##VIDEO ID:zGke6mknav0## thank you 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 education financial and personel matters for the prinet and public schools on behalf of all residents we are always pleased when members of the community attend our meetings the board and the school district operate under applicable New Jersey laws and under regulations of the New Jersey State Board of Education each meeting includes an opportunity for those attending to comment on items on the publish agenda or other matters of interest to them the board reserves the right to limit the time allotted to public participation law limits discussion of individual 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 Board of Education and forwarded to the municipal clerk princ and 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 the right to enter into executive session during all meetings of the Board of Education board policy 168 recording devices requires that we inform those attending this meeting that the proceedings are being recorded this meeting is also being live streamed the representative of the sing district is authorized to vot on such matters that affect sending District students or affect the governance of the prince of public schools as more specifically designated in njsa 18838 8.1 sending District votes pertaining to Personnel actions referred to high school Central administrative and districtwide staff only votes otherwise are considered as extensions in the event the statute has amended the W stake presidents over this bylaw well done would you please call the RO yes D Kendall here bety Bagel here Beth Baron here Adam Beerman here debie ronfeld here Martin franceski here Elanor Hubbert here Susan caner here Brian McDonald presid Rob Christopher here we have a quorum thank you Mr baldon can I get a motion please for the adoption of the minutes for October 29th Mara second Brian D the Kendall yes bety Bagel yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman yes Debbie bronfeld yes Mar franceski yes Elanor Hubbert yes Susan caner yes Brian McDonald yes Rob Christopher yes motion passes thank you Mr Balden so we're moving right along here um welcome everyone to this meeting um and uh we'll get started uh we we have um since Dr Foster has been here we like to start every meeting uh with some focus on children um to remind all of us while we're here uh which is for the children and so tonight I'm so pleased to welcome um Littlebrook principal Mr Ramirez and um Goden counselor uh Miss Walters to come up and talk to us about uh Little Brook character education good evening everyone thank you for having us here for this wonderful sharing of information regarding the social and emotional learning program that we are extremely proud of at Little Brook School one of the things that I appreciate most about this is how much the teachers are invested in bringing this to their children and it's really under the leadership of our amazing school counselor Mrs Walters she hates attention um in experiencing watching these uh lessons take place I think what stands out to me is how well the children communicate with one another and exemplify the different character themes and traits that are being taught within the given lesson there are some amazing songs that I got to see kids dance and sing to and somebody behind me may have been doing a little dancing at one of them but not going to point her out um and the fact that these lessons don't just tie into what happens at school it ties into what happens at the community and it ties into what happens at home there is always that connection to what can we do at home to show respect what can we do at home to show responsibility um in one of the responsibility lessons it even goes as far as asking the children what can we do with our different body parts to show responsibility and the children are just spoton like how do we use our ears we listen to what the teachers are saying we listen to what the parents are saying it was just just a wonderful thing to experience so this journey actually began wow how many years ago for me 2007 2007 for Mrs Walters um I got to Little Brook School in 2017 and we did realize that there were some things that we needed to kind of to work on and with the teachers support and the community support we started looking at what we could change because Littlebrook was extremely successful school so we had to look for things that we could change for the betterment of the children even more so we started bringing in different social and emotional learning activities um things that would point out to the teachers how the children felt about being at Little Brook School and is through those early steps that we then talked about the um the castle social and emotional learning um kind of format right and eventually last year we brought on the Second Step social and emotional learning program and while it was good while it was effective it didn't quite give us what we wanted so through the generosity of our amazing Little Brook PTO thank you little Brook PTO we were able to fund the character strong social emotional learning program for this year in addition Mrs Walters runs just incredible sessions and brings in community members for the children to learn about character traits and how they actually apply to the work that they do um you may have seen on our X formerly Twitter account we do our character counts week photo where each grade level wears a different color Little Brook shirtt courtesy for our PTO again thank you and it is just an incredible week of activities and Mrs Walters is going to get into this um momentarily but I do want to just say our teachers our staff members our children we are all invested in this character education program the social and emotional learning because what we know is that children's voices matter they just need a platform where they can share what they are feeling so that we can address anything that is on their mind in that moment and we can also provide them with regulation strategies that they can use when maybe things are a little tough so with that I want to introduce the most incredible school counselor in the entire world Mrs Jennifer Walters good evening we are delighted to be here to talk about our social emotional learning program at Little Brook School I am Jenny Walters I have been in um Princeton public school since February of 2007 um I started my career here at Littlebrook I went over to the middle school for five years I came back to Littlebrook um Louie you were kind enough to take me back six years ago so thank you for that um so much has happened um in those 18 years years that I've been in the district and so as I Was preparing for this presentation to you I wanted to go back and kind of look at how far we've come um and it kind of started here so back I guess when Dr C so stance when you and I were working together and you were our supervisor um we were talking about how to develop um character education programs at the elementary levels and um I became very very um taken with Dr Maurice Elias who is a clinical psychologist at ruers and the director of so many things but one of the things that he's the director of was the social and emotional and character development lab there um I was so taken with Dr Elias I still am that we invited him to come speak you remember that um and he did come into Princeton and he spoke at the middle school and he spoke about two things that really resonated with me and really stuck with me and really shaped how I view our developmental counseling program at Littlebrook and and the first is this jumbled Schoolhouse idea so Dr Elias talks a lot about how most schools um have all kinds of great things happening there's all kinds of programs and there's teaching and there's there's all kinds of learning that's going on but sometimes it's kind of jumbled up and it's fragmented and we don't kind of have an order or a flow to it so he talked about the importance of kind of organiz ing all of that into an organized um Schoolhouse where things are connected and things build on on the other things so he also talked about this and as a school test coordinator this definitely resonates with me and I think we have another District test coordinator here in our um in our group today but he talked about how we have a responsibility to prepare students to be resilient to persevere and I just love this quote from Dr Elias how we have to prepare our our children for the tests of life not just a life of tests and sometimes as the school test coordinator it does feel like it's heavy on the ladder but um but tonight is going to be about kind of talking about all of this and and this is guiding my work at Littlebrook and and how I see our our program and where I want it to go so a couple things happened a few years ago so the first thing that happened was at Littlebrook we formed an Seal Team and we wanted to take a look at our jumbled Schoolhouse and we had a lot of great things going on but again there was no order to it um there was no framework I I really love that word because I I