and call this meeting to order i'm so sorry that I'm calling it to order to the back of your heads i promise we'll move in a moment um but could the secretary please call the role anna Braraw here timothy Cummings here jamie Falco here lewis Figureroa here lorie
Harrick here lee Wuhong here lorie Lax here wilbur Pan heather Guas here we have a quorum please rise to salute the flag i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay all right again I apologize for to the back of your heads uh the New Jersey
open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed and acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the East Brunswick Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published
by having the date time and place thereof posted at the Board of Education offices written notice was also provided to the Sentinel the New York Star Ledger the Home News Tribune and the Alternative Press of East Brunswick and the Municipal Clerk of East Brunswick all board of education
meetings with the exception of executive session discussions are videotaped for later broadcast it is the policy of the board of education that videotaped meetings are not edited for any purpose individuals who speak at the board's blessing board's public meeting should
be aware of these videotaping rules all right and we are moving to the wall of honor wall of honor good evening everyone i couldn't help but sit back there and think about if we
delivered this in the very back of the room behind your heads how Lesie would find that humorous um let me tell you a little bit about the Wall of Honor we're here to celebrate the
2025 Wall of Honor honore is Leslie Anderson she influenced our school district in extraordinary ways and throughout her time with us um she made substantial impact to this district and we're going to share those
details and her contributions later in this program but first just about the wall of honor this was constructed for the purpose of honoring individuals who have made a significant and extraordinary contribution to East Brunswick schools
the recognition committee is composed of members of the board of education the East Brunswick Education Association the East Brunswick Principles and Supervisors Association and was established to develop guidelines excuse me and criteria for
the selection of the honores and it's considered the highest honor our district awards the register of honors which is that big book over in the corner is it details the service history of the individuals who have been chosen
for this honor and that register allows us to memorialize the wonderful contributions of all of these individuals so at this time I would like to introduce Miss Heather Goss who is president of the board of education
good evening i do not have I do not have the experience of knowing Leslie Anderson in the way that many of you did um but I did have the honor of meeting her many times but there were two instances that resonated because it was so evident that for her teaching was an
art and a calling i had asked to tour the high school during the summer it was hot and sweaty and surprisingly not empty um loud excited voices were coming from one hall many and the kids heard us and came out and invited me a complete
stranger to them in to show me what they were doing i was completely intrigued and a little warm and who was teaching a group of kids there in the summer who were so excited about what they were doing and had the adult skills to come
out meet me and ask me if I wanted to be shown around it was Leslie a day later I received a letter from the robotics club president thanking me for taking the time to visit them and asked questions and explained what they were currently working on including their outreach to
preschoolers and offered to answer questions about activities or future plans and I was blown away because teaching children to explore and discover through robotics that's amazing but teaching children to interact successfully and gracefully with the
adult world that was Leslie a year later I had the pleasure of talking teaching on stage with Leslie while waiting for the NHS inductions to begin we had both started to begin teaching around the same time um and her enthusiasm and
energy was completely magnetic she spoke of her kids and smiled she laughed often she spoke with such pride and stopped our conversation repeatedly as her kids politely waited to ask her questions they were nervous and she was clearly their rock and their
guide and I walked away with two thoughts i wanted to be like her and I wanted my own children to have her as a teacher i am honored to be a part of her induction into the East Brunswick Wall of Honor leslie Anderson is what parents hope for what generations grow from and
what children need as a beacon a guide and an anchor and I know by the number of students I know by the number of students out in the world and in Espronza who are young adults and some who are well like adults adults who in their minds still consider themselves to be her kids that we were honored by her
presence and we are grateful to honor her tonight thank you [Applause] next I would like to introduce Dr dana Zimbicki who is president of the East
Brunswick Education Association thank you good evening everyone so tonight's bittersweet as we gather to celebrate the dedication and life work of our dear friend Leslie Anderson and I'm going to try not to cry
you got my So I know she's looking down on us right now and thinking "No not me you should choose somebody else it shouldn't be me." Because that's who Leslie was she was selfless this evening you're going to hear about Leslie's passion for
education and her incredible reach because she was so much more than a teacher but I want to talk about the person she was leslie was a rock to so many of course to her adoring husband Kevin to her parents and her family but
also to nearly every person she encountered one of the things that touched my soul so much about Leslie was her optimistic spirit the house could be on fire and she would sit there and calmly say "It's going to be okay we'll get through this." She never saw the
glass half empty she always saw it half full she radiated positivity and even in her own darkest moments she was a blessing to all of us while preparing this speech I
actually went back into my phone and I looked at some of our old text messages on a particular difficult day for the EBA she wrote to me "No problem you focus on the great stuff you're doing and thanks for letting me handle this
i've got you yep she did she had me she always did she was there for everyone leslie's reach was wide and deep a once-in-a-lifetime teacher if you were lucky enough to have her a multiple
club advisor at the high school a building rep a committee leader a leader in the East Brunswick Education Association the Middle Sex County Education Association the New Jersey Education Association and even the National Education
Association she was an advocate for all students colleagues administration family and even fur babies she had a gift for making others feel truly special
she would show up just when life was handing out lemons with her homemade sangria when my mom was in hospice at a particular horrible time she texted me "Enjoy the sangria and let everything
else wait to Monday." It meant so much because you need to have people like that in your life to say "Stop take a break." Right the other thing Leslie showed up at one o'clock in the morning at the administration building during a
tough negotiation session with arms full of her homemade cookies donuts and coffee and most special an inspirational note for the EBA negotiations team she was the right amount of positive just
what we needed to keep us going in the Wii hours she led by example she listened validated encouraged she helped people see reality and work through it and no matter the situation you walked
away from a conversation with Leslie feeling seen feeling heard and above all feeling special at the start of the 2018-19 school year Leslie gifted each of her EBA rep she was the chief rep at the
high school she gifted them with a little inspiration kit and she gave me one too and it hangs on my bulletin board right in front of my face with a little card and I look at it often and it was cute right just a little It was called the EBA building rep toolkit
there were pennies in it to remind you always put in your two cents there was a rubber band to say always stay flexible there was confetti i love this one when you feel like throwing something throw joy there were marbles to replace the ones
that you lose often and of course a Hershey's miniature chocolate and it said it's chocolate what else do I need to say this kit hangs there and it reminds me so much of her message her passion her
advocacy and to stay hopeful and to stay kind and to stay Leslie so tonight Leslie enjoys enjoins the incredible individuals on this wall of honor people who went far far far beyond
their district jobs but a few of them on this wall are a little extra golden just a little extra golden and Leslie is definitely going to be one of those little extra goldens so Leslie congratulations and we miss you
[Applause] and next we'll hear from Mr russ Patrol he's the vice president of the East Brunswick Principles and Supervisors Association good evening everyone this evening East Brunswick
public schools honor the legacy of Leslie Anderson by placing her amongst the other distinguished recipients on the wall of honor if any of the previous recipients are in attendance congratulations and welcome home it was in my role as an assistant principal at the high school from 2020 to 23 that I
got to work alongside Leslie and witness her many qualities that led us to being here this evening 3 years can seem like a short time but anyone who knew Leslie and who got taken in by her understands that it was more than enough to realize what a special person she is and
was leslie will undoubtedly be remembered for her empathy and fairness those two go together because she had a deep understanding of her colleagues struggles having endured plenty of her own and she still maintained a true north in terms of what was right and what excellence meant in
the context of an East Brunswick education she's held herself her fellow teachers her students and the administration to that standard some will likely remember Leslie as a person that had an unlimited enthusiasm for life which many times
meant a good party leslie was unlikely to miss a high school social gathering and was often the person that would ensure that no one went thirsty it is in this spirit that if something was if there was something that she enjoyed she wanted you to
experience it too i once stopped by Leslie's class to compliment her new car a beautiful Mazda Miata convertible without skipping a beat in her lesson she threw me the keys so that I could take it for a spin it was after the school day
as a member of the high school administrative team I will remember Leslie for possessing the rare ability to bring people together and foster a more unified and collaborative environment in an unhealthy school the teachers union and members of administration can have an unproductive
relationship this was not the case in Leslie's school as she would proudly proclaim it much to the sugarin of the principal in fact she would park in his spot when he wasn't there
[Laughter] in Leslie's school she reminded us the power of understanding collaboration excellence empathy and in recognizing the crucial contributions of all members of the school community
especially when it came to the connection between teachers and administrators her lasting impact will be the spirit of cooperation and mutual respect that she made a cornerstone of her career and that its core at its core this is a people
business leslie experienced a lifetime of achievement recognition and awards on behalf of the East Brunswick Principles and Supervisors Association congratulations Kevin on her receiving this well-deserved honor [Applause]
you've already heard a lot about Lesie but I'm going to uh add a little bit more to the story when you think about East Brunswick High School as you've already heard you cannot help but think about Leslie Anderson as part of the fabric of
that school's community she was involved as you've heard in every aspect of student and staff life ensuring that everyone was supported and encouraged to be their best and she truly was inspiring to all of
us lesie was first and foremost a science teacher in East Brunswick High School for 26 years she started her career teaching physics and chemistry and always wanted to jump in and help there's no surprise she also tackled being the yearbook adviser early in her
career as she continued in her career she became a leader in the chemistry department and the entire science department she not only taught every level of chemistry she taught them all well she could help a struggling student understand a basic chemistry concept one
period and the next period helped the most exceptional student understand content far beyond the high school curriculum she did it all in a supportive manner always encouraging always believing that her students could
and would succeed and that even happened on honor society induction night when it comes to lighting the candles lesie was instructing students on how to use that lighter properly long before we were all
forensic scientists from our hours of watching CSI Lesie had the vision to develop our very own crime scene investigation class and she spearheaded the addition of a now popular forensic science class at the high school
something she was incredibly proud of leslie was so much more than a science teacher she was a club adviser for every club that needed her and as you heard she was involved in everything key Club National Honor Society yearbook Science Honor Society and of course
robotics she was the driving force behind the Powderpuff football game which is now named in her honor and helped the school begin the Relay for Life charity events both of which have become a tradition we could never capture all the
hours she spent at the high school impacting the school the school climate in countless ways she was involved in everything that was good at East Brunswick High School no accommodation for Leslie would be complete without mention of her work with the East Brunswick Education
Association so Lesie as the grievance chairperson and I met on occasion about issues concerning staff but she was always a fierce advocate for her colleagues and she
always remained professional respectful and supportive of the district and we could all learn from her when working through disagreements while we are honor honoring Lesie tonight she is also honored by many
organizations throughout her time teaching she received the Bristol Meer Squib Fellowship Teachers Who Make Magic the Governor's Teacher Award and was an EBEF partner in excellence so as you know Leslie passed
