Good evening everyone. >> It's great to see a full house. I'd like to call this meeting to order. This is the North Brunswick Township Board of Education regular public meeting. Today is Wednesday, May 6th. Could we all please rise for the pledge of allegiance?
>> 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. >> Mr. Carter >> here,
>> Miss Aeda >> here. >> Miss James >> here. >> Mr. Lori >> here. >> Dr. Patel >> here. >> Mr. Singh >> here. Miss SHA here, Miss To >> here, >> and Mr. Wen, we have a card. >> Thank you. The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law was enacted to ensure the
right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the open public meetings law, the public notice of this meeting, which included the time, date, and location, was
distributed by 3 p.m. on Wednesday, January 28th, 2026. in the following manner. Posted on the bulletin board reserved for announcements in the board office 25 Lynwood Place North Brunswick. Mailed to the Home News Tribune, Star Ledger, NJ.com, and the clerk of the
township of North Brunswick. Delivered to the nine dulyeleed board members. And beginning on March 1st of this year, all future board notices shall be public published on the board's official website, www.nbtschools.org,
org and be made available through the New Jersey Secretary of State's official website in lie of publication in a newspaper in accordance with PL 2025 C72. Well, good evening everyone. It's so
good to have a full house. Like I said, I want to welcome all of the building principles here, all of our honores tonight. It's so good to see a lot of familiar faces in the audience as well. And it's also crazy to think that we are
coming down to the end of the uh 2025 2026 school year. So lovely to have everyone tonight. We have a lot of exciting things to get to. So at this time I'll turn it over to Superintendent Sakowski to start off our presentations.
>> Thank you, Madam President. Good evening everyone and our millions of viewers at home. uh ratings have been skyhigh and I'm so happy to see so many people turn out for my budget presentation at about 9:30 tonight. So uh very excited about
that. But uh our first presentation um is with a heavy heart. One of our own um stu uh graduate Carol Lee Wulmarmac was a very special person student and of course part of the first family of North
Brunswick. We have a mayor and his wife Carol just special people in this not only in this community but specifically in our district. Um and uh so without further ado I know they've been going through a difficult time but Carol Lee
really left a mark here at North Brunswick. Her participation in so many different things at North Brunswick High School but specifically as an alchemist. So without further ado, two other special people from that class uh
organize a fundraiser and a special uh uh memorial for Carol Lee. So with that, Miss Marcy Mars and of course, Miss Danny Noodleman, please come up. >> Good evening, everybody. All right. Um, the Caroli Wulmarmac Memorial Scholarship celebrates the life
of Caroli, who is a student who not only pursues excellence in theater arts, but who also uplifts others and left a lasting impact on the MBTHs theater community. The scholarship was established to honor the legacy of passion, dedication, and excellence in the performing arts of
Caroli established during her time at MBTHs. She was a shining light on the stage and a true embodiment of how the alchemist got their name of turning simple things to gold. Like Caroli, this year's recipient award is more than a talented performer. They
are a true shining star both on and off the stage. During her time at MBTHs, Caroli demonstrated unwavering loyalty to the Alchemist theater company through consistent participation, a strong work ethic, and willingness to contribute in all aspects of production.
Sorry. >> And a willingness to contribute in all aspects of production, whether in the spotlight or behind the scenes. In addition to her artistic abilities, Caroli embodied the qualities of a team player. As a leader, she supported her peers, fostered a positive and inclusive
environment, and served as a role model for the other students through her integrity, responsibilities, and enthusiasm for her craft. The Caroli Wulmarmac Memorial Scholarship celebrates the life of Caroli by awarding a student who not only perceives excellence in theater arts but
who also uplifts others leaves a lasting impact on MBTHs theater community just as Carol did. So, um, everybody in the North District, all the staff members did a did a jeans day. How many >> $1,500?
>> WE HAVE to just Danny, hold on. We have the mayor and and Carol. Is Carol here with you? Yeah. Please come up >> so we CAN PRESENT THIS. THANK YOU so much. >> And there also been donations from MBTS
alumni. So this is just from the staff, but there's about $5,000 from >> this plus other alumni donations. >> Wow. >> Thank you, Mayor. Thank Caroli loved >> Caroli loved North Brunswick schools.
She loved her mentors. She loved all the students she she knew and performed with and she was very very proud to have been from North Brunswick Township High School. Thank you. >> Thank you so much.
>> Dr. if we could just honor Caroli's life with a moment of silence, please. >> Yeah, I didn't know if the mayor had we could um please uh maybe that one more time. >> Sure. >> Yeah. I just want to honor Caroli's life with a moment of silence. Um Mayor Wulmeck and family, thank you all for
coming out during this time of grief. I really want to acknowledge the tremendous loss and the tremendous sacrifice that I know that you all have made. Um so my deepest condolences, but if we could just honor her with a moment of silence. Thank you, Miss Marks. Thank you, Miss
Noodleman, for your contributions. It's greatly appreciated. Thank you. Hard to segue that with that, but we're here for some wonderful winter awards. And with that, our athletic director, Mr. Sha Morell. Mr. MORELL.
Thank you everyone. I'd like to thank the families here, the athletes, and the coaches. We had a great winter season. And I would like to call up each coach um read any honors that they or their team may have, and then they'll acknowledge the student athletes. Uh, first I'd like to call up our girls and
boys bowling coaches, Coach McCormick and Coach Mahalik, um, to present their awards. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you for coming tonight to recognize a group of amazing athletes. My name is Amy McCormack and I have been the varsity bowling coach since around 2014. I've
kind of lost track. Tonight, we recognize a senior who has worked incredibly hard and is very deserving of this year's all-white division award. Over the past three seasons, he has shown tremendous improvement. Josh started his career with a 128 average as a sophomore and steadily improved each
year, finishing this season with an impressive 198 average. That 70 pin improvement equates to a 50% increase. I think it was more like 56. My math teacher coming out. Something I will never see in my career again. His growth
and consistency are a direct result of the time and effort he put into the game. This season, Josh finished 10th in the GMC individual tournament, shooting a high game of 245 and a series of 663. A great accomplishment and reflection of the progress he made throughout his
career. Over his three years, Josh totaled 18,697 pins, bowled a high game of 279, and had a high series of 685. To put this into perspective, a perfect game is 12 strikes. To shoot a 279, he struck 11
times. Wow. >> More importantly, Josh has been a dependable teammate and someone who represented our program well. He has also been successful in the classroom, surviving both my AP calculus and AP Statistics courses over the last two years. It has been great watching Josh's
development as both a bowler and a student. And his parents and I are very proud of everything he has accomplished. Congratulations on a great career and on earning this year's all-white division award. Yeah. >> There you go.
I'm Dennis Mahalik and I am the coach of our girls team at NTHS. Uh our top girl finisher this year was Kenis Bry. She could not be with us tonight. She was a fouryear bowler on our girls team. Uh had the highest average on the team this year and had an impressive top four
finish in the GMC individuals. So we congratulate Cadence as well. Thank you. Girls basketball. We will call up coach Morano. The girls basketball team this year was also the recipient of the sportsmanship award for the white division.
Congratulations, coach, and and the team. Good evening everyone. The season has been one of growth and progress for our team. We've worked hard, faced challenges, and the girls have shown incredible resilience. The growth that
each individual player exhibited from November to February cannot be overlooked. and our players demonstrated dedicated teamwork and heart every time they stepped onto the court. Tonight we are recognizing two seniors who were
named uh all division for the white division um which is a testament to their hard work. Seniors Shaal Shama and Shiloh Connage were named all division for the white division. Um, after recovering
from an ankle injury this year, Shiloh was able to join us this season in January and ended up finishing the season as one of the top scorers in our program, as well as the second leading rebounder, averaging just about um a
double double in all of her games she played this season. Shiloh finished her high school career with 173 rebounds, 211 points, most of which came from this season alone. It is also my pleasure to share that she will be continuing her basketball career next year at Middle
Sex College. Congratulations. We're so proud of you. Our next se senior, Sha Al Shama, finished her career as the second leading three-point scorer in program history. She was also recognized as one
of the top shot blockers in the conference. Shod finishes an illustrious high school career with nearly 700 points, 100 steals, and 111 three-pointers. Um, back in March, she represented our
team in the GMC All-Star game. It's also my pleasure to announce that she will be continuing playing basketball at the collegiate level next year at Kane University. KU. >> It is a well-deserved honor that they set the standard for excellence
that we can all look up to. They will be missed and we are so proud of their accomplishments. Thank you to all the players, coaches, and administration for all your support throughout the season. Thank you. Next, I'd like to call up coach Byum for
our boys basketball team. The boys team was also a sportsmanship award winner this year in the all white American division. So, congratulations, COACH. >> Good evening. I'm Coach Bum. Um, third year of coaching. Uh, we here today to
celebrate, um, one of our top tier seniors. Young man, um, went through the program, four year four, four-year program guy. Um, very true to the culture, right? Rebuild our program the way we needed to do it. within the uh last three years, we changed a couple things, but him being the guy that he
is, he he definitely um related to the changes and he moved he moved uh um efficiently and did what he he was supposed to do this year. Uh the guy I'm presenting to this award to is uh Angel Rodriguez Reyes. Um this young man, he
averaged 11 points, uh two two rebounds per game. You're going to see why it was only two rebounds, but I can tell you he averaged five. I can tell he averaged five steals a game without a shadow of a doubt. But one thing about him I could say um this guy he carried our team for
the majority of our season. And again you will see his size once I present this to him. And with further ado, Angel Rodriguez. So just so you see with that I present this to you and how much we appreciate you for who you are that you are. And by
the way he has a 4.0 >> I just would like to thank the administration for giving us the opportunity to give me the opportunity to coach our guys and a lot of young good young men and make sure we have some people take care. Next up, we'd like to call our swimming
coach, Coach Egan Ragavas. She is the um just like to let you know the girls swimming team is the white division. She's the white division coach of the year. It's >> now her first time as coach of the year. Uh again, they are the overall sportsmanship. The boys swimming team is
the overall GMC sportsmanship award winner. I don't know how many years it's been. 14 in a row, I believe. And um the white division sportsmanship award as well. So, CONGRATULATIONS. >> Thank you. Um I would like to first thank Dr. Z the board of education um
for Mr. Morell, Mr. Neller for the continued support for our aquatics uh program and our swim team. Um I would like to call up um my first recipient. So she comes up before, but Vivian Turpp. Uh Vivian is a senior. Um she's a
four-year varsity swimmer. She scored 119 points this year for our swim team alone. um at the she also won the uh greater middle size conference sportsmanship award um where we went to the banquet and she was honored. Um Vivian swam at GMC's the 200 medley
relay the 500 free the 100 back and the two free um and she was also the girls MVP this year. Um Vivian will be going to Renelier Polytenic Institute for Aerospace Engineering next year. Um, and I believe Nia is not here. Um,
but I just wanted like to say something about Nia. Um, she is a sophomore, a secondyear varsity swimmer. She scored 95 points for the girls team. Uh, Nia swam at GMC's the two medley relay, the 100 free, the 100 breast, and the four free relay. UH,
ANA, come on up. Ana is a sophomore and a secondyear varsity swimmer. She scored 117 points for the girls this season. Anika swam the two medley relay, the 50 free, the 100 back, and the two free relay.
