good evening going to call to order the December 19th meeting of the saal Board of Education please rise to pledge the flag the flag United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay in accordance with chapter 231 PL law 1975 this public meeting of the saal Board of Education this public meeting of the seille Board of Education is that better yes okay has been established by sending a copy of the public meeting notice to the home News Tribune and the Star Ledger in addition copies of the announcement of this meeting have been sent to the burrow Clerk and a copy of the notice of the meeting has also been posted on the bulletin board outside the office of the secretary of the board Miss Hill roll Mr Callahan m Mr espito here Mr Fernandez Mrs napalitano Mrs pone here miss pylo here Mr Smith here Mr Walsh here and Mrs Bloom here miss Hill will you summarize executive session please the board discussed Personnel including but not limited to agenda items and matters falling under attorney client privilege any correspondence no okay uh we will now need to take a motion for the approval of the minutes of previous meeting on November 21st so move second uh Mr Esposito yes Mrs babone yes Miss pyck yes Mr Smith yes Mr Walsh yes and Mrs Bloom yes okay and now we will move to our student council Representatives Sean good evening board here are the events that have been happening at swmhs over the past weeks last year's valid Victor and Doris Lee who is currently studying at Princeton visited the high school earlier this month to deliver a presentation to current Juniors and seniors about attending and applying to Princeton University she discussed topics ranging from housing to course load and application tips the latest version of echol Lights has been published online at echol lights.com Junior rishy Shaw received the presidential volunteer service award gold level for 2023 over 150 students from our club future Business Leaders of America have qualified to attend the state leadership conference next march in Atlantic City our students have qualified for everything from impromptu speaking to accounting and web development in addition fbaa has been selling Crispy Cream Donuts for fundraising and to date 188 dozen donuts have been sold the profit from this fundraiser will help lower the cost for students to attend the state leadersh ship conference S swmhs held a popup art gallery on December 7th in the bombers Cafe students in grades 9 through 12 were selected to Showcase their digital art Ceramics drawing painting and Mosaic pieces and students in Miss Apollo's human anatomy class dissected sheep Parts in the class this week moving on the sports boys bowling is 0 and3 and girls bowling is 1 and five girls basketball is 0 and3 boys and girls swimming are both one in one the wrestling team is 1 and0 and came fifth place in the Ron Maola memorial tournament this weekend boys basketball is 3-0 coming off an 80 to 14 win over Asbury Park in terms of ongoing activities this week is winter Wellness week students can come to the library during lunch and participate in Snowflake making Journal making Jo yoga and aroma therapy and winter crafts this week is also our holiday themed Spirit Week yesterday was white out today was wear red and green tomorrow is pajama day Thursday is ugly sweater day and Friday is Christmas accessory day finally the student council would like to wish faculty students and their families a restful and joyous holiday season during our upcoming break thank you very much excellent job good job Ashton good evening Board of Education members and administrators my name is Ashton pundle SMS student council Board of Education representative student council is hosting the last spear week for 2023 they're also hosting a Snowman on the Run Tuesday through Thursday there are snowman hidden throughout the school if a student finds a snowman with winner on the back they receive a $5 gift card to Dunkin Donuts the student council representatives and executive board members are excited to attend leadership conferences in 2024 to bring more exciting events to SMS the community service food drive with student council was able to donate 1,250 of food to replenish which is a distribution center for middlex County food banks replenish provides food and Necessities to a network of 150 partner organizations including food pantries soup kitchen and Social Service organizations throughout the 35 25 towns in middlex County to ensure that all residents have access to nutritionally adequate food and Necessities at all times Kasa gift drive with the help of Ms staff were able to buy 181 gifts for children involved in the middle sex County Court System the class Council started the positive impact bracelets together and choose kindness each week a student and teacher are recognized why they receive the bracelet over the morning announcement the PTO student holiday shop is taking place during the physical education classes beginning on December 18th through dece December 21st there will be a amanos pizza fundraiser on December 20th a f a family Pizza Bingo night will be held on January 19th finally save the date the annual SMS PTO designer handbag Bingo and Tricky Tray will take place on March 15th now on to the seral Middle School athletics the grace boys basketball team at the middle school is excited to kick off the 23 24 season under the guidance of assistant coach Jarrett Lampkin the team celebrated a well-deserved victory in their first comp their first week of competition there are 13 members of this boy team and three talented managers that assist with the administration tasks during the game the great team pH philosophy is to develop student athletes who appreciate the complexities of the sport through effective coaching quality practice and intention to character development students and coaches learn together to create a learning environment that is fun competitive and locked in on the Mamba mentality we look forward to a successful basketball season SMS boys basketball blue team has started off their season 1-1 in their season opener they lost a tough game in overtime but bounced back with an impressive 7322 win in their first home game of the season the team has been improving every week and is already formed an identity as an AG an aggressive defensive team who loves to push the pace they continue their season this Wednesday the sville Middle School girls basketball team opened their season with two wins last week the bombers defeated Herbert Hoover Middle School and Highland Park in their opening week of the Season coach fasz and Coach facini are extremely proud of the girls and are eager to see that all that this program will accomplish this season the wrestling team is off to a 1-1 start with the win over Crossroads Ms we have two matches this week Wednesday at South Playfield and Thursday at North Brunswick the cheerleading team is looking forward to a great season they will have two competiting team game days and AI music both teams will compete at how cheer competition as well as NJ cdca State Championships in February they are looking forward to oh they are looking forward to Friday's pep rally alongside the other winter sports team thank you very much and have a great winter break thank you Ashton great job Ashton how do you like wrestling it's good did you know uh Dr did you know as you went off for wrestling this year no I am that's great fantastic very impressed when I saw him the other day very impressive Ashton you know I was a state champion in New Hampshire right well so so the rumor went that's fantastic news Ashton and great job with your summary thank you thank you joh okay um president's comments I would just like to take this opportunity to wish everybody a restful and happy winter break if you celebrate Christmas Mar Christmas uh whatever you celebrate have a good time with family and we want to see you all back in January refreshed thank you for you do Madam vice president highlights please sure so the first one uh Sean already mentioned but definitely worth repeating um congratulations to swmhs student Rich Richie Shaw who recently qualified and received the presidential volunteer service service award gold level for 2023 for his this is not an error 350 acts of community service during 2023 so amazing um congratulations to Jillian McGary s swmhs girls soccer team head coach for being selected as the greater middle sex conference white division coach of the year for that successful season we celebrated last month right very uh congratulations to Joseph Pasa the swmhs girls cross country team head coach for being named the GMC gold division Coach of the Year also a very successful season there um and then the the last thing I have is some Award winners uh for three different Awards the 2023 to 2024 Governors educators of the year the governor's Education Services specialist of the year and the Sea education support Professionals of the year so I'm going to read out for each school three different names in that order um so for uh project before at Cheesequake uh Maria cherito orogo Co Christine Mata and Marie Bulet project before cover we have Jessica Marette Caitlyn Santoro and Lauren Lombardi at arith we have Karen Wright Evelyn men and Joe Ellen Masterson at Eisenhower we have Deborah Irwin Margaret cardillo and Arlene kusano at truman we have Mahana Abdu Rachel Goodman and Susan mcdono at Wilson Alexa Miller Molly cumerford and Rachel koher at samsil Upper Elementary Christina bco Janet cook and and Victoria parse at the middle school we have a Steven Tisa Lori balotti and Dorothy fris at the high school we have Kaylee fizzini Emily Swanson and rosemary Roberts and then in our transportation office we have Anna jusak and in our central office Kathy Kathy barish so congratulations to all of our award recipients great job thank you okay Dr lby a presentation no thank you Mrs Bloom we have a very special presentation tonight it actually kicks off the 2024 2025 budget preparation period that we go through here in the school district