worked really well yeah and it was just like it was it was one day like it wasn't a multiple multip day thing so I I would suggest that I mean we don't get involved in school level programming but to speak with um Mrs Miss Burge and um just let her know um because she did a very nice job advocating for it and uh it makes a lot of sense to do it the way but I don't I can't you know I'm also not teaching a science class that has an AP on May 5th I get it yeah but we appreciate um you're sharing those concerns with us thank you um all right on to better news oh I'm sorry I thought you were done but no we still we still have now we're going we have a couple more things so as for good news um our football team did win homecoming for the first time in 10 years we are so happy and they also won divisions um they're so they're going to playoffs on Saturday which I'll be there as from Cheer which we also had a homecoming dance which was Barbie themed so that was fun um boy soccer got their first ever CBC tournament title and girls 5all got their third straight bcsl title I'm not sure what that means but I think it's really I think it's really good I think it's really good um and also homework free weekend was almost homework free um I don't want Nikolai but I only have about eight hours of homework for between two classes so I think that's pretty good honestly it's the best you can ask for um and then also with college apps approaching um we must be a little frazzled so true and we moved our whole meeting around so you could go thank you very much I mean that's why we're here so I appreciate you're letting us know go ahead well more good things is the school lunches those have improved so much they yeah Round of Applause for that I got a yesterday I went to the cafeteria they had like chili cheese dogs and I took a bite of one and it's a whole grain bun and that's that's next level so yeah that that's been great and uh at like at the start of the Year there was a line that went farther and never gone and I was really worried about that because the first day I think it was like the Bell had rung and kids were still in line but they have more people Staffing the registers and I know like across the board I have a brother at River side and he says the lunch is better so thank you yep show early yeah so that's amazing and then school spirit was something that I had at first as something to work on um and I'm sure there's still room to grow but it really our schools impressed me this year I remember like another great thing is uh new hires Dr or Mr  uh is a chemistry teacher now and I was sitting with him at the pep rally he leaned over and he goes Nikolai I've never seen a school like this I said what's that I mean he goes He the school spirit is amazing and this year I've gotten through five times as much coursework as I would have been able to in any District that I've taught at before um and I think it is really incredible what y'all do and I want to just say that again because I think High School is supposed to be a challenging time and it's really easy for students to take that and then turn it into something that can make the school system or the school seem like it's not doing its best for them but really like it this is such a special high school and we're very grateful for it um but school spirit I think has been wonderful we've had Spirit weeks where everyone comes in wearing kind of like themed outfits we had groutfit day where everyone wears all gray um we have spirit days on Friday always which is blue and white and people are coming out for the sports games and I think one thing that we can do in general to keep that going is just get the whole student body in one place more times um I know like I grew up in Arkansas and our whole school every day would start the day off in the gym everyone would be there and we'd have announcements and I get like now yeah now we we're in high school and there's a lot more people and so we can't do that um but I do think that just something about having people together and I I think it can emerge as much less clicky than a lot of high school can be when you force people together so I think that's something to put out um one thing we really do need to work on and I think all y'all children in the district know this is academic Integrity um last week I saw a teacher saw somebody with a a paper that had all the answers to a quiz on it and they just they took the paper and said you can't have that and that that was it um people have like shared uh Google Drives with past assignments and tests from past years this last year we had a an essay assignment that was about Ai and schoolwork and I saw somebody using chat GPT to write it which I thought was amazing um not amazing isn't a good thing to do but just the guts um [Laughter] but I know y'all have passed uh and are working on an AI plan I think that's a great thing to do I think that's going help but ultimately I think we we already have measures in place about academic integrity and they aren't really doing the job they should be and so I fear that could happen with the AI plan too and so I wanted to suggest um I was reading a lot about kind of how to best fix this issue and it seems a lot of schools have created kind of student councils maybe separate from student council maybe it could be integrated but to deal with academic Integrity because I think if you can instill those values in the student body instead of the administration that it becomes something that we start to believe in right now I know a lot of kids view homework I mean view view cheating almost us to something they've talked to me and said it feels like something they have to do to like keep up instead of you know if sometimes I think it would usually be something you do to get ahead but it seems like a lot of people are feeling like because we have a school that can be so competitive and it's we get so much done this school and we do learn a lot but I think that also does create an environment where you do have cheating so I wanted to put the idea out of a student L academic Integrity board um and they could you know I think it would need to have teacher oversight and um kind of work between teachers and students but I think that'll be great and then the last thing I wanted to mention is test scheduling and I get that in high school right we have deadlines the quarters ending in so of course we're going to have a lot of tests now but I think in general it does seem to be a trend where people will just have like four tests on the same day so tomorrow I got this mannering test and then I have AC choir assessment and so that's that's not too bad but I think having even just like a shared Google Calendar between teachers showing when their assessments are we don't want to you know move their flexibility too much because teachers need to be getting work done we have deadlines like you said like they got an AP test to prep 4 um but I think the more we can have communication between teachers to avoid things lining up on the same day would be really helpful to students yeah I had one block day where I had four tests it was like one two it was it was only four periods long but I had four like 90 minute tests back toback and it was it was not fun um all right our last thing and then we're done I promise is um we were hoping to um create like a we're hoping to create like a summary of the board meeting so I know we have the Gen minutes um but I think a lot of students well I know I looked at it once I was like I don't know what this means so I think um like us creating a summary um to be either to give to miss birs where she can put out or like on Instagram or on like a website so that they can see it um I think that'd be really helpful I think there are people interested in knowing what the board does I think when I looked at the superintendent Forum most of the people there didn't know what a superintendent even did um and I think yeah doesn't do Transportation so I think um just having like a quick like paragraph summary of like what we did this like obviously you can write that um I'm sure you've noticed Nicola and I sometimes scribbling or like typing on it's not just to look busy someone asked me that actually someone asked me if we're just like we're there to look busy like no no we do we do write stuff down um but I think um placing it on Instagram or like sharing with Miss Burge so that she can send an email out would be great for students to just be more aware of what's Happening I think so that's a great idea we do um a a version that goes to the parents could go to you as well but I think having your perspective would be really interesting thank you and I just would love to say I really appreciate hearing from you I I appreciate hearing what you don't think is working and what you do think is working we talk about a lot of a lot of the issues youve brought up we've talked about in different committees and we really appreciate the work that right for many years that our administrators and our teachers are doing but you are the reason we are all here and so we just really um applaud you for taking the time to put that together and we welcome these reports thank you thank you for your time thank you now go study sure and I was wondering where your train came from Nikolai you from Arkansas originally where yeah fille F oh oh University of Arkansas yeah got go raise the back sorry I all right um good night good luck on the test all right byebye um so moving back um ah the president's report so welcome to this meeting um welcome again uh I mean we're about the kids uh that was a great report um so uh I won't keep us delayed because I know there's a Yankee game that's starting in 18 minutes um so we're g to move on to uh the first item which is the PMS uh wingman report and principal Burr is going to come tell us all about it and please let us know who's with you so good evening good evening it's nice to see everybody nice to see you thank you uh wish everybody a good week as uh those of us some of us are getting prepared to celebrate Halloween and others of us are getting ready for dealy on Friday so celebration to people in the community and best wishes I'm here this evening with our my eighth grade counselor Miss Heather Steel and of course my family liaison Miss Trinidad Rodriguez and um this presentation is a little bit about our partnership with wingman so I want to start by thanking Dr two um last fall 2023 Dr 2 right around this time coordinated uh an invitation with our friends at cranberry middle school so a quick hello to our friends over there as well um because they were beginning their yearly training for wingman and um it had been a discussion between Dr 2 and upper Administration that the Middle School school was looking for something to improve student to- student relationships and also student leadership and I had the opportunity on that day uh to meet Mr uh Ian hawkley um Dylan's wings of change is an organization that he founded um and Mr hawkley founded that organization um uh in honor of his son Dylan uh his son Dylan was one of the first graders uh who was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School and he created this this organization about this idea of we need to create empathetic leaders empathetic leaders are the ones who are going to lead us through uh they're going to inspire us uh they're going to uh encourage us they're going to create hope and in schools we're outnumbered uh as a staff um our kids