welcome um um can we have a roll call please yes sorry it's okay pepper was talking to me we're allowed to do that so we being Miss Bose here mr clark here miss Evans
here miss Groer here dr king here miss Martinez miss Pasculi here miss Santos here mr vanheis here and Mr ryan's not here yet okay you have a corner thank you so much time the Open Public Meeting Act
authorizes the board of education to meet in executive session under certain circumstances um the Open Public Meeting Act requires the board to adopt a resolution at a public meeting to go into private session uh the T Lawrence Township Board of Ed um will meet in
executive session this evening to discuss certain items involving this evening specifically HIP uh formal action will not be taken uh exec session is expected to last about 30 minutes um
I have a motion to move into so moved second all in favor i so moved dr barry Exa would you like to introduce our musicians this evening performing for the board of education absolutely thank you Dr clint good evening everybody good evening board members
good evening community uh my name is Dr barry Damen Barrya i'm the supervisor of the uh math science and arts program at the elementary grades here in Lawrence Township and we have with us this evening our uh orchestra orchestra members from Lawrence Intermediate
School uh these folks were selected to perform at the CJMEA Honors Orchestra coming up so these are these are not just our orchestra performers our orchestra musicians but they represent some of the best uh orchestra musicians at this grade level
in the state so led by Miss Clark miss Clark take it away thank you so much our first piece will be Acceleration by Cooper Ford [Music]
are [Music] you hallelujah [Music]
heat heat
[Music]
[Applause] woohoo so that piece was supposed to make you feel acceleration is about using sound to create emotional response so it's supposed to make you feel happy after hearing song right just excited
kind of like if you were on a roller coaster or just like experiencing life for the first time you know that's what exhilaration is from um we're going to be performing this at our May 1st concert with the full orchestra which is about 70 kids so May 1st launch at 7
o'clock this is one of our um big orchestra pieces and this is actually composed by one of my good friends Cooper who actually he was at my wedding he played at it so he started composing music I was like well I'm gonna
go and guys love that song right that's a fun one to introduce the next This is Fiddles on Fire by Mark Williams [Music] heaven [Music]
come down hallelujah [Music] thank you [Music]
woo that's not Thank you that one is also going to be on May that's a good one great come join us hear us at our spring concert it's coming up quick right guys but they've been working very hard so we're excited and honors orchestra is the weekend
before that packing a lot of music in this thank you for your support you say guys thank you thank you so much wonderful melissa how long have these students been playing so everybody is a sixth
grader except for Lashita here who's a fifth grader wow but she she some violin lessons before she came to the Wow she got a little sneak peek and just rose to the occasion right so everybody here's six we're going up to middle school
we're playing right well done right guys yes thank you thank you so much great yes great
you're mechy and arrow both that's awesome yeah so good luck with that so I I I got a first front row seat on what's involved great i heard it's a I have a couple friends that are in that department okay thank you so much um
awesome welcome everybody the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon as required under the law adequate
notice of this meeting has been provided via email and or facts to the Times the Lawrence Ledger the public library and has been filed with the municipal clerk this notice was provided prior to the 48 hours required by the open public meetings act the board reserves the right to limit public discussion of
personnel items and other matters as defined in the law do our flag salute to the flag of the United States of America to the stands one for all
that music is still going okay thank you um first we have our student representative report peer leaders come on down we're up come on up
welcome hi hi um last Thursday night 95 juniors were inducted into the National Honors Society in the induction ceremony the new inductees pledged their commitment into the society and heard speeches from Dr adam the LHS principal Mr dr neil Desai the district's new
assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction and Miss Hoy an NHS adviser the senior NHS members have fulfilled their membership and duties are being passed to the new members um Project Graduation is throwing Clash Royale a fundraiser on April 25th it
will be a series of flag football games between the classes hello I'm Travis uh the 3v3 basketball tournament is tomorrow night the two finalists will then play the teachers on Friday during the lunch periods it's an event all the students look forward to
and then our spring sports are off to a great start and all of our teams are looking forward to the rest of their seasons hello my name is Keon um so Culture Fest is scheduled for June 14th and we'll celebrate the diverse backgrounds of our student body through performances and food and everyone is encouraged to
