I perfect. All right. So, I'm statement of adequate notice and welcome. Welcome to the July 17th board of education of Branchburg. Please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public and media consistent with
the open public meetings act and that advanced notice required therein has been provided. This is a meeting of the board of education of branchburg at which formal action may be taken. The public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda.
Perfect. Uh, can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Hollandbeck here. Miss Joyce here. Mr. Krishna Murdy here. Mr. Mater. Miss Shaw here. Miss Smith. Mr. Tuma here. Miss Desai
here. Mr. Carpentier. Okay. Um, we'll stand. Please stand for the pledge of 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. I will now hand it over to Dr. Chase for the superintendent report. Thank you, Mr. Desai. Um, just a few items for my superintendent report. Uh
so summer work is well underway across the district. The custodians are working on cleaning the classrooms, getting them ready for September. We had in the most um the recent storm we made out we made out well, but interestingly we had a pipe burst at Whiten. So Miss Worhees is
working with the insurance company and the inspectors to um look at the extent of that damages. We are also doing the sewer line over at Stonybrook uh for I think that's going to start about next two weeks. Two weeks. We'd have that on our docket.
I'm sorry. Next Tuesday for two weeks or two weeks. Next Tuesday for two weeks. Um Jenny Anderson and Michelle Nash informed me that our uh ESY program, which launched right after the Fourth of July holiday, is running as planned. Miss Landisburg is working on a lot of curriculum with
the folks in um ELA and mathematics and also doing some revisions to the technology curriculum and also as you may recall we have some new courses that are going to be focusing on leadership for our middle schoolers and also executive functioning which is an area that we've seen our students need
further support with. Um so everything seems to be moving along as expected this time of the year. Uh we also the next item on my report is that I have Miss Anderson here who's going to provide an overview of the full safety report that you have in your folder. Um
she'll share a few key highlights from the from the report which is pretty detailed and comprehensive. But I'm happy to report that the work that we've been doing with HIV and student code of conduct and all of that um has proven to be beneficial. Sorry, turned it off.
All right. So, um, as Dr. Chase shared with you, the, um, report that you have in your hands is definitely much more detailed than the overview of what I'm going to share here tonight, but I did want to highlight a few things for the public, um, as we go through. So, at the end of the school year, um, actually
twice during the school year, the district is responsible for entering into the SSDS system, which is our student safety data system, um, the number of, uh, a variety of different things. So, records of violence, hibs,
um, restraints and seclusion. Um, so all of that is really highlighted in the report that I have there in front of you. Um, and this general overview is just going to talk about the things that we've been doing in the district. Sort of what the numbers have looked like. Have we seen increases and decreases
compared to specifically last year? Um, and then what we're looking to do going into the upcoming school year. So, some key takeaways and positive trends. Um, really focusing on our overall student safety. Um, just highlighting for um, you know, the
public once again that our schools remain safe and supportive for our students. Um, this year there were no incidences of vandalism, weapons or substance use within the district. Um, and again, SSDs has very specific um,
definitions of those pieces. So when we talk about like, oh, you know, well, this this child might have run in and bumped into this person, it's not to say that we're negating those pieces, but that's not considered an act of violence, per se, um, that you might be categorizing here. Now, those are all
things that we address through our code of conduct. Um, and you know, this year we were working to improve and utilize more of a streamlined structure at BCMS. Um, I know that there's work being done over the summer to sort of continue that work and strengthen it more so that it's more forward- facing to the public
because I know that has been a question um in the past, but according to the SSDS system um we had no incident in any of those categories um which is actually a decrease from last year. Not that we
had that many of them, but just our data shows that there's a decrease specifically in the incidences of violence. And again, just the clarification, the SSD um DS definition of physical altercations um at the middle school doesn't fall into that strict violence um component
of it. When we talk about seclusion and restraint um as well as suspensions, so seclusion and restraint, the use of a restraint or seclusion remains li um remained limited and consistent with state guidelines. So just for
clarification that is the absolute last case scenario that is ever being um that is ever used and that is for the safety of the student or group of students that happen to be in a given area. So across the district, we actually had a decrease
in the number of seclusion. Uh we had no seclusion. I'm sorry, the number of restraints um districtwide, but that I just want to share that that is not something that is condoned to ever put hands on kids to do that. And what we do
is work within the district to make sure that we have staff specifically trained in the appropriate um deescalation techniques so that we're not getting to that point. However, if we do need to get to that point, everyone who is a part of that process has been trained.
