[Music] now we can begin the public portion of our meeting um but first I would like to turn over to uh Mr kroer who has uh some additions uh yes good evening uh just like to announce that there were some additional verbal adds to the uh executive session agenda item there were eight items total uh three concerned Personnel matters three concerned pending litigation matters uh one concerned negotiations and the other concerned District property all right perfect thank you um and I would just like to quickly uh acknowledge that we are heading into spring break so I know all of you out there watching are very excited especially all of our students uh so want to make sure to wish you a happy safe and hopefully relaxing spring break which is from uh March 25th through March 29th the district will be closed and reopen on Monday April 1st and no kids that is not an April Fool's joke you will be in school on that day um and uh I'll turn over to Dr aderhold for anything to add uh good evening everyone um I just first would like to congratulate um Town Center uh elementary school today we had the um ribbon cutting ceremony for their brand new um uh playground which was an awesome event um and I want to specifically recognize um the first day of school Foundation um we have a District staff member and her family that runs that Foundation they donate donated a generous $50,000 um amount to The District in addition with District funds and the support of our our Architects and um construction managers uh we built a uh beautiful um inclusive playscape um for our students um that are on the autism spectrum um it's behind Town Center Elementary School it's handicap accessible um uh sensory it's it's it's it's a remarkable softscape playsafe uh playground um and the ribbon cutting ceremony was today um so our thanks and appreciation to the first day of school Foundation um to the Waller family and um to the staff at Town Center for all the work they do in support of our students um we had um staff bring their their classes out today it's just a remarkable uh event um and a great thanks to Dr folk and Dr osterby and Sam tuello for their guidance uh throughout um also want to note that today on our agenda um we are accepting the retirement of three administrative colleagues um these are individuals that have given a lifetime to public education um some over 30 years to wwp um one who's in the audience this evening uh so I wanna uh and we're gonna we're gonna get Miss Bean into this next school year um as she's gonna give us two months in in the 2425 but I want to recognize Andrea Bean our math supervisor sixth sixth through 12th grade uh Gerard Dalton principal at milstone River Elementary School and Dave arges uh principal at Dutch neck Elementary School um and you know Dave and Jord Andrea have have uh been administrative leaders uh from the ma vast majority of my administrative time here in District um and just a tremendous loss of of leadership and knowledge U within our system and just can't thank them enough for the contributions to West or Plainsboro to their their faculties uh to the students and families that they serve so uh Bean thank you and to to Gerard and Dave thank [Applause] you all right thank you Dr aderhold and now I would like to invite the student representatives from high school north and High School South to give us an update all right thank you so much again for inviting us to speak starting off strong High School North and South's China night was a huge success all the performances throughout the night ran smoothly and it was a soldout show towards the end of February our High School North ran their spring musical Mean Girls this year's production was a huge success many of our Juniors had the opportunity to go to Washington DC for the annual Washington seminar trip these Juniors had the chance to explore our Washington nation capital and learn about our government system at the beginning of March many of my peers and I had the pleasure of going to Disney World in Orlando Florida for our High School North senior trip we visited all four Parks Epcot Animal Kingdom Hollywood studio and Magic Kingdom and I had a blast on our vacation additionally spring Sports have started multiple sports teams are holding their tryouts from last week and this week last week high school n's model Congress attended Columbia University's model Congress conference for the first time since the pandemic and this year our North team won best delegation congratulations to our High School North model Congress team also last week Juniors had their NJ gbaa spring testing this testing is a New Jersey state requirement for all 11th graders this past week Juniors have also received their invitation to the norch chapter of the National Honor Society this year we have inducted over 75 Juniors who represent the pillars of NHS scholarship service leadership and character and finally this week is our last week before before spring break now handing it off to our South's Representatives thank you so much me here um to start off I wanted to talk about one of our cultural clubs Sasa who hosted their own Bollywood night um near mid to end of February and it featured a variety of activities food refreshments and we saw a really great turnout um which we were very happy about rounding out the end of February uh South's theater hosted their musical uh A Chorus Line I personally attend it was a lovely show months of effort you could see were very clearly demonstrated and there was a great involvement of underclassman in the cast which we are really excited to see um and something to look forward to in the future like Mahir said our Juniors took their NJ GPA testing last week it ran rather smoothly and I know the other classes um nicely enjoyed their delayed openings as Mahir mentioned we did have our China night which was h to duy by both the High School South and High School North uh China clubs like Mahir said also uh our show was sold out even with minimal advertising and we had acts ranging from dancing to martial arts to even skits uh our Orchestra also had two recent performances with a