Good evening everyone. I'd like to call the meeting to order. I'll open with uh Miss Roberts, please. Roll call. >> Miss Pala, >> present. >> Mr. Benedictus >> here. >> Mr. Henry
>> here. >> Mr. Malieri. Mr. Mr. Masterio >> here. >> Miss Kennedy >> here. >> Mr. Mesmer >> here. >> Okay. Next. Open public meeting. >> Keep going. Okay. The New Jersey open
public's meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to tend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the previous the provisions of this act, the brick board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be
posted on the administrative office bulletin board, official district website, channel BTV20, and sent to the Asbury Park Press, Brick Times, Starled Ledger, and Municipal Clerk's Office. >> Thank you. I'll now ask everyone to stand uh for salute to the flag and a
moment of silence. 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.
>> Please be seated. unplug our computers when we turn it on. >> Okay. First off, I believe Dr. Frell, we're going to have a presentation on the NJ DOE. >> Sure. We have a presentation tonight from Dr. Anderson on our NJ DOE school performance report. Uh we'll have our
another next update will be the end of October, right? On the test scores, right? We always doing it twice a year. Yeah, we we do also do NJGPA when it's released. It's typically released in August, but because we had a new platform, we shifted from Pearson to
Cambium and it's computer adaptive. Those results aren't expected in August. They're more or less expected in um the fall, so late fall. >> That's the October. >> Yeah, it'll probably be pushed to October.
So, um hello everyone. I'm Dr. Anderson, the director of curriculum and instruction. Um, and uh, back in May, the school performance reports were released. And this is data from not this
school year, but from the 2425 school year. And so, annually, our school report cards include information that are both detailed and summary reports about each of our schools and our district. And these reports are
available in both English and Spanish. In order to access access the performance reports, you can either go on to our district website and click on the curriculum tab um and it's listed as there's a link under resources, but you can also just Google NJOE school
performance report and you can navigate the website that way. And so what kind of information is included in those uh school performance reports? There's core school data which includes um uh school and district overviews, demographic
information, student growth information, academic achievement, and college and career readiness information. There's also environment and accountability um data which includes graduation and post-secary information, uh school climate environment information, staff
information, school accountability, and school and district narrative information. And so what's what's really nice is that you can look at that data to look at the absenteeism data both in um and what is new in this year's report is you can see
that data over time. It also includes uh new this year some seal by literacy data for the school districts and that trend over five years. It includes ELA and math performance by grade uh and it compares it to state comparison and also
advanced studies uh how our students are doing in terms of dual enrollment classes and their enrollment in AP classes. So in terms of our student enrollment and demographic data, you can see the subgroups um lift listed in that column
and then the data over uh the course of the last few years. And so from 2020 to 2024 2025, you can see that the data has um increased. The enrollment has increased. We've had more and more economically disadvantaged students. Um
our rate of students with disabilities has increased as so has our multilingual learners. Um and so those are meaningful increases that have required a lot of Thank you, George. a lot of um additional support for our students in
order to help them continue to grow. And so student growth data is not presented in October when I do the annual performance um you know brick the results of our state assessments. Uh that data doesn't we don't receive that
until about November and that comes with our essay accountability um submissions. And so the state uh compiles that data and gives us our student growth percentiles in October. We typically present on
NJSLA and DM. The access data and the NJGPA data is typically uh presented in August, but this year we we expect it to be delayed until October. And so in terms of our state assessment
results and this is for NJSLA and DM uh there are three CR there are two criteria that are um included in the report which is participation and proficiency rate and that is compared to the statewide proficiency and so our participation rate is pretty high in
both ELA and in math and over the last four years and our proficiency rate has grown um over those those four years and our statewide proficiency. We're a little lower in ELA and a little bit lower in math as well.
Our student growth continues to be strong. It's above the state average in both ELA and in math. Um, and we are so excited that we're going to have a new reading program and ele the magnetic literacy program. Um, should even produce even greater student growth next
year. In terms of our state graduation rates, we continue to uh be strong in our graduation rates compared to the state. We are, you know, we continue to grow each year um and um surpass the state's
average graduation rates. And what we're proud of too is that our federal grad graduation rates are strong. Um, and what that means is our federal graduation rates are determined by the percentage of students who have to meet all of the statewide
requirements for graduation. So, those are that means our students with IEPs are not exempted from uh parts of the IEP um doesn't exempt them from requirements from the state. And so, if they were exempted, then their
graduation rate would be less. But ours are just as uh robust as our typical graduation rates and which is good to see. Our chronic absenteeism rate has uh continued to decline. We're happy about
that. We saw uh a negative 3.2% change over last year. We went from 18.7 to 18.1. We're still above the statewide rate, but if you looked at districts that are similar in size and demographics to our own, we are about
the same rate. One of the things that the performance report does, it allows us to look at um chronic absenteeism by school. It also allows us to look at it by grade level so that we can provide targeted interventions for different grade levels as well.
