pursuant good morning and good afternoon whatever time of day it is um it's been along it's like January 700th day um welcome everybody Welcome to all of our students and our teachers um and our board candidates that are in the audience this is a lovely um a lovely full room I love it um we're going to get right to it because we do have a bunch of things to get uh to get on the agenda so pursuant to the open public meeting ACT public notice that this meeting has been given by the board secretary in the following manner one posting written notice on the official bulletin board at the B Township Public Schools administrative building on August 17 2023 sending written notice to The Courier Post on August 17 2023 filing written notice with the clerk of War on August 17 2023 posting on the vores township website on August 17th 2023 please rise for the budg Alle to flag of the United States of America stands indivisible [Music] andice here Mr Rosner here Mrs R here Mrs Stewart here M ster miss verie here Mrs Watson here we're going to do a couple of things out of order so that we can get some of these young children home um so first we are going to do item 11.2 the war Middle School L Martin robotics team so can I have Mr come good evening good evening Board of Education members Dr Hackett Mrs haly and members of the public and members of our beloved staff over the summer we received information from Mrs Haley about an opportunity for our students to engage in science Technology and Engineering product projects through the lock Martin Corporation in Mount morl New Jersey selected 8th grade students from our Middle School who participate in the Science Olympiad program were offered the limited seating opportunity in September these children learned about engineering computer programming and Applied Mathematics with Lego TM robotics kits the program accepted 10 students and asked for a District representative to act as an adviser Mr Sean sepon our enrichment teacher at Crescent school was our adviser for the middle school student students this fall the program required to students to attend five sessions on Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. from October 7th to November 4th at their cherry hole office in their advanced technology Laboratories the ultimate goal is for our students to learn about 21st century learning skills involving inquiry critical thinking and problem solving as a team we are proud of our students and we look forward to opportunities for more involvement in the future with our partners at a mar seven students were selected from and a few of them are here tonight to explain this experience I want to thank them and their families for participating as well as our advisor Mr sepen at this time please let us welcome Mr sepen and his group of Robotics students [Applause] hello and good evening everyone thank you for the introduction Mr MTZ and thank you to the board and our Administration for providing this opportunity for several of our students as Mr MOS was saying we were able to attend the robotics workshop and we came here tonight to share a little of that experience with you of the seven or we're able to attend and I appreciate tell our Russell and me are the um to tell you a little bit about the experience I want to thank collabor making that I was able to collaborate with them and these are for really terrific young people excited to hear about their experience so as Mr mosid said we attended in the fall uh for five sessions four hours each day and the students completed projects using a Lego Mindstorm forr robot um and they had a challenge so I'd like to invite Russell to tell you a few words about the types of challenges that they have to overcome [Laughter] you um the basic structure was students to an actual engineering scenario they would hold different people of the groups that they had assigned 12 to learn about what they objectives they needed to do and um different techniques they might on the to do it you know there were color sensors there were Wheels there were all sorts of Music detectors St like that um for later but um it was basically they would take one person from the group and they would bring them back to a room and they would tell them what they needed to do they' write it down and they tell the rest of their group challenges um like your Rob dancing maybe um playing song Maybe C before some of thees um would be a main challenge which was comp and a mini challenge which was thinking to do for fun um catapult was one of them and uh next so as Russell stelu they they broke the students into four individual roles that they would each have to complete the tasks and i' like tell about thees we the first was the project manager the project manager received instruction about the challenges and the judging their job was not and information back to the team the next was the their job was toam any codes in order robot do specific T they could do specific test as stand orose forward orward next they add necessary parts to the robot in order for it to complete the task they added things such as Wheels a catapult and even a snile the last the tester they were the only MERS to see the final testing area and have to take necessary measurements and create a map in order to recreate a testing D for their team to test their robot out each member of the team play an important go in in the success to complete the challenges there were General keys to success in each challenge that F will tell about so there were basically three main keys to success that I ended up finding out so one of the first keys to success is team Tew work and communication and so just like in real life teamwork and communication is key to making anything possible and so teamwork and communication basically means that you have to focus on the same goal and not get off track Like A lot of times uh we had individual jobs uh leading our group to success as chrisy mentioned that all of our different parts have work together to make a good robot that ended up winning the competition we also had to talk with each other and many times had to support one another and help each other out when we couldn't understand the codee or how to build the robot uh the second key to success was perseverance nothing no the robot never worked on the first time nor the second nor the third probably not even the fourth and fifth time but you have to just keep on going for example the Catapult the robot ended up breaking the first time the Catapult ended up breaking the second time and the ball went nowhere the third time but we we just kept on going and ended up winning the competition because we just didn't give up and then there was time management and staying on task so uh we had to prioritize the tasks at hand and just like I said we couldn't goof off and just do whatever we wanted and also the people at Lockheed were really really rigid on their time lunch was at 12:00 if you didn't test your robot by 12:00 you're done lunch is very important to them so time management and staying on task was very important because if you didn't you were just qualified so um I'm going to hand it off to nhar who talk about the experience with the engineers thank you par now moving on to the experience with Engineers all I can say is that it was a fantastic experience I loved it and they would always be there for you if you ever missed a line of code or you couldn't figure something out after trying and trying for much time you could call them over and they will be there and they will help you fix your code and make sure by the end of the day day you will have a robot that will be able to achieve whatever objective you set for and they would also give you personal experiences on how they got to where they are in order to show you that it's okay to take some help and it's not the end of the world you can always get help from them and you don't have to be shy or scared or nervous and it's just it's just fine so we did bring a robots I give a demonstration but before we do I wanted to give the students one opportunity to give you final thoughts on their experience and and how it was beneficial to them um so Russell would you like to start I know it was Legos and Compu but it felt real it felt like a real engineering experience teams there were advisers there to help you make sure you were staying on track um not everyone got the information you have to relay it pretty well um you build your role pretty well if not do great points on the final day um so it was real in that sense and as someone who wants to go into an engineering field in the future it was valuable it taught me what I needed to do it taught me what it's going to be like it taught me how it's going to be you know it's going to be groups it's going to be different projects going to be different assignments at the same time going to it'll be fine you have these advis you have these groups you'll have these Excell grp of individual the way never thought I would learn SCH on my own because before I never really had an interest ining but this so before the workshop I used to have a strong dislike of Robotics and coding you know like what's more fun like video games for coding but uh the workshop ended up teaching me that like coding and Robotics is something that anybody can learn and anybody can have fun with like it's not just something boring that you just sit at your laptop all day doing and it's a really fun thing and it kind of opened the door for me to like this new world of technology and for my final thoughts I would just like to say that like the others I never really planned on liking robotics I never plan on doing anything robots and I thought there were just some clumsy things I would just drive around do something and then stop but this this Camp really taught me on how to use them and overall it helped me if I want ever want to go into a career in engineering or robotics can you tell us about so for the demonstration NE har our Le programmer so can you tell us a little bit about the code that you wrote and then we'll so this robot will do a little dance for you nice and quick but it's really adorable and it's really fun to watch um and every single movement and there is one intricate line of code individually coded in order to make it look like a nice little dance when it's all put together try [Laughter] [Applause] all time tonight we have um we have a gift for all of you and I just want to say this is exceptional this is my favorite part of being on the board is seeing the accomplishments of our students and I hope you guys realize that the lessons that you all learned about perseverance and teamwork and collaboration are lessons you're going to take throughout your lives to be successful so we are incredibly proud of you as a board and as a district thank you for representing us and making us look so incredible congratulations [Applause] okay we we're we'll give you a couple of minutes if the parents and students want to leave you can absolutely do that we will not be offended we're also welcome to stay um the next item we're going to move up on the agenda is 11.3 which is former board member recognition [Music] should I have look okay so I'm gonna start with Jason Bryce um this is an award and recognition of your um your time on the board your service on the board um you you are a quiet but powerful individual I think you brought a reserved but incred knowledgeable aspect to the board your experience especially in the school district not our district but different districts in bringing that diverse perspective was incredibly valuable to us um I want to thank you for the time that you spent on the board and we have a PL to recognize you our other board member Kelly cenza um Kelly a little bit kind of the opposite of Jason like a little bit more vocal um always wore her heart on for everyone to see um you were so passionate you bring this incredible experience from your PFA days to your children in the school district to understanding the special education system you just have a really unique perspective and you're so kind and loving