>> Pradon um I believe he is not here. There was an innovation practice that they could have missed. Doors open tomorrow 6:30 Friday 6:30. >> Um Donnie is a freshman this year. Uh
first year varsity swimmer scoring 88 points for the boys. Uh he swam the two medley relay, the two uh the 2M and the four free relay. And he was also our boys G uh most valuable swimmer this year. And last but not least, Chris Patel.
Come on up. KISHA IS one of our hardest working athletes in the entire pool every single day. Uh Chris is a sophomore and a first year a second year varsity swimmer. Sorry Chris. Um Chris scored 87 points for the boys. He swam the two medley
relay, the 100 fly, and the two free relay. Um and what's best about this crew, um besides Vivian, everyone else is a freshman and a sophomore. So I can't wait to continue to rebuild. We often have a long line of seniors, but we're we're rebuilding and we're we got all these youngsters coming in. So, I
just wanted to say congratulations to these guys and um just wanted to speak on the sportsmanship award because I do realize that the boys are the ones who got that award. Um but I did want to speak on behalf of all of the swimmers um because we are one team. We travel together as a team. Um sportsmanship to
me means walking away from the competition with dignity, making it impossible to tell whether you've won or lost. Over 13 of my 14 years as a coach, our team has earned the GMC Conference Sportsmanship Award. From the beginning, I made it a goal to not just develop strong swimmers, but to also help shape
respectful, responsible young adults. Whether we're traveling to another school or competing at our own pool, we represent North Brunswick with pride, respect, and integrity. Sorry, should I had an order? Next, we would like to call up Coach Sally for boys and girls wrestling as
he's walking up. Uh, Coach Sally's been with us only a couple of years here a few years. And, uh, we are blue division champions again for boys wrestling this year, undefeated. We are also blue division champions last year, undefeated. So, in two years, we are undefeated in the blue division. Uh,
congratulations to Coach Sally and the team and our girls wrestling team. We are backto back Red Division champions and also back-to back GMC County champions. Um, so we're we're seeing great things in our wrestling program. Thank you.
Um, I can honestly say a lot of the awards that our teams get go to the kids that I'll be mentioning later tonight. Um they put a lot of work and time outside of the season into preparing for what we call the winter test. Um what we do in summertime winter is going to ask
what we did. Our kids wrestle. Um the boys when I first took over three years ago, they were in 23rd out of 24 teams in the GMC. I'm proud to say they ended up number nine in the GMC this season. Um we had three medalists at the GMT tournament and two of our boys name
tonight qualified for the regional tournament. Um, and on the girls side, it's been much of the same progress. The girls wrestle just as much in the offseason. Much like Swimming said earlier, we don't separate in our room. The girls work out with the boys, the boys work out with the girls. While we have independent competition schedules,
um, there is a team dynamic there that, um, you don't find anywhere else in the GMC. Um, and the girls pay it back with winning the second county title. I think of the 13 girls we brought to counties, 12 of them left with the medal and there were six finals. Um so girls is going up. I did want to thank um school
administration and the board for us that this year with the girls for the girls program as it continues to grow. Um there are over 40 girls in our program. I think our closest competition in the GMT is East 20 girls. Um so we will be starting a JV team very soon. Um two of
our girls made it all the way to the state tournament. One left with a medal. She placed number eight in the state. Um we did have two um district champs and one region champ at the same time. Um and they'll be um mentioned tonight. Everyone um that I call in the next
couple of minutes, we're either all division or all conference. Um and that's the blue division and the red division. So first call Christopher Lopez. This is our 106 pounder. left the season with the school record of 42 matches with over 30 wins. He was also the team
CAPTAIN FORD. Mai Ford comes to us from football and has really made it a career on the wrestling mat. Um he also leaves the season with more than 25 wins and is also a region qualifier. Our next girl is Janiah Oriua. Janiah was our girl who made it all the way to
states and uh left with a medal. She took number eight in New JERSEY CAPTAIN. She set a record this season for 47 matches in a season. >> Um our second uh female athlete of the night is Kaylee Chia who is also a a
captain. Kaya has a little special place in my memory as she is my first four-year wrestler in my program. Um, and she will take her uh wrestling next year to King University. She
states um Francis PZA is also a team captain. She's also the county champ. Um, a lot of us would argue in the wrestling world that winning that county title is a lot more difficult than winning a district or a region title. Um, and I could say that myself as a three-time finalist and one-time
champion, getting into that finals match is tough. Um, if anybody was there, this was one of the more electric finals when she battled with Spotswood and, uh, came up on top 18 to 14. Next up, we have Maish Khan, another team captain. Um, anybody who's a fan of
our social media, um, Maish does all of the work as an athletic internship with one of her classes. Um, she will take her wrestling next year to Ruckers University. >> Next up, we have Datra Dorisman. >> Beatatra is the only wrestler in the town that's left that is a high school
all-American. Um, she is a district champ. Um, she's a runner up in the county and she works hard at the upper weights. Next up, we have Jesus, who I don't think is here. She was the one freshman on the team. She left with over 30 wins.
Um she was the county runner up and uh district ch uh yeah district runner up. Last but not least, we have Alexandra Reyes. Um Alexa lives in town and wrestles with us year round, but she is one of our magnet school students. So uh
one of the things I've always impressed with with our magnet school students is the extra time and effort outside of um what we expect our normal athletes to do. She has a lot of transportation and extra work to put in to make sure that she get on the map the same amount as everyone else. And she left the season
as the county runner up as WELL >> for wrestling. >> Yeah. Thank you. And lastly, who our track team cannot be here tonight. They are currently uh leading the GMC counties in our spring track. So, we hope that they come away
with a back-to-back championship as well, which it looks like they're very much going to do so. So spring track could not be here. I just wanted to share a few things about their winter track program. Um our track team is number three in New Jersey. We are the number one public school in New Jersey for the last couple of years. So um we
are seeing a lot of great things. We have a handful of of athletes who are are national all state and national nationally recognized as well. So just going to run through the boys track team in winter were GMC champions. They were GMC white team of the year and they were the NJ.com GMC team of the year. Wow.
Our girls track team was the GMC white division team of the year. Our head coach was the GMC boys and girls track coach of the year, white division boys and girls coach of the year as well. Last year he was the NJ.com coach of the year. Uh Jamal Wilmont is an
all-American. He's a state champion in the 55 meter dash. He made all state. He was all group four all GMC all division NJ.com GMC athlete of the year. We have Michael Perry. He's an all-American NJSIAA state champion in 55 meter hurdles. He's all state, all group four,
all GMC and all division. And today he ran the number two time in the 110 meter hurdles in the state of New Jersey. Um Anniia Hall is an NJIAA state champion in the high jump. He's all state, all group four, all-American and all division. He is going to Rowan. Elvin
Marte Feliz is going to St. Peters. He's an all-American, all GMC and all division. He also has the number one New Jersey state time in the 110 hurdles. So we have back-to-back number one and number two in the state in the 110 hurdles. Kyra Burchett is an all GMC in
all division. Ka Waldron is all state second team all group four all GMC and all division. She's going to either Temple or Rowan. Kierre is going to FIT. She's all GMC and all division. Michael Bellamy is all division. Frederick Robinson is all division. He's going to
FDU for football and track. Kyle Veland is going to Marywood. He's all division. Nathan Beckley's all division. Schwan Grimes III, coach's son, is going to Mammoth. He's an all-American and all division. Devin Hackett is all division. And Tyler Ogaro's all division. Tyler
Ogaro also jumped 7 foot and is one of the top high jumpers in the state of New Jersey. So, as you can see, our track team has been uh doing some great things over the last few years. I want to thank everybody for being here and thank you for your support. Thank you to the board OF EDUCATION. THANK you uh Mr. Morel. Thank you for uh
leading this wonderful uh honoring ceremony for our board meeting. I just want to say a few words and uh take take this time to thank our coaches families because although the award is one evening and it's a it's great to
celebrate it takes hours and hours of practice uh uh schedule changes car pooling rides workouts off season. So, I want to thank all the families, the parents, our coaches, of course, our
athletes, congratulating them because this is a culmination of all that hard work throughout the full school year and and the summer months. So, thank you, Mr. Moral, and thank you to all our coaches and athletes. Okay, we have
>> Yeah. Oh, so now we have a a special part. We're honoring our students and next honoring a wonderful group of educators. And with that to lead that um part of our program, our assistant superintendent, Miss Amy Kea.
>> Thank you, Dr. Zakowski. Thank you. Um, as the assistant superintendent, I uh work with the schools uh school administration uh to oversee the New Jersey governor's educator and the MBT schools education
support person of the year where annually we recognize a certificated staff member in each building. Um as well as six years ago, uh MBTA president Beth Pasner approached Dr. Zakowski and myself um to bring although the state
does not have an education support person of the year, we do. Um she brought this to us. We love the idea. We've been doing it ever since. And we are so proud tonight to recognize such wonderful staff in all of our buildings. It truly is an honor uh to work with all
of you and to have you be recognized tonight. So without further ado, we are going to start with our high school team. Well, for a second year in a row, you let me go first. So, >> good evening.