The state report card also allows us to look at college and career readiness and compare our percentages to the state. Um, and we look at college entrance exams, advanced coursework, career and technical education programs. Um, and
we're particularly proud of our seal of biiteracy which has continued to grow over the year and actually exceeds the state percentage. Another metric that's um presented in our student school report cards are student safety and brick does a great
job of tracking any incidents of violence, vandalism, HIV or substance offenses um in our state reporting system and making sure that all of that data is captured um and there's our percentages or numbers of incidents
rather compared to the number of incidents per date. This is exciting to know that our early childhood education in our district is thriving. In fact, um this is again 2324 data, but we will be opening up six new classrooms this year. And if you look at
the dem the enrollment from 22 to 2425, you see that we're increasing in our preK enrollment and look at our kindergarten enrollment, it's increasing, too. So whereas other districts in our county may be showing a declining enrollment, our enrollment is
holding steady and actually growing at the prek and kindergarten level. This slide shows the student supports and services, the ratio between students and staff um within the district for students to teachers, students to administrators, teachers to
administrators and then all the other uh categories of support like our librarians, nurses, counselors, child study teams, psychologists, etc. So, this isn't part of our performance report, but I had to add it. And so, um,
this so I got a call, um, about doing an interview over this data, which we didn't even see it. Dr. Frell and I were like, we we hadn't seen the data. This data was published from the Stanford Education uh data archive and it was a
joint project um produced through Stanford University and Harvard University. And what it looked at is the performance trends academically in districts that are like ours. So districts that have the same demographics in size and scope as our
district. And they compared Stanford University along with Harvard compared all of the districts that were like ours in the entire nation and they came up with the average ranking for math and in
reading and they looked at the trend or the growth over time. And so brick in math scored at the 50th percentile for um student achievement in math and at the 60th percentile for achievement
in reading. But the the real story here is our trend data. We scored at the 81st percentile outpacing similar districts who scored at the 15th percentile. So that means our growth data we outperformed 81% of
districts like ours in math and in reading we outperformed 71% of the districts that were similar to ours and similar districts ranked at 7%. So we are really growing our students um at a
very impressive rate. And so how fast are our students learning? When you look at similar districts, there are there's in a year's worth of time, their students are growing about a 0.93 less than a year's worth of growth. In our district, in a
year's worth of time, our kids are growing at a rate of 1.25 or a year and a quarter's worth of growth that they're when they're in school. And so we outperformed 94%
of the districts nationwide in our learning rate. So I mean we are so incredibly proud that we are growing our kids at a rate of more than one year's growth in one year and it's at a rate of 1.25 which means we are ranking in the
94th percentile in the nation. You can clap now. That's that's particularly hard to do when we've lost like 400 positions. I mean, it it takes the class sizes have increased. This board has been so
committed to ensuring that that we have the resources we need. We devote them to the classroom and provide the supports we we need. uh my comm my my department has been committed to that. In just this year alone, we will have $1 million over
$1 million in grants that are helping us to keep that learning rate, that trajectory. And I just have to give a shout out to Amanda Bey who is really she spearheads all of this grant work from I know, right? She's here tonight.
Mandy, you give a wave. So, it is a team. We all work on it together, but Mandy takes charge. And just to give you an example, on June 5th, the state pushed out a grant uh for high impact tutoring for a summer program. Now, this is June 5th, and you know what all the busyiness for this end
of the school year entails. It was due June 12th. So, in one week's turnaround time, we were awarded $269,000. And then we had to do the work to put together that summer program which was then turned around before the teachers
left uh on June 19th. And so we received $269,000 which is now being used to provide high impact tutoring for our students in grades 2 through through six in a ratio of one teacher to two or three students.