want to make sure that things are connected and they and they build and and they are all um moving towards one common Vision so we got this group together we had classroom teachers special Area Teachers um me our CST Partners um instructional assistants so we tried to open it up to anybody who wanted to be part of it so that was the first thing and we started looking at what kind ofal initiatives do we currently have at our school if you can the other thing that happened around 2022 is that our intervention and Referral Services Program which school counselors at the elementary level we do chair that um we began to to shift towards a multi-tiered systems of support model um not just in academics but also in seal and of course you're familiar with the the triangle model where we have the tier one supports those are Universal supports kind of things that every student gets and then as you go up it becomes more limited and more targeted so this started happening as well I started having conversations with Val ol about inrs and how can we improve it so I spent a lot of time thinking about systems and thinking about getting those systems through in my free time that's what I do and I think about we've got all of these things and again that jumbled School house is is always ever present for me so we've got inrs shifting to mtss we've got um character ads social emotion like where how does it all work together so when our Seal Team met to look at our programs we discovered a couple of things with the first thing that we discovered is that we don't have a common schoolwide seal language we were all doing kinds of different things um the other thing that we looked at was that we are providing we were providing some direct instruction we were providing lessons and friendships and emotional regulation but we didn't have a common curriculum and the delivery was often inconsistent and so our program really kind of lacked organization and cohesion we weren't sure how effective it was um I was going in and I was doing lessons in kindergarten first and second grade and I love doing lessons in those grades um but it was kind of a oneandone I would go in do a great lesson and and I wasn't seeing that the language that I was using was was carrying over through the rest of the the week so that's where we kind of started and we we dug a little bit into that and so we came up keep going we came up with with this we came up with our idea of what we wanted our comprehensive Seal program to look like at Littlebrook so we decided that there were six components that were really important to us and um starting with a tier Oneal curriculum so we we we determined that we have to have a Common Language and we have to have a common tier one curriculum a program that everybody is going to buy into and everybody is going to use we also thought that as great as it is for me to go into classrooms as a school counselor it really needed to be embedded into each classroom community and that could only come by engaging um the classroom teachers and and Shifting the classroom teachers to have the responsibility of teaching seal and and Louie under under your leadership we were able to carve out time in the in the schedule to do this so we we'll get into what this all looks like because I think we've had a fabulous year and it's just so exciting to share this with you the third component that we thought was really important was that we all celebrate as a school and that we have themes every single month and we are all kind of doing similar things um around the building the fourth thing was Community Partnerships we're a community school at Littlebrook so we want to tap into our Community Resources our partners um and you'll see a lot of that in some of the photos and the and the things that I'm going to tell you about um number five was the tier two and three supports for seal um so this is where we have students who would benefit from small groups I do a lot of lunchtime groups um and then tier three would be more of that individual one-on-one work that I would do with students and then finally but certainly not last we can't forget that we need to focus on adults and we need to take care of ourselves and each other so we really wanted to focus on adult wellness and not get lost not let that get lost so the recommendation from our team was that we we looked at a lot ofcl programs there's a lot of them out there and we decided on a program called character strong and you're going to hear about that and hopefully see a little bit of it if the video works Matt I hope it does um we also again Louie you you have a vision that seal is important it's it's just critical for academic achievement kids need to come to school and feel connected supported um and feel like they're they're valued so there's that dedicated seal time we have 30 minutes a week in every classroom teacher schedule for direct ins instruction so we wanted to use that character strong curriculum um in that 30 minutes and then I as the school counselor would go into classrooms twice a month just to push in just to kind of keep kind of the vision going and make sure that again everything is connected and that's just been a home run for us a couple other things that our Seal Team uh recommended was having those monthly schoolwide themes having wh School assemblies throughout the year um when we kind of did a critical look at our jumbled Schoolhouse we found that we did an awful lot in October but then it kind of fizzled out as the year went on so we wanted to keep that going so we're going to have assemblies three times a year just to strengthen our school climate and our community um and then we're going to have those celebration weeks which are so much fun we just had a great month in October you're going to see all of that um but we have some weeks that by law we have to observe two of them are right here the week of respect that's part of the HIV law um and that is always the first week in October and then the third week of October is we call it our character counts week this was rebranded many years ago when Annie was here um we just thought school violence awareness week didn't resonate with our little ones so we changed that around to be character counts week um yeah yeah yeah it's a mouthful um and then we through in a little kindness week in in February so just to try to keep things going so um let's talk about our tier one seal curriculum so we did decide to go with character strong they have an elementary program called purposeful people um and this is an evidence-based program Lou you mentioned Castle the collaborative for academic social and emotional learning um this is a highly regarded very effective program lots of research in this and I have to say we are loving it at Little Brook School and I'm going to show you why so again this is our our six components we thought it was really important that we provide that direct seal instruction by the classroom teachers I push in so our year has been very different this year in a very good way so the first two weeks of our year we started with our kindness kickoff so in every single classroom around the school we talked about kindness and we talked about um building community in our classrooms and those as if if you're a classroom teacher or you've been a teacher you know those first two years two weeks of school are really super important to build that community so our kindness kickoff happened for this the first two weeks the second two weeks in September the second two weeks in September other way there we go we did two weeks on bullying prevention so as the um the anti-bullying specialist at Littlebrook this is important for me um and again it's important that we have the same language when we talk about bullying and character strong does a really nice job of differentiating um by grade level but this is kind of the heart of it when we talk about bullying prevention at Littlebrook the stop support and report so our kindergarteners know this our fifth graders know this when they see Behavior that's unkind that's mean um we talk we roleplay we do all kinds of things about stopping supporting and Reporting who do you report it to how can you be helpful so this again gives us a common language for the first time we have that K five okay Matt thank you um there are three learning outcomes that this program is is giving us first of all be kind uh be strong and be well so those are the three one of the things that I love about this program is that there is it's not only social skills it's not only friendships but it's also executive functioning it's how do you get organized how do you manage your time um so that's a big part of it a as well so every month we have a theme at Littlebrook so in October we started in October um that was our month of respect and that tied in really nicely to the week of the week of respect and our character coun week um November we're going across the board so November our theme is responsibility and you're going to see um some pictures of some classroom lessons on responsibility they look different and they're