of Branchburg at which formal action may be taken. The public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda. May I have a roll call, please? Mr. Halenbeck here. Miss Joyce here. Mr. Krishna Murdy here. Mr. Mater here. Miss Sha. Miss Smith
here. Mr. Tuma here. Mr. Desai here. Mr. Carpetier here. Can we please stand for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And I will hand it over to Dr. Gordon for her first superintendent report with us. Okay. Well, good evening and happy to be here. Uh this evening we're going to start
with a presentation um from uh Kathleen Hela. Kathleen comes to us from Hath Kathleen Hela Educational Consultants uh providing a uh for the superintendent search firm with details on the timeline for the search and important information for the board to consider.
Kathleen, thank you very much. It's really um my pleasure to be with you. Thank you Dr. Burton for your generosity in in giving your time to uh we're going to ask if you could use the microphone just people the millions of people watching around the world.
Okay. Thank you. Oh, it's a good thing I'm not camera shy, but as I was saying to the people in audio land, I'm really grateful to be here and thank you Dr. Burton for surrendering some time to me to have this important discussion with the board. And I'm very pleased to meet you
all in person and um I am really humbled by your trust in me. Um, I will not let you down. I have done, you know, I'm happy to say like 40 superintendent searches in my career. I just closed out two more and each one of them is different, but I will tell you it has
been a worthy experience with every single one. Very rewarding. I am going to say it's actually very enjoyable and fun. This is the stuff that I love to do. Um, but I know it is a weighty decision. I certainly don't want to minimize that and it is the board's
decision. So my job is to help to get you to the place to make the very best decision on who will lead this school district for the next three, four, five years and hopefully beyond. Um I was able to speak with your committee about
my process that I utilize um and that I fine-tuned so I can kind of just give a really highlevel overview for the folks who are listening and the folks who are here who may not be familiar with that process. Um but it starts with
transparency which we maintain throughout. Um I would like to work with your district on how to get the word out to the community in the most efficacious way. And generally the best way to do that is a page on your website that
details all of the steps that the board will be taking and all of the opportunities that the public and different stakeholders have to contribute to the process. And when we talk about contributing to the process, that involves a lot of listening on my
part and taking down as much information as I possibly can to distribute to you in a pretty comprehensive report that gives the results of online surveys that we do with your stakeholders and
in-person input sessions that I schedule with the district. Um they're very informative, they're very conversational, and they really do help set the table for what the board needs to do. Um as I collect application packages from the candidates who apply,
um I interview all of them and I interview them using uh you know, conversation points, questions that come out of those sessions. Um, one of the things that I really feel strongly about is that your process can be the same, but the
districts are all different, right? So, you want to ask questions that make sense for the district. I start that out right away with the preliminary interviews, and I help you to do that as well through the interview process. I'm there with you for the interviews. You
select the candidates that you want. I'll give you a short list. I'll give you my recommendations, but you'll know everybody who applies and you will get a rundown from me on every single one of them and you make the decisions. And then after that, you select everybody. I take care of all the scheduling. I'm
there with you for the interviews. I help you create the questions for the interviews, the formats that's going to be best. Um, generally that's a three round process. I do feel that three rounds of interviews is an optimal number. I don't think you can have like two conversations with somebody, you
know. So, the candidates will be going through a pretty robust process besides getting the application package together. They got to talk to me. They've got to talk to you. All those rounds, do presentations, whatever we decide would be most useful for the board to make their decision. And then
when that is done, um, you do your contract negotiations, which is up to the board and your legal counsel and your finalists and their legal counsel. But I will also help you with a very comprehensive reference check and some of you may be familiar with the type of reference check that I do but I think
that that is important as well. So that's the highlevel view. Um I'm wondering if the board has any questions for me um about the process. Yes. Yes. Uh so just uh initially when you like when folks make the first cut or like let's say your cut, what kind of
criteria do you use at a high level like to to have them make that cut? You tell me. Right. So, there are certain things that I really like. Um, I like to see candidates that have worked in districts that are similar
successfully worked in districts that are similar to the district that I'm working with. Right? So, you know, I'm not going to rule anybody out or anything, but somebody who is in another eye district, right? If we're talking district factor groups, that is more
attractive to me for this search than someone who's coming from uh a former Abbott, let's say, which is generally large with lots of layers and a very different type of density of population than here in Branchburg, right? And all
of that factors in with how they're going to lead, right? So, that's one of the things that I always keep in mind. Um, another thing that's big for me is stability. I like it when they have at some point if I see somebody who
throughout their career is jumping all over the place. That's not a good thing, right? Um and I am again the board makes all the decisions, but I do like to see candidates who are strong on criculum and teaching and learning. Um you know
there's different weights to the different criteria. There's a whole lot to the job. there's safety, security, buildings and grounds, finance, communications, all of that. But I do like to see strong curriculum
background. Um, and another essential thing which is almost so obvious I, you know, I may not even need to say it, but it's important to say it is they have to be a great communicator. you know, I mean, if they're if they have the greatest resume and all sorts
of achievements, but they can't really get it across, right? Um, that's not an attractive candidate to me, right? And I'll tell you that and you guys make the decisions, right? You guys make the decisions. So, I hope that answers the question.