and generous and we are so incredibly lucky to have had you serve on the board and to be beside us and making really important decisions so thank you for your [Applause] service [Applause] okay we are going to move into the board vacancy before we begin I'm going to have our board solicitor actually walk through the rules and kind of the process for filling this spot um again anybody any of the students and any of the former board members are more than welcome to leave again won't be offended ready y all right um I don't know where the candidates are can I ask you just to come up to the front we've got some empty seats up here it might be a good idea if we can all see you thank you so much so good evening my name is Amy Garren I serve as solicitor to the board um I'm going to offer just some directions and some instructions about how tonight is going to proceed it's informational for you but it also revises our audience um about the process we're going to follow uh which by the way is also laid out in school district policy um as far as the process goes we're going to give everyone five minutes to make remarks explaining why they should be uh the person selected to fill the vacant board seat uh you can feel free to use the podium and the microphone that might actually be better uh so we can all hear you clearly and the audience can hear you clearly I will be timing you um if you want I will do the one minute signal so you know how much time you have left after your uh remarks um we're going to escort you back to a conference room and call you out one at a time all the questioning will be done in public uh but we don't want to give anyone a fair unfair Advantage by hearing the questions in advance um so uh Miss Trisha Mady from the business office she is back there she's raising her hand she will escort you back to the conference room we're going to call everybody out in alphabetical order uh when you come on out there will be a 15 minutes time slots for you to answer questions from the board I will start the timer after the first question has been completed um the questions will be asked by various board members answer however you see fit that you know this is your opportunity to convince the board you should be appointed um but also I I would say just be mindful that you are responsive to the actual question asks uh after you've done your 15minute question and answer period feel free to take a seat in the audience your time is done and we will call the next now after everyone has had an opportunity to ask questions uh the board president will then open it up to board members to make statements for or against any candidate as they seek beds there's no no particular order uh it's just whichever board member wishes to speak first uh to make brief remarks I would remind board members this is going to be a long evening um so I know you probably have a lot to say I would ask that you just again be mindful of time and keep your remarks focused then we get to voting so let me explain how the voting Works uh the board president will open the floor to nominations in order to actually be voted on a board member must nominate you and then different board member must second your nomination if you do not get a second you are not nominated and we simply move on with the process uh after a period of time has passed nominations will close the board president will ask for a motion to close the nominations and the board will vote to close by a Voice vote then we go to voting the way this works is that the first person to get a majority of votes is the successful candidate we vote in the order of nomination um so let's just say three people are nominated and the first person gets a majority we don't vote on the remaining candidates because somebody has achieved the majority if we go through the process and nobody has achieved the majority the uh board policy provides for a runoff vote between the top two vote Getters um and so we'll we'll figure that out um our uh board secretary keeps track of all of that she will adise top two vote Getters are and we will have a runup election if we still do not have a majority uh at that point we close the process and defer to the executive County Superintendent to make the selection um but again uh it's whoever gets the majority vote first there are currently seven members here we have one member absent a majority tonight is four votes the successful candidate if you if we do get a majority we have a successful candidate here tonight you do not automatically take your seats you first have to go through the mandatory fingerprinting and background check uh which I'm sure the business office will tell you all about uh and then once that is complete we swear you in at the next meeting and you take your seat and you join the board Township Board of Education does anyone have any questions about the process no all right last chance all right um then may I use this list okay then we're going to go in alphabetical order for 5 minute statements Mr Bryce you are up [Music] first good evening ladies and gentle gentlemen and members of the school board and community brief statement and I'm just going to read it to you um my name is uh Jason Bryce and it's an honored to have the opportunity again to apply to be part of the V School Board Township I've been a resident since 2010 and my kids have uh been able to thus far enjoy being recirculated through each school starting with Old Sage Elementary School which is my favorite I'll be honest with you I love and also the Middle School and I have my son here as well uh in 2020 I ran a campaign for a seat on a school board okay and uh the campaign Focus was called Empower educate and evolve and the purpose of that mission was birth through my own reflection as a counselor that once someone becomes aware that they have power and confidence then they can do anything they can become educated so that they can evolve now this purpose and focus honestly it never changes for me education and counseling are truly my life's work looking and seeing outside of myself this will always be what matters to me okay and it's because that it matters to me is why I decide to apply to serve now some may ask why didn't I run for re-election and that's very simple I won't compromise my core values my life's work but most importantly my voice for simple politics I won't do that what you'll get from me is what I've always been since I became empowered since I became educated and since I evolved and that is to be a man of principle and to be a man of purpose the four main reasons why I want to join the board again is first because I care about education for all students the second reason why I want to join the board is because I know how to be a team player focused on the purpose at hand I'm not and I will not be egotistical nor will I ever operate in ego I will always focus on the purpose at hand and and all about doing what's best for the district our wonderful teachers and our beautiful children the third reason I want to join is because I want to be a voice to those children who by circumstances beyond their control have no voice to represent themselves I was a career dnf student I was at the bottom of my class and my teachers told me that I was better at using my hands to do some type of work that's meant for me to use my hands but unfortunately I have soft hands so that's just not going to work for me but now here I sit in front of you guys with a M's Plus on my way to my doctorate and the funny thing about it is that these same people told me I wasn't meant for school but I spent over 13 years in school that go figure the last reason is very simple I truly love my community and I want to serve here the beauty of life is being able to see outside yourself and being able to serve your community where you can make a difference I want to be able to make that difference there was a quote from one of my favorite TV shows of the office and there's an episode about a character that said something so profound I'll be honest with you it continues to stick with me to this day and it says sometimes the flowers arrange themselves and after all these events from the past all the occurrences all the circumstances it has led to an opportunity for me to be able to serve again possibly the flowers always arrange themselves and I'm willing to serve again they're chosen thank [Applause] you take a seat we're GNA call question thank you so much next up is um Mr SAS did I say that correctly sir yes thank you good evening respective board members executive leader team uh leadership team and the community members um I'm enthusiastically excited and U committed to leverage some of my expertise my past experience and passion for education to make a meaningful impact as a member of board award his Township Board of Education uh member and what what exactly what I want to achieve ke the dollars back to the classroom where they belong the public dollars belongs to the classroom to our students and that is the that is exactly the goal of all the board member is that's that's where the need to stay I have an extensive experience with safety and risk management over 20 years particularly with schools I've been working with the school especially in the state of New Jersey for the last 15 years mainly but to be exact as actually in the last 15 years I have worked with 300 86 School Districts to be exact out of 525 School District in the state of New Jersey mainly wand Trenton Jersey City Elizabeth Patterson uh I did say Jersey City u m County Regional I mean you name it every single big school district and and that's what my passion that what I can do to make these schools safe not only make them safe but also what can be done to make them put Enterprise risk management plan bring a business continuity plan for those things all the respected board members have experience in our various fields and they are very good at it and trying to make uh the community better however when I see there could be a need for the risk management there could be a need to help people help students help the community from an educational standpoint I have a masters and strategic leadership and value chain management also I have a bachelor's degree in accounting and statistics I have worked with New Jersey school Insurance Group which is a quaza state employee and that's why that's how I get a chance to uh serve 386 School District throughout the state of New Jersey then I work with UDA as our senior loss control uh consultant and again I was working with the schools and now I'm working as a vice president for El Insurance Group as in a strategic leadership capacity and yet I'm still serving the school district and the community and that's gives me a chance to come back and serve my own Community I've been living in Wares since 2008 I have three beautiful daughters um one graduated already she she was in a war school and two of them one is going to Crescent and one is going to B so you can say I have the best of both word when it comes to kids so I have the you know 20year old and then five and six years old uh I have a passion for the community uh in 2014 I was uh awarded a monal king award in the can County to the service to the community my main goal is to assimilate different diverse backgrounds whether it's based on a religion Creed anything else assimilate as one Community because that's how we can succeed and that would be one of uh goals if I possibly can work on it I right right now I uh serve on two different non for-profits one on the state level which is you based in locally in New Jersey and one at the uh States us or federal level I also serve on Aion board in Cher Hill so why should I you know become a board member why should I what a Val proposition that I can bring the obviously expertise in education risk management Anda risk also I I could have like anic leadership particularly in Enterprise risk management and business continuity plans for the school districts commitment to inclusion diversity uh sir you have the one minute mark thank you uh for casting and uh supportive atmosphere