as an alumni of MBTHs, um we are very proud of the amount and and throughout the district of the amount of MBTHs alums who work in our school who left and wanted to get back to North Brunswick and came back. And although I won't ask her what year she graduated,
um Rose Norsha, the MBTHs teacher of the year, is an MBTHs alumni who began working at MBTHs in September of 2000. Throughout her long career at MBTHs, she possessed a deep understand or she possesses a deep understanding of
special education law, regular exceeds our yearly minimum required amount of PD hours, reflecting her growth mindset, and lifelong commitment to learning in order to support her students. She builds strong relationships with her students in her classes, attends and
supports them in extracurricular events, gives all of her seniors a gift with a senior cla kiss goodbye message at the end of the year, and often maintains contact with her former students after they graduate. Her former students
remember her and appreciate her. As one student from the class of 2013 said, "Miss Norsha will forever be one of my favorite and most memorialable teachers. Things weren't always easy for me growing up, and I could rely on her to
cheer me up. She was calm, steady, and a reliable presence when things at home felt chaotic. Now, as an adult with a family of my own, I have a deeper understanding of how she supported me. I can only hope my kids will have a teacher who becomes a
confidant, an anchor, and gives them something to flourish. Congratulations, Rose, on making such a profound impact on your students over the last 25 years, 26 years at MBTHs. Congratulations on being named the MBTS, ths teacher of the
year. Wow. Why do you say Next, I'd like to congratulate our educational support person for 2025 2026, Barbara Williams. Although Barbara is not an an alumni of
North Brunswick, she is a longtime resident. Um, and I have known her for over 30 years because I went to high school and graduated the same year as her daughter. >> Barbara has been a longtime classroom
instructional parrot at MBTHs. She builds rapport with her students, supports them in her academic tasks, and is a great support system for them so they can assimilate into the classroom environment. She was also an MBTHs parent who even after her children
graduated has continued to serve as a member of the band parents association for the last 30 years. She is the heart, soul, and background of our music program, putting in long hours supporting our students in the band. She has become a second mom to so many
students and probably their parents and a friend and support to many of them. There was a time when it was feared that our marching band program would shut down and Barbara dedicated her time, her energy and personal resources to make sure that did not happen and our program
has thrived. She is not only the backbone of the music program but our school. Congratulations on being named support person OF THE YEAR. YOU'RE WELCOME. MR. >> Good evening everyone and thank you to
the board of education Dr. Zakowski and Mrs. Kea for allowing us the opportunity to recognize our winners. And congratulations to all the recipients tonight. First, I'd like to speak about Jeff Marachchi, our retired police officer who comes to
us from the Middle Sex County Prosecutor's Office. And there are really three things I would like to share about Jeff. First, you do not need to spend much time with Jeff to see and and to realize the high caliber of family man that he is, friend that he
is, employee that he is, person that he is. He is without question the type of person that we want our children to be around. Without question. Secondly, when you do this job long enough, you realize that there are certain people in the school with whom
you actually have a partnership. And when it comes to the safety and security of NBTMS, I do believe that's what we have. And I could not ask for a better partner than Jeff. Jeff is the type of person who goes the extra mile and often thinks of things that others
do not. And we are better for it. Now, it is probably not a surprise to hear that people in education and people in law enforcement do not always see things the same way. This can sometimes lead to
some robust differences of opinion, but most of the time it leads to a healthy exchange of viewpoints that leads us to the most sound safe course of action for a student, all of the students or the whole school. And that is due in large
part to Jeff's diligence and skill. Finally, and selfishly, it is nice to have someone around my age who also grew up here because we can talk about things and I don't have to explain who or what they were.
Um whether it's a former teacher at the high school from years ago or places like the hearth, the wooden nickel, the carriage house, Cowdor, or the Middle Sex Diner. and um and we managed to pull something off that amazes me. We only really got to know each other by working together
the last few years. Um this is amazing when you consider we're only a couple years apart. We grew up less than a half a mile from each other. We have many of the same friends and our daughters danced at the same dance school for years. And um the kicker to me was when he told me that in the early 90s he was
delivering flowers for a local florist to my father's funeral home when I was working there and we still didn't cross paths. That is almost impossible, but we managed to do it. So Jeff, seriously, congratulations. Thank
you very much for all that you do. Jeff Jeffle. TAMARANA is a seventh grade science teacher in NBTMS. Once in a while, a school is fortunate enough to hire a teacher who just gives the place a shot in the arm. And
Danielle is one of those teachers. She is creative. She is energetic. She's fun. Her lessons are well thought out. and they bring science to life for stu her students. She is a part of the fabric of the school and our school community as a
teacher, a coach, and she is a leader among our staff. As our seventh grade subject area leader, Danielle's lessons are student centered and datadriven. She empowers her students to become thinkers and problem solvers. She builds
deep, meaningful connections with her students and encourages them to take ownership of their learning and their role as classmates. Danielle is also our house DJ for school events. And she coaches varsity wrestling and softball at the high
school. But the more you get to know Danielle, the more you learn about what an incredible journey her life has been. In various conversations over the years, I have learned that Danielle played softball, coached softball,
coached wrestling, coached color guard, played field hockey, coached field hockey, played ice hockey, owned a food truck, auditioned for a Food Network show, was a dish jockey, renovated her own kitchen, lived in the South, lived in the North, is a scuba diver, and was
bitten by a shark. As a former history teacher, I used to try to get my students to analyze the famous Socrates quote, "The unexamined life is not worth living." One interpretation of that is that after careful examination, one should arrive at the realization that life is meant to
be a rich experience with many different flavors. I can honestly say that I do not know anyone who embodies that more than Danielle. And isn't that who you want teaching your kids, coaching your kids, or as a friend and colleague? Danielle's
classroom is a welcoming place for all students, full of inspiring lessons about science and about life. But her life story is an inspirational lesson for everyone she meets. Danielle Tamarana, CONGRATULATIONS.
Thank you, Mr. Silver. At this time, call up Mr. Sharter for Lynwood School. >> Good evening everyone. Good evening everyone on the board. Thank you all for supporting Lynwood and all that we do. So, I am very excited to announce my
winners for tonight. I always like to give a story because I've heard that when you give a story, it gives a little bit more than just talking. Like Rick did amazing job, Mike did amazing job, but I'm going to tell a quick story. So, first I'm going to talk about Jerry Agamman. So, Jerry is a fifth grade
social studies teacher um at Lynwood School. I believe this is his second year at Lynwood School. Come on, Jerry. SO, I kind of keep my head down in the district. I don't really know, and I apologize for this now. I don't know a
lot of teachers at other schools. I don't know a lot of people at other schools. I just kind of keep my head down and I'm focused on Lynwood. And Lynwood is where my heart is. But I used to get these emails from this guy named Aim something. And it would be an
interest email regarding, you know, what it's like to teach social studies at Lynwood, what you would need to do to get a job at Lynwood. And again, I get these emails and I'm like, I don't know who this guy is. Um, but I'll just give him a nice little, you know, answer and then kind of move along. Um, so then one
time they said to me, there's a guy in your building who is here? And I'm like, well, who is the guy? What is he doing? He said, well, he's walking. I think he had a a PD over on the board side, but now he's kind of walking over on the Lynwood
side. So, I kind of like was able to go out and I was able to figure out that it was him. And I'm like, "Hey, I appreciate you, but you just can't come over to Lynwood because again, we don't know who you are." You know, again, I I kind of know you a little bit, but again, I appreciate you, but you know,
but this man, what he did, and again, I apologize to Anna for stealing them from you, but this young man went took the extra credits that he needed to take to become a social school, excuse me, a social studies teacher at the middle school level, which is not easy. It's a
lot of credits, but he did that. And then when he applied for the position and I interviewed him and I said, "Oh my goodness, what did I almost miss out on?" Because I really didn't know him, but just I feel that I have a lot of energy. Um, but this guy beats me. This
guy beats me. I feel that I make connections with kids. Like it was good to see a couple kids come over and say hello to me. This guy is better than me. So I am just so blessed to have this young man in my building and the connection that he makes with kids. kids come down to see him who never even had
him at Lynwood. I guess they had him somewhere at Parsons and they want to come down and visit him. But again, I truly appreciate this man. All he does, he's an amazing instructor. When you go in his room, just the attention that he pulls from out of the kids to be able to be lock in on the social studies class
is amazing. He does very well. He works with an ICR teacher. They have an amazing relationship. Um, so again, I cannot say enough things about this young man. I'm so happy to have him in our building. And again, I want to say congratulations on being a teacher. I also see him at the gym all the time.
So, it's always good in the morning to see him at the gym when I'm at the gym. So, it's a good thing. All right. So, the next person that I want to recognize is Chenise Middleton. Chenise, come up for a sec. So, I have many flaws. Um, it's just what I am. I have many flaws, but one of
the flaws that I have is is I'm kind of demanding. Um, because I want things to go and to look and to just be a certain way. Um, I feel one of our words that we use at Lynwood is excellence. Excellence. Excellence. We use it all the time. And I have worn this lady out.
Um because if the PA is not right in the calf, I'm calling Chenise. If a Benji board is not right in the room, I'm calling Chenise. If a parent, even this week, a parent couldn't get in the parent square and they couldn't get in the parent portal. So, who did I email?
I emailed Chenise. Okay, this lady has just put up with me and she's never hung up on me when I called her. Um she might call me bad names behind my back, but never do my face. Again, she is just a very sweet person who allows Lynwood to just be up and running at all times. I
can always depend on her and I truly appreciate you. Even the Chromebooks issues that we've been going through in the past, you have always been there and I truly appreciate all that you do for our school, all you do for our students, and all you do for our staff. So, I want to say congratulations.
stage. Which elementary school will it be? >> Like to introduce for John Adams, our John Adams uh admin team, Miss Finnegan, Miss Cummings, MISS Hello everyone. Welcome tonight. I'd like to first talk about our teacher
of the year. For 22 years, Jenny Greenwald has been a cornerstone of the John Adams Elementary School community, shaping both the academic and personal growth of her students. Her classroom is a warm, supportive environment where
children feel safe, valued, and motivated to succeed. She balances high expectations with genuine compassion, helping every student thrive. Jenny's instruction reflects deep expertise and a commitment to meeting the needs of all
of her learners. She skillfully differentiates her teaching, ensuring that every child, regardless of ability, can access learning and build confidence. Families consistently credit her with laying a strong academic foundation that lasts for years. She is
also a dedicated advocate, collaborating with colleagues and communicating closely with families to support each child. As a mentor and leader, she generously shares her knowledge and supports those around her. Beyond the classroom, Jenny strengthens the school
community through her involvement and unwavering dedication. She truly embodies what it means to be an exceptional educator, making her deeply deserving of the governor's educator of the year recogn recognition. Please come on up.
Next, I would like to recognize our educators support professional of the year, Miss Joanne Chachio. Joanne exemplifies dedication, compassion, and professionalism in everything she does. She works in our
self-contained program. She brings patience, flexibility, and empathy to each day, meeting students where they are and helping them feel safe, valued, and ready to learn. She creates a true sense of family in her classroom, goes
above and beyond to make it a warm and welcoming space for every child. Joanne is also an incredible instructional partner, always open to learning, eager to grow, and committed to supporting each student's unique needs. Her work
strengthens not only her classroom, but everyone around her. Beyond the classroom, Joanne is a dedicated member of our school community, volunteering her time and bringing positivity to all that she does. For seven years, she has
uplifted students and colleagues alike with her kindness, creativity, and unwavering commitment. We are proud to honor Joanne Chachio as this year's educational support professional of the year. CONGRATULATIONS.
like to call up Dr. Glover and her team for Jud School. Evening everyone board. Thank you for having us here. This is It was great seeing all of the um high school students. You know, at in elementary, we never know what they're going to become,
but when you hear their names and being recognized for being, you know, such great athletes and students, it's just melts my heart. So, I was happy to see that tonight. Um but today, we are here to recognize two people from from Jud. One, unfortunately, our teacher of the
year um or is not here. She is on maternity leave, maternity leave. Um, but I just had to recognize her. She's an awesome teacher. She's a um inclusion teacher and she gives 1,000% every day.
Um, sad she's not here, but if she's watching, we love you, Gwen. Uh, congratulations. Today, I have the honor of recognizing someone who has made a lasting impact on our school community, Miss Sue Pakora.
