Okay. Good evening. Welcome to our third board of education meeting of the year. Uh will the secretary please call the role? >> Anna Brown >> here. >> Timothy Cummings >> here. >> Antineta >> here. Jamie Falco >> here. >> Lewis Figurero >> here.
>> Lori Herrick >> here. >> Lee Wu Hung. >> Wilbur Pan >> here. Maryanos >> here. Seeing we have a quorum, please rise to salute the flag. >> 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. Okay. So, we have a need for a closed session. Whereas, the board of education must
discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion of public meeting. And whereas these subjects are within the exceptions to the open public meetings act and are permitted to be discussed in closed session pursuant to NJSA 104-12B. And whereas the board of ed intends to
discuss matters listed in the agenda. Whereas the length of the closed session is estimated to be 1 hour after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene and action will be taken. Now therefore, be it resolved that the East Brunswick Board of Ed will recess into close session for only the A4 said
subjects, and be it further resolved that the East Brunswick Board of Ed hereby declares that its discussion of the A4 said A4 said subjects will be made public at a time when the public's interest in disclosure is greater than any privacy or governmental interest being protected from disclosure in
accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act. >> Do we have a motion? >> Move. >> Second. >> Second. Okay, >> it's a voice. >> No. Yes, it's a voice. Any >> voice? Okay. Discussion.
>> All in favor? >> I uh opposed. Abstensions. Motion carries. Okay, we will see everyone in one hour. Thank you. Okay, welcome back everyone. We or welcome back us. We are just coming back
from closed session. We've already begun. Uh before we begin, I just uh Mr. Hong wanted to extend his apologies for not being able to be here tonight. Um and the board offers him uh our sincerest condolences for the passing of
his mom. Um and he did apologize for not being able to be with us tonight. Okay. So, I think we are rolling right along into our superintendence report. >> Yay. Good evening.
Tonight's boardroom features artwork created by our talented students from Memorial and once elementary schools. The art teachers of these talented students are Brook Saborn and Margaret Sasso. Cheryl Jones is a principal of
Memorial Elementary School and uh Mr. Joseph Satari is the principal of Wantoer Elementary School. The artwork will be available for viewing through February 27th. So joined by our board members, I have
spent the last two weeks continuing my meet and greet tour. With only a few schools left on the schedule, I encourage any parents who have not yet attended to join us for one of these final sessions. We would love to see you there. It's been a lot of fun.
After my Church Hill meet and greet on Tuesday, January 27th, I headed to Hammershield for the German Snowball Festival. Students in grades fourth through 9th were invited to attend this fun and immersive celebration of German culture. Students and their parents explored traditions,
language, and customs while working alongside German teachers and students from um German classes. The festival featured hands-on activities that encouraged cultural connections and curiosity. Guests also enjoyed a variety
of delicious German pastries, adding an authentic taste of Germany to the experience. I know. I thoroughly enjoyed the What was it? >> Donut. >> The Yeah, it was the apricot donut. That was It was yummy.
>> It was yummy. It >> was great. Uh on Friday, January 30th, I enjoyed attending an assembly at Hammershield for the butterfly effect project. Students in both grades five and six were joined by Eileen Mer, the creator
of ch of hash choosekind, a movement focused on building confidence, self-acceptance, and spurning kindness in ways that truly make a difference. Her message connected perfectly with Hugh's values of being honest, united,
empathetic, and safe. Students were simply reminded that kindness starts from within, and even small choices can create big ripples. This assembly was made possible by a grant from the East Brunswick Education Foundation.
Beyond my scheduled meet and greets, I'm spending the next few months joining staff in each building for lunch. During this week's visit with the Memorial Elementary team, I was thrilled to learn more about their peer leader program. Those are my friends. This year, Memorial Elementary School
has 10 students who are part of the peer leader program. They are leaders in the building by assisting kindergarten students during recess, creating schoolwide activities to promote kindness and have done community projects as well um as well as making
donations to live like a unicorn and are in the process of creating hygiene kit kits for families and that are displaced in our community. They have learned so much this year about responsibility and leadership and I was really truly
impressed by my new friends. They're in fourth grade. It's amazing. On Tuesday, February 2nd, I've been busy. I attended I attended Irwin's annual expert expo. As part of the writers workshop unit, becoming
experts, second grade students hosted an expert expo expo. As part of this unit, students write anformational book on their topic, prepare a presentation board, and prepare a presentation that they give to their families, teachers, and fellow students. Students speak on a
wide variety of topics, and it is always interesting to see how knowledgeable our students are. I learned about dinosaurs. I learned about baseball. There was just a lot, a lot. But it was really, really cool. On Tuesday evening, February 3rd,
after the frost meet and greet, I hopped over to Hammershold to learn how to make dumplings. The Mandarin program students and their families joined Zemen Zang for a hands-on dumpling wrapping experience,
learning about the cultural significance and symbolism of dumplings as we welcomed the year of the horse in the arts. On Sunday, February 1st, the Church Hill Advanced Orchestra performed during the
first half of the East Brunswick Symphony Orchestra at East Brunswick Education Foundation Winter Serenade Concert under the direction of Orchestra teachers Susan Muse and Mary Omara. The East Brunswick School's music department
is honored to continue this its strong partnership with um EBSO as it enters its second year along with the continued support of the EBEF which has been consistently generous to the arts department. Looking ahead to March 8,
the EBSO, EBA, and Eastburn public schools will collaborate again for an afternoon of strings, a chamber music concert feature in East Brunswick public schools music teachers. The art administ uh administrators of
New Jersey um A&J emerging artist exhibit and awards ceremony took place at Kain University on Sunday, February 1st. High school senior Grace Young and junior Eba Vashon had their artwork hand
selected to be exhibited by their studio art teacher Lisa Gmbas for their unique approach to the subject matter and unique personal expression. This annual high school art exhibition gives students the opportunity to have their
work displayed in the university gallery among some of New Jerseys most creative, innovative art students. The East Brunswick High School Orchestra will be presenting the music of film on Wednesday, February 11th at the Joan Majestro Performing Arts Center. The
program will feature music from iconic films such as The Da Vinci Code, Star Wars, and Howal's Moving Castle. The concert begins at 7 p.m. and admission is free. In sports, last night was a historic one for East
Brunswick. Our hockey team officially opened the stunning new new east East East Brunswick Ice Ring with a thrilling 5-4 victory over West Windsor Plainsboro. Huge shout out to Colin Knap who etched his name into the history
books by scoring the first ever EB goal in the new arena. Congratulations to our January high school athletes of the month. Students were selected for this honor by the coaching staff based on performance, demonstration of leadership, effort in
practice, and for modeling exceptional character. Report cards will be available through parent access on Thursday, February 12th. Anyone with internet access can contact anyone without internet access
can contact their school for a copy. So, just a few reminders. Schools and administrative offices will be closed Monday, February 16th. There is no school on Tuesday, February 17th for students and 10 month staff, but
administrative offices will be open. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Mammon. Okay. Uh so now we have a presentation on the 2026 2027 school calendar. >> Well, dum dum dum.
We have the soundtrack. >> Yeah. >> It's good to see. >> So, the school calendar is just riveting. Um, I thought it was important to just share
as the as we the board discusses our school calendar for 2627. Um, this evening, I thought it was important to just share some basic things that maybe our community might not necessarily be aware of or what we
have to consider when we put a calendar together. So that's what I'm going to attempt to do. So our calendar needs to include the following. This these are non-negotiables, right? 180 instructional days for students,
184 days for 10-mon staff, 4 days uh for staff only, hence the difference 180 184. The 180 and 184 days does not include emergency closing days.
And we call them emergency closing days rather than snow days cuz we could close for any emergency cuz you know sometimes it could be you know a facility thing, a busted pipe, whatever it is. So um
we build in some emergency days. So we have four single sessions with lunch for grades K through six. This is per contract. The day before Thanksgiving, the day before winter break, day before Memorial
Day weekend, and last day for teachers. So when you take the calendar, right, and you get rid of July, right, and you start to count, it's so easy how quickly the days get used up once you start to consider all these things that we have
to put in there. Um, so on half days or single session days, we do not serve lunch at Churchill and the high school. Some of our crossing guards, by the way, are also some of our lunch aids. and um not they can be there
are lunch aids and then they serve lunch and then they come back. So when we have single session days we have to kind of manage that. Our additional single session days are for the parent teacher conferences. Eight single session days,
four days in the fall, four days in the spring, midterms and finals. This is for high school and um Church Hill only. four days for midterms, end of January, beginning of February. As you know, we just had one or having in the middle of
one, I can't remember. Four days for and four days for finals. There were additional single session days, primary election day in June, last two days of school for all students and
then for EBHS only, we look at um PSAT in October, >> prom in June, and then also as needed for state testing because recently we've had um some state testing and some people say, well,
I have kids in other schools that are testing as well. why don't they get the single session days, right? Um and you know that the high school we are at mixed grade levels in classes. So you could be in a class with 10th graders, 11th graders, 12th graders depending on
what level they are. So um but when they're testing, not all of them have to test. So it becomes really kind of problematic as opposed to the other grade levels where as a whole grade they te they test. Okay.
And then other important dates and information to keep in mind. November election day is a is non-school day for students. Teachers convention in November schools are closed for students and EBA staff. This is the law. It's not what we
decide. And then some of the federal days. These are the federal days we recognize. Definitely not exhaustive of all the federal holidays, but these are the ones that are recognized in East Brunswick, 4th of July, Labor Day,
Thanksgiving, and so on and so forth. Junth in New Jersey is the third Friday. It doesn't matter what the date is, you usually the third Friday. The federal Junth is the 19th. And I
believe that's what we go by here, right? So this year you see that um oh for 2627 June 27th you in the calendar you see that um the 18th is a single session day for all students
and on the federal holidays that we are open. If there are other federal holidays that our staff want to observe, they can ask to do so and they make up that day on a predetermined day by
us, the district. So you want to be off on a federal holiday that we're open. You reach out to HR. They decide what day. We decide what day. You can make that up. The religious holidays are as follows. These are
the religious holidays and um that we observe here as of now I think so and I've been talking to parents and students alike and they said and you know we're like oh we have this
religious holidays and and we see even when we say that students can't be excused and school is open they come anyway and That's been one of the things I've heard from the students because I've heard from high school students like any kind of holiday,
April, May, and I'm taking an AP course. Yeah, you're not getting me out of school. It doesn't matter what the holiday is, I'll be here because there's AP prep and exams and all of that stuff. So, there is that. And then currently, it's my understanding that we hold the
Cure Arena um a year ahead for graduation. And the date that's currently on hold at the Cure Arena is June 21st, 2027 at 11:00 in the morning. And for my own edification,
I thought I add the history of emergency closing days >> in East Brunswick because I don't want to hear about it. No, but we went back, you know, for me trying to understand um all the way from
2015 to 2016 and you can see how many days were used. 2017 2018 was one of those day, one of the year that you had six days that were used, a lot of snow days. And then um it kind of I think we still had a calendar committee then as a
result of that and how many days were used and how much they had to rely in open school even after that. um language was put in place. Um but then you see the 2018 2019 was two days. 2019 2020 we had to all use the um all the days we
had before we started because of the pandemic. So 2020 21 no days used because we were remote. And then you see that 21223 no days were used at all. 23 24 days.