away in August of 2022 and her untimely passing left a hole in our hearts and the hearts of the in hearts of the high school and if she were here tonight she would say as you've already heard she didn't need to be recognized that she did it all
because she loved the work she loved her students she loved her colleagues and she loved the school district and while she's not here to accept the word the award she is here with us in traditions activities and the great instruction that carries on
so her husband Kevin Monahan is here to accept the award on her behalf she is most deserving of being honored with a place on the East Brunswick Wall of Honor kevin
[Applause] all right you want to do the big reveal before you uh say your few words please thank you all
right boy [Applause] thanks Nicole thanks Dr bleski can we hear me back there thumbs up
okay thank you all the speeches have been very intuitive and well put together um so I'm going to take it a little more deeper it's my prerogative and good evening thanks for contacting me to attend the East
Brunswick wall of honor recognition ceremony leslie Anderson was He was a great person a phenomenal education professional and also a fearless and hardworking advocate for the cause leslie he was my loving
wife my counterpart go-to person favorite chef and my rock she certainly was gifted and not only possessed superpowers but infused her game with downright hard work being on time was always what
people expected but she was always early and driven by many students and those who valid her knowledge guidance and those who never gave up and if they thought they failed there was born a new opportunity to make it better
she also reached out to the wider student population and once again gave her precious time and skill set to make students activities work many people read letters books one of her faves proposals signs and whatever
popped up on social media at the moment she read people When you take away all the noise in the world we hopefully have each other for those who have had the opportunity to work with her even through yearbook robotics team and through many other
groups were able to benefit from her what great feedback reward it was for her i quoted a few times while at the high school but I was per damn leslie was not only smart and
genuine but she worked long hours and as once quoted never never give up thank you
[Applause] we thank you all for being here tonight to celebrate this moment this event along with Kevin and we'll have a few moments for you to all just share some personal comments while we rearrange
this room and get it ready for a board meeting thanks again everyone for coming and I know Lesie's watching this and u I hope she's approving because if she's not she would let us know they're thunder right now
all right so I'm sorry I'm a little out of order now okay thank you all right we are going to begin with the superintendent's report dr gillespie thank you President Guas good evening everyone again the artwork on display in
the boardroom this evening was created by students from Church Hill Junior High School the art teachers of these talented students are Darren Amy Greg Baron Shaina Fernandez Debbie Manuza and uh Kimberly Valdata matt Hannis is the principal
this past weekend the high school orchestra attended a national orchestra competition in Washington DC and the trip was extremely successful the group played very well and received a gold rating for their performance in
first place in the orchestra [Applause] category and there's more they also received the award for the best overall orchestra as well as the award for the high scores out of all the instrumental groups that participated in the festival
so congratulations to the EBHS orchestra on this outstanding achievement [Applause] east Brunswick's Director of Public Works Daniel Lo came to the Joan Magistro Performing Arts Center on Tuesday April 8th to give a presentation
on solid waste management to the Hammershield students as part of the grade 5 science trash power unit mr is a graduate of East Brunswick High School and provided insights on how the township utilizes its leaf
composting site recycling programs and the county landfill lo located here in East Brunswick and students ask great questions and we hope it was a memorable experience for them third grade students at Lawrence Brook Elementary participated in the
fire safety house program on April 8th the East Brunswick Fire Department sends a trailer to the school in which students learn about fire safety and how to safely exit a building if a fire is present there's a simulation of a fire
with smoke which is really fog so that students can truly understand the significance of safely leaving a situation quickly our students benefited from learning about vital fire prevention and fire escape techniques over the course of the next month all third grade
students in the district will have the opportunity to participate in the fire safety house central Elementary proudly celebrated student leadership on Wednesday April 2nd with their principal for a day of event
congratulations to Natley Heekristiano Sedek and who stepped up in the role and experienced the day of running the school and we commend their enthusiasm and participation in this unique learning opportunity this year the autism
committee at Chidik Elementary School took a unique approach to raising awareness and funds for autism support rather than purchasing t-shirts the committee designed and created custom autism awareness shirts using a Cricut machine which was made possible through
an EBEF grant thanks to this initiative Chitk Elementary School was able to donate $624.14 to Autism New Jersey so thank you to them [Applause]
in addition to the t-shirt project students collaborated with their buddy classes to create a beautiful flower wall display and each petal represented something that makes each individual unique and together they formed the shape of a unity symb I'm sorry infinity symbol which is a recognized symbol for
autism acceptance this meaningful display highlighted the importance of inclusivity and the celebration of differences within the school community in sports this week at the GMC sportsmanship lunchon the following
students were honored samantha Arnold who is on our field hockey and girls lacrosse teams was our female sportsmanship recipient silas Vega who is our on our boys lacrosse team and our was our male sportsmanship recipient and on Saturday
April 5th Silus also recorded his 500th career save for a boys lacrosse team grace Gagola who is on our field hockey and girls lacrosse teams was honored as the recipient of the 2025 GMC Kindness Council Award the
kindness council award was given on behalf of the Peters Fund and that's part of the Marissa Tafaro Foundation this award is presented to a student athlete who demonstrates compassion generosity kindness
sportsmanship inclusivity and empathy grace was nominated by her girls lacrosse coach and school counselor Jessica Allen the East Brunswick Athletic Program was also honored for the 2025
sportsmanship award for the entire GMC we were nominated because of the number of sportsmanship awards our teams have won each season this past year and then voted as the winner by the athletic directors in the
GMC congratulations to our March 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 of course for modeling exceptional character
i would also like to remind the community of some additional calendar changes for the school year if we do not use our one remaining emergency closing day by Friday May 23rd then Tuesday May 27th will be a
non-school day for students and 10-month staff i'm looking for the smiling faces of the students in district offices will be open governor Murphy has rescheduled the June 2025 primary election date from
June 3rd to June 10th the district has adjusted our school calendar as follows to accommodate this change Tuesday June 3rd will now be a full day for all students with lunch served for students in grades K through 12
but Tuesday June 10th will now be a single session day for all students with lunch served in grades K through six as a final reminder school will be closed beginning Monday April 14th through Friday April 18th for spring
break schools will reopen on Monday April 21st and I hope everyone has a very enjoyable spring break thank you thank you yeah oh and I as a I just want I'm sorry we also wanted to at the very
end of this I asked Mr juliana to recap from Tuesday's meeting the budgetary um changes we were making for the final budget adoption scheduled for the future and I wanted Mr julian just to recap
those briefly if you would before we wrap this up of course thank you so uh as a recap um the and I'll go through the list as we did the other evening uh the co-eing model uh for band and orchestra at Churchill uh has been
restored the co-eing model for band and orchestra at Hammershold is restored the Hammershel school schedule will remain in its current status uh one fine arts teaching position is reinstated that's uh shared
between Hammersold and the high school uh graduation uh transportation uh is reinstated uh and connected to that is the elimination of employee mileage reimbursements since that would not be
necessary the uh Church Hill late bus service is reinstated at one day per week if the board will recall we talked about um the utilization by students so that will um suffice the and the same holds true with
the high school late bus service that will be one day per week and Hammershold's late bus service will also be one day per week uh the restoration of uh full-time bus driver schedules uh to 8
hours a um reduction in teaching staff uh two positions uh at Hammershold uh due to a decrease in enrollment uh that is not affecting program uh reduction in summer staff development uh it will re uh still retain we will
still retain necessary summer staff development uh other areas uh will be uh deferred and this is for practical arts artificial intelligence flex arts education ILA K6 English 712 world
languages and ELLL science 712 science K6 math 712 math K6 social studies and health and PE uh two vacant currently vacant bus
driver positions uh will be abolished uh we will reestablish one part-time bus driver position at 7 and 3/4 hours uh per day and we will uh also be we are also
reducing uh transportation costs of approximately $110,000 as a result of contractors coming in with commitments at less than what the CPI was approved by the state uh we also have a reduction in
contractual professional memberships associated with reduction in administrative staff uh we have a reduction in contracted interpreter services a reduction in translation
services a reduction in the educ uh program a result of a con the um company uh providing us an adjusted quote that uh significantly reduced that cost uh summer academy celebration
uh is uh eliminated there is no summer academy for ESL so that will not that is not a necessary cost and the acquisition of Grape Seed a system a um curriculum for uh preK bilingual ESL uh will be
deferred um at the end of the discussion and these are all items that the board gave consensus to so will be reflected in the budget uh at the end of the discussion uh there were additional adjustments that would be required uh in the amount of
$27,32 and we've identified the following areas which um which will be re uh adjusted firstly we received additional notification from another bus contractor today uh indicating that uh they would renew the their bus contract
uh at 2% rather than the 3.6% 6% so that results in approximate a little over $10,000 of savings uh in transportation contracts in addition um looking at some
of the efficiencies and and um technology utilization um we are able to bring down uh further the postage usage uh by about by $3,000 and then also lastly um looking at our
unemployment reserve uh the funds that we put into the reserve will be able to reduce that by the balance needed of 13,486 so those items combined make up the difference uh that we had discussed the other day and all of that ties into
uh the second item on the business section of the agenda which is for board approval this evening the application uh to the department of education and Mr julian just to be clear they the the last items you referenced allow the
ninth grade um coaches stipens to remain in the budget and were identified in the discussion correct okay just uh so may I ask a question on that just so that also means that there would be no additional money towards tax levy correct other words those areas are covering those the
correct that is correct what we presented the other night Dr figueroa that number stays the same okay thank you and I have a question too um it's the four freshman sports and also the uh gymnastics there's two coaches for So there was no change of to those uh
coaches stipens they remain thank you yep [Music] okay thank you all right thank you right we have a resolution of appreciation and recognition is that a here or is that an up there let's do it up here that's an
up there it's freezing it's 42 degrees joyce loves it all right this is a resolution of appreciation for the East Brunswick Education Foundation 2025 partner in excellence whereas since its inception
in 1993 the East Bront Education Foundation has funded 1,771 grants amounting to over $3 million in funding for technology equipment cultural programs author's visits schoolwide cross-curricular
learning events hands-on materials many books and much more to complement teaching and learning throughout the district and whereas from July 2024 to March 2025 the foundation has awarded 50 grants amounting to uh
$111,000 towards its ongoing mission to enhance and enrich the curriculum for the students attending East Brunswick public schools and whereas its annual partner in excellence dinner on April 30th 2025 the foundation will celebrate this year's honores Jessica D benadetti
Lisa Verio Elizabeth Stanowitz Austin Castic Jr as well as the induction of Michael Sevil and Zach Morrison into the alumni hall of fame now therefore be it resolved that the East Brunswick Board of Education expresses its appreciation to the foundation and its supporters for
the generous and continuing commitment towards excellence in education and be it further resolved that the East Brunswick Board of Education recognizes and applauds the 2025 partner and excellence honores and the alumni hall of fame inductee on having been selected
by the foundation this year i need a motion for this and a second any discussion who's the second jimmy fighting over you're fighting over it i thought it was over here i
thought it was Jamie sorry any discussion okay the best time to being a board member is to appreciate the EBF every year each time
when I say those guys come here I'm very happy mhm so you guys already know that last year and this year we tried to save a few hundred to cut one program or one project look at this number more than $3
million and more than $1,077 projects and I believe last night you guys approved another almost 30 or $50,000 grand at this difficult time when the state