And the parents have to bring their kids for ELA and for math instruction for those 45minute periods. But those students who don't have transportation, we're doing a virtual component. So kids who don't have transportation still can receive support at home. The impact
grant for $400,000 is providing us the funds to buy that magnetic literacy program. Um our focus grant is used so that our our teachers receive the support to progress monitor their students in early literacy skills in
grades K through three. And so they're meeting uh with an administrator to work on um moving those students in in th that their skills and to progress monitor and intervene for those students. And we do have the high impact
tutoring grant beginning in September. We will be assigning staff to elementary buildings to work with our students. Um those teacher those people are going going to be employed through ESS. They won't be able to be employed by the district. were not able to use it. Uh
the grant prohibits that, but we will be using certified teachers who unfortunately weren't able we were lost their positions due to our budget cuts. We've invited them to apply um for those positions so that they can stay connected to the school community. And
so we're so excited that we'll be having um additional supports despite the cuts that we had and lost to our interventionists. And so that's our intervention model. That's what really makes it happen. Our teachers, our interventionists, our coaches working
together um in order to provide children the interventions they need to grow. And we still remain very committed to our our district mission and and I just want to thank our our great team of educators, leaders, and learners. Um it
this is some great data and we look forward to seeing how our Cambium results will shake out because it's a new assessment. We don't know what we'll see, but we're excited to get the results. So, thank you. >> I asked Dr. Anderson when the the uh
data came out to really promote some of the national data because it was done from independent researchers and we harp on the growth model here at Brick uh traditionally over the years because the rate of growth is so much more important
because each cohort changes and each child is different and each grade level is different. I also asked her to talk a little bit about our prek program which she did and I was actually speaking about it this morning at our leadership summit. You know I brag a lot but our
prek program is the exemplar of the state and when you talk about the investment in resources um we get about 83 cents on the dollar through the PIA grant. As you see our curriculum instruction brings in a million dollars alone in grants. Uh that PIA grants
about $15 million to our preK. Uh that 83 cents on the dollar is such a great return because we are now increasing enrollment in kindergarten. You end up keeping more students in district. More students are reading at grade level on
grade three or beyond, which reduces the cost for remediation, whether it's a classified student or not, in additional resources. And the return on investment academically and financially is exponential. And people come to our district and our special services
overseas. Our special services department oversees our prek program, but people come to our district to look at our prek model and duplicate it across the state. And like Dr. Anderson said, we're expanding six more classrooms this year. And each year
we've expanded the program and still have a waiting list on the lottery. And that has helped in so many ways for this district. So, uh, kudos to all of our leaders. um our prek program has helped us tremendously in so many ways and I'm glad we got a chance to kind of brag
about them along with our growth in test scores and graduation rates. So, and that'll be posted for anybody to the website with by Thursday. Um we'll post that presentation uh for everybody on the website. So, thank you Dr. Anderson.
All right. I need a motion and a second for the approval of minutes uh from June 25th executive session and regular meeting. >> Motion George. >> Second. Brand >> Miss Roberts with the vote. >> Miss Pala. >> Yes.
>> Miss Benedict. Miss De Benedictus. >> Yes. >> Mr. Henry. >> Yes. >> Mr. Malerie. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. Master Serio, >> yes. >> Miss Kennedy, >> yes. >> Mr. Mesmer, >> yes. All right, moving on to committee
reports. Uh, we just have finance and facilities. >> Yes. >> So, Miss Roberts, take it away. >> Okay. I'll start with facilities. The facilities committee met July 20th at 4:15. In attendance was me, Dr. Farrell, Miss Pala, Miss Kennedy, Mr. Henry, Mr.
Procurio, Mr. Chony, Mr. Seagull and Mr. Williams. Um discussed was air conditioning for Osborneville, Midstreams, Herbertsville, Warren Wolf. Uh we discussed brick high chair lifts
and the chiller at Brick Memorial and also the um fuel tanks and pumps at at our transportation depot. Uh we set the meeting for the next the uh date for the next meeting as August 17th. I'll flip
right into the finance committee also July 20th 445. President was Miss Ms. Kennedy, Dr. Farrell and me. We discussed uh state aid litigation the 2526 status of the year end advertising.
Uh we have a few requests for proposals on this agenda as action items. Uh a few competitive contracts also on this agenda as action items. Uh bids a lease purchase and we set the date of the next meeting
also for August 17th. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. We're going to move on to public comment. This will be the first opportunity for public comment and will be for agenda items only. Each participant is asked to give his or her name prior to making a statement. All
statement shall be directed to the presiding officer. Comments shall be limited to 5 minutes. Does anyone have any public comment on our agenda? Any seeing nothing? Great. Okay. Dr. Anderson, can you please
introduce curriculum and instruction? >> Thank you, Mr. Mesmer. Under curriculum and instruction, the superintendent recommends that a board approve the following items one through three. >> I need a motion and a second, please. >> Motion, Fran. >> Second, George.
>> Mrs. Roberts, with the vote. >> Uh, Miss Pallet, >> yes. >> Mr. Benedictus, >> yes. >> Mr. Henry, >> yes. >> Mr. Meljeri, >> yes. >> Mr. Masterio, >> yes on one, abstain on two, and yes on
three. >> Miss Kennedy, >> yes. >> And Mr. Mesmer, >> yes. All right, moving on to operations. Mrs. Roberts, can you please introduce? >> Sure. Uh the superintendent recommends
operation items 1- 17 and 20 to35. >> I need a motion to second please. >> Motion joy. >> Second Victoria >> and the vote. >> Miss Pala. >> Yes.