We use the CPI um program. And again, our BCBAS in the district are actually the ones who provide the training for them. And we work to train all of our instructional aids. um our special ed staff members, our um special staff members, our encore staff members, those
who might be interacting with students so that it's not just oh I have to call one person and they handle a situation but that the full team works together using the same language working to deescalate a situation. So, just to clarify that piece, suspensions on the other hand, um while suspensions did
increase based off of the data that we submitted this year, um specifically at the middle school, we look to say that that is actually attributed to clear disciplinary procedures that we had established. So, what we noticed last year and then I'm not sure if you remember from the report Miss Stan uh
Dr. understand had shared last year, we saw an increase in the second half of the year once we really got that code of conduct more or less substantiated. Um, but when we started this school year, we had that clearer code of conduct. And so what we were seeing is that now it's
like, okay, second offense, third offense, we had something that was pointing to it. So we believe that that's really where the higher number came because we had sort of a a progression that we were following. Um but again that was more so at um BCMS
and then most of those suspensions when we looked at what they were categorized were from disruptive behavior defiance and physical contact with other peers. Just to clarify there this you don't have to have a HIV or anything like that to have these disciplinary
actions. Yep. They are not necessarily tied together. So, moving on to HIB, which is another category within the SSDS system that has to be reported. Um, districtwide, our HIB reports actually looked to remain
pretty stable compared to last year. Now, I say that districtwide, we had some shifts. Um, so our elementary schools saw a decline of the confirmed cases. Um, and they definitely were looking to use more of they expanded their use of that
preliminary determination. So the state allows our principles to have the opportunity to look at a case as it comes in and determine, hey, is this actually going to hit the three prongs for us to go to the invest or the different prongs for the investigation or is it really something that's more of a a conflict that we can resolve outside
of it. So our principles are given the opportunity to be able to have that principal determination. Um, and if they determine that it isn't, they move that on to the superintendent who then has the ability to overturn that if looking at the evidence they feel differently. Um, but we did use that much more than
we had in the past. I think there's more of that comfort level in using that piece. Um, so I think we were able to lessen the number of HIPS that came through to really keep them focused to what could have more or less what really
would fall into those categories. Um, again, that being said, it's not that we ignored if there was a situation. They just simply moved over to the code of conduct and those conversations to be able to address it there. Um, you know, and we made sure that those pieces were
addressed as appropriately. At the middle school, we did see a decline in overall reports. Um, so I did think that that was interesting. Um, but our confirmed cases were pretty consistent. I think it was a difference of one um, from the previous school year. So, I'd
like to say there's progress. I think it's very slow progress, but I'm I'm hoping that the work that we're doing to inform our students, our teachers, and our community is starting to make a little bit of leeway. We we definitely have a long way to go. Um, I also wanted
to clarify or just highlight that we are utilizing Hipster as a new platform this year. And I think that that piece definitely improved our consistency in investigations and reporting. um which was something that I felt previously when you went to a different building it
wasn't all buttoned up in the same way. So it's nice you know for the full investigation process but then to be able to present it to the board um in a consistent manner you know what you're looking at when it comes to you. Do you know if uh from a state perspective if hips generally are
trending upward or downward? They are. Branchburg is no different than anywhere else. We were actually at a training was it yesterday? yesterday. Um, and it is the um the team of lawyers that we're presenting. It's it's
everywhere, right? Because of all of the extraneous pieces that are happening, um, it's we are still in the thick of it. Um, and we're going to be in the thick of it, but the more communication that all of us can have to be able to help support and
hopefully be good models and redirect and in our counseling sessions following, you know, we're hoping that that trend starts to sway things in a slightly different way. Um, but what we are seeing in Branchburg is not necessarily anything that is different
than what surrounding communities um are experiencing. Got it. Okay. So, our school climate efforts, um I did want to highlight that we had 39 programs andor trainings um throughout the year across the district uh that focused on anti-bullying, school climate, and
student well-being. So, you know, those varied those, you know, stem from our back to school nights where Dr. Stanton had previously shared out information about the HIT process um via video for all of our parents all the way down to individual counseling sessions. Um we
had our guidance counselors do um lessons per grade level or per classroom depending upon the building that they're in. So we definitely had a variety of programs throughout the year. We reflected as part of our end of the year um guidance team meetings about what
worked and what didn't work so that going into the upcoming school year we're not just doing the same thing to do the same thing but we're really trying to tailor it to what our students need. In addition to that, Panorama was a new program that we brought in this year which started to give us information that we could really mine
data from and not just take it from you know the few students who felt that they were going to share this here or trends in the meetings that our counselors were having um you know with different individuals and I the foundational pieces of what we have
gathered from Panorama are great. I'm really looking forward to now a second year of implementation so that we really can see like who you know this population of students how did they now start this year feeling what was you know is it better is it different what do we need to do a little bit
differently and that to me um the use of the panorama platform I think has just opened our eyes a little bit more to inform the work that we can do in the district. So again, those are conversations we're having over the summer in preparation for the upcoming school year so that we're set and ready
to go. We've already identified in our admin team meeting when we want to administer surveys going forward and we want to make sure that we're getting information out to the public like we had previously so that everyone is informed. Um yes, so that are those two pieces.