It does. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you for asking. Any other things that I could answer? Yes. What are your search parameters? How far will you look? Is we going to look to New Jersey? Are we going to look New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania? Is it a national search? There are qualified candidates outside of New Jersey, per se, but how do we reach them? Well, there are and I have thoughts on that too. And again, the board leads me, but I give you my guidance, right? So
how far the net is cast is a function of your advertising and where you advertise it. I will say that almost every single search I do has some outofstate candidates in it because I highly recommend placing an advertisement where
you know there's a a lot of reach. But the places that I most um ardently recommend are New Jersey based. New Jersey Association of of uh school administrators, New Jersey Association of Principles and Supervisors, New Jersey School Boards Association.
They've got a great job board. Um and New Jersey ASPO. So there's a lot of New Jersey there. Um, and you also, I'm sure, know that there is a Jersey first law that's still in effect that if you hire somebody who's from outside the
state, they have to move to New Jersey within a year. So, that's a little bit of a wrinkle. Um, but another thing to consider is for all of these searches that I've done, and I used to actually head up the field
services department and NJSBA where we did a lot of these too. I can count on two fingers the amount of candidates who were from out of state, who hadn't worked in New Jersey, who were coming from elsewhere, right, who prevailed.
And I think that now now there are folks who live in Pennsylvania and are kind of grandfathered in. They've worked in New Jersey. So that's not the type of person that I'm talking about here. But generally, the districts and the folks who are your district stakeholders are looking for somebody who really
understands your community. So most of the time that's coming from a pretty tight circle around your community, right? And although you're not all that far away from Pennsylvania, it's still a little bit for kind of away. Um, and the other thing too is knowledge of New
Jersey public school law. And often times out ofstate candidates don't demonstrate the level of understanding that makes the board feel comfortable enough to advance them. you know, maybe a first interview. Um, I don't even know
about a second, but but again, that's those are my thoughts. So, and I will also tell you this, I had a district that was very close to the New York border, very close to Manhattan, a great community, great bedroom community. So, we spent or they spent a fair amount of
money on um out ofstate advertising, and they still hired somebody from New Jersey, right? So just just some food for thought. Thank you. Thanks for the question. Yeah, I got another one. Um it's probably for the benefit of everybody else as well.
Um timing, right? So in terms of given the fact that the school year started, right, there's a good chance you might get a superintendent from another district, right? What do you what's based off of your experience? What's the timing on something like this? Well, that's one of the things that I would really like to talk to you about tonight. So thank you very much for that
question. Um, one of the things that ensures a successful search is pinning down a calendar right away. So, I went through my calendar and I went through it with your board president to see if, you know, this might be acceptable for the board to start considering. But, we're looking at a start date of July
the 1st of next year. Is that a fair statement? Maybe before if you can do it. Um, let me get my um thing here. Okay. So, here is a search timeline and calendar that I put together. if you don't mind passing that around to everybody. Um, and it also takes into
consideration that there I believe there is a competitive election here that the board may turn over somewhat after election day. Is that a fair statement also? Well, yeah, possibly. We might have a little
bit of turnover, right? It might not, right? But just in case it does, we have to consider what's called, I'm sure you're familiar with the lame duck period. So you can't unless we get everything done before election day, not on election day,
before election day, right? So we're talking kind of Halloween area, right? You have to hit the pause button after that because an an outgoing board, if there's going to be any kind of a change
between the 2025 and the 2026 board, cannot bind the incoming board to a new superintendent after election day. It's called the lame duck period. So, I built this knowing that, right? The
other thing that I did for this calendar is when you're hiring somebody who is a superintendent or possibly an assistant superintendent depending on the district, they typically need to give their boards 90 days notice before they start here right
now. Sometimes boards are, you know, amanable to changing that, right? Um sometimes they're longer than 90 days and we always focus on getting the right person rather than the right timeline. But if we can get both, that's the goal, right? So, I built in 90 days notice.
