##VIDEO ID:yExgxvWUfIE## good evening it is Thursday November 21st and I'd like to welcome you to the South Brunswick Board of Education meeting and to call the meeting to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay uh statement of advanced notice uh the New Jersey open public meeting act njsa 1046 also known as the Sunshine Law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon the primary purpose was for board members to discuss and vote on board business in accordance with the provisions of this act the board secretary has caused notice of this meeting 48 hours prior including date time and location to be posted in the South Brunswick Public Library the board office and filed with the Township Clerk and communicated to the home News Tribune and the Star Ledger it is also posted on the district District website roll call Mr pki please M Julie hold is it possible they're not hearing anything on the have to start over good okay no you're good I'm okay Mr praski roll call please M Julie parara Miss Laura Hernandez here miss Deepa carthik here miss Alicia Khan here m rajer Krishna yeah Mr Mike Mitchell here Mr Mr bar naon Dr Smith araj M uh Miss Lisa Rogers present we have a quorum very good may I have a motion and a second to approve the meeting agenda for this evening Mr Mitchell move Raja Mr Raj Mr sorry Mr Krishna second all in favor any NS okay meaning has been approved agenda next order of business is board secretary Mr paras's draft of the minutes from October 15th 2024 were posted on the board portal are there any changes from any board members seeing none the minutes stand is written and are approved next order is the report of our student representative suaya Tatia I did it okay um good evening everyone starting off with some School news our vertical fund vertical raise fund fundraiser was a huge success sbhs student Senate raised over $11,000 and we are excited to donate a portion of the money to our state charity aa's voice and continue to fund Student Government activities our November student Senate meeting took place on November 18th members of the student Advisory Board which discusses issues within the school and student body met with Mr verella on November 18th we discussed and resolved concerns and made changes to some issues the month of November is dedicated to honoring our veterans student council decorated doors in honor of the veterans that currently work at sphs their classrooms and various other displays were decorated as a way of saying thank you on November 11th we wore red white blue or yellow for Veterans Day upcoming activities also include Deck The Deck the Halls an annual student council fundraising event where we decorate the insides or outsides of classroom doors for the holidays this is a beloved sbhs tradition that we are very excited to continue we've already received over 45 orders so far and they are coming in fast there are several evergreen trees set up throughout the school as our giving trees students and staff have the opportunity to purchase gift cards and place their names on the tree the gift cards are given to families in need in South Brun way we are very excited to announce the student council will be holding a semi-formal winter charity ball to support aa's voice the dance will be held on January 17th and will be open to all grade levels it will take place in the main gym with the DJ as well as the Freshman cafeteria where where there will be Refreshments a photo booth and areas to hang out we are really excited to be able to host this event as it is something that students have been asking for for a very long time and we are thrilled to make it happen some other great upcoming events include our class of 25 and 26 have their dream to the American dream mall tomorrow from 4:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and our class of 27 will have their annual king of pressure Mall trip on Saturday December 7th from 10 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. the SBS Asian cultural Club recently hosted a the volley celebration with food and performances that was very well attended that's all I have for you tonight and I hope we all have a great night thank you so much um just a quick little note sura was very nice because I've been pronouncing her name wrong for this whole time and um she corrected me and I kept forgetting the little a at the end so I apologize but I'm I got it right this time okay next is the president's report um the public for the board members that attended the njsba uh convention this is a reminder to ensure that you've all submitted um your expense re reimbursement information to Mariam Murphy please make their that has been completed and secondly uh the public has requested an update uh on Miss mea's ethics charges and per the board attorney the oral arguments that were scheduled for October 23rd were postponed by the judge and we are awaiting for an update on the rescheduled date so that will be forthcoming and the next is the report of the superintendent Mr feder all right thank you so much uh Samayra so just so you know um the BHL also uh is involved in the deck of the holes oh so actually um Mr palowski here still has his door up I I don't know how old is it two years from last well the underneath the current is uh 2223 but we don't think he needs a new door because the current door is Mr Scrooge oh that's very OS and so we think it needs to stay as is so if you do hear that Mr palas is put in for new door we'd like to reject that yes okay you pass that along to uh to the crew over there okay I will I will it must remain Mr Scrooge must remain on the door we like Scrooge but they do for anyone who doesn't know they do an amazing you need to go to the