Good evening everyone. I'd like to call this meeting to order. This is the North Brunsw board of education regular public meeting. Today is Wednesday, April 30th. Could we please rise for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance 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. Ali here, Mr. Carter here, Miss
James here, Miss Keith here, Mr. Lori, Dr. Patel here, Mr. Singh here, Miss Toth here, and Mr. W here. We have a quorum. 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 interests 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 300 p.m. on Tuesday,
November 26, 2024, and Wednesday, November 27th, 2024 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 and delivered to the nine duly elected board members. Good evening everyone. It's great to see such a large audience and see some of our students. How is everyone tonight?
Good. Well, we're so happy you're here. We're so excited for the performance you're going to be putting on for us and our presentation. So, at this point, I'll turn it over to Mrs. Troa to introduce our presentation for the evening. Thank you. And it is great to
see everyone here. Love all the faces and the young children joining us. This is our combination regular agenda meeting and our conference meeting. So, we generally have a conference meeting every spring, January through June, at four of our schools, and we've gone to
visit some of our other schools this year. We'll be at uh Lynwood next week, but because our preschoolers were scheduled for February when it's dark outside, um we didn't think that was probably a really great time to bring them in in the cold. So, we uh decided to combine this meeting. So, Mr.
Passner, I'd like to welcome you up to share um more about the preschool. I want to thank you. Hi everyone. I am so proud to be here tonight. I said last month last month's meeting was my favorite. That was before our
students. So we're going to want I want to give our students the chance first. So if we can move to the next slide. I want to introduce Mrs. Brenda Wolf, music special teacher at the North Brunsw Childhood Center and the amazing
leader of our school. Special area for inviting us this evening. We're really excited. We've been practicing really hard for you. Uh we have our preschoolers here today and we're going to perform three songs for you. So, at this moment, I'd like you to quietly have walking feet. Come on up here.
Follow me. We're going to stand on the top step and turn and face your family up here. Let's take a look. You can look down for
Han over here. Good. Arc here. Don't let your toes go past the gray. And you can come up here. Natalie and Callie, you can come up here. Here, I'll put the music on and then we'll get started singing. We like to do a lot of music
and movement in our classes. I'm just going to take this off. Callie is super excited to sing for you guys today, as well as all of our other friends. So, we are ready. Are you guys ready to sing? Yes. Oh, they're so
excited. I can tell. All right, here we go. All of our songs are performed with sign language. And here is song number one. Together, the more we get together, the happier we'll be. Cuz your friends are
my friends and my friends are your friends. The more we get together, the happier we'll be. I'm your friend. You're my friend. He's my friend. She's my friend. The
more we get together. Together. Together. The more we get together, the happier we'll be. Cuz your friends are my friends and my friends are your friends. The more we get together, the
happier we'll be. I'm your friend. You're my friends. They're my friends. We are friends. My friends, my friends are your friends to the more
together. Together, your friends are my friend and my brother. Oh sh the sun and rain. Each of us in the flower growing in
life. Each of us in the power. We need the sun and rain. Shine on me. With your night. Bring the gentle down.
Each of us and each of us each shine a me with Your might bring the
gentle. Each of us is a flower. We need the sun and rain. Each of us is the power. We have one more song for you. We want to say thank you for inviting us. And if you were to go to Hawaii, you would say
mahal. Here we go. I'm just kid. Okay, here we go. Mahal to the sea. My love to the skies of my love to you
and me. Say my love. My love for my love that we thank you. My love, my love, for my love.
This for the air I brea for my dad and my mom. My sisters and my brothers and my good friends. for sharing my
song. Sing for everything you ahead. Oh. Oh. Oh. Saying everything and we thank you.
My love and we thank you. My love Thank you. Thank you so much parents for bringing your children. They were wonderful. Beautiful job. I know our music team is
going to be especially proud uh that these students are coming up to join the music program at the elementary schools eventually. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Lamaldi. There are no words to
express the smiles on our faces watching our students record in front of the community. And thank you to all of our teachers, staff members, friends, Mrs. Maldi, parents. You don't know how much we appreciate families. We're so proud
to have you and especially preschool as they're three, four, and five years old. This foundation will be building on. I want to thank all of our students and families. And before I start talking about how many students we have, if you
would like to see some of our artwork from the art show, I saw so many of your friendly faces at our art show a few weeks back, but feel free to take a look and you're more than welcome to head off to get started with your bedtime routine to get ready for us tomorrow morning
1:00 closing, but we'll see you everyone tomorrow morning early. Families and students, I'm so proud of you. And Mr. Sorry, Mr. Pastor, can you do me a favor and use the microphone too because they can't get it on the um the broadcast.