So looking to the upcoming school year, um we need to continue to strengthen that tier one classroom um instruction including diversity, inclusion, resilience, and relationships. Right? So that the teaching aspect of it, the exposing our students to it, the talking about it, so it's a regular thing, not
just a result of something that happened um is very important for our our kids to think about it. like we have to undo the work that's happening outside of the school day that they're exposed to that we don't have that control over. Um so we know that that's something that's a
focus. We need to work to expand really that culture and climate work. Um which is a focus of ours. Um targeted supports for transitioning are grades four, six, and eight. So in the report that I shared with you, I noticed that there was a trend with our fourth, sixth, and
eighth graders and those are transition years. So, is there an aspect of the transition into a new building, whether it's a change of schedule, additional academic work, whatever it may be, new friend circles that's sort of playing into that piece where we might see a higher number of hibs or might lead to
conduct that leads to suspensions. So, that was just something that triggered to me when I looked and pulled that data. Um, and then continued use of hipster and panorama platforms to drive um data informed improvements in school climate. We have those platforms. Let's make use of them. really do the digging
so that we can use that to help us moving forward. So, in short, you know, not going to lie, challenges are going to persist. Um, but we do feel that the district schools are safe and supportive for our students. We do have proactive systems that we're working to use to
help support students and families to address not only student behavior, but enhance the overall climate. Um, we will continue to focus on building relationships, improving consistency, and supporting our students through different preventative programs that we have available.
All right. Any other questions for Miss Anderson? I just have a real quick comment. Yeah, I want to say thank you to Dr. Chase, to you, Jen, and to uh Dr. Stanton because these systems that you put into place, I know we're just
getting started with gathering data, but this has been what we've needed for a long time. So, I'm very happy that you are all very focused on this to try to help us pinpoint some areas where we can make improvements. So, thank you. Definitely. You're welcome. Thank you.
Um I also as part of my report, I just want to let the board know that um every year I've come in, uh we have an admin retreat. So, this Monday and Thursday and then another date in August, we are going to have an admin retreat, which is when the leadership team comes together.
Um on Monday we are going to have David Rubin who is going to give us further legal guidance around the HIB and also um help us further solidify that principal determination that Miss Anderson spoke about and also the theme of the work that we are doing is culture
and climate. So we are going to tie that to the principal's goals and the PDP plans for the teachers and all of that work. And tonight on tonight's agenda you could see that I'm recommending for an employment uh Mr. Brad Street Rand who is going to be assume hopefully assuming the position that uh Dr.
Stanton vacated when she went to the middle school. So I think there's really good momentum going that can only be built on so that we continue to create classroom spaces and school spaces where our students can thrive and I'll can fill you in on the details
after the retreat happens. That's my report. Thank you. So, next on the agenda is public comments. The board of education recognizes the value of public comments on educational issues 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 in 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 the topic have been heard. Please understand
that our public forums are not structured as question and answer sessions but offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board. All statements shall be directed to the presiding officer and no participant may address or question board members individually. All speakers are requested
to express themselves in a civil manner with due respect for the dignity and privacy rights of others whose legal rights may be affected. Please note, while it's not the board's intention to stifle comments on matters of legitimate concern to the school community, the public should be aware that if their
statements violate the rights of others under the law governing the under the law governing defamation or invasion of priv privacy, they may face personal liability to the injured party. If speakers are uncertain of the legal ramifications of their comments, the board urges them to seek guidance
beforehand from their own legal adviser. So if anyone wants to come in, see no movement. Going on to governance. Um Vince had just sent me nothing. It said that there's no report, but we do have some approval for one,
approval of minutes. Two, approval of a harassment, intimidation, or bullying investigative report. Three, approval of harassment, intimidation, or bullying findings report. Four, approval of harassment, intimidation, or bullying parental appeal. Five, approval of revision of official
newspapers. Um, that's you ask for a first a motion and a second. I'd like to suggest or request the executive session minutes be removed from tonight's agenda. I've noted some discrepancies I'd like
to adjust and bring back in August. Do we do a motion for that or you're going to remove the motion again but leave off item one? Correct. Nope. Item one stays the words executive session get rid. Okay. Okay. Gotcha. Okay.