for all the students and active Community engagement uh as well as uh strong inter personal and communication skills and be able to work with all stakeholders be a team player uh the last but not the least I also have a c appications that could be also helpful I'm a certified School risk manager as well as associated in Risk Management um and also various others which are in my resume thank you so very much for your time if anybody has any [Applause] [Music] question hello and thank you for this time thank you to the community for being here to see so people um as you seen resume my en high education in some kind of support role uh I started with technology uh helping support the students at my to learn technology and very importantly learning helping the students to who had Ada needs to be able to navigate the technology to allow them to access all the that they had access to as part of that I also had the benefit of being uh required to do design and develop and deliver training on all of our software packages now I do not in any way try to claim that that makes me understand what it is to be a teacher but what it did give me was respect for the amount of resources and planning and prep work that goes into maintaining any kind of classroom I had to Wrangle 10 adults who actually actually signed up to be there they have to Wrangle many many more children who did not um and so one of the things that I would like to focus on is making sure that we have the policies and the budgeting to ensure that our teachers have the resources the tools and the technology they need to help support them in that effort but all of those tools and Technology as I progressed in my professional career and moved into institutional research which is where I work now at Teachers College which is a part of Columbia has led me to understand exactly the pitfalls and dangers of those same tools sometimes uh the models and the new developments around technology and Ai and all of that have their own risks and they have their own concerns that my own training again I have a a second I one Masters in information systems and another in learning analytics which is specifically predictive modeling for Education um those give me a background that let me understand the ways that we're putting potentially at risk some of the uh students when we Implement some of these tools if a tool is great is good for 95% of the students but harms 5% horribly that's not a good tool and we need to be able to understand the risks and the benefits to any of the methods or tools or concepts that we're trying to bring into our classrooms and so that's the other side of this is that I would like to make sure that all our polic all of our procedures are designed to empower our teachers as much as possible without risking the safety and privacy and intellectual property of our students because as much as they're children anything that they create in those classrooms is theirs they actually did create it it is their intellectual property and we need to make sure that we're safeguarding that and it's not being uploaded to some other software package that is going to take advantage of it and use it to make money so those are the kinds of things that I feel that I bring to this uh could bring to this board are the background to understand technology the background to understand how it can be used and how we can leverage all of the analysis and all of the kind of reporting and all of that to move all of us forward to move the Next Generation forward in the best possible way thank you Miss SMI Smite Smite forgive me superintendent hacket Board of Education and Community my name is Allison Smite and I have been a Bo's resident for almost a decade I have a third grader at ET Hamilton I am also an educator and has been teaching for over two decades I think it is of utmost importance to have Educators on a board of education my priority is to Foster an environment where students and teachers can Excel and Thrive to truly understand and address the needs of our students and teachers we must ensure that those who have walked in the path of Education firsthand are actively involved in shaping its trajectory I bring a wealth of practical experience to the decision-making table my daily interactions with students and teachers provide a unique perspective on the challenges and successes within our schools I will ensure that the policies are not from the realities of the classroom but grounded in the practicalities of teaching and learning I can serve as a voice of reason and understand the diverse needs of all students and teachers I will Champion policies that Foster inclusive and Equitable educational environments my presence helps guarantee the decisions made at the board level directly contribute to the holistic development of students academic social and emotional needs to keep the education of our students moving forward it is imperative to have educators on the board of education it ensures that decisions are informed by the realities of the classroom in conclusion let's support having Educators on the board to ensure a more well-rounded Board of Education andyes thank you for your [Applause] time and um forgive me is it Miss the park yes Miss the park last one all right good evening everyone I'm so delighted to be here and I thank you all for giving me this opportunity I am Dr ther I'm a physician and endocrinologist by train I'm married to a physician who is a nephrologist by profession who was just here and left we have two children in the war school district one is a sixth grader in middle school he loves basketball so he had the game tonight so he left and have a third grader who's in signal both of us strongly believe in the importance of education for our children focusing on building a strong moral character and critical thinking skills we believe in the importance of providing our kids with the resources they need to build a bright future for themselves and our society me and my family we moved to Wares a few years ago 2019 to be precise we were drawn to its ex excellent school district and we are proud to call Vorhees our home today we are incredibly pleased with this decision after having witnessed the phenomenal quality of Education and Training my kids are getting here aside from my career as a physician I volunteer and serve in various leadership capacities in several organization in South Jersey to name a few I volunteer at time as a teacher at balhar what balhar is is a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching Indian culture and Hindu values to children I have organized various community events including Health faires and Community culture events for children I'm also actively engaged with the India Temple Association in Berlin and I serve as one of the trustees on their board and recently I had the privilege to be part of a seminar held at JCC about shared Hindu and Jewish values I'm also involved with the Vorhees culture and diversity committee and I have given presentations at various Local Schools I'm also involved in the school district Dei committee currently I serve as president of the PFA at Vorhees middle school as you can see I am drawn to opportunities that allow me to volunteer my time outside of my work to help our teacher to teach them importance of Education culture community and Di University as a mother a physician and as a community leader I enjoy working with diverse communities I'd like to deeply understand the challenges ahead and with collaboration and teamwork help come up with Solutions why me for this position my credentials my volunteer experience and my values position me well to be successful in this role I am a great team player I believe in teamwork working together to enhance for our children tackling complex issues requires an appreciation of Community Values hard work and important collaborative skills like communication emotional intelligence and respect for each other I embody those I embody important Community Values such as respect for other communities honesty integrity and accountability and this is what I practice and preach in my everyday life if given an opportunity I will be honored to represent my community and be part of the team to help support and promote the school board's Mission thank you [Applause] okay alphabetically Mr Bryce you're first so why don't you remain the rest of you can follow Mrs to um board members you will find in your green folder um the questions that will be asked of each candidate please ask the questions as written the name of the person will be question is at the at the in the parentheses um please do not ask any follow-up questions um and do not ask any additional questions that are not on this list we can start um Mr BR want to join the podium awesome Julie you are up first y thank you good evening Mr Ry leing to you Miss C over what would be your top three priorities if selected to serve on the board so my top three priorities would be to be able to number one just to uh start to the process of being able to work as a team um you know we all have um different values and perspectives that we bring so I wanted to be able to be a team player the second priority is to be able to kind of analyze some of the data a little further of why some our kids are maybe struggling um with the different things that's coming out of Co and stuff like that so I want to be able to kind of work as a team um to be able to kind of solve those uh uh issues and to be able to work on strategies to be able to see how we can start to list at that level of change and I think the last thing to do is to always continue to um you know work on transparency everything is uh forever evolving um you know we want to be able to continue to strengthen that bridge what we do at the board as well as what we communicate to the community community and also to wonderful teachers so just to be able to have U more of a union and more a strong pipeline so to speak to be able to communicate and um just be able to just jump in and and just you know kind of focus on the purpose and mission of the uh of the school board of of our schools and our team goals because that's what we were doing um right before um you know I we got of office is to you know kind of FOC go as well so those will be my two my three priorties thank you thank you Mar what experience do you have to understand the needs of both students and teachers um so I I actually have the honor and the privilege to sit on both sides of the fence so to speak I've been a guidance counsel first of all I've been a professional counselor for about 10 years now I'm also a guidance counselor for the last 8 to n years um and then I'm also I've been a board member as well as um in addition to that so I'm not only an educator but I'm also a Community member too so I'm very well faceted in all three aspects and perspectives that need to come together and merge to be able to have a very thriving District so um my experience um I also do a lot of community work I am the executive direct director of the four walls and the four walls Foundation we are now an outpatient uh office as well we offer school-based youth services in Philadelphia and we're expanding possibly hopefully prayerfully to EAS um and then you know I also um counsel and lead a team of about 50 65 employee contractors throughout the New Jersey uh system of care um within five to six counties in New Jersey so I bring a vast level of experience uh to the table um but most importantly what I bring is a level of understanding of how to be able to work as a team so that b perspectives are represented my water what do you believe is the top issue the district needs to address in its Academic Program great question Mr um I think the top thing is to be able to um just making sure that our curriculum and and our um you know everything that we're we're are trying to bring forth is representative to all students so that everybody can learn um you know just you know um Everybody learns differ so uh we have to be able to kind of meet that challenge that some kids may need this or this