Last year, no days were used and we are in 2025 and we've already used one day and I hear that it's going to be a cold winter and apparently the groundhog did not see or saw
>> his or her shadow. I do not know but that's where you are. So before you today is um a draft of a 2627 proposed calendar for um open
conversation. >> I'll take questions. >> Yeah, I think >> just be >> just in case. >> Oh, no. I was going to say before we begin because I we received some questions beforehand. This was a discussion about this year's calendar. So I just want to clarify that this
year's school count no this year this exists the one >> 2526 yeah oh yeah so the 2526 school calendar was voted on in December of 2024 the majority of this board was not here >> that calendar as as in everything else
we vote on up here um not us but whoever was up here uh anything that's voted on cannot be changed unless this board votes on it again that is the law Mr. Jacob, do you want to correct? >> Yeah. So, um, so I know that there was maybe confusion or discussion, but that
calendar was decided. No one can change it unless the board reconvenes and votes on it again. So, the discussion today is happening on the 2026 2027 school calendar. Just as a point of clarification, that's all. Go ahead, Genie.
on the uh potential calendar for the 26 27 year. I see we start on a Tuesday that's September uh first. Is there any um precedence or history of starting on the Monday, August 31st, so that there's
not a uh uh dismissal date of Monday on June 21st for kindergarteners who hate Mondays? >> Do you want me to answer that question? >> Yeah, you could. Yes. So, so the the calendar is adopted by the board. It's the board's prerogative to set the
calendar. Um, you you have it's a non-negotiable managerial prerogative. You could start on August 31st. There's case law on this. Uh, the board has the right to start the calendar when they deem fit. They can't extend the the the
you start. That's the board's prerogative. And so a calendar is the board's ultimate decision and they make the decision of, you know, what holidays are going to be off, where you build in the snow days, if you run over the snow days, what days get taken back. If you
have too many, you don't use the snow days, what days do you give back as days off? That's all the board's decision. Um, and generally, as the president just said, the development of the calendar and the adoption of the calendar always takes place the year prior. So right now
we're in the 25 26 school year. You will adopt the 26 27 school year probably uh later this month March latest so that you give people time and notice of when holidays are when breaks are so people
can plan accordingly. Um and this came up many years ago. I think it came up and Jim might in the 2017 I my eyes aren't that great. 27 2018 the six days off. >> Mhm. >> There was a lot of confusion about how where were you going to take the days from
>> and and the calendar at the time when it was adopted didn't have it didn't anticipate that many days. So there was a lot of discussion on the deis about how you guys are going to take back days and I think it came from some from spring break. >> Oh wasn't
>> President's Day. I mean you you were scrambling. Um, so now the calendar, what you guys have done is you basically laid out if we go beyond the two built-in snow days or the three built-in snow days, what days do we utilize to
make it up? And there's, you know, the parameters. So there's there's a couple parameters. The the schools in New Jersey run on a fiscal year, not a calendar year. So July 1 is the first day, June 30th is the last day. those
180 days have to occur by no later than June 30th. You can't finish a school year in the next school year, in the next fiscal year. So the so you have to build the calendar so that you get 180 days in that school year. Um and that's
mandated. You can't have the kids go to school less than 180 days. It's legally mandated that they go to 180. They can go more, but they cannot go less. minimum days. Board's prerogative to have minimum days. Minimum days have to
have a minimum of four hours of instruction. They're not four-hour days. It's four hours of actual classroom instruction to qualify under the law as a minimum day. So, those are just some of the parameters that that that the board considers when they build a
calendar. um you know and and and figure out for graduation and the you know I think it was 10 uh religious holidays you had listed building those in um some years you get lucky some of those religious
holidays fall on the weekend so gives you a little bit more flexibility other years you're not so lucky they all fall on Monday through Friday and it takes up days and as Dr. Uh, man said, man said the the problem with I said man, right? >> Mammon. Mammon likes
>> remember. Okay, go ahead. >> Dr. Mammon said, um, once you start building in these days and stuff like that, >> it goes, >> you realize the calendar, there's not lots of wiggle room >> for wiggle room >> and and you want to make sure that, you
know, if you have snow like we had a couple weeks ago, you have some of those. There's been districts um where they've closed because of power. There was a if people remember October of 2018, there was a snowstorm on Halloween.
>> Trees had leaves on them. Trees came down all over New Jersey, knocked out power. There were many districts that were closed for a week because they had no electricity. They had to use five snow days in beginning of November. >> So, um those are things that you can't anticipate and that's why you try to
give people guidance. the the parents, the staff, and the kids. How does this calendar work um over the next year? So you guys can plan so everyone can plan accordingly. >> You don't want to be changing things on the fly at the last minute. >> Yeah. And then we get two for the 26 27
for instance. Um Diwali falls on a Sunday. Yay. Lucky us. Um and then Junth falls on a Saturday. So lucky us. So those are two days. um as opposed to if all of these holidays fall on a weekday
then again even making it tighter. >> Yeah. Dr. M, sorry. Are we able to get the calendar on the TV screen or do we have that or no? Just so the Oh, sorry. >> So the public >> the public can see. Yeah. >> Oh. >> Um >> okay. Yeah. Yeah. Two seconds.
>> Anyone have a question? >> So I have a question just to uh piggyback off of Dr. Falco's. So that would mean because the public can't see the calendar right now, but the proposed calendar has us finishing on Monday, June 21st, which would mean that we come
back to school for one day, uh, following a weekend. >> Um, historically, I know parents have wanted to finish. By the time the weekend comes, nobody wants to go back for just one day. So I think >> AC according to Mr. Jacobe, we can come
back on August 31st and students would begin September >> 2nd. Correct. Okay. >> Correct. >> It's a m August 31st this year is a Monday, >> right? >> Yeah. >> So, so
>> and and typically what you do is if you saw there's 184 days and as as the superintendent just said for the days that are for staff only, those are professional development days. There's a lot of mandated laws >> that the staff um both teachers and
support staff have to be trained on every year. Um and so those four days are utilized for that purpose. Very typical and typical here and literally typical probably across the state. Most districts have two professional development days
prior to students arriving for school because there's just different laws that the state of New Jersey mandates that your staff is trained on before students come back. So that's very typical. So generally when you build the calendar, the first two days you'll see on a calendar are the professional de
development days and then the third day would be when the students come back to school. >> Yeah. So when I when we were putting this together and sharing it around um I think in talking to Dana we didn't think I I didn't think August 31st I
think you told me August 31st was not oh they told because um as we put this together it wasn't just me obviously the whole making sure that all stakeholders looked at it and the only reason
um we're doing we started the first was because um we had a convers I had a conversation with Dana and she was like um absolutely not. The contract is September 1 to June 30th but I didn't see September 1 in the contract at all.
I didn't see that language there. That's why I have it as >> but again what I said before that doesn't matter. The the I won the case. It was in the appellet division of New Jersey. You can start before September 1. Just giving you context. >> I'm just saying that's that is a um the
the perk the public employment relation commission and the appel division ruled that that's managial prerogative. >> Thank you. >> Thank you Karen. Thank you Karen. >> Uh zoom in a little. I think it Yeah, it was good before.
what you had before. >> Yeah, that's that's okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, God bless you. I I think for the Yeah. >> our public who was able to come in. >> Yeah. So, I just wanted to say that was why I um started the first and then um
because the high school has the 21st um available for or on hold for graduation and that's typically the last day. Hence why that's there coming Monday. I even had them look for the
18th and the 18th is available at 10:00 and I was told that the 18th um at 10:00 it would be difficult to get everybody at the cure arena for 10:00. It's typically 11:00 that they're used to
because of all the pre stuff that they have to do. So >> any other questions? Oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> Hi. >> Hi. >> Um, thank you for the work that went into this in a very short time because I
know that you weren't informed that you had to put a calendar together in this smaller. >> Okay. No, you weren't here. You didn't hire you didn't hire me. >> I wasn't here. >> The one who hired me sold me a lie. >> So, >> we're still happy you're here. >> I know that because of that there wasn't
a calendar committee in place and you had to do what you could do. So, I understand that part. So I am formerly requesting that we add a calendar committee and moving forward because a lot of the conversations could have >> happened at that. Yes, I agree. >> Right. I agree. >> Um especially with booking the high
school I mean they did that for you but booking the high school's graduation date um >> without you knowing. Okay. So, um, if we're moving past that start date in last day, uh, last day's school, I do have questions about, um, some of the
suggestions I saw I sent to you. I don't see them being recognized here. Um, I know that we have No, it's okay. That's why we're talking. Go ahead. What do you >> So, I I we do have two snow days, so thank you for that. Uh, two emergency days, so I appreciate that. So, this way, at least we don't have to worry about where we're going to pull the
other days from. Um, and families could plan according accordingly. Um, one of the snow days is well, emergency days was for the Monday after Easter. >> Yes. >> Right. I had wondered why it couldn't have been the Thursday before Easter
since Holy Thursday is really a huge holiday for our community and a lot of people are in churches throughout the day. >> It could be. >> No, no, I know. So, that's why we're talking. another >> the other day the other um question I had and I think that we're going to get push back from this from parents because
one of the one of the major feedbacks I got is we are an extremely inclusive community and that's amazing right but a lot of the parents are having trouble finding coverage for their students because their jobs are not off when we're off >> the other emergency day is on June 1st
which is the June primary >> yes well which I now found out it's now June 8th by the way so that would change Okay. So, I don't think it should be I don't think it should be on a primate at primary day at all because majority of people are going to work that day and that's going to leave families having to
use paid time off and they're probably trying to save that for their summer break >> whenever that's going to begin. >> Okay. >> Um so I would like to see it maybe moved to a different >> You're saying that the primary election day we should be in school. >> It's already a half day.
>> It's we've Yeah, we the students have always been in school in our district. Other districts do have that day off. So, I mean, it's not unusual to have the day off. Okay. I just know it would it's never been done here as during my children's tenure. So, I'm not sure if the district parents would be prepared for that day. So, I'm not sure if
there's another place you can stick that day usually. >> Absolutely. >> Um in in the past, we've used it on Memorial Day weekend. They they've turned that into a 4-day weekend. I think everybody likes that. >> That's doable. >> Um and then I think that's it. I I do I do have
>> a question about the August 31st day. I understand that there you know you you confirmed with the you you consulted with the union. >> Yes. >> I just want to know would the teachers have any push back on it if they knew that they'd be able to end the year earlier if if that was f Dana are you
allowed to answer? I think for sure our teachers want to leave earlier. >> I don't think our teachers want to stay till the end of June. I don't I don't believe so. I think any opportunity for us to leave earlier and have a longer
summer break. Our teachers will welcome that. >> Right. I honestly I do believe that we are ending the year later than in the past as well. And people are burnt out. The kids are burnt out. The teachers are definitely burnt out. Absolutely. >> And people not getting enough time, especially when they have to move in their kids to you're going to go through
when they have to bring their high schoolers to college to college moving in day. Then you have people want to have their vacations before they start their summer camps. And so I know that the feedback that I've been getting have from the community has been that can we get out sooner than than we we have been. >> Okay.
>> We also want to recognize that we have a very diverse community and those those days need to be honored as well. um the days that are not honored on this calendar because we do have smaller groups of religious um families in our town that there's not a large enough
population for them to have been able to get that recognition. >> Uh can is there a way for the community to know what days they'd be able to get as an excused absence so that this way they don't have to worry about asking for that? I I believe it or not there are people who don't know that they can
ask for uh that to be recognized as an excuse. >> Um state approved holidays are even on the website and there >> do we have it on our website? >> Yes. Okay. >> Yes, we do. >> There's also a a >> because a parent asked me just last night and I didn't know >> it's excused anyway. Not a problem. >> I can get you the list. There's a list
that that the state of New Jersey puts out for recognized uh religious observances >> that's on our website. >> Oh yeah. Amazing how many religious holidays would count as excused absence. >> Right. No, and I appreciate that you
gave that one of those emergency days on that Monday cuz I'm Sicilian and Easter Monday is much bigger than Easter Sunday even Holy Thursday is more >> right. But I know Holy Thursday is a bigger day for the they don't me. I was just thinking about but I know because
you know I go by what the community is telling me. So Monday is working out for me but I'm not voting for me. So I want to make sure I mention that. Um otherwise, >> okay, >> I think you did a pretty good job in a short time. So, I'm glad that we were able to have this discussion and hopefully >> um there'll be some
>> We'll definitely consider um considerations. >> Yeah. And put in some of the stuff you mentioned. >> I mean, that's just my suggestion. The board has to go ahead. >> So, so for the for the record, we care about youette. Thank you. So, there you
go. >> Um let's see. It's just like a quick naive question. Is there a reason why high school graduation has to be a school day for the students? >> Oh, lawyer. >> Not attorney. >> Say again.
>> Is there a reason why high school graduation day has to be a school day for the students? >> What students? High school students or elementary? >> High school students. >> Well, unofficially. >> Or so you have to have. >> So you have you have she's not coming.
>> You have to have staff. >> Right. So you can't So remember the 184 days that's the contractual obligation. So we couldn't make it on the 185th day >> make people come back. >> Um the other thing too is I've seen some
schools where they'll do like the high school graduation um you like on a Friday or Thursday night and then the last day of school is Friday. Realizing that the really last day of school is Friday but none of the high school seniors will be there on that Friday. Just just saying. Yeah.