band concert with guest performances and a chamber concert two weeks ago our Red Cross also host hosted an event at Maurice Hawk where they discussed safety with Elementary schoolers important topic and our math club for Pi Day held a Pi Pi digit memorization competition um during lunch the winner memorized 177 digits and got to take home a free pie uh you know though the idea may be irrational sorry uh they still had fun and uh and moving on to some recent trips that our High School South seniors have had or our high School South Upper classman have had uh High School South had seniors had their Disney trip uh about a week After High School North did and uh I personally had a lot of fun on the trip I feel like I strengthened a lot of my friendships one particular bonding moment was when a lot of seniors decided to collectively watch 3D Kung Fu Panda 4 on the second day of the trip um you know there was a lot of flexibility some students chose to take it slower while some While others like my friends and I um managed to worry about maximizing the whole trip uh speaking of my worries I feel like it was at Disney that I really let it go uh uh to speak for the juniors uh similar to what Mahir said uh the class of 2025 took a trip down to DC from March 6th to 8th um we saw a nice increase in students who are interested in participating in the Washington seminar trip which is really great to see I personally attended um I loved it and I'm very grateful for the opportunity that I had um the program and the people that we were given the pleasure to meet uh was truly truly informational and um great experience okay and to wrap things up uh again like Mahir mentioned spring sports are underway and yesterday we had our first ever School Cricket practice which is pretty remarkable um and then as for like other current news jprom tickets are currently being sold um jprom will jprom will be in April which stands for junior prom for those of us yeah anyways in terms of other upcoming events spring break is coming up which is super exciting and our student council is currently planning our spirit week and pep rally oh my goodness wow thank you guys so much uh here Rachel and Aliana that was wonderful we love hearing the updates uh and the puns we appreciate and uh schooling us on you know New Slang is always great so enjoy the rest of your evening thank you so much for coming out uh next we have more fun topics um to be presented by Dr aderhold it is the 2023 to 2024 tentative budget presentation um not as exciting as the kids presentation but you know yes thank you for the correction 2024 to 2025 good catch all right so uh good evening everyone um it's my pleasure to bring forward the tenative budget um as as the board is aware um each year the board of education has to board approve a tenative budget that gets submitted to the county superintendent and staff for their review upon review from the county office the board then it gives is given the authorization to be able to then advertise the public budget which will be held on April 30th um this year which is our official budget hearing evening where we'll do a formal presentation like this evening um based on the the numbers that are reviewed and advertised and approved by the Department of Education you know there's a lot of folks to thank to get us to this point our business office all of our budget managers and the central office leadership team for all their work in shepherding this through and we thank the Board of Education members um and as you're well aware the budget is really grounded in our mission statement we make sure that you know we're budgeting our values and that we're working to prepare their our students for that changing world with confidence strength and character and a love of learning our budget every year is built with these four strategic goals in mind um and we've gone over them numerous times so I'm going to uh pass it for Prosperity um and then uh from a school budget we've talked about the importance of budgeting from the perspective of it being a planning tool consideration of contingencies managing risk being fiscally responsible to our taxpayers um making sure that it's a reflection of our values but also ensuring that we're able to manage programs with safeguards and buffers along the way um and that we respectfully manage the this stewardship of the community's dollars and that monies that are not used in any one year go back to the taxpayers in a subsequent year or may move to capital projects for for thinking through the fiscal plant physical plant of the District budget has several drivers um big big budget categories that we see that repeat themselves every year um sometimes the story is somewhat different U but the categories often are the same so in the area of special services we see tuition increases uh in the area of facilities custodial contract renewal in health care um we do see an increase in direct cost for the New Jersey educator healthcare plan and the Garen State healthcare plan we're seeing staffing needs in special education in our English language learning Learners programs with uh increased numbers in the programs or building programs that stay in and must be maintained over time to keep students in District so as students age up through the program it requires as adding additional staff um and then every District's being hit with Transportation costs uh route renewals uh some the Consumer Price Index which drives the formula the formula of how Transportation determined um and then fuel increases and Driver shortages are just plaguing the industry there's always facility and capital Project work as we think through this and then salary increases based on negotiated agreements and it's important to say these are negotiated mutually between the Board of Education and the respective associations so from it idea of budget uh considerations just want to highlight a couple um staff increases uh we do have five growth positions built within this budget four are in the area of special education one elll teacher um we do have a newly negotiated salary guide um with the new