>> M Benedictus. >> Mr. Benedictus. Sorry. >> That's okay. Um, >> yes, >> Mr. Henry. >> Yes, >> Mr. Melier. >> Yes, >> Mr. Master Serio. >> Yes,
>> Miss Kennedy. >> Yes, >> Mr. Mezer. >> Yes. >> Moving on to human resources. Mrs. Roberts. >> Yes. The superintendent recommends human resource items 1 through 45. I need a motion. Second >> motion George
>> second for >> Miss Pala. >> Yes. >> Mr. Benedictus. >> Yes. >> Mr. Henry. >> Yes. >> Mr. Meleri. >> Yes. >> Mr. Master Serio. >> Yes. >> Miss Kennedy. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Mesmer. >> Yes.
>> Okay. So, we do have a couple of uh new hires in the audience. So, I want to congratulate and welcome all the new hires. I know we have a supervisor uh and a teacher and anybody else, but want to welcome you to
Brick Schools, but I do want to introduce our new director of boy, it's got so many titles, right? It started, I think, director of research, planning, and evaluation. It's director of operations. It kind of handles all the day-to-day business functions of this
district. It's a very tough job, but we have a very bright uh intelligent, eloquent, and upand cominging uh leader in Dr. David Cinjun. So, I'm going to welcome and ask Dr. Kun to say a few words.
Well, thank you everyone. Uh, good evening and I want to begin by saying thank you to the board of education for having the confidence in me to be appointed as the director of operations or the director of research planning evaluation. I guess we'll work on that title, right? We we'll shop that. You
know, uh, this journey, this process, um, has been phenomenal and I can't thank you enough, Dr. Farrell. Um, but when I was placed on that board agenda last Sunday, the amount of texts, outreach, communication I had with my colleagues and then just the the support
that I feel tonight is just overwhelming at this point. um to have be at an August board meeting and to look in the crowd and see your peers, your colleagues and then those that I call my mentors and individuals that came before me that guide me and show me the the
process to which leadership should really emulate and be. Um I can't thank you enough. I am overwhelmed and I'm humbled in this process because those individuals that I'm looking at right now have given me a process to aspire to. Right. Dr. Frell, Dr. Anderson, Dr.
Jenko and Dr. Jenko, Miss McNamera, your support, your guidance has shown me. And then the current Mr. Kler, Mr. Philippo, Mr. Gillanella, those are individuals that I aspire to just learn from and continue to grow and be a better individual. And my colleagues that have came tonight, I just want to thank you
as well because you pushed me to be a better leader. Dr. Farrell referenced it earlier. We're in a leadership summit this week. And in that leadership summit, we're talking constantly about our value and our impact to our community. And I can't express enough the level of pride that I have to work
for Brick Township public schools. Leading the Emmy Havens Young Elementary School community, moving to Bricktownship High School over this past 10 years has been a joy. I have learned and grown with some amazing individuals. And I know that each place that I have been, I have left it better because the
people there are what make those in that school, those institutions a culture that you want to be a part of. and I'm looking forward to being in a position to help the entire Bricktownship public schools grow. I truly believe that the
school is the lifeblood. It is the is the place to which all of the community outreach and support begins because our students come to us every day. Our parents trust us in that in that journey in that vision and we aspire to support them going forward. So, in this new
capacity, I'm looking to ex extend my reach and support Bre Township Public Schools with the level of integrity and trust and follow through that that they deserve. And I'm I'm extremely thankful. I'm extremely prideful this evening. Um, you know, as I'm just going to reference
further, Dr. Dr. Farrell's speech today regarding leadership and coaching speaks volumes to which what we all do every day in terms of either leading our family going forward in our daily interactions or just leading a school. But to connect that with Dr. Anderson's
statement on the day one and the ripple effects that we have and your interactions that you have every day and what I look forward to having is those interactions and having a a ripple effect going forward and compounding that process. So, as I could say, I'm enthused. I'm excited to go forward. But
before before I step away, I would be remiss without saying I want to just thank Jen, Meline, and Hudson for being for the love, the patience, the love, patience, and support that you give me every day that allow me to do
this job and the encouragement that you provide me and allowing me to lead and be a part of this brick town public schools. Additionally, I have to thank my parents for giving me the values, the character, and the drive to be who I am today. So, thank you so much.