kid may need that but being able to meet them at their level and then be able to bring them up to satisfactory levels um is what I think um is one of the top issues it's hard for me to to say this is one issue there's a lot of different issues that that we can definitely tackle that would be something that I think is the most because we want the bottom lines that we're all in this for kids to be educated and empowered so that they can involv right so that to me would be the the first thing stra question good evening how well do you collaborate with others and provide at least one example of how you successfully collaborate with the colleagues great question as well um I collaborate uh very well um we um you know I'm a team player um and I I stay focused on the purpose um sometimes the the minutia of things or sometimes um different perspectives can Clash at different times but I think being a team player and being able to always kind of focus on the purpose um is something that's very valuable and that's something that I think that I possess humbly speaking of course um something that I I've kind of worked on um is um you know I'm I'm the leader and the um the Aon the early college program down in penville car New Jersey what that is is that that gives an area um because that's not it's a low uh socioeconomic area so um providing access to higher education for this community is very vital for not just them for generations to come so being able to come together and work with the George Washington Carver Foundation s Community College and um selling B tag to be able to kind of bring this opportunity to these students um so that they can become higher education again lot of these students were just like me dnf students but now here they sit in uh June being able to graduate with not only their high school diploma but also a two-year college degree that is transferable to any college in New Jersey so being able to provide that access and work as a team with other in those particular Partners is life changing for that community so that um that's what I kind of collaborated so there other that is the one that's over the top of my head thank you for that question Mr exuse Mr jul how will you bring a diversity equity and inclusion lens to your worth on the board thank you for the question um I think that's that's that's I think that's who I am I think that um I I'd like to represent all people it's my it's my heart that's what it is uh we are all created um differently um but the way that we blend is what makes life beautiful it's like a box of crayons so to speak um so how I bring that perspective is being making sure that every child no matter the culture no matter whatever differences are amongst others that we will all be able to kind of come together and and just be able to represent their perspective on how they're looking at things again I I can't stress enough being able to understand what that view is on the other side of the fence is so critical because that's the different perspectives that some people can understand and some people can I grew up understanding what that life is on the other side of the fence since the time I was maybe three or four that I understood that my view was different than maybe others okay growing up in New York especially Long Island in 1980s it was a different life to what it is right now okay so being able to come and understand that perspective and being able to move and matriculate I I think it just makes me very um very knowledgeable about how to bring that perspective and I've done a lot of work on D as well thank you that's all of the questions I appreciate you guys thank you for the opportunity thank you so yeah I think you can say you can to the VIP okay good evening what would be your top three priorities is selected to serve on this board number one making more diversity to inclusion so assimilation of a community as a one community that would be the top the first priority the second one would be be looking at it how could be the public dollars can be saved how can we fill some of the holes and the you know being an expert in the insurance industry and being expert in a safety and risk management that would be the second thing to look at what can what can be done how can I assist the board as you know and make a recommendation and they can look into it and how can we fill those gaps and uh last uh one would be how can we align that this is broader goal to have a Community engagement uh within within the within the community within the district and how we can work all together thank you what experience do you have to understand the needs of both students and teachers okay so well I mean having a student at home that you know kind of gives a little bit of a leverage that you know working with the students but I mean uh as I said earlier that I mean having a 15 years experience working directly irly with the public schools I also been involved with doing all a lot of trainings not only for the teachers but also for the students at a different uh at a different level whether it's a safety on risk whether it's a special needs I mean I have also done the training for the special needs I mean how how you can assess them how you can work with them um where do you where you create the boundaries how you deal with them U and I have an experience I mean in those areas as well as working on a diversity harassment and other areas of of uh disciplines of of the of the topics and that I have de with not only with the students but also the teachers as well what do you believe is the top issue the district needs to address in its Academic Program academically I mean well first of all let me let me tell you and it's it's a hard question that you ask uh uh and the reason why because Blue Ribbon School that's why we chose to live here so obviously academically programs are working but I think um how can we bring up all the student I me bring an inclusion and when I say inclusion what I mean is bringing up more diverse programs not only for different variety different cultures and uh different areas but also uh what else we can do to assimilate all the students that have special needs and others how would they can also be part of you exclusive group and we can keep them in in a one classroom one setting if possible Jennifer good evening even how well do you collaborate with others provide at least one example of how you successfully collaborate with the colleages I think I mean the success is in a if you work as a team I mean we all could have a different ideas we and based on the different ideas that could be very look good on a paper may be very look practically to my own opinion but when you and you put them in a work that work so I mean if you can work all together I mean it's it's a brainstorming I mean you know when I have an idea that is not free of Errors so when you do collaborate with other team members you find the you find the mistakes you find the Gap then you correct it and as a team effort you you you can do it this is one of the you know uh my expertise are being as a uh leader of strategic risk at El Insurance Group that's what I do when I do the ERM or Enterprises Manager Management how to bring all the stakeholders together how you work together how how you eliminate those communication gaps especially at the school district I'm going to give an example there could be a different opinion what the teachers have what the unions have what the you know custodial main staff has and what the board has and a lot of times everybody has a good intention to work on it but there could be a communication gaps those those communication gaps needs to be and how that could be open if we work together as a team member we work as a one team we are one District we are one team how will you bring a diversity equity and inclusion lens to your work on the board there are different different ways to do it obviously I mean you know it's part of the curriculum and New Jersey Department of Education and the Department of Civil Rights also strive for that they have a lot of Workshop but bringing a lot more workshop at the schools having a diversity uh program at a different school maybe an international base a lot of schools do it already uh e eastern regional does it have like more education on a cultural different cultural values and how we can respect each other's cultural value and together as a team thank you so much that's all the questions for now thank you thank you you're welcome to stay in here oh thank you good evening what would be your top three priorities if you selected to serve on the board my top three priorities would be finding the ways to best integrate technology within our school district as well as ensuring that the data collected on our students is only truly required data there are too many places where they collect data because it could be useful we should only be collecting information if we have an actual direct use for it um and to ensure that our futures have the resources that they need to be effective and they that thank you what experience do you have to understand the needs of both students and teachers so my experience with understanding teachers is that at least from a admittedly a slightly different perspective being College professors I've been working with them for over 20 years and working directly with helping them to plan out their resources and their uh give them the data they need to understand what is effective and not effective in the classrooms um and then from a perspective of students I understand what learning methodologies are and my own second master's degree in learning analytics had me required to take several courses in understanding learning methods and the psychology of Lear y taking a note okay sorry um what do you believe is the top issue the district needs to address in its academic program I would say that the top issue the issue sorry the top issue the district needs to address in program would be to better leverage the uh information we have in reporting and data to understand exactly where the shortfalls are within uh the actual outcomes and in the teaching process uh we have data on testing and all the rest of it we could be leveraging that and doing a deeper dive and better analysis perhaps to say where those sh calls are and where we can show them up good evening how well do you collaborate with others provide at least one example of how you successfully collaborate with your colleagues so my entire position is about building uh analysis and data reporting and building out the tools that the rest of my colleagues need to understand what the patterns are that are happening at our school uh I regularly have to take in re ments and Tak uh and collaborate and discuss with what are what is actually legally possible what is viable within our data sets and everything else to get us to a point where we can at least accomplish their overall goal because what I like to say is that we don't tell people no we tell them well what about if you tried something else and that is the kind of collaborative style that I how will you bring A diversity equity and inclusion lens to your work on the board so one of the things I actually stood at this Podium before and spoke about is the kind of shortfalls and pitfalls and fears that can be created with uh the biased data sets that are brought into AI models and the backgrounds I have in understanding that we need to have a full and diverse data set before we actually do any real analysis is part of that and my own personal background as a part of the LGBT community gives me another lens on a marginalized community and how that can impact existing as a student thank you that's all the questions thank you you're welcome to stay in the room I'm just going good evening what would be your top three priorities if selected to serve on the board I mean I think the first priority has to be students and to make sure that we're doing all the best things that we can do for the students with our curriculum and how we're getting our students to succeed my second priority as a teacher