as we do each year we begin the process with our food services Enterprise account so in a moment we're going to ask Mr cadino our director director of Food Services to come up and share with you his proposed 2024 2025 budget at our subsequent meetings beginning on January 16th we'll have a series of presentations from our building level principles our directors of curriculum and instruction our assistant superintendent of special education our assistant superintendent of Information Technology and security our director of human resources our director of transportation and our director Athletics will wrap things up during the first Board of Education meeting in March hopefully asking the board for tentative approval of the budget and then of course we'll have our budget hearing in May the big date coming up though after this presentation is the date that Miss Hill and our Central Administration will actually balance the proposed budget with last year's Revenue so we'll make a series of cuts to get get us down to make sure that our expenditures matched last year's revenues and then of course when we received notification from the Department of Education and the governor of our new Revenue we'll be able to go ahead and use those presentations to bring back items that we may have cut because of that so without any further delay Mr s citadino welcome and we're looking forward to hearing your presentation thank you all right so over the next few minutes we're going to be talking about the reimbursement breakdown the monthly meal totals a few new things going on in Food Services as well as some catering highlights and the finances the fiscal year 2024 breakdown goes as follows free lunches are reimbursed at $425 reduced lunches at $3.85 paid lunches at 40 on the breakfast side of things the free breakfasts are at $228 the reduced breakfasts are at $1.98 and the paid breakfasts are at 42 the monthly meal comparisons are as follows in September we served 54,6 39 meals October 9,671 meals and in November 71,543 September October and November have S War Memorial High School up 11% the Middle School up 10% and the Upper Elementary School up 16% can I ask you a question yeah so if we sell more meals in November nber but our revenue is down what happened between October and November uh say that again well we sold 4200 meals a day yep but only produced 71,000 okay versus 41 that we produced 90 excellent question um so in the month of October we had 22 school days oh was the calendar thing straight yep straight through and in the month of November we only had 17 days uh Thanksgiving and then two weeks before that I believe we had two days off for teacher conu y abut that'll do it thank you also we had the election day students didn't Comm in another one so yeah there were 17 days in November and 22 October thank you uh next up we have some few new things in Food Services pictured on the left is our Brandy new 2023 Chevy Express Cargo Van uh this van is responsible for delivering meals every day throughout the school district as well as Distributing our large fresh fruit and vegetable delivery it is equipped with Bluetooth for safe communication while driving and it also has heated mirrors for the cold months the other two pictures over here are our Middle School walk-in refrigerator and freezer that were completed over the summer uh they were a few years in the making they are both spacious and bright and we are very grateful for everybody involved in getting that and making that happen and Nick we also make uh reparations to the high school walk-in yes as well yep absolutely and just to add the um walk-in refrigerator in friezer had not been operational at the middle school for at least I think two years um so we had to get approval from the state in order to get this done so it was a very lengthy process but I think all of our staff at the middle school is very happy to have their refrig freeer they're awesome yeah uh we wrapped up last school year with a um event over at the high school we had about 500 guests for an hour of or deres uh the first picture over here shows our overflowing Sherie platter with Spanish olives green grapes and cubes of provolone and cheddar the second picture is our marinated mozzarella bowl with cherry tomatoes fresh basil and a balsamic reduction drizzle uh also on the menu that night were sweet and sour meatballs hummus and veggie cups assistant director Jen Harvey's famous deviled eggs hot pretzel bites and Cuban sliders I assure you nobody left hungry that night on Thursday November 16th the uh High School crew hosted our very first annual friends giving we served sliced turkey and gravy mashed potatoes roasted green beans and cranberry sauce it was a huge success I'm really looking forward to expanding this idea throughout the district to other schools for next year and definitely the years to come we kicked off national school lunch week with the visit from New Jersey assembl men speaker Craig Coughlin assistant Secretary of the USDA Joe Atchinson Ronald Ros middlex County Commissioner director and many other people that are responsible for making School nutrition such a success together we talked about the importance of the students being able to start the day with the balanc breakfast a assembly speaker Coughlin mentioned that he recently passed a bill that guarantees free breakfast and lunch for students for families making up to 200% of the poverty level he called it a quote pillar of our affordability G agenda to help working and middle class fames and I couldn't agree more and now on to the finances Miss Hill so the last few years in Food Services uh have been a little bit of a roller coaster with the financials so so starting with the year of the pandemic the start of that 1920 um we started that year with pretty solid retained earnings we're allowed to have three months of operating expenses as retained earnings in that account for anything that might come up so starting that year we were about $677 $70,000 uh which we were allowed to have um but with the pandemic and our lowered participation we lost money that year and that was the first time in several years that we had lost money um for so far as having a net loss same thing in 2020 2021 uh with the hybrid school we did not have as many participating students so we lost money again that year then in 2122 all of our students were back and everybody was able to get free lunch uh and free breakfast because of that our participation skyrocketed and everybody's meals were paid for by the federal government so that year we had a net profit of 1 .6 million which helped offset the money we lost in the two previous years now moving forward things are getting to be a little bit more normal and stabilized so this past year we had a profit of $154,000 however part of that was because we did get another covid relief Grant which was about $240 is, so if it hadn't been for that we would have had a net loss that year as well I am estimating for the next two years so the current year and next year we will likely have a net loss but that's really okay because we have that $1.6 million that we got in 2122 so we're not allowed to keep that money for that long so we need to you know reinvest in our food services program and we also need to be able to not raise our prices because we have that money sitting there so we can't raise our prices for our students um so technically if it weren't for those funds we would be in a situation where we'd need to raise prices but because of those funds we're able to keep our prices stabilized we are seeing a lot of increases in cost of goods I'm estimating at this point about a 10% increase for the next two years hopefully it stabilizes but we really don't know in addition to that we have increased salaries increased health benefits costs and things of that nature so overall Food Services is in a good financial position I think we have several years before we have to consider any kind of price raises or anything like that um so right now I'm estimating that we'll have about 1.7 million in retained earnings on June 30th 2025 however we do need to reinvest in the program as we've seen for many years our depreciation is very low which means our equipment is very old as we saw at the middle school that was quite a process it was a construction project we are limited on what construction projects we can do we can only use these funds for things for the national school lunch program so we can use it for certain kinds of equipment and things like that that but we can't completely renovate a cafeteria that's not an option um so we'll be having meetings coming up to decide what things are important that we can reinvest the funds in for certain we definitely need new refrigerators freezers and things of that nature and that is all I have thank you Miss Hill if anyone has any other questions food service related I like our bottom line agree I do but but operating at a loss the next two years troubles me I'm sure troubles you when we a few years ago we looked at it we took that there was like 10 and something choices we narrowed it down to X right we did a few whatever you guys did you worked your magic and we became profitable where I mean the catering is a big opportunity where are there opportunities to increase Revenue I mean we know that the expenses are going up right Healthcare and all that but where where can we do our part to increase Revenue um in in the fourth slide if we can throw that one back up um I'm super thrilled that the um High School's up 11% Middle School's up 10% most excited I feel like it's a good thing that the ues is up 16% I feel like we have that group of students and parents that send their kids to school to get lunch from us and I think that as those kids grow older they will stick with getting lunch from us and I would like to see the Middle School number go up to that 16 maybe 17 18 and have the um High School number follow years later we're definitely trending upward from that one I'd be more nervous if the high school was at 16 