focusing on different things December will be gratitude so we're going across so we get we have a nice kind of variation here and again these lessons are all building on on the one before so we will just continue to go January will be empathy February February will be perseverance so on and so forth until we get to creativity in June um so as I said our November theme is responsibility I go all over the school and um it's great because I get to participate in the lessons now Lou you were in part of the lessons and so we have one common theme again that common language but again it's differentiated so it looks different in all of the grade levels um and it also looks different in classrooms because um one of the other nice things about this program is that they give you a ton of stuff that you can choose from and it still gives the classroom teachers the ability to kind of pick and choose and fit it in where where they can there's videos there's games there's all kinds of things so for for November for responsibility um in kindergarten our kindness tree has been rebranded to our responsibility tree which is super cute and they get a little heart every time they show responsibility um we have a lot of sharing that goes on in first and second grade so today we were doing some sharing circles some partner shares we have a little Talking Stick today it was a draft that was passed around the circle oh so that the person with the draff was the one who could talk so again practicing waiting your turn um you know listening to other people active listening so lots of good stuff here and then in the upper grades if you go to the next slide um responsibility looks a little bit different so in third grade there's Miss garion who's doing a fabulous job talking about flexible thinking and taking responsibility for your behavior especially when something goes wrong how do you show responsibility and own up to it grade four lots of focus on getting organize in the 3ts organizing your time organizing your tasks organizing your things and they do a lot of practice so the whole month they've been talking about this and then finally in grade five there's a lot of talk about goal setting um I did a lesson in in fifth grade on this so let's think about what goal you have for yourself maybe it's an academic goal maybe it's a goal on your sports team maybe it's a goal at home what gets in the way of that happening and then what kind of plan can you put in place so that you achieve your goal so all around the theme of responsibility but I have to pause and just say for number three and four schoolwide themes and celebrations and Community Partnerships I have to stop and say that none of this would be possible without our wonderful PTO Partners um yes thank you um you're going to hear me talk a lot about Partnerships because I believe so strongly in them um when we oural team when we looked at character strong and we wanted to purchase it for the school um we met over the summer with our our friends from the PTO and I had this whole thing you can see I'm I'm a little obsessive when it comes so like make sure that I have all of my data and everything and um we walked in and they said well do you do you like it do you like the program and we said yeah and and this is why they you don't need to tell us we believe you you know we believe you we got you and they paid for it um and that was a big ask and so I I just need them to know how how um you know it's changed the culture of our school um in such a good way but our PTO they fund our assemblies our special events as Louis mentioned they purchased uh Little Brook t-shirts for every single student and every staff member and those are given out right before our character counts week they um let us buy wristbands um in the color of each pillar we'll talk about that in a second um and they also partner with myself and Cammy Woodson we are the coordinators of our Joe fund scholarship program so um they are just a huge supporters to us um they don't ask questions they believe in us and we are so grateful for them thank you uh So speaking of assemblies and thinking about our Seal program so we uh had an assembly it was part of our Hispanic Heritage Month and so to kind of tie it all in again we're trying to look for ways to to connect all of these great things that we're doing under this framework of seal and community and culture um we had an assembly a wonderful assembly but at the end we had kids come out with the letters r s p c know we did not sing that song stop it um we did we have our own respect song um and in Spanish because we partnered with our fabulous Spanish teacher Carolyn Letterman um we had them in Spanish talk about ways that they could show respect at home at school um and in the community so again making those connections so this is our big week this is our character counts week it's always the third week in October and for many many many many years we have been celebrating the six pillars of character um we love this it's painted on our wall in the main hallway we're not getting rid of it um and we think that it does tie into to our character strong um curriculum and I'll show you how in just a second so we talk about our community Community Partners um we love inviting people into the school during this week to help our kids have a a richer understanding of the the pillar that they're studying so every grade level is assigned one of those six pillars um and there's a color associated with it so that's where the t-shirts come in um so in kindergarten we had our our wonderful nurse Holly Holly javic come in and she read stories and she talked about caring for others but also caring for ourselves taking care of our bodies um exercising drinking enough water all of those great things and she's so wonderful so she comes in every year um she's our special guest in Kinder Garden in first grade our pillar is fairness so of course we reach out into the community and we got Mr ran Johnson from the high school to come and talk with our first graders about being a good sport and showing fairness now we also have fun themed days so we Mrs Woodson doesn't walk around wearing that hat all the time um we also dress up and it's a lot of fun but Mr Johnson was great the kids love having the special guests and he read a book about sportsmanship in second grade we always have our partners at the Princeton Police Department come um so officer Abdul kareim came and talked with our second graders about showing respect what does that mean um how do you do that and uh as you can see the kids he was a big hit um they loved seeing officer there um another friend of Littlebrook Trish Baker from attitudes in Reverse brought her therapy dog um to our third graders and talk to us about showing responsibility taking care of pets taking care of um of our classrooms um taking care of ourselves our families and we had a lot of fun with with goober and Mrs Baker um this was a lot of fun in fourth grade the pillar is trustworthiness so for the second year in a row we had the honorable Chris grel who's a federal bankr y judge she came and she wrote this herself now funny enough she did not know about my obsession with Harry Potter this just happened um but she wrote I think it's like a 10 page um mock trial um the people versus Harry Potter she put on her judge's Rob she presided um we had a courtroom we had a defense attorney we had a prosecution we had Witnesses um those were our actors there um but they talked about the importance of honesty keeping your word showing respect to other people following the rules um so she will be back for sure and then finally another friend of Little Brook School is Mayor Mark Freda and he always comes in and talks to our fifth graders about citizenship and what does it mean to be a Community member um he answers a lot of qu a lot of patience because he gets a lot of interesting questions um he's very kind to us um but mayor Freda is is always a hit and then there we are lined up as the six pillars of character um we just don't have the wall space to hang these up but we we have a lot of these because we've been doing this for a long time but this is a lot of fun um Christina aena our speech therapist gets up on the roof um and throws all the balls down am I not supposed to say that could you have told me that um um we do get this picture and it is a fun it's fun um this is something that I love to again trying to get things to work together and to to increase our school climate and to have students feel connected valued scene um this is an initiative that I do with my um nextdoor neighbor who is the ESL teacher Ted Holston we do our country of the week display this bulletin board is across from my office so um I cannot tell you the number of conversations Giggles Smiles that I see from students um all over the world who come and this week at South Korea um and who recognized I used to live there or they know the food or um there's something that just makes them feel so comfortable and and valued and it's a fun thing we have fun facts on the morning announcements we have