is going to be teachers I think that having the best teachers and supporting our teachers is the way to get our students to where we need them to be and my third priority I want to say curriculum and making sure that we're up to date on our curriculum and especially social emotional curriculum as that is such a hot button issue right now and I even know with my son the social and emotional is a big component thank you what experience do you have to understand the needs of both students and teachers um I am a teacher and I have been for over 20 years and I am in a classroom several different classrooms um I'm a teacher of the DEA and so I work with students with varying disabilities um and I work in a preschool to eighth grade district and I'm in I drive around all day going to a kindergarten room working the seventh graders working with students with autism and so I think that was my experience what do you believe is the top issue the district needs to address in its academic program I believe the top issue that we need to address in academics is language arts to be honest I think that reading and writing are something that all children need and all children to exceed in and that will unlock the door to many opportunities for our students how well do you collaborate with others provide at least one example how you successfully collaborated with the colleagues all day I am working with all different teachers all different case managers all different guidance counselors and all different principles I am collaborating all day I in and out of many different classrooms and if I didn't collaborate I probably would not have a job how will you bring a diversity equity and inclusion lens to your work on the board I think because I am special education I do have a lot of experience in diversity and equability and how to keep um I'm trying to figure how say it can you say that again I'm sorry how will you bring a diversity equity and inclusion lens to your work on the board I think all day every day I am doing an inclusion job and so I can take what I am seeing in my classrooms and bring that to the board and see what we need for our students as well thank you now F questions you're welcome to stay in here Beauty good evening good evening it's not a beauty P what would be your top three priorities if selected to serve on the board top three priorities education curriculum and uh infrastructure and um I would be part of the curriculum to add more diversity thank you you're welcome what experience do you have to understand the needs of both students and teachers so you need teachers so in in in my culture teachers are called gurus teachers they shape up the life of students like a lot did for me and that's where that's why I am I'm here where I am so teachers are the most important that we need to shape up lives of our students who are our future and our nation what do you believe is the top issue the district needs to address in its academic program in the academic program so it is an excellent School District however I'm still trying to figure out that why a lot of people still want to go to Princeton for their education um that's something I would want to figure out what if chosen as to why we can't make the our bori school system the best system where everybody wants to come and study here rather than going to Princeton how well do you collaborate with others provide at least one example of how you successfully collaborate with the colleagues in my profession as a physician that's that's my job I I I coll collaborate with my colleagues I work well with my patients and that's why they come back to me um being a physician itself you need to be a team player and that's what I can say about myself how will you bring a diversity equity and inclusion lens to your work on board you need the education board how how would I I believe I already have being a part of a Dei committee and I have given several presentations in the school in terms of diversity so I feel I have done that by giving presentations and if I am on the board that's what I would like to continue to do that's all the questions oh thank [Applause] you so first and foremost list we all recognize um this is a volunteer job so thank you all for volunteering your time and offering to to serve on this board um I think all of you are really exceptional candidates and offer really different and diverse backgrounds and I couldn't ask for a better slate of individuals so thank you all for for coming out tonight for preparing I know this is this can be a little nerve-racking um but we we really all appreciate your time and your energ um we are going to move to board discussion um if if anyone has a comment uh or wants to make a statement now is the time to do so I'll make a comment um I would like to thank everybody for um Coming Out and for speaking like um Miss Watson said it's nerve-wracking for sure to get up and and talk it's even more nerve-wracking to answer questions that you don't have in advance I'm somebody that does not enjoy public speaking so my Palms are sweating for you so I really do just appreciate you stepping out of your comfort zone if it was out of your comfort zone and doing so um I would like to bring up the fact that I am the only person in public education that sits on this board and I think that that perspective is very very important in our conversations and I think that it is important that we have somebody join us that understands what it is to be a teacher and what it is to be in the classroom and understand the needs of the teachers and the students so any other comments I I just want to say that this is going to be a very difficult decision I know personally for me that um I am just blown away by all of our candidates and I want to Echo um what Miss rder and um Miss Watson said just how impressed I am with with all of the candidates and and also um just knowing how difficult it is to put your hat in the room uh it takes a lot of courage and so I want to thank you for uh putting your hat in the ring and your willingness to serve this community um it is Honorable um and we very much appreciate hearing from each of you and learning about um your experience and perspective so um thank you to each and every one of you for um wanting to be here um seeing no other comments or hearing no other comments uh we are going to move to nominations um I will open it up for nominations now I nominate Jason Bryce I'd like to second that [Music] nomination I would like to nominate Alison smite second that nomination any other nominations motion to close the nominations so moved second um I have a first and I have a second I'm going to call a Voice vote to close the nominations Miss K Over yes Mr Mr Rosen yes Mr Rosner yes Mrs ruter yes Mrs Stewart yes M verie yes Mrs Watson yesion are closed okay so we are going to move to the first nominated candidate which is Jason Bryce I'll call the b m k over yes Mr Rosen no Mr Rosner no Mrs ruer no Mrs Stewart yes Miss birdie yes Mrs Watson yes four yeses three no Mr again I I want to like I know that this is very nerve-wracking how this how the process works however please I encourage all of the people who came out who are all exceptional please there's going to be opportunities come election time please consider running in the election as well because we need um candidates just like all of you and congratulations again okay moving to item 7.1 um can I get a motion to okay there is I'm sorry there is I didn't say it um there is no executive session um can I get a motion to approve the minutes of the November 20th 2023 regular board meeting um and was it an executive there may have been an ex session also oh and I'm sorry oh yeah we have to do them separately so so this is for the November 20th 2023 regular board meeting so mooved second voting is open I have Mr Rosen obained Mrs Stewart abstained everyone else said yes the motion to approve the minutes of the January 3rd 2024 regular board meeting um the board reorganization s moved second sorry second online voting is open motion unanimously passes uh I have no president comments uh the fire drills and safety drills as shown on the attachments um the harassment intimidation and bullying report is provided same with the suspensions report we have two Oprah requests one is closed and one is denied and then denied and then closed um board secretary report okay thank you very much my report is a little bit lengthy today but I will try to make it as quickly as possible the first it it is the presentation of the 2223 audit report uh there was a a summary report available to the public and each board member also received it the items addressed under this section are 20.24% that minute um if everyone has a copy of the summary Auto report basically it's a it's just a few pages from the entire audit and it shows our modified acal basis financial statements and how they reconciled to the acral basis which is what auditing firms have to present to keep everyone consistent and then it also lists um our corrective action plan and I'll go over that again in a minute when we talk about that there's one item it's a repeat item um it's not a bad item to have right so that's the synopsis then also included in the audit U there's a report there's reports that conern our Enterprise fund and that is what's they call exhibit B5 the Enterprise fund is made up of food service and CER a Community Education Recreation because those are those are entities that are Standalone that are supposed to be self-sufficient Our Community Education Recreation CR program is a wonderful program uh it does well every single year Mr Redburn is the director who does a great job it's profitable every year and the money does go back into the district to buy things that benefit the programs and also the district um that that uh entity will they rent out all of our buildings they do our summer programs they do our before and after school care the other item in there is Food Service so food service is also a standalone uh Enterprise uh food service is supposed to be self-sufficient and that's always a very difficult thing to do um in the past sometimes it did run out the deficit but during the co years there was extra money that was given to school districts that was really great um because students received free meals free breakfast free lunches and so our reimbursements from the state and feds federal government was very high so because of that we had a surplus of cash and many districts had the same issue so that's what our corrective action plan is so I'll go over that in a few minutes but just let you know a little bit about food service is for the year ending June 30th 2023 we had what they call Net changement position which is kind of like net income of $2,395 so after everything is said and done all the meals you know given sold to children and anything else that goes on within the Food Service entity we only profited by $2,395 but in that number is supply chain assistance that we received also as a result of the state keeps giving us money there so we received $147,200 for that so really we would run at a deficit of 13486 um so that's not the greatest but that has happened before it is a struggle to to stay positive in food service but that's just something that all districts also deal with so participation you try to encourage participation and then that also helps so I just wanted to put that out there because that is of the items in the audit and during we we get reviewed by the county and they always want to make sure that your food service is self-sufficient because otherwise the regular operating budget has to fund it and then that's using you know the money from your operating budget that you don't really want to do but some districts do have to do that um so right now we're okay because we do have Surplus there and we would have a little room to have some negatives but we we try to break even okay also in the audit they detail all of our fund balance and how much we have in each of our reserves and reserves are also a great thing we always try to replenish them