SHE has been a dedicated instructional instructional power professional in our autism program for many years and her commitment to our students is truly remarkable. Our students with autism learn in many different ways and Sue understands and embraces that. She meets
each student where they are, adapting her support to fit their unique needs and helping them access learning in ways that work best for them. She's the definition of caring. Each day, she brings patience and understanding to
every interaction, always smiling, always with an open heart. Her empathy allows her to connect with students in a way that makes them feel safe. For many of our students, she is not just a staff member. She is a trusted and steady
presence in their day. She is also incredibly reliable, whether it's supporting instruction, maintaining routines, or stepping in whenever wherever needed. She consistently goes above and beyond. And staff know they
can count on her, and students benefit from the consistency and care that she provides to them. Her work may not always be in the spotlight, but its impact is seen every day. It is reflected in our students growth as well as in the calm and supportive classroom
environment she helps to foster. We're truly fortunate to have her as part of our team. Thank you, Sue, for your dedication, your compassion, and for the difference you make in the lives of our students. Please join me in recognizing and celebrating her.
THANK YOU EVERYONE. This time I'd like to call up Mr. Dawson, his team from Livingston Park. >> Good evening every Good evening everybody and thank you to the board Dr. Z, Mrs. Kea for allowing us to tell you about some wonderful
people at Livingston Park tonight. Um, if you drive on How Lane in the morning coming to work around 7:00, you're going to see two vehicles racing in the direction of North Brunswick. One is mine and one is Moren Alvarez's. Moren
usually beats me to school u because she really is the heart and soul of Livingston Park. She is such a special educator in every capacity and really she's the teacher all of us wish our kids could have and she's the teacher all of us as educators would like to be.
Uh Moren in the classroom man it's it's something to see. She is endlessly creative, patient, innovative. She knows her kids inside and out. She helps them set goals. She challenges them. She
cheers them on when they reach their goals. One thing I'm really proud of Moren is that she's elevated the level of academic discourse we have in our math program. She has kids of all abilities, all language levels, speaking
in really rich academic conversations about how to solve problems, how to think critically, how to approach. It's true student centered instruction. It's heterogeneous groups and she elevates everybody. Her scores are at the top.
Her SGP is at the top. But beyond that, what really sticks is the brand of person that Moren is. She cares deeply for her kids. She cares deeply for her colleagues. She is endlessly kind. She
is patient. She is loving. She is really on a personal level everything a good teacher should be. Uh we are absolutely lucky to have her and it was to no surprise that she has earned the governor's educator of the year award.
She contributes to our school in so many ways in the classroom, countless committees, student council, endless contributions, and most importantly for her colleagues and her kids. She is the first person in line to cheer them on,
to lift them up, to support them, and to volunteer to try to help them in any way she can. It's an honor to work with her. Let's celebrate Moren Alvarez. It's also a pleasure to honor uh Curtis Henderson. Curtis could not join us tonight. Curtis
is our plant manager at Livingston Park. He is just delightful. The man is always in a positive mood and he is truly prepared to tackle any mission that could happen in a Livingston Park environment. Anything that needs cleaning, any child
who gets sick, anything that needs to be constructed, anytime the air conditioning needs work, Curtis is our guy. And he is endlessly positive, responsive, and what a wonderful resource for our district. and and for our school. You know, it's not
every day that we think about how valuable our our plant managers are, our custodians are, but our our our teachers see it and our kids see it. I get to walk through Curtis's office on my way into my office and plastered on the door, you'll find posters and notes that
kids have written, Curtis. What a differencemaker in our school. We love him. We miss him. He couldn't join us tonight, but we're happy to honor Curtis. And we hope you're watching, CURTIS. For Parson's Elementary School, we have our administrative team here led by
Principal Diana Whan. evening and congratulations to all of our award recipients this evening and to Dr. Zakowski and our board of education for providing us as building administrators the opportunity to celebrate the wonderful staff that we
have in our buildings. So tonight is a true honor to celebrate Heather Angelles as Parson's educator of the year. She's a passionate educator who turns our gym into a place where every child feels like they belong. Heather has the amazing gift for reaching every student
no matter their ability and teaching them that fizzed is not about winning. It's about confidence, grit, and finding joy in staying active. We've all seen her creative spark in action. Whether she's setting up a quiet calming corner
for a student who needs a break or transforming the entire gym into the land of the lost dinosaur adventure, Heather's heart for this school goes way beyond the gym floor. She's an incredible supportive teammate who serves as our MBTA rep and a mentor.
She's always willing to help a colleague through a tough day. She's constantly working on herself, too, bringing back fresh ideas from the physical education convention or using her personal training expertise to help us all hit our own wellness goals. She doesn't just
talk about lifelong learning, she lives it every single day. What really makes Heather special is her dedication to the broader broader North Buns community, which showcases her extraordinary spirit of service and empathy. Whether she's rallying families at Ice Cream Bingo or
leading the Kids Heart Challenge, which has raised a staggering $20,000 for charity over the last three years, she is always finding ways to bring us together. She models what it means to lead with compassion. for her tireless advocacy, her innovative teaching, and
her unwavering belief in every child's potential. We're proud to celebrate Heather Angel as an exemplary role model and Parson's educator of the year. Thank you very much. We are also very excited this evening to
honor Kathy Mroy as our educational support professional of the year. There are some educators who don't just fill a role but rather transform the very atmosphere of a room the moment they walk in. In our crossgrade
classroom, Kathy works with our special needs students, navigating a complex and diverse environment with a grace that is nothing short of miraculous. She possesses that rare nurturing gift of seeing past a struggle to find a
child's strength. Providing the firm but patient guidance they need to feel secure. To watch her work is to watch a master class in compassion. She creates a safe space where students who face the greatest challenges feel the most
respected and understood. Kathy's impact is felt just as deeply by her peers as it is by her students. She's a dedicated mentor who has spent years taking new staff under her wing, offering the kind of wisdom and lending a hand spirit that
sustains a school culture. Even when facing the hurdles of a new classroom or a difficult day, she arrives with a smile that says, "We've got this." By consistently celebrating the small victories that others might miss, she's empowering her students to believe they
are extraordinary, capable, and worthy of every success. We are more than just colleagues of Kathy. We are recipients of her huge heart and her unwavering excellence. Kathy, you are the steady hand and the warm light that our children and our staff rely on every
single day. We don't just appreciate what you do. We cherish who you are and the way you make our school feel like a family. It's with the deepest love, gratitude, and pride that we name you our educational support professional. Wait, wait, wait.
Now for our early childhood center principal, Mr. Scott Pasner and our supervisor of preschool instruction, Miss Egan. >> Good evening, everyone. >> It's great to see everyone. Thank you, Dr. Zakowski, Mrs. Keith, the board of education. This is such a wonderful
night. a chance to celebrate all the amazing things happening throughout our district. And it is my pleasure to discuss our honore this year, Mrs. Brenda Lamaldi. Come on up, BRENDA. I know Mr. Sharter had great stories to
start and Mrs. Lamaldi and I could probably tell a lot of different stories from our journey when she started originally in room 54 at John Adams School. But I cannot tell you what a trailblazer she is. Her creativity,
artistic work, her ability to make things fun is exactly what school is about. Our early learners are so lucky to work with her on a daily basis. Our district does such a great job with the arts and music. It starts in preschool.
The foundation that she's built, the legacy that she's created. I'm sad because I'm going to be we're going to be honoring Mrs. Laldi later next month at the retirees. But one of the things that we're so excited about was her creation, which is
our preschool art show. Next Thursday night, everyone's invited. The art show is so unique because it's a chance to honor all 10 of our district facilities, all of our schools, and our partners. And Mrs. Lamaldi has led that from when she started with a vision of
an art show that includes work from every single student in all of our programs. It's a testament to Mrs. Lamaldi and I just look forward to her hearing about her lifelong learning, her future plans and I hopefully have her come back teach some PD sometime too.
So, can we all give a round of applause for our amazing Mrs. And I am >> and it's no longer my >> turn it off. I am so honored to honor our ESP of the
year, Mrs. Maria Kurtio. Maria, come on up. We are so lucky to have Mrs. Killio supporting our students at the North Brunswick Early Childhood Center. Her hard work, dedication, kindness, and caring nature each and every day brings
a smile to my face and to all of us at BCC. We are so lucky to have you leading the way. Congratulations. We are so proud of you. Uh we also have a support staff person of the year from districtwide central office. Uh to introduce her is our
director of curriculum instruction and technology, Dr. Frederick Johnson. THANK YOU, AMY. UH, good evening, Madam President, members of the board. Dr. Z, congratulations to all our awardies. Um, there's been a constant thing I've noticed here all evening hearing about all the recipients is that you care
about what happens in North Brunswick. And for that, thank you all for what you do. I'd like to uh at this time take the opportunity to invite up Miss Donna Binsky. Donna, PLEASE COME UP. NOW, Donna is my right hand and left hand in the curriculum office and
department. If you want to know about PD, tuition reimbursement, refunds, travel plans, upcoming PD, and can we make things on the board agenda in time, Donna's the person we need to talk to. But just so you know, Donna
actually was our uh building receptionist here at the board office. And then she transitioned as of July 1. She took no days off last summer. Not one. >> Not one. Because she wanted to be prepared for all of us when she came back. She's transitioned to the office. And the one thing I know Miss Kea had
asked for like three adjectives. And I think when I was doing this, I was out of state traveling at the time. I think I sent her five. And I realized I had to stop because I know what she wants. Just three. No more need to. But anyhow, um the adjectives for her were very positive. She's been someone who's been
dependable. She's extremely conscientious and pays attention to detail. But something else that I notice every single day, no matter what happens, when I walk into the office or anyone else does, that's the smile you get every day. Even if she has something that's a
challenge in front of her, she perseveres with it. She digs in. She doesn't give up. And she still smiles. And so sometimes we're working and working and then she can tell something's not right. and she'll stop and she'll take a moment to give you some encouraging words and you can't
help but laugh because somehow there's a joke that comes out of it. So for that, for making the office feel like a warm place, a place that no matter what's happening, we find a way to actually enjoy what we're doing in there and still get the task done. We're very grateful for that. Um, she is an avid
walker. When I tell you avid, she walks every day. rain, snow, sleep, picks up some stuff from Trader Joe's, takes orders at times, too. Um, but she's one who's always conscientious about taking care of herself so that when she comes
back, she can give us what we need. And, um, many administrators, I don't know about you, I do the telephone test. Anybody do a telephone test? You call your building sometimes from a number that is not your actual number. I do that just to keep the person on the toes because I know a lot of times
sometimes parents call a district or a building and they judge us based on how the person received them on the phone. And I've done that. Someone said, "You trying to catch somebody?" kind of, but in a positive way. And I noted that to her. I said, "It doesn't matter where
someone calls from." She treats them as if they're one of us already. And she gives the impression that we're welcoming. So when parents do come sometimes there's a connection says I talked to this very wonderful lady who greeted me and sometimes it's not even our department. So she'll route them and she'll get back to their answers. So for
that Donna thank you for being patient with anyone who calls no matter what. And she's very persistent about finding an answer or getting them to someone. And on a little side note we have a student who helps us out at the board office from our possibilities program. And Donna took the lead on this one. She
wasn't directed. she felt like I need to help one of our students out and she does some volunteering with those students as well. And so even yesterday's project, I look in the mail room and there she is giving some guidance and I see Mrs. Marsh is ning her head because I go, you got to talk to Donna. She kind of knows what's going
on. Um, so thank you for taking the time to work with any of our students no matter where they are. But this award and recognition from the board office is coming from the colleagues here, superintendent suite, the business office, people in registration and you were being identified as our educational specialist persevere. And so thank you
for helping all of us in what you do. And I'd like to congratulate all of our uh recipients tonight. So welld deserved as a former student of this district. I'm an alumni myself. taught here for 12 years as well before switching to administration. Um you are so truly
appreciated um for what you do each and every day. Um on behalf of myself and I know Dr. Zakowski and the board um we are so truly honored to have you work in this district um and have it be your home with us. So thank you again. Um and
I'd also would be remiss if I did not thank um first of all Donna Beginsky um who who was responsible for putting together the actual awards and plaques that you received tonight.
