##VIDEO ID:F6LzJlQcgBM## good evening everybody and welcome to our August 20th board meeting and the first board meeting in the reign of superintendent Jr liso welcome thank you appreciate the warm welcome if I could have everybody please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of UN States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible withy andice for Mr if we could have roll call please yes Mrs Van Horn here Mr Serio present Sir Mr Jess Mr Carlson Mr pontillo Mrs crasa is absent Mrs Dale is absent Mr kimik here Mr Garcia here Mrs fabri is absent awesome please note that adequate notice of this meeting in compliance with chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 entitled the open public meetings act has been provided by action of the board of education at its regular meeting on January 3rd 2024 with notices to The Courier News and Star Ledger circulating the school district and a posted notice to this effect on the board of education website and building bullon board administrative headquarters 51 West Street Summerville New Jersey at this time we are open to members of the public for public comment on both agenda and non-agenda items distinguished members of the school board superintendent Brisco and Friends Jamie BAC Readington New Jersey welcome to Somerville superintendent Brisco this is truly an outstanding District filled with amazing students teachers administrators parents and we have a great future in front of us as well as Great Expectations I myself beginning my last term as the consiliary for the booster club Mafia and seriously now and the increase of costs related to Student Activities has continued to make it more and more difficult for students to participate and these respective activities as well as more burdensome for parents to afford them as I'm sure the board is aware Bridgewater Ric School District recently implemented 100% District funded Student Activity model they did so under the premise that the magnitude and escalation of fees was becoming an equity issue forcing those students who could not afford to participate a financial barrier to do so so years ago when Mr seril and I were in school shortly about the same time as George and Weezy moved next door to the bunkers this was much less of an issue but his activities have expanded and Athletics has expanded it's become more and more significant so I'm not going to pretend to know how the inner workings of this was done or what the financial and tax implications to the district were but is a philosophical principle it certainly has some Merit this also seems to better align with the 14th Amendment which requires states provide equal access to schooling he could argue as to where the line is drawn related to ities and academics and title mine but that's for much smarter people than me to figure out but I would humbly suggest to the board to review this to see if any progress can be made uh in this regard and on other fronts the air is getting cooler nights are getting longer and a hint of fall is in the air which could only mean one thing marching van season so our outstanding Somerville Pioneer band is in the second week of band camp preparing for what is sure to be a successful season in addition to all the hard work the students and staff have put in um behind the scenes parents are working hard fundraising prop building and supporting the programs in many different capacities and just about six weeks or so the marching band home show will be upon us this is a Cornerstone event for the program and our biggest fundraiser as you know last year's show was rained out which not only led to great disappointment but significant financial loss please show your support of the home show with your attendance or maybe take an ad in the journal or do whatever you can uh superintendent lisco I think you will be very impressed as to how the entire Community comes together in support of this great program and show uh lastly with the school year knocking at the front door let's work collectively to create an outstanding year for all here at Somerville in June 2025 when we graduate yet another outstanding senior class let's make it a goal to say we have served our students meritoriously and some areil to do better for it thank you and let's have a great year thank you thank you Mr President may I comment no is there anybody else that would like to have a comment from the public no okay all right seeing none may have a motion to close public comment please thank you may have a second thank you Kim any discussion all those in favor discussion I just wanted to add that yes Mr bar is the appropriate consiliary for the marching B but no but just add to what he add to his remarks um the name of the program is lucky this year and Mr Ferguson who's in the second year has really um has really put the program on an upward trajectory since Mr kassy uh retired and uh was actually one of the advisers in hiring Mr Ferguson uh and then September 7th I understand is the first band competition at ran high school and then also this band camp ends this Thursday yes so if those are around in the community they always end their band camp with a display of what's going to be of their program throughout marching van season so that was in my notes for the that report so I figured I would dtail I would dtail on that for you your uh presentation so thank you Mr you done all those in favor any opposed any extension so move Mr Bak thank you for your comments as I said before the mic went live we always appreciate the fact that you come in and every time you make a comment has nothing to do with anything bad it's always you know for the children and how we can better help them and so we truly appreciate you being a steward of of them and we really appreciate that thank you so much um and I'm sure that Mr Boyce you know as he goes through the budget next year we'll look to see what if anything else can be done to help with all activities and all students you know Athletics and activities and with uh Mr lisco and with Mr Carlson as chair of Finance as well I'm sure they'll do their best that they can but thank you for that um board president's report again we'd like to welcome Mr lisco his first official board meeting since he started on August 1st uh the board is excited that you're here we're looking forward