attend also AP testing begins next month and students have already begun preparing both in and out of class great thank you so much thank you you don't want to say other things to do tonight like what
nobody told me that in recognitions and acknowledgements this evening I'm going to call uh Miss Gabrielle Casier up uh April is school library month in New Jersey welcome from LIS yes it's the most wonderful time of the
year a school library month and I am here to read the state of New Jersey state board of education resolution in recognition of school library month in New Jersey there's a lot of whereas so buckle up
whereas the month of April 2025 has been designated nationally as school library month by the American Association of School Librarians and whereas the New Jersey State Board of Education recognizes that information literacy skills are necessary and essential for
students to become active informed citizens and contributing members of local state national and global communities and whereas school librarians provide information literacy instruction so that students learn to think critically to make informed
decisions and create and share knowledge in preparation for post-secary success and whereas school libraries are the heart of their schools promoting literacy equity diversity and inclusion and serving as a center for voluntary
inquiry through open access to resources to foster students growth and development and whereas school library media specialists provide literature appreciation activities as well as guide and encourage content and recreational reading honoring students right to read
and whereas school library media specialists work collaboratively with all content areas promoting activities with the goal of increasing literacy rates and students academic success and whereas it is both fitting and proper that special recognition be given to
school libraries and the role of certified school library media specialists recognizing their professionalism honor work ethic and performance as trusted information professionals now therefore be it resolved that the New Jersey State Board
of Education and the Commissioner of Education recognize April 2025 as school library month in New Jersey thank you and I just would also like to say thank you so much to Lawrence Township because we have a certified
school library media specialist in every school in this district a full time they all have book dresses they they might not uh at LIS today we are doing autism acceptance spirit week and today is
what's your passion Wednesday dress for something you love perfect and I love the library so thank you for having me and thank you for recognizing us and for supporting us as librarians in the district we truly appreciate it whereas we
Thank you thank you so much and I would just like to say I think we are very fortunate in Lawrence Township to have library media specialists in all of our schools they are all amazing i remember all of my time in the libraries at all of our schools at book fairs and
volunteering and um I can say for sure the library in our schools have had a big impact on my children's lives um and that is due to the amazing library media specialists that we have in our district so thank you to all of
you adoption of the minutes can I have a motion to adopt the executive session and regular session minutes from the 319 2025 meeting so moved second tom with a motion in a second please mr clark yes
miss Evans yes miss Kroger abstain dr king abstain miss Pascouli yes miss Santos yes mr vanheis yes miss Bose yes motion carried thank you reports to the board
superintendent report all right first off thank you so much to our L musicians this evening it's always so awesome for us to walk out of executive session and we have some music playing i I think the board also enjoys it so thank you again for arranging um I wanted to express my
uh gratitude for the resolution read by Gab uh Caceri miss Evans already stole my thunder i was going to comment on your awesome dress i was very impressed um we are so fortunate to have dedicated talented media specialists as we've already said in all of our schools their
commitment to our students and community is truly inspiring and I appreciate all of our media specialists and library assistants in the district i just want to call them by name because everybody knows them fondly eileen Kramer Janelle McDow Shannon Lucarelli Gab Caceri Stacy
Moore April Oliver Michelle Imino Immortino sorry Michelle um and Wendy Offrey also this week is National Assistant Principles Week we're so grateful for all of our amazing APS across the district they're truly our trailblazers um the unsung heroes in our
buildings really a special shout out to Mr z Miss Rello Miss Hart who has stepped up to fill in and support Miss Relo's maternity leave and Dr waser Leebin Dr williams um Miss EC and Dr stein we really truly couldn't run our
schools without you so sincere thanks and I am in blue tonight proudly supporting autism awareness month um acceptance month we're doing some really awesome things throughout the district really modeling infusion of inclusion um not a one-time deal certainly I think