and we have a list of projects that we want to work on and I'll talk about something else in in my next section too about our preschool and how our reses helped us there um the finding that we received relates to Food Service so I talked about this at previous board meetings that in June of 22 there's a calculation that goes on every year by the auditor and in Food Service you're to have more than 3 months worth of expenses accumulated in your cash but during those Co years like I said reimbursements from the state and the federal government were high so we did have more than that in food service but you can only use it for certain items mostly equipment so when we ended 20 when we ended June 30th 22 we had $342,884 which is a huge number but again we were supposed to use that to buy equipment and so for so what we did is we assessed everything in all of our kitchens and replaced a lot of equipment that was old so when June 30th of 23 came to me we had $13,999 now you don't really usually want repeat findings because that goes against some points that the the county assesses you at too but we wrote to the Department of Agriculture and say we know many districts are having this situation and we don't want to spend money just to spend money because we want to use this money in our new preschool because we will have to buy all the equipment to fit out their kitchen and that 193,000 could do that so that's money that's that that we got from the government we need to use it for something and even though we're going to have to take the hit for it on our audit we're not spending that money privilously so the Department of Agriculture said that's fine you have a plan you're good but the audit program doesn't change the rule is if you have repeat finding has to be on a corrected action plan our auditor recognizes that but there's nothing he can do so the finding is the school district's Food Service fund net cash resources exceeded its three months average expenditures by 193,194 the school district will spend these funds in fiscal fiscal year 2324 in accordance with the carryover plan that was approved by the New Jersey Department of Agriculture in October 2023 so all that is in compliance we have a plan we have some good news about our preschool building and 193,000 will be used to buy all the kitchen equipment for that school which is excellent okay so that's that so that's also one of the things we'll be approving tonight all right so that's about everything on the audit so that's only my first item under the session sorry uh the next one is a little bit um a little bit lighter okay uh the Burlington County Insurance Pool we have we we're part of a joint Insurance Fund it's called bcip gym and um every year they have a dinner they call the state of the gy dinner last year in 23 we we won safety District of the year in 22 we got star safety award for our supervisor buildings and grounds so we do really well um we do really well with safety and and in that area of reporting things when they happen unfortunately but we we also got an award this year uh for safety incentive claims reporting Financial Excellence we've got $77,000 last year we got $8,000 so doesn't sound like a lot of money but we like winning things so we were happy and also I should add that um Mrs ster and Mrs cenza attended that event but thank you Mrs cenza we're always glad to have some Court and she got to see us win dist for the year right wasn't that fun okay so then the next item is maintenance projects went over the winter break uh Mr mathys our director of buildings grounds and our new supervisor of buildings grounds and their staff work really hard all the time but even more so when the school's close because they have a small window of time to knock out a lot of projects so they did that over winter break um also they did a tremendous job during our recent snow storm ice storm whatever we had and I know for a fact that they worked on Saturday and Sunday of that one weekend making sure everything was ready for us to start school again so I do want to thank them for that over winter break some of the items that they did is they scheduled a demolition of the existing playground at Signal Hill so a new one could be put in they installed LED lighting at VMS in the main office nurses office CER office and awing they assembled and installed new art room tables they did painting at BMS theater hallways boys locker room vesle at ham Hamilton they put in two new fan heers in the boys and girls room by the allpurpose room they installed tax strip in the hallway at Crescent they cleaned out uh gym rooftop units at oage they replaced some broken locks and additional keys for paper towel dispensers did some air in air indoor air quality checking and um for maintenance they service the snow plows service the cabota tractor and we do have those two school buses that we will be using soon but they run them just to make sure they're still fine um at all the sites we also did a lock down a testing of our lock down security system during winter break and everything's good in this building uh they extracted carpets and the boardroom carets in here are clean and the hallway um set up the boardroom for the reorganization meeting because when we came back we went right into that and then did some other things around here as well so thank you very much for your hard work all the time the next item is a very exciting item and a culmination of something we've been working very hard on for really over a year so around October of 22 uh Mr Mattis brought to our attention a building that was um in GI and we were looking to expand our preschool program and that building seemed suitable for us however it was not in our town um so we we went for a tour of it we liked it and since October of 22 we've been pursuing that building we've had many meetings with to our Representatives their mayor their planning board um with our Engineers our Architects lots and lots of meetings um in May May 30th we had a special board meeting in order to submit to the Department of Education um an application for they call land acquisition meaning you're buying a building so you have to submit that say what you're going to use it for the whole plan but also at the same time there was a preschool facility expansion Grant available and we rushed to have that special meeting so we could apply for because the application deadline was May 31st so we also did that um it took a long time that was May 30th but finally on January 8th we received approval to acquire the building from the Department of Ed and even better on January 10th we received approval for a $6 million Grant to put towards the renovation of that building because without that Grant with our budget we're using Reser we're not we don't have to do a bond referendum which is excellent we have Reserve money so we were pulling out capital reserve money to buy the building and renovate the building however we couldn't pull it all out because that would make it very low and we have other projects so this $6 million will enable us to renovate both the first floor and the second floor at one time we really did not want to do it in stages that's not the best way so now we'll be able to do that so that was excellent news a lot of hard work a lot of meaning but we're grateful to everybody involved and to the state for giving us this opportunity and it's it's amazing because it hits a lot of really great things shared services because we have been meeting with gibra board event and they're going to have five classrooms in that building we're going to have 19 so it's a shared service with another District to provide preschool and pool our services like we have we're a bigger District so we have some other positions that they don't have so they could utilize that and of course we do share the cost um they will be paying for the use of those five classrooms um so it's a shared service it's a reuse a building that building's been sitting there probably for seven or more years so now it will be used which is great we're going to put in a playground right behind it so that can be used by US but also off hours by other children um I'm trying to think of anything else there were a few things that we had and it's preschool expansion you know so we really I know the governor wants that we want that and it's amazing because our universe is calculated out of about 500 students we can't put those 500 students in the buildings that we have here we needed to expand so we currently uh working with three providers but even with the three providers and prestent we still can't house 500 students so this building will enable us to hit that Target and also bring Gibbs in because Gibs would have to build also like this is just something something great happening but people don't have that facility in place so this pulls all that together so we're super excited and under the buildings and ground section of the agenda there's several items there 19.2 is authorizations proceed to closing 19.3 is authorization to advertise bids 19.4 is recognizing that the grant has been offered to us for 6 million um and proving that that is the amount 19.5 is a shared service agreement for communications um pent Township has a Consortium that they put together with several districts and we're joining in with that because with a project like this just like if somebody has a bond referendum to build a building there's always questions that come up and questions there could be questions from the community this time we have two communities involved um there could be questions from parents I mean this is a big undertaking so we can join this Consortium we're we're buying in for nine days of services at $6,500 where they have a public information officer that will help to answer these questions um in a timely manner where the rest of us are moving forward with the project 19.6 isou with give Board of Education that lays out all of the all the agement that we have with them how much they'll pay us how many classrooms we're providing and it's over a period of I believe it's 5 years um so that lays out everything and in the future we will have anou with the burrow itself because there's going to be things going on there too um we are on their property but we're providing um the playground we'll be providing some plowing for them in that area because buses and cars will be going around there so everything is best when it's laid out in an agreement and Memorial so that's that whole section but again thank you everyone who's been involved in that I know there's been a lot of time spent but this is a major accomplishment and we're very happy and very excited right yes okay the next one uh food service advisory Council that's pretty exciting too um on the 29th at 6 o'clock we had our very first food service advisory council meeting or committee meeting um it's virtual Zoom meeting um we put out a notice um Miss Val notice asking people to send any questions if they had them we received maybe 10 questions um and then we were able to answer them directly at the meeting and also respond by email to them um in the meeting was um Dr Hackett myself and tinaa she's the food service director and we had 21 people attend the zoom meeting um the meeting lasted a little bit over 30 minutes uh we received like I said the emailed questions and also live questions most of the question questions centered around food allergies meatless options meatless Mondays vegan vegetarian meals carb counts and the length of the Lunch Period um so we addressed all those Tina was amazing like with her responses to them and some of the answers were uh she is going to Institute meatless Monday starting in March um some people said that if you have a chicken quesadilla couldn't you have a cheese quesadilla she come do that options are garden salads daily cereal grab and go she's adding a veggie burger and all this comes from the from the input from the parents so we we heard a lot of great suggestions and there's an open communication where they can contact Tina to give her more suggestions but