Thank you. So, so I was just sharing again, thank you to all of our teachers, families, students, staff, all the community members for supporting our preschool students. We're so proud of what they do each and every day in our schools. seeing them perform. There's no words
that we can have to express the joy in this room watching our students just performing in front of crowds like this. And just like Mrs. Shuroka said, Mrs. Noodleman and the those beautiful things happening in the high school and the elementary schools and the middle school
in Lynwood with music. We are looking forward to these students performing in those as the years. We got some superstars in here. So, can I ask everyone to give our students one more round of applause? And there's cookies in the back for the students to celebrate their great work
on their way off to bedtime routines. So, thanks again everyone. Parents, you know, if there's anything you need, feel free to reach out to us at any time. We're so happy to see you at 7:00 at night instead of 7 in the morning times. So, great seeing you. We look forward for those families. We have a lot of end
of year activities coming up. Donuts with grown-ups coming up, end of year celebrations. We can't wait to see you all. We're so proud to every student in here. And all of our students give themselves three pats on the back for job well done. One, two, three. Great
job, everybody. Well, I'm going to ask if it's okay if we take like about a two to three minute recess just to let everyone transition out. Absolutely. Make sure the cookies are open. Thanks for Yeah. They were so cute.
I wanted to learn that song, too. You're very welcome. I want to thank everyone again, but I want to get back to what I'm excited about, which is preschool. We can't be more excited about the amazing things happening in North Brunswick Township schools since we started the PE
expansion round grant all the way back in 2019 2020. We know those times were different times, but one of the things that we're so proud of is the growth when we look at the numbers of students served. Prior to us being part of the grant, we housed
85 students in half-day programs at the ECC all the way over in Miltown. for those of us that remember when we rented that building. And over the last 6 years, we have seen tremendous growth going from 85 students to 578
districtwide. We are so proud of the mixed delivery that we're providing utilizing our schools in district, the ECC, and our community partners. Go to the next slide, please. But just yeah, it's just the growth is
just it's a gamecher. And when we think about full day preschool across the state, I was fortunate enough to be in an early childhood leadership committee meeting on Monday. And when we see districts joining in from year one to us that have been doing this for multiple years and seeing the successes and the
systems thinking again to continue that growth with instruction giving our students at three, four, and five years old the opportunities and chances to learn and to be part of our district from such a young age. I'm proud to introduce my partner, my preschool
supervisor of instruction, Kerianne Egan Ragavas. She's going to give a little update on the curriculum. Thank you, Carrie. I'm not as good as Callie, but I'll try. Um, so thanks for having us. A little bit about what preschool looks
like, right? So, we're in 10 locations. Um, and we work very hard on all 10 locations having fidelity with curriculum across the board. Right? We want to make sure all of our classrooms in all location are running exactly the same. Um, and so how we do that is we use a curriculum called creative
curriculum. We also take data on our students. Um, what that looks like is we have an assessment that we actually utilize the same platform as the rest of the district. We input all of their data into something called link it. And what that helps us is to see our growth, right? All the growth they're making throughout the year, but also where we
can continue to grow as a program, where we can continue to help our kindergarteners, our first grade, because early childhood is not just preschool, right? It's preschool through third grade. So we want to make sure that we are transitioning our preschoolers into every grade the way that they should be having the knowledge
that they should moving along. So we are able to take that data, take a look to see where our deficits are or where our strengths are and then be able to modify our program when we need to. Um and so we use something called creative curriculum. It's a play-based curriculum. Um I think oftentimes people think that they just think everyone's
just playing all day. And yes, it is fun, but everything has a purpose, right? So, for example, you'll see on the board um some of the fun things that we do. So, we categorize by buttons, size, color. So, some of our studies we do are trees, winter, clothing,
buildings, spring and insects, reduce cycle, pets, and end of the year. So, what can you do with clothing, right? So much. You can do so much. You can categorize by fabrics. You can learn how to measure, right? That's a good math concept. So, we do lots of different
things within each study. Um, we cut open shoes to see what the sole looks like on the inside in science area, right? How fun is that? Uh, we a string um, shoelaces and see how long it can go. We measure those. Which one's longer? Which one's shorter? Um,
learning sizes. Then also we categorize what do you wear in the winter versus what do you wear in the summer, right? Um, some of the fun things some teachers do is they bring in some clothes and when kids go into their centers, they get to put on clothes on top of their clothes and play in centers with
different kinds of things on. Maybe it's an old fireman's hat, maybe it's um different kinds of shoes, all these fun things. And they love to learn those kinds of ways. So, you can see all the fun things that we do with clothing. Also, every center sort of change
changes per study. So, for example, you can see in that picture, they did a clothing store. So, they're learning how to collect some money, pay for something, buy something. Um, and so those are what our studies kind of look like. Um, so they're learning, but it's fun. We're not taking them and sitting
at a desk using pencil and paper. Everything has a purpose. So, that's a little bit about our curriculum. Making sure all the classrooms are doing it throughout the district. I like to clap. celebrate success. Um, can I ask
if we go to the next slide? And I cannot thank enough all of our staff that's here, but I would love to give Mrs. Sheena Chen and Miss Jessica Bum a chance to come up and tell us a little bit about the day from our teacher side and from what our children are doing. Everyone give them a long round of
applause. Amazing. Good evening. Uh, I'm Sheena Chan. I'm an integrated uh teacher in the preschool program. So, I teach students of the general education population as well as spe special education. My name is Jessica Bal. I'm a