Yes. So that sounds good. Do I do a Now you Now you can make the motion with the item removed. Okay. Motion for the um removal of the item. Motion. Second. Perfect.
All right. So should we please? Oh, everyone votes on us. Sorry. Questions or questions? Questions or comments? Nope. Roll call. Okay. Can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Hollandback. Yes.
Miss Joyce? Yes. Mr. Fishnaie? Yes. Miss Shaw? Yes. Mr. Tulum? Yes. On one and five. Abstain on two, three, and four. And Mr. Desai. Yes. Okay, moving on to policy. Um, we did I
have a report. We did meet on the 10th. Um, we had a presentation by Christine Burton who came in and kind of went through some of the changes that are going to be happening. She Christine Burton's interim like contract that we've came in to kind of do the code of conduct and work through
our policies and stuff like that. So, she's been working closely with leadership and administration and kind of figuring out uh code of conduct and kind of solidifying a lot of that stuff with the team. I mean, Dr. Chase, do you have her official, I guess, credentials? I'm sorry.
Um, okay. So, uh Dr. Burton is a former educator. She actually held the position of superintendent in the Milbourne Township School District. Prior to that, she was assistant superintendent and prior to that, she worked in Montgomery Township. She's doing a lot of consulting work right now. And as uh Miss Desai said, one of the things she's come in and and worked with the team
primarily on is work also tied to culture and climate. Um specifically looking at our behavioral expectations. Part of this work is going to be to just streamline the matrices for the code of conduct infractions and discipline, but also recognizing that addressing student
behavior is a multi-pronged challenge. It it happens from helping classroom teachers uh navigate behavior with tier one strategies, making sure that this is well known to parents, partnering. So she's been in working closely with the principles um who actually are very excited to partner with her and she came
and shared some of the specifics of the work that she's doing. So that is yeah probably more than you asked for. No, that's okay. No, she she went over what she's working on. Um and they are updating a lot of the code of conduct and making it a lot more transparent for everybody uh including on the website,
teachers, staff, uh students especially, as well as parents, which is definitely going to be a big roll out. Um and it looks like they've met a lot of the girls are working and a lot of things on progress and there's still some things are finishing off especially. Um and then the next few things the Phil
Silly's use policy we had um talked with Steve Davenport as well as Stephanie Vorhees and just kind of overview of the current facilities uh use policy. There's some revisions that need to be implemented just to better align with some of the p best served
practices and kind of covers us as well. Uh we are going to table some things that we're revisiting after further discussion. We're going to talk about it at the second or the next policy meeting. Uh the rest of them that you see on the agenda, a lot of them are just verbiage changes uh to align with
Strauss SMA. Um and one of them is something that we're going to loop in with our nurses as well. Yes. That we are going to have to talk about. It's just a change of policy for how we handle lice um in the schools. Yes. Um,
ridiculosis. Yes, that's a quick thing. Yeah. Yeah, it sounds but um, right? Yeah, we just have to revise this under I think CDC regulations and everything like that. That's that. Any questions? So, does the motion stand as is on the agenda?
Yes. Okay. Yes. Um, so can I have a motion to move these items? Motion. Second. Any questions or comments? All right. Perfect. Uh, can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Hollandbeck. Yes. Miss Joyce, yes.
Mr. Krishna Mury, yes. Miss Shaw, yes. Mr. Tuma, yes. Mr. Sai, yes. Perfect. Uh, going into curriculum and instruction. Uh, Ken, do you have a report? No report this week. Um, or this
meeting. Next meeting will be September 4th. Okay. Uh, so we do have some voting items on the agenda. One are conference and travel. to I think that's it.