the culture of our buildings really speak to all of the inclusive practices that we do with our kiddos day in and day out on all levels that makes me um more proud than I can even acknowledge um so please um appreciate the um wonderful buttons i think that we're out
on the deis here and we have a bag filled back um behind um Miss Balderi it's the white bag our lees friends um have created autism acceptance buttons which I'm proudly wearing and it really just models the respect we have for all
of our learners and making sure that everyone is here to learn and grow and we see you and we hear you thank you thank you so much Dr clim board Secretary report so quickly we had a very uh lengthy finance meeting and I I
won't steal any thunder i think I promise more than welcome to all right so uh just to give uh the um the board uh an update on things that um I believe that you wanted to hear last uh meeting and make um make it known that we're not just focusing on the middle school with
the referendum all the other buildings are still in our mind and so I bring these to the forefront for you so we are uh undergoing a construction project we're seeking your approval tonight uh on the SPM section of the agenda to move
forward with what we call a school facilities project and that's a a term of art and to create a lavatory uh for at at Lawrence Intermediate School so this would be a laboratory with all the appointments necessary to accommodate
persons uh with special needs of course it's has all the other appointments as well u and so I know that Vanessa Picariac will be walking with our architects same architects FBHD which is George and Steve if you know them by first name and I believe I'll be there
too tomorrow walking around uh to find the appropriate place for this facility um also uh and this is not very exciting I suppose but just to let you know that we continue with improvements at LIS over the summer we'll have sink replacements on all the lower rooms um
we've done Slackwood School we've done uh Ben Franklin we did the top floor of LIS we'll do the bottom floor and that's all paid for from a grant from the state of New Jersey we will be doing and you'll hear me use this uh these initials RTU rooftop units um we replace
those boxes that are on top of buildings uh at at the intermediate school will be doing the 94 edition which is the library where the librarians are they still here so that's getting replaced it's already contracted um and we'll also be doing rooms 5758
and 59 so the board awarded that was a pretty hefty contract upwards of almost $800,000 um and we've done the same thing at the high school so um but we'll talk about that later so we wanted to kind of piece it out as we go here um we have Slackwood school modular building floor
we'll be replacing any number of hallways and rooms there and finally and wrapping this up is the budget hearing which is May 7th and so we don't expect that there will be any changes in that so you'll see something that looks like deja vu the resolutions will all be adopted again the state is asking us to
do a few things that are a little more formal than I've ever seen before so when we go into the budget hearing they've actually asked us to or recommended to us i don't know that it's a requirement to pass a a resolution or a motion to hold a budget hearing so it would look something like this um
someone makes a motion to begin the budget hearing it's seconded and we are now officially in the budget hearing within the board meeting and so then we do the presentation and we turn and we open it up to the public as we always do and say "Are there any questions from
the public?" And then when it's over we say "Is there a motion to close the public hearing?" And second and boom and you're back in the board meeting and no voting just no voting close that's it yep just to somehow memorialize that this is an official public hearing and so we don't have it that this is
anything required by the state i've never seen it before but the county distributed this recently and I just looked at it and said "Okay if that's what you need." Um does it get us Qack points that's a yes then everybody smiles so that's that's all I have for
you this evening there's a lot of things on the finance agenda yes thank you so much Tom um I don't really have a board president report other than I just wanted to um thank Tom for all of his hard work um over the past couple of
months specifically regarding our referendum um and going forward but I know a lot will be falling on his shoulders and I feel um we are very lucky in our district to have you um leading us in this uh financial uh
journey that we're going on um I know tonight we have a lot of things the beginning of it the start of it um and I just wanted to uh you know have the public understand what a big um job you have done and how extraordinarily well
you have done it for us um and I look forward to the great things that we're going to do in the future for our district together so thank you so much Tom thank you and thank you for your support and every one of you um there hasn't been a single board member who hasn't come forward to say "How can I