and then it kind of fell from there those students might graduate and then we would be having smaller numbers for the other schools sure that makes sense yeah so I'd also just add though in addition to the participation um I think the way we increase part participation is being more Innovative with the menu and really you have to kind of do the best you can because we are limited so we have to still follow the national school lunch program regulations so you know the ketchup's not as good as the ketchup you're going to have at home because we can't have sugar or whatever um and the salt content we have to lower that so there's definitely areas I think with changing our menus and rotating things in which I believe Nick has been doing and that's really where the participation increases come from but I think as can involve the students more especially at the upper grade levels that gives us an opportunity to keep increasing participation gotcha and I think another area that we're really pushing hard into is signing more parents up for free and reduced lunch that will increase the amount of where reimbursed for each lunch that's very very important for us in many facets not only will it help with the bottom line in Food Services but it will also help us with our elementary and secondary education grant particularly title one so we are making a big push and I I don't know if you have those figures Mr cadino but I believe the percentage of our parents that are receiving free and reduced lunch has increased yes this year Erin just sent me an email maybe about a week ago I think that number was up 240 if I remember correctly yeah and many times it's just parents don't have the time don't think about it and so forth so we're working together as a team that's our building Administration with Mr s cadino in his office to remind parents and to show parents that really doesn't take much to do it much of it is done online it can be done within 15 to 20 minutes and I think it's important that we continue to educate parents about that because like you were saying speaker Coughlin they just passed what is it 200 times the poverty line yep qualifies for free lunch which is a is a big income number that I don't think a lot of people are aware that they qualify for free and reduced lunch and one some something that wasn't noted but I think it's worth mentioning is the amount of oversight and support that farmers Beyond Cafe gets from our food services department it wouldn't be the incredible success it is without Mr cadino and his staff working together with Mr naster and Mr vanderbeck and and his staff so we thank you very much for that best coffee shop in town and the happiest place in town absolutely and that does generate revenue for us yeah about that's a good one $5,000 a month well hopefully more right when we bring other students in if bring other students and Mr nasser's grand plan is for us to increase the hours there I believe 7:30 to 1:30 130 nice all right and we are doing some evening functions as well so that's all generating Revenue great I heard Santa Claus was there a couple weeks gr right the grin and not me Mrs it was the real Grinch the real Grinch I said nothing just one other quick question so is this 58,000 catering a one-off or are we finally getting coaches to say you know what let's not go outside and stay in so I I'll answer is it that's a partial yes though that is a partial yes but it's also bombers Beyond so bombers Beyond is considered a special event because it's not part of the national school lunch program so it's part of catering gotcha okay yeah but it it we are seeing that more and more people are using this good I hope so yeah I hope so you guys do a hell of a job with the football banquet that they just held on Sunday was catered by the Food Service no it wasn't oh can I ask a question I thought now in in defense they got a lot of donations the um touchdown Club got a lot of local businesses who feed the boys with the Thursday night pasta dinners to donate the pasta dishes and other stuff I know that they were looking into it they absolutely were we'll come to an agreement one of these years okay if I may the ASI family that we have Mr s's Food Service caters and does a wonderful job we get a lot of compliments on the baked goods and the if you could just talk that up with Mrs benami so that she can tell coaches and the great thing is we don't have to follow those you know very tight regulations from the food uh drug and caterings when we get to have fun absolutely I have a question how are like a child is eligible for the Freel launch how do they obtain it like what's the process in the lunch line because sometimes same as any other student so they just have a little card like everybody else that's it so that's something too because I don't know if they think like a stigma like oh I don't want people knowing like they you know that I'm getting free lunch like for some reason when I was young that was a stigma like you know you kind of many many years now you're not allowed to do that there's you can't give different cards or anything like that so that's not allow so everybody has the same process and it's just in their background on their account yeah because if we explain that that hey there's no Stigma to it you know then maybe the kids themselves will say to the parent hey sign me up for free lunch and if I could just make one more comment during the event that Mr Sid Mr cadino referenced with regard to National School Lunch week one of the people that accompanied um assembly speaker Coughlin was Rose Chamberlain and she's currently the New Jersey um Department of AG agriculture food and nutrition division director she's an old friend and you know they marveled at our program it's used throughout New Jersey as a model program for IND District programs and that's a thing that's gone to the Wayside New Jersey there's probably 635 or so school districts and only 5% about 5% of school districts in New Jersey have their own food services programs and we're just very proud to say that we're one of those what what do they do if they don't have them they they hire an outside service it's a they're called Food Service management companies um so many districts use those so you're still paying all of your costs but then on top of it you're paying management fees and things of that nature right and you have no control right I mean you do have control um it's just different so it's their staff well that's what I mean you don't control the staff so you I mean if anytime you have some contracted service of that nature if you have a problem with a staff member of theirs you can certainly have them not come back however it's similar to what we've had in other areas it's it's better when you have your own staff yes okay thank you anybody else okay anybody else from Mr Cadena no thank you Nick thank you great job okay board discussion our committee information pone finance and infrastructure please um good evening um we had a could you hear me public could you hear me back there um we had our uh finance and infrastructure committee meeting on December 12th and we discussed um pieces of the referendum the work that's being completed so um you know the hbac at the high school and Truman it's going on it's actually um doing pretty good they have the rooftop units installed and then they're installing the univ vents for the for the um rooms themselves and then we also have Windows going in at cover orith and middle school bathrooms getting done at cover and the vestibule um everything is moving along we have Roofing getting completed um at the arith Wilson ues and the middle school but I will say in the high school but I will say that that's may be delayed due to the cold weather the roof and material it's it's better to wait for it to be a little bit less frigid um we have electrical we're waiting on schedule we have some other bids that are waiting to go out we have bids that are in the office of the state controller for review um they've been there for a little bit so we're hoping that that process is completed and then we have other bids that are just waiting to go out and um we have completed projects for the solar um projects we got solar panels being installed and completed um we also have Roofing projects that were done boilers that were done um mechanical items everything is complete um the HVAC upgrades we were waiting for a fire alarm system piece at Eisenhower that was one of the large bases that um had not been completed um we talked about well we really didn't talk about it too much the bus complex so um that was on the agenda but we didn't discuss too much about it um there's not really any updates at this point um we have uh no updates on the stadium refurbishing we're waiting on parts for the stadium lighting the grand audio and the good news is that the theater um the sound system for that will begin on January 2nd and it will be completed according to Jimmy by January 16th well in time for rehearsals and our opening of our anticipated spring musical if I could also add that the bid that was with the Office of the State comproller we have now received approval yes so it was in the paper today so we areally out to bed very good and I do want the public to understand that that um when the state looks at it they go back and forth with us so for us to have passed the state uh review is a good thing for us and it says a lot about the team that put that work together so thank you very much okay any questions for Miss babone all righty Personnel committee Mrs pilac uh the Personnel committee met earlier this evening uh we discussed open positions both for certificated and non-certificated staff and then we discussed our midyear job fair which is scheduled to be held on Thursday January 11th from 4: to 7:00 p.m. so we're excited about that help fill some of those vacancies that we have that's it okay thank you uh Miss snap is not here will take governance please would you do you mind me doing that no you go ahead on November 28th we reviewed