high school and or BHL BHL is not as interesting but the high school it's it's amazing but they do a fantastic job they get a so uh um we're looking forward to that are you involved in that yeah all right soot you know each person the student rep usually helps with my door I'm just not putting pressure on you just you know let we should have pictures afterwards did you put in an order yet uh I I just ordered just now just in case okay all right so um first um we have uh I I don't think we have certified results yet David do we on the board election but we do have our results uh what we do know is at this point uh Lisa and Deepa have been uh reelected and Barry at this point um is not and Barry all I can say is man you going to be missed buddy it's uh that's a giant loss it's about uh 50 506 how many years on the board uh it's about 25 years almost of of institutional knowledge and input and involvement and can't say enough but um I'm not going anywhere V promis to sit right there and Ed burch's old seat and uh be at every meeting uh on another note we want to congratulate sonyy uh if you don't know Rees he's been to meetings um he's done uh talking about the things that matter and and that he believes are are valuable so we look forward to to reest joining us as well at that time so that's are the results we know as soon as the clerk certifies we'll put that out more but that's where we are as of today um I I want to just share a little bit about our our PTO I don't I don't you know I think everyone knows what a PTO is and what a PTO does and and how important PTO are are um in this District they they are amazing and what I have the the luxury every month to meet with the PTO presidents every month we meet and it literally is one of my favorite meetings of the month I know Barry had come to those meetings for a few years Lisa comes uh to these meetings they're an amazing group and they're an amazing group because they represent the rest of the volunteers in our community and that is the core of uh of what is provided by pto's for families to volunteer as best they can it's tough to get volunteers though people are very busy so I I'm just here to remind everybody that those amazing things that PTO do they require volunteers those Book Fairs those fundraisers uh movie Nights Bingo nights they're all volunteer generated and uh we thank them and just really kind of um a hope that um by reminding everybody the importance of this that when you see those PTO Flyers asking for people to join a committee sign up for a committee even if it's only one committee whatever you can do anything you can do to help provide um really does a lot for the kids and it's very appreciated by uh by our students so that's all I want to thank our PTO for all they do there's a PTO recognition coming down the pike like we always do but I want them to just share that um having met with them recently and just hearing all the great things they're doing uh real quick preschool program information our preschool expansion continues so every year by November 15th the state asks us to provide how many students we think we can deal we can you know house next year uh we've put in our requests next year to grow the program again but I am going to share something the Board needs to hear and the community needs to hear the state of New Jersey has a an a restriction on the size of a room to be allowed to be used for preschool mind you a 600 foot room by the state of New Jersey standards is fine if you put 40 12th graders in it they wouldn't care but for preschoolers where there's only 15 the room has to be 950 Square ft now why is that important well it's important because we're running out of 950 foot rooms in South Brunswick not just the school district South Brunswick if that is the case our growth will stop and we will not be able to grow any further we are no longer have any more space inside our school buildings there's no more space with 2 200 new homes being built the only way this goes is down not up as those students come to the district and fill the seats they will knock out preschool seats unless we can find other preschool seats so um that could be years away but it's important to understand our goal originally was to get to what they call the preschool Universe which is 90% of the sum of your K and your one program for us that's probably around 700 600 700 kids the existing preschools that are out in this in the in the town U Suzanne luckor and Megan plumber have been scouting and there literally might not be any more classrooms that are that size unless they do construction on their spaces so um we are still looking to expand but we have submitted our paperwork and we've submitted the honest size of the classrooms that are available to us and we're going to see what the state wants to do um we're prepared to challenge that issue with the state but you know I'm not sure how that's going to go in the meantime we currently have 385 over 400 if you count our preschool disabled programs we're currently doing preschool for over 400 kids next year we hope to be closer to 500 kids but that would be about it so let's see where we get to uh Suzanne today shared with us that we have about 150 students on waiting lists so by going up another 90 students if we're able um we'll be getting close to all the students that are requesting to be in the program of course I think if we had more seats we would have more requests but that's where we are at this point with that we have submitted our numbers for next year as we always do it's uh suzan it's on the board tonight for the board approval which is also part of the requirement and it does show an increase of six classrooms Suzanne so that's uh 15 students in the