contract for the Education Association um so that factors into this year's budget um and then there are some stien increases as well that we need to be mindful of in the area of special education again this is really about aging um students aging up through the system um we have growth in our autism program at milstone River and we've had numerous students move into district with autism diagnosis at the high school level which actually uh we need to formalize some programming at High School North with a dedicated autism teacher uh Millstone or really Millstone CMS will have a bcba it's a board certified behavior analyst and these programs also are bringing forward uh an increase in speech uh need uh so we'll have an increased speech therapist with in the budget in healthcare we're completing our third year of being self-insured um but we are seeing some significant increasing rates along with inflation for an 11.6% renewal um so again this is below the state um rates um so we are trending below but clearly above 2% in allowances um in transportation obviously I mentioned some of the drivers uh Drive cost drivers not physical drivers um but each year transportation is driven by um a a formula which is governed under code by the state of New Jersey which looks at something called the Consumer Price Index but it's very specific to a regional uh look at Transportation so until this number gets released by the department of Ed and it's usually the last week of January it was the first week of February this year so um ballpark uh it came in at 5.81% it's below what we are anticipating which was north of 8% but but that was um I would say it's welcome but 5.81% on top of um over $15 million is a significant increase year-over-year and we were at 5.83 I believe last year in the area of capital projects we've identified um numerous projects to move forward um the roof forl at Town Center is contingent on the rod Grant uh north tennis courts uh is is um there's several different options we can select um each one's more costly than the next um so we are working with our architects now on choosing the best option to to resurface uh some Court damage that happened due to extreme wind conditions uh High School North theater is a project that we're going to have to put continued dollars towards um if we were to do that theater on its own it would be several million dollars um we're not in a position to be able to do that um but we are going to need to start dedicating money towards um Lighting and Sound and um really a slow repurposing or refurbishing of that particular theater uh but it will have to move a little slower because of the the extreme costs but we'll start with some of the the lighting uh lighting issues um GMS Paving and heat pump uh and then we are working right now on a new Energy savings Improvement project um we are looking at this we have authorized Schneider Electric to investigate this on behalf of the board there has been no authorization of any projects at this time but we are looking for additional ways to both decrease our energy footprint at the same time repurpose some of those dollars that we spend towards energy on some additional refurbishment um or replacement of equipment in some of our buildings that would be seen as um outdated or end of life um so this this gives a sense where we're putting some of the dollars just the breakdown of those projects I just mentioned and then annually we build in uh within that 3.7 is uh 1,8 $87,500 uh towards um annual building and grounds projects I'm sorry that's in addition to that comes at the general fund the the capital projects comes at capital reserve but I want to just quickly just say you know the budget really the last several years is a budget of a story of inflation and this particular chart while it's um meaty um on the left um 1819 down to 2425 um just simply goes across some big categories and gives you a sense of the increases now in technology it's not that we didn't spend any money in Tech that year um it's just how we've budgeted Tech has changed so uh it's changed in lines it's changed from some buildings back so it wasn't a true representation in 1819 but you can get a sense from 1920 of 561,000 down to 3.2 budgeted for 2425 um that there's been some significant increases now that uh for Tech in 1920 all the way to the right um at the top there it's not that we spent only 561,000 it was under prior uh business office we had a practice of um spending some of the addition the dollars available at the end of the year and and doing Tech refresh at the end of the year with Dr Russo and with with Mr me we started saying you know we're spending this money anyway let's build it let's build it into the budget transparently so we have a fixed budget and then build from there so when you see that 1.9 in 20 2122 right that's those are the covid years forward and you can see we went from refreshing one two grades one it you know if you think about as we added one to one devices now we're refreshing three cycles of devices plus a a cycle for staff so every year we're spending several hundred, just on technology refresh for devices that are expiring every four years but the story really is of inflation look at transportation in 1819 10, 317,000 and then look at 2425 17.7 million and that's that's a significant significant increase um even in employee Healthcare where we did go to self-insured you see those 19 20 to 21 22 years um going from you know 8.6 to 11 and now we're at we held firm at 11 for a couple years when we went self-insured and now we're we're at 127 and you know I'm sorry that's I'm looking the wrong category looking at the wrong category sorry my eyes jumped um employee benefits sorry 3 32 million there in 2021 and now going down to 38 and 24 25 we had those two years in a row at 32 33 and now we're seeing the couple million dollar per year special education 8.6 and now we're at 12.7 a $4 million jump and and at that time we've decrease number of students out of District but some of the student needs have increased um and this is this is just out of District tuition right the 12 the 