they like the veggie burger idea um some people said their child is allergic to milk so she's going to have shelf stable soy milk available and also every day two options daily for vegetarian or vegan so that way you know people can can buy lunch and enjoy what what they like to eat but also maybe maybe they have limitations as to what they can eat so it'll make everyone happy um the next item is School Board recognition month so January is School Board recognition month and we're very thankful for our former and current board members so I will read off and this is a little bit lengthy I will read off a resolution thanking all of our board members so thank you so much uh whereas New Jersey school boards Association has declared January 2024 to be school board recognition month a Time on all residents can acknowledge the contributions made by our local school board members and whereas the bores Township Board of Education is one of 581 local school boards in New Jersey which sets policies and overseas operations for public school districts and whereas the bores Township Board of Education Embraces the goal of high quality education for all New Jersey Public School students and whereas New Jersey's local school boards help determine the educational goals for approximately 1.4 million children in Pre kindergarten through 12th grade and whereas New Jersey's 5,000 local school board members do receive no remuneration for their services act as advocates for public school students as they work with administrators teachers and parents for the betterment of public education and whereas school boards strive to provide the resources necessary to meet the needs of all students including those special needs and whereas Boards of Education provide accountability to the public they communicate the needs of school district to the public and they convey to school administrators The public's expectations for schools and whereas New Jersey can take pride in its schools which rank among the nation's best in key achievement indicators such as the national assessment of educational progress scores and the preparation for college through advanced placement offerings and sat assessments now therefore be it resolved that the bores Township Board of ation does hereby recognize the services of local school board school board members throughout New Jersey As We join Community Statewide in observing January 2024 as school board recognition month and be it further resolved that the bores Township Board of Education urges all New Jersey citizens to work with their local Boards of education and public school staffs toward the advancement of our children's education again thank you very much for your service we greatly appreciate it thank you very much good evening everyone I'd like to once again just acknowledge Mr sepin and the middle school students what an amazing presentation we are so very proud of them and they are just an example of the wonderful teachers and students that we have in this District great job thank you so much Mr St there's a quote by Jana Stanfield that reads I cannot do all the good that the world needs but the world needs all the good that I can do that quote Rings true regarding the volunteer service of our board members and I'd like to take this opportunity to to say thank you to our board members for their service thank you for answering the call to become a board member and giving of yourself to improve the educational experiences of our students we have selected hey tutor which is on the agenda this evening to serve as our vendor for the high impact tutoring Grant that we received in the amount of $229,200 for this school year we are excited about this program which which will provide in-class support and pullout tutorial services for identified third and fourth grade students and we'll begin implementation upon receiving board approval I'm also delighted to inform everyone that bhe was selected to receive the New Jersey preschool inclusive education njp grant which is sponsored by the New Jersey Department of Education and facilitated by the Monclair State University and a resolution appears on the agenda this evening the goals of this program is to provide support for inclusive education that support is in the form of training reflective discussions coaching and consultation so we're very excited I will let everyone know that whenever there is a grant or an opportunity uh this team definitely submits it because we want to bring as many programs and services um for our students and our staff and finally just a reminder that on February 7th we'll have another parent virtual Workshop titled suggested books for reading with my child so I hope our parents can attend on February 7th the link can be found on the website thank you board president that ends my report thank you uh we have a we had a bunch of of committee meetings over the last couple of weeks um so we have four committee reports we will start with um Mrs Stewart with a polic committee report yes president Watson the policy committee met for an hour on January 24th and had a productive meeting for first read we discussed policy 164 conduct a board meetings for second read we reviewed the following policies and regulations for revision policy 2270 religion and the schools reflecting updated guidance received from the US Department of Education in May 2023 policies 3161 and 4161 Examination for cause reflecting revisions to the process a school district must use when a board or a superintendent requires a staff member to undergo a physical or psychiatric examination and policies and regulations 3212 and 4212 attendance in light of recent legislation expanding the allowable uses of sck time for School Employees the committee also discuss policy 5701 plagiarism as it pertains to emerging AI te te ology and anticipates revisiting discussion of this policy update in the near future lastly the committee discussed continued work on the board handbook which is a comprehensive on board on excuse me on boarding guide for new board members and looks forward to reviewing next steps during our feder meeting thank you thank you um Mr Roser Personnel committee report yes thanks um the Personnel committee met on Thursday January 18th and Tuesday January 2th 3D we discussed a grievance filed by the union regarding interpretation of the new sick leave Law thanks thank you um Mrs rner the academic Excellence committee report yes the academic Excellence committee uh met on January 17th we were uh members were informed of the character strong program that will be presented to the district guidance counselors at the February 16th in service we also discussed after school clubs and the principles will begin the process of student participation in February I would like to give a shout out to Dr Hackett and everybody on the board that H helped bring this to fruition um the committee had questions about leadership opportunity for fifth graders we also had a conversation about math classes for 8th graders heading off to Eastern and the summer school learning academy data was review for 2023 thank you thank you um and last but not least M uh Mrs technology committee report thank you we held our first committee meeting uh virtually on January 25th at 6m I want to thank our committee members Jacob Rosner and Richard Rosen for making the time to meet promptly this month once committee assignments were announced we're also joined by Mrs Kover filling in for Mrs Watson who wasn't able to make our meeting since this is a committee that only met one last year we started our meeting discussing a regular Cadence for committee meetings moving forward throughout the year we landed on the meet on meeting the third Thursday of the month unless there's no new business or agenda items give on a given month in which case we won't meet we also discuss that all committee members are welcome and encouraged to suggest items for our committee's agenda and that is chair I will make every effort to ensure all those suggestions are afforded time on agendas we also wanted to ensure that non-committee members also have a voice and encourag non-committee members to email suggestions or thoughts on committee items moving on to substantive conversation we discussed four topics first we discussed our current lunch Payment Processing system that families currently use for lunch payments and the payment processing fees currently passed on to families associated with that system next we continued the conversation begun last year with the committee to address the potential procurement of iPad keyboards and the inherent value of ensuring for ye students learn typing skills we also discussed the use of AI in the district and the work of the leadership team working on a protocol document to come on the topic the committee looks forward to reviewing and contributing to that document finally we briefly discussed the malfunction of the security system at BMS last week our committee is currently scheduled to meet again on February 15th thank you for the opportunity to provide this report audience participation anyone wishing to address the board please approach the side table on the right and write your name and address on the login sheet while the is limited in its ability to respond to the public on matters involving Personnel litigation negotiations and attorney client privilege the board will now hear comments from the public relating to items on the agenda for this board meeting comments are limited to three minutes the board will not take action this evening you will be notified at some later time by letter electronic mail telephone or in the context of a later board meeting of any action the board does take okay seeing no comments uh board comment sorry yes no please hello my name is CHR St I have three children in the district um I have questions and concerns with hey tutor this California company coming into our schools during the school day to cheor children who are these people who will be coming into the school who interviews them and decides they're qualified after checking website it appears all that is done by that company so who are those people um that company is hiring people who are not certified to be teachers to pull students out of their classrooms and away from the very capable certified teachers for lessons how is that company obtaining the data to best bridge the gap for the struggling students is war he's giving the student scores out to this company is that with or without parent permission what type of data will be collect to Ure these non-certified people are assisting and helping sh students in the board agenda it says they are going to be contracted for the summer as well is that a new program or are they taking the place of the summer Learning Academy I truly hope that this company is not in place of Summer Running Academy our teachers put their heart into that program and our students go there looking forward to seeing their teachers over the summer I can tell you firsthand my son only went because his teachers he knew and trusted were why can the grant money not be used to pay our own teachers to tutor children after school and in the summer the state is allowing that and I can tell you that Berlin is using their own teachers with that gr money if the concern is with the struggling Learners then what about looking at the programs we have in at work like spire and find a grant to pay for more teachers in our district to be train properly and teaching Spire within the school if you do vote Yes on this how will parents know their sh is on the list for this during school tutoring and are we able to out [Applause] out hey guys I'm mam I'm I've been history of meeting first of all I have a lot of concerns uh with his Board of Education and before I speak the list what I have prepared the first um added to it I have extreme reservations that is collaborating with L Martin uh I as a parent I wouldn't want to send my child for a company uh first of all I'm trained in both MIT and Harvard Medical School so I'm an imuno oncologist by a profession so I'm I'm a biggest