class as 90 more students which is a good number I mean remember three years ago it was nothing and so now we're going to be educating over 403 and four year olds that's fantastic uh and at no cost to the taxpayers of South Brunswick so it's a beautiful thing uh another really important piece of information coming up so far we have Pete I was looking about 100 100 applications so far so um we put out a K5 configuration discussion for Elementary School uh we've talked about this multiple times with budgets the way they are with enrollment the way it is with the building the way that is we need to look at our program and look at our facilities and look at our space so we've asked the community we've asked staff and families who would be interested in parting on this conversation and so far we've had I think it's over hundred um application so far that's bigger than any other one of these topics we've had before we've never had this many before of Interest which shows the importance of this work so we'll be getting to that we'll be informing uh people that we are going to take on to the committee before the winter recess and get started with things and do a very complete and thorough review of this that may even take us into the following year but we're going to see how far we get done where we are and then there'll be a report back to the board and ultimately there could be a decision on the table for the board of what we do but we're not there at this point as of right now we're going forward and doing a firm study of the issues so that's coming up um we will need uh some board participation as well I don't know if board members put in yet or not but we'll talk about that amongst ourselves uh quick reminder that uh the Thanksgiving recess November 27th through November 29th no assignments or longrange projects due or test given before December 5th homework free reminder and that of course is part of our Thanksgiving break and I have another little announcement on the agenda tonight you have um a request for approval to appoint the new director of Special Projects as you know Jamie Bowmer um is leaving at the end of the year and retiring she's been awesome for this job and we can't thank her enough so we did a interview process and we found this candidate uh he was hiding in one of our elementary schools Mr Peter ratine and he was The Shining Star for this process we are thrilled to have him aboard um uh the board I hope will approve him officially tonight but I'd love to congratulate Pete say welcome aboard to your new position and would love to give you a minute if you have a couple words you like to say well thank you and I'll hopefully thank you in advance for for approving uh my position there uh and you always have to be prepared for Scott to put you on the spot so um I I wanted to in advance um thank the interview committee and in advance everyone on the board here uh for this opportunity to serve the district in a different way uh I've been privileged enough to serve as an administrator in the buildings uh for quite some time now in South Brunswick it's been an absolute joy and pleasure um and while I have few more months uh weeks of that with indian fields which is just a tremendous School staff and students there I'm also excited to venture into this new place where I can have a different impact from a different place um with such supportive colleagues who have already welcomed me helped me transition and uh want to share that I've already met with Miss bulmer U Miss Eisman um some central office staff to help transition so that we have a smooth transition and I plan to do the exact same for the principal who's going to replace me when uh when that time comes and help that person transition uh at indian fields because it's a wonderful place wonderful staff students and community so I thank you all for the opportunity and I look forward to serving The District in this capacity thank [Applause] you all right so of course the next question is what are we doing about indian fields um so we're going to run our full search uh we'll have a panel that will include staff and parents and we'll be we've already um with the board's approval we have posted for that position we've already started receiving candidates and we'll be getting that process started uh would love to have a recommendation to the board as soon as possible and um we'll go through the transition process and I do know Pete will be an amazing asset to the new principal it's nice in a situation that he'll still be in the district to support and and be be a hand over there so uh in the meantime Pete will probably straddle both positions for a little while um as the way we do things but we'll we'll see where we are with the process and uh decide on that so I have one more one more and that that's up but this is really pretty cool so I am going to call up two of our high school students we have S Shankar and aush Sinha who have launched a remarkable startup program called Cloud cores and we've invited them here tonight Mr BR is with them tell us what you've done we're very excited to hear this so if you guys wouldn't mind coming up to the mic and share with us this is fantastic to see our students in this way so please yeah of course and uh thank you for the invitation tonight uh we really appreciate any recognition we can get uh We've also recently been recognized by Fox so we will be appearing next month on the national television show uh and now we're really just looking more towards the future and helping the students of South bronic as well we've done this through one of our company's youth capitals that works in conjunction with cloud course we provide fundings or funding to startups across the country