You also have to let the county office approve it, but Somerset's real good that way. But, you know, we have to be respectful. So, what I have here is, you know, I'm doing a lot of work on the front end in November, right? And by the time December rolls around, I will have
done all of the input sessions, all of the surveys, and I can share with the board what those results were. And then we start the process in all the selections in January. Right? So the first if you look at this calendar,
those highlighted dates are the dates that we really need to pin down because those are meetings that need to be noticed, right? Need to be put in everybody's calendar. And I'm also not going to sugarcoat it. When we get a calendar down and board members start
changing it or this or that, it gets so messy, right? It gets so messy. So, I really do want to stick to whatever calendar you decide. So, if you notice here, we have um an evening delivery where I spend like 3 hours with you going over all of the candidates who
applied. Um I have that for January 26th. And then we do our first round interviews. I have three evenings saved for that. Um and you may not use all three, but I think that that's reasonable. you might want to, you know,
I think this is district is going to get a fair amount of applicants. Um, and then we kind of winnow down two evenings for the second round interviews and then one or two evenings for the third round. By the time you're at the third round,
we're talking one, two, or three people. So, that can be done over one or possibly two nights, but it's kind of early to say. So, that's what this calendar looks like. I'm wondering if there are thoughts on this calendar. One quick thought. Sure.
Why Why do we wait until November 25th to post it? Um because I don't want there to be a big gap in between the ad posting and people applying and interview starting. That's why because then they start
losing interest, right? And they start looking elsewhere. So, anybody have any concerns with the calendar? I know it's kind of far out. So, so I remember last time we kind of went we went through this, we were getting like I believe we were getting
candidates like every so often, right? Not we didn't get them all at once, did we? We did. We got them all all one time and then we held the interviews one week later. It was that quick. Uh I don't think it was like I just get concerned that like that's a very tight timeline.
I don't think so. And the reason why I say that is because now now you will have a lot of candidates, right? That's true. Like that's work going through them. But I'll be with you to do that. Right. But for the candidates, the first round interview, and those of you who have done this before, I'm sure this
will ring true. It's kind of like a speed date, right? You're going to know in 10 minutes if this person's flopping or not. if you can see this person as a fit. So, I'm not a big fan of like exhausting scheduling, you know,
hour-long interviews when after 15 minutes I'm looking at the board and we're all like, "Oh my god, no, no, no, no, no." So, the first round doesn't require an awful lot of lifting on the candidates part. And another reason why I like to pin down these dates is when I'm interviewing them, the candidates, I
say, "Is X date free for you? Is X date?" so that they can tell me, you know, if the board's interested, you know, whether or not we need to make different arrangements to so that's the reason for that level of like help from the outside last time. So, it was a lot of a lot of it was on us.
So, I think with I think we could get through it a little bit quicker than Oh, I do so much work. Yeah. I mean, here's the thing with the application and I love it, right? So, don't feel bad for me. This is what I do. I'm grateful to do it. So, I ask for at least a cover
letter, resume, evidence of cert, and two recent performance evaluations. I also have them fill out a standard application that lists references and things like that. I um I go through all of that with a very fine tooth comb. And
when there are things that show up in your surveys over and over or the input sessions over and over, I've talked with the board about these things, right? I'm trying to match that with what they're giving me, right? I'm trying to match that not just with the resume because
people run their resume through AI now all the time to match the job description, but what's in that evaluation, right? And that can be, you know, a lot of fine print, but I go through that. Another board that I've worked with, and I've done this before,
is they asked for um redacted evaluations that their applicants had performed on other administrators or other teachers so we could see what type of approach they took to staff development. And again, I go through all of that and I give you a report on what
I've seen. So, yeah. So, thanks for for ma bringing that up so I could make that point. I don't want you to think that it's daunting. Once we do the interviews though, it's all hands on deck. I mean, you guys are going to be listening. We're going to be talking a lot. We're going to be spending a lot of time together. But before that, it is all on
me, guys. That's what you're that's what you selected me to do, and that's what I do. Advertisements. Um, where are you advertising? Is it just NJSBA site and other other areas? My favorites are NJSBA, NJSA,
NJPSA, and NJ ASPO. ASBO is kind of like nice because the business administrators talk among each other and they, you know, and and I like that, you know, the the field is small. Everybody kind of knows everybody. So, we want people
talking about it. Um, but NJSBA and NJ ASA gets a lot of hits. What's ASA? Uh, the superintendence associates. It's like the counterpart to the school boards for school administrators. Yes. How many searches are you currently conducting?