special education teacher. I work in our PSD program. So, I work in our self-contained classrooms um in the preschool area. So, we're really excited to share with you about our preschool day um and how we intentionally teach some of these lifelong skills throughout
our general routines and our procedures. A crucial aspect of our preschool curriculum that often goes unnoticed is teaching transitions. It's actually one of my favorite things to talk about, specifically during arrival and dismissal. These moments are more than just routines. They are vital learning
opportunities for our young children. Transitions help children develop essential life skills. When we teach students how to arrive at school and how to go home, how to settle in, how to prepare for the day, we are fostering independence and responsibility by encouraging them to hang up their coats,
place their belongings in designated areas, and greet their peers and teachers. We will instill the sense of ownership over their environment. We are also working on self-regulation. As children transition from home to school, this includes moving away from their trusted caregivers and building trust in
the school environment. They learned that although they are separated from their families, those families will return at the end of the day. And we're fostering a safe and secure place at school. Our circle time is a structured whole group activity that fosters language development, social engagement,
and encourages children to interact and communicate with one another, creating a strong sense of community in the classroom. During this time, we focus on key academic skills such as counting, shared writing, activating prior knowledge, asking questions, um, all
while aligning with our current curriculum unit of study. This engaging format helps promote prolonged attention and enhances students understanding of the topics that we explore. Another important part of preschool is our related service
providers. We were very lucky to have some of them here tonight supporting our students. SER service providers such as OT's, physical therapists, and speech therapists play an essential role in our preschool setting. They work collaboratively with educators to ensure that all children receive the support they need to thrive. By integrating
these therapeutic activities into our daily routines, these professionals help children develop crucial skills such as fine motor skills, coordination, balance, and communication. Gross motor time is another important part of our day. Teaching gross motor skills in preschool is vital for children's
physical development and overall well-being. Engaging in activities like running, jumping, climbing, not only build strength and coordination, but also enhance our social skills as children learn to play together. These experiences lay a foundation for a healthy lifestyle and boost their confidence as they navigate the
environment. By incorporating gross motor activities into our daily routine, we offer fun opportunities to learn as well as grow our large muscle groups. Our center time provides an extended time for play, allowing students to make
choices, engage in meaningful interactions with their peers. And during this time, they work on social skills, problem solving, taking turns, developing their language. Um, and during this time, teachers are actively supporting the students um their
academic skills while they are doing childrendriven play. Um, so that creates a rich learning environment um for them to grow. Um, and then we also have small groupoup instruction, which is a structured time that allows our staff to now further differentiate our
instruction because we teach ages three, four, and five, focusing on key areas such as math, literacy, social, emotional development, fine motor skills, and following directions. This targeted approach enables teachers to meet the specific needs of each child,
providing them the personalized support that they need. In conclusion, a preschool day is so much more than playtime. It is a foundational experience where children learn essential life skills and pave the way for future educational success. Our curricul our curriculum, excuse me, is
designed to foster independence, social interaction, and emotional resilience, all while preparing students for the next steps in their academic journey. Collaboration is key in this process. By working closely with administration, fellow educators, and various departments, we ensure that we meet the daise needs of our students and their
families. This teamwork not only enriches our teaching practices, but also creates a supportive environment where our child can thrive. Throughout my journey as a special education teacher, I've encountered many unique complex situations when supporting students and their families. In each case, the special education department
within this district has responded with with unwavering support, collaboration, and commitment. I have never been met with a no at the ECC, only with shared determination to meet each child's need. Here, every student matters and every family is valued. And that is something truly meaningful to be a part of. Thank
you for that was amazing. I'm never speechless, but I you're lucky when you have such work with such an amazing team. You don't have that much to say. You know what I mean? But what I am just so proud of and what they bring to life is preschool again. the day that our
students have three years old coming in and just separation from their parents at the door and all those intentional points to help our students succeed each and every day and we're just so proud of our staff and our team. Thank you so much. I need another round of applause
for that and we thought it would be important we'll show but we don't want to talk about it. We like to show what we're doing. So before we go on, I once want to talk about the goals we set when we start the year and we talked about this growth of this program. Miss Keith
knows from the days when we started that one of the most important things to us was that coordination of 10 locations. Making sure that each and every location that our students are in are part of our preschool community. And that is one of
the things we are so proud of with our coaching team. Mrs. Ragava said work being in the buildings and the community partners that we work with, you know, the collaboration has been special and to see us grow to 10 locations throughout the community. So, we're
going to talk about these real quickly, but our five goals, coordination at 10 locations, creating a welcoming environment for all families, family engagement, community partnerships, and I talked earlier about celebrating success. Can you the next slide? So the
first one again is the coordination of the 10 locations. As you know in district we did add we expanded to three new providers this school year. We are at the ECC, Jud Livingston Park, Parsons, John Adams, Ocelero which is on
route one, Lightbridge Academy 27, our new Lightbridge 13, Kitty Academy and Kids Our Kids would also join with us this year for our first year. It's been exceptional seeing the way that we've worked together as a team meeting the needs of all of our families. And the