uh especially ones that help impoverish communities in New Jersey this being in Abid districts uh now we're really just looking to find recognition for our work and work towards more of a global skill we're working in 20 plus countries already and I'm going to let aush talks about some of the technicalities of our company and really what we've done with the internship program uh hi so we're I want to talk about our wonderful program at Cloud course we currently have an internship program where we go to Abid districts and we speak about tech entrepreneurship to all these students um we also invite them to join us in our adventure and we give them opportunities in the real in the in the in in the industry where we help them um Gain real life experience and we also have another program at use capitals where we help local startups and um non profits and we actually have one of our nonprofits hope to heal who has raised over 100k in donations in the past few months and they're currently being recognized by um what was it uh the the national Points of Light award yeah so I'd like to I'd like Sid to talk about our future um Ambitions so now we're moving towards the field of college admissions this has really come out of our two companies app admit and act app admit is a blog about our personal Ventures into the college admission space and what we're doing in terms of essay writing and extracurricular activities in South bronswick we believe it's very important to drive the curriculum focused more towards appealing to these higher level institutions since we know the people of South bronck are extremely talented now we provide a new free act course for students across the country and we're working we're looking to spread the word about this company and we really appreciate any help we can get from the board and really that's all and thank you for uh just inviting us here tonight and allowing us to speak about our company that's great open up for I was going to ask does anyone have any questions for the two young gentlemen no questions I do I always do right Dave um how did you come up with the idea what was your inspiration sure yeah so we actually it's it's on yeah so we actually started pick it up yeah there you go perfect we actually started by uh committing to labor market research in Abbot districts this really came from analyzing census data and the biggest problem that we saw is that students in these impoverished districts don't have the early career opportunities that many other students in affluent neighborhoods do so that's why we've really just started this internship program to give these students The Experience they need and scholarships and equipment to just learn how to code and be able to tap into their entrepreneurial intuition have you have you given any thought of um having um discussions with uh treton in terms of the Senate and the um assembly um education committees have you spoken to them yet yes so that's actually our next step would be moving into the state senate and Congress since really we've just been working with local TV stations to just get the word out about what we're doing and have more students join our program uh the biggest thing now is really just sharing our research with everyone and being able to show that these students are extremely resilient especially when they come from impoverished communities because they've gone through so much more adversity and we feel that given the opportunity or the chance to actually Ed they will take advantage of it yeah I would recommend if you haven't already you should reach out to Senator Ruiz okay because she's um the senator of Newark and she's a very big proponent of Education I know there's several bills on the floor right now regarding funding for preschool okay so that would be an individual Teresa Ruiz you should reach out to and see if you can schedule a meeting with her she'd be very interested in your work we will definitely do that thank you good good job excellent job any other questions yeah yeah Miss carthic don't sit down yet sorry so congratulations to both of you this is an amazing idea that you guys have come up with and I just wanted to understand how do how do you put uh a student in touch with the internship opportunities what is your model how does that look so essentially what we've been doing is actually working through the Lehigh Valley my brother actually goes to Lehigh University and we ended up entering their startup program and earning funding for our idea of helping these students and really just connecting with startups that are actually created by other management students in college has been the process that we went through and by Pro providing these affordable Solutions we're also building a more healthy startup Eon or ecosystem for people around the country and connecting these interns has really just been the process of recruiting companies as clients and training these students to actually do web development for these companies and a lot of what we have gotten is positive feedback uh especially just educating students in subjects that they normally wouldn't be able to do at their school I know that AP Computer Science might not be taught at most schools and the truth is is that we've done a lot of work for our community and we really just are grateful for the opportunity to be here and speak about that thank you very much any other questions Mr nathenson uh not a question just a uh I would you know if you give your contact information to Mr verel I would love to help you facilitate what uh Mrs Rogers said and uh I currently uh I'm the longest serving member of the New Jersey school board's uh legislative committee so I would love to help facilitate you getting