Right now I am doing two other searches besides yours and they've already um you know Fort Lee the advertisements up already. Crescill is another board. They don't have a lame duck period. Their election's not competitive. It's going to be the same board. So we'll kind of
whip through that one. Those are both prek to 12 districts. They're different from yours. So, okay. Does that sound any any other questions? Is it C I'm following up on Bobby's question kind of right in terms of is
that one month period is that the usual advertising period for all of your engagements? I like four to five weeks. Five weeks is my favorite. Yeah. And also, you know, it's towards the holiday season, right? That's maybe that's Do do you think you're going to
get like as many hits during that time frame? And I do because they have that kind of time to like put together an application package. But I also want you to know that in the meantime, I'm recruiting, too. I don't just leave it sitting out there and go, "Oh, I wonder who's going to apply." I get the word out, right?
So, there's that and that definitely helps as well. And I don't know how many of you are going to workshop this year. Um, I always love going. It's a great endeavor. Um, when you're there, I would ask you to keep your antennas peeled. If there's somebody that you see presenting
or that you've heard about that's, you know, somebody that you'd like for me to look into, let me know and I can do that. Have you gotten people already? Like, this is like the obviously people know about this, right? People know what the situation is. Have you gotten candidates already? Well, there's no application, but yes,
there's two candidates. There are there are there's two people that I'm excited for you to meet regardless of, you know, who else applies. And it'll be interesting to see what you guys say. But well, I'm going to go for more than that, you know. So,
it's fun, you know, it's kind of like I want to give you guys all nice presents. Like, it's like Christmas morning with the with the uh with the pool delivery. So, I want to do right by you. Thank you. You're welcome. Can I just chime in though? Um just a
little I was looking up what we did last time around. Um we did we started a little earlier because we didn't have a lame duck session. So we did do in our first round interviews at the end of January and then the second round was like the beginning of the first week of Feb like two weeks.
So it's only two weeks or a week or two behind it. I think it's but it very much followed this this calendar. Thank you. That's good to know. Yeah, it's it's it's nice when you can make it work without the lame duck, but that's not the vast majority of boards. It really isn't. So, the candidates get
I just always get concerned that we fall a little bit behind and then they have to give 90 days and if it's not done by March 26th, then you're not July 1st. Right. Right. Well, that's why the calendar is so important. That's that's the big deal. Yeah, that's the big deal.