we have 800 strong and and we have to start putting some of the responsibility on them uh to to help build and manage and help create the kind of culture that we want to see and it's up to everybody to be creators of the school culture that they want so um Mr hawkley was a an inspiration um he he created this place where I got a chance to see some of the team building and of course this is the wingman's mission if you scroll up to nurture empathy Empower courage and Inspire hope in people of all ages but this is the part the belief that everybody matters um I have 803 students everyone matters uh everybody every family sends me somebody special and we take that very seriously um we had three days of training um if you want to move to the next slide this is some of our wingmen actually doing an activity together um we have 16 eighth grade leaders that we're very proud of they participated in three full days of training uh to not only learn the games um but to learn how to lead grade students you know um we got a firsthand look this week we're in our second activity you're going to hear about that but we're asking eighth graders to stand up and facilitate um that's a that that's an amazing skill uh that we're starting to develop with our leaders um and they as a group grew clo grew closer together in this game there was a number of different dice on the ground and they could only use one finger to assemble the dice in different Fashions so they quickly figured out if you take a look from the image they quickly figured out that they needed each other to get it done and that's the message right we all need each other um I think it's Heather's going to talk a little bit about our first activity which is on the next side but before I get to that there's the wingman pledge winning is not everything remember to include everyone never shut anyone down um go above and beyond and step up and take the lead um we had a great first game just a couple weeks ago Heather's going to speak about our results so a couple weeks ago we started with our first activity this was a very surface level to help build community within the classroom where all students in the classroom circled up and they faced different challenges where everyone was included and they had to pass the ball between everybody in the same order every game and then we added challenges like a second ball going backwards and as you can see in the picture one of our students is holding a rubber chicken and for this challenge they had to come up with strategies and work together to pass the chicken with making the least amount of noise as possible so they not only got a chance to work together as a team um they also had to call out each other's names and it's important to note that in this building community and um culture within the school even six weeks into the school year every classroom somebody learned at least one person's name that they didn't know before even though they've been having classes together these first weeks so and then for our Second Challenge which we um did did this week Trinidad will explain that one with the Second Challenge which is commonalities mingle uh the students all needed to build a connection and interact with with each other and also realize that even though they have their own opinions they can also form a team and realize that they all have similar opinions but then at the same time also respect that people are going to have another opinion um differently than what the rest of the team has um but with that said some of the topics that were discussed was favorite color favorite season favorite school subject and it went into even do you prefer an ice cream cone or do you prefer an ice cream cup we had one student that was undecided and actually went over to the ice cream cup it got a little intense but it stayed positive um so I feel like the students are definitely enjoying it are remembering what wigman is about leadership and inclusive uh including everyone um so thank you so I think as a final thought that I I kind of wanted to mention is number one we want to thank our 16 eth graders uh they gave up three full days of classes had to make up the work and you know we had to work with them to get them to see like you kind of have to see the long road here and and with one of them I had to whisper in their ear and I actually had to say hey look I actually think you're going to be a better student in the long term when you're 14 when you're 16 when you're 20 like like because you've had this experience so hang in there I know there's a shortterm loss but um I also want to assure everybody that um you know I get started with transition with Rising fifth grade parents in February now and I think that that transition topic is really important to our families um and we think about a transition and all that we do to get people in the building and then for some reason most of us we stop transitioning we oh you're here now so let's stop I view this as a real opportunity to actually embrace sixth graders and build some Community with them when they're all together in the building we're doing this in pause classes we do an entire house in a day so every sixth grader has gotten the first game um will continue on Monday so that every sixth grader has the second game and something else that Heather and Trinidad alluded to that I want to make sure that we say we began with a ball game and there was some some difficulty with that and some communication skills and it moved to the commonalities mingle but the games start more surface level and that's the phrase that Heather used and we're hoping to continue to go deeper and deeper with our activities be able to bring out more and more from our kids so um the last slide is dedicated to those 18 smiling faces they all came up with their own own symbol for how they wanted to pose on this with the wingman and the wingman logo comes with a butterfly uh so they wanted to find a way to uh put that out there and um we're very grateful to them and we're grateful for your time this evening thank you for letting us present this exciting program so thank you thank you for joining us uh Mr Burr Heather and Trinidad we appreciate it you we like to start our board meetings focusing on kids because that's why we're here yep um and I just wanted to so this morning woke up to a quote um by Paul wellstone he was a a senator from Minnesota and he died um in a plane crash many years ago um and he said we all do better when we all do better so thank you thank you very much nice to see everybody see you too and so you'll be doing these like all year the the hope is that we're going to continue to do these activities for the entirety of the year um you know it takes us about eight days to cycle through both houses we're going to take a timeout after two games and kind of organize our kids and recalibrate again and then we'll come come through with the second round of games great and are you getting feedback from the kids positive and negative we get both and we when we try to debrief after every pause period too and talk to the kids how do you think that went and um again like I I want to emphasize eighth graders um don't have the same um leadership of students that say our experienced teachers do I think that makes sense right and they are Amazed by what it takes to manage and they're also Amazed by themselves which that's what we want to always give our kids right the chance for them to be reflective and to realize hey I I got this thank you thank you thank you so much thank you all thank you best wishes take care um moving on now to Betsy for the superintendent search update yes um hi good evening it's a just a short update we've entered the confidential phase of this search but I have three um items to say first just again echoing our thanks for the wonderful Community um input in that in that phase of our search we had over 500 surveys returned and over 200 people attended staff students as we heard and um community members parents attend a focus group or um a forum so we really really appreciate everyone's feedback um secondly the Recruitment and advertising has begun for this um search our search Consultants are very very hard at work and our search committee is meeting with them again on Halloween on Thursday so we stay in close touch with them and the search is moving along so we just want to thank the community again for their input and we'll continue to keep you posted thank you um moving on now to the superintendent's report good evening everyone um I'm going to uh turn the program over for a very short few minutes um to Dr Angelo ciso stance and Mr Corey laramore who's just going to um they're both going to share um a quick highlight on our safety and security update okay well thank you for letting us uh just give a brief overview of our work this year for safety and security as you know that's a very uh top priority for all of us in our district and in my new role I get the privilege of working very closely with Corey lore um as the school special safety specialist um his role I'm just going to brag on you for a minute um his role is yeah sorry and the report is great his role is really critical because he is really the liaison for us as a district office and with all of the buildings in our district along with our police department and the office of emergency management so it's really important that Corey is really like boots on the ground making sure that certain things are in place and also increasing the communication that that we need to ensure that specifics are happening and that we're always um looking at how we improve upon our responses and our communication so this he makes it a little bit easier to get through some of this um and we're very grateful for his for his work um so if you can go to the next slide thank you so of course our goal for across the district is to ensure a safe and secure learning environment for our students and staff through relationships preparedness and emergency response training next slide please um so we just tried to break this down into like manageable chunks so that we can really understand all the components of school safety and when we think about this we think about three major areas so one is physical safety um and that's really about like facilities and making sure that there are structures in place um for for safety in our buildings so Corey if you want to talk a little bit about some of this is the referendum work that we've been doing to improve upon some of our structure so maybe you can just talk a little bit about that sure um first and foremost um with the referendum passing it was a great benefit to be able to add all of the different pieces to making sure that our students and staff are stay throughout the district uh one of the things that I can speak on uh first that comes to mind is actual entry points that come coming into the building the additions to the pack um making sure that you're entering not only through the front main entrance but also that same representation is going to be reflecting in the back at PHS through the pack um another piece is the additional cameras that's been added throughout the district I think total we have about 150 um cameras throughout the district District now um to where all the building monitors have access and able to see the cameras up front now to where before it was one building monitor assigned to the watching the cameras now all of our building monitors can have them and have the resources