into the assembly and the Senate yeah for all other districts yeah thank you for all your work and I will definitely pass over my contact information thank you any other questions well on behalf of the Board of Ed I really congratulate both of you that's an outstanding achievement and um I believe our future looks very bright with two young gentlemen such as yourselves leading the way congratulations thank you so much Mr feder any else okay um any questions for Mr feder on his report no all right very good thank you very much all righty uh next will be the board committee and liaison reports I will start with the policy committee because I know that you just met today so take it away Alicia the policy committee met today prior to the board meeting and I'll have a report ready at the next meeting very good thank you um business operations Mr Mr Nathanson no uh at this point we were waiting uh to uh go further with the uh uh the survey that's going to eventually go out as far as security is concerned okay and then we we were going to take it from there at this point any questions so far for Miss Khan or Mr Nathanson no all right then moving on um Mr Mitchell Finance okay so the finance committee is scheduled to meet next Tuesday the 26th and I assume it'll be 5:30 at the BHL offices Mr 5:30 5:30 okay very good next Tuesday next Tuesday turkey day almost thank you Miss Hernandez education committee no the education committee did not meet this month okay any questions for either Miss Hernandez or Mr Mitchell seeing none we'll move on to Le on any Le on reports none I okay yes Mr Mitchel and I want to offer my own personal congratulations to Mr ratine on his next chapter and um you've been an incredible principal I'm not there every day but just every time that I've gone there it's just been like going to another home and um how welcoming the environment is so I'm sure the the next person is going to have big shoes to fill um but I'm sure they're going to do an outstanding job because those are the kind of Administrators we have in this District we are truly blessed and the next thing I want to mention if I can get this phone going is um I want to give a quick shout out to our girls and boys cross country teams at the high school on an awesome Seasons they just completed uh the ladies finished sixth at GMC's and at the group four sectionals recently and has individuals who plays High uh at both events also the boy Squad won the two the 2024 GMC championships as well as the group four sectional championships had a second place finish at the group four finals and finished 11th place at the meet of Champs I was able to support the GMC championships as well as the group for sectionals and let me tell you we have some awesome kids um it was just I saw all the other schools there but just to look at our kids and how they stood out amongst a bunch of them it was just amazing so kudos to the coaching staff to every student athlete um to the parents and to the school and and just you know for all the support that they receive I know that it means a lot to them um because I was able to talk to a few of them individually and it just means a lot to have the support that they have so thank you good very good anybody else thank you very much Mr Mitchell okay moving on um the next is public comments on agenda items only the Board of Ed recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest complete copies of policy 0167 which govern this portion of the meeting are available to the public at the auditorium entrance online or by contacting the board office to permit the fair and orderly expression of comments we ask that participants be recognized by the presiding officer and preface comments by announcing his or her name place of residence and group affiliation if appropriate and by completing the sign-in sheet please print legibly or we may be unable to document your name for the permanent record each statement made by a participant shall be limited to three minutes no participant may speak more than once on the same topic Mr palowski will indicate when you have 15 seconds remaining all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer no participant May address or question board members it is our plan to listen to each member of the public once all questions and comments from all members of the public are made the Board of Ed May respond or respond via email in the most timely and deficient manner available or questions and comments will be noted Mr palowski have there been any pre-registrations registrations at this time thank you is there anyone in the audience that would like to make any public comment on agenda items only seeing none we shall close oh I I do you guys want to make a comment no no okay I just want to make sure okay all right we will close this portion of the public comments All Right Moving on um old business we do not have any old business at the time at this time nor do we have any new business so we shall move on to the consent agenda review and walk through Mr palowski okay everybody a wonderful uh consent agenda for us this evening Fun Pack full of fun motions for us to review we have a bills list approval of transfers some financials accepting a donation cancel as or cancelling some outstanding checks and we're approving some non-public orders for sa A's and neuron schools we're approving the acceptance of funds uh from chapter 192 we're approving the transportation contracts we do have a purchase approval that of uh the bid process for some buses that I explained in our um board uh update we have a contract authorized purchase over the bid limit we're also doing a um award uh proposal for an RFP for Educational Services for G for gomo Educational