cutting our fund everything going up you guys contribution to this community to this school district to our student a tremendous help so you guys deserve recognition every year every month as a
board member as a parent as a taxpayer you know I want to thank you guys for the hard job you guys doing each time when I go to your monthly meeting I know you guys try to count every penny try to
raise every penny you know the everything is going up raising fund is getting more difficult but you guys and Jack and Reny's leadership still managed to come up such huge amount of money this is amazing you guys job make East
Brown really special thank you again randy Jack did you have some other people you wanted to bring up and introduce as well yes student Association liz can I can I quickly vote on that
motion oh sure i'm sorry all in favor opposed abstensions motion carries okay sorry thank you for present thanks for all that you guys do thank you appreciate you thank you for allowing us to do it
it is thank you so thank you to work with these guys to hide behind you thank you congratulations [Applause] appreciate All right I made it i wasn't sure I was going to be able to read the entire
thing without coughing almost took the tea with me all right so this brings us to the student representatives report but he is not with us this evening rishi is at le and we wish them luck and we are at the good of the cause
for the public 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 in order to permit the fair and orderly expression of such comment the board shall provide a period
for public comment at every meeting of the board residents are allowed to speak to for up to three minutes the timing will be kept by the board secretary we would request that when you step up to the mic that you state your name and address unless you are a student and then your
name in school is there anyone this evening wishing to address the board i got to bring this down to my size uh Antonet Evola 45 Merrill Avenue uh excuse how I'm dressed i just came from baseball i'm assuming you save baseball yes i don't know if you're allowed to answer
me um so I'm here tonight bec I'm actually glad that I was here tonight on a night that you guys unveiled such a special woman i didn't get to know her but that's the type of teacher that I moved to East Brunswick for and I'm worried that we're going to be losing a lot of Leslie's how many Leslie's are going to be cut from these buildings
because we are not budgeting properly i asked you last year at this time what are we doing to prepare for this year because I knew already it was going to be a show you already know the word I was going to say and I do not think you guys were prepared these are my This is my advice for next year because I'm
already thinking about next year in my own business in my house and you guys should be doing the same thing you need to focus on the top it is too topheavy i have talked spoken to so many board members so many administrators all over New Jersey i am all over New Jersey all
the time we have a lot of positions that are unnecessary you know what's necessary teachers you know why because they're on the front lines they're the ones that are going to give those students the experience that we all pay taxes for you guys are raising our taxes i knew that that was going to happen because the the presentation that you
gave us in February every single thing there you knew was going to make all of us come here and say "Don't do that save that leave those kids alone we need those teachers." And then you know what you did you turned around and you raised our taxes and all of you who have voted in here you live here your taxes are
going up too and it's not 232 232 if you have $10,000 in taxes how many people in this room have more than $10,000 in taxes is going to be way more than that for them and that's this year with 17% interest uh increase in electricity the food's up the gas is
pretty decent but you know what I'm saying it's not going to get less next year so you guys need to prepare next year we don't want to come back here next year and say save music don't turn Hammershield into an elementary school stop cutting sports these are the things literally right there three A's and all
you guys do is go for those things first you need to start looking at where you guys are have those six figures because those six six figures are taking multiple teacher jobs thank you thanks [Applause]
anyone else hello i'm Abbe Sha and I go to Church Hill i'm in seventh grade so I'm up here so I was going to talk about why music should stay but I know you're not cutting it this year so I'd like to talk about why
next year you should try to like not have this discussion on why music should go or not so music it helps students a lot because it helps their brain with like more grit and perseverance and
teamwork and then that can help them in the long run long run and then also it relieves stress and anxiety and so that would help with mental problems and it encourages leadership and creativity and
independence among students and so they can be successful in life so now I know that music benefits students and so next year we have to make sure that it doesn't get cut so
like we have recurring memberships to certain things that we might not even use so review those memberships that we use and then see which ones are unneeded i remember when I was in elementary school in Warren storefare that no students had computers at all and then
after co everyone got computers and I'm sure that raised a bunch of costs so perhaps moving removing certain software or hardware from like elementary school or other schools would reduce the
costs and so the budget cuts they're going to have to happen like every year so we should be planning for ahead thank you [Applause]
jack Levit for Springfield Road at the last meeting well the meeting at Hammershold Dr pan asked a question at the end of the meeting i think it was around 12:40 or 12:45 not many of us were left but he asked a question about how the budget was created and um he made the assumption
that it was created bottom up and Dr fleski said that due to time and the the timing of the funding coming from the state it was created central office and then moved down ironically enough the next week in my leadership class I
taught the process of decision-making we talked about the fact that any decision needs to have three key pieces the decision maker their adviserss and whoever's implementing the solution without all three involved the best solutions aren't the result i think we
saw evidence of that in this budget season i think a more inclusive process could have saved this community days of angst teen social media post and lines at this microphone more specifically the one at the JM PAC i've sat at these meetings for quite
a few years and heard patients concerned of how big programs um have been rolled out specifically the creation of Hughes and the math program both in the same year and I wonder how many of these three parties were at the table when that was all rolled out but I've heard
it wasn't all three next year as we've heard we already know that it's going to be a fiscally challenging year so I ask in fact I encourage the board to look at the process now rather than in January
to see how to make it as inclusive and empathetic as possible thank you thank you John mary Antenno 17 Buckingham Drive um thank you for saving the Hughes music and athletics ironically Dr wleski your
superintendent's report the first two things were music and athletics um those are what make East Brunswick shine um and it it's disappointing that we had to have 700 people in a room um to show you how much we care about it um and the
emails that came through i feel like this is turning into a yearly thing and it's exhausting i am also as you know a product of the East Brunswick education uh my parents are wondering why I go to so many board of ed meetings why I have to talk to so many board members because in their day they never had to do that
because things ran as they were supposed to um it doesn't mean that you're not a dedicated community member when you don't show up it just means that things are running properly and you're happy um you are there to be informed not there to protest and have to explain why the
things that add value for your children shouldn't be taken away um so I'm asking this administration and this board to please not have us come back here again next year um also uh as Antoinette said you know we keep pointing fingers at the
state fine i agree with you the problem is coming from the state it doesn't mean that we don't have some fixing to do here administratively in our own budget because we certainly do um but to be quite honest I have been in Trenton numerous times i'm not a politician i'm not a lawyer i have a full-time job but
I take off and go to Trenton and I have never seen any of you i know the the uh school boards for several of our surrounding towns they're there almost monthly um I've become friends with some of them because I've met them there why
aren't we in Trent and protesting um they get up and they speak before the Senate committee why aren't we doing that if if it really is the state um but again that doesn't take away from the fact that something needs to be done here i don't see a plan for next year moving forward i remember last year Anuinette actually when she asked that
question no answer was given and this this cannot continue um with regards to our administration being topheavy it certainly is i can give you a list of uh comparatives that I've done with other board of eds um surrounding towns with
school uh schools our size uh it I find it very hard to believe that administratively Dr figueroa is the only one who is dispensable um you you're certainly not dispensable and I I don't think any administrator is but when we
have to cut from somewhere it shouldn't be what affects our kids the most this is becoming just too much class sizes should not increase and you should not ask us to increase our taxes we should not have to pay more to have less if you are going to make us pay more I
understand if it's because you're giving us more but this is not acceptable and I'm asking you to please find better solutions thank you thank you excuse me anthony Googl Anthony Gleata i am the uh
math supervisor Ksix math supervisor and the president of the EBPSA good evening i would like to ask the board to once again reconsider the proposed cuts to four members of the East Brunswick Principles and Supervisors Association each year in the fall the assistant superintendent
presents the district state standardized test scores since I've been in the district this has evolved from the New Jersey ASK to the park to the current NJSLA in math ILA and science and each year the BO the board looks at our results and rightfully asks "How could we do better as a district?" I can't
imagine a good response to this question is to systematically dismantle the district's support system for the very teachers that teach these subjects unfortunately this is exactly what appears to be happening if the current plan to cut four supervisors goes through this will be the second year in a row that these subject area teachers
will be adversely affected by budget cuts as a reminder the four K6 math coaches and the four K6 ILA coaches were cut due to budget constraints at the end of the 2324 school year now a year later four district supervisors are be are being proposed to be cut all of whom
work directly with teachers in the three tested areas of math science and ILA as I shared the last time I spoke East Brunswick has about 40 teachers per grade level in grades K to four about 35 per grade level at Hughes and about 40 teachers per subject matter at Churchill
in the high school as you can see this is a tremendous amount of coordination that is required to support the curricula at these 11 buildings the proposed cuts would reduce the number of supervisors across the districts for math and science teachers from four to two and reduce the number of supervisors
for ILA and social studies from 3 to two with the EBPSA membership split evenly with 19 principles and assistant principles and 19 supervisors that means that just over 20% of the group that works directly supporting teachers programs and curricula is being proposed
to be cut this is a devastating number to say the least the EBPSA is also concerned about the district's decision to potentially cut the leadership beyond behind embracing new educational technologies such as AI thanks to this work over the last two years East Brunswick is poised to implement
policies that will allow us to harness the potential of AI while also protecting our students from any possible dangers this work has been celebrated by the board on several occasions and also highlighted at parenting universities with stakeholder committee groups and through presentations at professional
organizations throughout New Jersey and thanks to this work East Brunswick is now seen as an educational leader and pioneer with these technologies much as Amazon embraced the internet rather than brick and mortar stores as its beginning however with this potential cut and subsequently turning away from this great work we are now sadly taking the
route of stores of stores such as Sears and decided that we are not going to embrace this potential gamecher technology and instead allow other districts to catch up and in inevitably pass us by by removing vital support for our teachers and students through the elimination of these four supervisor
positions this will surely have adverse effects on the district's ability to meet the curricular needs at success of all [Applause] ireina Catz Nelson 28 Valley Forge Drive um I spoke at the last board meeting i think over the last few weeks I guess I
was just absolutely embarrassed that East Brunswick even got to where we were in that meeting but the silver lining of it all it it has awoken all our parents if I said that we're on awake a it was a big awakening for us we will never be put in a position where we hear about something like that at a meeting the way
we did and had to speak like that we are going to be following up on plans for next year the entire year this is not going to be something where it's 700 parents are speaking in a room one time at a board of ed meeting i never attended board of ed meetings but I am now awake and I'm going to be watching
what the district does for the next year as we plan for the budget cuts that are to come as we all heard they're not going away and this is not something that you guys can just do a bait and switch like it happened this year and then just have us say thank you when the cuts don't happen we will be watching every single step there's a group of
parents that are fully in the no now and no more not going to board meetings for people like myself and many other moms in town and I thank you for not making these cuts but the truth is they should never have been there you guys are all in finance essentially that is your job that is your finance professionals that