and discussed revisions to Board of Education policy 5460 High School graduation which we are recommending that you approve for a first reading later in this meeting we also discuss revisions to the 2023 2024 as well as 2024 2025 School District calendars that we are also asking you to approve this evening by finally Mr gluski provided us with another promising update on the dedication of the music Suite in theater after John Von Jovi in which we decided to name it the John bonjovi Performing Arts Center on December 18th we reviewed and discussed revisions to Board of Education policy and regulation 8454 management of pediculosis in other words lice which we will be recommending that you approve for a first reading on January 16th we also reviewed draft of the 2025 2026 School District calendar yikes is all I can say about that lastly we reviewed a proposed bill that will change the number of annual tenure evaluations if approved by the New Jersey legislature and Governor that is the lampit bill I believe okay any questions on governance all righty uh student achievement Mr Fernandez is not here is going to do that one Dr lad uh Mr Gman stud achievement committe we discussed several got spread the wealth here I have to spread the wealth um at the student achievement committee we discussed the course changes that um are listed on pages 12 and 13 of this evening's agenda we are going to be revising some titles and changing some courses all of those are to meet the requirements of the newly adopted 2023 New Jersey student learning standards for English language arts and Mathematics in addition to preparing us for our partnership that we are working towards with middle sex College to provide our students an opportunity to earn their associates degree um in addition to meeting some of our interests of our student body at the high school to increas en and selection for some of our electives we're hoping to Jazz things up a little bit Sean so that people pck some of those courses um we also discussed a change in our marking period calendar that is listed on page 12 of the agenda our report cards um are being released on 1221 2023 for our K through five students we a little bit of a short turnaround time so we uh adjusted that date a little bit we also disc some of the grants that Miss ber has been working on WE virtually over the last several weeks with the submission of a revision for our high-intensity tutoring Grant where we are going to provide students in grades three four and five in addition to six through 12 with some high-intensity tutoring and we talked about the expansion of AR and VR and we also talked a little bit about some programs like beluga and our silence thank you that we're going to be using with our students to enhance their educational experiences and we also discuss some of the same things that we discuss with governance which is the calendars as well as the policy with regard to high school graduation in which we are recommending that we reduce the number of credits required by a senior to graduate from 130 to what the state requires which is 120 and Mr naster also discussed his expansion plans for the bombers Beyond Cafe okay great job Mrs grman does anybody know when we went from 120 to 130 I think it was 20134 okay yeah because I I didn't recall that at all so it was in between me leaving teaching and getting on the board so I didn't even know that we had that but yeah it seems only common sense to go back to the state required number okay yeah thank you all righty um middle sex County School Board Association we had our meeting uh as I have said before at the Ross Street School in Woodbridge which is a lovely new building however if I had gone there first they have picnic tables with the benches attached not fun to sit on but they did have regular tables was in the corner so that was fine we sat over there um but the uh County made a faux PA and had no microphone so it was really difficult for everybody to hear what was going on but we had a good presentation um Aaron from Bush did discuss the new um Health Care rulings the next meeting will be in January and it will be a virtual meeting I don't have the exact date on me but I will have it at our reor uh next meeting in January which is before the county meeting so that's it for County School boards um since Mr Fernandez is not here the rotary we will pass on that and miss napalitano anything on Educational Services does anybody have any no okay so we'll pass on that as well okay uh now we will open to public on presentation and agenda items only okay seeing none we will move on with the superintendent's report Dr lby thank you Mrs Bloom if I can bring everyone's attention to page three number 13 on finance and infrastructure we're asking you to accept the very generous donation of office supplies medical books and a dual head microscope valued in total at about $9,000 and that's from Mr David coup and the Memorial Sloan ketering hospital or is it Clinic I think it's Clinic is he a graduate no just a Community member that wants to to give to us we're just overwhelmed and he's going to be donating more to us uh real soon so he donated that to the high school nice you can read all about that on page three number 14 which you can also find on page three we're asking you to approve the submission of the application for the computer science Teachers Association Grant to support computer science honor the Honor Society services projects for fees related to the 2024 virtual Leadership Summit in the amount of $11,200 and have to give a lot of credit to Mrs conry as well as Miss Bert for their hard work in getting that Grant written and ready for submission any questions on those items as well as any other on finance and infrastructure I have one question sure um I see here on the on the agenda that we have a couple of students coming in from Trenton I believe they're coming here from Trenton correct why would a student be coming all the way from Trenton because they're homeless but I'll let Mr naster talk to you a little bit more about that okay so mckenny vento is actually a federal legislation that identifies um families who are homeless and identifies the districts who are responsible so the district where a family went homeless is called the District of of origin the district where the family's currently living is the District of School attendance the districts pay tuition for each other to take those students so we the so in this case we're the receiving in this case we they receiving the students live here in town Trenton pays tuition for us to take okay they live in s you'll see in other board agenda is the opposite where we pay other districts to take our students while they're living temporarily in another location so like if they're living in a shelter or something of that nature it it could be it could be a hotel it could be a shelter or they could simply be doubled up in in less than um permanent situation all right thank you any others hearing and seeing none I'll bring your attention to student achievement now beginning on page 12 number one we're asking you to approve the revision of the grades k25 trimester report card calendar Miss Gman spoke about that earlier we took a look at the current calendar especially for this month and it just didn't provide our elementary school teachers what we felt was the appropriate amount of time at the end of the marking period to get their report cards done so we thank Mrs Gman for exercising the great flexibility with regard to that number two which you can find in Pages 12 and 13 we're asking you to approve High School New High School courses I think there's two and existing Middle School and High School courses that are being revised and again miss Grossman spoke a little bit about that when she provided a summary of student achievement number five which you can find on page 13 we're asking you to approve yet again another really cool co-curricular Club this is now at the seille War Memorial High School Technology Student Association for this school year and Miss Santella is going to be the adviser and we can't thank her enough for taking the time to work with our students on this very cool new Student Association any questions on those or anything else on student achievement we had we had never offered a freshman foundations type course in the high school you go um not to my knowledge this is something that's a little bit Innovative so the New Jersey student learning standards have a section called life literacies and career skills so Mr gusy uh approached me about designing a course that's going to meet those standards and help students transition from the Middle School to the high school I love that we're adding that because it's such a big transition from middle school to high school and that is such a strong course that'll help so many kids with that transition it is and the full name is um success at swmhs and Beyond because of the skills that they're going to be covering so it really is um an Innovative course so I have to give credit to Mr good job is it a like a mini course one semester it's going to be a single semester course all freshman um except our Roc students will be taking it because they cover some of the same topics some of the standards in the full year Roc course got so they will all be taking it as a freshman we're going to be talking about research skills and how they would conduct research for the next four years in high school they will also be talking about some technology skills some citizenship skills digital citizenship and then just kind of helping them transition into that High School setting it is also the perfect environment for our counseling department to push in and work with them developing their four-year plan and our sack counselors to go in and do some lessons related to um living a healthy lifestyle and some of the initiatives that we have to support uh social emotional learning so it was a group development kind of coming together and Mr Howard uh is our supervisor of humanities and he'll