>> Um, but >> wait, hold on. We have a senior right here. >> Okay. So, if we had graduation on Thursday, would I see a Friday morning? >> Okay. >> Well, >> if we had graduation on a Thursday, then technically I feel like I wouldn't be a student at school, so I wouldn't come on
Friday. >> But we usually have rehearsal the day before um graduation. So, it was June 25th last year as well. So we had that weekend and then the Friday we had rehearsal. So chorus rehearses then the seniors also
rehearse for graduation. So I don't know if that helps or if it's >> so so this is where uh this is what popped into my head. Um >> on on the calendar um uh so I I recognize that we that moving graduation
day would be diff difficult. Uh I think one of the things we're kicking around is we add on a school day on August 31st that allows us to take off the uh school day on on uh June 21st. That way the students don't have to come to school on a Monday just for
the one one day before starting their uh summer vacation. But we also have this limitation about well if we were going to do that then the logical thing to do would be to move graduation to Friday June 18th. And we have the issue with the 10:00 start uh start time
>> um which could also be discussed. But be that as it may, >> is there a way of making the 18th a school uh a school day having the school year end on there and then just holding graduation ceremonies on the 21st? Um because for the teachers, it's still
going to be a work day for them. Yes. >> Right. Regardless of whether or not they're uh having duties at graduation or not. Mhm. >> And the students, it's graduation day. You know, they're going to want to participate. And I don't think they
they're going to count it as a school school day >> team. >> Okay. Yeah. So, that's not going to happen. >> Yeah. Okay. All right. I'm trying. >> Yeah. No, but this is good because this is how you get to the >> Yeah. to the solution, right? It's not
just a oneperson job. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I think so. >> We're all learning. >> Uh Dr. Brun. >> Yes. So, I just want to make sure I understand this currently for this school year. >> 2526. >> 2526. The last day of school and
graduation is June 25th. Is that correct? >> That is correct. >> I know she's counting down the days. >> That is correct. I'm >> so happy for you. >> That is correct. >> Okay. So looking at the calendar that we have up here, the 26 27, we already are getting out several days earlier.
>> Yes. >> Because it's the 21st as opposed to the 25th. >> That is true. >> So that already is an improvement over, you know, what we've had what we have this year. And and I just want to point out I I've been in education for 40
years. I just had my 40th anniversary of my first teaching job. So I've seen it all. Yeah, >> all different. I mean, there was one year we had so many snow days. I don't know if it was in this district or another district, we went up until the 30th of June. And the only reason I
remember is because I was teaching summer school on July the 1st, and that was horrible. So, this calendar, we already are um getting out sooner than we were this year. My biggest concern for starting before September 1st, if we
look at the calendar, we already have um you know a couple of days here of orientations, student orientations going back to August 25th um and August 26th. Uh so we're we're
back into August for those things. Um, and while it's not so bad for this calendar because it's only one day, it's the 31st is a Monday. How does that play out in the future when Labor Day is on a different date? So, I just did like a
real quick, you know, look, um, 2029, Labor Day is September the 3. I mean, would we be setting a precedent saying, "Oh, well, we'll just start the Monday before Labor Day, which is August 27th."
that that makes me nervous starting um setting a precedence. Now, I know Matt, you mentioned that um you worked for a school district that started on the 23rd I of August, wasn't it? Something. Yeah,
that's crazy. a lot a lot there's a lot of districts after this appellet division case I'm sorry after the appel division case in 2018 um many of the uh school districts in North Jersey and it started in in Morris County but one of them um can start as
early as August 23rd >> yikes I would say that a majority of them I don't know of any of them in Morris County that starts um September 1st they all start in late August most of them I would is, you know, August 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st. Not not really
well depending on when August because you every year, if you look at a calendar, Labor Day is late this year, but seven years from now, Labor Day is going to be like September 1st or 2nd, right? >> So then they start earlier in August. >> And a lot of that they do that too is because when you have sports teams, the
kids, if you have a high school, kids are back in in early August. >> Do you have marching band? Same thing. Band camp. marching band, band camp, >> any type of sports, >> lots of the extracurricular things start in in August for the high schools, >> right? So, it just I'm just throwing that out there. Makes me nervous. I
don't like the idea of setting a precedence because while it's not a big deal, it's only one day this year for other years it could be a big deal. And especially since we're, you know, I'm looking at the orientations that have to
happen. So, we do we really want people coming in mid August? I mean, not all the buildings are completely aironditioned. So, you mean you get the same thing, right? The issue with >> with the facilities. >> Yeah. Because >> I know even our director of facilities
wanted me to just consider that it was too short a time in the in the summer for them to get to all buildings and do what it is that they need to do considering that some of our buildings are being used for um camp. And then so then he has to bring in more workers to
kind of double time it. So there's just there other things to consider as well. >> Yeah. Just as a a point of clarification, I mean, we're talking about one day, so I know they have to do all that, but it's it's one day. Yes. >> The other thing about the setting the precedent, so I checked back the last
time the district started before Labor Day was in the 2015 2016 school year. So it's been almost 10 years and that's because of how the calendar cycles. I don't believe it would set a precedent. I do think that maybe, you know, like as Mr. Jacobe says as Labor Day gets later,
this is an unusual circumstance for us this year because Labor Day is so late, but historically it hasn't been. It's been September 3rd or so. So, we would start after Labor Day at that point. >> Um, at least that's what historically has been done.
>> So, I just Yeah, that's >> I'm going to put on the record now I'm not coming back here August 23rd. So, that is definitely not going to be a vote yes vote for me. Um but but I believe that was >> I'm just saying I'm just there there's a
school district that that has the ability but that's not >> anybody else with >> anybody else. >> So okay >> I actually received questions beforehand from the public. I know some of the answers to these questions but I want to ask them so that the information is out
there. >> Okay. >> Um so the first one is can we be virtual on snow days Mr. Jacobe? No, >> please tell us why. >> Yes. >> No. >> No. >> And I agree with that.
>> No. No. But I can you please explain the legal reasons why we can't. It's not our decision. It's >> so the state of New Jersey Department of Education makes that determination. Uh just uh about two weeks ago, there's a primary election going on today up in
uh Bet County uh that that recently came to fruition when the our new governor, Governor Cheryl, was elected and gave up her seat in Congress. >> Yeah. >> Governor Murphy had to set an election day for the primary. He picked today. Um
the school Wayne and other schools in state county asked they needed to close because they you pe their schools are polling places and they couldn't have law enforcement there um in the buildings. So they asked if they could do it virtual and the state said no you can't.
>> So it's not your decision. It's the state of New Jersey decision if you there was another district that tried to do it on a snow day up in North Jersey Bergen County School District. Uh they said, "Oh, we're we have a snow. It's a snow day, so we're gonna go virtual." And the state of Missouri jury said, "Oh, that was great you did that. Those
days don't count. Redo them." >> Yeah. >> So, you can't do them. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I I believe the only time we can be remote is if something happens three days, more than three days >> consecutive. >> Consecutively. >> Thank you. Uh, can we remove all
religious holidays, recognize only federal holidays, and then have everyone use an excused absence? For the record, these are not uh questions that I am in agreement or disagreement with. I'm just putting it out there for public knowledge. So, can we remove all religious holidays, only recognize federal holidays, and give everybody an
excused absence on their religious holiday? I >> mean, could you legally? Um, I think that that would be very difficult to do. I can tell you of a district that I'm familiar with
that said, "We're not going to have religious holidays. We're just going to call them, you know, non they didn't indicate any religion. They just said these are days off." And the public went nuts because frankly, you
know, East Brunswick is a diverse community and you should celebrate your diversity and religion is an important component. Whatever religion you celebrate is a comp important component to a lot of people's lives and their cultures. And so by recognizing that day, you're actually giving credence.
And the the the the criticism of this board when they did this, I don't represent them. I'm just aware that this occurred was how could you denigrate our religions by just making it like uh you know, oh uh December 25th is a day off.
Gee, everyone knows it's Christmas Day. I mean, there are certain days that everyone knows that Good Friday, Easter, you well, Easter Sunday is always off, but um it didn't work out well. The other thing too is is that as the superintendent indicated um federal holidays and state holidays don't
necessarily align. Junth is the perfect example. Friday and a Monday makes life really interesting if you're a lawyer because courts are closed, state courts are closed on Friday for Junth and federal courts are open and then on Monday federal courts are closed for the federal holiday and state courts are
open. So guess what? You don't have the day off. Um, so I I having just the federal holidays off would not work. Um, there's actually a law on the books that says if a a a staff member wants to take off a
federally recognized holiday, they can take the day off. And as the superintendent said, they just have to make that day up based on communications with the um superintendent. So, I would say that the the better thing to do is to put the holidays on so
that that and that's the common practice. The one district I know that tried to do it, it didn't work out well at all. >> They went back to putting the religious holidays on. >> Yeah. >> And I will just add and correct me if I'm wrong, Dr. Mammon, but um some religious groups are so large in this
community and we do need a certain quota for attendance that it wouldn't even count as a school day if we didn't have a certain percentage of the student population present. Is that correct? >> Yes. So there it's very loose there, but for sure for us we have to make sure we can staff and we have to get to a
certain percentage in order to be able to staff our buildings. >> Okay. And do you know that percentage is >> any it doesn't matter, but I'm just saying we do have >> I think I think it's got to be Yeah. And and the other Yeah.
>> Yeah. The big the other huge problem and um as the superintendent just noted I if you if you have a major major holiday and your staff's not here you have to have adequate staffing for supervision. >> Yes. >> So but it's at least 50% have to be in
attendance both staff and students. >> Okay. Thank you. Um and then the other question was some people don't even want the holidays off. They would just like them recognized on the calendar. Is that possible? So that you know when they're in school that day, uh if the teachers
notice that there's a holiday that day, they can talk about it or include it that way instead of just being a day off. Is that legally allowed? >> Yeah, we can do that. Okay. >> Yeah, we could do that. I mean, I think it's, you know, some might even say that's better than having a day off and
you don't know why you have a day off. You could get to learn about a different culture from yours or something that you didn't know. Certainly. Yes, we could do that. >> Okay. All right. If I may, um, I just want to throw out that the Human Relations Council in East Brunswick could coordinate on that project. Uh, we
have a running list of holidays that we try to celebrate and recognize for our neighbors, so we could assist with that. >> Okay, that's Thanks. >> Um, that's it. I mean, I I just want to end in saying that we are an inclusive
community and we pride ourselves on that. And I also have limited PTO days, but I don't mind inconveniencing myself so that my neighbors are able to take a day off and celebrate. Um, our students, especially as they get into the secondary schools, it's a lot of work to
make up when you take a day off as even as an excused absence. It is a lot. And I think as Dr. Mamman pointed out early on, especially as they get into April and May, it's very challenging. So, um I think if we, you know, if we really want
to reflect who we are as a community, um you know, this is inclusive of everybody and that's important to me. I know that's important to a lot of my fellow board members. >> Um you know, I spoke to one parent today who's who was saying they were really
nervous to have their holiday off because they didn't want everyone in town to hate them as the reason that they had to take a day off. and and that crushed me. And I hope that's not who we are as a community. I know that's not who we are as a community. And I hope that we don't we all wouldn't mind being a little bit inconvenienced here and
there >> in order for our neighbors to be able to feel like they are loved and celebrated when it's their turn. That's all. I I I can attest to um uh using PTO for holidays that are not, you know, um you
know, more broadly rec recognized and definitely can attest that it gets harder as the kids get older. >> Yeah. Agree. >> Anybody else? Okay. >> Good. >> Thank you, Dr. M. I agree with uh Mrs. Ebola. You did a great job in such a short time and >> we all agree and we thank you, Dr. M,
for that. >> Thank you. >> Okay. All right. All right. Moving on. James Student Representatives report. >> Hello. Good evening everyone. Um to get us started, I'm announcing that video news makers are back starting
a brand new starting a brand new area era featuring me. We filmed our first video and it's ready to air tomorrow. The APL team, we the people team advanced to the nationals are ready to take on DC. The countless nights studying and preparing
earned them gold. Our mock trial team won the county tournament in a well-deserved win. This Friday, Chinese Honor Society is hosting their Lunar New Year celebration from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $10 and $12 at the door. There will be games, dumpling making,
temporary tattoos, and so much fun. Our arts program is in full swing with two concerts next week. The district's chorus festival on Monday. The high school performs and gets to sing with the kids. It's a free to enter, but donations are held at the door. The family concert with orchestra and chorus
is next week on February 11th, both at Hughes. NHS is hosting its annual blood drive February 11th during school. Seniors and juniors who are 17 and up can donate those. Those those who are 16 need a parent waiver. Cupid House hosted by music honor society is February 13th.