need to do budget planning do better that's all I'm asking for next year just do better you have degrees in this i went to business school you learn how to financially plan thank you [Applause]
hello my name is Rana Sen i'm in seventh grade and I go to Churchill Junior High good evening school board members and everyone here i'm in Honors Wind Ensemble and I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of something that can't speak for itself
our school's music program as I've now learned that it's not going to be caught that's a good thing except for the fact that this can't keep happening every single year where we have to be concerned whether it's going to stay or if it's just going to disappear one day music is my life and I'm sure I'm
not the only one who thinks that in this room and I've been playing the trumpet since fourth grade and I still remember the ecstasy that I felt when g getting my trumpet as it would be my second instrument after the piano which next year will be my seventh year playing when I heard about the situation that
was being suggested next year for the music pro program I was completely devastated honestly speaking considering the idea of taking away and limit limiting our resources as musicians that would have let us and our talent
flourish feels so unfair i was really upset on how this budget cut would will be drastically affecting future musicians and I'm wondering now if any of you have ever felt the euphoria of playing an instrument in a group like
band or orchestra or something else well certainly I have and even considering getting rid of a full concert band class for fifth and sixth grade and turning them into tiny pullout sessions makes me utterly disappointed as younger
musicians won't get to experience playing together with their peers and let me assure you they will be very behind in all areas of music younger students won't be able to play as an ensemble until seventh grade and they will be completely unaware of what
to expect not only will it affect younger counterparts but it will also affect musicians already in Churchill without honors wind ensemble where else will we get the sufficient support that we need with the honors level class i want to say this is unfair because
kids deserve a chance to play in unity because kids deserve the music education they need because kids deserve the chance to become amazing musicians i hope you take our voices and understand where we come from as musicians because we have a responsibility to protect the
programs that nurtures us and not just our test scores thank you thank you jeff Winston Fresh Ponzero Road East Brunswick so the shiny object in the room is on the agenda tonight uh don't look at the amended share service
agreement on this agenda tonight this is the 11.5 million attempt that you made a few about a month back that the township uh rejected on principle and tabled it so now you've brought it back again and this time you've done some really fancy Bernie math on on the uh proposal what
you have is now you've combined or haven't parsed out shared services versus capital improvements what you're uh what you're saying in this thing is that you're 8.1 million is what you're retiring this year i have a township official telling me you're retiring 3.7 million so you're actually taking on an
additional $5 million worth of debt you're lying or somebody's lying at the township level not sure which is true um you're going to you say in this you're going to go back for an additional $3 million in roof repair so now you've brought the number right back up to $11 million in short order i hope you're
listening Bernie you never look at me when I talk next uh retiring in about two years you'll be retiring 17 million worth of debt which will be your one of your largest retirements ever i look at this list and I ask myself are these the things that are emergency right now if
you can't take care of your basic needs at home I doubt that you're going to start shopping for a pool what you've listed here what do you need the bus for is the field that bad that it needs replacing is the scoreboard not working what is this in a budget crunch when you
when your numbers are a mess Mr giuliani that you've brought to this board you should be ashamed to even have this considered if you know finance which I know you do because I've had some pretty stimulating conversations with you over the years you know that we're in a declining interest rate environment if
you're retiring debt in two years at $17 million you could buy this loan cheaper and you know it but you don't want to what you want to do is use the distraction of what everybody's saying in this room while you strap this district with now another additional $8 million worth of debt just stop it wait
till you get your house in order your house is a mess the finances in this town are a disaster as been mentioned by the last few people in this room this board needs to vote no on this tonight you can't allow it to go through do not allow this to go through this board this
uh Bernie and uh Victor were invited to speak to the township to justify why they needed 11.5 million they're yet to show up if I ask anybody for $1,000 I would expect them to get an explanation if you're asking for 8.1 be
administratively enough to show up at a council meeting and state your case you won't do it you hide from your obligations in this town make sure I hit all my notes because there's plenty more yeah the 10 seconds is do your jobs go to the township and
get yourself in order get yourself straight you work for this town you're are outsiders who are messing with our tax rules thank you [Applause] thank you is there anyone
else cheryl Brass Nine Scott Drive i'm sorry Cheryl cheryl Brass thank you good evening members of board of education superintendent administrators and members of our East Brunswick community thank you for your dedication to our schools and for your commitment
to providing every student with a highquality well-rounded education i'm especially grateful for your openness and your willingness to listen deeply to the voices of this community and respond with thoughtful action i come before you tonight not only as a parent but as a
musician and as the founder of the East Brunswick Symphony Orchestra and on behalf of fellow music educators local businesses and concerned community members we're here because we care deeply and because we know the challenges we face can only be solved if
we come together for the second year in a row our community has sent a clear and passionate message we value music education p by preserving access to instrumental music during the school day you are upholding equity ensurings that
all students regardless of background can discover their voice through the arts music is so much more than a class it nurtures creativity builds collaboration relieves stress and supports mental well-being a thriving
music program fuels not just talent it strengthens community bonds and supports our local economy this is a moment for collaboration and creativity our community is rich with talent heart and solutions parents educators business
leaders and volunteers are ready to roll up their sleeves and work with you we recognize that financial challenges are real and serious but so is the willingness of the community to advocate for funding think outside the box and contribute so let's start planning now
for that future the East Brunswick Symphony Orchestra is proud to stand behind our schools and as a gift of appreciation and encouragement we're excited to offer students of the graduating class of 2025 to redeem two free tickets to our May the Fourth Be
With Us concert a celebration of music creativity and connection this is more than a concert it's a chance for students to experience the magic of a professional orchestra including their own talented teachers we are grateful for your support of a well-rounded
education and for recognizing the importance music has as an essential part of the school experience thank you for believing in the power of music and thank you for standing with us to protect and uplift the future of our students together
thank you Cheryl my name is Ally Patel from uh Ponyie Road i'm sorry can you repeat Pony Road ali Patel thank you um so I would like to first thank you for listening to us for uh the last several weeks we've come to you and have
shown you what we value in East Brunswick as parents we value the opportunities that we are able to provide to our children so I do want to thank you for making sure that those proposed cuts are reinstated in the budget uh especially the music programs and all the language programs so thank
you for that but I think it shows that you can listen to us right you can listen to us and we want you to keep listening to us and you want we want us to work together to have the creative solutions so we don't have this problem again right and I think I also want to thank you Bernie actually for bringing
the data to why you cut certain things that had to be cut or uh condensed with the late buses right you provided us data it explained what is happening more of that needs to come more of the transparency needs to come why do we need to make these decisions and also we
came together with solutions right so by providing the community with more information on what is going on we can come together as we've said we want to come together we want to be part of the solution on how we can continue to provide opportunities for our children
because some of us were there till 1:00 a.m we will do anything for our kids in our community so we want to keep fostering that um so that's one so that's one of the things I wanted to say second part was um madam president you always say in the
beginning we tell about the board of education meetings we say it in the star ledgers the centennial nobody reads those right so our ledger is now even out of print um is there anything that can be done to post the board of ed meetings on social media i know East Brunswick Public Schools has a Facebook
page i didn't see one mention of a board of education meeting that happened Tuesday or even uh Thursday today i only knew because Dr.'s voices go to text message they also go to email which is great by the way so thank you for that very convenient but that was the only
way I knew about Tuesday's meeting so I think in order to engage the public more and know what's going on we need to put it in more media presences that people actually are reading now today and lastly I just wanted to say from the whole structure of what's going on so we're not here again next year i think
us as a community have the right to know what is going on with the trailers and what is the proposed plan for this high school we've been talking about it for two or three years and then nothing we need to know what's going on because in two three years we're going to be sitting here and our taxes are going to have to go up $10 million to pay for a
high school so I think again we need to put out the data let everybody know what's going on and have the discussion so we can find solutions together because again with when we given our time we can come together not just like given us two weeks okay thank you very
much thank you Alan [Applause] do anyone else yan Bregman for Troy Court can you repeat your name please yan Bregman thank you okay so uh I think a lot of uh speeches very good speeches but I think
what is the next step so I think the next step should be some kind of plan presented on the next meeting uh I think what we need to do is to get some group of parents group of teachers uh this board and come up with a plan and also
one important thing analysis 10 years ago we didn't have this situation so how come 10 years ago we didn't have this situation how we get to this situation that analysis also have to be presented thank you thank you hello uh my name is Sundep Sha from uh
Nine Hager Street um I'm not an accountant i'm not um you know MBA or business person or anything else i'm an engineer and it's it's a tough job i do it really well um you guys all have a tough job too right i I
tried to look through the the budget and it was a huge stack of like a lot of reading and and it was on a small phone so it was really hard to read too so I see your struggle um one thing I've noticed in a lot of businesses when they struggle with finances and when they struggle with their budget what they
frequently do is they go in and they bring in some outside consultants to help sort it out you do benchmarking you do comparisons you figure out where are we high where are we low where do we improve where do we need to you know or
where are we just good enough i'm not suggesting we bring in consultants because we can't afford the Mckenzies and the Baines and all those guys but look at the community around us i guarantee just in my own neighborhood we've got consultants that would
probably be able to help us in everybody's neighborhoods there's people out there that can help and if we were to actually break this down into some sort of a taskbased project I think that we could really attack this in a manner where it's a structured approach that looks at sustainability of our programs
over a longer course of time rather than going at this every one or two years so I ask you guys please start reaching out we have talent here in the community right it's not just on you because we all benefit from this we all work
together for our kids thank you thank you Sun Jeff Z 33 Millman so um thank you uh board for being here and listening to us thank you to all the parents and especially thanks the kids for for being here seventh graders I didn't do this
when I was in seventh grade um and it's uh kind of traumatic that they have to do this um I can't imagine listening to other parents talk about the things that we've been talking about the past year um so yeah thank you for not cutting that stuff and you know bring it back um
but at the same time that would be like my son saying "Thanks Dad for paying for the gas bill." Um you know other people said it right um you know thank you um it's not my job you know right i I'm also not an accountant i'm not in
finance maybe I'm not a very smart guy but it's it's somebody's job in this building in this room um some people were nice about speaking here i won't be i'm sorry uh I moved here on purpose because I want a good school district
just like the rest of us um you know you we talked about transparency we talked about you know what information you given us so you said you know uh salaries increase 4.2 4.3 million health benefits increased 2.06 06 million so what it's like $8 million in uh selected
budget impacts right then you said um equalization aid was increased by 7.5 uh or rather decreased by 7.5 and then we're at another deficit of 1.1 million all right great you know that's these are all good numbers so you complaining about that is like me complaining about
oh the G you know what honey I'm in debt because the gas bill went up um Chipotle is now $18 instead of $8 for lunch you know that's why you know we're in debt so I could blame it all on that right so let's let's not focus on that or the $30,000 stipens which is a drop in the