be overseeing that that's awesome that's awesome it's excited thank you m grosman if I can now direct your attention to the governance section beginning on page 14 number two as I said earlier we're asking you to approve several new and revised Board of Education policies and regulations for a second reading and adoption you approve them for a first reading back in November number four which you can find on page 15 we're asking you to approve Revis Boe policy 5460 I mentioned that earlier as well High School graduation and that basically the only revision to that is the revision from 130 credits to 120 credits numbers five and six when you can find on page 19 also we're asking you to approve the two calendars that I spoke about earlier the 2023 2024 calendar to make June 17 2024 School holiday in observance of Eid Al adhar and the 2024 2025 School District calendar that would make September 5th 2024 an early dismissal day for students and what's called a global compliance network module day for our staff and finally number uh seven which you can find on page 15 we're asking you to approve sharks as the new official cover preschool mascot and I have to give Miss obri a ton of credit along with developing a collaborative vision for the school she included within that the collaborative selection exercising the civic responsibility of our staff and our students they actually had a schoolwide election where they nominated various different mascots and then the whole school exercised their civic responsibility and I have great pictures to depict it where the kids actually casted their votes cool and they all selected sharks as their official mascot if you saw talkit which I know no one reads but if you did read it you would see that they had a special assembly last week where they introduced the shark as a new mascot and the kids went absolutely crazy so Kudos again to miss obri and the entire staff over there at cover school for this incredible project any questions on those items or anything else on governance all right hearing and seeing none let's finish with Personnel if I can bring your attention to page uh numbers eight and nine on pages 19 through 21 naturally we're asking to appoint new certificated and non-certificated staff for this school year numbers 10 and 11 which you can find on page 21 we're asking you to approve the transfer of certificated and non certificated staff for this school year numbers 14 and 15 which you can find on pages 22 and 23 we're asking you to appoint paid and volunteer coaches for the winter 2023 2024 season and the spring 2024 season and finally number 17 which you can find on page 23 we're asking you to appoint advisers that are not in the collective bargaining unit for the 2023 2024 school year any questions on those or any other items in Personnel okay seeing hearing none Mrs Bloom back to you back to me uh okay we need to uh have a motion to approve the minutes uh sorry the superintendent's report as read yes so moved thank you second second thank you Mr Esposito yes Mrs babone yes Miss pyck yes Mr Smith yes Mr Walsh yes and Mrs Bloom yes okay all righty now to public participation uh for anything related to the school district open public and I will remind you that there is a three minute limit Patrick timing it's on the wall thank you you're so efficient good job P hi my name is Carol Angley I live in Ash Terrace been there since March 1954 I'm here today to express my disgust and shock at the disrespectful and discourteous behavior that happened at the last meeting what would that behavior have taught those young ladies who were here at the beginning of the meeting at one burough council meeting I attended when one person neared their five minute limit he was politely interrupted to me to to mention that fact that he's running out of time they were respectful and courteous they did not talk over him and they did not try to remove him but that is what the board did to one of our citizens here last time when he tried to get up to talk again later to ask a question you wouldn't let him speak the third item of your policy once 67 says no participant may speak more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard why then did the board president an attorney violate the rights of a member of the public and prohibit him from speaking on a second topic on a matter of great concern to the taxpayers after all others who wished to speak had been heard and after others had said they would yield their time like they do in Congress so he could finish what were you hiding and what were you afraid of you finally did allow him to ask this question once he reminded you that you gave gave the courtesy to another your response Dr Lobby you bluntly and little sarcastically said you would then have to use the sites by the elementary schools and the high school if the uh Cheesequake Road Site fell through and yet you say you care about our kids um why you didn't try to figure out where to park the buses before you started buying them six years ago it's beyond me you were also prevented from using a spot near uh the houses on school drive as well as by Slover and it's my understanding you wanted to use the uh field dedicated to private first class Wayne a grant who died in Vietnam I'm the daughter of a of a World War II vet and a vietn wife of a Vietnam vet and I am totally completely it's reprehensible some of us spoke at the last meeting because we also feel that Cheesequake Road was not the right site imagine the bus is lined up backed up because of the light along with trucks from the warehouses you tell me that no one is going to try to cut through Laurel Park uh we've already had one of our young men hit there and seriously hurt are we going to have more because of it had we known sooner about this we would have been here sooner but we didn't uh hear anything about it before you presented whatever the heck that was at the planning board meeting in November minutes is up thank you ma'am your time is up I just have a little bit more may I please no we didn't let Jim speak so it's just this much little bit Ahad Jim thank you I'll allow it okay Dr lbby I did not and do not appreciate your attitude last time time if you truly care about our children the last thing you would want to do is put something near them that might affect their health let alone say what you said about Cheesequake Road by the end of the meeting it felt like I was no longer in America it felt like the Constitution and the First Amendment right of free speech was left outside the door thank you very much thank you for continue anyone else thank you Mrs Bloom and members of the board my name is Jim Robinson I live in Parlin I have only three minutes so I will ask my question serum quickly but I will give you uh them in writing to assist you in in responding the board still has not publicly voted or even disclosed that they file suit against the burrow and its taxpayers when and by what formal action was the suit against the burrow authorized if it took such an unprecedent Monumental action without a public vote what was the board trying to hide last month's resolution going into Clos session referenced matters of attorney client privilege but not litigation when asked if litigation was discussed Dr Labby refused to answer incorrectly claiming that he could not disclosed even the subject being discussed by the way matters of attor cining attorney client privilege on their own are not a valid exception it has to be in connection to litigation okay so I would ask the same question what was Dr Labby trying to hide in his non-response what is the estimated cost in legal and other fees for the suit and has the ba certified that the funds are available why was it certified to the doe that the plans for the transportation complex had been submitted to the planning board when in fact they had not been when you learned that the plans weren't submitted as required did you immediately notify the doe of that misrepresentation and if so what was their response which members of the board read the Arsenal traffic study I forwarded to them and did that report raise a concern with anyone the statute signed into law in 2022 refers to the governing officer of the institution who is the governing officer of the institution I wasn't clear on that Dr Labby told me funding for the bus depot was in the capital account and later said $6 million was reserved and any more than that would take money from the children the ba indicated the cost will be almost $9.5 million please explain how much is reserved and where the balance will come from do the members of the board really think $9.5 million is a smart and reasonable cost for a school bus depot I suggested several locations that could be used or even leased for a Depot what locations have individual members of the board suggested and have you followed up on any of them despite being told several times the need to appear before the planning board Dr Labby wrote to me quote as I stated publicly while school districts are not required to meet and comply with Municipal planning boards because all our projects have to be approved by the NJ do etc etc etc and as late as October the ba wrote in an email that she was quote not aware of a need to appear before the planning board although documents she submitted to the doe said it had been done after the last meeting the board attorney told me a presentation to the planning board is just quote a courtesy is the attorney who said the appearance before the planning board just a courtesy the same attorney who advised the board to file suit against the burrow and shouldn't you know what the law required before almost $10 million in taxpayer money is spent and what remedial steps have you taken to ensure that the attorney the superintendent the ba and the board know understand and follow their lawful obligations in matters such as this going forward did the board make a submission to the planning board before erecting solar panels or constructing new parking lot at this school or the Gateway Stadium