12 million um salaries are you'll see on the next slide sort averaged over time U but you can see the salaries are all increasing um you know now we settlements going into next year are 3.8 3.4 and 3.1 uh collectively the the 1819 to 2425 increases Transportation over 70% employee benefits over 28% special at over 46% I average the benefit sorry the um the salaries during those years um to get an average um but obviously what's going into next year is higher insurance at 13.8% and there's been some cost savings along the way where we've gone out to self funding where we've changed some of our insurance practices um where we've but but you just take special ed in transportation transportation in particular has been a real back breaker these last several years and then just sorry what's going here and then just going into from 2324 to 2425 the question I asked the board um in a previous meeting was what increases at 2% right and and the the reality is is nothing's increasing at 2% the recommended budget today is increasing less than any one of these categories right so something got to give when we're spending more than we're spending more dollars than we're actually able to generate um so from a budget to- budget tax levy standpoint uh I think it's really important to see fixed costs budget to budget are increasing at four and we're recommending a total tax levy increase at 2.8 um we did see a state aid increase we are anticipating um half a million dollars we were able to get we were fortunate to get 1.6 that 1.1 helped cover a debt payment right so the additional 1.1 didn't really close a gap it prevented a larger Gap um and so we also are being driven by formula to budget more and more fund balance and that number at 13.7 million is starting to get very concerning because that means we have to regenerate 13.7 millions of breakage out of next year's budget to cover fixed costs in a subsequent budget so if we don't have3 .7 million of fund balance at the conclusion of 2425 will'll have to cut costs in 2526 right so the that money is covering fixed cost in a future budget the only way to drive that number down is to decrease fixed cost the decrease fixed cost you're talking about decreasing staff decreasing staff because you're decreasing that 70% of the budget is people people and all the things associated with people right the benefit and all that I I put this slide up as updated numbers because this is how our tax bases split um we split based on enrollment between the two municipalities and you can see it's staying relatively stable during this time period now we should anticipate started seeing a percentage shift as all that construction's happening in in West Windsor in particular going on in the community right now whether it's Transit Village or low Center or out on old Trenton Road as you see these big developments starting to pop up I expect in subsequent years probably 2 years from now we're going to start seeing those percentages shift slightly higher for West Windsor which will impact the tax split as that happens the number of ratables will also come up in West Windsor so that shouldn't mitigate the shift but hard to know until the ratables hit the tax base and just something we haven't shown in a couple years but I still the taxpayer guide to education spending is one of those documents that's put out there um it's always running in the rear right so this is the last published dat is 2021 next year will be 2122 and so forth but as you look back it takes out three major budget categories right so this is not the per pupil spending for these that's pure because it takes out special education it takes out pension payments and it takes out Transportation right so not every District spends the same on Transportation almost all districts have some element of Transportation because the special ed routes for for some out of District routes but like a nutly is primarily a walking municipality right so it's you couldn't you couldn't necessarily um compare Nutley versus someone else in their area because Nutley doesn't have regular Ed busing everyone's a walker right so they take those categories out so it gives a fair attempt to compare and it's something that is Benchmark over time so we've looked at this o since 2002 right around the time Mr shanik uh was here as assistant superintendent for finance um and you can see back back at that point um we were at 10,000 534 um dollars per per pupil spent on this particular uh metric and today 19 years later we're at 15,795 whereas you can see a district like hopwell who was $20 $18 higher than us at the time is now over 5,000 ahead of us so you know we we have below average cost that may not be felt that way to the to the local taxpayer but below average cost as you tell the story but we'd like to believe an above average education that we're providing our our the children of and the students of West Winds or Plainsboro uh and we are below uh the state average as well when you look at budget parameters there's just some things that around this time we just don't know so you have to factor in anticipated increases in prescription in particular that renews in 24 uh December of 24 same with Healthcare um it's a mid-year uh renewal something that the federal government has said they're no longer going to fund is the covid antivirals which are expensive and that has not hit our health plan uh to date but we're self-funded insurance so um we do need to be mindful of covid antivirals and how that could impact the district for all the different um individuals that are in our benefit plan and that's staff members and their families and then um there are some significant Staffing challenges that are happened Statewide and quite frankly na nationally and one of the things that is hurting uh budget bill is in the past you would hope to be able to see an individual retire and hire someone at a lower dollar amount um and that differential was called breakage so you hire someone that's new on the teaching guide um to someone that's retiring and you could have a $30,000 plus differential well right now there's not a lot of