help what can I do?" Um or work on it with me so you know from Amanda to making sure that we're we're clear and of course Jill's in the audience and she's making sure everything gets done right away so thank you for the pleasure yes your team as well i mean I I always
say you but I mean the entire team that stands behind you i know they work so hard um and we appreciate that and I know our community does as well thank you okay okay lazison report uh student board
member report edison you're up all right uh good evening everyone as we are approaching project uh excuse me as we are approaching graduation for this year's senior class I would like to once again speak to you about our current fundraising efforts for this year's project graduation event while we have made significant progress we are still in need of additional support from
community uh both community and students to ensure success of the event so far project graduation has raised roughly uh roughly $10,900 towards our goal of 16,000 leaving a gap of just over $5,000 we've identified uh low participation in fundraising events as a leading cause of
the deficit while initiatives like the Shake Shack fundraiser offer 25% return on sales turn out from both students and parentses parents have been lower than we'd like we strongly encourage community members to get involved in these events to facilitate and support the continuation of Project Graduation one of the biggest uh fundraising
opportunities this month which was uh brought up earlier by one of my peers is Class Royale it's a as she said a school a schoolwide competition that serves as a rematch of the fall powderpuff game but with expanded participation across all grade levels despite strong administrative support and several school assemblies student uh some
students um or student signups remain lower than uh we'd hoped uh with seniors and juniors in particular uh showing some reluctance to join which poses a significant hurdle in making the event happen participation in class royale is crucial not only does it help fun uh raise funds for project graduation but it also strengthens school spirit and
provides students with an opportunity to create lasting memories in addition to encouraging student participation we are also looking for more parent volunteers particularly for coaching roles and monitoring activities at events while we have enough volunteers for ticket sales and concessions we still lack uh support in key areas such as supervising for
class royale we also have a direct donations portal on the project graduation website for inclined and generous individuals and uh despite the difficulties we've encountered thus far we still remain hopeful that through continued outreach and strong community engagement we will secure the necessary funds to ensure a
successful project graduation event for the class of 2025 thank you for your time and I encourage everyone to spread the word get involved and support these efforts in any way possible this concludes my report uh Jeremy is that um the Shake Shack is that still going on you're saying or that wrapped up the
Shake Shack actually I'm not sure okay yeah I don't know all right just didn't know we have to get some milkshakes that's what I was i mean if they're not going on I do not want to calories are taken away if it's a
fundraiser right thank you so much lawrence Township Education Foundation um we did meet um and Neil Jai was the the two of us were leading the cause there we had a great meeting
um LTEF is just so amazing in supporting programs in our district um both Neil and I thank them for reading the grants for deciding where the grants were going to go presenting them at the schools the work that they put into supporting our
schools is just phenomenal so we both were just so pleased we also took the time to thank them for doing the research for the referendum and understanding that social media is not the place to get your facts and they
squished a bunch of facts that were not accurate and they stood up and supported us and we wanted to thank them for that also um and our next meeting gosh I had that at the very end i should have put that up front here next meeting will be
May 2nd um and the one thing that Neil suggested which went over very well and and I was like an aha moment for me too is that the grants for the next session we'll look at the topics that might focus more on the curriculum needs of our district which yes assembly programs
are great but let's try to focus them and the committee agreed so um we we did that do you want me to do all of them and get it done new Jersey school boards do or wait no that's next on the list all righty um on March 15th while I had
a family emergency in Florida I did zoom in and attended New Jersey School Board's legislative committee meeting it was 9 to 12 uh guest speaker was Assemblywoman Cody D miller legislative district number four he spent an hour
discussing his legislative promises and responding to questions from committee members which people like us said "This these are the problems." and I think they appreciate our viewpoint they hear the bills come across the floor and they sound fantastic but they don't have
people that are in working with the bills that they're passing so he he took a lot of notes so that was exciting and and encouraged us to reach out and speak to the people that are proposing these bills to give them the background that we have to live with when they pass uh