entrance and if not why not and did they advise the State Department of Education that they had made such a submission also time is up Mr Robinson can you wrap up okay I'll give these to you give them to Dr Lobby please I'll give them to you you're the presiding officer and I looked at the rules and you you run the meeting so I'll give them to you Len up have to get up and get it thank okay thank you very much I look forward to your responses anybody else from the public wish to speak at this time I get so nervous when I come up here I don't know why um we'll stop find rever go live I just you put your you have to put your name and address for oh I'm sorry Kelly wank Miller uh 84 Pine Tree Drive so we'll stop finder ever go live that's the first one I can't hear you stop the bus the bus regarding Laurel Park and the transportation complex Mrs pone I wanted to let you know that I did watch the video uh from 3722 three times just to make sure sometimes I need to do that to to get it as you very strongly suggested uh a few of us do I have no problem educating myself on these types of matters but my takeaway from that video was that there were two suitable locations Journey Mill Road and Cheesequake Road with Cheesequake Road being the ideal location I saw the mayor turn to the council for their opinions where five out of six of them expressed their favor for the journey Road location when it was turned back to the Board of Education only Cheesequake Road was discussed I guess this is a moot point at this time since there is now a lawsuit in process regarding this matter which brings me to a new concern uh it seems from my point of view that if you speak up you get punished the taxpayers and residents spoke up with their concerns of the location of the complex the answer to that was a lawsuit that the taxpayers will ultimately be paying but I guess if you're not a resident of cille this wouldn't concern you this board is the example for the educators of our district who said set the example for our students and now I wonder if the students present with issues that are of major concern to them are they being shut down and silenced if the context of their concerns do not fit with the board of education's narrative are we not encouraging our kids to think freely and ask questions and speak up when something doesn't seem right or if they have a better suggestion none of this makes sense to me I've heard in a handful of these meetings where this board has expressed the dire need for this Transportation complex and time was of the essence doesn't filing this lawsuit further delay the fruition of this project and I can't help but feel the way the last Board of Education meeting was handled was disappointing to say the least I for one appreciate Jim Robinson coming to the podium armed with not only knowledge but helpful suggestions I can only hope that this is not the model we are presenting for our youth to follow thank you and outside of the tension of this whole thing happy holidays to everybody thank you thank you is there anyone else Nicholas Nicholas manenti uh 101 Kendall Drive parin um I spoke at the last meeting um I'm speaking in opposition to the location of the school bus transportation Depot not the transportation Depot itself uh a couple of Council meetings ago board member Smith encouraged us at that meeting to attend the meetings here and uh make our feelings uh known to you well we did at the last Board of Ed meeting and again like some of the people here is been saying the way we were treated um a big countdown clock and a beeper at the end of the pre you know our three minutes I don't think that goes on in other places well we came we expressed our opinions and um we got the distinct impression that unless you know someone that lives in our neighborhood maybe sits on the board it has a lot of impact as to the location of this uh this bus depot it rightfully got taken out of the Morgan it should never been considered into the Morgan section this bus depot should not be considered anywhere near where residents live it's yes it's not right inside Laurel Park but it's it's yards away from the entrance of Laurel Park and it's going to drastically affect the way we live especially traffic-wise Laura Park is a peninsula more or less we have the woods that you want to tear apart behind us we have ernston Road Borton town Avenue and we have Cheesequake the buses are going to be using ernston Road bord toown Avenue and Cheesequake to go back to this Depot it's going to affect us it takes us a while to get out of our development as it is now what my question is is and I have I guess two questions my question is is did the board attorney did your attorney advise you as far as um you know the law that says that you're supposed to make a presentation to the planning board PRI to spending any significant funds on a project like this I mean we found out about this when it was presented to the planning board had this wait a minute okay had this been presented to the planning board months and months ago we would have expressed our opposition to this months and months ago not back in October when it was presented so were you advised that you were supposed to do this and my other question is did you receive any correspondence from the New Jersey Department of Education pertaining to the planning board's uh objection to this uh location of this bus depot have you received anything yet did you receive uh a positive or A negative response from the uh Department of Education because right now a lot of our uh you know residents that were here at the last meeting chose not to come because of the way to were treated and they'll be at the council meeting to greet the new Administration but they're also going to be writing themselves as private citizens to to support the planning board's uh rejection of this location to the director and to the manager uh Brun Anthony Brun um you know that we support the planning board and uh that you should find another location for this thank you thank you anyone else from public please come to the microphone ex hello good evening uh 129 kendle Drive joyn Ryan so I don't know who's in charge here actually I'm kind of confused by that because Dr Labby seems to be getting a lot of heat for this and he made a comment at the last meeting that the that the seille board gave him permission to do this so I went back through the videos of the meetings with the sville board and the mayor and it did seem like it was a collaborative effort where the mayor said we'll cut down the trees or somebody did on the board what I'd like to know is why would anyone do that before going you know through a planning board before doing a traffic study before doing any due diligence so it's not like there's one person guilty of maybe mismanagement there's a lot of people guilty of that and I think what happens is your jobs aren't necessarily affected if you go through with something that is absolutely ridiculous but they should be and everyone is should be held responsible not one person not not a mayor all of you there's a residential neighborhood here it shouldn't be there and that's it the fact that you spent the money is not my fault it's yours you should have done due diligence all of you and including the sville board including everybody okay so now you know there's a residential neighborhood there and you still want to move forward because you spent money and you don't want to look foolish don't do that you're just going to make it worse then you're going to get lawsuits by the people that live on Kendall right because they're breathing in carbon oxide so figure out a better way now before you go forward wasting money in the court and I hope if a judge sees these tapes he or she realizes that there's a tremendous residential neighborhood not far from where you want to put an 85 bus approximately bus depot and that you didn't go before a planning board and that not only you are wrong but that the sville board was Justice wrong now I understand they keep saying that it was just Ana I get that mou I'm sorry I get that okay but who stopped out of any of you and them in bar hole to say one person just to say uh wait a minute isn't there a residential neighborhood here like right up against the depot it's not like we're you know like in the middle of Laurel Park Kendall Drive is literally up against the depot so I would just ask you that you think about this before going forward or any further thank you thank you anybody else we'll be here all night Smith 124 kle Drive last time I was told not to talk too closely so this time I will back up if you can't hear me let me know I can hear you just fine um okay there is a process that was supposed to be put in place that required the board to give the planning board the information about what was going to go there not that they could approve it or disapprove it but for them to make their recommendation and that that went to the Department of Education and you guys though you were reminded of it at least four times by a gentleman sitting back here that you needed to take it to the planning board for the recommendation before you spent any money and now you have spent almost $6 million without you it it wasn't um allowed I mean did the board attorney tell you that the law required you to go before the planning board before you spent any money on the bus depot much less6 million um you're only allowing me to ask questions so that's um and uh it just it makes it makes no sense I mean you know you worried about the people in in Morgan which you know several people are from Morgan here so you know that was V deal for the depot okay um well you don't have any Laurel Park people but that may change next time around okay that may very well change uh this board may change a lot next time around and um I just wanted I do want to thank you for one thing though um okay the uh the board is suing the burrow my taxes pay for the board my taxes pay for the burrow I've never had a manaja before and I guess I'm in the middle of one now