those Step Zero folks there's massive changes and the number of individuals going into the profession and that is a 10-year trend quite frankly a little bit longer at this point um there's lots of reasons for it that I won't get into tonight um but that Staffing challenge means we're often now forced to look at individuals higher up on the guide so the dollar differential and how individuals hit the guide and as they move through a salary guide there some of the steps are larger so folks are hitting those higher dollars faster um and you don't begrudge the the individual it's this there's a larger systemic issue um that's happening but it does put a consternation on the budget um so it's just something for us to constantly be mindful of that even if you get a large number of retirements it doesn't mean you're going to have the same budgetary impact year-over-year so um we are going to have to just be Tren watching this trend um and then big categorical increases you know that are built in the budget this number is a reflection directly out of the budget um you know custodial contractual custodial versus building and grounds the difference is the building and grounds is our staff and our contract components of our staff um and then custodial is more the ABM contracted services for the cleaning crew uh day and evening um we brought all the maintenance um folks back in District a couple years back to get control back of some of our facility challenges and that's been a great great move to stabilize our facilities uh Ops foran uh HVAC mechanics plumber electrician all District staff now um so that's that's been that's been a godsend quite frankly um healthc care we're seeing those increases so we have to put additional dollars too based on projections uh from our carriers about the way we're spending um we have property and um workers comp increases which are which are you know small in the grand scheme of things but still an increase the transportation increase at 5.81 is 1.1 million but the way things are trending in spending um you you hope that that increase alone is enough we went through our athletic budget for transportation for the entire year at the end of the winter season we for our extracurricular activity budget for transportation so what we spent two years ago for three seasons we spent in two and that just is based on the way those after school bids come in we're fortunate we actually got after school buses some districts did not and they had to go out to bid multiple times and their costs were even higher um and then you know we we did talk about some special education cost and salary increases is a a big big uh increase this year so you can see that number of 9.2 two and then here we're only able to generate 67 so our adjustments are in uh are is the 2% on the tax levy is 3.6 million we're using some generated Bank app that comes out of the 2425 as a result of Health Care adjustment and then something different for the board from when we met in a previous meeting till tonight and I I I talked about this a little in some of the Committees um is the enrollment adjustment so under the formula we did see an increase a net increase in over 200 students but on paper it doesn't look that way on paper are numbers relatively flat the difference is full day Kay full day kindergarteners count for a full student in formulary Aid versus kind gardeners in a half day program received half the state aid allocation in the past the adjustment does not mean that you got more state aid the adjustment means you had more tax Authority in other words you could tax your community at a higher percentage as as a right as a board that it does not require a public vote so we had um 200 and four um students in uh increase and then they from that they subtract 1% or 92 students and that leaves you with 102 students and then they multiply that by a factor of 0. five to get you to point or 51 students and then you get 51 at the state aid cost which is 19,000 and change which gets you to the1 million 9,596 so you might recall when we talked about using Bank cap before we were recommending 1.4 million in change which was what was generated in the remainder of the 2324 number when the the budget was plugged into the state formula it drives first to enrollment and then it takes the most recently generated Bank cap so that 2425 so we still have tax Authority that we're leaving on the table for subsequent budgets the way you close that 2.5 remember we added five staff is not we didn't make any recommendations to reduce we made some adjustments in some lines that one we took money out of energy because we have been um saving money through the esip and above was projected so we did decrease some of our energy lines we did decrease some of the places that we've had traditional breakage remember we have to regenerate over 13 million next year to make the following Year's budget it's an insane cyclical process we're in but we're in it so because of that we are now tightening up some of those pots and it's going to be harder and harder to make that 13 million plus that we need to generate going forward so it's just something this Board needs to be mindful of as we go forward the budget will cons constantly get tougher um moving forward and we're going to have to be mindful of the places that we can generate additional dollars now if these communities come on board um in larger Clips in the next couple years as the as as sections of the housing opens and again opens by October 15th because that's when the state data is snapshotted so most likely October 15th of 24 there's not going to be a lot of new students coming to some of these new developments at that point so most likely we won't be able to generate an enrollment adjustment next next year but two years three years from now as these developments grow and then get filled in and then kids start coming on board we may have an additional adjustment but again as I say that I also I'm very mindful that that means tax Authority not extra dollars that tax Authority goes to the local community which could be somewhat offset based on ratables