##VIDEO ID:ir697wsBxvA## e e e e H recipes re restaurants and good evening everyone I'd like to welcome everyone to tonight's meeting this is the north bruny Township Board of Education regular public meeting today is Wednesday January 29th 2025 can we all please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all Mr Ali here Mr Carter here miss James here miss Keith here Mr Lori here Dr Patel here Mr Singh here miss to here and Mr W here oh we have a car 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. Tuesday November 20 6 2025 and Wednesday excuse me 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 so good evening everyone thank you to everyone who is here tonight and to all of our board members uh it's our first regular public meeting of the month uh and uh we are you know back from the holiday season we have a lot going on within the district um and tonight specifically we have a presentation so at this time I will turn it over to Mrs troa thank you Madame President um every year we are required to have a financial audit and we are lucky enough to have our audit uh turned in on time completely done to the state on time and have Mr Sten from the Sam kleinon company come and present our audit findings good evening um Jerry s Sam company we are the appointed independent aors for the district for the year end of June 30th 2020 do you mind picking up the M microphone and speaking into it it helps them hear it yeah exactly it just helps them hear it thank you we're appointed by the board to perform an audit of the district's records which are maintained by the business office headed by Rose um and our job is to give an opinion on the records as presented to us okay we're happy to report that we have an unmodified previously known as a clean opinion previously known before that as an unqualified opinion on the records that we're presented with what does that mean it means basically that that were given through the various computer reports General ledgers revenue reports present fairly the statement of the status of the district's financial position okay and the records were presented as we call in the business in the What's called the tick mark fashion meaning we really had no adjustments to make there were no uh adjustments that were made because we found a boo boo okay that that didn't happen everything was was presented perfectly as it has been for the past several years okay and basically what it means is this we we do independent uh uh we do an independent test uh random samples of various uh items most espe payroll and expenditures so we get good all all good auditing results from those and meaning for payroll everyone was paid properly in accordance with board authorization payroll taxes were paid timely okay um expenditures properly doc four most important things properly documented cut off properly with regards to fiscal year charge to the right budget code and especially of compliance with the public school contracts law you know during the year you do a lot of resolutions authorizing different purchases of things well you're pretty well in compliance with the the public school contracts law and you do take good Advantage I think of the U various purchasing co-ops that are out there now obviously you go to bid on certain things like construction which is pretty much what most districts do now because everything that's available now for a school is is available through through cooperate purchasing whether a county or some of the ones up in newth Jersey they're called like you know the Maris County one or whatever that you join a lot of the stuff is all available the vendors have gotten through to the state Treasury Department to show their products so they agree upon a price and it works very nicely for the district so we we got all good auditing results from that and most importantly and it's technical in nature and that is the cash on your uh general ledger as presented to us agrees to the bank reconciliation okay just accept it okay I will say this some districts I go to they don't and that's a problem but in here and and that's been the case here okay U we end up with an unmodified opinion because the district has procedures in place and people positioned to enforce those procedures which is why we end up with a good audit result in the end okay so it's it's called an unmodified opinion and as a result of our successful testing there's no comments contained in the thinner of the two documents which is really our representation to the board okay about the operation of the district uh we were in compliance with everything the Assa counts worked nicely we're in compliance with the the uh Department of Agriculture rule on excess Surplus in your proprietary fund your food service fund um all the bank wrecks like I said that's important that they tie and we we we believe that there's uh you know you're in compliance with and have good people in positions compliance with the grants okay so we're very comfortable in giving a clean opinion just for record the thicker of the two documents we actually produce but it's a joint venture with us and the business office okay um we're given the numbers certain pieces are worked on by the business office other pieces we put together because it's a little more technical but this is a joint venture the only thing inside this document that belong to us is our opinion as you know unmodified so the other thing is the the the good thing about your records being presented properly is that honor about July 1st or there abouts your your business office could indicate to you okay this is what our fund balance is well we're seven months later and it's still the same number okay we do chip away at certain things in the summer back and forth on the computer on a telephone so the main exhibit is the C1 exhibit which is your main operating fund so normally by Midsummer we know those numbers and they they haven't changed again because everything is done correctly along the way so we're happy to report that there a