because I'm being screwed from both sides okay we we welcome your public comment but we still have a student in our midst here so I'd ask you to show some respect for the young man that's here and refrain from using any suggestive or adult-like behavior she didn't know it was student yeah I had if she was here from the beginning of the meeting she should know that there is a student here I had no idea look to your or not look to your right I see lots of people I I don't I can't distinguish a student from anybody else then I ask that you use better discretion when you're speaking publicly you might find what you said funny I don't well you know what I don't find you funny either I find you very nasty and I think you are treating this this whole thing uh like a joke I'm not the one Mak adult suggestive jokes right now care about is money thank you your time is up thank you anyone else is this on a different topic Mr Robinson it's on a different topic but even if it wasn't Mrs blumen I thank you for recognizing me under your policy you can speak on the same subject after everyone else has spoken but and maybe the attorney should familiarize you policy 167 but I did want to talk on another topic and it's this if the public goes to the website it will see the meeting is advertised at 7:30 now I understand if you dig through everything and you go look at the annual notice you'll see that the meeting starts at 6:30 you go into executive session but a lot of people think the meeting starts at 7:30 because that's what it says on the website so if you come at 7:30 you don't hear the resolution to go into executive session and you don't know what topics are being discussed and that is why at the last meeting I asked the question about was litigation discussed because I was not here because I followed the website that said 7:30 and even though the law well first of all says that you have to say what you're discussing generally and would not have precluded Dr Labby from answering he didn't answer so that's why I raised that issue I understand why you do the 7:30 because that's when the public portion really starts but you really ought to be more clear on the website because it was confusing and that's why I didn't come at 6:30 last time and I didn't know for what reason you went into executive session and you know I worked in the legislature when the O when the open public meetings Act was written and I know if there's there are a couple things I know a little bit about and that is one of them and the intent of the law is that the public has to know what you are discussing and some of the things in that resolution on their own aren't good enough and they don't qualify so you know I'm not going to get into the fact that if you did discuss a lawsuit and you didn't advertise that you were discussing litigation maybe you have a problem there and now it's no secret I've consulted with a couple of attorneys on this who are interested in this but and it's a shame that the attorney isn't here to respond to this but if you improperly went into executive session by not saying that you were going to discuss litigation that's bad enough and then that you as I said before and I'll wait for your answer on that you never respond never told the public never told the public that you filed suit or why or any discussion whatsoever so I really think you have to take a look at that and and and I I guess I'll have to bring this up to the burrow who you are suing that your very filing suit is probably improper because your executive session was improper and it does say in there the attorney can give you attorney client matters of attorning client privilege but that is a subsection of litigation that is not that is not a reason on its own thank you okay thank you Mr Robinson who said thank you I said thank you okay well thank you and merry Christmas to every Merry Christmas to you as well anyone else oh no different topic please I think so to No it's it's fine I think that we need to have decorum I do this is a small town really okay and some of you may not live here these people do everyone on the board lives here do you okay every elected member of this board you have to live here to be elected to the board and that's great I think it's really important that we remember that we're all human beings and that we may make mistakes when we speak and we may not we may not mean to do that but I really don't think people should speak to anyone in a manner that is elitist or condescending I mean I'm not saying that you can't say what you were saying but maybe in a different tone and maybe in a different manner body language means a lot and and as Educators you know that right okay I have a degree in Psychology in education so uh it just makes people angrier you know when you say things like you know in in elitist Manner and you may not mean it you may not mean that so I'm just saying that uh maybe if we could all just be a little nicer to each other listen to each other and realize that we don't hate each other that we're just trying to do the best thing we can for the town okay Merry Christmas everyone happy holiday Merry Christmas Merry Christmas um before before Dr lby answers his question EXC I would just like to say that as this young lady just said it works both ways if you're going to come to the podium and insult us and presume that you know us which obviously you don't and be insulting that gets everybody's backup I'm working on my facial expressions I tend to roll my eyes and I tend to make faces and it's hard for me not to do that but I think we all have the same desire here we want to do what is best for the children unfortunately we need someplace to put this bus compound um things seem to have gone a we're in the process of trying to fix it we're trying to find a place for it and we need your support we all live here very long time and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Dr lbby you can address questions I want to say something for Dr lbby um you know what appalls me is that everybody's coming up and they keep talking about the streets and the traffic and I have yet to hear any of you concerned about the reason that the bus Depo is necessary in the first place and if you do care about the children of sville you would care that they were being driven for 2 hours that they the drivers didn't know how to get to their houses their parents were frantic police were out looking for buses you've all acted like that didn't happen the post on Facebook that I read act like Dr Labby wanted to become a bus magnet a transportation magnet no he did not he became a superintendent of our children and did what was in their best interest which was to get our own buses so that they are not being driven around aimlessly and being lost so it is appalling to me not just as a board member but as a parent and a sayal resident that none of you care about that and that's what's really appalling so that that's what I'm saying that's my statement you did you didn't even talk about one time nobody has talked one single time about the reason we need the bus depot so so ladies and gentlemen we will not have a debate from the floor that's just my statement I will hand it over to Dr Labby I would like like to say one thing please Mrs Bloom you have to close public comment section is this on a different topic ma'am um it's something that I wanted to say but no I didn't have enough time to say I understand the reason for this bus depot I care about our kids but putting something near where they live is not taking care of the kids and that's the problem and that's why I'm angry I care about the kids and none of them are m thank you and again have a merry Christmas happy healthy New Year okay at this point I'm going to close public Mrs Bloom I second it I would like to respond to the comment of the board member we're done if you want to speak make I have suggested more areas for the bus terminal than the members of this board so those comments were inappropriate what the comments public is closed thank you sit me down again yeah sit down Dr lbby okay so I'll I'll begin with Mr Robinson's questions and I'm just going to go with the questions so one of the questions was when and by what formal action was the suit against the buau authorized the the suit was filed in November and it was authorized by me on behalf of the board what is the board trying to hide the board is trying to hide nothing what was I trying to hide I was trying to hide nothing what is the estimated cost in legal and other fees for the suit and has the ba ba certified the funds available I can't discuss the matters pertaining to the suit because we are in active litigation why is why was it certified to the doe that the plans for the transportation complex had been submitted to the planning board when they had not been done so as we stated at the planning board meeting that that was a clerical error made by our architect when you learned the plans were submitted as required as uh when you learned the plans weren't submitted as required did you immediately notify the doe of that represent misrepresentation if so what was the Doe's response when we learned that it did not go to the planning board we directed our architect to notify the doe someone also asked a related question I'm going to just stop and just go to that did we receive a response from the doe regarding the recommendation by the planning board no we have not received any response by the doe with regard to the recommendation which members of the board read the Arsenal uh traffic study I don't know you'd have to ask each member of the board that question did the board did that report raise any concern with anyone again that's not for me to answer who is the governing officer of your institution that would be me please explain how much is reserved and where the balance will come from with regard to the bus depot currently our audit is still being conducted by our Auditors we'll have an Auditor's report to our board and hopefully soon made public in January so we'll be able to