Auditions were held this afternoon. It's a fun night with singing, dancing, and love. Anime Club is hosting a Mario Kart World Tournament, which I'm excited to see. Never seen that. Black Student Union is hosting its annual Harlem Renaissance event February 19th. Performances, presentations, poetry,
food, dances, and a great way to celebrate Black History Month. >> Culturama, hosted by International Cultures Club, February 27th, is an around the world event with students showcasing their culture. Next up is our sports highlights. Ice hockey played in
Eve's new arena. uh game, new arena game on the 4th. Also celebrating the fifth the five seniors securing a victory for the Bears. Girls swim team won their fourth consecutive win. And our schoolwide volleyball tournament winners of each indiv individual block faced
off. Now it's second semester and I think the senior itis is kicking in, but I hope to have the most fun four months. Thank you. Okay. >> Um Jane, I don't know if I remember, but uh um the Apple team's accomplishment
with take uh with winning the state. That's 34 out of 39 years, right? >> I believe so. Yes. >> Dang. >> Yeah. >> Wow. >> Impressive. That is impressive. >> Yeah. Okay. So, uh we are moving on to our next and final presentation, our
demographers report. We have Mr. Ross Habber here with us from uh Ross Haber and Associates. um to share with us our demography report for a possible redistricting. >> Good evening everybody. Um Dr. Man,
board members, members of the community. Uh tonight I'd like to make it's basically an initial presentation to the board of a study that we've been conducting for over just over a year. Um originally the target for this study was September but a number of turnovers in
administration number of things and and then with a new board coming in and then now waiting for the if we're going to wait this long we might as well wait for the October 15th enrollment so we can base everything on the most current. So that brings us to tonight. So anyway the study study had three prongs. Okay.
First was doing an enrollment projection of the district. take a look at what the enrollment would look at by district and by school over the next five years. The second prong of the study was to take those projections and apply them to each of the elementary schools. This is a K4
study, by the way. That's that that was the scope of the study. To take those projections to apply them to each of the schools to see what those schools would look like at the end of five years, how much instructional space, what class sizes would look at look like and take a look at that to see what those buildings, what we could do with those
buildings. The third prong of the study is the most interesting one and that's uh what we're calling redistricting you might call it ddistricting in the sense um over every one of these schools in this district have non-ontiguous boundaries. What I mean by that those
are boundaries that are not central to the home attendance zone of students. Some of them are like wildly out of step. So we wanted to do we wanted to do is see if we could take all of these all of these conditions projections based on
history take uh the way it impacts the schools and see if we could consolidate the boundaries not consolidate the schools consolidate the boundaries the projections show that the schools need to stay the way they are because of growing enrollment class size conditions
and all of those different kinds of things. So, I want to go through this presentation and um not bore you with too much too much statistical data, but um get through it and get to your questions because I'm sure you're going to have a lot of them. So, the first as I said, we did the projections. The
projections told us that because of the amount of construction going on in East Brunswick because that we'll see steady growth, not enormous growth, but steady growth of enrollment in this district. So we are at now uh it looks like whatever we do is sustainable for at
least the next 5 years. But again it's it's based on history and based on on construction. So let's go right to the projections. Okay. Okay. The methodology that we use for enrollment projections is called the
cohort survival method. The cohort survival method is the method of proje projections that are required by the state of New Jersey when you file your 5-year long range facility plan. The state will only accept that. And what cohort projections are based on are live
births attributable to the school district. Okay? And they that's what used to project kindergarten and a six-year history of enrollment. And to that so we take that we create the cohort projection to that. we add the possible impact of new constru of
new housing developments. So the projections I'm going to show you tonight include not only the cohort survival method but also include the um uh the the the impact of the new construction, new developments coming into the school district.
So let me go to those screens. I got control. Okay, it's going to be difficult for the audience to see, but this is a this is a cohort survival projection for the for the entire district. The base year being 201920,
the current year being 2025 and the out year being 203031. So in 2019, the base year, there are 8,29 students in the school district. that declined to about by the opening of
school this year 8,077 students. So that was about 160 or 170 student decline. The long range projection over the in 203031 is 800 8,174 students. So we're coming close to the
202021 total. Okay. Going through that now. So you you look around you see these huge developments. uh the one on Ty is the one down on 18 and you say there's so many apartments and so many possibilities there. It's important to
consider that two things happen. One, when you when you consider students coming in from new developments, it's not additive. In other words, if 500 students are coming in, it's not 500 added to what you have. It's 500 that interact with the cohort pro with the
cohort projection which has es and es and flows. an example of of how this works if you would and again I'm sorry that you can't see this example in 2000 the 12th grade just use an example the
12th grade uh graduating class of 2023 was 665 students the entering the entering kindergarten class of 20 of 202425 was 390 so you graduate a lot more kids than you
bring in but over the course of the of the of the of the projection, they change as kids move in and out of the district. So again, you know, people look to say these developments are going to have a thousand more kids. It doesn't quite work that way. Another reason it doesn't work that way is because is
because there are parameters for doing multipliers. So for example, a four-bedroom house that's worth $3 million has a different kind of student yield than a two-bedroom condo. Okay, that so so we we do by house. you do by
value of the property, the type of property. And so the numbers never really are what people think. Okay? And that's kind of important to note because sometimes what people think uh can cause situations. I won't mention it was a school district a lot of years ago that there was a projection which I didn't
do. Okay? That projected um projected an enormous amount of kids and high school was built for 1,600 kids. They never got that high school past 800. Okay? Uh so so you got to be really really careful. Of course, the other side is going to under project and wind up having kids falling out of windows and we don't want
that either. So, okay. So, anyway, so we go. Sorry about that. Anyway, um uh anyway, u next slide is okay. So, this slide kind of shows that
there's a general general stability in the enrollment. The bottom blue, the the bottom blue are your K4 enrollment. You can see there's a steady increase in that enrollment which is important because that's going to flow through the system over the next over the coming years. Okay. The and same thing for the
um for for the five sixth grade a slight enrollment. The middle school and um and the high school are fairly stable. Okay. Stable. So again, when you think about it, if you're going from 80 from um
8077 to 8174, it's just under 100 kids over the next 5 years. So it's so it's important to kind of keep that in mind. So your stability, there's stability there. Okay? And what's important about that as we go forward with looking at the facilities,
we have to determine how much growth can exist in your current in in in your current state. In other words, can your buildings absorb more students? Okay. Our conclusion is that they can. Okay. Okay. So, now let's look at the current boundary analysis. I'm going to show you
a whole series of maps after of of pictures after this, but in the next uh the next segment I want to talk about um the um existing boundaries and one the first school I'm showing you and I'm going show you others later on um is Frost.
Okay. Let's go back one. Okay, this is frost. The black outline that you can see, that's the existing current the existing zone Frost. So, anything that's in those those out black outlines but are white
are students that are currently going to other schools from the Frost District. A bigger a more impactful statement of that is to look at this. Keep going back. Okay. Okay. Okay. That little circle in there.
Okay. That those are students who are in the who are who go to Memorial Elementary School but are located or attend school in the in the Lawrence area. Okay. So, that little circle has 86 students that are transported from
there into into the law into into memorial. And that's not only there. This exists in a lot of places, but that's a really good example of of what happens. So again, what does that mean? It means longer rides, probably more cost in
transportation and a number of a number of issues like that. Um given the traffic given the traffic in East Brunswick, um it you can add 10 or 20% to any ride time at all. So and that exists this exists throughout the district. So those are one of the things
that we really really wanted to tackle in this in this uh project. So revisions Okay. Well, in the re in the in the revisions, we had to take a look at a number of different things. Number one, as we change as we as we consolidate
these boundaries, maybe create more like neighborhood boundaries, neighborhood schools. Okay. As we move towards that, a number of there a number of potential conflicts come up. Number one, will what we do or will what you do because it's your your decision ultimately, will that
will that allow us will it support growth in the community? We don't want to do anything that says, "Okay, you're at 100%, you can't grow anymore." So, it was important that we make sure that whatever we do allows for growth in the school. Again, we want to totally eliminate the non-ontiguous boundaries.
And um and we that's supported by the transportation department. Um, everybody agrees that that's probably going to be a great thing for the school districts if you do it. Um, we need to accommodate growth. Um, two areas that are that are going to have a bigger impact from
growth would be Central and Lawrence Brookke. So, we want to be careful that we we want to make sure that we allow for growth in those areas. Um, and we um and the other thing too and this is the this is the more difficult thing. Okay, we wanted to try
to move as few students as possible. Um, depending on how you look at few, we'll we'll talk about that a little bit as it come. Um, so the question is we know we have to move a lot of students and I'll give you those numbers in a minute. But the bottom line is it worth over time to get
this done properly and get get this all organized right. So let me just show you first of all what the tentative if you would go to. Did I skip it? Okay. Ben vision. Okay. Okay. If we were
to go to um a a fully you know neighborhood schools contiguous boundaries it would look like this. Every every boundary would be um okay that would be Lawrence Brookke that would be Memorial that would be central. That would be Wines
Winestodorfer um Frost Irwin Chitik and um Bman Ban Monroe. So those are all consolidated boundaries. Okay. And in terms of enrollment they work. Okay. But again getting there is um is going to be
maybe a bit of a test. Um so I'm not going to I'll show you more boundaries later. Okay. So let's talk about movement. And this is probably the part of the discussion that's the most difficult. All right. In order to accomplish this as a whole, we need to
move about 854 students. And that's about 30 33% of your elementary population. That's a big number. And the problem the problem with that number is that there's no way to really do this peace meal. Okay? And
that's and that's a major decision on the part of the board. The plus of this, you know, the plus of this is that kids are coming back to their own their own neighborhoods. You know, a lot of times when I'm doing redistricting studies and we have to move kids out of an area but not do it in this manner, people say,
well, they're losing their f, you know, they're going to give up their friends. They're going to be out of their neighborhood. This kind of the opposite of that. Okay, I know that the children who've been in these schools for a long time made friends in those schools, but they also friends in their neighborhood. So again, it's a decision. It's a
trade-off. And the trade-off being um lowering transportation costs, making better use of facilities, shorter ride times, and consolidated and neighborhood schools. Um again, a difficult decision because of the total number of students
that have to be removed uh to be moved. Um and and I know that's that's difficult. That's that's kind of a difficult concept. So again, difficult to see. What this table is showing you are the puts and the takes. Meaning that the
kids the puts being kids being put into other schools the takes to the to puts being to receiving schools the takes to receive you know how many speak English okay how many children are moving to a school what school how many children are moving into a school it's it's a kind of
exchange and if we look at it um if we look at this if you look at you have the table there if you go across okay the tables across it'll show you the students that are moving out of a particular school. Okay. So, for example, in B bound Monroe, we'd have 14
children going to Chidik and four going to Frost. And I I also need to point out something else. Part of this realignment eliminates most of the crossover of Route 18. Chidik is on one side of 18, Frost, Bound Monroe, Irwin, they're all
on on one. There's only one school's a small crossover, and I think that's Chidik up north, but we basically eliminated that crossover. Um, not that kids walk across that, but the traffic lights and the traffic are are are an enormous problem. So, I think that's a that's another positive trade-off in
doing this. But again, so we're looking the we're looking at these numbers. Um, we have a total a total number of students moving out of their current school is 854 and the total number of students moving into a new school is 854. So, it's a balance. It's a zero sum gain on this
kind of a thing. But the bottom of this table tells you how many kids are moving to the proposed school and what the net gain in each building. The net enrollment in each building is so for example at the end of this ban Monroe would be plus 17 children.