but until we know we're not going to know how it hits the taxpayer so from a revenue side the 36 with adjustments for enrollment of a million n a million 9,000 Healthcare sgla generated in 2425 was 1 to uh 1.2 million we're using 458,000 of that we'll have a remainder of 800,000 in Bank cap for 2526 and then we had the additional 14 that was remaining from this year's uh from last year's Bank cap so we technically have two just about 2.2 million of additional tax Authority in next year's budget above the 2% that this board could exercise in the subsequent budget we did see that state aid increase and we have made the recommendation of the 3.7 in state and capital reserve allocation so again going back the ultimate recommendation tonight is to go to a 2.8% but uh budget increase on the local tax levy which represents the 2% on the general fund the 458,000 off the sgla the spending growth limitation adjustment that was generated off of healthcare for the increases between uh during the 20 uh 324 school year and then the pre-budget uh year tax levy and enrollment adjustment which is the million n for the kindergarten change so that that's how we get to 28 so when we talk about 2% and allowances the two allowances are enrollment and healthare identified right there as enrollment and healthare um we can collect more than that right you have an additional $2.2 million of spending Authority without going to the taxpayers so you you could do that that's what that additional sgla generated in 2425 and 20 I should say 23 24 on that third bullet of 1.4 so we do have that banked cap Authority remaining of 2.28 for next year and 1.4 of that will expire at the conclusion of next year's budget and then you'd have 800,000 remaining for the following year so you could go as high as 2.2 more but again that's well over 3% um or any any that's the conversation next year you also have the opportunity to collect on debt now we have not done that we pay our debt right now within the budget um so that 13 million you can collect over eight almost eight of that 13 million of fixed costs by collecting on referendum debt from previous boards and from the referendum of 20 uh 2018 right so I mean there are other mechanisms but they hit the taxpayer they hit the taxpayers so mindful of that so that's where we are tonight we're at a 2.8% um increase on the general fund tax levy and that's the recommendation in front of the board and on the uh advertised agenda for tonight's meeting at that point I'll happy to take questions from the board does anyone to have any questions for Dr aderhold thank you by the way okay well thank you for the presentation and now we can move on to our first opportunity for public comments the board invites thoughts and reactions on agenda items and items of concern from members of our community who are present each participant is asked to give his or her name and address prior to making a statement which will be limited to 3 minutes in accordance with board policy 0167 all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer this public comment period shall be limited to 60 minutes do we have any public comments tonight okay seeing none I will close this first opportunity for public comments and uh move on to the committee reports so I'll turn it over now to Dena to provide us with the administration and Facilities report is this on now okay is this on okay um the administration and Facilities committee met on March 13th we discussed two policies for a first reading policy 2411 which is School counseling and policy 5570 which is sportsmanship next the committee reviewed preschool and extended day programming rates for the 2024 2025 school year referendum updates um includes include the following um Phase 2 punch list completion continues at w cof school materials are being moved into the Town Center School Media Center which is near completion masonry ceiling and lighting work continues for the media centers at morce Hawk and Village School the committee next reviewed the special education programming at the high high school north campus and for an Athletics update the committee discussed the district's application for the continuation of a sports a Cooperative sports program for the High School North High School South ice hockey program spring sports are under way at both the high school and middle school levels and our committee will next meet on April 16th he thanks Dana uh do we have any questions from the board okay um I'm going to turn over to LY for curriculum thank you grayan uh the Cur curriculum committee met on uh March 13th we began with the presentation by uh Jessica di diorazio um titled general education teachers perception of low intensity behavior management strategies a phenomenological study um Miss diorazio shared with the committee her proposal for her doctoral uh dissertation which will examine teachers perceptions on the implementation of low intensity behavior management strategies in the classroom to support student learning uh next we heard another presentation from uh Caitlyn Ellingson uh titled building thinking classrooms through collaboration and mathematical discourse in her presentation um she described to the committee her doctoral research which will focus on engaging teachers in professional development to build their self-efficacy and instructional skills in increasing thinking routines collaboration and mathematical discourse uh in mathematics classrooms at the high school level uh then Dr gold shared with the committee some details and plans around how the district intends to offer uh English language learner uh a summer camp for students K through 8 uh and reading intervention camp for students so more information will be sent to families of uh students who are eligible for these camps in the next month um Dr gold also provided the committee with a detailed plan for summer curriculum writing highlighting the extensive amount of curriculum writing needing to be done this summer as a result of the updated math and language arts uh New Jersey learning standards and on the agenda tonight for a vote uh first the curriculum