let you know what is what is now in our capital reserve at the time our capital reserve before this school year was is about $10 million 9. $9.8 million do the members of the board really think 9.5 million is a smart and reasonable cost and for a school bus depot it's not for me to answer you're asking the board that what locations have individual members of the board suggested um have you followed up on any we have followed up on Plenty of locations for the transportation complex and I'll go to another question that was asked or a comment that was made with regard to watching the the tape I think Mrs wank Mueller asked that question Mrs wank mu to clarify again if you look at the tape we were we were given the option of about eight choices of those eight choices we asked first and foremost for the choice off of Journey Mill Road and we were told we couldn't have that because they were selling it to some a warehouse company which they actually did I understand the other Cheesequake location where is where the softball fields are that was our other choice that was what on their menu that was their choice um but again we were told we couldn't have that location either because that was supposedly going to be a youth recreation center the the actual lot that Mr Frankle and Miss Kilpatrick suggested and offered to us was not one of the eight lots of land that were given to us that was just suggested that very so that Cheesequake one that we the Cheesequake one that we we we disc that they that we we asked for that was a softball field that or that either one of is not a good my point was at2 at the table it was joury Road still on the table and cheese Road no we were told yeah if we don't we were told no for churny Mill it was clearly we told no for churny Mill not on that on that video that was there yeah it was they yeah they they told us no to it I think yeah public portions closed okay um the rest of these there I'm just looking for questions here is the attorney who wrongly said the appearance before the planning board is just a courtesy the same attorney who advised the board to file suit against the burrow we only have one board attorney it's the same board attorney we've had for the past many years 10 years the bush Law Group has been our our firm since for 10 years shouldn't you know the law requires before almost $10 million in taxpayer money is spent and what remedial steps have t taken to ensure the attorney superintendent ba and board know understand and follow their lawful obligation going forward I I don't I don't know how to answer that question that's for the board did the board make a submission to the planning board before erecting solar panels or construction of new parking the same clerical error that was made with regard to the transportation complex was made was was that sent at the same time we we sent that for solar panels no that was well before this we par planning board uh the parking lot and the Gateway Stadium were all in one letter with the transportation complex okay again another um what are you trying to hide nothing going back with regard to will oh Mrs wank Miller will stop we ask stop finder will we are going to we are just trying to iron out the the wrinkles to it make sure it's safe and secure for for people to use so stop binder we are definitely going to be implementing it this is a great why did we spend money for the planning and design of the transportation complex before the planning board before appearing for the planning board well you can't appear before the planning board unless your plans and your designs are made so we had to go ahead and design the actual Transportation complex before we could actually go in front of the planning board for them to ask any questions about it so all Mr Robinson all that was done that way in executive session do not know what topics are discussed we do advertise in the paper for our our meetings begin at 6:30 we put on our website as a courtesy to people so they're not sitting here for an hour waiting while we're in executive session that public session starts at 7:30 however if you miss the motion to go into executive session which notes what we are going to discuss during executive session as you all know and heard the board secretary then goes ahead and summarizes the topics that were discussed in executive session so if you miss that motion the same topics that were mentioned in that motion are mentioned in the summary of what we discussed during executive session and I believe that answers all the questions okay does anybody have anything else they want to uh speak to before we take a motion to close Mr Smith totally unrelated topic this past week I just want to compliment the sville War Memorial Theater students they did a fantastic fundraiser put together by the recently created theater parents Association to go around you could make a donation to them to go carolling in front of a house we had four seniors from the theater program show up at my in-laws house sing three holiday songs they did a fantastic job and I hope it just continues to grow for him because it was a fantastic fundraiser for him very nice thank you I would also like to say I attended the uh holiday concert which showcased Mr kuso's uh Jazz Ensemble and his band as well as the chorus and having been in glee club when I was in high school it always makes you feel so much like Christmas so I really enjoyed it the kids were fabulous and uh our music instructors did a wonderful job oh and we had some great faculty members assisting too yes we did um including Mr SRE got on the piano and played magnificently as well as two other students and Pete um Mr Alvarez was rocking the place on the bass guitar yeah so an outstand in performance by not only our incredible student musicians and singers but our very talented staff yeah that was a very nice evening anybody else motion to close well hold on I have um I received some information from some of the parents that are in the middle school and they felt like um the children even though there's not really enough notices for activities and clubs going to the parents so the parents don't know about it so they said is there any way that they could be notified or included in Communications because some of the kids like if they have Home Room in gym like their gym is their home room they really can't hear and everything I mean that's just um one example but if we could um see if you could see uh devise a way or even if it's like through the bomb or you know whatever the thing is the the communication piece to the parents so they know what's going on and what the activities are in each you know for the Middle School Oh you mean clubs so they clubs activities because a lot of times they said hey the kid their kid didn't know about it I know when I was um a parent and my daughter was in the middle school I felt too like I really didn't know everything that was going on because you're so used to getting information from like through the Elementary grades so I think if we could just beat that up a little so the parents know more about what's going on they would appreciate it because they do think there's a lot of good things going on but they're not finding out about them till it's too late may I ask you when did you get get that feedback from people on Facebook like parents coming like a week ago really cuz we just fixed the acoustic problem in the gym it's been a problem it it's not the actual PA system because it's a brand new PA system it's the the way the Acoustics are configured so we put in goodness gracious I think we spent close to $14,000 and installing boards so that it would absorb the sound and allow kids to hear it and the last I heard from the teachers as well as students is that they can now hear announcements in the gymnasium so I will definitely look into that yeah because they're talk about from the beginning of the school year not necessarily recent that they you know have had a difficulty getting a grasp on what's going on I'll still I'll still go ahead and follow up on that because I'm I'm almost certain that that was remediated with well it's not just the gym noise sound in general the parents whether they're kids in Home Room Home Room was I mean Home Room in gym was one example but there's other parents that feel even if their kid is in a classroom that they're a little bit outside the world of what's going on with the activities and events so looking at the AR parents aren't information the kids are not and that's the problem we do give out that activities like for instance that the activities the school activities calendar I don't know if you see it at all we we bomb or blast that at the beginning of every month it's going to go out tomorrow and it's posted on the website it's a detailed calendar for every school where there are major activities and things that are taking place like say for example running for class class class student council that would also be in that running for student council and those type of things might not be on the calendar but like a PTO function or this night or that night activity that'll all be on that calendar I think they're looking to know more about what's going on because this way the kid could be more well-rounded if were encouraged to join a club if the parent knew so maybe I can talk to Mr nurger about either updating or coming up with a creative way to inform parents in his newslet because that's they they said there's so much stuff great things going on they said there's so much good things going on but we don't know about it till it's too late so that was really they were commending us for having programs but they felt they wanted more information on okay good and the problem I have is that so many good things are on the same night and you can't be in two places at mon as much as I would like to yeah I agree I've tried to clone myself doesn't work no it say please yeah we don't need that one is good you want me okay anybody else okay with that I'll take a motion to close so move second meeting is adjourned