So you know any successful organization knows how to build leadership capacity and over the course of now seven years I've been here we have been with hiring within uh traditionally because it's not
a farce because we've been building that. I know some people may think it takes Dr. Farrell a long time to make a decision but many times you know the decision is right there in front of you. I said it when Maria Roberts was here. I'm saying it uh with Dave. We build our
own leadership capacity here. People that understand our values specific to our community and that just encourages people to be here in brick schools and we are so grateful that we could keep someone of the talent of Dr. Casian to
keep moving up and grow with him. And I said today and I meant it in the leadership summit. It's always about getting the right people on the bus. If you read Jim Collins, we'll get him in the right seat. But when you find a person that's more authentic than Dave Cajun, great
husband, great father, great leader, but just a true real authentic person, that's the people we want working here in our learning community and we'll get them in the right position. So congratulations, welcome. And I'm thankful that you take
Okay. Um, congratulations. We're really excited. >> Uh, Dr. Anderson, can you please introduce policy and planning? >> Thank you, Mr. Mesmer. Under policy and planning, the superintendent recommends
that the board approve one through two. >> I need a motion to second, please. >> Motion, George. >> Second, Fran. and the vote. >> Miss Pala, >> yes. >> Mr. Benedictus, >> yes. >> Mr. Henry, >> yes. >> Mr. Meljeri, >> yes. >> Mr. Master Serio,
>> yes. >> Miss Kennedy, >> yes. >> Mr. Mesmer, >> yes. >> Okay. Uh, this will be the second opportunity for public comment. Each participant is asked to give his or her name prior to making a statement. All statement shall be directed to the
presiding officer. The board is not required to respond to comments during this session, but may address them during the board comment portion. Comment shall be limited to 5 minutes. Does anybody have any public comment on anything?
>> Hello. My favorite place to be. I'm going to put you on the spot, but um I wasn't able to make it last month, but two meetings ago, I talked about that nominations were open for New Jersey PTA awards. We won four out of the 12. So, I did want to make sure like we did a public congratulations to Dr. Frell for
superintendent of the year. Um, here we go. >> It did a risky move putting nominations in for a mother son pair, but uh we had a parent volunteer and a student champion volunteer win. Um Jill and Logan Portalios, so they're going to be at the breakfast on Sunday as well. And
then um us as a whole at Vets Middle won the advocacy award for our efforts in bu you know building our food pantry, our mental health fair, a lot of the things we've done. Um I know she always watches, but she's here. So thank you Dana. And um it won't really be official until Monday, but I did also want to
thank both Dana and Dr. Frell for writing letters of recommendation. Um I talked about the grief sensitive schools initiative. I was happy to see on the agenda that Brick Township High School also did it. So exciting. Um so with that and doing that um there was an opportunity 15 middle schools were
selected nationwide. We were one of them for a $3500 grant to build a mental health center at our school for children experiencing rap and loss. Um so very excited to get that off the ground. Um I feel like there's so many good things that's happening. And I did
want to recognize we did a lot of donations on tonight's agenda and that is because of every member at our PTA. We had a phenomenal year. we had an extra $15,000 to spend, which is like unheard of. So, we've got wheelchairs, we've got a book vending machine that was delivered today, we've got
everything for kids events. Um, so I just wanted to recognize everybody that's helped out all throughout the year. And then my friend Brent, who you know, she's like, "How are you going to top it next year?" And I don't know, >> but I just wanted to put that out there and I'll see you Sunday. >> See you Sunday. Thank you.
you know, our PTA I we have a bunch of people, too. Former PTA members on the board from Brick, current PTA members that'll be at that and a bunch of award winners Sunday morning. >> It's taking me a really long time, but people are starting to listen to me and come and do things. And there's going to
be a couple I know at least two, maybe three that are going to try to go for School of Excellence next year and reflections. So, I'd love to see those programs continue to grow because they're really great opportunities. We did have a student make it to nationals even though she didn't win. like very exciting. Um, we're chance to win scholarships which I mean and also
congrats on all of your grants. They make mine look so minuscule but awesome news. >> No, no, no, no. But actually Dr. Casian got one of the PTA principles of the year a few years ago back as well. Um, but um, it's a great organization and I will see you Sunday morning in New
Brunswick. So, thank you. >> I also just want to say Kristen uh, what you do for this district is just outstanding. Kristen comes. Yeah. Yeah. I I would agree to that. Yeah.
Kristen comes to these meetings every month, stays the entire meeting. Some of these meetings can last hours uh if some of you have been uh previously but we really appreciate what you do for us and it does not
>> we got openings. Where's Mr. Got a lot of openings but >> but really thank you. We really appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> The girls can't wait to see George. >> I'm looking forward to it as well. Thank you for having me again. >> I've already told Herbert you're coming
as well. Oh, you're gonna love George. >> Nice. >> I love you all as well. Thank you. >> Uh, does anybody else have any other public comment? >> All right, seeing none, so we're going to now move on to board comment, Mr. Masterio.