Services for restoration practices training and coaching uh we approving comprehensive maintenance plan we have u a middle school teacher over at South Miss Tina EO who who wanted to start up a sustainable Jersey uh for school certification program she's going to head that up at South with Miss Bonnie capes we're doing a qac accountability uh motion for approving our resolution for all of our cusac um we have an artificial Innovation and education competitive grant that we're approving for $75,000 we have a prek projected enrollment motion uh preschool operational plan up dat we're updating our pricing agreement um what else we have going on we have couple sidebars with some unions travel related expenses a lot of travel we're approving some student field trips lots of field trips we also have ourselves our HIV and bullying reports we're approving the extension of Professional Services for some um vendors in our students for special needs Department special education department we have a nursing Services plan and a memorandum of agreement with the law enforcement um Police Department here in South Brunswick and that is your consent agenda thank you sir questions Mr I just have one um point on the 1.13 the participation in sustainable Jersey I'm very happy to see that um one of the schools are heading um this up this is a fantastic initiative so I would just ask um Administration um if we can get some kind of an update as to um what the goals are um what uh the the initial goals will be and then anything that can be done to carry it over into the other schools would be great we'll do thank you Y M Hernandez an item 1.11 the restorative practices training and coaching who is that encompassing who's going to that training it's 612 is grade 62 they actually come in here to work with our teachers our Administration um for secondary particularly we're looking at code of conduct better ways to address student Behavior build our climate and culture and all that good stuff is it a onetime shot no it's not okay it's actually a whole year um over the course of this year we're having restorative practices training understanding what restorative practices are and then they're coaching us to apply it to our everyday work and culminating into our code of conduct and what that looks like in terms of how we address um violations and student conduct and all of that awesome okay thank you any other questions seeing none Mr P roll call please kind of got Miss Laura Hernandez yes Miss Deepa carthik yes Miss Alicia Khan yes Mr Roger Krishna yes Mr Mike Mitchell yes Mr Barry naon yes and Mrs Lisa Rogers yes motion carries very good thank you I'd also like to congratulate Mr ratine congratulations on the new position and we know you'll do a great job thank [Applause] you all righty moving on next order of business is second opportunity for public comments again excuse me this is the second opportunity for the public to comment on any matter do we have any members of the public who pre-registered Mr palaski no we do not all righty are there any audience members who wish to make a public comment on any item discussing I they're discussing I know it's okay it's Monumental come on you could do it y you got to go up here H so what you're going to do all right you're going to announce your name you're going to spell your name for the permanent record and if there's any group affiliation you need to tell us who that is okay okay all my name is rajin I uh r a j a an uh i y e r okay so my my only concern was uh in inhs the Wi-Fi is like really slow and multiple times I like okay wait it sounds funny but like I missed a bunch of assignments cuz I didn't get it done on time and the Wi-Fi went out so I was just wondering if we could get that fixed or make maybe make it faster good comment we actually we just are moving to a new company uh called light path and extending expanding the gigs I think we're going uh 10 band The bandwidth sorry the bandwidth I think to 10 gigs does that sound you probably know if I'm right or wrong but I believe that's correct anyone in the audience in the back there regie does that sound right can't see Dave Frost you there is that right 10 for light path yes yes yes thumbs up so that that we're actually building our own fiber so it's we're laying our own through the town so that work is going to be completed and once that's completed you'll have your speed all right thank you you're very welcome great question thank you anyone else from the audience just excited I had an answer for that that was a good one he was smart he he didn't know bandwidth but we got it bandwidth gigs 10 gigs for bandwidth all right anyone else from the audience seeing none we will close this portion of the agenda the public comment okay so please note that our next scheduled Board of Ed meeting is set for Thursday December 19th we will be moving into executive session after this meeting so be it resolved that the Board of Ed of the township of South Brunswick hereby moves into executive session in accordance with the Sunshine Law chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 njsa 10 4-6 through 10 4-21 excuse me to discuss the following Personnel legal tax tax Levy payment schedules and budget and finance be it further resolved that the discussion conducted in executive session can be disclosed to the public at such time as the matters have been resolved formal action may be taken at any meaning may I have a motion and second to move into executive session Mr Mitchell move Mr Miss Hernandez second all in favor any n no thank you and on behalf of the Board of Education I would like to wish the community a very happy healthy and safe Thanksgiving holiday have a good evening South Brunswick