available to them to receive what they need and see outside the building and inside the building at the same time as they're watching the doors thank you um the second component that we um really is important to us is the emotional psychological safety of our students um and that means that we are intentionally delivering social emotional learning lessons really from prek to 12 um recognizing that also um your social emotional being is just as important if not maybe a slight bit more than academic um success and so making sure that we have counselors available at all of our buildings that we're working closely with our case managers and that we're also connecting resources in our community for our students and for our families um and then the third component is procedures plans and communication um and this really is thre is a thread throughout all of our work you know making sure that we're updating our procedures every year whether staff is new to us or some staff has have retired making sure that our evacuation plans are up to date um especially keeping in mind new construction or new routes that start to pop up um making sure that we're communicating those plans and practicing that with our staff and with our students and then communication whether it's a preventative or um a reactive uh drill or or emergency so again just making sure that we're staying on top of those three uh components of school safety I want to add one thing um we're continuing on from last year adding uh student representations at our safety team meetings so that we can be in all one Accord when it comes to getting the information um distributed and also knowing what the students prefer and what the needs are and or how they want to address certain issues so I wanted to add that piece okay so we talk about this with the three PS um so people prevention and procedures um as we know one of the foundational pieces of school safety is really making sure that we're building relationships and getting to know our students um this is super critical because we can then notice if our students aren't themselves um where we can check in we can ask them how they're doing we can make those connections with counselors or case managers um and we can also reach out to families to say you know Angelo just wasn't herself today is there anything that we need to know or can we help in any way um and that's super important because that helps Bridge those Partnerships and it also helps build trust so that students then feel like they can tell um adults in their building if there's something that they've seen or something that they've heard that they don't feel comfortable with so that doesn't happen unless we have a trusting environment that students feel like they can report uh without it being um retaliated or whether there be a consequence um and working on school climate as we all know we talk about this in many of our conversations it takes a lot of time to build positive School culture um and that really is all about the relationships um and I know that across the district uh we are all committed to making sure that we get to know our students and our families and that we work together um the the second one prevention is really making sure again that our every school building has their school safety team in place they also serve as the uh behavior and threat assessment team so they have dual roles making sure that our drills are practiced every month there's a requirement of two drills one is a fire drill and one is an an other drill I'll say so whether that's a lockdown shelter in place communication drill um evacuation relocation and so just making sure that we practice those this way if that we ever have to implement that we can um you know some of you might have heard about a river overflowing at Johnson Park where we had to evacuate and so you know now we have that that that plan in place that if we ever have to do that again we're ready to go um and then procedures just really making sure that we have those structures in place to talk about internal and external threats um and of course this runs the gamut um and external threat can simply be that there is a bear close to campus I mean it's really some of these M it's happened um so it's these you know some of these smaller things that again we just have to make sure that we have a procedure in place um training is is really key and uh again this is something that Corey is really good about making sure that all of us Administration and some of our teaching staff are um able to join some of the trainings that occur throughout the state um and then if we're not able to go Corey always represents the district and then can TurnKey that um with all of us one thing I want to add as reference to the training um we're about to begin um adding training for our building monitors and front-end staff during professional develop Kimberly look at the thumbs up I got it so she's going to be receiving um communication with myself about dates in reference to getting that in place all right yes yes so really a lot of work um and just making sure that we're up to date everyone is aware and that we're communicating okay thank you so much really appreciate it okay and and Angela I was just saying that you don't have to worry about the river overflowing because it doesn't rain here anymore that is very true yeah and I just can I just add as you on behalf of the policy committee I really appreciate this presentation tonight because we have these things that come down from the state that are very complex you know kind of bureaucratic they look like these terrible requirements how are we going to do it it's it's a lot of words and then you put it into something that really brings us back to you know uniting our community every child known it brings back to our our mission and values and it feels really good to hear what you're doing with the with the whole community so thank you for that I appreciate it and Corey too good night Corey thanks for staying oh you're here I thought you left that's great um Dr Foster did you have anything else yes we're happy to present the um our our um our uh recommendations for uh the 2025 Bond referendum oh I do have one um exciting announcement uh before we begin um so as you know um the township and um uh the the district has been working uh collaboratively to try to uh find uh alternative polling places um for uh you know uh voting for um the different election days um I have good news to share we're we still need to work but um we did get um voting out of Riverside for the upcoming November and um uh June uh primary days and so that's really exciting so the only polling place left is Littlebrook and I know um that uh mayor Freda uh Raina Harris um Matt Balden and I are and of course uh Debbie braunfeld um it was leading the charge um we will make sure that we um you know that's our that's our goal to find an alternative uh site for that so that's really good news though for us thank you and you think it would be easier than it is but apparently it's a very big bureaucratic process that the town is working with us on so we're very to the mayor and the town clerk for helping us ABS one more to go one more to go okay thank you all right and so now we're moving on to G1 which is the um referendum presentation yes all right all right good evening uh we are really excited to share our recommendations for the upcoming 2025 Bond referendum um I always want to um start by extending deep gratitude um to the leadership team and the Board of Education who've worked tirelessly and collaboratively together to think and plan proactively as we invest in the future for our students while serving as good stewards of the community as you know at our April 30th uh 2024 board meeting the long-term planning projects were approved by the board of education once we received approval from the Department of Ed recently and we gathered feedback from the courtesy review with the township planning board and finalized our plans once again we're now ready to determine how we will present this Bond referendum to voters behind the scenes we've worked non-stop with District stakeholders to determine how we can best frame referendum questions for the January 28th um vote to provide voters the greatest possible degree of choice concerning the proposed plans to expand and refurbish spaces in four of our schools so we always have to start with our mission the students are at the center of every decision we make in Princeton we prioritize our instructional spaces for our programs and services we provide small class sizes and we love our neighborhood school so our students can find joy and purpose in learning so these are the goals for the 2025 referendum and I'll just let you read those and we want to share our recommend recommendations with you now we look to our data to make decisions regarding the referendum questions which includes student enrollment what's happening in the township with new developments home resales and what our neighbors and families can afford I'm going to turn it over to Matt so we've been working with um our current planners for a little over five years now um these are are upto-date um the I should say their up-to-date demographic enrollments um we consistently meet with them throughout the year uh we have them updated uh in February um we're tracking slightly under um the most recent U estimates uh one of the main reasons uh Dr Foster and two and I met with the planners um the the churn on the existing sales um in the community aren't aren't providing as many uh students over the last probably three years as normal so once that takes up again along with the developments we're seeing anyone who goes over to the shopping center or up on uh the edge of town over by uh Montgomery on the harant toown uh save property where they used to be an animal shelter many years ago uh now um those three developments will be coming online soon um so that's going to be fueling our near-term uh growth um the planners and demographers they're they're both um reminded us that 85% of the growth uh in student enrollment in a community does come from existing home sales uh you know slightly counter to itive than you would think you look at all the newer properties and uh so it's slightly counterintuitive uh this is uh shows where a lot of the development is right on the edge of uh the current community park and Little Brook uh ascending zones um as uh part of the uh referendum and passing that um there will be you know redistricting of these zones um one of the things we learned early on for our plan maners is that you know redistricting you know people get a little fearful but you know the majority of the people actually that are affected by redistricting aren't the same people as you know are in those uh schools now so um but uh most um the registrating will likely you know affect about 25% of the population um and uh some of the sites I just mentioned three sites that are coming online within the next uh three or four months there been uh an announcement of um the fourth round of fair share housing which is mandated um from federal La through the states uh and it is uh 276 units but however you have to remember that that means it'll be more units because the developers you know there are incentives and tax incentives which are very lucrative but they're offset by market rate housing so when you look at some of the developments and it depends by development by development and it is a little far