u unmodified with no comments and I do want to publicly thank the business office and all the people in the support staff uh who helped us along the way in the various departments we do we do get to meet a lot of people and talk to them even for a half hour just to you know get a feel for what they're doing to make sure everything's in compliance so and the enrollment count I might add too is is also right on the money so I'm here if there's any questions we're very happy to be here tonight and yes we filed the Odon which is electronic version of the audit on time actually in early December okay like we planned and then the audit was filed on July excuse January 10 the due date was January 15th and that was a result of some pushing and prodding that we discussed about you know being a little more timely so we got that all out of the way so that's where we are if you have any questions I'm here but the only thing that the only action the Board needs to take is just is to accept the audit you don't need a plan of action because there was no items that were recommended for correction usually though if there is a problem we address it right away correct I mean many phone calls okay do it this way don't do it that way so so it's not like we come here and the good thing about it is is that the system here is set up so that we don't catch the audit the problem that your internal people catch it before it gets out to the public so also we had an exit conference with the administration about two weeks ago three weeks ago to issue the audit and then there was a rather extensive meeting with the business operations committee what was it last Wednesday yes last Wednesday to discuss in further detail the audit so we're happy to be here uh and if there's any questions we're here to address them and if when I leave here there's questions you can address them through the superintendent administrator and we'll give you whatever audit answers you need thank you anyone from the board have anything for Mr stankowitz to follow up Jerry I would just like to Echo your thanks to the business office to you and your staff uh for all the work this year getting that done and keeping to our timeline we really appreciate it and um you know great job again thank you okay I'm good yes sir I'm good are you good Jerry I'm good thank you not this year thank you very much thank you have a good night you too and thank you again for collaboration as well um Rosa and your team we really appreciate it thank you it was a team effort for sure absolutely um all right so at this time we will open it up to a public comment on the audit presentation um if anyone from the public would like to come up and speak to anything um discussed in the audit now is the time okay seeing none can I please have a motion to close the public portion for the audit presentation so moved second all in favor I anyone opposed this session is closed thank you um Mr Lori would you please take item eight Madame President I'll make a motion to accept the annual comprehensive financial report for the school district of North brunic Township for the fiscal year ending June 30th 2024 and the accompanying Auditors management report on the administrative F funding Financial compliance and performance also for the fiscal year ending 20 uh June 30 2024 this also includes the SI the system peer review report conducted on Samuel Klein company thank you can we have a second second was that Mr Carter or Mr one Carter thank you Mr Carter I'm going to take roll call on this one Mr Mr Ali yes Mr Carter yes Miss James yes Miss Keith yes Mr Lori yes Dr Patel yes Mr Singh yes Miss to yes and Mr W yes uh the audit report is accepted thank you uh Miss Kei would you please take item nine yes Madam president I'd like to make a motion to approve the following board minutes regular public meeting minutes December 18 2024 executive meeting minutes December 18th 2024 reorganization meeting minutes January 7th 2025 board to retreat meeting minutes January 9th 2025 board to retreat executive minutes January 9th 2025 second all in favor is anyone opposed all the meeting minutes are accepted thank you um all right at this time are there any Communications there are not this evening okay um we'll move to reports I'm assuming we can just jump to your administrative yes we can thank you all right good evening to all our families guests and viewers here tonight as I'm mentioned at our reorganization meeting earlier this month January is School Board recognition month recognizing our Schoolboard members is an important way to thank current and former board members for their dedication and service on behalf of their communities our nine North Brunswick Township school board members just like all school school board members in New Jersey receive no pay for their service although elected these dedicated school board members provide countless hours of volunteer service to our school district and community in order to help North Brunswick Township Schools be the best that they can be in North Brunswick we are exceptionally grateful for a School Board of Professional hardworking individuals who work collaboratively as a team in a positive manner thank you all for your service to the students families and staff of North Brunswick if we could all give them a round of applause also as a reminder we have an early closing next Thursday February 6th 2025 for staff professional learning in addition we all have an early closing for staff and students on Friday February 14th not for Valentine's Day but because it's pre-present Day weekend and schools will also be closed on Monday February 17th for President's Day on this evening's agenda is a vote to approve Miss Marcy Mars as the 9 to2 supervisor of special education Miss Marx is here in the audience this evening and I'd like to invite her up for a second to say a few words good evening I wanted to thank the Board of Education this district and the school administration for believing me in my new reassignment R um as a p