Central would be would be minus five children and that's out of total enrollment. Okay. Um Chidik would be down would would have a drop of 21 children. Frost a drop of 20 children. Irwin and it's misspelled there. I'm sorry. There's a V. It should be a W. Um
47 children would go into Irwin. 83 would go into Lawrence Brookke. 81 would leave Memorial and 20 would leave Warren. So those so that so again when we take those numbers and we look at them and how they stack up against room
utilization and class size, they work. Okay. So now let's the next the next part of this. Okay. What the board what the board the board adopted in November I believe um um utilization
of fac of the fees the facility um uh the facility efficiency standard. Okay. Oh what? Okay. What? Let me explain what that means. The facility the facility efficiency standard the fees is comes
from the long range facility plan. Okay. What the long-range facility plan it's every 5 years the board has the board has to follow a long range facility plan. What that plan is it looks at every space in a school building instructional administrative service whatever. Okay. It looks at every space
and assigns a square footage to them. So what that and that square footage is based on certain parameters. So, for example, we're only concerned with classrooms in this study. That's what we're we're concerned with. And so, what the facility what the facility um efficiency plan
says that for grades K through four, an aotment of 36 square feet per child is allowed in a classroom. So, what they simply do is they take the square footage, divide it by 36, and say that's how many how many kids you can go into a classroom. Um, so that's and that's
again what the board that's what the board decided to do. Now boards have the right to have do anything they want with class size but for this study we were going with what the board board determined as policy in November and correct it was November right? Yeah. So anyway so from that what it's saying
okay for each building it's assigning of values to every grade level. So again and all it's just coincidentally all the kind kindergarten um kindergarten classes are assigned are assigned 20 kids maximum 20 kids in a classroom to
meet the fees standard. Okay. Okay. Then as you go through this thing you'll see that there are variations. Now now Bound Monroe has 17 17 in grades 1 through three and 19 in grades four. That's because there are differentiz classrooms in the building. So you see
differentiations in these numbers. It's just that there are some there are some rooms that are larger than other rooms and so they'll they'll give that number. So we used so what we used in this study is that we used that to determine the number of sections needed. We just took
the number of children in each grade level divided it by the the standard whether whatever the standard was target was and that's what we used and we tried we did not in this study we did not exceed that number but that doesn't mean
but it's but realistically we know that if you get a section of let's say you get a section of 18 kids um in in first grade in bound just using an example even though the standard is 17 you're likely not to split a class to to two sections of nine. So,
we know there's flexibility built into this thing. It's a standard. It's not a regulation. Okay? It's it's something that you you address too, but you're not bound by it because in New Jersey, theoretically, um theor you can go up to 30 kids in a class and not violate the
law. No one ever does that, but I'm just saying it's a standard. So we know that that standard gives us a target but not necessarily a final. So now what we did with that is we then determined the
number of sections required requ 13 sections in central we need 17 in Chidik we need 19 in frost 22. This is the number of sections per grade. Okay, what's clear in that? Um, Lawrence Brookke needs 21, Memorial 19, and um,
Warren Starker 20. So, this is the number of sections we need to meet that standard. Then we wanted to go back um and take a look at okay, if we use that standard, what are the average class sizes in each building? We want to see is there a huge
differentiation? Uh so if we take a look at that the um across the board average class size in in Bon Maro is 14 in central it's 18 in Chidik it's 16 Frost is 16 Irwin is 16 Lawrence Brookbrook is
20 Memorial is 18 and uh for 17 Monroe Bound Monroe because it has smaller classrooms is going to have some smaller class sizes on average but these would be the these would be the class sizes and They're well they're they're rather good and they're rather small. Okay. So
it what that tells me is that we can have some expansion. So for example we have 13 let's use kindergarten in bound Monroe. There are 13 kindergarten kids in this is just single sections by the way. There are 13 children in in that section. 20 is the cap. That means we
have room to grow seven kids in that in that section. So as grow so so and and that we do that across every grade level. So if you take the target, you take the actual number of children in that class and you look at the difference between the target, okay, and the actual um that's that's the amount
of growth. Yeah, we call that kind of vertical, we call that vertical capacity, you know, how much room do you have to grow in a group in a grade level and um again that's that's that tells you what you what you what you have. The next one is is the next slide then takes
this does this to complete analysis. If we're using the standard, what is the reality of what we need? So, if we're looking at at the number of actual rooms in a classroom, we take a look. We have two we have two schools with a very small deficit. Bound Monroe and um Irwin
that that if we just use that standard, they short one classroom, but we have enough vertical capacities. We didn't we didn't do that. Okay? We didn't say, "Okay, we're going to go to 18. We're going to create two sections because that would be misleading." So what we did is we left the vertical capacity. So
even though the re real if you just use the standard you're you're you have a deficit of one one room in each of those schools in reality you don't okay because you've got enough vertical capacity to deal with that. As far as the other schools are concerned, Central
has two um Chitik one plus uh Frost one um Lawrence Brook one memorial is even and Warren has two by the way just again excluded from all of this are our dedicated rooms. So we're not So meaning
that we excluded art rooms, we include excluded music rooms, we excluded uh special needs rooms because we know we need to have those. So we're only focusing on in this study the need for general general general education and
mainstream students. Main main mainstream special ed means students that are in main are in mainstream classes but may be pulled out for resource. So we we all of those rooms are set aside. So that's not even that's not an issue with the study. So okay. So
if we take if we what we believe and what you have to kind of evaluate and assess and there'll be more data given to you over over over time. This is just a presentation tonight. Um assess is can this be done? Do you want to stay with
the the the facility standard? Do you want to raise the target a little bit because these pretty generous targets? um that exists here. But again, that's those are board decisions. So, uh we think though that this certainly does eliminate the um eliminate the the
non-ontiguous boundaries, the island boundaries. We don't think that any school is disproportionately um uh impacted by the moves because the moves are in and out um and um with and and every every single school in the district is included. There's no no one
of this thing. um limited changes um you know over the course of a year occasion you may get a a bubble group that goes through and some accommodation you know you may may need for that bubble group as it flows flows through we haven't seen one here yet but it can happen so
and we don't you but again we think that even with unless if extreme extreme bubble group what I mean is one particular grade that's got a greater number than all the other grades around it so if you we believe that there's enough vertical capacity to accom accommodate anything but the most
extreme uh vert uh bubble group going through and so um just really quickly that's the substance of the data of this report again summarized everything there's a lot more behind it but okay so what I want to do here is just take a quick
tour of okay so here's here's bound Monroe the outline is the current boundary and you see it crosses it crosses The solid color is the proposed boundary. Get a chance to look. Okay.
Okay. This is This is Okay. The um Sorry, I have to laugh at this. It looks like It looks like a pussycat. Um and the black outline, this black outline is the current school boundary for Central. The solid colored area um represents the proposed boundary. So,
you can see that's a lot. Okay. Um, by the way, I have to tell you, I've been doing this for a lot of years. I've never seen anything like this. Um, now, by the way, I assume I assume this was done to relieve overcrowding many years ago. And no,
>> I don't want to know then. I don't want to know. Not important. It was a very long time ago. Okay. This is uh this again is Chidik. The black outline represents the current. The solid color represents the the proposed and again no
crossover of Route 18. Okay, this is Frost. We've shown that before by the way that area that below I think it's below Cranberry Road. Um there's there's nobody there. So it's just a nice color. Okay. Um we can
eliminate that in our next iteration. >> Excuse me. I grew up there. That that plate >> Well, there's something there. >> Yeah, that Yes, there is. My mother's house is there. They're not there. Were there no kids when we did this? There were no kids there, but we included it in. So that address will look the address is include. Yes. When you get the report of the boundaries and
addresses, your mom's house will be there. I promise. >> Mr. Haber, Dr. Brun loves to laugh. So she >> This is Win again. Um again, you see the old outline and and the new. Um this is um this is Lawrence Brookke. So we just
we just consolidated Lawrence Brook. We took that memorial boundary out of there. Um this is um Memorial and again you see Memorial has all of those all of those white spaces in those black lines are students located in those students going
to Memorial. Now the solid is what we're proposing and I think the last one is Wstofer and um Onstofer the Onstofer you see there's one area up north in the northeast part of the district that's that sends children to to Wsdorfer. We
did expand the ones offer boundary because of capacity. So the ones offer boundary basically goes from um goes from I guess Reva um Reva down to Cranberry. Okay. In in this proposal it also cuts off I know there was a corner a corner I
think was Dunhams and um um Yeah. Yeah. That where where kids could look at the school across the street. That's you. We changed that. You can't see the school anymore. Not. Okay. Um anyway, so that really is a summary of
this presentation. Um I think you guys have a lot to wrestle with and I'd be more than happy to answer your questions. >> Anybody else speechless? >> This is why I wanted you um I didn't give the board >> I'm sorry. >> I did not give the board your
presentation ahead of time. I wanted them to experience it in real time. >> Oh, it's not quite as funny on paper as it was up here. Um, I think that I think it's important. Two things are important. Review that. Okay? If you've got questions, filter filter them through Dr. Man or or Mr. Crotchfeld.
Filter them through them. They'll get to me and my my associate. My associate chickened out and making this meeting tonight. No. No. Actually, what happens we we the reason Tim isn't here sometimes board meetings are scheduled on the same night and we have to split up. So, he's at another board meeting in
Michigan. >> And you live in town. I'm sorry. I think it's important you didn't introduce yourself. You didn't say you were an East Brunswick resident. >> East. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> What about >> I thought it was important for the board to know and for the public to know that you live here
>> and you're not an outsider coming here. >> I'm a resident. So if you see me in ShopRight, please don't throw anything at me. >> Um yes, I've been I've been a resident in East Brunswick for 13 years. I don't have any children or grandchildren in the system. I left those to Dr. Madan in South Brunswick.
Um so any so I think I think it's critical though look at this ask the questions we will get back through Dr. Roman and Dr. and Mr. Crushfeld to get this to you. Um just by the way just um just I want to I don't want to talk a lot about myself but I
just want to tell you a couple one one or two things about myself. Um I'm not a dem by by definition I'm not a demographer. By definition I'm an educator. I spent a lot of my life as a classroom teacher, a college professor and a school administrator. So when I look at these things, I look at it from
an education point of view. I don't look at it from tape measure. I don't look at it statistically. I know that someone's going to look at this projection as they say, you know, you're only moving one child from this particular Well, no, let's not move that. Let's that one child stay there for some arrangement. I mean, I'm not suggesting that. What I'm
saying is that, you know, this is not done heartlessly. This is done knowing that these are not numbers we're moving around. We're moving children around. And that's that's always a consideration. Um, as you go through this, you're going to find things in it that you're going to come back and say, "What are you talking about?" But I'll try and answer them. Okay.
>> Anything else, >> Dr. Falco? >> I just wanted to thank you. This was um the the color maps and the outlines were really helpful visually to kind of get an idea of how things were. >> These are these are JPEGs. I'll produce them as PDFs
>> so they can be blown up and focused in on so you can really see the streets and you can see the address numbers and all those things. I won't put kids on them. We well we have kids on them because that's how we geocode but we don't want anybody else to know where these children live. So
>> that's great. I appreciate the PDFs because all my questions are going to be for Mr. Crotchfeld once I have that information. >> I have so many questions about transportation and who's getting bus where. I'm sorry sir. >> So >> on the on the maps I I'll I'll I'll create them in PDF PDFs and I'll send
them to you and then you can distribute them to the board members. Okay. Maybe a little comment on each one in terms of, you know, numbers and things like that. So, maybe a map with a little uh data set under it. Okay. Well, thank you very much. I have a long trip home. >> Mr. Mr. Wait, wait, wait, wait. You're
not You're not done quite yet, sir. Mr. Haber, >> hi. Oh, Mr. Haber, you're we still have some more questions for you. We still have some more questions for you. Is my mic on? Okay, sure. >> Yeah. Okay. Um, sorry. Um, thank you for the presentation. I appreciated the
color coordination because I'm a visual learner and I really I'm actually surprised that this went on for 40 years. I think right it's 40 years since the last one. >> I have some questions that I know the community is going to have because I'm thinking about it as if I was a mom who had my students going through one school
and now I find out >> a little bit louder. >> I'm asking what I know the communities are already wondering. >> Okay. >> My friends who are here and also the ones who are going to be watching this tomorrow. You said that initially everyone's going to think that there's an emotional impact on moving students
from what their zone school is right now and then to to the to the new district to the new redistricting school. You said that eventually that re people realize it's not actually as bad as they thought it was going to be. In your experience doing this when schools have
um redistricted, how long do you think it took for the kids to adjust to the new school and to the to that? Wait, wait. Two two-part question. And then my other question is, have you ever had schools grandfather in a certain grade and start later on start with the
initially with a different grade >> just to like for third graders for example, right? Y >> they're they've made it from kindergarten to third grade. Now they're going to fourth grade. It's a big deal moving up ceremony. Now two or three kids are going to get transferred to a different school and the remaining friends stay there. So that's my you
know >> Well, it's that's okay. The first thing is that I've never really gotten feedback. I've done about 240 school districts over the last 25 years. I've never gotten feedback of of any child having serious problems over this. And if if it was the childhood other
problems which were addressed by the school district that were not necessarily caused by the redistricting, >> the other question you asked is is very difficult. All right. Um in terms of grandfathering and I and I understand that and I'm I that's a board decision. I can only tell you the what I've seen
in my experience. Okay. And um I'm going to tell you why I think East Brunsw is is is unique. Um I've seen no grandfathering. Just that's it. You just go. Okay. I've seen some grand I've seen grandfathering where they take the rising grade and they let the rising
grade remain. But transportation is at the is is is is optional for the parents. Okay. that because what happens and it was what I mean by East Brunswick being unique is that could you imagine having to pick up three and four kids out of these areas and then transport
them to you know like there are three kids up in the um in the Lawrence Brook area going down back down to Memorial. How do how do you bust that? How do you how do you how do you conserve course? So I've seen districts say okay if the parent wants the child can stay but the parent has to provide transportation.