off in the future probably five to seven years um so um that will be affecting future growth um there's a site right um where the students used to park on Franklin Street um that's been delayed probably for uh 18 months uh but that will probably uh happen sometime in 2027 um so plenty of building in town very uh desirable um town to live in so um this is what some of the things that are are fueling our um our growth uh through the demographers estimates not sure if I missed something or not but feel free to jump in I think we're good I just want to say it's 160 units on Franklin Street that people don't projected 160 yeah half affordable is was the original plan I don't know if that's going to change or not I haven't and people don't see that one yet because it hasn't started but it will start yeah it was supposed to be half affordable so okay thank you um so um we uh are recommending that we pose three questions for our bond referendum so why three questions uh we want to be good student stewards of the Princeton Community with the enrollment projections the timelines for projects and the potential tax impact from the acquisition of Westminster through the township we want to be sensitive to the capacity of our taxpaying families we believe all projects are needed as we go forward and we want to highlight that we've removed uh the community park um parking lot um as we work collaboratively collaboratively with the township to share some of their adjacent Lots again with the potential tax impact of Westminster property we're allowing our community members to decide on the level of investment they want to make in our schools so we've uh ordered them in the following way question one will focus on on community park and the um Princeton High School HVAC uh we feel that this is um an urgent need and uh that will maintain um our uh uh Elementary programs and um also um uh respond to the end of life um uh service um hbac um boilers that are currently in our schools question two is a musthave uh as we address um the enrollment uh at at uh the high the high school and the middle school and we'll talk about each of these questions in more details in a minute and then uh the third question focuses on um the expansion at Littlebrook uh and that um is uh will need very shortly uh and so again we're dividing the questions to allow the taxpayer choice okay so our first question um is Community Park expansion and PB phac I'm going to talk about the community park and I'm going to let met talk about the aack not my area of expertise um but the extensive upgrades are proposed at the centrally located Community Park Elementary School to accommodate more elementary students while increasing walkability as a neighborhood school which I know um goes beyond the goals of the school district but also the goals of our larger Community about walkability and sustainable Princeton um additional classrooms and expanded cafeteria and larger gym and multi-purpose room music room and Library would provide essential St uh space to maintain Community Parks DLI program which prepars students to become bilingual at an early age while also offering a traditional track for neighborhood students and that will help alleviate um pressure on some of our transportation routes and enrollment in our other buildings by allowing the neighborhood students in that CP catchment to attend a local school um so I can talk a little bit about why community park again before Matt goes to HVAC um so it's exactly what um I just shared but then for folks who um aren't watching the recording they'll have the PowerPoint to go through um the examples um but once again it's we need Elementary space CP is in the center of town it makes sense to add the space there excellent um so I'll talk a little bit about HVAC it's one of those uh polarizing topics I feel like you can never please everybody with HVAC but obviously we want to please the most amount of people it's either too warm too cold I happen to be a little warm right now is it the HVAC or is it just me um no but seriously the uh the when we would start this work would be uh 22 years into the system we're going to uh replace we're going to refurbish the chillers if you will um and 250 classroom unit ventilators um to improve the uh staff com uh the student staff comfort and health in the rooms um we're going to be repl repacing end of life uh rooftop air handlers um they're all well over 20 years old we're going to be um replacing the Steam Heat with hot water heat which will be more energy efficient um so we hope to save somewhere between $1 150 to $200,000 a year in energy and maintenance costs so I'm really excited about that um you know it's it's pretty much a must have we've spent all awful lot of uh effort over the last five years uh I'm sorry well yeah it is about five years the other five schools um working on their edac and we're consistently uh making sure that um because you know the uh proper um a proper functioning HVAC system does affect uh our students and staff so uh so closely so Matt did you talk about the state funding as well I'm going to jump into that right now so we look at the community park the HVAC itself as uh Dr Foster reminding me thank you uh does get back the full uh percentage of of state aid um so which helps increase the uh overall percentage on the first question um which is just under 20% the state has interesting ways to fund things um it's it's if you read the questions which will be voted on after this it says 40% but they PR rate things quite often when they start to run out of money so um it's 85% of 40 which is 34% if you qualify for the maximum Aid um and then um a fair amount of the Community Park expansion is our new or um additions and the additions uh we don't qualify for any Aid um but if we did it would only be $143 a square foot Which is far short of the somewhere around 500 to 600 Uh current estimates um we have to bid the work so it's always kind of uh difficult to exactly know how much will end up paying per square foot um but when we rehab or or renovate um part of the school which this project will do there'll be plenty of areas renovated we do get that uh 34% this project is estimated uh we're budgeting uh at the question 30 just under $38 million so 37.9 um thatb service Aid of almost 20% the effect on the average tax uh assessment the average homeowner if you will which is sort of estimated at about uh about $853,000 a year um so that would be the effect um these estimates are just that estimates it depends um when we Bond the interest rates when we Bond how uh long the maturity is since there's a fair amount of HVAC in this project um we we are going to be doing 25 years um when you're doing auditions and Renovations uh you can safely bond for 30 years is uh prudent financially to you don't want to be paying for things after they uh break so you want to be fiscally responsible um yeah 3.75% is the uh estimate we're using now uh so we um we hope that uh we it'll be under that we never know what the bond markets um so next we're going to walk you through um the expansion proposals for um PMs and PHS which are tied together um so when we reviewed the enrollment projections as Matt was talking about the churn not being expected because of high interest rates and low inventory um you know across the country not just in Princeton um we notic that um there's still enrollment projections that are increasing at the secondary level but not at the rate at the elementary um level that we're experiencing um so in our plans Matt if you want to move to the next slide um if you have students at Princeton middle school or of a recently experienced princeon Middle School you know it's it's tight there uh the cafeteria is undersized we only have one gymnasiums most um middle schools in our area that have the size number of students you heard Mr bers 803 um we're projected to get closer to that 900 number have two gyms they have an auxiliary gym space we are fortunate that we have um a pool in our Middle School which we utilize for PE but when you think about indoor recess um group meeting spaces and things like that and just having another you know classroom sections of physical education um you can't have three classes in the pool at once um so we really do need um these additional spaces not just for instruction but you know for wellness too um we don't have as many science labs um at the middle school level and when we look at creating Innovative Global Citizens who are critical thinkers tying back to our portrait of our graduate skills we want to have science experiences across our prek through 12 um experience and not just um at the high school as well as um classrooms so two full-size classrooms but also three flexible learning spaces um one of the things that we have in our uh Princeton Community are are older buildings and so um they're not modern meaning the sense that our programming is different than maybe in the 1960s or 70s when a lot of the hallways and the buildings were sort of set up um so we need small group instructional spaces and flexible spaces so this room has a divider um we would have a more solid wall divider in a classroom so you could have two small group instruction rooms or a larger um flexible um whole group room we need this for ESL programming Quest programming academic support special education programming U maybe smaller classes just in general education um and having that flexibility allows us to kind of meet the kids needs uh where they are and have modern 2025 you know as the referendum is that year um programming and then we would be moving the tech department office from the high school uh to the middle school that would allow for additional classroom spaces um at the high school as well um and a flexible Art Space um with the Numa Gallery so if you've been to the high school at that basement level there's a lot of real estate taken up by our tech department it's an Antiquated space it's an old space um so renovating it and really making it purposeful and having um more um opportunity for kids to have um instructional spaces which we know are tight at the high school will be really beneficial as our enrollment increases I think you hit on these about a larger cafeteria as well yes um if the cafeteria is also undersized for the size of the school and we really value our students having lunch together in their grade level or houses um and that's not going to be possible um soon so we would have to have lunch spread across the day that impacts the schedule um so these big spaces um would and really keep our future needs in mind and we have more large group spaces for PE the Arts indoor recess lunch and more and the building flow did you mention that would be greatly uh improved uh with a better circular flow um yeah so during Bell time it gets very hectic at the middle school um and so by uh you have Pods at the middle school so you walk up steps and it's just like a little circle and then you have to go back down the steps um having these connecting hallways well uh one for safety talking about uh crowd control in the hallways and a lot of bodies being in the hallways um but also just ease of access uh to Rooms across um the building and once they again having a more modern um design and layout thank you um the costs of the project are just over 38 million $ 38.3 million um The Debt Service Aid because there's more additions um in this um project is only 11.2% the uh effect of this individual project um I think uh right now