thing that we're so proud of too is having PE part of all parts of town represented. So students are again places throughout North Brunswick. And one last thing before we say that is just also another thing about that that we've done a lot with coordination is we have monthly meetings
with Kerianne and I with every admin team in the district. There are standing monthly meeting with all the elementary building admin teams once a month and with all of our community partners once a month. Having that clear message for everyone to be on the same page with opportunities to know when we're meeting
clear agendas, chances for questions has been so important for us in the growth of the program. Welcoming environment for all families. Well, I thank everyone here for making our families feel so welcome tonight at the board education meeting. And I know my child, three, four, or
5-year-old already on stage. It's amazing. But one of the things we like to do is we like to share our story of preschool to let the community know what we're doing. You hear preschool, we hear what we're doing, but when you see what's happening in all 10 buildings,
it's incredible. So, just some examples from John Adams inviting members of the community in during their clothing unit that were parents who came in as special guest visitors to like show their uniforms from their jobs. And Kerianne was talking about the clothing unit. We
had, you know, we have um the Ocelero Learning Center provides monthly family engagement network meetings. I love to get a chance to go there to represent us to show that partnership. Lipbridge Academy, you know, they're always doing things, inviting families in and trying
new things as well. And again, making those families feel part of our community day in day out. Next up, family engagement is key. And family engagement in preschool is such a unique opportunity for families to get involved
from the get-go and see all those different services that we offer. you know, from back to school night conferences, American Education Week, having guest readers come in for celebrations, even our we were so excited last week, we had to throw in,
we were able to do for the first time ever at ECC, take your child to work day. And seeing our students interacting with our our staff's students is a memory those children will have for the rest of their lives. We had a lot of
requests on Friday. are the big kids coming back. So, and we also heard some big kids that really wanted to come back, but but also the chance for our staff to introduce their kids to their classes and just it's something that'll never be
forgotten and thank you for us having that opportunity. Um, next staff, but family engagement. We talk about it's not just our students, it's our staff, it's all of our families. We're all part of the same team. Oh, our community partnerships has been a goal since day
one that we continue to expand and be part of the community. One of the key goals we want our families to know is being part of this district brings a lot of great advantages and different relationships that we've built and we've really cultivated over the years. be it
working together with the North Brunswick Township Police Department for their annual toy drive, working with the we do our annual um Thanksgiving food drive for the food bank during American Education Week. We were fortunate this year, Mr. Whan, we really appreciated
for the first time ever, we were able to bring the fire department down to our students and just the joy on all of our children's faces. And again, children three, four, and fiveyear-old with all different levels of needs and areas of opportunities and growth. But the growth
every day, every day you see it, and that's what's so special about preschool. We're so lucky to work in a community that has that support. The MBTA always supporting our events. um the public library, Trader Joe's, all these places over the years we've been
building relationships with because we want them to feel like when our students go into the grocery store, they're part of this community. They might see that teacher when they go to Costco and see me on Sunday afternoon shopping and Mr. Shorter. Um but that just I say this is
so important. Celebrate success. We are fortunate to have such an amazing team. We are such an fortunate to have amazing family and supportive administration, supportive board of education, superintendent's office, but to celebrate every day our students three,
four, and five years old having these experiences that I know when I was that age, I was sitting by my grandma's lap watching some TV with her and seeing the experiences. And you know, just a couple that we celebrated were Jud Spirit Day and the one book project. We had a
virtual assembly and then we had a big event with all our families to read the book that the MBTA purchased for every student. The students still talk about those books when you go in the rooms. They say, "Mr. Casner, you gave me that book." And that's incredible. And you
know, we talked more about Andy Unit fashion show, our Livingston Park team always having families, making them feel part of everything each and every day and how special that is. The next one which is something new we tried this
year which was the preschool week of the young child participated in all it's a something that's celebrated across the entire nation NAEYC and we were fortunate to have so many events planned. Our district art show was that week. Um they did
different events in all of our schools that were coordinated. We had a resource fair here working together with the Middle Sex County Family Services. You know, seeing this our teams at uh Kids Our Kids, Kitty Academy, all of our schools are represented in these
pictures because we know these things are happening in all of our buildings. And the last one is in closing, we did bring some samples from our art show last week. So, if you have a chance, you're more than welcome
to see. It's representation from every building. So, there's work from all of our students. And we were so fortunate during our art show a couple weeks ago, which was also on Artsy Thursday for Week of the Young Child, we had hundreds of families and students here in the
building coming and going to see this work, celebrating their children, public libraries signing people up for library cards, all these things. the MBTA donating food. There were all these wonderful things happening and just the sense of joy where we had a child walk
in and she said, the dad said to me, you know, you said to my daughter that one day she'd be in the art show and now her big sister is here to support her little sister. And that's just something that's the gift that keeps on giving and we just can't wait to keep impacting the
future in North Brunswick. We thank you so much for your time. I'm always here for questions, always excited to talk about this stuff. So is Kerianne. But in closing, we are so fortunate to work in such an amazing district supporting our students, families, and the community.