bucket right what is the budget is it $200 million um where's where is how is that money being spent um did we talk about the 4 million wall petition do we talk about the $100,000 uh trailers maybe I'm wrong tell me I'm wrong okay
it's not you know it's not my job i don't know everything um but like other people said uh let's get it right because um yeah we're we're here i don't want to be here i'm sure you don't want to hear us complain um stop impacting
our children you You could really do anything but don't impact my kids my kids better be smarter than me they better be better than me faster than me stronger than me um and it's not going to happen when you guys you know cut band or orchestra or sports whatever it
is it should be improving um and I want transparency i said it last time uh how is money being spent where is the money going i don't want to hear this 2 million here 8 million here what about everything else um all right good luck
to us all thank you thank you michael MrO 27 Colonial Drive good evening i'd like to echo what my friends have said here this evening that this shouldn't take several
meetings one of which had an attendance of over 700 people and what would amount to countless hours of speakers whereas I'm pleased to hear that there have been changes in the decisions from the last
meeting we need to do a better job at forward looking i run a business unit in a professional services firm and I am constantly thinking about where the hockey puck is going we are very fortunate to have line
of sight that we are going to be budget constrained into the foreseeable future let's use this as an advantage to begin thinking differently and let's try to work together with our
families local business and continue to have East Brunswick schools live our values of excellence in academics athletics and the arts thank you
thank you Michael hi everyone good evening um there's a great My name is Maggie Georgees Garfield Avenue East Brunswick um of course sorry please don't count my minutes i lost my speech my just closed
down can you please go back yeah I'm sorry no sorry i'll start my timer too okay rachel O'Neal 15 Carter Road i'm first going to read four questions that I emailed the board and Dr on March 21st and I've yet to receive a response in the March 19th
meeting you you discussed cuts at the high school hasn't been brought up again will all content area electives be eliminated or only those with low enrollment if sixth period elective classes are cut approximately how many students will be overflowing into the classes or into extra classes or
possibly study skills will students be able to take a full slate of A classes or are you talking about early release or late arrival has anyone in the district central admin or board of ed members reached out to other districts in similar situations to talk about
creative solutions by the way many districts are facing a budget crisis right now but East Brunswick is actually one of the districts that's been affected the least in Middle Sex County over the past two years actually surrounding towns have
been losing millions of dollars over the past 10 years when are we going to stop with these short short-sighted decision-making three years ago I attended a meeting about how we needed the trailers at Church Hill for a bigger high school crowding of elementary schools and now three years later we
have students parents staff pleading to not cut the programs at Church Hill to possibly close an elementary school cut classes at the high school when will we start making long-term decisions that are positive for our community let me
remind the board budget decisions particularly cuts or reallocations must be made in an open and transparent manner engaging the community while having these meetings here seems to be transparent the meeting Tuesday transparent usually behind closed doors
when you give misinformation or no information it's actually the opposite of transparent the East Brunswick High School motto is we are one EB achieving excellence with honor and integrity when I think about integrity I think about my
my children's teachers coaches integrity is taking ownership of responsibility of one's actions and their consequences i was disturbed on Tuesday at the meeting when our business administrator excused himself right before the public public comment section wasn't here to listen to the public
portion even though it was only possibly seven people and that I'm assuming went into an executive or closed session to talk about the cuts that should be made i implore the board and central admin let's lead with the same integrity we expect and we see from our students our
coaches and our teachers let's make transparent decisions protect educational excellence create a budget that reflects what this community values and also one that makes financial sense thank you hi good evening Maggie Georgees uh
there's a great deal of uncertainty right now and while we've heard the budget cuts are coming they are coming right there's no money still right what are those cuts we still don't know what the exact proposed cuts are if these cuts are targeting our teachers and student programs then I believe we
should let the budget go to the state and that is pretty bold to say at a previous board meeting previous multiple meetings I heard my board members and administrators explain that if East Brunswick Board of Education cannot pass a a budget the state will step in and to be very scared because the state will be
ruthless if they come in frankly I would rather have the state evaluate the situation that evaluate the situation than sacrifice the very educators and the programs that directly serve our students let's be honest the state will likely begin by assessing the board of education central office and consider
reducing administrative overhead before making decisions that directly impact students so do not be so scared of the state as we approach the budget's deadline I urge you please do not introduce lastminute changes that will pressure the public and the board into
accepting ridiculous measures out of fear from the state please prioritize our students and teachers let the state step in if necessary that is the alternative of undermining the equality of education and of our district so do not be scared of the state we will not
we are the state in the end of the day we work together okay if the if it means cutting our teachers and students uh teachers and programs it's not worth it so please do not introduce ridiculous measures thank you very much for your
time thank you Maggie um hello i'm Julia Morales in sixth grade um so I know that me um band is still here but I'm still going to talk about a few things so then we don't have to think about it next year so so then
you'll remember next year so let's start with the facts music isn't just an extra it's not just a loud class it's more than that think about it when has silence ever changed the world never but music music has led m music has led movements music has told stories music highlights movements music
oh shoot um and yet you want to take away the programs that teach it you take away a band and orchestra and you take away a student's chance to learn discipline leadership and collaboration you think a synth symph Okay sorry symphony happens by accident but that's not true that's teamwork that's dedication that's real world experience
as a melody we change our ears to listen our hands to move our minds to calculate on the fly in real time name another subject that does that you want innovation but you won't be problem solvers you don't just me we don't just memorize the music that we play we create the music taking away a band will make our future sound empty music just
isn't just a sound it's a language that speaks to the future and speaking of future speaking of languages I'm going to talk about languages so um now langu now languages mandarin isn't just a bunch of characters it's a billion people that's a lot a lot to learn about with the world and learning and learning
the language opens so many new places to go german that's the language of Beethoven Einstein and FA all considered genius italian is the key to art architecture and food imagine saying paste and actually knowing what it means when you cut these languages we're limiting students from making a meaningful impact to the world of
outside of Eevee it's not just words it's access to an entirely new perspective and now drama club uh I'm not sure if you're taking this away but so I'm gonna talk about it let's talk about public speaking people fear it more than death but drama club but drama kids don't just survive on on the stage
they own it they know how to command attention how to deliver under pressure sound familiar that's called leadership drama isn't just memorizing lines it's learning how to read the room how to adapt how to take criticism and turn it into something powerful you know who needs who else needs those skills ceos
politicians activists anyone trying to make a difference in rejection we know it well we audition we lose we get back up because failure is in the end it's the it's just the inter intermission so if you want to raise a generation too scared to speak too unprepared to read too afraid to step up when it really
counts cut drama drama teaches us that the show must go on and so should these programs and I'm not sure if you already cut the after school buses but let me elaborate um cutting after school buses is like saying only the kids with cars can be a part of anything that matters
not every student has that that lux luxury and it's that just unfair and cruel after school buses give everyone a chance to participate to grow to learn something uh okay um without them you're taking away students that can't take a part because they don't have a ride it's not just a logistical issue it's an
equity issue cut these programs and you cut our future cut these programs and you remove our opportunity and erase our path to success thank you thank you thank you Julia excuse me is there anyone else all right seeing
none can I can I Oh I would just like none the public portion i would just like to make some clarifying statements uh during the uh good of the cause tonight we heard and I don't want the community to leave with the impression that we have not
advocated to our elected officials or to state officials about our financial situation last year last school year before the end of the school year I personally met with education commissioner Demer to talk about the school funding formula the impact on
East Bronzeville public schools and I was told by commissioner Demer that the funding formula was working for most schools that they were going to work at most on smoothing the formula and giving us more
predictability i met with local elected officials we even as board members and myself met in a more personal forum with the chair of the Senate Education Committee we are meeting with the people who are power broking the are power brokering
these decisions on the state level so I don't want you to think that we're not advocating there was also a comment made about an item on the agenda tonight on shared services agreement and retirement of
debt the number that was shared tonight is incorrect i personally met with Mayor Cohen with a document that clarified our retirement of debt and we provided additional
explanation to council leadership about all the items that were included in the shared services agreement and finally I want to say I'm going to say it for Mr juliana because he might not say it himself he left the meeting Tuesday because of an emergency
that he had no control over he never does that so I hate somebody saying that he doesn't care that's all thank you
all right thank you all right moving on to our agenda uh I'd like a motion for board of education oh sorry we are curriculum and instruction thank you i'd like a motion for curriculum and
instruction items one and two so moved all right Miss Herro second jamie any discussion all right this is a voice vote all in favor i I opposed abstension
motion carries uh sorry my agenda is very marked up all right moving on to business and support operations items 1 through 19 can I have a motion please so moved miss
Her second and Falco thank you any discussion uh can I start i'm gonna start with Leo we'll work our way down thank you Lea so uh my comment is related to item 12 and item
14 you know I'm the manager financial manager of my family i'm the manager of my family finance we have a small emergency fund you know we used to put the uh bank of
America which carries no no no interest and then I moved it to Capital One for the saving account it gave me about 3.8% you know every every month I got you know a little bit money I took my boys up so for this item four you know
that's that's my personal story for this item 12 and 14 so I'm it's about the our found increase for the number 14 our internal revenue i'm sorry where's the
number 14 i'm sorry my eyes still not working right but I'm trying to get it let please Okay so for the for on this table there's the income interest
income so uh for the last deal the early number is more than $100,000 so I'm trying to dig out how about if we can put our general fund shift to a
higher to a account with higher interest we may have very significant amount the interest i made this comment maybe three or four years ago to try to you know if our reserve and our general manage
general fund is not in a small number is in millions so if we can shift it to a higher interest saving account so monthly we will I think we will get a very good number because we are talking about we're counting pennies to say if
we can save this program or save this coaching stipen so if we can generate very good money to which will save a lot of problem i know Mr maybe Mr junani is doing this
but I just trying to make this comment please you know looking around not every bank give you the same or similar interest certain bank account certain bank give you much higher
interest so you know last night I I went to the EBF meeting Paul gives the presentation said oh this month we got interest investment gains so I think we should do the same thing so I miss Jani I maybe you are doing it uh maybe you're
not please take a look put our fund in a account with a higher interest i know that it's very challenging because manage managing such big account but I think it's really worth our time effort to do it that's is my comment related
item 12 and 14 thank you all right we're going to come over to Mr juliana so I want to en assure uh you Mr on the board and the community we meet with the banking officials uh regularly every one to two months uh we are restricted in
terms of the kinds of vehicles we can utilize to make investments uh that it's governed by statute but I uh can assure you that uh the district utilizes every possible opportunity to roll its funds