would be a good time to mention that each question uh well question two and three are contingent upon the previous questions passing so um for two uh to pass one has to pass first and then two so the um average effect of this project um on a standable basis is $231 to the average um homeowner in Princeton um on the both the projects you see at the bottom the tax impact would be $458 um we are um and the two combined uh there would be 15.45% that service we're uh continuing to use 3.75% for 27 years I feel like the uh the legal EAS language on the commercials on TV really fast when they speak really fast um but it is important and the overall costs of uh project one of two um is 76205 million okay and the third question focuses on Little Brook Elementary School expansions and Renovations um Little Brook upgrades uh would add space to better support current programming and manage growth while maintaining small class sizes so there'll be six new classrooms uh small group instruction rooms renovation of existing student service um a support services area a new vocal music room and a renovated kitchen excellent um the project cost if this project was broken out individually is just under 13 million 12.91 five million um The Debt Service Aid is lower because it's almost all additional work which is uh doesn't get that service Aid remember that The Debt Service Aid is um the it's a percentage of the principle and interest used to fund the projects um the effect of this uh on a standable basis is $85 a year when you combine the three questions it's 89,1 120,000 um with an estimated total tax impact uh for the average taxpayer on your average assessed value which is not your market value it's it's less uh $543 a year um and uh overall 14.17% Debt Service Aid um with the same at a 27e bond with 3.75% and those are estimates what about um permanent funding for new classes I mean with teachers we' have to fund if you have three new classes teachers yes so we're bonding for the capital um for the uh to build the classrooms so the additional staff um as you point out um building square footage uh we generally look at uh 20,000 square feet per nighttime custodian um that's based on the um National Council for Education statistics and that's kind of what we follow uh would probably need a few more custodians um and as we fill up more classrooms uh we would need uh more teachers so um that is uh part of the uh added costs of um enrollment growth um there is a mechanism in the funding formula to fund that it is a uh tra it's a formula that takes the near-term average of the three years so the most recent three years compared to the prior three years so it's kind of a a six-year moving average um it has kicked in in the past we um so it you're able to raise your taxes above the 2% tax levy cap um when your enrollment growth kicks in over this percentage is based uh as amounts over 1% um and it did kick in uh from 14 to 18 can't remember if it's 15 to 19 I think it was 15 2015 through 2019 the district was utilized uh that enrollment waiver for a number of those years and like with the way the state funds waivers um you don't have to use it all in one year yes so it gives you flexibility I mean it you know we're talking about 2% tax caps right with you know wage inflation and transportation inflation um Rippling through the economy the last three years so it's um it's it's a challenge to fund the operating costs um yeah let them finish and then we'll um ask questions yeah okay uh so we do have to ask um what will happen um if the referendum is voted down um so we know that um there will be some redistricting no matter what um but certainly uh there will be um a major increase in the way in which we redistrict um uh our students uh to the schools and um redistricting probably will begin uh sooner than later um it also impacts um the value that we have now of smaller class sizes class sizes will increase we only have so much space only so many instructional rooms and so that would require um larger uh class sizes it certainly will impact programs and services um that will um require us to make um some decisions and prioritize um what um programs look like um and how um how we service um our students um things like um you know uh certain um art could lose a classroom uh and could be on a cart as an example but there um and and um you know we will be talking more about that in the future and then certainly another possibility is if it if we require more space uh we may need um to bring on U modular classrooms uh we call them trailer and um that um just so you know that the cost of those U modular classrooms um are directly um taken out of the operating budget uh each year and so that would be um an increased cost for our operating budget yes so are there any trailers being used as classrooms right now because I know there are some outside the PHS but I think it's for offic current so so there would be like added trailers to okay um so this slide should look familiar uh we put it twice on uh purpose because we don't want to lose the message that we don't feel that all of these projects are needed we we do feel that all these projects are needed but also understand the climate of tax increases um and knowing that and enrollment um we're not feeling it yet we will feel it um so it's it's hard for people to say you know oh my gosh this is a you know tax increase here for the Westminster property Etc so we're trying to be mindful of that but also articulate that these three questions we feel are needed um and as fourth round obligations come online they will definitely definitely be needed and possibly more um so the first question is a must have to reestablish CP as a neighborhood school and replace end of life heating and cooling systems at PHS um the second question we prioritized the second is a need to have for PMS and PHS to support programs student wellness and student safety and the third question is they will soon need to have for Littlebrook as we address increase enrollment when housing developments are completed and we experience more turn in that existing housing okay so now we open um the floor for the board for questions uh for the recommendation of three questions so thank you very much um Kathy Matt and Kim for that presentation we appreciate it um so the the I guess the summary is um January 28th uh 89.1 million and three questions and the first question has to pass for the second question to pass and the second question has to pass for the third question has to pass and the first question has to pass for the third question to pass and the second the first and the second have to pass they're all contingent they're all contingent right each the second and the third are contingent on the prior question passing okay so you can't have one and three you can't have two and three you can have one and two or one two and right because they're ordered in terms of exactly it's hard to prioritize them but we've essentially prioritized them um which child you like better I like them both if they're listening which they're not um but really well done and the overall tax impact is um 530 5 $42 I run back to for 543 543 okay and that's and that's an estimate right thank you you're welcome um any questions from the board oh one my first one is and again I just start when was this exactly decided I mean I found out last a couple weeks ago um to do do the tier sequential this is we are proposing in other words this is our time now uh at this public board meeting um we are proposing this tiered system because we understand um the challenges and the um tax impacts um from other things such as the property you know the Westminster acquisition uh um as well as um what the taxpayer um can afford but um just to add on to that so I think um this line of thinking followed after you Matt Kim met with the demographers yes correct and felt that this was the right way to POS the question and that was just two weeks ago that was two weeks ago it was yes two weeks ago in light of some of the challenging September um referendums across the state um thank you any other questions yes just a comment let finish ahead no um well more of a comment though I just plain Devil's Advocate though but I think we've discussed and I take a long in a nutshell though we do have continued cost pressure given the current trends the district may continue to face increasing costs particularly in areas such as Transportation employees compensation so we have to look at the fact we might be cutting things too I think it's just important to say that down the road three years four year even earlier um we might have to cut some classes we might have to cut teachers I'm just saying that I think we're in a little bu just from my analysis and I've talked to other people I think we're in a buying and again this is a pH Phil opical thing this is what you want to pass by we pass it numbers it's a numbers game to a lot of people some people are fine with bigger classes some are not some are fine with aging infrastructure some are not but I just want you know and also demographics they've been uncannily to my in my opinion accurate so far but I've looked at the 20 years of prin I've looked at almost 40 years I don't have all the numbers it goes up and down and all around we've had recessions covid you name it cohort survival method how long kids stay so it might it could happen it might not happen as big as we see and birth rates are from what I understand an alltime low I mean this is in our country I think it's been the lowest ever so I just again throwing that all into the pot when we make considerations I I would just add that um before we would ever cut staff um because of budgetary constraints there's a mechanism now where well first we could build uh we could bring the budget to the voters uh so we would um as long as I'm on the board exhaust every opportunity uh that's available to us to ensure that the standard of public education in Princeton continues as it is I agree at the end of the day I don't me personally personally it's it's people who to do run the run the school it's teachers and I not want to keep the staff I just don't want to see the operating budget pressured yeah I just wanted to say one of the reasons we're talking about now is because there's a timeline for for us to get this um printed and and posted and I know we have to get it to the state they have to review it they send it back and forth so anyway that is another reason we're bringing it up right now so just to support why Maya sorry be sorry um I wanted to ask if um would class size increase first or would it be um classes being cut like I IM like the electives um if the referendum were to be voted down yeah I I think it would depend on the level um so you know we would maybe look at our elementary level and say okay we're going to increase class sizes possibly in the Upper Elementary grades before we think about like programming um cuts at the upper levels yeah when we Matt when we talk about timing and Debbie points out the short-term timing what we're doing we're aiming for January and all the things we have to kind of meet but could you also tell us a little bit about timing for what this looks like I mean we're talking about something now in 2025 but when does this translate into actual space for students yeah it's going to take a good um three years probably a little more before we have the buildings done because of the um various you know things that have to be done in site plan