Thanks, Donna. Um, also to um Dr. Zakowsk's administrative assistant, Janine Kurski, who did this wonderful presentation, helped put that together. And also, my administrative assistant, uh, Connie Saunders, who helped me organize this as well. So, thank you to
everyone. And again, I will turn this back over to our board president. >> Thank you, Mrs. Kea. Uh, just want to say on behalf of the entire board, congratulations to all of our recipients. Um, you all are the heart and soul of of our district and of our
buildings. I always mention this. Um, my mom was an educator of the year back in 2005. And I remember going to her board meeting and going to the events that were around um, her teacher of the year award back then when I was a student.
And to all of the families here, this is something that you will remember years from now. So, congratulations to all. Um, we thank you for everything that you do every day to make our buildings go round and to live, work, and and lead here in North Brunswick. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam President. Much as we gave accolades to our athletes for a day of recognition, it really is a year-long struggle, persistence to work to get to a point where they can achieve. So although we're using this evening to say
thank you, we know it's every day in every classroom throughout the school year that these wonderful educators make a difference. So on behalf of the board again, I want to thank all of you for what you do on a daily basis. Even though it's an evening of celebration,
it's really what you do on a daily basis throughout the year as a school year could be a grind, but these folks continue to do it day in and day out. And the one common theme I heard, Dr. Johnson, as you heard, getting things done and and enjoying it. I heard that
they they care for children, each and everyone from the support personnel to our teachers. So, thank you because you do make a difference in the lives of children and make this a wonderful place not only to work but also to learn and live. So, without further ado, I want to
thank also the MBTA. Our president mentioned to me that they have there's an intermission requested for celebration. Some cake cookies >> cupcakes. And so I want to ask the board president if we can make them have a motion for a little recess so we can
enjoy a little intermission celebration. >> Absolutely. >> Second. budget presentation. >> Thank you, Madam President. Um, just want everyone to know here live, although it seems empty, we do have millions of viewers, I was told by the
Neielson people that no one left their sets for this portion of >> Perfect. Okay, >> so tonight is our final public presentation. The code is very clear. There's a prelim preliminary budget hearing which we did March 23rd. So you see the dates on the screen. March 23rd
was our preliminary budget hearing. I just want the public to know um our preliminary we do things a little different North Brunswick. We give a full exposure, full transparent um presentation on the budget. About three
hours we were all together. I think the 23rd was a Monday night special meeting. Can you hear me? >> Now you turn it off. >> I'll turn it off. >> There we go. >> Right. >> There we go. >> Thank you. So
>> you have to do that whole thing again. Now >> evening. So March 23rd was a Monday night. We did about three hour full presentation because what the law requires is a a preliminary pres u submission of the
budget. But unless there's issues that the county or the state finds in our submission, the final is typically in line. We've been reading about districts throughout the state and their final hearing that they suddenly had to cut 30
staff members. They had to raise taxes at high percentage. uh and many districts do a very broad high level budget presentation prelim preliminarily and then they submit it and then they do more of it on the final value. We do it
differently because we feel what we present we think and we know that it will be accepted by the state guidelines one of the board members who work all very hard through the year in committee meetings to endorse this preliminary budget. So when it comes to the final,
we have full approval. Nothing's going to change. So having a meeting where nothing's going to change, I think is trying to get the horse back out after the barn, closing the barn door after the horse leaves. So that's why May 6th and May 23rd, tonight is our final
presentation by code. Everybody has a budget strategy. We begin with our core voters. We don't waver from that. It's a reminder that why we're here. If you look at it, look at the key words. students. All students deserve the best education. Safe,
secure, high expectation, all children, exceptional diversity is our strength. Collaborative responsibility of the homeschool community. believe it or not, that guides our budget thinking, our budget presentation, our budget um work
throughout the year because all this work of $177 million budget begins and ends with our committee work from the board, but they receive input from the staff, the administration. We receive input from the schools or receive input from the departments in the classroom.
So, it's a ongoing cycle. Here we go. What would be a better budget presentation about I think the key responsibility of every superintendent in the state of New Jersey. Not everyone uses this simple or this scale. many have that I've worked
with guided but and the reason why we put this scale because people I think the role of superintendent is to maintain that responsibility to that taxpayer the community and also maintain the educational integrity that we owe the families the
students our staff that we can provide the best education possible knowing that there's constraints fiscal constraints I had a very long discussion with with Lizzie and she tried to quote on saying we can never pay teachers for what they're worth. We can't. She's going to
use that in negotiations. But we also have the fiscal responsibility because the the predominance of our funding comes from local taxpayer. There's three types of funding that comes for every budget of 177 million. Number one in North Brunswick of our 177
million, it comes from the taxpayer. And that's significant money over hund00 million worth of the account. our debt service and our general fund. We do get $56 million from the state aid and then we get finan uh support from our federal
funds, three parts of a budget. I think Mr. Lori was here when we were about 10 years in a row. We received $12 million in state aid and it was quite a challenge to continue to work to help get North Brunswick their local fair share. We're happy to say we do, but we don't take that for granted. So we have
to make sure we balance the budget. With this in mind, every superintendent needs to have that balance. It's the intersection of efficiency and effectiveness. So the budget process, it's no mistake, there's a long and winding road because
it's begins when I was lucky enough to be brought back by the board of education July 1, 2026. If you remember my first meeting, I gathered the cabinet. I said budget cycle begins today. Dane, you were there. Rosa was there.
Navy was there. Because it's a cycle that we have to examine. I promise this board if I come back, we're going to examine our practices, our return on investment. Super 10 talking about return on investment. We're not a profit and loss, but we are. Cuz if we do well, students
and families will profit. If we do poorly, it's a loss. So, we had to examine. And so fiscal year 27 just know 26 27 business administrators they like to talk fancy is fiscal year 27. So fiscal
year 27 began and we started July 1 all the way through March 23rd. It was a daily meeting with the business administrator meeting with the HR meeting with our staff meeting with the principles. We challenged the principles go in and help us figure out how we're going to balance this budget because
we'll talk more about the perfect storm. So we forecasted three fiscal years by projecting out. We knew this was going to be tough. We knew the esser funds the co money was going to stop. The reason why you see so many districts and reading in the paper they call
structural knife I mean falls structural unound foundational problems in their budget. What's a structural problem in a budget? When you take money like esser or money from reserves and you put it against
recurring expenses because that money ends. When it ends the expense is still there and all a sudden people have shortfalls >> and then who pays it? Pays the price staff. Then who pays the price? Students and who pays the price? Community. So we
had to make sure our goals start projecting three years out. And here's a question. You see that fourth bullet point called juggling a fiscal triad. I know we have an English teacher here. She knows what triad means. What juggling fiscal triad? Do you know the
answer? How many budgets did the superintendent work on THIS YEAR? A you try. We are working with the current budget. We're getting audit from the last year's
budget and we're building the next year's budget. So we had to juggle that triad. So it was very important that we gathered our team and we said we need to look at two things. What's our return? Is it worth the bank for what we're investing? Let's look at every nickel
cuz every nickel that we save goes back into the classroom or we could do something else that may be more effective. And the other thing which is not so cool cost avoidance. We have such great energy programming. We avoided all the increases. Although
we got increase in utility bills, but we're paying 3 kilowatt per hour, 3 kow per for our electric bill. Our electric bill is as low as it could be, but we still look for other savings. We avoided those increases that everybody else had to pay. If you remember, we're
getting a new detron for the pool. Part of our fiscal green energy savings and working with uh Schneider Electric, we received a $550,000 grant to offset that cost. That was a cost avoidance through rebates that we
were able to do from our green energy. So when we were getting green energy awards before it became really cool to be energy conscious, we we were building up a a savings and rebates because we were a little bit ahead of the game looking forward for cost avoidance. So
and the other part is if we're going to look at what we do in a school level, district level, can we sustain it? We don't want to hire people to fire people. We don't want to start programs to get rid of them in a year later. So we have to build sustainable programs.
and of course ensure structural sound. We must make sure we don't work in P&L and we have to make sure we're never spending the red. It's against the law. We also have to make sure that our recurring expenses are paid by recurring
revenue. We can't play games because we never want to be in that paper where you see 150 people lining up to say the same thing. How can you do this to us? We're going to lay off 100 teachers and we're upside down. We need state loan. We got to go back to a special election just to
make payroll. This district is all true throughout the state of New Jersey. And I'm happy to say the four years that I was away, the practices continue. Thank you, Rosa, for leading that department, the practices were spot on. And it made
my job coming back a lot easier to figure out how we're going to continue that progress. The problem is you either get better or you get worse. So we have to get better. So we had priorities. We said we want to be effective and efficient. Student
achievement, fiscal responsibility, that whole scale, the whole child. You heard tonight people you're honoring from phys teachers to science teachers to our our support staff, which I thank the board because not every district is required to thank their support staff, but we
know they're an intricral part of the team. That's the whole child. Our maintenance staff, maintain staff, ma maintenance of security, safety, enhancement. And you can read it. Everything was to maintain and approve as our priority with the key focus
around people. We're in a people business. Little people really not little students, right? They range from little to you saw tonight big and also big people. Those staff that are making a difference. How do we maintain that? How do we keep that focus around? You
remember the core principles that I mentioned that guide our budget. That's why we said we're not keeping people because we want to keep people. We kept people that we wanted here and we wanted them to continue to do their work. And that was a focus. But we
also said, how do we do that by maintaining a budget that we could feel responsible to our public, to our families, to our town that we didn't just say, you know what, the governor gave us permission to tax the heck out of people. That's what And it's not her
fault. But she said, "I'm not going to raise taxes." No. State income tax, state tax did not go up. The sales tax did not go up. She says, "See, I'm not raising taxes, but if you don't get the aid and the money, guess who gets raised taxes? the property tax which is local
and of course they gave us permission to go well above the parameters. So we said we're even though we may have permission we going to work with this board is very conscious to make sure we have all that we need for our students but also the community that we're responsible for
community as well. So, so I like to say fiscal year the perfect storm, right? I had predicted 26, two years ago, 25 was going to be the fiscal cliff. Anybody saw the movie perfect storm? Sebastian Jungle wrote a
wonderful book. It's a perfect storm. And of course, uh, it really was a true story about the glass fisherman. and um you know they met their horrible end because they hit the it was a storm for the ages. So that's what in budget terms we
hit our perfect storm the state budget. The new governor from the same party said holy mackerel we may have 14 billion in reserves but we have a structural deficit in our budget because reserves don't count as recurring revenue. So the state said we knew it was going
to be very difficult getting additional state aid health benefits. If you read an article one in the last minute because they come out every minute, the increase on benefits has been out out of control. The state plan
where they many districts were forced into because they said they were enticed a couple years ago with 0% increase. Districts went in saved a million dollars and then they've lost million after that because this year the increase is about 32% on the average 32%. Just for everyone out there, our
benefit cost is 25 million and 32% today. I'm happy to say we're less than half of that. And if things work out for us, any savings goes back to the district because we are self-insured and we have a a great relationship with our
staff. As wellness is our focus. How can we make sure wellness and we constantly talk about well wellness is a theme and so I think we're in good position as the years go as we go forward and when we save and there's any rebates it goes
into a reserve to offset cost of any of those increase. So the district benefits it and you in a state health plan you can raise for 32% of your premium and if you don't use the whole premium for the year it doesn't matter you get nothing back it's a premium state health plan is
we work with you know we give we're given a target number as required and if we don't get to that number we pay as we go and we pay the bills money comes back to the district so increased utility cost state aid reduction federal program
they left us hanging all this last year uh with the fiscal year beginning of July we were left hanging to August last year um we don't know much of the same transportation costs unfunded mandates and you seen a red charter school cost
duplication of resources 8.1 million somewhere around you'll see in the budget we pay charter schools we love charter schools now no problem about people having choice families have choice here's our issue is a duplication of resources and funding Charleston.