into investment vehicles and to maximize that are constantly challenging uh the banking institution that we work with um we use sweep accounts so that um our funds don't remain in a non-interest bearing account uh at for any period of
time uh only for when uh for example payments have to be made otherwise we are sweeping the funds on a daily basis so um uh the funds are being maximized now the challenges looking forward are what's happening with the economy we
don't know and don't have a crystal ball for what will happen with that but um I can assure you that we are maximizing our interest earnings i I spoke with multiple neighboring uh school board one of our neighbor school board they are
getting millions of dollars interest every year so you know I I know you're working very hard please for the sake of you know the money do your job and then I know you you are trying your
best within the legal limitation please try harder and we do thank you Jamie did you oh yes thank you um I just had a remark actually about
Um I believe it was business and support operations uh number three for athletic field maintenance um when I was just considering because I I do spend a lot of time trying to read through this and and be thoughtful um you know what would
the cost be to our district to acquire equipment or you know create some sort of shared services our the township probably doesn't even have the type of equipment that would maintain uh turf fields versus grass i just um I think it I want to compliment um the
administration that I think there is thoughtful application of the bidding process for certain types of maintenance and um you know certainly I hope to encourage that um use of our own maintenance um whenever possible since
we already have um some employees as well thank you so for the board's uh knowledge on that and for uh community as well for our grounds maintenance um that is completely contracted out we do not have in-house staff uh to do that
and the reason for that is that the board a number of years back probably about I want to say 5 years ago or so um that it was more cost effective um and resulted in um better coverage um
there's been a significant improvement in uh the condition of our grounds over the period of time so um that is something that we look at you know the it that may not always be the case in terms of the um efficacy of being in a
contracted situation i've always said that you know pendulums swing so they swing in one direction where perhaps it makes more sense to be contracted they could swing in another direction where it might make more sense to have our own team but uh for the time being that is
the situation that we're in and uh it was the most uh effective economically sorry Wilbur um yeah uh two two questions one to follow up on Lee Wu's uh question about how much are we generating in interest from the tools
that uh you've been alluding to so um we are budgeted in the current year for um over I believe it was $1.3 million in interest earnings uh that was a conservative number um I think to to
date on that report which was um I think what was that January or February and to date it was almost a $900,000 uh earning for the fiscal year um and we were anticipating that that would
actually be higher than by year end would be higher than what the uh uh budgeted amount was okay i'm I'm sorry you said 1.3 1.3 was over 1.3 million on a on a $200 million budget um because um so that that sounds reasonably good uh
to me i do know that um Oh you have to understand that we don't have $200 million sitting in the bank all at one time it comes in periods of time as payments so we don't have that money just sitting in the bank right right um so so um my one point of
comparison is that Edison has about a $300 million budget and they seem to generate about two.1ish um million on interest in there um so there might be a little bit of room to move up what we don't know is what does that money comprise what is that money
comprised of is it comprised of funds that exist in you know large number of funds in special revenue monies they may have more special revenue funds than us they may have capital projects funds as a result of sure um well as a result of
major construction projects that were bonded that could earn additional interest so there are variety of factors that need to be looked at so just looking at it in terms of um what is the budget comparison that's not a fair comparison you have to look at what's the exactual actual amount of cash on
hand right right but my point being is that we seem to be within striking distance of of their performance so um I I I just want to echo Leew's uh point that we should be looking to maximize this as much as uh possible um the other
um question I had was on uh item one um um as uh as everyone here probably knows the um town council seemed to not like the bond um proposal that we sent uh that we approved here as a board and sent forth a little while ago um do we know that they're going to be happy with
this one or or um or or is there a chance they're going to have the same response with the new bond proposal i Dr pan I cannot speak for the the council um but I did have a conversation with uh Mayor Cohen uh and we gave information
to um President Makavoy okay and if I could supplement that I had communication email communications with um uh Mr chris Gro the town administrator who requested uh that we provide the amended document as well so
I can't imagine that that was being requested for no reason okay all right thanks Liv yes uh thank you uh as I look at number two application for additional expenditures I'm reminded that
on March 19th I presented the board um admin the administration and the board leadership an alternative budget um that I think I'm still looking I had asked at that point if we could possibly get that passed out to all of the other
members of the board i don't realize I don't know that that has happened um but that may also some of the things that were recommended um on that alternative uh budget may also address some of the concerns of the uh the people that came out to speak
tonight so I was just wondering where we are with that dr figuro the the budget document that you're referencing um was an email that you sent before before the meeting uh it
identified uh a number of positions that actually um are identifiable by a person and those people have not been raced so we can't discuss them um and um so
that's where we are right now okay so it's March 19th to now we didn't get a chance to write them is what you're saying okay i just want to make sure that it's clear because I would have expected to get some kind of feedback from that
thank you i didn't think there was a formal motion by the board at that meeting for that well we well we tried to get a motion but I remember asking at the end of that 5 and a half hour meeting I believe it was um and I think you were taking notes on that at that
time um you know if we could take a look at that alternative budget because it did focus on uh different areas not teachers and you know um not programs um so uh if there was no mo movement at that point if you'd like it in a
different way if you'd like to make a I can make a motion to to please have you look at that and maybe someone would second it i could do it that way too i I need an opinion here on this i mean he can make a motion to have
somebody uh have the board consider something but that's Well what I'm asking is can I But the issue But the issue part of the issue is is hampered by what Dr velesi is mentioning i wasn't at that meeting of course I'm not and uh if there are
individuals who are implicated for the board to know what it's going to be voting upon everybody would have to have that email and everybody would have to be familiar with it and you can't discuss any of the particulars in public and you can't discuss any of the
particulars in private tonight because these individuals haven't been raced the motion they made was just to to consider it in other words to give that information out for consideration and I'm saying you could make a motion it could be seconded but for the board to vote on it the board needs to know what it's voting on so if if if that is the case that wouldn't be an appropriate
motion right so I mean if the board doesn't have that information then it wouldn't be appropriate for this evening anyone over here tim no oh okay all right i'd like to talk about I'd like to talk about number one
the amended shared services agreement um I have concerns with this now I was very happy to read that the planned payments take into consideration the debt expiring in 2026 and maintains a level
debt payment structure except that we don't have a level income we're we're losing our income in various ways it's being diverted to different things so I'm not
I don't feel comfortable uh going into even more debt i would rather see some of this debt retired now uh the big one and I brought this up the last time is that we're buying five 54 passenger
school buses and camera system upgrades uh $947,000 for these five buses um which comes to like $189,000ish each but we just agreed to sell some 9-year-old buses at the last
meeting the state says that we can have these buses for 15 years now I understand that um you know the extended warranty runs out like I just had somebody call me today asking about my car's extended warranty um so I get it
that that those repairs get more expensive but the fact that we're you have this schedule to get these buses replaced so often i don't think we're in we're in a crisis we can't afford to keep doing this i would like to see um
we skipped this for this year i don't know how many how many buses do you normally um get every year like do you flip them five to six buses okay so maybe we want
to think about holding them a little bit longer or not flipping as many because $900,000 is an awful lot amount a awfully large amount of money when we're cutting programs for children
um and I'm was really happy to hear uh that we that you we were able to save at least u the sports programs because I also had gone through and I I questioned the district postage um you know we're
leasing uh postage machines for $14,000 four of them administration building church hillshel and the high school why can't letters be sent through courier to one postal machine there are four copers here um two in the
superintendent's office and two in the assistant superintendent's offices for $8,800 why can't that money why can't they go down to central duplicating why do I have to get a budget binder this
big delivered to my house when teachers don't have enough paper to do their what they need to do with their students why can't we have our um documents that were sent every week why can't they be sent
electronically and honestly I was a bit offended when I requested an electronic copy of the budget was told there wasn't one for us which I didn't understand how that could be and then suggestions that I buy a magnifier
or borrow a magnifier and another you know suggestion well you know other board members could read the budget it's too bad you you know other people do it why can't you well I'm sorry i I couldn't
and I don't want a um somebody to go and spend time and to make me a large print copy just give it to me as an electronic copy that to me those are just little things that I don't understand and we
need to rethink because when we get to the next part that was number one number two application for additional expenditures and on the bottom here we're going to be saying that we we've
we must include a showing that it has undertaken all necessary and available budget reductions and reallocations concerning items not related to providing a thorough and efficient education
spending $2,400 for graduation greens and flowers i can go to Walmart and get them is a lot cheaper um 24,000 $23,000 to replace Irwin ceiling tiles and it says existing
ceiling tile at Irwin are a mix of different styles and textures older styles do not reflect light well don't reflect light well and detract from room aesthetics i would rather
see the um teachers in the classroom that were cutting a whole bunch of teachers and we're worrying about aesthetics this this doesn't make sense here's this is one of my favorite ones 21,000 geese control services professional services to clear and
maintain a virtually geesefree environment year round for 11 schools and I think that's a lady with a dog that dog's making more per hour than a lot of our staff for 20,000 a year so I believe that where there are places
where we could cut a little bit here and a little bit there no it's not millions of dollars but when we were ringing our hands over oh we need $5,000 for this baseball team and $5,000 for the softball team oh woe is me where are we
going to find the money it's in here folks thank you [Applause] the the bus vote um that Anna brings up that's we we voted on that right that was at the two meetings ago but it's
back it's back yeah it's back this is this is an amended um amended shared services agreement if you recall the board approved the entire shared services agreement back in January right so the the only reason that it's back is
because of making the adjustment to remove the roof replacement to fit into what the township would be financing and that was before we knew oh it's Tim oh I'm so sorry i just Oh I'm sorry no I'm cool go go oh no i was just going to
say because I was thinking about it january why did we approve this and I realized it was be before we knew how much we were going to be losing in state aid and that we were going to be potentially cutting 51 staff members if I right that January that was before
that actually we had a discussion regarding budget at that same meeting yeah and disclosed um what the projection was so you were aware of it yeah there was a projection but we didn't know for sure no but it was a it was a pretty good projection so you were aware
okay Lori um Oh I'm sorry Tim no it's cool no I that's that's good to know i mean I I think what and what I'm hearing from you right and what we're hearing from the community is we need to think differently right we need to move differently we need to be more strategic and innovative with the challenges that
are ahead because as everyone said and as everybody up here feels the same way nobody wants to be here next year uh and unless we do something dramatic and innovative and bold we're going to be right back here
next year and um you know something like the bus is a great example of that i mean we we have to stop certain practices and procedures that we've grown accustomed to and I I I mean I in hindsight you know I voted yes that night but I kind of regret that at this
point because I don't think at this point in time that that's necessary i don't think we can be taking those sort of steps um and I think too I mean to to Lou's point earlier Lou if you if you have creative and and and strategic solutions for trying to address the
situation that we're confronting we should talk about that right we need to find ways to get that in front of all of us and and push that stuff forward so I'm 100% behind anybody up here who could bring great ideas to the table and figure out ways to help put us all in a