alumni ofs and the school district teacher for 25 years I committed to student excellence and I plan to hit the ground comitte I'm looking forward to working with staff students and all the families that might evolv so thank you very much thank you congratulations um as most of you know I have also shared the news of my retirement on June 30th with the Board District staff and Families at this time I am focused more on upcoming work for the district through the rest of the school year and I will save any additional remarks to the community on this topic at the June meeting finally as I explained at our last meeting we have a referendum vote for school facilities improvements on March 11th we will be La launching information beginning tomorrow well actually tonight um and as part of that launch I'd like to share now the video that was put together by our Communications team and to thank Mr Wen for coming out and being willing to appear in the referendum vid video than thank you uh Dr Kane Ellis our district coordinator of communications for all the work she did behind the scenes for the website the communications plan and so on um Mr Jason Swain our um media teacher at the high school for his video editing expertise and filming expertise and my secretary Janine kerski for all her work in canva in preparing and helping put together all the marketing materials so I'm going to take a second and see if we can get this to to go did practice this before so it's about five minutes long so just be ready so today we're here to talk about the upcoming referendum on March 11th for school facility improvements uh we have an opportunity to uh put toward the voters a referendum to improve our facilities at the schools so this is the perfect time for referendum you know as a district the board has looked very carefully about the idea of being good stewards our tax dollars we have money coming off the books for debt we have paid we've been paying our mortgage for previous projects that the voters approved 20 something years ago and that money is coming off the books and it's the best time to reinvest it in our district because we can do it zero cost to our taxpayer and get a lot of impact and improving our schools and at the same time we get 40% from the state so we're not paying 100% of these projects later down the road if something breaks in an emergent basis we've worked extensively with our Board of Education our architect p campusano and our Administration over the last year and a half we've done building facility reviews with the principal gone through every nook and cranny of our buildings and prioritized projects that we needed to do that were were vital to the safety and health of our students over the past few years I me we constantly hear about times when the heating system will break down cooling system breaks down and the students you know they go into a classroom where it's 50° uh they go into a classroom that's you know 80 something 90° and it is very difficult to learn in there um and you know I know Administration constantly scrambles to either provide uh portable units or they have to move the classrooms to to different areas of the school um to to accommodate and you know moving classrooms and moving students around or trying to learn inside those extreme environments is very difficult and it really leads to a loss of learning opportunities and learning time you know the essential units are so you know some of them are 50 years old boilers and some of them are 25 plus years old if you think about your house and your air conditioning unit you know you want to have it maintained every year which we do if you have a 25 Pur for your house you're going to be pretty worried next winter when things happen there are two questions to this referendum both of which are at zero cost with taxpayers the first one is $52 million and that one includes um hbac improvements throughout the district in the majority of our buildings exceed Oilers new uh air conditioning units the units in most of our elementary schools are called vmar units it also includes Geor for making sure that the envelope of the building is watertight it also includes ADA Compliant bathrooms um so that that our students and staff can have safe and updated bathrooms that's the first question the second question is just over $1 million and that one is for windows and door placement so our windows are not necessarily double pain or energy energy efficient and doors are all sorts of different mix match of doors they don't are compliant to safety and our locks as well so we want to make sure they are the most safe and best quality that our students can can use these items that are part of the referendum are things that are part of facility updates that also qualify for uh state aid so the things that are part of this referendum all qualify for 40% coverage from the state so that we don't have to the full Bill and this only happens when we do a referendum uh like this so this is the opportunity that we have to have the state help us pay for a lot of these facility uh improvements while we make these changes um for the betterment of the district at no cost to the taxpayer if we do a peace meal then we don't get the 40% from the state and then the taxpayer and the district are up 100% if a boiler breaks or a hpac goes down and we have to pay with it from our Capital Reserves this is an investment U into the future of our district into our facilities and we want to make sure that those facilities are ready for your kids by the time to get there otherwise we have to spend a significant amount of money to try to continually to maintain existing equipment which is already reached um its useful lifp to find out more people in the town can go to NBT schools.org and we have a very uh special dedicated page to the referendum where they can find out more information and read FAQs and look in more detail we want to make sure that all the way through all of our schools um your children are in environment that has safe