um the work with the um Department of um Environmental Protection so the Delaware Ritt and Canal commission which is not on everyone's uh the tip of their tongue but um in this part of this state you know then and that's over overseen by the D which people are more familiar with there's a lot of um and everything we do so one of the hotter topics in town now I'm I'm part of the focus group a very small part but um is the storm water utility um and that's based on legislation we know when we have uh wet weather events now they they they seem to affect us even more and more um you know we've been a little bit lucky lately here but it's really um important so the drcc basically when we put um um impervious uh anything new impervious has to go through them and and so have to mitigate that um like at the high school when we see the Eco lab in the one section then the other Bas in um by the tennis courts um those are there to mitigate heavy rainfalls uh heavy rainfall so um that's one of the things that slows down and then of course site work and then you know you're building a um You're Building onto a school when school needs to continue so you know you just don't have car blunch to um and we would never you know um interrupt uh the education so um some some of the things that that help to add on um to the time frame and then we have to comply with the laws of course public bidding the Office of the State com controller has to review any contract over 12 a half million doll so it's it's a pretty Ser even before the bid specs go out um so you know their attorneys over there they like to you know pick apart things that's what they do I know so there's a lot of time uh that we'll go into and then with referendum of this size um we don't sink a lot of money upfront it wouldn't be prudent you know so we do um as so once it passes then we could um finalize the plans uh so to speak to be submitted to all the different regulatory bodies thank you anyone else maybe you're answer oh sorry no go ahead um did you about is it possible if it does pass so that about with Bond structuring can you wrap um throughout the debt debt structure to minimize initial tax impact is that something that can happen I'm not doing as a general rle uh well there there are rules you can't have any one payment can't be double any other payment that's principal and interest um clearly the the more you pay upfront the more you save on interest so you know interest rates are a little higher than they were two years ago um you know there's no uh Silver Bullet with um you know any kind of uh complex you know that debt structuring I think we've been pretty um prudent with the way we've been going about um financing a lot of uh our debt service has rolled off in recent years so we're going at it piece by piece um we've first focused on maintaining our facilities um over the last three referendums um and now we're you know addressing our um future enrollment and growth you I just want to say yes I think in maintaining reserves you've done a great job I think in my opinion steing this straighten the ship so you know a lot of people um that are involved in that but thank you right anyone else so uh thank you again Matt um and there'll be more information coming out um about the referendum the why the where so just uh keep an eye on your email boxes and and other places um and so now we have um this is going to be we're going to vote on this now yes Mr Balden so this is the resolution providing for a special school district election to be held on January 28th 2025 for consideration of three Bond proposals uh by the legally qualified uh voters of the school district and with that can I get a motion Susan second [Music] Mara DNE Kendall yes Betsy Bago yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman um yes let the people decide I'm sorry that was yes right yes okay good Debbie bronfeld yes Mar fr cheski yes Elanor hubard yes Susan caner yes Brian McDonald yes motion passes right thank you and thank you again for all your work on this and more to come um so now we're going to move on to our first public comment session I apologize for the delay um uh you have three minutes um please uh just say your name and the street you live on we don't need the street number um and the first one up is uh Joan Marshall who I just realized is my neighbor hello to um good evening and thank you for hearing me tonight um this is my first time at the Board of Education meeting uh my daughters 23 25 went through the Princeton school system and and graduated been to college doing well um but as a mother of uh a trans daughter I have some serious concerns about the approach to the lgbtq education in the district um why am I saying something now what concerns me especially is the upcoming Board of Education Election this is because two candidates and I apologize if I mispronounce their names Shen we Z and Lisa Potter have expressed views that I feel are bordering on transphobic uh in an article in the princetonian today Lisa Potter compared children having gender concerns as been in their imagination similar to wanting to be a super superhero queer students in the district deal with emotional bu bullying and are often misgendered how much how must they feel with the hightops program being removed intersectionality not being in the curriculum and in addition the protests outside the school for example I'm angry because those children going into that school with these things going on are frightened if Lisa Potter or Shen waya of voted to the board I am deeply concerned and I hope the incumbents here today keep the lgbtq kids in their mind queer children need our support we talked a lot about tonight about inclusivity about kids getting together they need our support mental health problems and the rate of suicide is higher in this group I hope you really consider this going forward and as additional members join your group I hope you continue to thank you any time I have left I'm giving to Abby okay thank you um Colleen pots is up next hi hi my name is Colleen pots I live on PO Road uh two years ago we attended the um new family orientation at Little Brook School and I texted my husband as I left I'm so glad we moved here um we've been so happy at Littlebrook I was so impressed with Mr Ramirez and continue to be um impressed with his uh dedication to the school and to the students and we've been so happy with the faculty that our children uh the students that our children the teachers that our children have had uh over the last few years um so I'm here today which feels kind of odd giving the last presentation um to ask you to add assistant principles at the elementary level I think that would move our schools from our elementary from excellent to exemplary um and including our children's emotional health um in a bigger way as well as giving more time for for that process and um to further their education um I'm not here speaking for anyone I'm here on my own um but I do ask that you ask your principles you ask your counselors you ask your um Educators what an additional administrator would do for them dayto day for the students day to day um especially with our referendum moving forward hopefully that's still several years from now that we'll see an impact um while an additional administrator could add impact today or at the beginning of next school year whenever that could be um another comment that I had was about the school lunches um my children come home and now compare what salads they eat um and which ones they'll try tomorrow and if there's not croutons they'll pack their croutons um so I wanted to thank you so much for that decision it seems wonderful that you've included nutrition in the whole child approach so thank you um I would ask you to consider um the amount of snacks that are available for the elementary children um perhaps limiting or removing those um because they also do compare what Doritos they bought um so that was something to consider U I was unaware that there there was something happening with high Toops um I was under the impression that it was continuing and I was coming here today to say that the community supports that program as well as access to books we don't know what's going to happen with this election but it concerns me and I I wanted to make sure that you know that we have seen what you've done over the years we have appreciated it we continue to support you and we continue to support those programs so thank you thank you so so um the only change that happened was we're continuing to offer the programming to teach the programming um it's just we're having our own teachers do it um so um we're we we we're aware of um the sobering statistics uh that affect um lgbtq and transgender TR um children and um it's at the top of our minds always um next up is uh Abby call back and I do just want to say you're here you can say um anything you want really anything but um you know you you have uh you know you're responsible for what you say so not trying to um limit the discourse just wanting to put that out there wow okay um I'm wondering if I should amend anything that I'm about to say based on that but we're gonna go see what it see how it flies Okay Okay first I'd like to preface my statement with expressing my utmost annoying that I'm standing here tonight instead of reading bedtime stories with my children at home but alas I standing here before you to express my utmost concerned for how the loudest and angriest voices in the room have pushed their agenda and made our school Community not only less welcoming but also most dangerous for our vulnerable community members and two of these voices are now running for bard of Ed Shenia and Lisa Potter last fall amongst the Uproar against high tops a parent organized a meeting with a handful of parents and many of you to angrily expressed their fear that the mere discussion of the plight of lgbtq and other historically minoritized communities would somehow make their children gay or transgender or make them feel that some people's walks through life are harder than their own and feel bad about it all but one other parent who spoke was vehemently opposed to the pathways to racial literacy curriculum parents um including parents whose children never attended the middle schools in which the course was taught the anger open hostility was poppable when it was my turn to speak I began with saying I would be offering a different perspective than the previous speakers and would be lowering the temperature in the room grown men sitting mere feet away started yelling at me so loudly that the security guard down the hallway came into this room to intervene for my safety so what was my statement I'll paraphrase it I speak today as a neuroscientist Ally and mother as a developmental neuroscientist I experiment mented with how influential one's environment is for proper brain development and behavioral maturation all of us at this meeting today want to ensure that the environment our children go to schooling is safe nurturing and supportive for each of our children how can we do this as an Allied to members of the lgbtq community and hopefully considered a friend of underrepresented peoples I've learned and seen that educating our children and Community how to treat each other with respect and kindness is critical to creating our desired learning environments as a mother it aches my heart that other adults are scared of their children learning compassion for others we all have children and we were