>> Yes, thank you. Uh, first, uh, congratulations to Dr. Cinjun. Good luck. Uh, it I'm sure it'll be a challenging and you'll you'll enjoy it and your enthusiasm tells me that you're going to do a phenomenal job. That's a fact. Uh, congratulations to the PTA.
Like I I've this is this is the first year in my career where I've worked with the PTA and at least in my district. It's amazing like to see the stuff that you guys like put together and the hard work that you guys do even here in Brick or any other. I think the PTA is an amazing thing. Um, I'm ecstatic and you
mentioned it about the grant. Um, unfortunately, as I said too many ago, I I'm in the district I was in, we had three students who unfortunately passed and that does not end that year. It does not end that day. It takes a very long
time and it does like it it's a process to go through that for the kids and for the staff as well. Um, one more thing and Dr. Anderson, thank you for shining. It's it's uh in education sometimes we don't get the
light shined on us, but you do an amazing job at doing that. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh who's next there? George. >> Thank you very much, President Mesmer. Uh good evening. Good evening to you all. Thank you all for coming. Uh we're very happy to have you here. Anyone who ever has a direct or indirect interest
in what takes place in this district, we always appreciate seeing you and hearing from you. I would like to congrat uh thank Dr. Anderson uh first of all because uh starting off with this meeting. I'm sorry I got here late. I did something that Dr. Anderson, you'd be happy to hear this. She was my middle school principal. I did something I haven't done in a very long time. Um
Alli Kennedy and I were texting about saying I'm on my way here. I went to therapy for the first time in probably three years. Um so self-growth, if you can't take care of yourself, you can't take care of other people. So I think most people in this audience would be likely to agree with that. But anyway, not that I didn't want to go. just
matter of time constraints and a number of other things. But anyway, Dr. Anderson, thank you for the report that you gave to us. It was very valuable and very meaningful. Like frankly, every other thing that you do in the time that I've known you, I've known you for now 16 years. Um, and to Miss Roberts, thank
you very much for uh your reports and actually I think you did a wonderful job at your first meeting for whatever that's worth coming for me. You may have been brief, but it was wonderful. It worked out perfectly. Um, thank you very much for that. >> Thank you. as our new business administrator. Oh,
absolutely. We're very happy to have you and I enjoyed the process of going back and forth with you with um and Miss Ilana Penn as well for the competitive contracting process for website AI services and fellow members of that particular committee. It was very enjoyable. Uh congratulations to Dr. Kajun. Uh we assure that you will do a
wonderful job. We're very uh we have a great deal of faith in uh you and your capacities uh and your intelligence for this particular position. So we wish you well and uh we look forward to working with you. And what else do I have here? I see a number of different familiar faces in the audience. I didn't realize
until Dr. Kajun mentioned it that their uh wife and husband Dr. Jenko here tonight. Uh in the pace of the husband, uh Dr. Jenko actually was uh my mother's professor when she was studying for her masters in uh educational leadership at Georgian Court when I was going for mine in business administration. And Dr.
Jenko's wife was actually um my principal at Drum Point Road School for pretty much my whole time there. did wonders with that school as I'm sure Dr. Odd is doing as well and I'm sorry that I couldn't make it to you're you're still relatively new so
it's not that you can't do a good job it's that you've had a lot less time with which to work um so we have a lot of faith in you I'm sure that Dr. Jenko would as well for whatever that's worth coming for me. And I'm sorry that I couldn't make it to your fifth grade tribute. I I promised Miss Bales at Lanes Mill School uh because I see her
at all sorts of different events, but I can never quite make to her school. I told her I would make it to her tribute, which was at the same time that I had that you were having yours. So, I'm sure that I will see you both at different events at your school in the coming new in the coming school year, which is really not very long from now. Uh because we're actually less than 60 days
away from fall. Um so, you have that. And uh Mrs. McNamera is also here tonight. So, thank you very much for coming. We said we were hoping we'd see you again and it took a little less than a year, but now we finally get to see you in person again. So, we're very happy to see you again. And um we have that. We have Miss Janick and Mr.