better place cuz I know as well as everybody else I I don't want to do this again like these have been two horrific years i question all the time why why did I get involved in this this is insane i mean really it's crazy it is like the craziest volunteer position
I've ever had and I do it because I love the community but the only thing I get out of this outside of loving the community is a sandwich like we get fed right i mean it's like it's wild i I mean I No I mean but but that's another thing
right like I don't need the sandwich like we need to think about all of these steps like we just have to start taking really really better care of of and and rethinking what education is how we deliver education and how we
simultaneously uplift and and the community and allow our kids and our teachers and our administrators to thrive um so I'm all in favor of the the things that you brought up i'm all in favor of revisiting relooking and and working as a team to pull this together
so that's all I have to say [Applause] go ahead i have something when you're ready um I'm gonna Do you mind actually no go ahead i'll wait okay so um Dr veleski just in response to to um both Tim and
Anna uh you had mentioned that my email to you was on March 9 march 19th was an email correct do you need that in a different form i do not because I can redo it whatever you need let me know because I do think we should talk about
alternate ways of looking at what we're doing here because I also agree um I don't want to be doing this again next year and it sounds like we'll be doing this for quite a number of years so I think we need to come up with some better solutions as as a board appreciate the administration's efforts
for this year but I definitely think we need a new new ways of thinking through this this process because it's not working all right what I would like to say is that I have concerns and would like to speak further with our council
um I I have some concerns about some of the ethical implications of what people um are talking about what people may not be entirely sure what they're do executive session yes I'm just voicing publicly um there are people here that
are agreeing that they want to talk about things where I'm not entirely sure if they fully understand um and I would like some words with council about that because I want to make sure you know when the board steps into ethically into
over ethical lines and if there's ethics charges and the taxpayers pay for that they do so let's be cautious and not go there as to the buses um I asked the same questions you know why in a tight budget year are we looking at buses but
had a conversation about you know if I keep my car past the point where it starts breaking down all the time and it's going in for repairs and it's going in for repairs that's my problem and my three kids' problems if we are turning over the buses and buying new buses so that your
children are not standing out on a corner because the bus has broken down yet again or we don't have enough buses because we have one bus offline because it's in for repairs that becomes everyone's problem it's like 52 kids on a bus um and there are many things you
know the ceiling tiles do I care about aesthetics no as a person in a classroom do I care about if the light is reflected well enough so the kids can see yes I actually do um I've taught in dark classrooms and I know what it does and I've taught in well-lit classrooms and I know what it does it does make a
difference to me that's just me um so I I I see some of the wisdom in wanting to keep the buses while they're running well because those are I mean that's going to be my kid on a bus soon i I would like her on a bus that's not going to break down and it is going to show up because I will have you know be
leaving for work um the other thing is that last week we talked a lot we spent a lot of time on the coaching thing the coaching stipens and I left feeling uneasy and I went home and I thought about it a lot and you know the public talks a lot about our fiscal
responsibility so I'm a sports parent um some of the things in the discussion that got stuck in my head were about giving the kids the opportunity for freshman sports so as a sports parent I want to just make sure everyone's aware not all of our sports have a freshman
sports team they don't so this idea of giving everyone the chance for freshman we already don't have that there is already inequity there isn't a freshman team for every sport and I'm assuming the ones where they were formed was for numbers but we're saying now we don't
have numbers but we're very not willing to look at whether or not we let go of that model i would like to ask the administration for next year because we've we've talked this through it is not in the grand scheme of a $200 million budget the stipens are not huge
and changing things is you know not something I want to do last minute but for next year I would like to look at expanding the size of the JV teams if you're a high school parent you know this but our coaches at the high school are amazing the varsity coaches are paid the JV coaches are paid and there's a
ton of volunteer coaches that are staff members who are unpaid and I have been asked more times by coaches on the sideline if there's ever any money could you please just get a small stipen for the assistant coaches you know there
there are staff members um there was discussion about volunteers just to make sure everybody's aware volunteerism is great it is a very sticky ground that the district has stayed away from for years about parent volunteers on the school sports because there is the e the
issue of equity our kids getting equal access it's it's a really slippery slope you know is my kid not playing because you know your kid doesn't like my kid is not what I want for them in school but I I would like to see us look at rather than keeping freshman teams you know
five cheerleaders that aren't getting the opportunity to really cheer that could be taken up to the JV squad to be given more coaching so that another coach could get an assistant coach who's a volunteer could get a stipend even smaller if needed but still
a stipend we could you know off the full statement we could do two but I would like to see the kids get the higher level of competition and be able to come up to the high school and maybe just expand our squads instead of having small 9th grade teams for some sports where the
kids don't get to play because other teams don't have to play against them and I understand the argument that not everybody gets on the field but at the high school level it's very competitive not everybody gets on the field i mean this is about as competitive as it'll get for most of our kids what is like 3%
go on to college sports it is competitive but I just for next year would like us to look again at what the public keeps asking are we managing wisely are we being responsible or in some places are we being emotional you
know like my my kid loves to play the sport don't get rid of nth grade but maybe next year we need to have a different plan let's put more kids on JV if there's seats on the bus and see if we can't pay another one of our staff members to be an assistant coach up there i think that's everything for me i
have notes everywhere i'm so sorry all right items 1 through 19 is a roll call vote okay so I I need to split the vote because I'm voting um voting no on number one which is the amended shared
services agreement noted okay and then yes on everything else 2 through 19 noted timothy Cummings yes jamie Falco yes lewis Figureroa yes
lorie Herrick yes lee Wuhan yes wan yes heather Gloss yes motion carries we are on to Sorry lots of pages thank you human resources items one through three can I have a motion
please motion jamie and S and Wilbur thank you discussion please the student university just just so I know um do we know how many employees um actually take part in this
discount and whether or not they like the offerings that No this is for Nicole sorry oh sorry i forgot to turn my mic on um the my my question is on the agreement with Keen University i just wanted to know how
many uh of our employees take uh advantage of the of the discount that they have and are they generally happy with um the uh offerings that Kain has and if you can give me an idea of what they can do it uh with so this is the first time that we're partnering with
Kain in this way um so I'll have to let you know um we have a a message ready to go out to our staff that allows them you know lets them know that if they register with Kane University they'll get a discount because they're in East Brunswick Schools employee um right now
our district has tuition reimbursement for certified staff but we don't offer anything like that for our non-certificated staff so this is an avenue for our non-certificate i mean obviously our certificated staff can benefit from it as well but the intent of it really was for our
non-certificated staff to have an opportunity to get back to college um and into a potentially a different position in the district or or beyond all right terrific um and I I don't need an exhaustive list but can you just give me an idea of like what sort of courses
that are are would be available to them anything that Kane University offers yeah they can just go to the university and they get a discount because they have an ebnet.org email address yeah that sounds pretty good thanks you're welcome anyone else
all right this is a voice vote roll call roll call vote so close anna Braun yes timothy Cummings yes jamie Falco yes figereroa yes lorie Herrick yes wong yes wilbur Pan yes
heather Gloss yes motion carries we are on to special education and student services items 1 through three can I have a motion please wilbur and second Jamie thank you discussion all right this is a roll call
vote hannah Braun yes timothy Cummings yes jamie Falco yes lewis Figureroa yes lorie Herring yes leong yes wilbur Pan yes gloss yes motion carries we have moved to uh committee reports information items and for the good of
the cause for the board anyone so yes last night I went to EBF monthly meeting which is a very happy time i really enjoy being there to be part of
that organization even we count pennies we try to raise every penny but you know it's very good time and everyone help each other but I just I really want thank organization
that organization make East Bronson really special they not just supplement our budget issue but they open the doors to our students so I urge everyone if you know someone or friend
in town or outside the town please help them you know uh Monday night I stop my friend's restaurant i talk about EBF the pie dinner so the owner very generously cut a check in in the amount of $1,000
to EBF so just reach out to your friends any business owner i believe most of people are willing to open their pocket donate something so working together as the entire community we can help
EBF eventually our students benefit from the effort so I hope everyone not just we're not helping EBF of course directly we're helping EBF but eventually we are helping our children that's the purpose of that
organization and that's the post we need to work on it thank you J anyone else um yeah so there have been uh comments tonight as well as at other
board of ed meetings in the recent past about uh looking for innovative ways of uh dealing with our um uh budget uh issues this year and the predictable ones that will happen next year and the years after that um I just want to reiterate uh something I've been
mentioning at previous meetings and that there is another mechanism that we can use to leverage um uh in in order to uh help us out of the next predicament that we find ourselves in and what I want to stress this time around and I've made
this point before is that going to the state and changing the rules by which our school finances are regulated and what we're able to do is a must in terms of avoiding the situation in the future we have talked about finding
efficiencies i'm all I'm all for that uh we have talked about um you know trying to make cuts in a smart way i'm all for that we're we've talked about looking for areas where we're topheavy and becoming more more lean in terms of that i'm in favor of that too but the fact
still remains that we are limited in the amount of money that we can carry forward to the following year in order to mitigate cost increases that we that we all face within the school district and outside of the school district and in the amount of money that we can raise
in taxes and that total amount is about 4% right we can keep 2% in the bank we can uh we can raise taxes by 2% without going for a referendum in most cases please correct me if I'm wrong on those okay good so if inflation is above 4% we
can't keep up we can have a perfect um administration we can't have a perfect budget we can be efficient you know to the nth degree and we will be behind because there is no mathematical way of getting out of that situation
inflation above 4% plus our limitations equals a budget deficit there's no way out of that so um I don't know what this is going to look like but this is kind of what I have in mind um I know from talking to people that various components of East Brunswick have
engaged the state legislature i've done that myself to the extent that I've could since January um I know that people in the administration have gone down i know people in the public have gone down what I haven't seen is a concerted effort a coordinated effort among all those components we need that
and here's the other thing we can't do it by ourselves we're going to need to partner with neighboring towns in order to get this done and so that's kind of what I see what the end result is looks like I don't know because I'm not that smart um but I know we have a lot of
smart people in town and I think this is an effort that is definitely worth getting behind because again I want to reiterate this we can do all the efficiency things that we want uh that that we can do and we will still be in the hole next year unless something magical happens with inflation i don't
think that's happening okay thanks thank you anyone else Lori um I also echo your mic is off oh it says it's on let's see let's try this
i also Yes i also echo what Dr pan has said i have had conversations with board leadership and administration about making more coordinated efforts um to go to Trenton and talk and I think that in the upcoming months we'll try to get
some fruition from that i have um gone to Trenton i was also scheduled to testify at um when we had our last meeting that was changed from March 20th to the 19th but the timing was too late and they give me like the last time of
the day and there's no way I could have done that and then gotten to our meeting um so I try I know a lot of board members up here try um and so when I like reached out to them and was like "I'm sorry I can't come to the assembly to talk today can you please give me another the next day that was upcoming?"