And to that end, um, I also have some material that I'd like for you to look over. Excuse me. Somebody may have extra. I have an extra. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank
you. All right. Here we go. I should have used paper clips. Next time I'll use lots of paper clips. How many All right, I think we're good. You may not have this. I got I got it. I got so
think about between now and your next meeting, right? I have a worksheet that I use to, you know, I discuss with the board. I ask board members to fill it out for me. business administrator will give me some of that information about the figures, right? The configuration, the number of enrolled kids, and the
budget number, blah blah blah blah blah. But what I'm looking for from the board is consensus on the different skill sets that are most interesting to you, what makes your district really special, like why would somebody awesome want to come and work here, right? You guys can
answer that question better than anybody else. um and also um what requirements you want for the position. All of that thing all of those things are written into an advertisement that I post. So I
have two sample advertisements. There's a there's uh Fort Le is on my website if you wanted to look at that for more info. Um, but if we follow through this um, advertisement worksheet, we can get there to, you know, basically I take
what you said, I write something up, I distribute it to you, and we just keep working on it until the board says, "Yep, it's good to go." And since we're not posting till November, we got plenty of time for that, which is good. Another thing that you need to consider, um, and certainly start considering, it has to
be kind of, uh, defined before the ad is placed. There's a new law where you have to put a salary range for hires like this in school districts, right? So, just kind of talk among I always say boards to boards, it's better to have
that conversation early on anyway, but now you're required to have it early on. So, it's not a bad thing, but I just want to let you know that that is something that you need to determine. So, those are the things that I wanted to talk to you guys about tonight. I know
you have a meeting in front of you and I want to be really um considerate of all the work that you have to do and all the, you know, and the times of everybody here. So, any other questions? I'd be happy to entertain. Need you to let me know what homework I have that I can get back to you. So, the
schedule I think I'm just going to after the meeting, I'll give everyone like maybe a couple days to get back to me to confirm that this is good and then I'll get back to you and then I will query the board about any of the qualifications. I'll let you guys like
sleep on that for a few days and then maybe like by this time next week if I can at least start the conversation about the qualifications and stuff that would be fabulous. Um, I can get I can actually send you Vince a word version of that document so people can type it in. You can also take a picture of it and send it to me on your phone. I
don't care you know but whatever is easier for you and if we have that info in a week then we are really off and running. So that would be fantastic. And then do we have to vote on this calendar like publicly in any way as a board or is this just like something internal
that we I don't see it as a requirement to vote as long as the board agrees with it and you post it then you know I would never do it without having everybody's okay but you don't need a formal motion to
that hasn't been your experience right so I do have a question where do the where does the search committee come in in this process like if this is all uh the search committee was basically just for finding a firm. Got it. It's not going further
as we're for the actual superintendent search. It's a whole board thing. So, so everybody has to confirm these dates. They're good with them. So where what about involving the community on um those are those dates on mid November
input session for families and community members early to mid November. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I'll work with the district. I don't want to obviously schedule something on a night where there's a holiday play or or some other big event in town. So and you will know that. So
I'll rely on you guys for that. All right. Oh, thank you very much. I look forward to working with you all and I hope you have a good meeting. All right, take care. Okay, speak. So, for the start of the school year,
just wanted to wish everyone a welcome back. Uh today is our 11th day uh in week three of the school year. We've had a chance to get to all of our schools for the start of the school day. I've also visited classrooms seeing teaching and learning happening. Um our youngest
stu students uh were intrigued by uh Hoodie as the owl mascot at Whiten School. Uh had them see u took took pictures. Also on the first day our middle school students welcomed their mascot the falcon. Uh overall again the
sentiments have been that it has been a really smooth start to the academic school year. Um moving to the referendum on a uh referendum front. Uh the vote didn't go uh as we had hoped. Um but as we move
forward we'll be listening to the community feedback uh exploring the next steps. Board has had an opportunity to to speak about it just this evening. Again, we appreciate the the time the community again has spent to learn more about the referendum and we're working
again as the board with the board and our BA to determine next steps moving forward. Uh on the agenda this evening in item B3 um with that
is the uh the statement of the approval of the 2425 anti-bullying self- assessment. Uh and under the New Jersey anti-bullying bill of rights, each public school in the state was required to complete the annual self-