Thank you for this opportunity. Mr. Pasttorm, Miss Egan, Miss Chen, Mr. Bound, thank you so much for your presentation tonight. And I think, you know, the whole picture you paint really shows not only our board but our community how vital a really strong
preschool program is, right? This is this is bringing kids into school early and getting them exposure to things that they would not be exposed to prior to that. You know, we had years ago before Dr. Zakowski left, you know, early on people were saying, "Well, preschool is just babysitting." And it's not. It's so much more. And being a preschool
teacher, um, you know, as as as everybody saw here, it's not necessarily the easiest grounding up little cats. Um, it can be a challenge. Um, but the patience that you guys exhibit and just the love of the children is incredible. And, you know, all the different pieces
of the program just really go to make it a vibrant and really essential part of what's leading into our elementary schools. So, thank you all very much. Thank you for coming out tonight. Thank you for suggesting the change in evening. We appreciate that. Um, anybody here on the board want to make a comment?
I can't help myself. Um, because that was wonderful. I love the babies. All children are near and dear to my heart, but the preschool, they really get me. Um, and it was just wonderful seeing the various personalities and our one main character energy that was over here that we cannot miss who knew what she wanted
and knew that she knew the lyrics as well and sang it quite well. So, that was beautiful and very entertaining. Just thank you. And I want to of course mimic um Superintendent Shuroka's sentiments that of course I personally value early childhood just because of
the exposure and preparing them for likelihood success later on for academic achievement. I think it's very important. I think that the state of New Jersey has clearly invested in that initiative and I fully support it. Um but also having children exposed to you know the creative curriculum which is a
play-based curriculum but also you all have and provide a languagerich environment which I think just promotes literacy and increased comprehension and again a likelihood of success for academic achievement later. So I applaud you. I thank you all for doing the hard work that starts off at preschool um and
continues for many years to come. But I'm very grateful for the presentation tonight. Thank you. Yeah, definitely. I also just want to echo that as well. You know, you all have the patience of saints, first of all. Let me just say that because not everyone can do what you do, but it's
not You could tell that this is not just a job for you. This is your life. This is something that you enjoy. I don't know how you stop smiling throughout the day. Your face must hurt at the end of the day, but um it's just so amazing to
see. And you know, not every district in the state of New Jersey offers preschool. Some of them don't even offer kindergarten. And so we are so lucky that we are able to offer that here. Um especially at the beginning of a child's
school career um and then working our way into, you know, our other great schools. So you know, it's it's a chance for someone to start so young here and then end up at the end graduating. So we're very thankful for that. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Thank you, staff. Well, I hate to be the one who's going to move on to this next exciting topic. We were a little fun preview. They were the fun preview. I get to present the final budget to you.
So, obviously, this is our final budget presentation. Uh the last one was in March in the early early days of March when we had just gotten our data from uh the state. Uh we presented a preliminary budget to you and then said we would come back uh in April with our final
budget based on whether things would change or not. Nothing has changed. So I will go through this very quickly. I'm not going to give you the entire um spiel, but um as you may recall um our income for MBT schools come from the local tax levy, state aid, and grants
and entitlements. And those grants are like the federal grants you hear about, title one, title two, etc. Um we strive for that budgetary balance, the um the everpresent scales, not scales of justice, but scales of budgetary balance. We have a spe fiscal
responsibility to the town pound township taxpayers to the community, to our school district to make sure that we are fiscally responsible in how we spend our money. But we also have to make sure that we are spending that money to provide educational integrity and
providing the absolute best and prioritizing things that will um move forward our student achievement. As I mentioned previously, there were a lot of budgetary challenges this year. Um, first and foremost was a 3% state
aid cut. Um, we had a 12% increase in health benefits costs. We had negotiated and very important negotiated contract increases to retain staff, which was a 4% um increase for our uh, NBTa staff members and 3.66 for our um,
administrator administrative association. We saw increase in energy costs. Nothing new to anybody who pays their utility bills. Um 3% increase in transportation costs. Um which we were actually able to, you know, be proactive
and reach out to our transportation department and get a 3% which we were actually very happy with. Um we were also told that we would lose 25% of our title grant funding from the state of New Jersey. Um all within a 2% tax levy cap required by the state of New Jersey.