to great things moving forward we know that you've been busy uh since you started with a full head of hair before you uh you came here and and now this is what happens after you know this happens only after 20 days so it's amazing um but we're we're glad that you're here we welcome you and and you know we're here to support and work with you as well so appreciate and that being said I have one motion uh may I have a motion under item one resignation resolved at the Board of Education accept the resignation of Board of Education member Kristen fazi effective June 24th 202 24 motion thank you may have a second thank you is that Mr seril I think that's Mr Kim Mr Kim all right you guys sound any discussion uh Mr Boyce may I have a roll call please yes Mrs Van Horn yes Mr seril yes Mr Jess Mr Carlson yes Mr pontillo yes Mrs crasa yes okay Mr kimick yes Mr Garcia yes awesome thank you moving on superintendent report here's your first one thank you don't screw it up a lot of pressure there we go one jot first of all I want to thank everyone for the warm welcome thank you for the kind words I appreciate it I look forward to Thursday night and uh checking out the marching band I do have an overlap with Mr Ferguson as I worked with him for a brief time in denan and once I saw his name on the roster I was excited for Somerville he does a tremendous job um with that said just a couple quick items I'd like to talk about um first of all fall Sports and activities have gone into full effect as you said we've had uh all the activities starting with their practices and scrimmages went down to a football scrimmage today was excited to see that happening but also at all the schools um we had our camp of Vander preschool welcome freshman orientation and soon to come will be the welcoming of our sixth graders uh at the middle school so those are some exciting times always great to welcome the parents and we really uh thank them for entrusting us with their children that's absolutely essential and uh we take that very seriously and and uh everyone did a tremendous job on all the buildings getting ready so I thank our administrative teams uh the support staff and teachers for welcoming everyone properly there um I'd also like to bring some attention to uh one of our items later on the agenda because the three folks are sitting right here with me and uh I want to thank them for stepping up for the district to serve as acting principal and acting assistant principles um so uh thank you so much Lindsay Kelly and Freddy for stepping up for us uh to make this opening of Vander smooth and I know it will be as I've already gone down to some of the events and uh they're welcoming our children down there speaking of Vander uh we broke ground down there with our preschool expansion so that's uh you know on its way and going well that's going to obviously um you know be something to manage with a drop off and pickup but they are ahead of that working with the local police on making sure that's as smooth as possible for our parents um but thank you again guys for stepping up we're very excited uh to start the the school year off with you guys uh you know having the uh you know Vander ship so thank you so much and then uh my entry Plan update just real quick I communicated out to uh the Board of Education our staff our students our parents and school community and I've had some tremendous meetings already uh getting to know the folks in town and seeing the passion throughout has really been enjoyable for me uh I'll use my my little catchphrase but I'm hitting the ground learning so these uh meetings have been really helpful for me to get to understand the district through the perspective of all the folks here you really see the passion and enthusiasm for the school uh through everyone's experiences but also it's just great to know people's story and journey that uh brought them here to Somerville and uh I'm learning a tremendous amount in a very short amount of time and it's been extremely helpful um last night I went to the town council meeting was uh introduced myself there and got to meet president vroom who I have a a connection to in our very small world as his childhood friend is a good friend of mine as well mayor Gallagher came in for a wonderful meeting today as I got to know him personally and our administrators our Board of Education community members parents and soon to be staff and students scheduled for those entry plan meetings has really been helpful to me um and speaking of Branchburg uh I got a nice tour of the middle school and elementary schools down there um with her superintendent and started that dialogue and communication there um she's doing a tremendous job and and it was great to to finally get to meet her we've exchanged emails for a long time but um they welcomed me there um and you know just getting to know and and thank everybody here during my my short time uh on the job is uh is just what I want to end with so the you know really the the wonderful attention that is brought to our schools from everyone's uh efforts and and dedication uh you know really comes through in all my conversations so I thank everyone for the warm welcome I'm so excited to get started it seems like it was forever waiting to get to August 1st but now I'm here it's an absolute worldwind but a wonderful worldwind as I'm learning as much as I can about the the district everyone's uh really welcomed me with open arms and provided me with everything I possibly could need in this uh you know short time uh but the most important thing we have ahead of us is opening our schools in a efficient safe and fun Manner and I know everything's on its way to do that um so thank you to our staff administrators and and support Personnel all over uh the district because that's the most exciting time you have in school uh I always was a little sad when uh the school year would end and you'd come back to work and the holes would be empty and all that hustle and bustle would be gone and and the kids aren't there um but uh whether it's through the orientations and the various camps that have gone on I've been getting to know our kids and uh you know I can't wait for that first day of school because that's always um the most enjoyable day and you get that fresh FR start uh you get to meet everybody and you see the enthusiasm and