challenges every week so um we have fun and we we like to make it fun and we want everyone to feel like they are part of an important part of our school so getting back to the components of a anal program um this is something that we're working towards um we really feel like it's important that we have those tier two and tier three seal supports in place and this is where I come in as a school counselor and what this looks like is those the small groups um the targeted groups some times there's kind of tier one groups where everybody's can come in at certain times just kind of fun lunch bunches but these are more of if students are struggling with emotional regulation or they're struggling with making friends um character strong does have a tier 2 program um I have put in for a PF grant for that I hope that I get it because I want to continue again to build on um all of the tier one foundational work that we've done the zones of Regulation is another program that I pull from um where we talk about kind of understanding ourselves understanding our bodies and then finding the right zone for the job finally focusing on adult Wellness uh it's just so important uh we have to take care of each other we have a wonderful staff we have wonderful teachers um and it's hard though you know it's hard sometimes so we we've got to kind of lift each other up and we do that in a number of ways at Littlebrook we have a staff birthday wall in the staff room where everybody has celebrated just month and day not year um we have we have quarterly celebrations where we have um like a chocolate hot chocolate um kind of a hot chocolate bar with marshmallows and all kinds of chocolate um a chocolate thing at a little Brook um we do that every quarter we have little gifts that we give out just just to say you know I value you and and I'm so appreciative that we get to work with you and weend out e cards um during our kindness week in February we have a uh staff be a rainbow secret buddy challenge so we match people up and we have a lot of fun leaving little gifts for each other and then we have the big reveal at the end of the week and that's always fun one thing that we used to do and and you'll remember this is we used to do um staff appreciation days um where we would celebrate our social workers our nurses our school psychologists um we are working to get back to that um but we would like to just give a shout out to to every our bus drivers our custodians it's really important um so we're trying um so just like the fifth graders are working on goal setting there are some things that do get in our way um to where we are now we've come a long way um we have we have done so much um but we have some a ways to go and there are a couple things that get in our way so the first one is that we just just have a time crunch we don't have time to meet so we've got this Great Seal Team um but because everybody's on a different schedule there's really no common meeting time so a lot of it is done um via email and Google forms so that's really a challenge for us um what's a challenge for me as a school counselor in providing the tier two and tier three programming is that I'm pulled away by Hib investigations um and then everything kind of comes to a SC Hal in April because I've got to get ready for standardized testing um and that's really hard for kids when I have to say I can't really see you right now because I have to go get ready for standardized testing so that's that's a big issue for us as school counselors um funding is another issue again we have an amazingly generous PTO um but it's a big ask for them so funding and finding consistent funding would be really helpful and then finally just a lack of crisis sources at the elementary level um I don't know that people understand that we do risk assessments at the elementary elementary level um we have big needs at the elementary level and we could use some help um and and that might be in the form of bringing clinicians in we've had that um I think the middle school has something like that um so these are things that are really we're wrestling with and trying to figure out how to how to work through these and find Solutions um so this was this was like my Shining Moment here Matt I gotta give you I got can I give you did you go get my laptop my MacBook it's worth it it's worth it um because I want to leave you with this fun video that you're G to [Music] love thank you Mr Ramirez you're full service thank you Matt if I go and just I'm just going to go ahead I don't know where I do this in the email here it is Matt I'm gonna give you permission in just a second okay okay so I'm Gonna Leave You with I'm Gonna Leave You with something that's so much fun so this is a first grade classroom and this is part of our character strong um actually it was supposed to be responsibility but we do love the respect song so very much um that they did put it to music they did have instruments but that got a little out of hand so um told not put the instruments down and just dance so enjoy our first grade seal dance [Music] party I love it [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] w and the presentation would not be complete until I was able Matt can you get us back to it to work in these guys at the end here we are I can't I can't be a school counselor without working in Inside Out SOC thank you all I come to you on behalf of the teachers the staff in the students and the families at our school and we just appreciate you so much and thank you for giving us this opportunity app for coming wait wait wait wait I have a I have a question I have a question thank you for coming and so if you watch our board meetings which I know you do um we we really believe that kindness is really important kindness and compassion um and you know you're not at the middle school anymore but we see some of the behaviors at the middle school and it's definitely it'll be interesting to see in five years um especially if this is spread out across all the elementary schools if it makes a difference um on some of the behaviors we're seeing and I I think it would um but the funding you know that's why we're here so you can come and ask and um I would encourage you to come to sack um and tell us a little more about this and we would also like to discuss I think expanding this across um the other elementary schools you know we want consistent education but it really is important um you know we want kids to be kind to each other we want teachers to be kind to kids and we want adults to be kind to each other so it it's not just talk it we we really value it so thank you we appreciate it thank you I just went to the website and it said that um Rand randomized study had cut down referrals to the office for discipline 31% so that's very effective to people can stick to teaching you know yes yes and we are collecting that data now with behavior referrals um so and and we are also I'm you know I'm polling teachers so teachers are giving me their feedback on this but we're also going to be collecting the actual data on um our hip reports um so far they're down which is great I don't know that this is a connection to to this but um you know I do know when I walked into fourth grade today and um they were talking about responsibility and I said hey does anybody remember that bullying what are you supposed to do and they all did the stop support report so something's sticking they are um they're getting it it's staying with them um so we'll see and the lower grades as well you know the um you know the stop support report that was like recalled very very quickly um I think too you know Jenny and Jenny does an amazing job I think we can all agree on that um the social and emotional learning committee really it would be great if there was a way for them to find time to meet however we are stretched very thin with our time you know um and the work that they do is so important all the teachers have a hand in on this all the instructional assistants have a hand in on this everybody who works at Little Brook School it is a special place amazing things are happening I would invite you to come in so that you can see how much the kids are invested in this and how much the staff is they're probably going to kill me for saying that but it's something that you need to to actually witness so that you can see the Joy on the children's and to have teachers laughing with their children and dancing with their children that just makes all the difference in the world in their day um in addition you know the actual program itself when it has these videos that it's showing they're Multicultural so children see themselves in these videos and there's also a literature connection that goes along with the lessons and the lessons don't just talk about seal they talk about cross-curricular things today we were able to see a science-based lesson go on with so this is this is really far-reaching and to have it at all four elementary schools would be phenomenal to have it funded would be wonderful we're going to Hope fingers crossed for that tier two um so we can continue