That's the problem. I'm happy to say this board supported the president and I were part of a a three district, New Brunswick, Franklin, and North Brunswick. We signed a letter objecting to the expansion of a charter school. We went to the state and we won
the decision. We were very happy that that was able to come to fruition because with that expansion we went through, they wanted another 2.5 million from our budget. that would have been a problem. So we're happy to protect our
resources and and continue to ask the state if charter schools are important we think they are then you fund them in a different way not through the funding of schools duplication of resources not the schools the problem it's the funding mechanism so the perfect storm for
fiscal so we all like acronyms so this is the work what you need to know one of our board members say can you give like a little update so we can give a little podcast so budget didn't work is won't work, right? So, we got to make sure non-recurring revenue applied to is
not, you know, it's applied to recurring expenses, right? We got to make sure that doesn't happen. Structural deficit, we talked about that. We got to be aware of the budget roll over. Rosa doesn't roll the budget over and say, she goes through the lines and make sure that that line that included that onetime
purchase. We just don't roll it over and say we need that much money. We go through the budget. There's no one time purchase and sneak it in there. And we're not rolling the budget over. We go through the budget, build it from the ground up. We also want you to know there's areas I want to thank the board. We have bank cap, meaning we've never
taken our budget to the max cap of tax uh obligation for the community. Well, you can bank it. We have a lot in our bank. It's 3 years you save it. We have growth limitation adjustments which come for enrollment some special causes like differential and budgets uh actual to uh
projected but we have a very fair balanced budget uh that will give you the number but we could have used those numbers and went to very high you see some districts go 10% increases when there's a 2% cap
that's because of things like bank cap and growth limitations uh and fund balance which is surplus plus is considered non-recurrent. We use the fund balance, our surplus to help do one-time jobs. You're going to see in a very tight budget a lot of work in our summer. So, I want the community to know
like how can all this work be done in the summer when there's a tight budget? Well, because we're using one-time reserves, a referendum was passed and that money can only be used for projects. We can't take some of the we
can't take the fund balance and support it to teachers. But what will happen the next year if we don't have the fund house you're hired. So we also said we use attrition breakage as much the older. So when people retire there's a a
salary that gets retired and a new person comes in is a breakage differential. We use that to help balance that budget. We thank the new folks for coming in with expertise and a lot less price tag. So that's full breakage. We use reserve accounts for
enterprise accounts. We helped we took was it about 15%. We we raised we took 15% of our utilities across each school percentage of the utilities that we fund our cafeterias cuz in the enterprise if you know all of
you read the you received an audit saying you have too much money in there. You had to spend it. So we spent it by balancing the budget to supply the power and the utilities to our cafeteria to help our children. That's all part of the overhead. It's really taking federal
funds because the enterprise for the cafeteria is really supported with federal funds. So, it's very prohibitive and restrictive, but we can use it to pay for the utilities when we serve federal foods and so on. So, we do that. Take advantage of it. Class size. We know that we have low class sizes.
They're going up. Have to let everyone know they're going up a little bit, but we're committed to have things settle down with budgets and we get our funding. That's always a focus about and we'll certainly see the return on investment of those class size as we
monitor our academic performance. We looked at least purchases. I know we had an AP stats feature here before. There's a thing called extrapolation statistical where you take something that's positive and a trend when one in one variable impacts another variable but it ends at
one point. Meaning if you say for every child that does two hours of homework, they get two points added to their final grade. So why not do four? Okay, they get four points on an average. Well, why not make it 12 hours? Well, the point of diminishing return, you study too many
hours, you get tired, you fall asleep, you're not focused, and you that's not doesn't continue in that extrapolation. It's called in business called a point of diminishing return. You reach that point. So, we want to buy and provide things. Now, we're looking at do we buy
it or do we lease it? Can we get it now? And and and They extend the life of it over five, six years and pay for it over five, six years because some of the lease purchase rates that we get so minimal in terms of their interest they charge us. It makes sense so we don't get to that point of administering
return in our purchasing and it's more powerful to do that. And of course triage which is how do we set that schedule these onetime purchases as our budget is being executed maybe there's sometimes you have to step up and make those adjustments. So that's kind of an
education of how we go about all these various moving parts to make sure a budget works and and I'm not going to read this is all part of we'll post this presentation we feel are responsible energy savings cooperative pricing retirement consolidation self-unded benefit
structures energy responsibility with rebate leasing off center repair work appropriation of interest towards debt service. So we've looked at every area and fiscally we're responsible to reduce the implication impact of the tax increase.
Very quick. This is a fancy way of saying this is the budget. Right side is the uh revenue. The left side is the appropriation or expense. It's made up of three things. The general fund 155 million grants and entitlement. That's our federal funds 10 million.7. And then
you have your debt service. That's on your mortgage. That is what's paid. That's another I think 11.4 million. So our total budget is 177 million. But the general fund is the year-to-year operational fund that we work and pay
our teachers and pay and do uh work through uh you know our capital side and we pay our bus drivers and we pay for our healthcare and so on. It's that that general fund. The other two funds are really about the federal and state gives
us the extra and uh and what do you mean what's the federal give us? That's IDA money disability education act and title money free and reduced money based on our numbers a debt service fund that's our building our interest what we owe. So that's our budget. So just to give
you that it's 177 million but the key number was a general fund right the 155 million that we have to operate every day day in and day out our schools our staff and so I want people to see this we'll have this posted 71% of it many
schools average about 84% salary or 71 charter schools big piece 8.1 transportation 8 million facilities 8 million pupil services that's ancillary services 6.2 2 million tuitions as out of district tuitions instructional
supplies 4.1 million administration finance I'm happy to say 1.4 that counts technology New Jersey counts technology phone bills against administrative costs per pupil we're very low which is happy to say uh it's only 1.4% of our budget
capital and equipment 2.6 6 and all the others is some other miscellaneous 155 million just for those who want to look at numbers how we spend the money and the final budget again that 155 is a general fund that's 87% of our budget 87
12 the debt service which we're paying off for the buildings and the loans is 6% 6 12%. Then preschool, believe it or not, we have this wonderful full day preschool. It's fully funded. We applied 2018 maybe what did uh and we were one
of the early districts adopters and we now up to 7.8 million. In fact, Edison just turned down the money because they're only getting 40% reimbursement. They said if you don't give us 100, we're going to run it on our own because we can't make it universal. So, we're 7.8 million. It's 100% funding which is a great and granted entitlement which is
our title monies and so on. Uh IDA it's at 1.6 six total and you'll see it's 177 million just so you know and I just I'm not going to read this our overall staffing levels were maintained we had fiscal respons how do we maintain it fiscal
responsibility through attrition and we we will see expansion in our preschool u program because again it's grant funded and the numbers justify that we'll be able to improve that so use of reserves
this board has been very astute 1.2 million has to go towards electrical panels upgraded. We have to change electrical panels in high school. Could be a disaster if we didn't. Well, we don't have to take that from our regular budget. We're not cutting staff to do our panels. It's a onetime purchase from
our capital review uh uh capital reserve program. Same with our maintenance. How do we do two million 2 million square feet of of of buildings? Well, how are we going to do new floors? We got facilities upgrade, maintain our turf,
maintain our fields, playgrounds, HVAC, resurfacing million dollars. All we do is through our reserve council and it's onetime hits. So they're not recurring. So we can continue to do that kind of that's what the budget includes. So this is the probably the more most
people want to get to the point cows. Well, our tax levy increase, right? Tax levy 1.8. 8, right? That's what we could raise. That's all we could raise at 2%. We are going up 3%. How did
we go over only 1%. Well, because we were able to take money from our healthcare, helped out with our waiver. We we also were able to offset that healthcare increase from that waiver because when we bonded money, we
received interest. and Rosa put that money against our debt service interest that lowered our total tax levy appropriation for the taxpayer. So overall $16.67 per month. Now remember, Northern
Brunswick value is assessed at 52% I believe. They're not 100%. So the average home is 160,000. People say like, "Wow, your house is assessed at 52% of its actual value." If you want the actual rates comparison to the county, there's an equalized formula
where they put everybody at 100%. But North Brunswick does 52% and that's that we don't make those numbers up. That 160,000 is given to us from the tax office. But why it seems so low because it's only assessed at 52% which gives you a higher rate. So when they want to compare all districts across the county,
everybody gets moved up to what would be your rate if you assessed at 100%. So they have a calculation. So we we see where we are and we're in a good position. Our overall budget increase in total budget increase is 2%. The overall tax levy is at 3%. So
without people being laid off, without 6 and 7 8% of folks uh increase on the budget and many many jobs being eliminated. So very proud of how well we'll be able to serve that scale, our children, our staff, our our obligation
to our families for the educational part, but also our responsibility to the taxpayer questions. Madam President, I'll stop there. I know much of everybody should grid here at 9:00 at night. Um I could go on if you want, but I will stop here
for questions and open the floor up. Thank you, Dr. Zakowski. Does anyone from the board have any questions or comments? >> No question, but a comment. Um, Dr. Zakowski and team, Miss Hawk, um, and your team, thank you all for all the hard work that you put in to develop
this budget. I think that it is very meritorious that it does not differ or change from the preliminary um, because you actually take that dedicated invested time. So much appreciated. And again, we all know that our budget actually reflects the district's priorities and mission. Um and clearly
we are invested in the right goals. So >> thank you VP. I also want to thank Rose and her her people and also Amy and the cabinet Kane's here as well. Dr. Johnson, sorry you've been here. Uh it it was an arduous path. It's not easy.