assessment of its implementation of the laws requirements related to preventing and addressing harassment, intimidation, and bullying. Um there are core elements particularly reporting on HIP programs, training, policy revisions, procedures, personnel appointments, reporting and
investigations. That is on the agenda. There will be a formal presentation about our our hib uh later this year. Uh also there is an item agenda item F9. Just wanted to acknowledge the donations from the branch PT PTO for a new guitar
class as well as gift bags for our new staff. So thanks to our uh PTO. Uh just something of note with regard to our professional development. We're continuing to build strong collaborations and synergy with the Somerville School District through regularly scheduled meetings between our
administrative teams and our staff. For example, this summer our staff had the opportunity to attend professional development sessions in Somerville. And we're excited that our middle school will be joining the Somerville's team on October 3rd as part of their day focused on articulation and professional
development. And we are looking forward to expanding this partnership and deepening our collaboration in the future with Somerville. Uh I had a chance this week to attend the Garden State Coalition of Schools and the New Jersey Superintendent Study Council meetings u where I'm a member of their exec boards. Again, both of these
organizations provide superintendents with insightful sessions offering the latest information on legal updates uh areas of focus on improving our schools along with networking and collaboration with other educational leaders uh across the state. And finally, we're welcoming
everyone to attend the Branchburg County Fair designed for again the whole family sponsored by um and uh the entire for the entire community. Uh this is scheduled for next Saturday, September 27th, 11:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. Again, it is
a fundraiser both for our Branchburg Ed Foundation as well as the Branchburg PTO. We'll have a table there set up providing really opportunities for innovations for our schools. Really, it's designed to be a day full of food, family, and fun. And for more information, you can check out the
Branchburg Ed Foundation's website with a little bit more information as well. So, hope to see everyone there. And that concludes my report. Thank you very much. The next item is public comment on agenda items only. Um, the board of education recognizes the value of public comment on
educational issues and school community and school matters of community interest. In support of this position, the law establishes a period of public comment at every board meeting. Individuals wishing to speak must state their name and place of residence. Comments are limited to three minutes per person for a total of 30 minutes. An
individual may speak a second time after all others who wish to speak on a topic have been heard. Anybody wanting to come up and speak on an agenda item? Seeing no movement, we'll move on to governance. I have no report. We do have some voting items. We have one approval
of minutes. Two, approval of HIV investigative report. Three, approval of 2024 2025 anti-bullying self- assessment grades. Can I have a motion to move those items? Second. Uh, who is that? Terry and Nat.
Charlie and N. Charlie and I have to raise my voice. Yeah. Sorry, Charlie. Um, anybody have any questions or comments? Uh, can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Hollandbeck? Yes.
Miss Joyce? Yes. Mr. Christy? Yes. Mr. Mater? Uh, yes. The three abstain to one and two. Miss Smith? Yes. Mr. Tuma? Yes. On one and three, abstain on two.
Mr. Sai, yes. on three abstain on one and two and Mr. K here. Yes. Next up is policy decid you have a report. I do not have I'm sorry. I do not have a report and today we're just voting on
second reading items that we went over in the last meeting for two weeks. Thank you very much. We have one voting item like you said, policy and regulation second reading. Can I have a motion to move that motion? Second.
Anybody have any questions about that one? Can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Hollandbeck? Yes. Miss Joyce? Yes. Mr. Krishna Murdy? Yes. Mr. Mater? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Mr. Chuma? Yes. Mr. Sai? Yes. Mr. Carpetier?
Yes. Next up is curriculum and instruction. Mr. Holland back. Do you have a report? Sure. Yeah. We met on September 4th. Lots of good and informative information that we got. Uh but one thing I wanted to highlight was that the department of education has uh informed us that they
are transitioning the NJSLA which is the New Jersey student learning assessment into an adaptive format which means that the questions will be coming coming to the students easier if they got the previous one wrong or more difficult if they got the previous one correct. And that's just the new format. and there's
going to release more information and guidance um in the coming months and we'll share that with the community at that point. Thank you very much. We have voting items. We have one conferences and travel. Two, approval of service agreements.
Three, approval of 2025 2026 out of district programs. Four, approval of revision of service agreement and educational program. Five, approval of revision of 2025 2026 out of district programs. Six, approval of 2025 2026
tenative school field trips. Seven, approval of acceptance of out of district student for 2025 2026 ESY. Eight, approval of acceptance of out of district student for 2526 school year. And nine, approval of fundraisers and
services project. Can I have a motion to move those items? Motion. Second. And Mr. Christian Mury. Any questions or comments? Can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Holland, yes. Miss Joyce, yes. Mr. Krishna Murdy,
yes. Mr. Mater, yes. Miss Smith, yes. Miss Tuma, excuse me. Mr. Tuma, stay on one to stayain on one and the rest two to nine. Uh, Mr. Sai, yes.