Oh, approval of student teachers. Let me look at this. I'm sorry. Approval of student teachers. Three, approval of 2526 additional programs. Four, approval of contracted services. Five, approval of service agreements. Six, approval of state contracted services. And seven, approval of
revision of 2425 out of district program. Can I have a motion to move these items? Motion second. Any questions or comments? Yeah, just a question here. Um on the uh number three um out of district program,
it's about $900,000 or so. Um is that just the approval that we're doing here or is there also when is the payment due? In other words, is it payment due right now or is it like later on in the year because the programs don't start until September? Um I each each uh out of district
placement has its specific contract. U Miss Warhees, you look through those. Do you recall off the top of your head? Typically you make onetenth of a payment beginning when in the school year September. Okay. Staged out over it's a state template for a contract typically.
All right. Thank you. One question on again on item number three. I know we're capped at 2% a year. Karen, what type of increases are we seeing coming through on these private placements? So s significant and actually um I believe I shared with the board uh a
preliminary report that I did on the status of special education because we are trending very high um higher than we have for the past few years. So, in that report, I actually showed some of that information and I spoke about some of my recommendations for moving forward with regard to when budgeting really putting
about a 25 to 30% contingency in place because Miss Anderson is seeing uh children move into this district that have out of district placements per their disabilities. Um, and then I also talked to Miss Vorhees about putting in some triggers to just monitor that amount to to just watch it very closely.
um and then some recommendation for things that we could probably do um to further support our students. But I have to tell you like we are really well regarded for the great job we do of keeping students in our district by the programs that we've developed to
maintain them because that's ultimately what you want. You want the students to live go to school in the communities where they live. But some of these students have significant disabilities that were just not able to provide those kinds of services. So if you want me to reshare that report out with you, I can do that. but you'll see a a chart in
there specific to it. Definitely something to watch. Thank you. Is this something that a lot of districts are seeing? It's interesting that you said that. Today I was actually on the phone with um somebody in another district, they are the same having the exact same
challenges. And really what it comes down to is until that 2% cap is lifted or some kind of provision is either made with allowing for a waiver to account for out of district placement costs or if these places are capped at a more stable tuition. It's really something
that all districts are struggling with at this time. Many I shouldn't say all many are struggling with that I speak to. separate question just out of curiosity on conferences and travel the IC bus university in Oklahoma just curious what
that was seems really far um I'm sorry I just lost my agenda uh is that under conferences and travel is that Orlando I believe that is probably a remote or
virtual training that's just provide the provider is probably located there. Otherwise, you'd see that's a really far way. I was like, no hotel stay. Yeah, you you'd see hotel stay and all of that. Cheap trip. I mean, I was like, does he have friends there? How's What's happening? Any other questions?
Yeah, I got a question. Number seven. Um, it looks like the student received an additional day of instruction that was not originally contracted for. Is that does that fall on us? Why why are we carrying that bill? any explanation there?
I would I would Miss Anderson's in the audience. Do you mind, Jen, if you have more specific information on that one? So, it was a snow day apparently. Um something that they had factored into the calendar and or an emergency use day of some sort. So, when we originally had
the contract set up, it was based off of the school year, like what was the comprehensive school year. um this child in particular didn't finish the year in this placement. So that's why it looks different. It would like if the child was the full year in that placement, the
numbers would have all jived. So it just shows here because when we said we ended the contract, we did it based off the dates that we we thought we had, but we didn't have their updated calendar with that additional snow day piece in. So that's why it's one extra. All right. So that's not a normal
occurrence where they just tack different things on where we didn't. Yep. The contract's the contract. So yes. All right. Ready for roll call? Can I have roll call, please? Mr. Holland. Yes. Miss Joyce. Yes.
Mr. Krishna Mury. Yes. Miss Shaw. Yes. Mr. Tuma. Yes. Mr. Sai. Yes. Going on to the personnel, Miss Choice, do you have a report? Um, I will report that we had a brief meeting last week where we did discuss
some of the items on the agenda. Um, and I don't think we're planning on meeting again until September. That's it. Good. Any questions or comments? Um, if I could just point out that I want to thank the team for all the work that they've done with hiring this year.
Um unlike you know it's it's a it's a very timeconuming process to get the correct candidate and for some of these positions we actually have multiple candidates come in and do demonstration lessons so that we hire the very best candidate and you know at any moment in time anything could change but we're
really in a good position and some of the candidates well many of the candidates with whom I've been meeting are just exceptional and I'm very excited for the district to bring these people on because they have a lot of enthusiasm and the team is as equally as enthusiastic IC about working with them.