Hashenko. I remember going to with being with you both at the prek family fair uh a few months ago. That was very wonderful, very enjoyable. I had fun. I actually it was very uh productive and meaningful. But I think I actually had the most fun, believe it or not, at the very end helping to clean up because
this was at Warren H. Wolf School when I knew it as the primary learning center as a kindergartener there helping to clean up. Uh it was sort of a homecoming and uh Mr. Mcnite is here. He was my guidance counselor at Bricktown High School. So uh I was just talking about therapy. He's probably thinking I'm happy he's going to someone. So it's
less that I have to hear in my ears. But anyway, because he was very one he was a a godsend with all sorts of different issues I had throughout high school. And uh to many of you in the district, whether it be Miss Goff, uh you're Neo here as our new special services director. You probably would have heard
a lot from me if I were still the student here. And now you're hearing a lot now, which I promise I'm getting toward the end. Um thank you very much for coming into the district doing what you do. Now, that's very valuable service given that in a district of more than 8,000 students, over 2,000 of our students, so nearly 25% of our
population has a special need. So you're in very high demand. Um as well as Miss Lane, Mr. Klester, my principal from Big Township High School and Miss Buco. Um, how do I say? I'm trying to figure out how to translate it. Uh, Felistia de
Pendencia Republic Peru. She has worked with my mother in a number of cases for um, professional development. And, uh, today is the 205th birthday of Peru. My mother's a naturalized US citizen from that country. Uh, I could go on, but you probably all like to go home. And I haven't eaten since this morning when I
went out to Morstown to go to therapy. You'd probably all like to go home and I'd like to eat. So, thank you very much for listening. >> Thank you very much, George. Uh, Mr. Henry, that's this is pretty tough to top. I mean, it really is. And so, I've
>> You're you're very fortunate, but no, but I' I've come to really enjoy George's comments. He's very thorough. He acknowledges everybody in the crowd. I don't know if I can do that by name. Maybe I'm new to the district, but excellent job, George. >> So, uh, Dr. Kajun, congratulations. It's
been it's been incredible to get to know you and, um, excellent. Your comments up here were heartfelt. They were authentic and a family that you have that supports you, I am sure, and and I'm sure you're going to support him as he moves forward, right? So, excellent. So, all
the for all the new hirees, congratulations. The PTA, excellent job as usual. They're doing an amazing job as George mentioned and also I do want to comment about the therapy part. I think everybody does need therapy every now and then. I mean so yeah I agree.
>> I'll take it. Thank you. >> It's not that our jobs are challenging or anything like that but sometimes yes that could help. Um this meeting was very positive. They're not always like that as you know if you've been in this boardroom before.
This has been an extremely positive meeting. Everything is uplifting. Dr. Anderson, it's been an honor and a pleasure to serve on the curriculum and instruction uh committee because she just does such an incredible job of laying out how incredible um we are
really doing in this district based on the data and based on what we see. If you've ever had the opportunity to walk through the halls and brick in any school, it's amazing. Every time I'm kind of blown away when I go in and see an event or whatever it is, whether it's PT run, PTA run or something that the
school does or a play, it's amazing. So, this has been an incredible positive meeting. Thank you everybody for coming tonight and I hope you have a safe travels home. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Benedictus. >> Congratulations.
Welcome to the other side of things. Now, you're going to love it and we're going to love having you. Um, and congratulations to all the other new hires. Um, Kristen, I can't wait next year, just a
few months. Uh, and the one of the things that was so amazing was that wheelchair, the beach wheelchair. I can't that is so good that we can have our our students who wouldn't necessarily be able to be part of that that we can make them a part. So that is
probably my favorite donation. Amazing. >> Even better. Love that. Love that. Um so our growth is above the state average which is good.
But um with our significant increases in MLS and e economically disadvantaged and special ed those are all statemandated. We have to provide the services for those students and we are still not
adequately funded. And so we need to still go and we need to still be a bug to everybody who's higher up who can change. We can't become complacent in the fact that we're doing so well. Can you imagine how well we can do if we
actually had the money that these kids deserve? So, please don't become complacent and fight for these kids cuz they deserve it. And on a happy note, hope everybody's having an amazing summer. And we have what, one
more before school starts. So, >> see you all in August. Thank you, Fran. >> So many good things. I want to thank everybody that contributed to all those good things. Um,
uh, David, your your peers who you mentored and the people who mentored you are very proud of you tonight. None more than Sue Mcamera. Uh I I'm looking forward um just to
share a little insight. Uh during the strategic planning process, I was assigned to the curriculum um committee and Elise led that committee. David, did you co-chair that? You were very vocal
is all I remember. And you were constantly positive and just like whenever there was a hump in the room, you went woohoo. So I really I really think that that's going to be a great thing for our administrators in the
district. And I want to tell all the principles and vice principles and supervisors here tonight that um I will be thinking about you as you're working your 18-hour days in the end of August. and I will be hoping that you have all
the peace and grace you need and patience to accomplish all the wonderful tasks you have set out for yourselves and for our students. Uh I would be remiss if I didn't mention um uh our
underfunding and regarding number 17 in operations tonight um the board was requested to pass a resolution to finance 7 and $18 and $89,000 for a loan for the lease purchase of
five large and one small school bus. I was assured by our admin ad business administrator this afternoon that that loan would not be necessary if BOE members had not turned away from $7.8 million of grant money from the state
last year. I sat down. I just wanted to think about some things that that $718,000 could have been spent on this school year. Uh
within moments I had 10 uh seven FTEEs to reduce class sizes and engage students. Replacement of four ADA required chair lifts for injured students and special needs students at Bricktownship High School.