with this program but the work's not done it's ever it's ever evolving you know um we talked about or Jenny talked about the executive functions that's something we really need to take a a closer look at yes um because it is it is those skills that you know we we had that terrible pandemic it's still impacting the kids today so we have a lot of work yet to do and you know under Jenny's leadership and the social emotional learning committee and all the teachers and staff I think we're on a great path well thank you invite us in we would like some Joy um it's been you know that's one thing that went away from from the pandemic is we don't go to schools as much so let's start that again and I I really like I like also the fact that honesty is included as one of the values because I know that's something we talk about in the upper grades in terms of academic inity building some common vocabulary about that and kind of insul that is part of you know who we are as a district is something that we need do you find that the students are going home and talking to their parents about it so thank you for asking that because there's a lot of different components here first of all um everything that you see in character strong um with a touch of a button can be in Spanish so it's already there um it's already embedded in character strong so it doesn't have other languages but um I know that our Spanish teacher is also planning to present these lessons and some some because again teachers can pick and choose there's games there's um Quick videos there's um all kinds of you know short activities it doesn't have to be a big long lesson um our Spanish teacher is is is very interested in in incorporating this into Spanish um and again with steam we had a discussion in first grade about showing responsibility to the environment by conserving water because we're in a drought so it went into u a whole conversation about that um but but yeah there's a there's a lot here um there's a lot that um we think this this offers to us and there's there's for each of these uh character themes there's a what are called the Pursuits like things that they can do at home with their families to actually grow each of the each of their skill sets um just fun little activities that they can do um so there is that home to school connection and it's great having the common language I think has made such a difference so um we again great things are happening thank you thank you thank you for everything you are doing thank you to the Lial staff for everything they are doing because without them we wouldn't be where we are so it's it's just an amazing place and I am so proud to be there thank you thank you thank you all right thank you for joining us um next up is um the super SE superintendent search update with bet yes thank you very very quick update we're still in the confidential phase of the search but we will report to the community there's been strong interest in the position and we are enjoying um this part of the process so we'll update you uh with more information as soon as we're we're able to provide it all right thanks Betsy um now up is the superintendent's report good evening everyone um uh we're going to go through a quick PowerPoint and um I just think uh the presentation tonight um really um uh cements the need for the appropriate classroom space and programs that we value so much much um in Princeton and um so we we always want to take an opportunity um to continue to communicate uh the importance and urgency of our January 28th uh Bond referendum so we're going to just um highlight a few things um uh through this presentation move over so I'm not cut out for a second I don't know why all great no that's good so as uh you may be aware Princeton will see over 1,000 new residential units in the next few years with more anticipated our Public Schools need immediate expansion and upgrades in order to prepare for enrollment growth and maintain our value of class sizes while preserving our exceptional learning environments um and so what we want to do is we really want to highlight um the importance of why we need this referendum and I'm just going to turn uh the first obviously is our housing that is anticipated over five years um most developments and we're going to show a few pictures of some construction uh happen in the community park and Littlebrook areas um community park and Littlebrook expansions uh will help balance class sizes at all four elementary schools and improvements are planned at uh the middle school and high school which serve all of our district students um so one of the things we really value in Princeton our our class sizes particularly at the elementary level and this uh referendum project would help maintain that by you know redistributing and balancing our um Elementary uh schools which value our community neighborhood School model um it would also reduce the amount of redistricting needed down the road with all of the new housing uh coming online uh you saw today an example of some high quality um uh education and we really want to make sure that our programs are able to be maintained and we want to make sure that they have longevity and so when we invest in something as we see here where we're piloting something at one school spreading it to all four and then being able to maintain that is really important and as I just mentioned reducing the level of registring that will be required and Matt you always talks about um we've done a lot of projects to support HVAC in our other five schools but not necessarily at the high school we are at end of life uh at our high school and just like we want to maintain our own um houses some of these things need to happen and it's at a 20year cycle and these uh HVAC systems need to be really rehabilitated or replaced so that we can have good quality um air and uh comfort in in our classrooms thank you uh this just a highlight of some of the developments around town um the Alice uh in the upper left and um the Avalon North Harrison um as it's labeled the third Avalon apartment building coming online um right around Fe February is time frame on either side of the uh shopping center over there um Princeton Circle is online um that looks like some of the tow houses um that are in front of the apartment building um there was an addition on princ kity Village uh 900 road which looks quite different I noticed this morning uh driving into work at 7:00 a.m. um than this even and this was only about six weeks six eight weeks ago um that's uh all affordable um housing a lot of two and three bedrooms which will bring students Franklin Maple um is likely not online until 2027 however um it is uh proposed at 160 units half affordable so uh likely a lot more stent students um we've talked about this numerous times to different groups but the one of the largest drivers of students coming into District are not only the new housing developments but the housing turnover which has stagnated due to some macroeconomic um you know uh the macroeconomic um environment that we've been in I think everyone's aware um interest rates have gone down a little but not an awful lot so housing sales have sowed over the last few years that will pick up over time so and that will bring more students um to our [Music] schools uh so as you know we have a three question ballot um and we package the proposal in three separate questions but we um really want to emphasize that all projects are needed and all um uh so each question though addresses different District needs it's important to note that uh question two uh depends on the successful um passing of question one uh and question three uh is contingent on uh the successful passing of question one and two uh just some highlights uh question one focuses on um expansion at Community Park Elementary School um expansion and renovation uh and the high school HVAC um Rehabilitation and replacement project the costs are just under $38 million um the estimate of The Debt Service Aid is $ 11.4 million um it's estimated because we don't know when we issue the debt uh what the interest rate would be we um estimating 3.75% uh over 25 years the uh estimated annual ta tax impact would be $222 um per uh household that's based on the average of course and many people are below and many people are over so um uh that's question one question two um as Dr Foster mentioned uh requires that question one passes first uh the middle school expansion and also the uh smaller but yet important uh High School Renovations of the tech area down in the basement level which would add uh three classrooms at the high school the cost of this project um is just over $38 million the estimated Debt Service Aid uh based on the previous assumptions just mentioned is 18.5 million and the estimated annual taxed impact on the average uh household in the town is 44 $7 a year um additional question three uh conent on one and two passing is the Littlebrook Elementary expansion and Renovations uh just under 13 million and the estimated Debt Service Aid would be just under 20 million and the average uh the estimated