it's palpable when you walk through the hall so um that's going to be really enjoyable and then the final thing I'm going to talk about is I did go to a qack training today to put it on the board's radar we are up for it um we will have our first documents due in the middle of November and we will have the site visit in January or February I had the provide them with dates so we'll be uh working on that diligently but the positive and I already talked to uh president Jess about this is that uh I'll get a really close look at all of our uh our procedures uh what we do on a day and and day out basis and where we are as a district so besides my entry plan uh in which I'll learn a lot through people's perspective Den eyes and data analysis I'll get a whole lot of information right off the bat of where we are to the qac review so um that's my report and uh I thank you for the warm welcome thank you well it was forever for you to get here it was an eternity for us for you to get let me tell you and I think you've done more work in your first 20 days than some people we've had here in the past did in their whole tenure so you we're very excited to see that um we're excited for your entry plan if you to hit the ground running even faster and also for your continued partnership with Dr bondie and Mr dney and we're so happy that our Vander team color coordinated tonight in solidarity for their new interim position we kind of figured black black with yellow yellow black orange very good I don't know was that you guys all got the memo so that was very good that's very nice I don't know Shaker got the M he close but we're he close but we're we're excited we wish you well um you know good luck we know you're going to have a great opening to the school year so good luck with everything thank you um that being said now we're going to move to all the items we are going to move this evening's items as a consent agenda so we are going to start with item one under finance and we're going to go all the way through the last item of personnel which is item 38 thank you 38 we're going to have one motion we're going to have one second we're going to discuss it and then after that if there are any committee reports you can give your committee reports after that so may I have a motion to move the items as a consent agenda thank you Mr thank you Mr Carlson is there any discussion no all right Mr Boyce may have a roll please yes Mrs Van Horn yes Mr seril I need to abstain on item 35 and 36 other Personnel but yes on everything else okay Mr Jess yes Mr Carlson I abstain on items 38 and yes on everything else okay Mr pontillo yes Mrs crasa yes Mr kimik yes Mr Garcia yes now are there any uh committee chairs who'd like to present reports this evening before we move on I'm sure Mr seril would like to it's it's actually very short and Mr lisco I mean I'm sorry superintendent Lis he's still a Mis call him I'm not calling you president Jess that's fine but um no just really quick there was a quad scrimmage today that is TBD but when we're looking at football Pioneers look to conquer the grid iron this season again and players to watch and this is kind of the theme of my report today for football senior Jaden Laughin he's a tight end and a def of lineman but he's ranked in D lineman in the state n and a half sacks the last two seasons 5 and a half last year with 33 tackles and on the flip side of the ball let's keep an eye out for 5 foot n 189 pounder Terell Mitchell uh he's a running back and a DB so the Pioneers plan on using his versatility as a pass catcher also so this should be a great year their first game is on the 29th Friday before Labor Day weekend I'm going to do everything can to get there and so uh we're looking forward to a great season Soccer Kicks off September 7th versus watch Young Hills player to watch even bulus four goals three assists last year Denise music four goals Ethan Flynn 14 assists last year girl soccer under Jordy uh 97 at Franklin players to watch Kayla lver Maya vital Vidal excuse me Abby Hayden and Faith Hughes field hockey their game is September 4th at Mount St Mary's there's seven returning seniors that will return to make up this team and and senior metor college who posted eight goals and Jayla Robin who posted three assists and five points last year we're going to lead that charge uh girls tennis for a small Squad this year uh there are two uh singles players Tian Nan and juliia Wong and then there are three doubles uh players madin Boon Cass and Jenna Cox uh and I did mention the marching band thanks for to lead sir starting that off so uh home show is October we'll get that thing TVD corre all right that's report looking forward to talk evening in September can't wait anybody else any other reports no all right is there any old business this evening hearing none may have a motion to close Old business please thank you Mr Carlson we have a second thank you Mr Van Horn any discussion all those in favor I any opposed attention so move is there any new business hearing none they have a motion to Clos in business please thank you Mr Kim M second thank you Mr Carlson any discussion all those in favor I I any oppos any extension so move we do have a need to go into executive session and where pursuant to njsa 10 col 4-12 B the Board of Education May exclude the public from the portion of a meeting where in the board discusses any of the matters set forth at njsa 10 Callum 4-b 1-9 now therefore be resolved that in accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings act Board of Education shall conduct a closed section pursuant of the provisions of njsa 10 col 412b for the purpose of discussing Personnel matters covered by the attorney client privilege and pending or anticipated litigation um I don't believe we're going to be having any action this evening are we no so no so there will no action will be taken so that being said may I have a motion to go into executive session please thank you Mr P thank you Mr shil is there any discussion all those in favor I any opposed any abion I moved and with that since we're not going to be coming back may have a motion to adjourn please thank you Mr kimick thank you for Mr sigil any discussion all those in favor I I any oppos any exstension so move enjoy the rest of the summer see you next month next month two weeks next month