um providing our high school and middle school students and teachers with full-time tech support, enhancement to our academic curriculum, repairs to the leaky rooms in our aging elementary schools, safety and security measures in
all Brick Township public school facilities, sports field improvements, hydroponic labs for science teachers and students across the district, compensating our many teacher volunteers who voluntarily
re run after school clubs for our students. And last but not least, reducing the tax costs on brick property owners. It's a lot of money that could have been used to enhance student experiences
that uh would be like rewards to our teachers and supervisors for how hard they work to engage our students. And I just hope that in the future um we don't look um the state
money that we will never get from anywhere else uh and reject that money. But all the good things we can do for our students, we're still doing. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Kennedy.
Just to clarify that all of those things would not have been covered with $718,000, but that $718,000 could have gone towards some of that. So I just want everyone to understand >> one of those things >> that that correct would would not cover everything that she name that Miss Pala
named. It would carry a portion of some of it. Okay. So I just wanted to say thank you to the Vets Middle School PTA. Kristen, you're incredible. Um, thank you to the PTA and Gen Youth for that uh NFL flag kit, the um New York Life
Foundation and VMMS PTA for that grief sensitive schools initiative grant which is phenomenal. Thank you so much. Um the book vending machines that are stocked with books and I assume tokens that I can't see you but then I can't see my
notes. Um the tokens the teachers can gift to the kids, right? like they get them for something and that's how they get the books out of it. >> I love that. Awesome. >> Awesome. Thank Thank you. Thank you. I love that. Um I love all the altering
knockdown chairs from the VMMS PTA for the students for field activities and most importantly for emergencies so we can get those students that need it out of the building safely and where they need to be. Um I love that we are going to have a girls wrestling team. I think
that is so cool. Um I think we should be really proud. And while um you know my daughter did compete on a on a not wrestling on a boy's soccer team and so I like the co-ed because it it makes you a little tougher. I love that we have so
much female interest in wrestling that we're able to get a wrestling team together for the township of brick. So I think that's really really cool. Um thank you to all of our volunteer coaches. Like I've said before a million times. Some of our coaches do get a a paycheck, not a big one, but they get a
paycheck. Um, there's lots of volunteer coaches out there that help those paid coaches, and without you, I don't know that the paid coaches could could do what they do. And we have a lot of success in brick schools. So, thank you to all those volunteer coaches. Um, Dr.
Cajun, congratulations. And, um, Hudson and tell me your name again. >> Maline. >> Maline. I knew it started with an M. You know that you're supposed to go directly from here to Sundays and you're supposed to get the biggest ice cream sundae you can get with the most sprinkles, the
cherry on top, whatever you want to celebrate for dad, right? So, make sure he takes you right there. And if he doesn't, you have to come tell Mrs. Kennedy because that's not okay. Ice cream to celebrate. That's how it goes. Got it? All right. So, and to um my
class of 2026 parents, we are around the corner from sending our our kids off. Um good luck. I am having quite a time with my first going away. Um so, good luck to you guys. I know there's bunches of you that we're talking to and um I don't
know, by the time I sit at the next meeting, I'll have that's his first day of class. So, um good luck to you guys and to me. Okay, bye. Thanks everybody. Thanks. He'll he'll still be in New Jersey. >> I know, but he won't be under my >> He'll be okay.
>> I don't know about that. I'd be happy about that >> that he's on that he's there. Oh, yes. Yes. It's going to be a process to get there. >> All right. Yeah. I just wanted to keep this meeting positive. This was a this was a pleasure tonight. Um congratulations again to Dr. Cage and
all of our new hires. Um just looking at the lack of funding in the district. Um, it's nice to see over a 4-year period our scores go up at such a steady rate. So, it just clears, you know, it just shows clearly based on your growth plan that we're in the right direction. So,
props to Dr. Anderson and the whole the whole district really. Um, besides that, uh, that's cool with the new team, girls wrestling. Yeah, that's >> I mean, brick brick wrestling is no joke. So, >> um, but yeah, no, this was a great
meeting. So just uh congratulations again. >> We moved the next meeting. >> Yep. Yeah. So now I'm going to move on to the calendar of events. So our next meeting date was actually moved. Uh it is now scheduled for August 25th. It's a Tuesday night at 5:30. Um and then our
meetings I believe move later again after that. But uh >> Yep. So um at this point I just need a motion and a second for adjournment. >> Motion George. >> Second pan. >> Thanks. >> All in favor? Hi. >> Hi. >> Hi. >> Thank you. >> Thank you to Mr. Marvin and Mr.
Trianopoulos as well. I forgot about that. I didn't see you until now.