um as well as special education costs being um much higher than they have in the past. So fiscal responsibility, we want to maintain educational integrity. Um we have programs that we're working to implement
uh next year. Curriculum updates which include the K to2 benchmark roll out. We did three through five this past year. Um, and we had a whole task force really looking at what kind of high quality curricular materials we need for five through nine math. Um, and so those are
a big expense that are in this budget for next year. Um, but that's a big priority because our teachers really need strong instructional materials. We know that those are areas that we we need foundational literacy skills. Um, and this is what the benchmark advanced program provides using the the science
of reading and a phonetic approach. And then um also a a background knowledge approach for students because that's one of the the pieces in in learning to read that students need strong background knowledge as well. Their comprehension cannot exist if they don't have strong background knowledge. And then in math a
5 through9 continuum um looking at the algebra preparing students for algebra and making sure again that teachers have rich curricular materials and consistent materials. Um and those also in encompass u materials that provide for bilingual and dual language students uh
materials in Spanish because we have many students who need those programs um not only in English but also Spanish. Um, we also have, you know, technology needs that we need to provide for professional learning, continued facilities maintenance. Um, even though we do have our, um, you know, we did get
our, uh, referendum passed, uh, we will have continued maintenance that is not part of that referendum work that will be done. Continued COVID academic challenges as well as mental health challenges, making sure we're meeting those needs and increased um, social, emotional, and ELLL services. And again,
making sure that our schools are safe and secure. So, we have to maintain those costs as well. We also have to preserve personnel priorities, making sure that we're keeping students in district, providing programs um to accelerate student success, comprehensive specialized
programs not only for students who struggle um but for those who need to be challenged. um meeting the needs of that preschool universe um academic and social needs for our subgroups and committing to continuing our intervention and enrichment supports. We
want to maximize efficiency and flexibility by providing optimizing our staffing models and collaborating across departments to ensure that all roles continue to support student achievement. So we have been very looking you know you see a lot of districts talking about
cuts um we have been able to manage that through um reducing some staff through retirements resignations and non-renewals and reassignments. Um we have looking at role modifications to reduce any duplications of services and
utilizing grant funds in the most efficient way to make sure our programs are sustainable and meeting some of our personnel needs. um and continuing to keep our talented staff by making sure that we are providing the programs um that help them and support
them. So the operating budget is proposed of is made up of three parts. You have your general fund which is general expense, capital outlay and charter school costs. You have your grants and entitlements and your debt service fund. So that's made up of the board fair share as well as the debt
service revenue and the local tax levy. So if you look at this is the comparison from 2425 on the right to 2526. So you'll see that the tax levy is up a little bit. It's 91 million versus 88
last year. State aid is down. It was 37% last year. Uh 39% last year. This year it will be 37% of our budget. We are using a little bit more of our maintenance and capital reserves to do work around the buildings. Um that's a little bit more uh 0.9% miscellaneous
revenue um.3% a little bit more than last year. We took a big hit on our semi which is money that we get through um services we provide for special needs services. And we've always done very well by by putting that money into um the budget
and and getting the state to to reimburse us for those things. Um, and unfortunately it's gone down to for from $261,000 to about 44 is what they're they're telling us we're going to get this year. So that's that was also a hit. So you can see that the comparison
for the general fund um was at 148 million last year and it's at 149.7 uh for this year. And so this is our appropriations. 71.6 of our budget is salaries and benefits. 5.6 6 goes to
charter schools. 5.5 is transportation and that excludes salaries. Facilities 5.2. Again, we have to maintain strong and safe facilities for our families and our students. Pupil services is 3.8%. Tuitions is 2.6. Instruction 2.3
administration finance and technology 1.6 capital 1.5 and all other.5. This leaves us with a total budget for approval of $169,47,38. The tax liy impact, as we talked about, the allowable increase was
2%. The state aid cut was 3% or 1.7 million. State however does allow us to use the health benefits waiver and we did talk about this extensively last at the budget hearing. uh we are allowed to take that health benefits to make up for the great health benefits cost that we
have which is 1.4 million. So the tax levy impact with the allowable increase of 2% plus the healthc care waiver of 1.57 would equal a 3.57 increase of the tax levy. However, not really. Again, Dr.
Zmath, the debt levy is down because we have bonds that are coming off of the books. Some of those bonds we just are reinvesting in our referendum, our bond sale that we'll hear more about in a few minutes. Um, however, there was more to that debt that was coming off the books.
So, when you do the math, um, the taxes are only going up 2.5%. So, for if you compare that to what's going on in many districts around us, um, that is actually, um, very positive for our taxpayers on a home of
$137 a year. um of $137,000. Um the it would be hund on an average home, right, Rosa? Yeah, average home. It's $137. $1,000. An average home. Yep. And then $1.48 a month. And
this is the total budget that you will be voting on tonight. And this is the budget sheet you were all given. And it breaks it down by each category. There was no change from before. And any questions? Anyone questions or comments?
Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Superintendent Churoka, for presenting us the final budget. We um at this time we will open um for public session on the final uh budget. If anyone would
like to come up to the podium and speak about the budget only, we ask that you state your name and um you'll be given three minutes. All right. Seeing none, may I have a motion to close the port public portion regarding to the budget? So
moved. Second. All in favor? I is anyone opposed? This session is closed. Thank you. Okay. Um at this time, uh we will do a motion
to um adopt the fiscal year 2025 2026 school district budget. Uh may I have a motion? Can and could someone please read item seven? I'll take it. Thank you. Um, I move to authorize the adoption of the fiscal year 2025 2026 school year budget as submitted to and
approved by the New Jersey Department of Education. Second. So, I'm going to take roll call on this. Mr. Ali, yes. Mr. Carter, yes. Miss James, yes. Miss Keefe, yes.