we talked about the proposed budget for 2026 recently signed education laws uh the ones that are being considered uh that are being looked at the ones that were passed uh 3957 5151
uh temporarily re relief for posting um public notices which we talked about before newspapers are folding we're looking to try to do it online and some uh caveats have been allowed for us to look at doing that for this year until a
decision is finally pushed through um we did talk about the bill with getting the numbers of signatures required for candidates on elections that passed discussion of state and general assembly legislative public hearings for FYI 2026
was discussed there were opportunities for public input um we talked about bills on the move and the Capitol Watch newsletter which each and every one of us are privy to they're sent out to all the members and they're encouraging us to take a moment to take a look at those
so that you don't have to listen to me spit out all these bill numbers you can read them on your own and reach out to legislative people when you have questions next legislative committee meeting will be May 31st it will be in person in Trenton i then sat in on a
resolution subcommittee meeting April 1st um six o'clock it was a WebEx there were three proposals that are going to be moved on to the delegates assembly one had to do with esports which I thought was very interesting a lot of districts are highly into this it's a
highly competitive sport and the po the proposal is to award varsity letters to esport participants they put in the time they compete so it's going to be moved on and
NJSIA is also going to get involved looking at how to make that work second resolution had to do with school nursing shortages certifications this one is going to be passed on um the third one that was also moved on was about excused
absences and this has to do with students that are attending vocational or trade schools that sometimes they have to go for uh meetings or certifications and they're missing school to do these things but they're not excused absences and we did
something similar to that for military um instances too so that one's pushed on so take a look at those next delegates assembly if anyone wants to join me please do may 10th Mercer County Community College um updates from New Jersey School Board second annual
women's leadership conference which we had people here attending was fantastic sold out they're looking next year for a larger venue to continue it so be on the lookout for that also New Jersey School Boards will present its inaugural equity
explo the uh 11th at Mercer County uh lots of sessions will be there contain creating um and sustaining equity in New Jersey schools workshop 2025 taking place October 20th to the 23rd Atlantic City Convention Center theme this year
your ticket to big ideas and bright futures and I was just told that we have already submitted two proposals for to present from our district bravo very proud of you guys um
and that's it for that and project graduation's already been dealt with so that's my report for you too well the county meeting yes that's coming up we'll have elections we'll get into that another day are you sure come on give us
some more moving on but moving on um I'm going to just Robin just wants to make a quick announcement yeah little birdie just told me that our student rep is now committed do you want to share with the board where you're going to college uh I got admitted to Princeton and I will be
attending next fall so thank you [Applause] so proud of him thank you sorry for that brief announcement yes we have we want to celebrate Edison and all of his accomplishments and we're so happy for you i wouldn't be here without you also
a that's fantastic so now you can come back though you won't be that far away we'll come see you yes that's really wonderful edison parents weekend I was with your father last night so I
called you Jerby instead oh that's cute two wonderful Ryans yes right okay um student services student services meeting was held on April 1st in attendance was Vanessa Caria and myself Arendelle Clark items
to highlight we have a couple recognitions thank you to those whom participated in our rock our socks to celebrate Down Syndrome awareness last month uh the next district-wide event that's being planned is to celebrate
autism awareness and that'll take place on the 25th of this month thanks to Brett Denovi for their contributions to our professional development in working with um the MD classrooms at LIS and LEES this year to support our teachers
and our students um ESY and connect planning and preparation for ESY and connect continue for the 2025 summer session it's ongoing with currently with uh staffing and student placement there will be more updates uh coming up next
month upcoming events ltps through the request of the Mercer County Prosecutor organized a meeting for all the Mercer County directors to be informed about an event called Blue Envelope on Sunday April 27th from 9:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m at
Mercer County Park the event will allow an opportunity for families to sign up to be listed on the special needs registry you can obtain a special needs or or autism identification card as well as a blue envelope the blue envelope