Mr. Carpenter, yes. Uh, next up is personnel destroy. Do you have a report? I have a brief report. Uh, the personnel committee met uh on September 4th, so it's been a little while. Um, Miss Yard
was uh met with us and shared her uh presentation on these successes from last year for our HR department and the goals for the upcoming school year. Um, let's see. she actually produced a lot
of uh useful information that she was she shared with the board. So all board members should have access to all that stuff um on your drive. We uh that was pretty much all we talked about. So um unfortunately a lot of these things
on this agenda uh were not uh didn't had not happened but when we had that meeting so okay thank you. We have voting items. We have one approval of leave. Two, approval of revision of leave. Three,
approval of revision of personnel. Four, approval of personnel. Five, approval of resignations. Six, approval of extra duty pay. Seven, approval of substitutes. Eight, approval of registered behavior technic technician stipens. Nine, approval of recision of
mentoring. 10, approval of mentoring. 11, approval of 2526 non-athletic stipens. 12, approval of home instruction. 13, approval of extracurricular activity aids. 14, approval of termination. 15,
approval of revision of athletic stipens. And 16, approval of additional 2526 school improvement panel members. Can I have a motion to move those? Motion. Second. Any questions or comments?
Um, I'm just going to comment that one of the re resignations on the agenda is Miss Yard. Unfortunately, she's been just a lovely person to work with and a tremendous asset to our district and um we're going to miss her, but we're
hoping um for the best for her in the future and good luck in her future uh job. Can I have a roll call, please? Sorry, Mr. Holland back. That's okay. Mr. Hollowback. Yeah, I'm going to abstain from number
nine. Yes. To the others. Miss Joyce. Yes. Mr. Chriser Mury. Yes. Mr. Mayor. Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Mr. Tuma? Yes. Mr. Desai? Yes. Mr. Carpentier? Yes.
Next up is finance and facilities. Mr. Tuma, do you have a report? No report. Next finance and facilities meeting is October 9th. Awesome. Thank you. We have a bunch of voting items. We have one bill list and payroll. Two, secretary and treasures report. Three, line item transfers.
Four, approval of transportation jointure with 100 central board of education. Five, approval of agreement with Delta T group North Jersey. Six, approval of purchase of 129 passenger school bus. Seven, approval of shared services agreement. Eight, approval of donations and grants. And nine, approval
of agreement for out of district transportation. Can I have a motion to move those items? Motion. Second. Tuma and Mr. Christian Murdy. Any questions or comments about those? Can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Halenbeck?
Yes. Miss Joyce? Yes. Mr. Krishna Murdy? Yes. Mr. Mater? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Mr. Tuma? Yes. Mr. Desai? Yes. Mr. Carpetier? Yes. Next up is public comment on any item. If anyone wishes to step up to the
podium and speak, now is your chance. Jeffrey Criy, uh 66 Starling Drive here in Branchburg. Uh Dr. Burton, you had mentioned um about the referendum, right? So, I've had a few thoughts about it over the past couple days and just
wanted to share with all of you. Um, and so let's acknowledge, you know, the results of this recent referendum vote. And like many of you, I'm disappointed that it didn't pass. And it's difficult to see this opportunity to give our schools and our students the resources needed to match our expectations set
aside, particularly when the needs remain so clear. That said, as a community, our commitment to students, our teachers, and to the mission of academic excellence here in Branchburg cannot waver. Now more than ever, we cannot
downplay just how vital our teachers are. They're the heart of the district, and they need the support of this board and this community. Every day, they bring expertise, passion, and care into our classrooms. They're the ones who make academic rigor possible, who nurture our students to grow beyond what
they thought themselves capable of, and who carry on despite challenges with space, with resources or circumstances. Our teachers deserve our full support and our deep gratitude. As we move forward past the disappointment of this
week, uh I see a huge importance on not only remaining committed to supporting our teachers, but also on retaining the best among them. to our teachers directly. Please know that the parents of this district see you, value you, and
will continue to stand with you. I also want to take a moment to thank our board of education members, their volunteers who have given and will continue to give generously of their time and energy. Too often, and especially within the last few weeks leading up to the September 16th vote,
they and unfortunately their families have been subjected to negativity and inexcusably even personal attacks on social media. And yet, they continue to serve because they believe in our schools and in our children. For that, they deserve not only our thanks, but
also our respect. The outcome of this vote is not where things stop. It's where we reset. Hopefully with a more unified community, we can move forward together, focused on what matters most, supporting our teachers and creating the strongest educational opportunities