Okay. Um and um I've I truthfully I've never seen anyone actually have board provided transportation where it's it's always kind of been optional. I get a question well if my rising fourth grader is going but he's
got a sibling in the school. Okay. Um most in most cases where the option is given to the parent again my experience I'm not making a recommendation because you've got to make it free sponsor. My experience is that no to the sibling it's the cutoff is the rise in grade. So, you know, there are numbers of
options you can play with and you got to figure out what they mean. Okay? You know, if I tell you, well, if you, you know, you know, you can take a poll. Would you, you know, would you transport your child? You know, and I, again, I don't want to get into that because that's really something you guys have to think about. It's really wasn't in the
four corners of the study, but um, but it's something, yes, that always comes up. Okay. >> Dr. Wilber Wilbur, sorry. >> Thanks. Um yeah, thank thanks for that. Um I actually really appreciate it that Dr.
Mammon wanted us to experience this in real time. So lots of experiencing going on right over here. >> Yeah. So um I I wanted to ask some questions. >> Speak up. >> Oh. Oh, I'm trying to use the mic. No. Okay. Oh, someone want to say a question?
>> Yeah. Yeah, I I'll speak louder. Sorry. Um, in terms of um the assumptions with the new construction, um, I just wanted to get more clarity on which projects you took into account. Does, uh, it sounds like you took, uh, into account
uh, the redevelopment up on the north end of Route 18. Does this include uh, what may or may not be what might be done with the with the mall? >> What what I did I got from planning and zoning. They gave me a very very comprehensive list. >> Okay. what what I project on are things
that we know are going to happen. I don't project on speculation. >> Okay? So, I know I know the big development on on on Tyson and 18, the one further down on 18, I know those are real. I know there's a third one that's real. Ones that are are at the um
proposal stage or the exploratory stage. No, because first of all, many many times they just don't happen for many reasons. The contractors don't get the get the funding. uh the environmental thing you know breaks down in them. So no what I'm projecting on what we know
exists and what's being constructed. Okay. Okay. Um thanks. Uh the second um uh uh questions just for my uh my knowledge um the various differentials between number of students per class is
is that solely based on classroom size or were there any other factors that went into that? Okay. What I'm based on is the is the is efficiency standard that was done by the state. That's what this report you can
look at this thing and you say well I know you know you as a board can say I know you really could put more than 17 kids in that classroom. >> You know I know you can. Okay. So so as as you look at that you say listen we're not as tight as we think. >> 17 is a very good number. 21 is not a
bad number for an elementary school either. So I needed to have a parameter. I I I just needed a parameter and the parameter was that and you guys the board adopted that. That's what I use. You can stay with that and this works. You can change it and that could work also. Remember class size is your is
your your choice as board. >> Okay. Thanks. Uh last question. Um I mean uh the the proposals um look great. Um, but eyeballing some of them, uh, there are some boundaries that are drawn that I know the idea is to keep
neighborhoods as neighborhoods, but there's some boundaries that are drawn that actually wind up splitting, you know, the natural neighborhood. And I appreciate that you live in town, so and I know we uh, you have an appreciation for this. How much room is there to modify these proposals or is >> I'm I'm how much room is there to uh,
ask for a modification to the proposed uh, plans, or is this what we got? So, as far as the boundary lines, >> is there wiggle room? Is there the ability to say instead of the boundary
line of two schools being split, you know, on the left side, the right side of the street, it includes both sides of the street. >> When we fine-tune the maps, that's something we take we take into consideration. Okay. So, you know, so yes, I've got some split streets in here that might, you know, might say, well,
maybe we shouldn't split the street. It's only for kids. let's move the line over that course over that street. We we're not you know if if >> depending on what what the board wants to do and say let's go with this model. Well then give really fine tune maps the maps I'm going to send you to be quite
good. You may look at them and say you may have questions about that. Could you just move this one street over? >> Mhm. >> And I may say no problem. I may say yeah move that one street over. It's 37 kids on the street. So, you know, so I mean, but again, that's requesting the maps was great because I think that's really
going to help you understand what this is about and then be able to fire questions back at me um regarding why what what was the logic of this? What was the reason for it? It may be well, you know, it can go either way. So, we'll go your way or maybe it was done because of the number of students. Okay.
Thanks. Yeah. Have a >> quick >> Thank you so much for your presentation. Um, can you just go back real quickly to the beginning because I want to make sure I I heard you correctly and I I'm afraid I may have misunderstood. All of the new development going in right now. So, all of these condos and apartments
did I don't think I heard you correctly, but that how does that number factor into we have to assume and anticipate, right, that there are going to be more children as a result of those new apartments. >> Yeah. >> So, we took it we we we assessed the
size of the development. We looked at the development in numbers of type of room, type of of of of unit. Was it was it a studio? Okay. No kids. Uh was it one? There are X number of one bedrooms. Almost no kids. Two
bedrooms has maybe a 28 in in let's just say u in one of the one of the main developments here. Two bedrooms in that type of unit has a 28. Three bedrooms has a 3.4. And that most so so a 3.4 100 units would yield 34 kids. And that's
how that's how that's how that's calculated. And then we add and then we don't necessarily we we don't necessarily add it. So add it in sense of saying okay next year we're going to get 100 new kids. The projection says 200 kids in school. So now it's 300.
Doesn't work like that. It filters in through the cohort because some of the cohort projection has es and flows. Okay. And also it takes into the fact the fact that kindergarten there's a mismatch between kindergarten and graduation. that may sometime you know get closer
but the still is that you're losing you you're basically losing 600 kids to 300 coming coming in so that also affects the admin flow remember kindergarten flows through it also affects the cohort so that's how that's how it's facing the parameters okay hope
I answered it >> I think so yeah I I'm I'll rewatch the tape tomorrow and it'll sink in um will at the end of this one other quick question will your uh study provide any sort of financial um financial measures
that we could take into consideration in terms of what may actually be saved as a result of these efforts. >> That's that was not the cost was not finance was not in the study. We can say we can say an estimate that you'll lose x number of buses or something like that. You'll cut transportation by so
much but the financial of that we don't provide. You know this may mean this may mean some changes in in staffing. I don't know if it will or it won't, but that's something also that you we save a number of teachers or we need to hire a number of teachers. Again, not within the four corners of a study.
>> Yeah, I I if I can just chime in, Tim, I think what we're going to have to do is take the detailed analysis compared to what we currently have as far as staffing and class size and and everything. That's one piece. And then on the transport transportation, we're
going to have to develop those new routes and see what the net impact is on the number of routes that we have to run. That's going to be a little bit time consuming because we have to run our routes but also do a couple various scenarios and say and then apply
financial basis to it whether it's contracted routes or internal. So this is very much like step one and to get there we need to do like 20 more steps you know so >> it's going to be a process.
>> Yeah. >> Anything else? >> Sure. >> Yes. >> I think it's important for the public to know that this is not anything that we want to make a decision for September this year or anything like that. Not at
all. I just save the emails, please. It's it's at least a year to even just see is this feasible and to do the back end that we need to do. I just thought that the demographers have done this work and it was really important for the
public to hear it for the board to hear it and then we can start the work. So this is step one of 20, right Joe? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. Dr. to figure out >> just based on on what uh Tim had been mentioning before, the metrics you're
using to determine the amount of children coming into the district, are they pretty much standard metrics? I'm >> sorry. >> They're standard metrics. In other words, >> yeah, it's Yeah, >> we're not determining a high functioning district or a district that might be more sought after than than one that
maybe doesn't have education, you know, as preliminary >> relates more to value of property. >> Okay. I'm sorry. >> It relates more to value of property. Property. Okay. Which >> kind of ties into what you said. >> That's what I'm That's what I'm trying to figure. Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. And thank you for your presentation.
>> Okay. >> Thank you. I think you're off the hook. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> At this point, a little helps, right? >> Good night, everybody. >> Good night. Thank you. >> Okay. I I think Dr. Bronn, if it's okay to share, I believe the last time we
redistricted, Dr. Braun was a student. Yeah. Okay. So, >> I believe it was like >> Oh, I killed my microphone. Um, yeah, it was around 1973. >> Okay. >> Um, there was actually it was done again
in in ' 83 because they closed Irwin very briefly and so those kids got sent different places. But yeah, I think it was 1973. I was at Warren Stafer and um and then because Colonial Oaks opened and I'm pointing at Maryanne because you
know her parents bought there. Thank you. Um because Colonial Oaks was being built uh I got redistricted so I was I ended up at Frost. >> For the record, I wasn't even born yet. I >> I know you weren't born. >> Wait, but how did you feel about getting redistricted?
>> Oh, it sucked. Oh, am I allowed to say that on microphone? No, it really did. I mean, as a kid, that's that's miserable, you know? I mean, I'm not going to lie. I I think I grew up to be a a functioning member of society, more more or less, but I mean,
>> no, I don't think Yeah. No, it's it's um it's not something that we take lightly >> talking about this because it has an impact. No matter, you know, how much you want to do um to shield kids from
disruption, it it happens. And I mean, I I still kind of hold a grudge since 1973, the people who made that decision. But um but Frost did have a better playground so you know so it worked out okay.
>> Yeah. I and I know this resonates with Dr. Brun because when we were leaving the meet and greet the other night at Frost she actually mentioned it which is why I know and it's still bothering her all these years later. >> I know that's like maybe that's a psychological thing I need to still work on. I don't know. But ju just so that
the community knows we we take this very very seriously because it it's a big deal. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> You know, having to make new friends and just just having something different. >> Yeah. And with all things I think it's, you know, you go through a pain period
in order to get to where you need to be. Mrs. Evola, >> if I could just give one more um one more comment. Eventually they all end up in Hammershield, right? and they all go to Churchill and then they all go to the high school. So, >> it's not I >> I don't want to pull up the year, but it
in 1972 it might have been harder to communicate with your friends that you had in your classes because there's no there was no social media. There's no playdates. There's no sports, dance, gymn I could go on forever. >> Yeah. Cell phones hadn't been invented, >> right? They weren't there. They weren't there. >> Were they? Actually, we should try and find out. But I think that
>> when we're introducing it to the community, it's important for them to know like this isn't forever. you you got three grades here and then you're going to be with them again in Hammershield cuz um I think that's important too. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> I'm sorry. Dr. Fero, did you want to say
something? >> We used to ride our horses to each other's house. >> I told you. I wanted everyone else. >> Yeah, >> that's what I read in the history book. I don't know anything about it. I wasn't born yet. >> Okay. Um Okay. So, thank you for hearing
us speak. Now it's your turn. The board of education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest. To protect the privacy of all students and staff, concerns regarding individual
students and staff members should generally be addressed by first meeting with the appropriate administrative staff. Public participation is governed by the rules outlined in the agenda. A participant is limited to three minutes. Uh, if you would like to speak, you may
do so now by going to the podium and please state your name and address. Unless you're a student, only state your name and school. >> Hello, Allegra Sidler, 12 South Woodland Avenue. Uh, first of all, I just want to say, you know, I've been up here a lot. I've been to almost every meeting since
November of 2024, and the vibe in here has changed a lot, and it's a lot more comfortable. I thank you all for that. Um, I actually wanted to say something really positive about the opportunity my daughter has had as being a part of the CKLA pilot in second grade. Um, her love
for going to school was dwindling for the last two years, which I have shared here before. Um, she went into kindergarten reading and she loves to learn. Every single day she is coming home telling us what she's learning in
school and some of the things are amazing me. What she's retaining is amazing me and it's really amazing all of our friends and family as well. Some of the things she's talked about yes are the fairy tales and the tall tales but a lot of it is about ancient Greece, Greek
myths. Uh she talks about Socrates and philosophers and the birthplace of democracy. One day she came home and she said to my husband, "Daddy, guess what we learned about today?" And he heard all these things that she's been talking about before. So he just took a wild guess, really not knowing. He goes,
"Alexander the Great." And she goes, "Yes, actually I did." And then she starts telling him about Alexander the Great. And then my son who's in kindergarten and he's not part of the pilot. He wants to know, "What did Emma learn about at school today?" >> And we talk about things like this all
the time. My kids do not have like iPads or screen time or anything like that. So, we're in the car and we're talking and they're looking out the window and one day we went into the city. Why did we go into the city? Because I took them to the Metropolitan Museum to see the ancient Greek and ancient Egypt
exhibits. >> Why did I do that? Because my daughter's talking about ancient Greece all the time. And my son, he's younger. He's listening to her. He's looking at the map and she's looking at the map and she points out, "This is the ANC." I mean, I don't know a second grader saying that.
Then she starts telling us how the Aian Sea got its name, King Aius and this and this is a you know what's a Greek myth and what's that? And my son is like wow this is really cool I want to learn this too. So I know a little bit about CKLA. So I went on core knowledge.org which
I've been on before and I said let's look at a previous lesson and it's ancient Egypt and I went through the whole thing with them and they're looking at the pictures and that is how I decided you know we are going to the Metropolitan Museum and we are going to see this exhibit and they went in there.