Uh we began July 1 with about $13 million projection of how we're going to base on increases of salaries, insurance, lack of state aid, and so on. And uh we're able to get to the point where we're very proud of what we can
present was our responsibility to the taxpayers and our obligation to families, students as well. >> Any we they think we have to have a public portion for >> Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Dr. Dr. Zakowski and Rosa, your team, Amy, greatly appreciate
all of the hard work that you put in. I know that Dr. Zakowski, one of the, you know, the first things that he said to me um was that budget season starts on on July 1. That was, you know, he said that before he even was officially back in district and um we knew as a board
that our budget was in the absolute best hands with all of you. You know, I I knew that it would be um figured out. I had that, you know, I I said that if if anyone could figure this out, it's Dr. Zakowski, Rosa, and your team. And um we greatly appreciate all the hard work
that you put into this. This has been a hall. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> At this time, we'll have a public hearing on the final 2026 2027 budget. If anyone from the public would like to make a comment on the budget, now is the time. Um we ask that you just come up to
the podium, state your name, and you'll be given three minutes. Okay, seeing none, can we please have a motion to close the public portion of the meeting? >> Some move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Anyone opposed? The public hearing is
closed. >> Thank you. Uh, Vice President James, would you like to take item number seven, the approval of our budget? >> Sure. I move to authorize the adoption of the fiscal year 2026 2027 school district budget as submitted to and
approved by the New Jersey Department of Education. Uh the resolution is Darren listed on our agenda page five >> page six >> and and page six if I could have a second please. >> Second. >> All right. I'm going to take roll call.
Mr. Carter. >> Yes. >> Uh Miss Apada. >> Yes. >> Miss James? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lori? Yes, >> Dr. Patel. >> Yes. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't hear. I'm I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Dr. Patel. Mr. Singh, >> yes. >> Miss SHA,
>> yes. >> And Miss To. >> Yes. >> The budget is approved. >> Great. Thank you, Miss Hawk. Um, okay. Moving on to the regular portion of our meeting. Uh, Mr. Singh, would you please take item eight, meeting minutes?
>> Sure. I'd like to, uh, make a motion to approve the following board minutes. Board retreat minutes March 3rd, 2026. Budget workshop meeting minutes March 23rd, 2026. Regular meeting minutes, March 25th, 2026. Executive minutes March 25th, 2026. Conference meeting,
April 29th, 2026. Executive minutes, April 29th, 2026. >> Thank you. Can we have a second? >> Second. >> Mr. Pada. >> Thank you. All in favor? >> Anyone opposed? All the minutes are accepted. >> Thank you. Um, assuming we have no
communications this evening, I I believe we could probably just jump to your administrative report, Dr. Zakowski. >> Thanks again, Madam President. It's hard to have any more to say with this beautiful evening honoring our our students, our staff, but um just some um extra points. So, you you heard tonight
that reason why the track coach, our wonderful track coach and team were not here because they're out competing in the winter, I mean spring sports. So, uh, track is a year round, uh, activity and our winter team did so well and of course now our spring team is doing well. I just give you some, they won,
our track team just won the GMC's for relays and seven athletes of that team are committing to the next level to participating as student athletes in college. Five of those seven are going on to uh, division one scholarships. So, we're so proud and as you know, uh the
coach makes it his mission um to be part of that whole program to help catapult these students not just to be wonderful track stars or athletes, but also to be uh students. And it's part of the requirement of being on that team like
all the teams you heard tonight. And we're very proud of that. You heard some wonderful GPA and great uh you know uh uh college acceptances and it's a big part of what we do. And the second part is we continue to win the student um our our athletic uh comportment our our uh
>> sportsmanship award that's given multiple teams multiple teams have won it. Um so we'll compete hard but at the end of the day we uh have the right balance of competing and winning and losing and and behaving in such a manner
that uh we represent the families at school and the district. So, I'm very proud of our athletes, our teams, our coaches. So, not just the track team, all the teams. I'm also very proud of a young lady named Mia. And of course, we know Mia Montero, but there's another Mia. I thought it was like you're like
Elvis or you know, one name, Michael, right? There's another Mia. So, I got to say now the last name Mia Marcato. She's been chosen from Jud, right? So 2627 American Heart Association, national
youth heart ambassador for the American Heart Association. She was chosen out of a 100 applicants, two students from the entire eastern state region for a prestigious opportunity. She will be um share she will be able to share her story and raise awareness related to
cardiovascular disease and stroke nationally as an ambassador and how her um essay and her work. It's Jud as K4, preK4. So, congratulations to Mia. I'm going to bring her at the next board
meeting to honor her so the board can meet her. But, you know, Mia, you're wonderful. You have so many awards, but we got another Mia to take your place. And now, I'm not so sad that you're leaving us. So, unbelievable uh uh recognition for this young lady. So, we'll we'll make
sure we uh bring her before the board. Um I didn't think tonight keep her out that late with all the awards would be appropriate. So we'll bring her out. But I had to tell you also um I just want to thank all our teachers again. This week is National Teacher Appreciation Week in our schools. You know, every day our
teachers bring knowledge to life, right? We inspire that curiosity and then create spaces where student can feel students are supported. They feel challenged, valued. You know that whole child, that core value of building a budget for the whole child. Their impact extends far beyond the classroom. You
hear it time and time again how they shape the confidence, the character, the future possibilities. I love when the elementary teachers are here and they see these wonderful awards. So all of you from the high school level, they say, "I remember that's when they were in second grade or I had this student in fourth grade." So they made a
difference. All our teachers make a difference. And just like the award winners, our athletes, people don't see behind the scenes all the training and the work the year round teachers of the year. We honor them for one day. You hear some great but they do this on a daily basis. Well, we want to say thank you for doing this day in and day out so
our national teacher appreciation week and I thank all of our PTOs and supporting organizations or MBTA doing a little extra each this week although we know it's 40 weeks out of this school year um this school year that they're doing great work throughout the week but
it's nice to have a national teacher appreciation week and we like to also say the teachers are first one to say it's really a staff effort so we say staff appreciation week um I do want to say uh please join us this Friday in evasion right as uh board members know
that um just I'll send out a poll who's coming it's Friday night the children are working so hard they blew off so many different things just to practice and practice but um just kidding u but no they work very hard and and they've been so wonderful the Latin American
club did a wonderful program our our BCA did a wonderful program and it's great to see these cultural celebrations really bringing uh the uh you know I I really say bringing the town and their culture to life. The the last Friday at the Latin
American I was there for an hour. I I had to leave because one I had to another appointment but I couldn't get a standing there was so many families around the uh commons in the high school. It was really nice to see it was so many families enjoying uh the presentations and the work of our
students. And I I expect this Friday doors open at 6:30 7:00 um with our uh I think it's I call it innovation but it's >> South Asian cultural alliance. >> Yeah, South Asian cultural alliance. So >> association
>> association alliance. >> So thank you tell please report back to the students how how proud we are. so much work. We know how hard they work and it's really what very talent talent uh very u inspiring programs there so much talent involved in that. Also, I
want to thank our township school, all our schools, our leaders because the North Brunswick uh we're having an inaugural Juneenth celebration on Sunday, June 14th from 2 to 6:00 p.m. at the municipal complex. our schools along with the township. We've been meeting and having
partnership meetings, but we are taking that partnership to bring a wonderful afternoon of music, crafts for children, food celebration. So save the date. It's Sunday, June 14th in honor and celebrating Junth um right here in this area. The municipal complex is right
across the street. I just want to thank now I want to go back to Mia. So many awards that you've been winning. I know we're going to see at the academic awards, the scholarship, but your name came up. you were at DECA and you you couldn't come to go to award ceremony because you were at uh representing us nationally at DECA and and um I have to
say Grayson to be picked by our principal for the uh the Middle Sex County Principles Association. I heard it was a wonderful uh uh um award and the fact that you sit here as you know representing the board. We're very very proud of that. We told you that before and you've really finished strong on a
great senior year. I want to thank you for continuing the, you know, the great work that you do and being so such a big part of this successful high school school year uh that we've had this year. I don't want to jinx it, but it's been going pretty well. I'll take full credit until something happens, then I'll give
I'll give it back to you. Um, and I do want to say to all the uh millions of viewers and people out there because we won't this Sunday is Mother's Day and please thank many of our staff are mothers themselves and we all have mothers and whether they're with us or not I know we'll be thinking about them.
So I wish all a happy Mother's Day this Sunday I think is the date is May 10th I believe. So >> that will conclude my report Madam President. >> Thank you. Okay, student reports. Miss Brockman, Miss Montero, I'll turn it over to you. >> Thank you so much. Um, Dr. Zakowski
already touched on a couple of our >> I know. I'm sorry. I can't help but But, um, we did have an incredible production put on by our Latin American club last Friday. And what in addition to what he said about innovation this Friday, doors open at 6:30, we are selling tickets online. I would recommend buying your
tickets online um because we typically sell out, but so if you're interested in coming, I would recommend doing that. But apart from that, after spring break, the Alchemist Theater Company put on an incredible performance of the wedding singer. That was their third performance this year um by this talented and
hardworking group of students. And the student government organization is starting to think about next school year. We held elections for SGO and class officers and are currently in the process of finalizing our executive board. In the next couple weeks, we will meet to plan next year's events and fundraisers and they also do a little
team bonding, which I think is always a lot of fun. Um, on April 17th, SGO hosted the annual Mr. MBTHs con contest in addition to Miss MBTHs. Uh, Scott Cohen is our second time Mr. MBTHs winner and Miranda
Sodto and McKenna Risk share the title of Miss MBTHs. And then the club Care to Walk held a community walk on April 25th to raise money towards making strikes for breast cancer. They raised over $300 which will
go towards the donation that they make in October. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Grayson, can I make a suggestion to the next class? I know we've added was great. We used to have a Mr. MBTHs. Now we had a Miss MBTHs. How about >> alumni
MBTHs who had some alum here that in pretty good shape here, you know. So, I think they'll be in the running. Just saying. Something to think about. >> I don't know if you know uh Dr. Z, but Jason was Mr. Uh 2000 class of 2000. >> Yes. >> Oh, yeah. You're
>> still the walk in the wave. >> See that? >> Well, thank you. All right. We'll jump to our committee reports. We have a few committee reports this evening. Uh how about we start with Mr. Lori, uh human resources. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Madam President. The human resources committee met on Tuesday, April 21st to discuss various personnel topics. For those on tonight's agenda who are retiring or resigning, the board thanks them for their service and we wish you well. Dr. Zakowski and Mrs. Kea
updated the committee on the progress of the search for the new Parson's director of elementary instruction and the new instructional dean for 26 and 27. As Mrs. Quitraki, Parson's current director of elementary instruction, had previously been approved to be the new principal and Mrs. Beth Uhaz, the current dean, is retiring. There's some
folks here in the audience who uh deserve a wave. We congratulate Mrs. Nicole Jakun, the current Lynwood Dean, on being recommended for the director position and Mrs. Cassidy Varga, the current judge sore communicate uh coordinator for the dean position, and we look forward to their success in
their new administrative roles. So, how about a wave, Mr. We we're going to ask our newest future principal of Parsons after it's officially approved. Yep. >> To bring them up. So, >> as of our committee meeting, any
remaining and new vacancies continue to be posted and can be found on our district website, our social media pages, and posted in each of our buildings. For any open teaching positions, alternate route and traditional route candidates are both encouraged to apply. We also discussed these vacancies along with current leaves of absences and how these
positions may be filled. The last remaining job fair will be facilitated by Mrs. Kea on May 14th and she will be inviting several administrators along who are actively seeking to fill recent vacancies for the new school year. Lastly, there are several new substitute staff on tonight's agenda. We welcome them all to our district and we look
forward to having you work with us here in North Brunswick. That would conclude a straightforward personnel meeting report. >> Thank you. Uh Vice President James will be jumping in for Mr. Wen, who isn't here this evening, for education. >> Yes. Good evening. The education
committee met on Wednesday, April 22nd. Mrs. Sharter and Mrs. Lamacher presented the new schedule planned for the school year uh 2627. While the current schedule worked for postcoid times, they've determined that it was not meeting the current needs of the students. The goal for this new schedule is to have block
classes of ELA and math every day. There was some restructuring of the teaching assignments to accommodate the additional sections. However, due to budget constraints, there will be a phase roll out of this schedule with fifth grade starting in 2627 and sixth grade to follow in 2728.