all children ourselves no child willingly chooses to be different from the status quo and move along the spectrum of gender or sexuality The Pride you see in those who do Embrace these alternative genders or Partnerships is a learn Pride to overcome the hurt and bigotry found around them I went on to discuss how gender identity develops around 3 to 5 years of age and how to talk to children of all ages about gender sexual orientation and race in developmentally appropriate ways based on best scientific studies in an attempt to continue the dialogue with these angry parents in a less intense environment I asked the organizer to meet for coffee she asked to invite the behind the scenes coordinator for this anti-woke postering who is none other than the Board of Ed candidate shenu Xiao funny that just this week he said that all he did was sign a petition against this curriculum to close I want to Advocate specifically for Board of Ed candidates Kristen tarpo Erica Snyder and Board of Ed member Mara francesi sorry who are great champions of our public school system to provide highquality education that encompasses both academic rigor diversity equity and inclusion and we would like to have a more nuanced discussion around um what are the different candidates can have um and you can find that at the PPS Board of Ed um election discussion on Facebook thank you thank you um and just for the uh the board does not get involved in book selection uh we leave that to our Educators sometimes we hear about some of the books and we might have some questions I have asked why don't we teach um To Kill a Mockingbird uh for years and years and years but it's not on the curriculum oh well so we don't uh the board does not get involved in book selection period and um I guess some of the candidates want to well so um again we're the board um oversees the schools we're not responsible for administering the schools that's what the professionals who are trained and educated in education do and so we'll be guided by them uh and we have a a very thoughtful staff across the board including all our Librarians um and we support them unequivocally all right and it's very sad that I have to even say that um moving on now uh lyanna jeni hello everybody um I am actually the opposite Abby I'm very glad not to be doing bedtime because it's tough It's a tough time um thank you and thank you both Joan and Abby for for sharing um I'm also here because partially because of the upcoming election I'm very grateful to have met with a number of you uh in the recent weeks to really share more about our work um focusing on Equity at Princeton nursery school and I'm here tonight again as a member of the black community here in Princeton not speaking for but um but representing our black community and I do want to just be fully transparent that our current board and the potential new board will have a lack of representation from the black and brown Community which is concerning um and I have shared that as research shows the higher up in leadership you get the less diverse it becomes um for a lot of systemic reasons and so here to speak tonight just to really see if I can share three specific points for a board that may lack these voices how we can really keep them front of mine um and the first is just by listening and I did have this conversation a lot where the conversations are there and the voices might be a little bit quieter they're not maybe as angry or even present in this room tonight um so really making sure that when they are heard they're really prioritized I went to an equity committee meeting and then the issue of um the celebrations changing from Hispanic Heritage Month and Black History Month to outside of the school day came up and was really discussed unfortunately there was no solution proposed but when a student came and spoke and it was a black student she specifically shared that this moment for black students uh in increase Community for them and so the data we had just heard from the from the principal of the high school showed that black students aren't really feeling a sense of community and they're feeling this lack of Engagement and so when we hear the data and we hear the voices some change can happen um or should happen and I do understand that it might not necessarily be the job of the board to do that but I know that diversity Equity inclusion is and so is that something we can prioritize the second is really to increase access if the board doesn't have the representation of these communities can we make the meetings more accessible for them Zoom links aren't sufficient access to it can these meetings be held at the different schools can they be held during the school day maybe at breakfast um or pickup to really make sure that if parents are already there we're allowing them to have more access to it and the third is really just to shift from talking to action um and it seems really simple but the conversations are had and I'm very appreciative from day one of my time here in Princeton I've heard the conversations happening but I haven't really heard let's try step one two and three and so just quickly in my 28 seconds I'm going to propose maybe some ideas and sometimes these times of change especially in leadership can really lead to Innovation and so the first is for the topic of a lack of Spanish-speaking counselor could we try a virtual counselor could there be a track for local community members to get their counseling degree or certification maybe former graduate or graduates of Princeton High School for the topic of over targeting behavior for black and brown students could it maybe be a shift to um supporting teachers to promote positive interactions and a good ratio is a three to one interaction for three positive and one um constructive and it could really shift to a five to one and then for the achievement Gap I'll Just sh again say share again that there are really Exemplar institutions that have all black and brown students that have no Gap um and so thank you so much very appreciate thank you um and that is it for our sign up list is there anyone else in the audience who would like to speak now okay no one all right we'll move on let me just get back to my agenda okay um all right uh J1 harassment intimidation and bullying we have K1 first reading of policies K2 second reading of policies then we're moving on to the board committee highlights uh and we'll start with Equity uh with Debbie BR great so the next Equity meeting will be November 11th at 5:30 at the middle school where we will be discussing courageous conversations with Kesha Smith Carrington and we hope you can join us thank you thank you Debbie uh next up is long-term planning with Beth Beth is going to speak thank you um the long-term planning committee met on October 17th and discussed how to structure the referendum questions that were on the agenda for board approval this evening considering the most recent data available and how to achieve the best outcome for students and for the community this vote is the culmination of a multi-year process to address the complex question of capacity to plan how PPS will cost-effectively address Rising enrollments from new and existing housing over the next 5 to seven years maximizing our existing facilities since restarting this work post the board and administration have considered multiple rounds of enrollment data developed a unique Princeton multiplier to understand the impact of recent local developments heard advice from our professionals including demographers Architects and Educators and listen to excellent stakeholder feedback we've kept a steady value-driven focus on a solution that prioritizes the district's mission and goals taxpayer affordability Financial sustainability and minimizing student staff and family disruption in the past weeks we've considered the most recent data available on enrollments movein from completed projects like Avalon Princeton Circle which has already sent us new students as projected I think over 60 the progress and timing of the other approved third round developments the recently released fourth round affordable housing obligation the town's announcement of the potential taxpayer impact of borrowing to purchase the Westminster property and data on the annual cost to repair the endof life PHS haac at a recent planning Board review the town's offer to assist with Community Park Park parking needs on adjacent properties allowed us to omit the CP parking from the referendum projects we are confident that the referendum projects approved tonight are the appropriate five to sevene solution to accommodate growth and maintain PPS programming as our board president has noted we do not operate in a vacuum and we are sensitive to taxpayer concerns while we believe all projects will be needed to meet the needs of our growing Community we believe the three question format is the best approach to let voters decide their level of investment in the public schools the committee extends our gratitude to superintendent Kathy Foster business administrator Matt Balden assistant superintendent Kim 2 and their respective teams for the enormous work this planning effort has taken above and beyond their normal daily task of running a district that educates over 3,800 kids in parallel with capacity planning their teams have made work have been working tirelessly with community support and state subsidies where we can access them to restore and update our aging school buildings we now have a seasoned team in place with experience in designing and executing the projects necessary to keep our buildings in great shape for our kids we are confident that they will be able to efficiently execute the growth referendum projects upon voter approval in January we look forward to providing information to the public in the coming weeks and our next meeting is November 14th at 4:30 pm thanks Beth and I just wanted to thank you uh Brian Susan Mara um and Debbie sorry um I was getting there um just uh especially um under your leadership at this has been a labor of love for many years now um and um just your flexibility and your um understanding of all the moving Parts uh has been crucial so thank you for your leadership it's been a team it's been a team effort and that's definitely taken all of us to get it done yeah thank you but thank you take a compliment um moving on now to operations I'm gonna guess it's Brian all right and Brian the timer on do I have to no the operations committee met via zoom on October 16th at 8 in the morning we miss Susan who is traveling but we're grateful that Elanor could join us um o uh we began um with an update from New Roads our construction manager on projects associated with the 2022 and 2023 referenda overall the projects have gone well most of the work scheduled for the summer is either being closed out or is down to final punch list items so work scheduled to continue into the fall like door and lock replacement at PHS and PMs and two new security veses at PHS are progressing well um we are still waiting on the delivery of specialty glass for the vestibules and new starting blocks for the pool um our second topic of discussion was sustainability and we were joined by Jenny ludmer of sustainable Princeton who's with us tonight um just in case there were questions um Jenny reminded us that all six schools are now certified by sustainable Jersey all schools and all [Applause] yeah and all schools are participating in a creative campaign to reduce