They're six and seven. I know that's a good joke for everyone. They love to do it. They brought their notebooks and they were drawing. I have pictures to print. My my mom had to come um I usually have a timer here myself, but I really wanted to share this with you.
This is just I have points here and >> and that's it. You know, on the way in they're to the city. They're looking out the window and they see the cityscape and my daughter's like, "Did you know New York City is urban and this is suburban and this is this?" So, I just really know you have a lot of hard decisions to make, but please take that
into consideration. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Sidler. >> Now, I can't get it. or anyone else wishing to address stuff. >> Sorry, >> Joe. Joe, we're going to have to talk about the alarm. Okay. Like Matt, what's the deal with this alarm? Can we
>> That was not my alarm. >> He's younger than me. He doesn't know how to even turn off. >> He He used to ride horses. The ones with >> Hi. >> Hi, >> Rose Cruz 22 Perry. I always like to
bring props because it kind of brings the message home. Um, on top of what Algra said about literacy, um, CKLA pilot is going fantastic at Lawrenbrook and I I you know, I can't say enough about it. I raved about it in my survey, which
you'll see. Um, these are not around anymore. Like there are still words on the cereal boxes, but we put them in Rubbermaid containers because we're, you know, efficient and all that. So, um, there are not newspapers, there are no magazines,
nothing is laying around for kids to learn how to read. Um, and that's not the district's fault. That's just what it is. That's how life is now. So, it really is so important that we give them the explicit instruction that they need to learn how to read. It's just the most
important thing. And I didn't know what I was missing until this pilot came around. I really didn't. I thought, "My kids are doing fine, you know, they're good." Um, but same as Allegra's kids, they're just so excited about learning every day. They pick up the books and
read on their own on the all the time. Um, that's not all I wanted to talk about. I also wanted to give uh a quick shout out about CPAG, the special education parent advisory group. We're a parentled volunteer
organization, a statemandated group, and we meet monthly um sometimes more than monthly to uh talk with parents about whatever issues are going on. Um we have workshops. Uh we've had virtual
workshops and inerson in-person workshops. We had a resource fair in the fall. We also have a transition resource fair coming up in March. Um, next week is our virtual town hall and the following week we have a virtual lunch
and learn with the state special education onbudsman. That will be very interesting. Um, and just we exist because this world was not built for our children and we have to
make the environment work for them. Um, so aside from how the world is now and how the world is not anymore, um, we had the pandemic
and all the kids that have been born in the past decade had their early childhood years severely impacted by this stress and isolation of this thing and it's going to affect them for the rest of their lives. So that's just one more thing that needs to be considered.
when we're making our decisions in this district. Thank you. >> I don't want to. >> Thank you. Thank you, Rose. Is there anyone else wishing to address the board this evening? >> No. Going once, going twice?
>> Okay. >> It's not aggressive enough, right? Okay. So, we are moving right along to our agenda. Madame President, may I make a motion to table um item number one under board of
education, the school calendar? >> Motion. >> Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Second. Okay. >> And then we would be bringing that back. >> It's not tabled permanently. It has correct just to give us time to discuss further.
>> Right. But I just wanted to make sure that was the correct motion. >> The right one. >> Okay. Thank you. Can we safely tell can we safely say that we will we will be going back to school before Labor Day so at least families can start planning because I know that's a major question. >> Yeah. >> Yes, please. >> Okay.
>> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Falco. Uh so Jamie and then Lori. >> Okay. All right. So this is discussion. >> I think we Yeah, this is a voice vote. >> Okay. >> Table. All in favor?
>> I I opposed. abstensions. Motion carries. So that's tabled. >> Okay. Oh yeah. So board of education item two. Um do we have a motion? >> Move. >> Second. >> Wilbur then J.
>> Discussion. >> That's also a voice vote. So all in favor >> I >> opposed. Abstension. >> Abstension please on the closed session minutes. closed session >> on the 22nd. >> Oh yes.
>> On closed. Okay. >> Okay. >> And then >> and then uh Yes. So that's motion carries. Yes. >> Okay. >> So can I just make a note on so on the business and uh support operations. Uh in the agenda as posted there were 10
items. We are adding item number 11 which is a shared service agreement with the township for the use of the ICE arena. And the 12th item will be a shared service agreement for the school district to provide uh transportation
for the township summer camps. So if you're going to do everything, it's uh 1 to 12. >> Okay. So business and support operations items 1 through 12. Motion >> move. second. >> Jamie, then Wilbur. Uh, discussion.
>> Can go ahead, >> Wilbur. Okay. >> Um, yeah, I I just wanted to comment on the two items that were added on. Uh, the uh shared service agreement for uh the ice arena, um, which I hear is wonderful. I've seen it in construction. I haven't had a chance to see it now
that it's open, but I'm looking forward to that. um and uh the uh the transportation services which we've done in the past. But I just want to note that um I think this is a really uh uh you know good sign of the partnership that we have with the township. Um and
uh I'm looking forward to uh continuing that on I don't know if anyone else wants to comment. >> Could I make a comment? >> Yes, of course. I think it's important for the public to also recognize the board for the support in doing this. Um,
and also the township, it's a it's a team effort. Um, you know, a lot went into it back and forth, but it's for the betterment of the community as a whole. Uh, and it it's reflective of the board's direction moving forward. So, I I think it's important to recognize
that. >> Yeah. I I'm guessing everybody feels the same way because everyone's nodding. So, yes. >> Yes. Okay. So, this one's a roll call vote because of item nine. Okay. Senator Anna Braun, >> yes. >> Timothy Cummings,
>> yes. >> Antonyet Avola, >> yes. >> Jamie Falco, >> yes. >> Lewis Figureroa, >> yes. >> Lori Hera, >> yes. >> Wilbur Pan, >> yes. >> Maryanne Tenos, >> yes. >> Motion carries. Okay. All right. Moving
on to uh human resources. >> There's curriculum on >> curriculum and instruction. >> Do we have a motion? >> Move. >> Second. Wilbur and Jamie. Uh, discussion. Okay. Showing this is a voice vote. Oh,
sorry, Antonet. >> I just wanted to thank the EBF EBF for all their support for our schools. This is just another thing that we're going to be experiencing things that are generosity and I think that needs to be recognized. >> Agreed. Agreed.
>> Any more discussion? Okay, this one is a voice vote. So all in favor I >> opposed abstensions. Motion carries. >> All right. So one comment uh human resources. Uh I just want the board to note that the director of financial
services assistant business administrator is currently listed under the non-certificated staff portion of the agenda. Uh the minutes once if it's approved will be uh it will be reflected under the certificated portion. In order to hold that position, the state requires a certification. And it should
be in the certificated portion of the agenda. >> All right. So, it's just the one item. Do we have a motion? >> Move. >> Second. No, Jamie. Discussion. Okay. This is a roll call vote. Also,
>> Anna Brown, >> yes. >> Timothy Cummings, >> yes. >> Antineta, >> yes. >> Jamie Falco, >> yes. >> Lewis Figuro, >> yes. >> Lori Herrick, >> yes. >> Wilbur Pan, >> yes. >> Maryanne Tananiel, >> yes. Motion carries.
Great. Student services. Do we have a motion? >> Move. >> Second. Kilber. Then Jamie. You guys are getting slower. >> Discussion. I believe there's a typo on the um fire drill report.
>> Yes. >> For Cheddick. Um they had an evacuation time of 1 minute and 80 seconds. Yeah, it should be 1 minute and 8 seconds. >> I'm okay. I just want to let you know I do read this stuff. >> Dy noted.
>> Good catch. >> Yeah. Any other discussion? Okay, so this one is a roll call vote as well. >> Anna Brown, >> yes. >> Timothy Cummings, >> yes. >> Anthony Bulock, >> yes. >> Jamie Falco, >> yes. >> Lewis Figurero, >> yes.
>> Lorie Herrick, >> yes. >> Wilbur Pan, >> yes. >> Maryanne, >> yes. Motion carries. All right, we are on to uh committee reports, information items, and for the good of the cause for the board. We'll start Wait, we'll start this side. Yeah.
Okay. Um just so everybody knows, I think you have a report for us for today, but uh Antonette is our legislative liaison for the year. So, um she's been she's going to be uh the new face in Trenton. So, >> hi everybody. Um I do have some
information. Uh last night many of our board members joined us on joined a uh NJSBA virtual meeting where Senator Gopal was able to join us and update us on on some information regarding the student. Honestly, there was so much information about special
education school funding formula and one of the things that they mentioned during last night's meeting was that there was a bill up for discussion for today in Trenton. So I took myself to Trenton and I was able to sit in the um Senate committee and urban affairs
meeting and they discussed several me uh several bills. One bill that they discussed which impact schools would be Senate 1807 if anyone's writing that down. And um this is a this is a bill that's focused on putting a expectation on
pilot programs when it comes to um the the taxes that the the the the town council would receive. So the municipality gets taxes from pilot program it would be 90% 5% goes to um
the um county. What this bill is trying to do is bridge the gap where it would put an expectation on the pilot program to go towards the schools. There was an amendment that was created right there at on the during the meeting and they
were able to move this bill and now it's going to go to the budget and appropriations committee. Now, this bill has been going back and forth for years, and I spoke with um Senator Singleton, who is the chair of the of this committee, and um they're hoping that
this will help ease the burden on on the tax um cuts that we've been experiencing. There was many people who were opposed to it. There were many people that were in favor of it. And it was really great to hear those who were in favor of it because it was a lot of districts like us who are experiencing
this type of burden. If I was to put my two cents in, which I did give it to uh Senator Singleton, it was they they amended this bill um from the original original bill to include commercial um pilots and residential pilots, which obviously the townships are going to
want to push back on that because the commercial pilots are not really impacting the schools. So, um it's a work in progress. As the updates come, I'll update you guys. But right now, that's where that's where it's headed. It's going into this next phase which um again once that's I'll I'll be paying
attention to that next meeting and once I go there then I'll update you guys. Thank you. >> Sorry. Well, can we can we just >> a quick question on that bill? Um uh are existing pilot pro programs going to be looped into that or are they grandfathered out?
>> So the bill the way it's worded there was amendments that were added today. The way it was worded was there would be a certain time time constraint for the the board of education and the township to create this partnership. I will say that I was very proud of us because while I was
there it there was obviously other districts who were you know experiencing their uh expressing their frustrations that the townships weren't wanting to participate and we have been building that uh bridge with the township obviously through the shared services and the hockey rink. I was very proud of
us that we already doing that without needing any legislation, but because it's on the bill, and I'm going to update you guys on what's going to be affecting the schools, I wanted to share it. So, one of the um one of the stipulations in the bill would be that the amendments was that the superintendent would be the one
negotiating with the township. And yeah, I know you like that one. And then she'd bring it to us and then there'd be a certain amount of days for us to vote on it. And if we didn't do it, the township was at their liberty to be able to do what they wanted to do moving forward.