annual tax impact of all three questions would be [Music] $532 uh little chart here on the um if you look to the left this green area here we're right here now um so we've had a lot of debt service roll off over the last few years uh We've also passed two referendums um January of 2022 and in uh late 2023 so this includes that additional debt and it's uh if we pass just question one we would be right around that uh $4.9 million if we pass one and two we would be slightly over where we were at the peak in 2021 um just over 4% higher and then if we passed all three we would be uh about 14% higher at $7.6 million this is net Debt Service so that's net of Debt Service Aid and it P um includes the cost of the principal and interest on the bonds needed to pay for the projects so we do need to raise the question what happens if the referendum does not pass uh we know that uh we will need to do redistricting uh there will be a a a sub substantial increase in redistricting and possibly redistricting more than once uh so it could be uh reoccurring class sizes would increase districtwide uh programming would definitely be impacted and modular classrooms trailers um uh might be required uh which would uh take a toll on our general operating budget our ability to expand learning opportunities would also be limited so we just want to highlight some important dates for you uh as uh citizens make a plan to vote uh January 7th is the deadline for new or updated voter registration January 21st the vote by mail M applications must arrive in the mail at County offices and then Tuesday January 28th is our in-person voting at designated uh polling places um and that's the last day for vote by mail ballots um they must be postmarked uh you can certainly learn more uh at our website but in the meantime we're going to ask you to save uh some important dates uh the first one is December 9th which is a Monday night at 7 pm we are going to have a virtual Forum we will send out a zoom link and some information shortly and then January 11th we'll have an in-person Community Forum uh in uh the Middle School auditorium at 9 a.m. uh and you should be um receiving more information as we communicate we'll also uh we have um School tours uh that have been scheduled that we will also send out and share with you as well thank you thank you Dr Foster um just a question about um I don't know if we know yet the hours of voting on the 28th uh we plan on having um a full day uh election we're working right now with the County Board of Elections um County Clerk uh town clerk as needed to um finalize the exact locations uh for voting and is there a full day of school right now on the 28th currently there's a full day of school okay can I just ask a question is there a pro a provision in New Jersey that helps uh older taxpayers with tax increases anchor anchor yes I don't really know that much about it are we going to provide information on that we actually have a slide about it in another presentation so we'll make sure that we communicate that to the public so thank you for asking and it's relevant to people who are above 65 or absolutely it is there's another program too that the university funds just so there's some programs that we might be providing more information about in terms of tax increases on uh older it's okay thanks I think so yes thank you thank you so I have a couple just a couple pleas can I can I question please so are there going to be tours of all the schools like the middle high school and River yeah uh so the tours will be in uh Littlebrook Community Park the middle school and the high school and um I just finalized the schedule for two schools today so we have all that information and as I said within the next few days we want to send out a letter to the community to talk about saving the dates for the community forums uh and also announcing the school tours so they know thank you so also this week we're celebrating uh American Education week uh which fun fact was first celebrated in 1921 um it is an opportunity to celebrate public education and to honor individuals who are making a difference in ensuring that every child receives a quality education in a recent article author David Brooks writes that we need to rethink the way we Define and value intelligence and Merit he's quoted as saying we want a society run by people who are smart yes but also wise perceptive curious caring resilient and committed to the common good do these characteristics sound familiar it may be because these essential life skills are the focus of the incredible collaborative year-long work uh around Princeton's portrait of a graduate initiative and thanks to Dr to who's brought it with us as we have informed and in involved Global citizen collaborative Communicator creative innovator curious learner health and wellness Advocate and critical thinker uh we are particularly grateful for all of our Educators who go above and beyond to help our students develop these lifelong skills they need to thrive and this week two important days we want to highlight are tomorrow November 20th which is education support Professionals Day and Friday November 22nd which is substitute Educators day uh tomorrow educator education support Professionals in Princeton Public Schools includes our instructional assistance administrative assistance custodial and maintenance staff Food Service staff health and student student services building monitors technology staff and transportation staff educational support professionals are often the first people our students encounter on a daily basis they are the dedicated individuals who drive our children to school help them cross the street provide them with a nutritious meal support them academically or social emotionally and keep school buildings clean and safe they are our unsung heroes of public educ a and we're extremely grateful for their hard work and expertise they are essential to the operations of our district and to the success of our students so on behalf of the Board of Education and the district leadership team uh we want to thank our education support professionals and our substitute Educators and encourage everyone to extend their gratitude to these amazing [Music] individuals before I turn it over to uh Kim to just share a quick announ announcement I'm also going to do a sales pitch down um for those of you that have not purchased your point seta yet uh there is still time but time is running out uh the annual sale for point settis which um goes to support the visual performing arts and in particular the choir trip um is uh they're available for sale until November 24th this um support students travels um for overseas and we've heard um from many people that um they're stunningly beautiful uh they're larger than usual and uh they last a really long time well global warming yes well there maybe that too yeah yeah biger plant uh and now Kim's just gonna highlight an event uh that we want you to ask to save the date for sure um last week we sent out communication to our PPS Community about a webinar that we're co-hosting for families and community members and even um students about artificial intelligence and education so this is co-hosted uh with Common Sense Media um myself uh Todd McDonald our chief technology officer as well as um one of our students and a few of our staff members uh to talk about AI uh so parents are aware of what it is and what's being used in Princeton um some of the benefits and some of the pitfalls of artificial intelligence which I know a lot of us see in the workplace but what does it look like um in schools um so really um happy to partner with Common Sense Media uh Carla CCRI is one of our PPS parents and she's a wonderful partner um to us and has really worked with us to kind of nail down what does this look like and share resources for families um so that's going to be on December 3rd at 6 PM it's going to be a webinar I'm going to send a reminder out after Thanksgiving um again because I know the next week is very busy and those who can't attend live um we are recording it and we will post it on the website and we do have a live like uh PPS aai website link to our PPS website as well with just some questions um it links to our board policy our AI plan and just some other really great resources including um some from Common Sense Media which I really recommend is a wonderful resource um for families so thank you for the plug um and we're looking forward to that event all right all set all right thank you uh DRS Foster and two uh so moving on our student board members are BS busy studying so we'll uh wish them a Happy Thanksgiving and we'll give them some extra time in December um moving on now to our public forum um it's three minutes um to comment on anything on the agenda or of interest to to you um so if you would like to comment please come up to the podium state your name uh the street you live on um and please try to keep your comments to three minutes I'll do my best thank you don't drop my notes I brought some great all right thank you very much everyone um appreciate you having me um this