Uh, Dr. Patel, yes. Mr. Singh, yes. Yes. Miss Toth. Yes. And Mr. W. Yes. We've accepted and approved the budget for 2526. Thank you. Uh Mr. Carter, would you please take item number eight? Yes, Madam President. I'd like to make a
motion to approve the following board minutes. Regular public meeting minutes, March 26, 2025. Second. All in favor? I. Anyone opposed? We've accepted the minutes. Thank you. Uh any communications this evening? No, no
communications this evening. Thank you. Administrative report. Great. We could jump to that. So, good evening to all of our families, guests, and viewers here tonight. As we head into the last two months of school, there are a lot of activities wrapping up the year and showcasing our talented students both academically and
musically. Spring concerts began last night with our John Adams spring concert, and the next concert is on May 14th for the MBTMS Choir Orchestra. There are concerts and I won't go into each one but we have concerts on May 14th, 16th, 20th, 21st, 23rd, 30th, June
4th, June 6th and June 10th. So there are many concerts coming. There will be lots of announcements from your schools. You can see the um everything on the website and we really do encourage you to come out and hear the beautiful music just like you had heard our preschoolers today. Um the the performances are
amazing from the the youngest to the the oldest students and they're they're really incredible talents out there. So we would love for you to come and and see those concerts. Please keep a close eye for more events via Parent Square and our school websites. This afternoon we were able to honor two employees who
sadly passed away this past year. Michael Henderson, custodian at Parson School, and Barbara Betha, a lunch playground aid at Jud School. We have established a memorial go garden in collaboration with the MBTA and really thank their them for their work on that
to honor these staff members and we were able to have the unveiling today outside um on this beautiful day to honor uh Michael and Barbara. Their families came. We had some nice words and um there's some lovely plaques there for them. Um so if you're ever, you know, it's still sunlight daylight when you
leave here, please, you know, go out the front door and take a right. and over by the gazebo um you will see the gardens and the the memorial plaques for each of the special staff members. So that's that's been a great partnership and we really appreciate doing that with the MBTA. So please make sure you get a
chance to take a look at that at some point. That's it from my administrative report this evening, Madam President. Thank you. All right, we'll jump over to our student report. Good evening, Miss Keith. Hello. Um I solo tonight, huh? No, unfortunately Mia can't be here cuz
she's just getting back from her DECA trip. Um, but we have a lot for me to talk about considering we had a break. So, first off, in the first week of April, we had Pep Week run by SGO. It was a short week, so we only had four days, but Tuesday was college day, and
it's really focused for the seniors. Everybody participates, but it's really for the seniors to show off what college they're going to be going to. Then Wednesday was bikers versus surfers, kind of like the movie Teen Beach Movie on Disney Channel if anybody's ever seen that. Um, and then Thursday and Friday, normally it's always class colors and
blue gold. And then we had our final pep rally where the seniors completed the sweep of winning the Spirit Cup for the year. We took out all three pep rallies. Um, then next up, class of 2027 had a movie night where they showed 10 things I hate about you. They raised a lot of
money for their class. The gaming and animation club held their first ever Super Smash Bros. tournament and they had a lot of success and everybody who went had a lot of fun. The Italian club held a successful Scopa night where they taught the Italian card game. And this past week, Alchemist put a great run of
the musical uh Little Shop of Horrors. And basically Thursday night they had a show, Friday night they had a show, and then Saturday they had two showings of the musical. Um, all four shows were absolutely amazing and I know the seniors are really going to miss Alchemist and all that that community brings to their life. And then elections
for SGO and class office were held this past week. Mia will be rejoining you here next year as the president. Oh, wonderful. Um, and next the executive board will be chosen and the students that are chosen overall are going to start planning the events for next year and all the fundraising that'll go on.
Great. You always have a lot going on. Yeah. So, you have some news for us. Maybe tomorrow might be a big day for you. Yeah. Um I'm going to be committing to Ohio State. Congratulations. Big day for you tomorrow. Yeah, I think I think you have to say the Ohio State
University. Definitely big day for Miss Keefe and her family. So congratulations. Very happy for you. Um all right, so we'll jump over to committee reports. Uh we don't have Mr. Lori tonight who who is
our uh liaison for um New Jersey school boards and the county school boards and the township council. But um just in his absence, there is a uh county meeting coming up in May for us board members. It's on Wednesday, May 21st. Um hopeful
that we can get a good crowd either there or uh remotely. And um that is the final meeting of um this school year for the county school boards. Um so at this time we will move to our three general
committees. Um Mr. Ali, education, you want to start us off tonight? Sure. Well, um hello everybody. The education committee met on April 23rd at 6 PM and we have a few updates tonight. Um, our ESL teachers and well, in the area of
assessments and grants, our ESL teachers and staff will be attending a professional development session at the high in New Brunswick. There have been additional amendments to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act grant, the New Jersey learning assessments. Um,
those exams started on April 28th and will end on May 21st. We have concluded um our spring measure of academic progress testing which is used to measure math, reading and writing of our kindergarten through 10th graders and our summer institute and summer academy
will be again on July 7th and it will last until August 7th and this year we will be hosted at the middle school and we're getting ready to hire teachers and staff who are going to be working this summer in the area of curriculum and technology. Our district leadership has