possible for our students. Thanks. Thank you. Hi. Um, my name is Randy Lee Childers. I'm here as the president of the Branchburg Township Education Association. I just wanted to give a shout out to all the staff on a great start to the school year and to hosting
the three back to school nights in all the buildings. Um especially while working under an expired contract. Um the negotiation team also wants to thank the board for the time devoted negot to negotiations thus far and we look forward to setting up our next meeting and completing the process. So thank you
all. Thank you Randy. Hi everybody. My name is Teresa Centersonen, 232 Carol Gene Way. I am here to represent the PTO, Brandford PTO. I am the vice president and I'm
going to uh let you know all the happenings for the over the next couple of months, the uh events that we have going on. And um as you know we try to support the community, the children and the schools as best we can. Um so first
off um thank you again for all the efforts with the referendum. Um like this gentleman has said uh disappointing but yet uh in in his words to reset. So let's march keep marching forward. Um so our first event is our inaugural parents
gala night fundraiser at the valley at Nishanic which is happening next Friday. A lot of excitement around this event. It is for parents only. So very fun. Um the on the next day uh as we mentioned earlier in this meeting we have the the
country fair where we will have a table in the main event. So please stop by to learn some more about the PTO as well as um some giveaways. Uh coming up in early October on the 4th and the 5th, which is a Saturday and Sunday, we will have our fall and holiday um family photo shoot
fundraiser, which will be in White Oak Park under a large Pavlon um which actually sold out as well as uh the Gala Night. So, so far all of our events are um um very exciting and the community is
uh really excited about it as well. So the next event is the Scholastic uh book fair which uh we will have at Whiten 1st from October 14th to 21st. Stony Brook will have it November 10th to the 14th and then BCMS will have it November 17th
to the 21st. Uh so we do partner with Scholastic for this event. Um and a lot of the parents and the children obviously love grabbing new books at these events. Um, one of our annual events as well, the trunk or treat, which we have at Whiten parking lot. Um,
one of our big Halloween events. We are currently trying to vote on if it will be Friday the 24th or Saturday 25th. Um, so that's the benefit of being a PTO member is being a part of the these events and understanding, you know, when they're going to happen, what's going to
happen, and how much fun they can be. Um something new to this event is actually we're going to have a sensory hour uh which will allow the kids with sensory needs in first. If they are um uh if they don't like loud noises or they
don't like to be around big crowds, this is the opportunity for them to come and um you know trick-or- treat around the trunks. And finally um just wanted to give you an update on our PTO memberships. I think the the
board's collective efforts uh really worked out this year where uh we are up over 100%. And that's for both parents and teachers and staff. So um really great to share that news and our new uh membership coordinator which is a new
position on our board. Um her leadership throughout uh this has been exceptional. So um I just wanted to also thank you all for your time tonight. Um, again, my name is Trust Sunston. You need anything from the PTO, we are always here. Uh,
we're always meeting with Dr. Burton and Tony. Um, so just let us know any type of support that we can do. Thank you again. Thank you. That was great. Appreciate it. Yeah, I got there's nobody else going to have a message. I have a message. Um, I was asked to pro
provide this statement on behalf of the Branchburg Basketball Association. The Branchburg Basketball Association is a volunteer organization promoting basketball for for all of our kids. Playing in the Branchburg Basketball Association is a vehicle for personal
growth, friendship, community engagement, and the thrill of competition as well as keeping our kids active. We are now accepting registrations for the upcoming season with deadlines quickly approaching. We have a K to2 clinic, recreation league including third to eighth grades and
travel program which includes fourth to eighth grades. For more information, please visit our website www.branchberbask.com. Thanks. Thank you. Anybody else? Going to close public comment and move on to the board liaison reports. Uh Miss
Shaw's not here for Somerville. Bob, I don't think you can outdo that for PTO, so I'm skipp um Somerset County Ed Services Commission. We have not met since our last meeting. Uh New Jersey school boards. Megan, just a reminder about the Somerset
County hybrid meeting on October 9th for everybody and you uh Branchburg Township. Charlie, you got anything? No report at this time. BEFnet. Yeah. So, BEF is always looking for
volunteers and sponsors. Um, and once again, I want to reiterate, they're going to be also at the country fair with the dunk tank. So, they're still looking for volunteers. It's got to be a little chilly for a dunk tank. Got to wear a wet suit. Charlie's in. Yeah, Charlie's in.
I I I'll donate $100 to roll with balls. Got to hit the target. Um, lastly, CPAC, I have no report. I don't think we have a need for a second executive session. Can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? Motion. All in favor?
Thank you. Appreciate it. I heard