helps identify those with special needs to law enforcement easily that ends the report thank you so much reconfiguration ad hoc we have no formal update this month next month uh review
of communications anyone no okay uh first opportunity for public input okay seeing none uh board discussion and work session we have nothing this evening and personnel committee report
and uh personnel action items that would be me we did meet on April 2nd 8:15 to 9:10 a.m in attendance Dr robin Clim Sean Fry Arendelle Clark Olga Martinez Kevin Vanheis and Joe Anne Krueger we
are starting to advertise an interview for next year's vacancies and if you'll notice on new business Sean has already done one of those i was like very impressed anyway um we we discussed um
midyear follow-ups um Lawrence High School administrator participated in interview events with New Jersey Stride Ryder um and at Ryder University and let's see we'll be approving the job
description for secretary to the business administrator financial specialist and policy 24220 just had some major or minor rather language updates on tonight's agenda let me make the screen bigger there we go on tonight's agenda you'll
find a resignation due to retirement and at this time I'd like to congratulate Sheila Carnival a special education assistant at Ben Franklin Elementary School she's served the district for 18 years and um in addition also Bernardet
Husel also is a special education assistant at LES bernardet has served for 19 years and three months at the end of the school year both ladies will total that we'd like to thank both of these amazing dedicated women for their commitment to our students to our
programs and helping to make the lives of our students filled with learning and support we wish both ladies a healthy and very happy retirement you'll also notice um you'll see some appointments due to clearances approvals for resolutions substitute
teachers substitute assistants you'll also see secretaries uh resignation transfers um staff leave replacements a sidebar agreement and an unpaid leave you'll see a motion to authorize an action and with all of that
I'd like to now move P1 through P15 please second Tom with a motion and a second mr clark yes miss Evans yes miss Groger yes dr king yes miss Pasculi yes
miss Santos yes mr vanheis yes miss Bose yes motion carried thank you next is CIAPD and um student services action items ciapd meeting was held on
April 1st at from 8 to 10 in the board office joining me were Dr clim Mr desai Miss Foster Dr king Miss Bose Miss and Miss Santos uh Sarah Foster provided updates
on a very exciting DOE grant artificial intelligence innovation in education uh we are one of 10 school districts in New Jersey to receive this grant miss Foster presented on the timeline of the grant
which will be from May to December and the main objectives of the grant are to develop a stronger AI policy in the district conduct AI outreach events for our primary students or faculty and support the development of
innovative AI curriculum and enhance overall instructional practices there was also a discussion of ongoing consultation with TCJ faculty with the support of Dr king the committee reviewed a couple of policies mr desai
provided a summary of the staff professional development day on March 31st staff enhanced their professional knowledge in many areas such as social emotional learning artificial intelligence data analysis education and
the law and differentiation of instruction mr desai also provided an update of his transition and his visits to all the schools his meeting with staff his focus on community partnerships and student achievement i'm going to be meeting with him oneon-one
tomorrow i promise not to scare him off he'll get pepper light thank you that's good uh progress updates included solidifying the teachers and the classrooms for additional preschool classrooms next school year also an upcoming tour of Mercer County VOTE to
learn more about their career and technical education program and the area of community connections an update on the Lewisville Road project on March 25th and the historical society day on April 10th
um and that concludes my presentation uh on your agenda you will see a resolution of support authorizing sustainable Jersey grant there's some non-public state funding approval of HIB
and two uh students out of district uh I would like to move OIS1 through 4 and OSS 1 through3 second Tom with a motion and a second
mr clark yes miss Evans yes miss Kroger yes dr king yes miss Pascouli yes miss Santos yes mr vanheis yes miss Pose yes motion carried thank you finance Committee report and school business
management action items um we had a very uh lively uh meeting lengthy meeting uh on Friday in attendance uh were Miss Evans Miss Pasculi Miss Santos myself uh Dr clint Mr eldridge and Miss Pos Luznney um the first and most I guess
exciting part of our meeting was deciding whether or not we were going to commit to actually doing breakfast or not having reached a consensus on that um we actually rolled up the sleeves and and um as we've joked about in the past it's all referendum all the time um the first half was really uh in