recently finished their summit of evaluations of all non-tenure staff. So that's great. And this year instead of Earth Week, we had a robust Earth Month and we had u different themes throughout the week and some of which were reducing our impact, healthy communities,
educating for a healthy planet, protect and preserve, and we'll be finishing up this week with building green spaces. We've also submitted our language instruction educational three-year program plan to the New Jersey Department of Education. Um, some good
news and we have invited 41 eighth graders to our STEM Academy this year for next year at the high school. And the National Honor Society has 20 juniors who will be intro introduced to the National Science Honor Society on May 1st at the high school. And the high
school also has been reacredited by middle states association which will now last through July 2032. And in the area of pupil and personnel services we have two policies up for first reading and three policies up for second reading. The first reading
policies are 5701 which replaces our previous plagiarism policy and now has been updated to language to encompass academic integrity. And our second policy for first reading is 5710 which is our student grievances policy. And
our we have three readings for second reading. Um policy 5533 which is our statemandated updates about student smoking and electronic smoking devices. 5111 which provides updates and guidance pertaining to eligibility of residents
and non-residents in our district. And lastly, 2365, which is our acceptable use of generative artificial technology, intelligence technology, which is AI. And we'll be making a district-wide AI plan in the coming months that will um
cover students, staff, and teachers, everyone who may use AI. So, thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Mr. Ali. Uh Dr. Patel, human resources. Good evening. Good evening. Yes, madam president. Um, okay. So, the human
resources committee relations committee met on Wednesday, April 23rd to discuss various personnel topics. For those on tonight's agenda, we are who are retiring or resigning. The board thanks them for their service and wishes them well. There are new teaching staff for the 2025 and 2026 school year, as well
as new substitute staff on tonight's agenda. We welcome all those new members to our district, and we look forward to having you work with us here in North Brunswick. As part of our committee meeting, any remaining vacancies for the 2025 2026 school year continue to be to be in the interview stages and will be
posted until filled. All of our current openings can be found on our district website, social media pages, and posted in each of our buildings. For any teaching positions, alternate route and traditional route at candidates are both encouraged to apply. We discussed any
current vacancies as well as leave of absences and how those positions are being filled via daily subs, long-term subs, or six teaching periods. Miss Kea uh shared that there is one remaining virtual job fair coming up on May 22nd and that she and several school
administrators participated in two during March and April. Lastly, the committee reviewed a revised job description for the for athletic trainer which can be found on tonight's agenda for approval. And that concludes our report. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Carter, business operations.
Yes, thank you. Um, the business operations committee met on Wednesday, April 23rd. Uh, we received status updates on the bond sale which took place on Thursday, April 24th. We had nine biders and the rate was in line with the projected rate. Uh, we will close on May 15th. Uh, the Lynwood
cooler is turned on and is working as you can feel. Um, we also have a number of updates that will begin at the end of June at multiple schools including Livingston Park paving and traffic flow updates, Parson's courtyard and concrete updates,
MBTHs, MRC cubicle installation and auxiliary gym floor repainting, and also districtwide updates on HVAC controls um that are funded by the ROD grant. Um the site took site visit took place yesterday and lead water testing is
nearing completion. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Carter. I'm sure you'll have a lot of updates for us in the near future with the bond referendum. So, thank you. All right. Um at this time, Mr. Wen, would you take item 11, please?
Yes, Madam President. I would like to make a motion to approve the administrative student and committee reports. Second. All in favor? I. Is there Is anyone opposed? All the reports are accepted. Thank you. At this time, we will take a moment to review our
agenda for this evening. As previously stated in uh all of our meetings, the board members um received the agenda prior to tonight's meeting. So, we've had a chance to review any changes um from our last viewing have been put in bold. So, at this time, we'll start on
page four and five. Pages six and seven. Pages eight and nine. 10 and 11. 12, 13, 14, and 15. Uh, and then 16 wrapping up on page
17. Generally pretty short agenda this evening, so we can jump back to page four. Wait till May. Yeah. All right. At this time, we will do a public session on agenda items only. If anyone from the public would like to
come up and speak on any items listed on the agenda, this is the time. We ask that you just state your name and you'll be given three minutes. All right. Seeing none, can I have a motion to close the public portion of this meeting? So moved.
Second. All in favor? I uh is anyone opposed? Well, this session is closed. Thank you. Uh Miss Kee, would you please take item 15? 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 1 through three, policy and transportation. Second. Okay, I'm going to take roll call here. Mr. Ali, yes. Mr. Carter, yes. Miss James, yes. Miss Ke, yes. Dr. Mr. Patel,
yes. Mr. Singh, yes. Miss Toe, yes. And Mr. W. Yes. All the resolutions and motions are accepted. Thank you. Right. We'll jump to the last page of our agenda, page 17. So, at this time, we will do a
public session on any matter. If anyone from the public would like to speak on any matter and address the board, we ask that you just come up, state your name, and you'll be given three minutes. All right. Seeing none, can we please have a
motion to close this public portion of the meeting? So moved. Second. All in favor? Is anyone opposed? This session is closed. Thank you. This time we will adjourn our meeting. We do not have any closed session items this evening. So thank you everyone. Can we
please have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. All in favor? I is we are thank you so