energy usage titled power down for pizza the school that reaches the uh reaches energy consumption reduces energy consumption by the largest amount will receive a pizza party um she and Matt also shared the great news that the district has been awarded up to $620,000 for two new electric school buses and one fast charging station from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection um the district can also take advantage of the federal inflation reduction acts clean vehicle credit which offers $40,000 per vehicle we'll talk more about this and the financing at a future date when the board is asked to approve the grant um our third topic was a productive discussion on the appropr weighted average maturity for bonds that would be issued to finance the 225 referendum projects wow sorry I missed that yeah there was agreement that Matt's recommendations based on state guidance and advice from Phoenix advisors was spoton accurately matching the maturities with the minimum expected life of the projects being financed I I didn't fall asleep go ahead um we then reviewed Financial updates for the 2022 and 2023 referenda we are still tracking to be on or slightly below budget for both very nice finally Matt briefed us on a new facility management software system to replace our out-of-date school dude system the committee was very excited about the new systems capability and recommends approval for the purchase and implementation of the system that's on the agenda tonight our next meeting is Wednesday November 6th at 8: am. thank you Brian great job not bad huh yeah very very good um moving on now to Personnel yes debb not as exciting uh well you're right right I'm sorry I'm sorry the person I love Personnel the Personnel committee met on October 10th we discussed uh winter coaches for PMS and PHS we discussed the science supervisor position and tonight the board will be asked to approve the hiring of Jackie cats to science supervisor starting after her 60-day notice which is around the beginning of the of 2025 and for the rest of 2024 we'll have an inm Dr Jill sack in the position we received an update from John McMichaels about summer guidance support for students and families we received an update on the new teacher Academy and how well it went and we also discussed several other Personnel issues thank you thank you very much um uh next is um I just noting that we're not going to be done by 9:30 so anyway policy uh with Beth yep uh the policy committee met on October 16th and discussed the items up for first read tonight we heard from Principal Jason Burr and assistant principal John mccan of princ Middle School on the four tier PMS code of conduct which is intended to clarify disciplinary consequences and to decrease loss of class time or instu instructional disruption it was agreed that policy meetings will be closed osed starting in November to facilitate working conversations among staff and the committee the committee will open meetings and or bring topics to monthly board meetings to solicit feedback on issues of public interest the committee also invites members of the public to write to the committee with comments on any matters on the prop posted agendas up for first read or of concern our next meeting is November 6 at 3:45 and will be closed thank you Beth and finally student achievement with bety last but not least the student achievement committee had a relatively short meeting on uh Friday October uh 11th at 11:00 a.m. on Zoom um Brian dubinsky joined to talk about some upcoming o um overnight athletic trips for some athletic contests that may come up during the school year uh we had an update a great update from Beth Muran on the new Bridges program at our middle school and we're really happy to hear about how that's meeting the needs of our students um we had supervisor Eric zolak and a teacher from Riverside Tory Tory Wargo a tend to talk about it was sort of a PS to something that they brought to us in the spring was a new community service program for high school students to come over the summer to work with the extended school year at Riverside School and it was a huge success they said some of the students stayed longer than the hours that they needed and it was wonderful for both the elementary and the high school students so we applaud that Ingenuity and we really appreciate the work they do for students and then finally John McMichael attended to share um the new tier 2 programming Princeton High School to meet the mental health needs of our students uh we then adjourn to close session and we do have an the next meeting coming up November 15 at 11: am all right thank you Betsy um so now we're going to move on to the business part of the agenda if you want to jump in just um catch my attention we'll stop um so first we have uh resignations M1 um and I'll note that um uh longtime uh educator uh Joy Barnes Johnson um is uh leaving the district and Kim did you have something to say Yes um I'm going to get emotional um so I would be missed if I didn't take a moment to honor and celebrate Dr Joy Barnes Johnson as we lovingly call her Dr BJ um as our supervisor science Joy has been a beacon of inspiration and dedication not only to our students but to our staff and families across the district um a skilled chemist Joy embodies the spirit of lifelong learning she consistently models the importance of inquiry and curiosity encouraging both students in colleagues to explore the wonders of science her student centered approach and commitment to equity reminds us that every learner needs to feel valued and empowered Dr BJ's ability to apply research and data to our teaching practices at cultivated environments where all students can Thrive her passion for Science Education has fostered a culture of inquiry that extends beyond the classroom and into the community through her connections with local organizations including the Paul Robeson house she's enrich our students lives and Bridge gaps between the educational system and Community involvement as Dr Joy embarks on the next chapter of her educational Journey we want her to know just how deeply she will be missed she's been a key member of our learning community and her contributions have impacted all of us we are grateful for her tireless efforts to cultivate curious joyful citizens of science um so I really I know the board will join me in Wishing Dr BJ the very best in her future endeavors um we know she will continue Inspire and and make a difference wherever she grows and she will always be a part of our PPS family thank thank you Kim and um I just want to note that uh so in addition to science Dr BJ is the one who created uh in uh conjunction in coordination with Patty Manhart our racial literacy program um at the high school and um our our Deb to Dr Barnes Johnson uh is is deep and we wish her all the best and can I also add after the many years um on student achievement and chairing student achievement teachers and administrators come to us with new programs for approval and her Innovation as you just noted led her to being one of our most um you know one of the guests who came most often and and we were always very happy to see her there so Dr Barnes Johnson we are you know we're just we've brought so much to our district and we're very very grateful for the time that you spent here yep we wish you all the best all right next up is retirement and um so we have three three teachers retiring with I mean almost 75 years of experience um and I want to say a special thank thank you to Barbara Bowmont uh who was my son special education teacher at Littlebrook um and she um was deeply impactful on his life and I'm sure she was as impactful on all the students that she taught um so I just want to wish Barbara all the best for long and healthy retirement all right uh moving on to appointments so um sometimes we we should say no goodbye but we'll see you so we're welcoming back today uh Jackie Catz as uh Debbie mentioned to be the supervisor supervisor of science uh she'll begin in January uh welcome back Jackie and uh Andy kak is going to be our interim uh director of student services and she will also start sorry can't escape us no you can't we're it's like I guess we're like the I was going to say the mafia like you know you can't get out and we bring you back in but anyway uh we we look forward uh to having those two friendly back in the district um then uh all right so we're going to go Personnel items um leave of absence substitute student placement curriculum and instruction student services uh P extra period compensation and then we have uh M10 athletic appointments then we have N1 student overnight trips N2 research project N3 student day field trips you okay student uh o1 is educational place placement of pupils 2425 02 is education placement of pupils 03 is professor and residents um did we discuss that at all which one the professor and residence could you just um yes um Mickey um put it in the board update and I think she refreshed it again um so um the professor and residence program is through the professional development school network at gcnj um and so we receive a really nice discount um on professional development service of a professor who comes and visits um our district several times uh throughout the year um we have um are using uh disproportionality money grant uh grant money um to fund this and uh we are working with Dr sangel Murphy who I worked with in my previous District Mickey and Princeton have worked with her before and she really is going to be working with our ESL teachers our general education teachers and identifying best practice to support multilingual Learners um and so I'm getting emails now about she's going to be doing focus groups um with kids and students about the experience um and just really going back to how can we make um our our our um students feel welcome in our classroom if there might be a language barrier and how do we differentiate to support their growth and will that um the information from the survey be shared with the board yeah I think so well it's a focus group so it's more like anecdotal data yep all right that's fantastic thank you then we have 04 and 05 resolution for residency appeal um P1 Financial reports P2 fire and evacuation drills P3 comprehensive maintenance plan P4 um competitive Contracting award Master Li Library joint five is joint Transportation agreement with West win Plainsboro and then uh P6 is um registration travel agenda and then we come to our second public comment is there anyone well kudos first hanging in there hanging in there and I know some of you are Yankee fans um how's it going by the way they're winning they're winning what score five two five to two all right but but anyway yeah we appreciate your dedication to these meetings all right so there's no one who would like to speak uh and so with that um I would like to say before we uh close uh Happy Halloween to everyone and to those that celebrate diali a bright and happy dwali um with that could I get H there's no school Friday oh why do I keep doing this that would be R1 Brian R2 Mara oh yeah yeah um so is Brian Mara K yes D Kendall yes Betsy Bagel yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman yes Debbie bronfeld yes Mar franceski yes Elanor hubard yes Susan caner yes Brian McDonald yes consent agenda passes thank you all right so I already said our goodbyes um could I get a motion to adjourn Brian second Debbie all in favor thank you and thank you everyone for a great meeting