and they were like "No we're full." And I was like "Can I just write can I just send in my my you know what I was going to say?" I've been in contact with board members from other towns that have gone there and spoken lately they told me that they felt the uh feedback was really good that there were people um on
the assembly and the senate who actually asked them in questions and engaged with them this time um that also happened when um they spoke at the department of education meeting as a parent um a few months ago and so it was more um engaging so I do think that um they're
listening but I think it's a process right it's a process and we have to have a coordinated effort um and we have to find talents that are in similar situations and want to work out towards the same goals but I also know and I agree that it's not our only route right
like we have to come up with innovative solutions that uh bridge those gaps as well so um budget-wise um that's kind of my thoughts on that um as for there's so
much going on in the past few months since we've had our meetings but I've kind of pushed off talking about some of it um but I'd like to share some because there's some really great things going on in our schools um I did have the opportunity to attend the living voice presentation at Church Hill called
Through the Eyes of a Friend it combines live performance with film footage and photos the presentation parallels the life of Anne Frank through the historically accurate composite character of Sarah Weiss it included topics such as the start of World War II
Jewish experiences during that time frame prison and concentration camps and the post-war experience the presenter was amazing and passionate the ninth graders attended in small groups with their classmates they had great questions um and there was really good
discussions going on so I'm thankful um for the invitation um that was sent to the board members to attend that uh Church Hill did a great job with their 13 junior play which now maybe was last week or two weeks ago i can't I feel like everything's just combined in my
head um the kids did great it was really fun play parents had a lot of fun um every parent should be proud of the work that their child put into it they just did amazing i also had the opportunity to see the girls softball team play
their first regular season home game at the new field um it was really exciting uh when I left they were up 17-0 so congratulations to them and I wish them a lot of uh success on their new field um one other thing is that I encourage
you as parents to please take the New Jersey climate survey which is issued by Ruckers emails probably went out from principles or vice principles the answers are anonymous there's a parent version there's a student version which I think they take during the school day
unless you opt out right um and I believe there's also a staff version if I remember seeing the results from last year um so please check your emails parents please take the climate survey uh it's very important for us to get feedback about what you feel is the
climate and the culture in the schools and that's it thank you go ahead thank you President Guas i wasn't able to attend the um long budget meeting um I was sick at home with a 101 fever and felt it prudent not to crop dust
everyone with my germs thank you um I just want to thank everyone that came out to speak i'd like to thank the residents that sent over 70 emails regarding the budget that I personally received i saw that there were some uh duplicate emails you got together to
collect your thoughts and I appreciate the organization and the thought that went into those i want to thank everyone who came with suggestions and ideas whether or not they were executable it's greatly appreciated there's a lot of heart um in this town and I'm very
grateful to represent you in looking at our org chart I never lose sight of the fact that the electorate is at the top of this organization here thank you thank you um sorry just got one more quick thing
um the uh our our high school orchestra went down to DC last weekend um for a multi-day um event that which also culminated in a little bit of a competition they I know that they don't like to use that word but that's essentially what it was uh with other
school uh high school orchestras from around the east coast uh we won um and we and and uh reading between the lines of what little my senior uh my senior son tells me cuz you know teenagers um uh they they won by a comfortable margin
it seems um that sort of thing doesn't happen by itself so if anyone has any misgivings about keeping the music program uh in uh in in play for at least the next year um this is the this is the outcome and it's uh well worth the investment
i'm sorry i just have one last thing um I know that we heard a lot tonight too about transparency and trying to understand the budget and the numbers and how um we spend money and how the district takes in money and um I'm hopeful um from talking to you President
Quas and Dr that um when our budget is season kind of slows down in the next few weeks that you'll take the opportunity to have um some kind of um outreach uh community engagement regarding
um what we spend our money on or how it's spent and what we can spend it on and what the breakdown of our budget looks like because I think um people just want to have a better understanding and if they can understand maybe we can present ways is um and come up with ways
as a board as an administration as a community to be more actionable because I I think that it it would just be important for for people to just know thank you um no I was going to say something i'm
every time I start somebody else has something so I'm just pausing for Okay we're good all right i just wanted to add um this is not so global this is much more of a smaller how we are different um well first I wanted to say because people have asked yes we do talk to people i've spent several hours on
the phone with members from boards from two other school districts about how they are doing things how they are problem solving and very importantly how they are communicating with the public what's working what's not um how they're hearing student voices is actually been a concern of mine we definitely are getting adult voices i want to know how
we communicate better with our students um so those those connections are being made i wanted to talk though about how we are different um I've had a lot of running around in the mom role in the past few weeks and so my daughter was at
Model Congress which took place in New Brunswick which is if you want to have like a hearttoppping moment watch your child get out of the car in suiting and join all the other children that you watched in kindergarten in suiting and go "Oh god they look so grown." Um and
they did very well but the part that I really appreciate is that my child's also an athlete and we made arrangements with both her coaches and her advisor to drop her off and pick her up twice so that she could participate in her games and still participate in model congress
and the part that makes us different I I bet you we could get other districts to do that and let the kids kind of come and go and go participate and not listen to a squawky mom about it but the part that makes it different is that that adviser was waiting at the front door every single time I dropped her off or
picked her up there was always an adult there waiting and that is what's different about EB is that very special level of care i attended the unsung hero awards in which were held in Oldbridge but are it's the whole county right middle sex county um so every district
was there the part that made EB different was the number of people at our table because while many districts well districts had the students and their grown-ups that they brought with them what we had was Dr i was there dr bashour was there right and two guidance
Mr yianazo Mr yanazo and two guidance counselors were there as well as our students and their parents um and I looked around you you know a lot of people from other districts and I'm I'm like looking at other tables going "All right they've got a principal they've got," but nobody had as many people there to support and celebrate their
kids which is what I think makes us different i also want to say that having gone to uh the GMC sportsmanship awards was that only yesterday really feels like it was long ago yesterday um again what's different about EB is that I'm sitting at our
table and Mr malta is there with us and not every other district had their athletic director there the other part that's different about us that really stands out is I would like to fell about the children that were there that were not my child because four students spoke and two of them were from East
Brunswick and think about what that says that they chose two of our athletes to be of four kids that were called up to the podium out of the entire GMC so Samantha Arnold and Silus Vega spoke beautifully and their parents were incredibly proud we were all very very
proud the other thing I want to say about our equity is that I was a huge proponent as many of us were as the administrative team was about getting our girls softball team off of that little corner of the property and over where everybody else is and I was all
about let's get them where we are let's get them it's a safer area better facilities all of that what I was not expecting was I was at lacrosse because I'm just not even quiet i'm a lacrosse mom i was at lacrosse on the lower turf and I wanted to go up to the softball game because it was so loud and vibrant
what was happening up on the softball turf on Saturday morning that and there was a lacrosse game going on in the stadium there was lacrosse game going on the lower turf my attention should have been focused but I wanted to go watch softball because it was so loud and electric there were two games going on
at the field and it was everything that you could want for our kids to have them be there have the crowd i watched people just go up there because it was so loud let's see what's going on so our kids are getting the benefit of what we're spending on them and sometimes I think it's easy to miss if you're not there to
see it and if you're not at these events to compare us to other schools and just sort of notice like that's a small table of adults that's a small table so our kids are still getting the benefit of the excellence there's a lot of people working hard for them and it's really special what our faculty delivers having
said that can we do not have a need for a closed session no do we no we do not that we had earlier we had Okay just checking before I go wrong can I have a motion to adjurnn
wilbert Jamie all in favor all against all opposed motion carries thank you everyone and good night