proponent of stem I'm here because of stem and I wouldn't want to collaborate with the company which weaponizes um over here I can see it's cute um making some dancing robots but guess what I want I don't know about you guys but I want the parents to know that they are the ones who are making weapons to kill kids enable genocide and have serious human violations on their record so if you real and of course I'm not going to come here and complain about that I'm going to come with the solution as well so if you really want to have stem education to our kids please collaborate with NASA please collaborate with NIH National Institute of of Health please collaborate with Google please collaborate with Tesla Apple Microsoft there are many other ways to make good Engineers engineering students rather than collaborate with someone who weaponized and teach children how to make dancing robots coding is not at all hard in this generation I can learn coding on YouTube so it's nothing nothing great about it so uh so I'm sorry I'm not going personal to you but there are many other options trust me from where I'm coming from I have serious reservations when it comes to do Mar they make weapons so it looks cute but that's not cute they do something pleas please direct your comments okay so direct comment to you especially so this whole Board election beautifully have handled but you know what there are certain things that that just got wiped out and the serious thing is that there was a gross gross VI of policy number uh 0167 with last month you failed um public you enable n Khan's resignation you forced her to resign um understand that yes Dei is the most cutest thing to happen again another cute thing Dei Dei Dei but guess what um it's not just one particular religion or one particular color or one particular uh instant that has to be followed I'm letting you know that there are other cultures other religions other thought processes and most importantly First Amendment so the fact that the First Amendment right was being violated with along with 0167 where the school matters were not been discussed but more of uh of a certain thing which is happening on a global scale s your time has expired totally fine I I'm glad I made the point thank you um I want thank you any other audience comments seeing none board member comments I'd like to make the comment um so I want to thank Mr sepon and the experience that the robotics team had um in learning about real world application of the skills that they were learning so in some of my work I could hear what was going on what they did and things that I'm working on like requirements and Discovery like they did the build test and they deployed it and and secondly like I would just want you to tell this student who said the thing about video games without coding he wouldn't even be able to play video game so like that's part of learning that is part of you know you got to enjoy it but behind it is a lot of work so and the other thing is um let me go to the other thing hold on one sec um I just want to give kudos to the admin for all the work that they put in to get the preschool Grant and um move this process along there's so many different steps and Gates and deadlines Etc and um it's really impressive and the you know Um passion that Miss Haley shows um in her explanation of this I know sometimes board meetings can be a little dry um and sometimes Finance can be a little dry but the passion that she brings to the job and and even the minutia of these things is amazing so I just want to say thank you to miss Haley and Dr hack and everyone else involved in this process it's going to you know benefit um this District greatly any other board comments yes all right so a friend sent me a meme this week that said quote 30 days past September April June and November unless a leap year is its fate February has 28 all the rest have 3 days more except January which has 6,184 I don't know about you all but this has been one heck of a month and for this board between two full board meetings and all the Committees hitting the ground running holding their first meetings of the calendar year this board has been extremely busy uh and when I say this board I mean the elected board members but also the administrative staff who has to support us in all of those meetings so on this uh School Board appreciation month I want to thank and acknowledge my fellow board members for all of the work this month um with all the changes we've made in the last year our committees in my opinion are poised to be the most active they've ever been in which is what we want and what we need as a district since the Committees are where the work is supposed to happen I love that every board member has an opportunity to suggest agenda items for our committees even if we're not a member of that committee so that we can contribute our ideas and values every board member comes to this role with lived experiences and intersectional identities that impact our view on issues for myself as someone who grew up in a food insecure household on food St that has meant for me for example keeping a careful eye on food costs for our families in the district what I love about this board is that each of us brings something unique to this work and each of us identifies issues others of us may have overlooked or hadn't thought about before and by allowing opportunities for collaboration and discussion we can all use our experience and expertise to govern with the best interests of every student in the district and their life experiences in mind I encourage this board to remain collaborative not allow personal issues to impact our ability to work together and to encourage not stifle or shut down conversations on substantive issues just just because at first glance we might disagree it's through those hard conversations and disagreements that compromise and collaborative thinking shine through and can can produce great outcomes for this District speaking of outcomes I've been thinking a lot about the pandemic as we draw nearer to another anniversary of the start of it the New York Times published an article today summarizing the result of the first detailed National study of how us students are recovering from pandemic learning loss we know we're not there yet there's still an impact on test scores suspension rates and mental health it was a very informative article that I encourage others to read I really outlined a wide range in recovery across the country and un unfortunately did note some widening gaps in equity issues but my takea away from the article is really a sense of gratitude to our Administration the article talked about how one effective strategy that has seen across districts with stronger postco recoveries spent more of the federal covid dollars on academics than those who focus more on renovating school buildings the article specifically called out prioritization of added instruction time like intensive tutoring and summer school as proven by research to produce significant gains the law required only 20% of the money be used um to be spent on learning loss but districts could of course do more I'm proud of and grateful to our Administration for PRI PRI prioritizing things like before and after school tutoring and the summer learning program as a parent I've seen the success of these programs helping my own child make remarkable progress over the last year combating learning loss and I know so many others uh others who have children who have benefited from these programs in Wares as well so kudos to our Administration and of course to the staff implementing these programs they truly make a difference I want to encourage families to take advantage of these programs if your child is identified for them there is no shame in a child needing a little extra help they've been through a lot in the last few years so finally as the 6,184 day of January comes to an end and in the spirit of school board appreciation month I want to thank my fellow members of the board for their ation selflessness collegiality and Leadership I look forward to what I'm sure will be an equally productive February on this board um with our new board members set to join us and look forward to continuing to learn from the variety of perspectives of my fellow board members through open respectful communication and collaboration thank you any other comments from the board moving to policy can I get a motion to approve all the items under policy so secondline voting is open motion passes I get a motion to approve all the items under curriculum all one voting is open the motion unanimously passes can I get a motion to approve all the items under Personnel any second online voting is open the motion unanimously passes making a motion to approve all the items under transportation voting is motion unanimously passes and a motion to approve all the items under buildings and grounds so moved second online voting is open motion unanimously passes Mrs Waton is it possible to pull out 2.22 from Finance to vote on separately uh I'm sorry could you say the number one more time 2022 2022 yes can I get a motion to approve items 20 20 20.1 through 2021 and 202 3 through 2028 move second I'm going to open online voting but I have it in my notes that we're going to vote um by The Voice vote on 2022 all the items listed are approved unanimously and we'll vote separately on 2022 I got a l back in sorry I got a l back in I accidentally uh right thanks so at this point I'll call the rooll on 2022 oh I'm sorry oh can I get a motion to approve item 20. 22 nobody wants to move that motion vot so item 2022 is stripen yes okay um public comment along uh anyone wishing to address the board please approach the side table on the right and write your name and address on the log sheet while the board is limited in its ability to respond to the public on matters involving Personnel litigation negotiations and attorney client privilege the board will now hear comments from the public comments are limited to 3 minutes the board will not take action this evening you will be notified at some later time by letter electronic mail telephone or in the context of a later board meeting of any action the board does take good just have a couple comments I did want to thank the district teach secretaries custodians everyone who helped get the schools ready uh several sidewalks were done several staff came in early the secretaries made calls the night the night before to the subs um a lot of that so as a par and I appreciated that because um the school was prepared um things that go very ONN um but everyone really stepped up and I think some of the good calls were the was pretty good um second the food service um I know it's never good to run in the red however if we remember the past a few years ago districts were with holding lunch forcing children to only have PBJ so I know it's never ideal to be deficit but when you don't limit what a child can have because they're not in their means um even though they might not qualify for free or red lunch I think that's something is good we put the children um the other one was commented about the malfunction m school so my daughter was there and um we're still dealing with it he uh it was very traumatic for her because they honestly thought it was legit whoever her study law teacher was was phenomenal because he took it serious had back and she was great but we do talk Us in news and it was a very difficult time and it was nice to see that the teacher did exactly what he was supposed to do um because of course we never really know when they come and then the last one I want to thank you the policy change that went into that's proposed it was in red to show what was changed so when I go back and pull the other one I could identify really quickly so I guess that last one so I'd be great that goes forward so thank you any other audience comments board member comments seeing n moving on the next meeting date is February 28th 2024 7 p.m. at the admin building and we will now move to ajour all those in [Music] favor motion to the meeting y