committee recommends approval of textbook adoptions the first one is statistics and probability with applications at the high school level fourth edition 2017 by uh starns Taber and welox and then uh the second textbook is Tas Third Edition AP Spanish language and culture 20124 by Vista Higher Education um and then next for a vote the curriculum committee recommends approval for uh High School North their science Bowl team to the National Conference Center uh for fi trip to leeburg New Virginia from April 25th to the to the 29th uh the cost of this trip is covered by the US Department of energy and our committee will meet met our committee will next meet on April 16th thank you thanks ly are there any questions from the board okay next I will turn it over to shetta for finance unless there was question or no okay okay thanks for okay the finance committee met on March 12th the committee reviewed the financial reports for the month confirming no over expenditure and sufficient funds for the year there is a resolution for the 2324 tenative 2425 tenative budget submission to the County Office of Education a motion is proposed for a Cooperative purchasing utilizing ESC andj further motions are suggested for Cooperative purchasing exceeding the bid limit for technology to equip the newly renovated media centers additionally a change order is proposed to conclude the High School South renovation project resulting in a reduction of total costs further furthermore there are seven Rod Grant Closeouts on the agenda awaiting approval another motion is on the agenda for the disposal of obsolete equipment lastly motions for approval of to and from school routes activity routes and transportation jointure with the neighboring district is also Al included the committee reviewed the final budget calendar after state aid was received and the final piece of the software received a tenative budget will be ready for board approval tonight Administration met with Schneider Electric representatives to initiate the second Energy savings Improvement program Engineers from Schneider were on hand to start the investment grade audit scope of the work Administration also provided construction updates referend and projects are beginning to close at yof the HVAC project is currently at the controls integration phase which coincides with phase two simultaneously for phase one the district is addressing comments from the Township's Fire Marshal additionally bids were received for moisture remediation and they were within budget at Town Center Elementary School punch list work in the library is nearing completion the media center construction is still moving along at Maurice Hawk the new footings have been installed and the concrete pad has been patched the new structural steel and Cur curb work must be completed as the rooftop rtu is being shipped from the manufacturer ensuring it can be lifted in place during spring break at Village Elementary School the media center construction is still moving along new masonry walls are almost complete once completed the ceiling grid will be painted at Community Middle School the first job meeting for the emergency radio enhancement System project has taken place work will start shortly staff provided cafeteria updates the request for proposals for a food service management company has been approved by the Department of Agriculture proposals will be received on May 7th the RFP will be for a cost reimbursal contract breakfast sales continue to increase um and they have been up 457 from January with one less serving Day in February the number of lunches dropped by 575 during during the same period districtwide from February 23 to February 24 the number of free reduced in New Jersey income eligible Rose by 20 students from 307 to 327 all secondary schools are offering Halal menu items sedexo opened the serving line in Community Middle School's extended Commons with the hiring of two additional staff a second line was also opened in Grover the lines rotate between a pasta bar and Mexican bar on a daily basis the district is using the second batch of supply chain assistant funds allocation spent sedexo is offering a hot breakfast in the elementary schools three days per week they're serving an average of an additional 115 breakfast per day from the prior month 75% of the meals are served to students approved for free reduced and New Jersey income eligible meals Administration shared recent quoted transportation routs for home to school and activities regarding facility grants Administration submitted two grants for facility Improvement projects the local Recreation Improvement grant for 95850 is for a portion of the Town Center playground the school Development Authority for 29,6 is for emergent and capital needs projects in school districts These funds will be will be going towards the cost for the sanitary main replacement at High School School North as well as the emergency Public Announcement system replacement in high school north and woff the next finance committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday April 16th thanks sha any questions from the board okay so now we can move on to the voting portion of our meeting um can I have a motion for administration items number 1 through 8 Dana and Liz any questions or comments from the board okay Bonnie yes yes yes yes yes yes yes uh next uh can I get a motion uh a motion for curriculum and instruction items number one and two uh ly and Pua any questions or comments okay yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes uh moving on to finance can I get a motion for finance items number 1- 25 with uh the purple substitution for item number nine as well as the blue addendum uh Louisa and scha uh any questions or comments yes so just one comment about Finance substitute uh purple about Rod Grant reimbursement um I'd be remiss if we didn't just want to acknowledge this is the completion of the 2014 Rod grants um submissions and this recognizes the repayment to the district back all the way back for work done and grants earned in 2014 um to Bonnie Cheney who has been instrumental in ensuring