conversations about that and while the referendum has much work that went into that that was actually the easy part and that really wasn't the work now it's really the rolling up the sleeves um and understanding uh what goes into that so um first item on our agenda was uh the
budget hearing which will be uh on May 7th as Tom had referred to earlier um but specifically with the referendum so the public and even the board members understand um you know just to get off first base we have to retain our um consultants and our professionals and that's a very um kind of strict process
on certain things need to be bid certain things um you know for professional services contract or extraordinary uh unspecified services contracts there's RFPs RFQS somebody has to put together the specifications for that there are timelines and deadlines to be met there are publication requirements What's an
RFQ uh request for proposals request for uh qualifications qualifications thank you so depending on what type of service you're going out for what you're doing um and um again just the kudos and accolades to Tom and his staff uh can't
come um loud enough or often enough because of the amount of work that goes just even into the background work that you need to get just to get your people in place um so as of now um the our architect uh contract uh that Tom
referred to earlier has already uh essentially been done and it's over and been delivered to the office of the state controller uh and they've been actively working on uh our other contracts for construction manager and environmental engineer lab testing uh
and even uh our money manager um to uh get those uh set up we also have bond council that's being coordinated with so that when we go out to issue bonds um it's very important to the district that we both maximize um you know essentially
the revenue uh that we'll be able to obtain um with the best interest rates and those types of things when we issue our bond um and also want to uh make sure that we kind of insulate ourselves from the changes that are currently going on with the stock market with the um impacts that the federal government
is currently having on the markets uh so we want to get that set up as soon as possible so all of those things are ongoing while uh we're doing everything else um one of the money managers is also important just so everybody understands that once you go out for
bonds and you issue the bonds and you retain the funds um that will be a very sizable portion certainly we will not be incurring one bill um for that so typically what happens is is that you invest those monies that are received from the issue and then um you have to
make sure that they're managed properly because they are funds from taxexempt bonds and so therefore you cannot essentially invest those to make profits over and above what your costs are um so that's very important to make sure that somebody professionally manages that
otherwise there are penalties and reporting requirements to the federal government um all of the things that don't ever really get talked about but Tom is essentially keeping us on track on uh and understanding and that's just to get your people lined up and that the
funds that you need um so all of that is ongoing uh right now and we're kneedeep in that um while that's going on they're also doing uh kind of the the run-of-the-mill work for our students um so we are also um putting together and
getting our professional services contracts lined up um for our non-public services so these are you know students that are essentially uh parentally placed and that that are not currently in district but do uh obtain services from us um so and then also our normal
um special education uh services so attorneys auditors sage OT PT services speech social workers all of those contracts are uh in the process of uh getting taken care of uh while that the
weather up for today has been getting nicer so all of a sudden we're going to be on lawn cutting and lawn maintenance obligations uh so Tom's office is coordinating that um we've got uh lawn maintenance services are out to uh bid as well as uh our in-house on staff
people um they're getting geared up getting the equipment ready they are already out and about certainly as we heard earlier from the students all the sports teams are uh ongoing so there's field maintenance and and all those types of things that are currently being uh
done uh SRE uh sale uh went out bid openings are this week we didn't get any didn't didn't get any bids and you will see those on the agenda again tonight on new business did see that and we changed the floor to 150 that is correct yes
from 200 we had that discussion before we gave it a try nobody wanted to do that they said we were too um optimistic so don't lose that optimism correct we remain optimist we remain optimist yes
you don't hear that often no we're too optimistic well we've sold at that price before just not this time and Tom did brief us that apparently there are some legislative changes that are being contemplated that could actually essentially remove the SRE sales market
as an additional source of revenue which may be driving some of the the the market that's currently there now luckily for the district we were kind of at the beginning of the curb uh curve in getting solar and that sort of a thing so we were kind of coming to the end of