Additionally, this new schedule will accommodate for rotating push in intervention and instruction. Dr. Johnson shared about the renewing of the contract between the AVID center and the middle school and high school for the upcoming school year. He also shared about theou between TCJ and the North
Brunswick Township School District regarding our dual enrollment program 42627. These can be found in tonight's agenda under curriculum and instruction section two items B and C. As Dr. Johnson and his team continue to look for additional dual enrollment opportunities for our students, we are grateful for these
programs here in district to help give our students a jump start on their academic futures. Mrs. Chang provided us with an update on the NJSLA assessment. Uh testing was to start on May 4th this past Monday. Testing at the high school is planned for May 18th through the 20th and the
team is requesting delayed openings for those days to help facilitate and manage the testing. Mrs. Chang also gave us an update on three of the grants that are in the works. The focus grant, the high impact tutoring grant, and the impact grant. For focus, we received $15,000
and have uh funding for our MAP system. There is also a continuation grant which we expect around 13,000. This will continue to fund MAP and universal screeners. As for the high impact tutoring grant, we're still waiting for the results of that grant. And finally,
for the impact grant, the pilot program is going well. Staff have completed their training and the team will meet in the future to review and finalize their recommendation for 2627. And that concludes the education committee report. >> Thank you. Business operations, Mr. Carter.
>> Uh yes, Madam President. Uh the business operations committee met on Wednesday, April 22nd. Uh we received status updates related to the FY 2627 budget. Uh progress on referendum upgrades, the transformer at the high school, food service, and the dextron replacement. On
the agenda this evening, you'll find the following items. Finance items 3B, C, and D related to referendum updates for HVAC windows and bathrooms. Finance item 4B related to the food service management contract. and finance item 4F
related to the purchase of equipment uh which includes items related to transportation, technology and computers. Uh that concludes our report. >> Thank you. Uh negotiations. Dr. Patel. >> None at this time. >> Okay. All right. Um I think that wraps up our committee reports for the
evening. Um Mr. Lori, would you take item 11? >> Madam President, I'll make a motion to approve the administrative, student, and committee reports. >> Second. All in favor? Is anyone opposed? All the reports are accepted.
>> Thank you. At this time, um I'll open it up to the board for any questions regarding our agenda this evening. We had our conference meeting last uh Wednesday. We reviewed our agenda. We have received a copy prior to this
evening. All um updates uh in between now and then are bolded. So, I'll open it up for any questions from the board. Okay, seeing none and hearing none, I'll have at this time we'll have a public session on agenda items only. If anyone from the public would like to address
the board, this is now the time to speak on agenda items only. We just ask that you come up to the podium, state your name, and you'll be given three minutes. Okay. Seeing and hearing none, can we please have a motion to close the public portion of the meeting? >> So moved. >> Second.
All in favor. Is anyone opposed? We are uh this session is closed. >> Thank you. Uh Mr. Carter, would you take item 15? >> Uh yes, Madam President. I'd like to make a motion to approve the following consent agenda items. Personnel one and two, curriculum one and two,
miscellaneous finance items one and through three, and transportation one and two. >> Second. >> I will do roll call on this one, please. Mr. Carter. >> Yes. >> Mr. Yes. >> Miss James, >> yes. >> Mr. Lori, >> yes. >> Dr. Patel,
>> yes. >> Mr. Singh, >> yes. >> Miss Singha, >> yes. >> Miss Toe, >> yes. >> All the motions and resolutions are approved and accepted. >> Wonderful. Uh, congratulations to you both. >> Yes, absolutely. Please come on up.
>> Wasn't quite prepared to speak. I don't know if I really need the microphone, but thank you, Madam President. >> We have millions of viewers. You need the microphone. Thank you. Thank you all of you. Checking if I'm coming home anytime for this opportunity. I am extremely excited. We have so many wonderful uh
candidates for both of these positions and I could not be more excited to begin with this team here with Mr. Chky who's coming with us with many years of experience in special education as a teacher as a special education coach and most recently as instructional dean at Lynwood. So, she comes with a lot of
experience and I'm very excited for her to take over my current role as a director of elementary instruction and for Miss Cassidy Varga who has been working as a special education teacher first at Livingston Park and most recently as the sore coordinator K to4 over at um John school. So, she is going
to be a great asset. They are both passionate, dedicated, and I'm very excited to have them as part of the team. So, thank you for approving them. >> Absolutely. We welcome you TO COME UP IF you'd like at this time. >> You only have 18 minutes each.
>> Hi, good evening. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be continuing my journey here in North Brunswick. As um some of you may know, I have been here for 28 years. So, I'm really excited. and I I feel like I'm a career lifer here in
North Brunswick and I'm most excited to be going back to the roots of elementary school. I started at Jud, worked at Lynwood for many, many years and I'm really excited to be working with Tracy and Cassidy and to be um continuing to work with this great community, great
town. So, thank you so much for this opportunity. I really appreciate it. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Z, Miss PETA, the board. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I'm very excited and honored to become the instructional dean. Um I started at Livingston Park as a teacher and I'm
very grateful that I can continue to serve the community of North Brunswick as now administrator. So thank you. >> Thank you. CONGRATULATIONS. Thank you for being here tonight and thank you for hanging around for our longer uh evening. So thank you. All
right, we will flip to jump to page 25 on our agenda and we'll go to item 16. At this time, we'll have a public session on any matter if anyone from the public would like to come up uh and address the board. We just ask that you
state your name and you'll be given three minutes. >> All right. Seeing and hearing none, can we please have a motion to close the public portion? So >> second. >> All in favor? Is anyone opposed? This
session is closed. >> Thank you. At this time, we'll motion to go into closed session. Whereas section 8 of the open public meetings act, chapter 231, PL975 permits the exclusion of the public from a meeting in certain circumstances. And
whereas this public body is of the opinion that such circumstances presented exist. Now therefore, be it resolved by the North Brunswick Township Board of Education that the public shall be excluded from discussion of and action upon the hereafter specified subject matters. The general nature of
the subject matter to be discussed is as follows. Number one, personnel matters. Number two, financial matters/legal matters. And number three, attorney client privilege. It is anticipated at this time that the above stated subject
matter shall be made public at such time as the need for non-disclosure no longer exists. This resolution shall take effect immediately. So, can we please have the motion to go into closed? >> So, moved to second. >> All in favor? I. >> Anyone opposed? We can go to close
session. >> Excellent. Thank you. Thank you all. Okay. >> Rich sidebars and then Dr. Z. >> Yeah. >> The side the three motions. >> Yes. >> We're good. >> Okay. Thank you. At this time, I'd like
to have the meeting return to open session. Can we please have a motion? >> Some moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. Anyone opposed? We are back in session. >> Thank you. We do have a couple of motions coming out of close session this evening. So, first, Mr. Lori, would you
please take our first motion? >> Be it resolved by the North Brunswick Township Board of Education that the terms, stipulations, and conditions as established in the attached settlement agreement are hereby adopted and approved by the board. The business administrator is hereby authorized and directed to execute the attached
settlement agreement. >> Can we have a second? >> Second. >> All right, I'm going to roll call on this one as well. Mr. Carter, >> yes. >> Mr. Sepa, >> yes. >> Miss James, >> yes. >> Mr. Lori, >> yes. >> Dr. Patel, >> yes. >> Mr. Singh, >> yes. >> Miss SHA,
>> yes. >> And Miss To? >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Dr. Dr. Patel, would you please take the second motion? >> Uh, yeah. Move to approve the sidebar agreements between the North Brunswick Township Board of Education and the North Brunswick Township Education
Association for the 2024 2027 contract agreement relative to article 16L and appendices D and E1. >> Thank you. >> Again, roll call. Mr. Carter, >> uh, I abstain due to conflict.
>> Uh, Missa, >> yes. >> Miss James, >> yes. >> Mr. Lori, >> yes. >> Dr. Patel, >> yes. >> Miss Singh, >> Mr. Singh, >> yes. >> Miss Singha, >> yes. >> Um, Miss Toth, >> yes. >> And this motion is approved. >> Thank you. And our last motion coming
out of close session, Vice President James, would you please take motion three? >> I move to appoint Dr. Brian Zakowski to the position of interim superintendent of schools for the period from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. Secondly, to approve the previously submitted
employment contract with Dr. Brian Zakowski. Um, and to uh submit the previous submitted submitted employment contract for further approval by the Middle Sex County Executive Superintendent of Schools. I will take a second. Second. >> Um, I would like to open this up to
discussion for the board. I have something to say. Um, so we have just discussed um renewing Dr. Zakowski for another year. He's been our interim superintendent for the 2526 school year. Um the board has obviously taken it under advisement and deliberation on how
we're moving forward. We are very pleased with the work that Dr. Zakowski has done. Um he has charted a clear path for us. So we are grateful for his service. Um and in so doing we are looking to renew him for an additional year. There has been much consideration
discussion um in this process. And with that we can take a vote of the motion. >> Thank you. >> Uh Mr. Carter. >> Uh, I abstain. >> Thank you. Uh, Mr. Apa, >> yes. >> Uh, Miss James, >> yes. >> Mr. Lori, >> yes.
>> Uh, Dr. Patel, >> yes. >> Mr. Singh, >> yes. >> Miss Sinha, >> yes. >> And Miss To. >> Yes. >> Congratulations, Dr. >> CONGRATULATIONS. >> All right. And if anyone has nothing else, we will move to adjourn the meeting. Can we have a motion, please?
>> So move. >> Second. >> Second. All in favor? >> Anyone opposed? >> We're journalist.