And for existing um for existing pilots, I don't it's >> not in the bill. >> It's not in the bill. I didn't see that there. >> I can't imagine that they would do that because there's pilots that probably been 15 years already and they're like, "Let's be collect my coins. We're not going to do that." Um, and I think it I think that and I told Senator Singleton,
I think that it would be important for him to realize that the residential ones are really impacting the schools and that would be something because honestly our district is not experiencing such a such a hardship in the township itself that they would need that that um that
they we'd be hurting them. But there are other districts that rely on that pilot money from the commercial uh the the commercial um contracts. So I could see why the developers would be pushing back on that. So for me it made sense not to especially for a township to now have to
handle the percentages. I did like one part of the bill that said that for the residential part it would just be asking for them to cover the students that'd be coming in from those which I think is fair because you know you don't want to say give me 5% if you don't need 5%. Um, so I thought that was a fair part of the
bill, but again, it's all it's it'll go to a budget and appropriations, and if it goes in the way it usually goes with a bill, it's going to go right back to them for them to amend it. So, it's going to play pingpong until we get support in the assembly. So, if you want to take a look at the bill again, it's Senate 1807. If you actually want to
listen to the testimony, they have it archived on the website. I can give you the link if you want and you can hear it. It was very, very fascinating. There was other stuff that was on it, but it wasn't about the schools. Thank you, Antina. And thank you for doing that so quickly because you just found
out about this meeting last night. >> Dr. Fero, you want you're good. Okay. >> All right. Uh February is Black History Month. I just want to acknowledge and share my appreciation for our uh Black American neighbors, the contributions
they've given to us. Um it is a century of black history commemorations is the theme. So uh with the centennial um anniversary I just wanted to bring that to light. Also wanted to express warm wishes for a happy lunar new year on the
17th. The 18th of February is the beginning of Ramadan. I wish my neighbors a peaceful fasting season. Also the beginning of the Lenton season for Catholics. um also a time where we um try to provide service or give
something up. Um so I will just lean into what I love is serving this community and I wish everyone a peaceful holiday season if you're celebrating. Thank you. >> And and just a shout out to Dr. Falco because uh in that meeting with Senator Gopal yesterday, she made a statement
and he said, "Please connect with me because I want to learn more." So thank you for everything you're about to do for the state. at Wilbur. >> Okay. So, um uh so Lunar New Year is coming up. Um there's going to be a
celebration at the East Brunswick Public Library on Saturday, February 7th, uh from 11:30 through most of the afternoon, uh noon. It's uh being sponsored by the EB Arts Coalition and uh AAPI of East Brunswick, um also known as the APIA Alliance. It's going to be a
blast. Um you know, please come and and uh and check it out. Um, for those of you who don't know much about uh, Lunar New Year, this is the holiday for a good chunk of Asia and for Asian-Americans, th those of us living uh, here. Um, and
just to put things in context, if you were to ask um, uh, you folks um, how important is Lunar New Year, they would stick it up there with Easter um, for the Christian community, Yam Kapoor for the Jewish um, uh, community. Um but
there's a lot of celebration that goes on and uh those of you who've attended this in years past will know that uh it's a really uh great time. I know that some of our students will also be uh participating in that uh uh in that celebration as as well. Um I also wanted
to um uh mention uh international night at uh at Hammershold uh because Antonet's too shy. I never thought I would say that but there you go. Uh Antonet was too Antonet's too shy to um uh to mention it, but it that also was a blast. And
we've talked a lot about the diversity of our community, excuse me, uh tonight and how wonderful uh it is. Um and uh uh and and it was great to just see the the school the Hammershel community come
out. Uh the PTO the PTA folks did a wonderful job putting it together. There is a tremendous show uh that happened at the at the jam-pack where the students got to perform that that that was terrific. The place was uh packed. They had such a good time. Was happy that um
we were able to uh participate and so shout out to all the PTA people that uh that put that thing together. Hope it becomes a tradition. Um and uh and my last thing um and I you know kind of don't want to talk about this because th
those of you who know me know that I'm generally a glass uh glass half full type of guy. Um but um speaking of the diversity in our uh uh community, there have been some recent events that um uh have caused concern um among certain uh
among uh different populations in our community. I know this because people have been coming up to me and asking questions. I know that other folks have been uh asked asked that, but um the the recent events uh in cities like Minnesota is is is one of them. Um and I
did bring this up at a board meeting uh some months ago, but there are two things that have happened since then. I think it's worth just re um uh rebringing this up for discussion. one is that we have a new superintendent doing a great job. Um, and the second is that Governor Governor Murphy Murphy
signed the New Jersey safe communities uh act um which uh um among various uh other things that it does. It establishes schools as uh safe uh zones. So, I was wondering if we could just revisit um uh uh what um you know what
what our uh um approach is should I come to one of our schools. And I recognize that we don't want to talk about everything, but whatever uh we may be comfortable talking about just to reassure the public. So, um,
consistent with, um, the rule of law, obviously for all of our, uh, LEAs, the local educational agencies, we have to honor, um, valid judicial search or arrest warrants or court orders and
subpoenas signed by a judge. The first priority is make is protecting the safety and mental health of our students. And you know, we we had the the the the the district had something out in 2024. I
recently sent something out to um our administrators to share with their staff. If a student shares a concern um regarding ICE, we are um immediately um directing them to a counselor and we have wraparound services. And that
that's all I'm going to say about that. ICE is not permitted um in our building without permission. It is there they're there are not there has to be permission from the superintendent's office. There are things that I have to verify and um talk to the attorney and show the
attorney to determine what's real and what isn't. And so that too we we're very um we're very cognizant of. And we do not um we're not required to provide information about students. We don't do that generally and we won't do that not
even for um ICE about students attendance locations or even to make them available on the spot like that's not we're not allowed to do that. So I just want um we have to consult legal counsel before we do anything. I just want to hopefully maybe that um gives
parents some level of comfort. It is it's hard even our our staff knows that even if someone comes identifying themselves as an agent they have to produce credentials. We have a whole check thing in place. We know what to
do. We know who to call. We know how to verify all of this. Even our legal team will review the court order if at all before they even allowed to come in. So I just um they have a legal right to to come on school grounds um for parents or
adults but for our children no. So um hopefully there's a whole other stuff but I that's just like a summary of it. >> Great. Yeah. Uh thank thanks a lot. Um uh I I I hope that will you know bring
uh some level of comfort to uh families who have this uh on on on their mind. And I just want to finish on a personal note. I don't want to really repeat stories that people have told me, but I can uh speak from, you know, personal experience. Living in East Brunswick is wonderful because of the diversity. You
know, we we were looking for that, my my wife and I, when we were looking for a place um to live when our when our first son was was born. And that was a thing that was important and it's been a great thing overall. But um East Brunswick is
um because of our community um potentially could be a target for for things and I know personally I've actually experienced this first firsthand. Um, I was accosted in uh at the grocery store uh when COVID was
going on and being asked to, you know, attest to why I had something to do with it. Apparently, um, my wife has been um, shouted at by cars that slowed down in front of our house to yell at her to go back to her country and all she was
doing was yard work. Um and uh and and those are just two examples of things that uh I can attest to personally. Um so it's not that this is a bad place to live, but we have to be realistic in terms of uh the the environment that
we're in now. And um and I'll I'll I'm not carrying my passport around, but I think about it every day when I leave the house. So and that's one thing I just have to deal with that many people don't. and and and that's the world that we live in today. So, thanks.
>> Thank you, Wilbur. >> Yeah, I'm just going to switch gears a little bit here. Um the uh East Brunswick Sustainability Task Force and the East Brunswick Public Library, their last uh repair cafe got uh postponed. It was on that crazy snow day. So, it is
rescheduled for February 22nd. uh great opportunity to bring anything you you maybe need to have repaired and uh great community event as well. So strongly encourage people to come out and meet you know wonderful uh individuals who are associated with these organizations.
So that is all. Thank you. >> First Wilbur I just want to say thank you for sharing your experiences but I'm also sorry that you had those experiences. I know but you know here you know Um,
so, um, on Sunday I went to, uh, the Church Hill Honor Honors Orchestra performs with the East Brunswick Symphony Orchestra. I know that was part of your superintendent report. They did a fantastic job. It was a really great afternoon of music. Um, so yesterday I
feel like there was quite a few of us like running around because we were at Warstoffer for the meet and greet and then we joined the New Jersey school boards association call with Senator Gopal and I was really happy that we had again like a good East Brunswick showing
and so I think they realized that uh that we definitely although we didn't get some of the answers I think that we wanted we're uh it's just going to push our advocacy efforts more. So that's that. Um and then I ran over to the new hockey rink. I saw you were there. I saw
Karen was there as well. Um it was a really great experience. I think I when I got there, it was just about the second period and it was a really great game and it's a really beautiful rink. I also did like the walkthrough before it opened and it's amazing how much it's um
come along. But it was really great for their senior night and to see um them win and it was such a strong turnout from the community when I got there. I couldn't even find a place to park. I had to go over to lose >> and then there was nowhere to stand um because it was so crowded with students.
There were so many um and families and so I I went up to the top and and was standing and it was it was amazing. So, um, yes, they they won and it was a great victory and so I was I thought that was amazing. Um, I also just want to go back to Wilbur's, uh, point about
international night cuz at Hughes it was really amazing. I have a favorite table, but I won't talk about that and some favorite food, but I don't want to play favorites. So, but I do want to share something else that happened that I think you guys would all think is kind of cute. when I was walking in when it
started, there was a a young boy next to me with his dad and they were like walking in and he of course I had to be in fifth grade um because of what of what happened. But he looked at me and said every he's like this school is so big like this school is huge. It's just
so huge. And I I was like yeah it's like it is a big school. You're right. And his dad like looked at him and was like you come to school here every day like you know how big it is. and he's like, "But it's just every time I walk in here, it's so big. I just love it." And I actually then talked to to Wilbur um
afterwards and I was like, I couldn't just the excitement that he had to come back at night to the school that he goes to during the day, I just think speaks volumes of what happens in that school during the day and how much kids love it. And we were actually talking about how we don't like love to open our
laptops to work that much every day when I talked to to Wilbur about it. So, we it was really cute. Um and then I just um wanted to give an update. So I am now the chair of the curriculum committee. I have um collected some initial thoughts
and priorities from committee members and I will be speaking with Dr. Bolley to begin those discussions. So more to come on that soon. So that's it. >> And to recruit more. >> Oh yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. We're gonna we we're going
to talk about um how we're going to recruit some people and pick and have good meetings and have good discussions and I'm looking forward to that. Great. >> Thanks. Sorry. >> Um so before Dr. Brun begins, Dr. Braun
is our new uh arts coalition commission arts representative from the board arts chair. um as our you know continued commitment to the arts and to working with the township and who better to do so than Dr. Brun.
>> Yeah, pretty much. Uh again, I just want to jump in there and say how proud I was of the Church Hill Advanced Orchestra on Sunday um performing at the uh East Brunswick Symphony's Winter Serenade. Um, and what
I was most happy about, obviously, because the kids did a great job, um, our teachers were also participating in the orchestra there. So, they're not just just teachers, they also play professionally. And the U conductor made
a remark about the orchestra behind him that we all started in our school orchestras. And all of these people on the stage have been playing, you know, forever. There were a lot of silveredhaired um uh
musicians. So even if you started at Frost School um 50 years ago playing viola, uh that's not something that you have to stop doing. You know, you can once you learn an instrument, you have it forever. So I
was very proud of them. And um the arts coalition has quite a number of events coming up um which I highly encourage uh people to take their kids to. The Lunar New Year celebration coming up um in collaboration with the Daisy Association
and Playhouse 22. Uh there'll be an introduction to theater event on Saturday, February 21st from 1 to 3 at the community arts center. And this will provide families with differently aabled children to enjoy a mini theater, a
little movie um experience in a judgmentfree zone, which is really lovely. And there's also Sunset uh BLV. I don't know if that's supposed to say Boulevard. Sunset Boulevard. >> Boulevard. >> Okay. I don't know. uh sun sunset uh
Boulevard mic night at Habib Motor Cafe on Tuesday the 24th from 6:00 to 8:30 and I understand they're going to be some high school kids performing there. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, I do see Would you like to add anything? >> Okay. All right. I guess that leaves me.
So, um at the risk of sounding awfully saccharine, um I just want to say I'm I'm so proud of like this entire board. Uh, I can't believe it's only been a month. A month. Yeah. Since we reorganized. I feel like it's been forever because of the amount of work
that has gone in. Um, this has been a lot of flipping tables, turning tides, and uh, it's been a little bit intense at times, but like really, I'm I really am so proud of everybody up here for how much the emails are back and forth and and the communication going on and the
text messages and the 5:00 a.m. 7 a.m. phone calls. Um, Yeah, it's wonderful. It's actually wonderful. Um, and I know you're doing it with each other, too. So, that's that's great. I love it. And, um, I just wanted to make sure the community hears that because those are the things that they don't get to see
because of the laws. But, um, everybody up here is hard at work. I mean, we were we were so well represented last night in that meeting. We had like six. Yeah. Six. Six. >> We didn't sit together. Wait, wait. We because No, no. I'm talking about the GO Paul meeting. Oh, yeah. That was Okay.
Yeah. Yeah. And the and then the amount of questions coming through and the the level of like rigor and intelligence of those questions and it was just it was amazing. Um so really thank you all. I'm I'm so proud and humbled to like be a
part of you. Um I also want to say thank you to the community because I love that you reach out to us and ask us questions. I love that you send emails. I love that there's a dialogue back and forth. I love Algra and Rose that you stood up here and gave positive feedback. Thank you. Um and and I love
hearing the negative feedback, too. I know we all do because we can't do better unless we know what's broken and how to fix it. So, um thank you. We're we're really grateful for um as as Algra said, like the vibe that has changed. So, um thank you everybody. And um I'm
wishing everyone not to reiterate what everyone has already said but I'm wishing everyone very nice holidays with all the holidays coming up and we will see you in two weeks here. Okay, we are motion to adjurnn. Move >> second.
>> Jamie Wilbur uh discussion. >> Okay. Um it's a voice vote, right? >> Okay. Uh all in favor? >> I opposed. Abstensions. Motion carries. Have a good evening.