Um, so we do have some voting items. One is approval of 2025 2026 substitutes. Two is approval of 2025 2026 non-athletic stipens. Three is approval of 2025 2026 athletic stipens. Um, and then four, approval of
2025 2026 school improvement panels. Five, approval of revision of personnel. Six is approval of change of job title. Seven, approval of resignations. Eight, approval of personnel. Nine, approval of extra duty pay. 10,
approval of revision of extra duty pay. 11, approval of 2025 2026 lead evening custodial stipens. Any other questions or comments? Miss Joyce, you made comment that at your meeting, did you say that you just
reviewed agenda items? Yes. Thank you. Can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Holland. Yes. Motion. We did motion. Oh, motion. Motion to move these items, please. Motion. Second. Perfect. Any questions or comments?
Just just a quick comment on item number seven. Um extremely disappointed to see Katie Klein resigning from the district. She's been here for about 12 or 13 years. was a very popular teacher, had applied for a couple of promotions but didn't get
them. So, I guess it's on to greener pastures. So, it's sad to see her go. Maybe something we'd want to look at about internal hires instead of externals to maybe prevent this in the future, but I wish her luck in the future. Thank you.
Thank you. Other questions or comments? Can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Hollandback. Yes. Miss Joyce, yes. Mr. Krishna Murphy, yes. Miss Shaw, yes. Mr. Truma, abstain on five, six, and eight. Yes. On
the rest, Mr. Saw. Um, yes. And then Dr. Chase just wanted to make a comment on this. Okay. So um as you saw we are appointing our culture and climate coordinator Mr. Bradstreet Rand who is here. Um actually
Miss Anderson and her team interviewed several candidates for this position and Mr. Rand surfaced to the top. He comes to us from a teaching position where he built a STEM pro STEM program where he also built a gifted and talented program. He's beyond his instructional
role. He's led school culture and climate work, conducting surveys, writing curriculum, and overseeing implementation efforts in his previous district. Uh during the interview process, like I said, he rose to the top and his enthusiasm for the work is contagious. I know the team is excited
to bring him on board and it's not often that um a superintendent who I actually um spoke to about him has has said that uh he's going to be very well missed over there because apparently what you've been doing over there in Manville has been exceptional. So we are happy to
welcome you aboard and um I'd invite you to say a few words. So Mr. Ran, the mic is yours. Um hello everybody and thank you so much for those kind words. Um it is uh something that sitting here and going is
is both a nerve-wracking and incredibly exciting. Um you know seeing from an outside perspective of knowing kind of the reputation of of Branchburg has always been a great place and getting to to see some of the insights now um just brings me even more excitement. Um, I
think the groundwork is been laid to really take advantage of this position. Um, and I'm incredibly exciting about helping find and make this space um, something that parents, kids, faculty, and and hopefully everybody else is
really jealous of um, and and a wonderful thing into there. Um when I told my family about um applying here and and getting the job, I was informed by my mother that my grandfather um came and lived here in
the 1950s um after World War I. So or World War II. So um a really interesting thing and and a little way of saying maybe, hey, I'm back here and and back home in in a slight little way with my grandfather. So, thank you all very very much and I'm um very excited to get you know to know all of you um much more and
and hopefully in time share all the great things that we've done um and show you some of the great data that we have to to show how we've improved everything. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Rand. Thank you. I know that I am going to have somebody out there who's going to be very unhappy
with me for stealing you. I will owe someone a lunch, I'm sure. All right. Next on our agenda is finance and facilities. Mr. Chim, do you have a report for us? I do. Finance committee met last
Thursday. Um, in addition to discussing all the agenda items that are here, uh, we had Mr. Rubin come in and explain the whole Somerville, Branchburg legal relationship and what's driving the send receive relationship.
On that note, we're going to look for some grant money to do a study to see if the situation has changed over the prior 10 or 15 years. That may require us to look a little further into that agreement. Um,
would that be a state or uh federal grant? I believe it's state money. State money. Yeah. So, if we can find some grant money to offset that cost, we we'll do that study. I know um Miss Vorhees is looking into it as we speak. Um we've
discussed the leases at Old York. Um both leases were agreed to. Um I know that Handoverhand only wanted a one-year agreement instead of a two-year agreement. So, the agree the lease agreements are on tonight's agenda.
um hand overhand reducing to one year reduces our income by about I believe it's about $44,000 for the year. Um then they've reduced space as well. So they took less space. So it's it's kind of reducing our income. So we have some open space if
anyone's interested in leasing some space at Old York. Um we discussed the sewer pipe repair that's going on at Stonybrook and um we uh that's about it. Everything else is on the agenda. Thank you.