evening my name is Alex Christie I live at 88 balt and I have two children in elementary and I'm here tonight because um I think we have a problem at CP and I'd like to fix it um the problem's twofold and and I call it Captain crowded um the first issue is that we capped the DLI program at 44 students that's despite the fact that in the prior three years there was 55 46 and 53 students enrolled so plenty of demand as a matter of fact there was nine on a wait list in August the second issue is that we limited the kindergarten to two sections resulting in 22 students per section and let me put that into perspective for you and that's in the handout uh previously in the last three years the average class size was about uh 15 at CP so going to 22 is a 48% increase uh let me put that in further perspective if you look at the average of the other elementary schools this year the average class size in kindergarten is 14 students making 22 look like quite a bit um so uh um yeah so I put a visual in there and I I'm a visual person and I hope you can all see what it looks like when you have um you know 14 kids in a class add another eight fiveyear olds who are energetic and thriving striving to learn it's quite a challenge um so I think we'd like to fix the issue but before we fix the issue I think we need to address some common misperceptions the first common misperception is that the class sizes per grade need to be an even number so that Spanish kids SP that people can go back and forth between their Spanish and English learning and it's not true um as a matter of fact three classes works just fine you can ask the first and and third grade they're work working out fine the other thing is we really need to have smaller classes in the early years kindergarten and first grade I think the second misconception is that there is um a lot of attrition at CP and it's one directional um and actually if you go back and look at the class of 2034 they started out into kindergarten with uh 55 four years later in third grade they had 56 that's reverse attrition maybe that was a fluke so you go to the next year they started with uh 46 in kindergarten three years later they had 44 they lost two students that's 0.5 per class I think the last misc misconception that we need to address is that uh 22 students in a classroom is in kindergarten is acceptable because that's what others do or maybe other elementaries have that um I think it's comparing apples to oranges when you look at 22 students in a DLI program it's actually more like 44 students for a teacher who has to know all 2 in each section and work with their parents work with the kids and get to know them um so um I think really here what I'm asking is um to fix this and to fix it by removing the cap on the DLI program and adding more sections uh really 22 is too many in the kindergarten and first grade years the second thing I'm asking to fix which is more immediate is the class of 2037 that's the current kindergarten class that has 44 students in two sections 22 22 each next year I really think for first grade that needs to be three sections thank you very much for your time reports we will start with equity and uh the equity committee met in person on Monday November 11th at 5:30 at the middle school Kesha Smith Carrington our 6 through 12 humity supervisor shared her learning from a recent conference on courageous conversations the committee was grateful for the opportunity to have this conversation and thanks Kesha for the important professional development work she does with our staff the 2025 dates will be scheduled after the board reorganizes on January 7th Betsy and I really want to thank our committee this year Elanor Brian and daphna for the commitment to working on issues of equity across the district and to also thank Dr to and Dr Foster for sharing all this with us thank you and thank you to uh Betsy and you you're welcome uh next up is long-term planning um with Beth thank you very much and I apologize it's a little long today but we have a lot we've come to the end of a very long planning you take your time seven years of planning and we just want people to understand where we are all right um the long-term planning committee met on November 14th and discussed the strategy for communicating information about the January 28th smart growth referendum it was emphasized that the public should be given clear information about why investments in proposed School improvements are necessary now specifically our town is growing as we've heard tonight significant and we'll see over a thousand new residential units in the next few years with more housing anticipated from the tenant Roberts development over 200 are proposed and the fourth round of affordable housing mandate which projects will be announced in early 2025 and the growth goals in the recent Town master plan our Public Schools need immediate expansion and upgrades in order to continue providing students with highquality programming K to 12 and to maintain neighborhood elementary schools with small class sizes School impr improvements take years to complete the board and District leadership have prioritized costeffective value-based facility improvements to existing schools that will be on the ballot in the form of three questions on January 28th the questions allow PPS to access $19.9 million in state Debt Service funding these improvements as we talked about briefly here the qu first question is expanded Elementary classroom and core spaces at a centrally located CP school and the replacement of end of life HVAC at PHS which would save approximately 200,000 annually in maintenance and energy costs both of these uh both of these projects are needed immediately the second question is new classrooms expanded course bases which are currently undersized and improved circulation at the middle school plus minor renovations to repurpose underutilized space as new classrooms at PHS all of which is needed immediately and the third question expanded Elementary classrooms and upgrades at Littlebrook which will be needed soon as new developments begin sending students and are more cost-effective to complete now the committee noted The Importance of Being clear about the significant impact on students of not passing the referendum and ensuring that voters understand the contingent nature of the questions specifically question one must must pass for question two to pass and both questions one and two must pass for questions three to pass if the referendum does not pass K to2 class sizes will increase across the district as enrollment grows uneven growth across our town will require repeated redistricting of elementary students beginning next year impacting more students at all four elementary schools expensive modular classrooms or trailers could be needed and would deplete the operating budget changes in programming K to2 will be considered in light of space and budget constraints with certain programs being discontinued modified or not having dedicated classroom space the board will likely bring back unsuccessful referendum projects for another vote as soon as September 2025 but at some point approvals become stale and will need new Department of Ed approvals District administrators and board members will be providing information to the community over the coming weeks through public forums as we talked about group presentations mailings and social media U and we welcome questions and we welcome the opportunity to speak in the community we would like to explain this as well as we can so the voters understand what's coming um and the committee will meet again on December 5th at 4:30 pm thank you Beth um next up is operations with Susan caner hi uh we met November 6th on Zoom between uh starting at 8: a.m. uh first we received an update on the last few steps of closing out the referendum from 22 um the PMS roof work is complete the final work is being done at the PHS on Duck work on the roofing uh JP the roof is complete and the elementary HVAC work um all of uh the major projects have been done and they're just working on some punchless items and then we got an update on the 2023 referendum um which also included the PHS uh cafeteria which they're finalizing of completion on the punch list items the door and hardware work that's been done at the middle school and high school that's nearing completion and is going through inspection for changes uh the lighting at the pool which is waiting awaiting final inspection uh the security vules at the high school which are still waiting for some parts so they can be uh completed to uh to conclusion and uh excitingly the JP uh cellular repeaters have been installed and so far they been getting positive responses um it doesn't reach my house so that's a negative response but other than that they they so far are working well uh we also got um an update on the playground work um the the equipment should start getting delivered and plans will start being made for installation at uh each of the five schools which will be getting some new equipment and that bilding is starting the process on in