our SRE lifespan anyway um and the district still sees an immense benefit in having the solar panels um you know certainly the infrastructure and green technologies the offset on our power draw which reduces our utility bills um so they have been a very positive
addition for the district even if the SREC sales uh are coming to um that additional revenue may be seeing its its end um we received an update on a student worker initiative so we currently have um one of our students uh at the high school special needs
students who is currently working with our uh lawn and maintenance staff it has been a wonderful uh pairing um he's been uh from all updates he's been a phenomenal resource for us um and uh has
been working out really well so that's awesome he's getting life skills we're getting our facilities and uh taken care of and it's been really a great pairing uh Tom uh mentioned the lavatory at LIS that project is up and running and you will see that on tonight's agenda as
well so as we move forward on that um we also uh received updates on the pea program uh our pea plan for 2526 has been officially approved which is great news um and now uh Robin and and Tom and
the staff are working to actually get um our off-campus provider get them through the approval process um the last kinds of item that we talked about um we're um kind of in addition to all the contracts and getting that out construction
phasing planning uh is also going to be an essential component of this as everyone can imagine um there will be impacts u to district operations and certainly our schools um and so the idea is to come up with the best most efficient plan to actually minimize
those disruptions while expediting the construction schedule as quickly as possible um and that will involve lots of phasing certainly portions of buildings may be down that may cause um you know relocations of students or classrooms or programs or activities and
those types of things um so all of that is kind of at the infancy stage but being already thought about um and the district is committed to having a you know a very um deliberate and informative plan especially for communication so that all of our staff
our students our parents and our community um know because that's going to impact everything from morning drop offs to like I said classrooms to um school activities and those types of things um and then administratively uh they are really continuing to meet
essentially weekly for staff meetings um two things so that everybody is staying on the same page which is fantastic keeping track of all of this great um and the benefit of that is also the building the bench um so everybody is essentially crossraining everybody is has the ability and and frankly um the
willingness to step up anything that needs to get done um so as board members I mean it is fantastic to hear that that our central office staff and certainly even down to the schools and the staff level um it's literally it's all hands- on deck and everybody has been willing
to do anything that's required learn each other's jobs pitch in which is fantastic so um with that uh nothing else went on that morning sure uh you didn't really say enough and uh so with that I will move SPM 1
through 11 second Tom with a motion and a second mr clark yes miss Evans yes mr grover yes dr king yes miss Pasculi yes miss Santos yes mr
vanheis yes and Miss Bose yes motion carried thank you um I would be remiss if I didn't just say thank you to the finance committee um they do so much work the detail of what they do is huge
um I appreciate the thorough report Kevin even though I'm joking about it i think it's really um helpful for the public to understand all of the things that um of course the school is doing but that the board is involved with i
think the partnership between the board and the administration is something that um in a lot of districts are not as seamless and as cohesive as it is here and I think it allows us to do so much more um work with less time and time is
something that's so valuable to all of our board members as I remind the public we are volunteers and not paid um and spend a lot of time together and so um I just want to um acknowledge and appreciate um the finance committee
because I know that one is one that is very long um and there's a lot of different things that go in and I I know you didn't share everything even today but just so that the public knows that the board is really involved with all of the decisions um and it's really a great
partnership and I'm super proud of the finance committee and and the work they've done thus far um and looking forward in the future as well with that we have our next opportunity for public input okay seeing none we move on new
business uh new business uh there's staffing more staffing and more staffing then there's uh transportation contracts we talked about the selling of SREX and out of
district placement and I'd like to move new business items 1 through 15 second tom with a motion and a second mr clark yes miss Evans yes miss Groger yes dr
king yes miss Pascoli yes miss Santos yes mr vanheis yes miss Bose yes motion carried thank you and that concludes our evening have a motion to adjourn so move all in favor i i so move thank you
everyone for coming have a great night