Thank you. Um there are some voting items on today's agenda. One is bill list and payroll. Two, approval of sewer line replacement. Three, approval of settlement agreement. Four, approval of submission of 2025 2026 emermergency virtual or remote
instruction program. Five, approval of New Jersey schools insurance group for liability insurance and other coverages. Six, approval of emergency transportation services. Seven, approval of lease for Old York School Handoverhands LLC. And eight, approval
of lease for Old York School and the Midland Adult Services. Nine, approval of application and acceptance of the unified champion schools grant. 10, resolution to increase the bid threshold. 11, approval of continued co-op memberships. 12, approval of
submission of fiscal year 2026 IDA grant application. Um, does anyone have any questions or comments? I just want to bring uh highlight item number nine which is the approval of
application acceptance of the unified sports grant which is going to be just an amazing addition to the program over here. So um I asked Miss Anderson to make this happen and she did with some of our folks over at middle school. So I'm very excited to bring that into the
district. That's great. Can I have a motion to move these items? Motion. Second. Any other questions or comments? Quick question on item number five. What is the salary continuance insurance
for? [Music] You stumped me. Um, I don't have my details with me. I apologize. I only have the increases. Yeah, mine says the same thing. Salary
continuence. I I would like to get back to you if I could. I have a question for Stephanie probably as well. The um item number 12, the idea grant application. I know we include that money in our
budget. Are we restricted on what that can be used for? Yes. Okay. And Are we fully prepared to forego whatever that is should that money not be available to us? As of right now, my understanding is the
idea money is available and our allocations have been given to us. If they pull it back, I I suspect we will not have enough I don't want to say cushion, enough room that we planned on for any additional
OOD placements. That's typically what the district uses the money for. That's for out of district placement. Yes. Okay. Thank you, Miss Joyce. I'm actually glad you brought that up because um it's specific to grants. Uh usually by this time of year, we have our title one, title two, and title three and title four grants. The title
one is what we use to run our afterchool RTI program. Title two we use for professional development. Title three we use for our ESL program. And title four we use to supplement um our extracurricular clubs and activities. those allocations uh have not been
released. There are some questions about and concerns about whether or not we will actually receive that funding. And all I could tell you is that any money that we don't receive is a loss to the programs here in the district. So very concerning at this point in time.
Um can I please have a roll call, please? Mr. Hollandback. Um, abstain from three. Abstain from five. Yes. To all others. Three and five. Yes. Miss Joyce. Yes.
Mr. Krishna Mury. Yes. Miss Shaw. Yes. Mr. Tuma. Yes. Mr. S. Yes. Perfect. Good. All right. So, next we're going to go into um our second public comments of
the evening. Anyone wants to come up for public comments? No public comments. Perfect. We're going to go into board leaison reports. Um Michad, do you have anything for the Somerville liaison? No. Uh we'll have our uh start school
year retreat in a month's time but um Mr. Mr. Suma, do you have anything at the Branchburg Township, please? Nothing. I attended the meeting this past Monday. No agenda items relating to the board. Great. And Mr. Krishna Morty, anything with the BEF?
Yes, school may be over, but the BEF is still working strong throughout the summer. Uh, you sound more excited. Wow. Just the only update is that the uh BEF is looking for uh sponsors for the next year upcoming school year. Um, anybody
who's interested in sponsoring can reach out to hello@ branchburg educationfoundation.org. Thank you. Thank you. Talk to the president about you. And that concludes board leaison reports I believe, right? I think so.
Yeah. Awesome. So no, I think that would be conclusion of I'd like to conclude the executive session. I we do not need to go into second executive session this evening. We did second. Oh, we did earlier, but we don't No, we don't need to go to third. Sorry. And um
um all in favor of concluding today's motion motion motion to conclude today's executive session motion. Second. Perfect. All in favor? I I Thank you. Well done. Well done. How are your notes looking tonight?
They're all over. Did you see my Did you see my arrows? Yeah, you're all over the shape of you going to come out.