in very early stages of evaluating the district for solar which is very exciting and so he he briefed us uh how he will begin that process as we begin to explore uh solar panels for our district and as always we had a su uh we discussed sustainability in our meetings uh we're starting planning for electric Chargers uh working with the food literacy coordinator Shannon Barlo to better handle our waste um in this schools and how we can better uh compost and we are submitting Grant applications for projects at CP Littlebrook and PMs and discuss finalizing projects that have already been awarded at PHS and Riverside so a lot of work being done on the sustainability side um of our district our next meeting is December 4th at 8: am it's open to the public uh so we welcome um anyone to join on Zoom thank you um can I ask a question about the Chargers is that part of the grant for the buses electric charges does it come with which no I don't believe so if you were talking about not talking about the right the the buses that'll be included with the grant but she's working on uh for people that drive electric at the schools there is a grant available that would bring uh the possibility of electric charging uh you know our staff to our staff at the schools if they drive at no cost to the district but you know we're um early stages Jenny wmer from sustainable princi is researching bringing that to us yeah okay and then we're also working toward electric buses but the electric buses come with their own Chargers we have to install the Chargers out back here out here fast charging DC Chargers this should be very interesting they must be big they are yeah I mean yeah you need Transformer yeah all right thank you um next up is uh Personnel of Debbie brownfeld oh sorry Mara sorry oh yeah never mind go ahead I forgot to say something I'll say it later okay the Personnel committee met on zoom on Monday November 11th we discussed a variety of topics including um building monitor positions at all six schools the coordinator of nurse position and we and discussed in removing language in the do job description related to covid uh next steps fulfilling the director of student services position um we discussed teacher shortages and filling leave replacement ISS uh positions um one of which we're going to filled tonight for the approval of a permanent staff member for seventh grade science and finally the HR department will be participating at a TCNJ job fa next month our next meeting will be on Thursday December 5th thank you Mara next up again is Beth with policy y very brief we had a quick meeting on uh November 6 and we time be we talked about the items on tonight's agenda and our next meeting is on December 4th at 3:45 thanks and then finally got you back all right uh student achievement met last Friday uh at 11:00 a.m. on Zoom November 15th uh Sarah Moore attended to talk about a new pilot that is being done K to 5 for a new English language arts program called arts and letters we are piloting that program for the remainder of this school year is that correct Dr to it's about six weeks okay thank you February March it is this school year but it's for only um but it does involve uh the pilot involves all schools all four schools um as well as teachers at every grade level we really appreciate the work of that committee as well as a special education teachers dual language teachers um and we're really trying to to trying to see how the program works for many different uh Educators within our school so we look forward to an update about that uh amasco our supervisor of Early Childhood came to talk about the new grow NJ monitoring process for our preschool classrooms and that's sort of like the qack for preschool so she is starting that role I'm sorry are you okay I am okay um and then Priscilla Russell attended um she's our supervisor of World Language ESL and DLI and she came to speak about the kar overnight trip that is on our agenda this evening um we are going to meet in person December 13th so if anyone's missing a iners meeting it happens to be my last meeting after many years and we are meeting in person 11 going to celebrate your leaving exactly it's enough yeah a lot of long meetings but anyway please join us yes and irony Annie's coming back and you're leaving that's is pretty funny How's that gonna work all right you think of what you wanted to say earlier well I did want to say I was gonna say the end but I did want to congratulate um the two new board members uh who were elected I guess we'll vote on that next month um chrisan tarpo and Ari miselle and I'd like to congratulate Mara on her re-election uh we look forward to contining to work with you and Ari and uh Chris we look forward to working with you as [Music] well and this is what happens when you have too many meetings all right uh now we're going to move along and uh go through the uh agenda and please stop me um but my goal is to be done by nine all right just kidding just kidding even I can't talk that fast um so we have the policies that Beth mentioned uh for first and second reading K1 and two uh L1 we have resignations L2 appointments L3 Personnel items L4 leave of absence L5 substitute student placements L6 curriculum and instruction L7 student services L8 job description L9 transfer reassignment then we're moving on to curriculum curriculum and instruction um M1 student day field trip M2 student overnight trip and M3 uh M2 is an action item M2 is an action item I'm not sure can I get a motion Mara second Betsy you can make him n sorry thank you D Kendall yes bety Bago yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman yes Debbie brownford yes Mar franceski yes hubard yes Susan canther yes Brian McDonald yes Rob Christopher yes it was by accident we accept yeah sorry [Music] keep uh and then M3 was the program we had the uh I'm sorry pres we had the the I the harassment intimidating and bullying uh was I right before the committee reports we just skipped over that it's a consent item so okay I harassment I always that no no I don't Susan was pointing it out so we'll just mention it I'll mention it it's consent but it's consent okay uh definitely not n because now it's 8:59 so all right uh and then M3 was the preschool program plan that Betsy mentioned moving on to Student Services N1 is professional Consulting and two is the uh fly 2025 Ida Grant carryover uh moving on to 01 that is an action item can I get a motion please rob second Adam T M Kendall abstain bety bag wheel yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman yes Debbie bronfeld yes Mar franceski yes El hbert yes Susan caner yes Brian McDonnell yes Rob Christopher yes motion passes thank you Mr Balden uh then we have 02 fire and evacuation drills 03 fall bus safety drills 04 um Architectural Group contract Amendment playgrounds um 05 social media class action lawsuit can we um this is really wonderful and um if we could just talk about this for a minute um we had to discuss this uh way back in the day I don't know if you could pull it up the resolution but basically a bunch of districts in New Jersey are seeking is it's New Jersey right it's around the country are um taking uh are pursuing litigation against meta Facebook Holdings uh snap Tik Tok alphabet and other part parties responsible for the creation design marketing and proliferation of social media platforms and so our concern is that uh the proliferation and widespread access to and use of social media among public school students has expanded dramatically uh leading to significant risk of anxiety depression thoughts of self harm and suicidal ideation among students and so um by passing this resolution we're authorizing uh Matt and our lawyers to involve Us in this lawsuit um and you know hopefully um we've talked about for years the additional uh counseling services our kids need the additional crisis management uh you heard um Miss Walters mention the need for that at the elementary level um so um you know we're all trying to do our part um and maybe it's time for the social media companies to do theirs as well um so thank you for that Mr Balden I know you brought that to us um appreciate it you're welcome okay uh moving on now uh to 06 registration travel agenda and then we're moving on to our next public comment and there's no one here from the public except the a reporter and she's welcome to come but I don't think she will do you want to no well thank you for joining us all right um so now we're going to vote on the consent agenda uh I did not forget about it this month so q1 can I get a motion Debby second Rob dff Kendall yes Betsy bag wheel yes B Baron yes Adam Beerman yes Debbie bronfeld yes Martin franceski yes Elanor hubard yes Susan yes Brian McDonald yes Rob Christopher yes consent agenda passes thank you Mr Balden uh we'd like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving uh enjoy the time with your families I also heard it's going to rain uh Thursday yeah so very excited about that and uh with that yeah can I get a motion to adjourn Susan you look very ready Susan second Rob all in favor thank you