that the district received all necessary documentation all necessary funding all Insurance paperwork just a remarkable amount of work for over 40 some odd Grand that were left un collected and tons of additional work above and beyond um just thank you Bonnie yeah so so remember with Rod and to Bonnie just said 1.5 million just for 2014 getting reimbursed what what that does is you have to with Rod grants it's the regular operating District grants is what Rod stands for uh there's application windows that the doe opens up and it's under under the uh it's really the school Development Authority uh you have to apply for Grants you have to put all the money out front if you're qualified you get a reimbursement it goes back into your capital reserve the projects in 2014 this represents the last two I believe or two windows and it's a couple hundred thousand do so we've received some in Prior in Prior um rounds but it's just the amount of work and paperwork and documentation every aspect of the job to get to get the monies back is very intense um the SDA actually wrote Bonnie a thank you email to recognize the completion of the 2014 it's like that much we had the most grants in the state um awarded um and that's a tribute to the board's thinking over time about you have to have money in capital reserve in order to take advantage of dollars that came from the state this was upwards of 40% per project that was funded then by the department and that comes back to the taxpayers so you know yes are we paying for projects yes yes um does work it done upgrades facilities yes did we get a portion of it paid by the state yes but if you don't have the money you can't do the projects so a real thanks to Bonnie for making sure we got the money back go Bonnie yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes now we'll move on to Personnel can I get a motion for personnel item number one plus the green yellow pink and orange aenda uh Robin and Liz any questions or comments okay yes yeah yes yes yes yes yes yes and before we move on I do want to acknowledge several retirements uh that we just approved uh I know at the beginning of the meeting Dr ader hold recognized a few and um so congratulations and um thank you for all your years of service to um David arges our Dutch neck Prin principal Andrea Bean our mathematics supervisor grade 6 to 12 Gerard Dalton our milstone River principal and former assistant superintendent Alan um Burgess Community Middle School counselor Melanie Falkner our Dutch neck Elementary School teacher Carol Murphy Village Elementary School teacher and maranne uh Jim bagno our High School South nurse um alog together I did do a little bit of math and it was like 177 years of service to wwp in this little group uh combined so thank you very much and um we wish you very uh well and enjoy uh your next chapter in your lives thanks um next we will move on to the approval of our Board of Education minutes can I get a motion to approve the minutes uh from our February meetings um Louisa and uh Dana uh all those in favor say I I I uh any extensions yes um Bonnie do you need to know which dates both both dates uh and I abstained from February 29th okay do we have any board liaison reports this evening no okay uh any new business and uh we get that takes us to our next our second opportunity for public comments the board invites comments from members of our community who are present each participant is asked to give his or name is his or her name an address prior to making a statement which will be limited to 3 minutes in accordance with board policy 0167 all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer and this public comment period shall be limited to 15 minutes uh Debbie bear uh vice president of the Teachers Association and a teacher at uh wof now um I often come up and talk about projects that we're working on together the association and the administration or uh grants that we received and I it's I wasn't going to say anything and then it struck me when um the number of free and reduced lunch children went up people often think this is a very affluent District than it is in some parts and in other parts it isn't and so I I thought it would be important first of all to tell you something but also advertise to everybody that we do have two food pantries we have one in Plainsboro it's the Plainsboro pantry and then we have Jewish Family and Children Services The Pantry in West Windsor and the uh teachers ass Association was able to write a grant so that we were able to provide very recently $1,500 worth of food and other products to each of those um organizations which we know protect and feed our students in addition to uh reusable bags which they need over and over because they can't use the plastic bags anymore so when they distribute food they always need the reusable bags so I just wanted to remind everybody that we're Partners all the time not just in education because we know it's the whole child and of course we think about that all day but um we do have these opportunities where we can apply for Grants and we try and do that to make the community a better place and for everybody who's listening at home who I don't usually think about donate to the Plainsboro Pantry they rely on community donations um you can also donate to Jewish Family and Children's Service but they have a different pathway for um some of the products that they're able to share but the Pantry really relies on the community making those gestures and I even do it myself you can go to the police station and there's a bin right there so even if it's 8:00 at night and you know the pantry the pantry is not open there's a bin right there you can all donate things and put them there I'm often dropping stuff off after hours and uh it's very very easy to do and they appreciate it a lot so just want to let everybody now thank you great reminders for uh the community any other public comment seeing none uh I'll close this public comment period and uh move on to adjourn can I get a motion to adjourn uh ly and Pua um all those in favor say I hi all right thank you and good night