and clean air um it's comfortable um that the buildings are not falling apart we want to make sure that they're safe and effective places for your student to learn whether they're in preschool elet preschool middle school or high school vot on March 11th and that's it for our report and again thank you again Mr Wen and Dr Ellis and the team um great video editing and it it I think I think the materials look very professional and um you know just goes to show you when an in-house team can can put together yes a job well done thank you all for your collaborative effort Mr W nice job up there changing career yeah um all right great and uh at this time we will move to our student reports okay hi hello um so um the week of January 6 to January 10th SEO sponsored our winter pep week so Monday was pajama day everybody enjoyed to stay in their pajamas on Monday not have to change Monday morning bright and early when it was dark and cold outside um Tuesday was sports day so you could wear a jersey you could wear a sweatshirt that represented your favorite kind of sport we kind of made it easy this year and then Wednesday was groutfit day which is kind of a trend on Tik Tok you wear all gray so everybody basically was like in sweat sets so like all different like Shades of Gray but everybody was wearing in an all great outfit um then Thursday was our typical class colors and Friday was our blue and gold day for um to honor our winter athletes um the spe cup obviously was won by the seniors once again what can I say um you know we just kind of have a reputation um we played multiple games that were interesting the there was a shooting contest which started off very rough and it was like okay so who's going to make a basket cuz it's not working right now and then we also did a scooter race basically one person sat in a scooter held two noodles and then they had a partner who like dragged them and I can say at least for myself I got swung across the gym and like took another person out so it was very comical for the people watching then at NHS sponsored penny wars that week and so any Penny raised money for the class and if you put a quarter a nickel a dime or any bills into the bucket it took away from a class so the seniors also won that um and we raised almost $300 for our sgo charity then January 16th 17th and 18th The Alchemist theater company had their annual theater review it was an amazing show seeing all the talent that people had and it was just really interesting and then last week on Friday January 24th the class of 2028 hosted their trivia night and they raised over $500 for their class the question were like a wide range from history questions to food to sports and it was just a lot of fun everyone was with their friends you brought your food and it was a great old time it was mostly teams of students but there was one team that was a family and they're the ones that won I think was a gift card so every won by one point yeah they um so everyone was like wow I should have brought my parents and then this Friday sjo is hosting our annual talent show the event begins at 7:00 and we encourage everyone to come it's always fun we have some amazing students performing and if you know somebody or you know somebody that's performing and you want to help them win if you come you can donate to their like bucket and that goes towards their like the score to help them wi and then finally prom info for juniors and seniors will be released soon um they the info will be in all the great level Google classrooms and it's stuff like details for prom so like the date cost and then we also have a presentation being posted about like if it's your first prom or you don't really know what to do like where you can find corsages and bers and dresses and stuff like that so you have like a reliable place to do that that's great thank you guys have a lot going on a lot of exciting things that's great um okay so at this time we will move to our committee reports uh with reorganization comes new committees for us every year so um introducing our uh new human resources uh committee the chair is Dr Patel so Dr Patel if you could give us your report thanks M Madam president um the human resource Community Relations Committee met on Wednesday January 2 second to discuss various Personnel topics for those on tonight's agenda who are retiring or resigning the board thanks them for their service and wishes them well we would like to especially thank superintendent Miss shoka for her commitment and service to our district over the last decade while her dedication and Leadership will be missed we look forward to continuing our partnership with her over the next several months prior to her well-deserved retirement there are new staff and new substitute staff on tonight's agenda including a new Treasure of District bues as our current one will be retiring at the end of April we welcome all all of these new members to our district and we look forward to having you work with us here in North Funway as of our committee meeting any remaining or new vacancies for the 20124 2025 school year continue to be posted and can be found on our district website social media pages and posted in each of our buildings we discuss these vacancies along with upcoming leaves of absences and how those positions may be filled via daily subs long-term subs or six teaching periods there are a few reassignments on tonight's agenda and we want we want we thank our staff for taking these on new assignments we we would also like to welcome Miss Marcy Marx a 25y year veteran with special education teacher in the district as well as an nbts alumni as the new supervisor of special education at the high school Miss ke shared that there are currently at least four virtual job fairs coming up this winter and spring H starting in late February that that members of our administrative team will attend as they continue to recruit staff for teaching positions alternate route and traditional routes candidates are both encouraged to app app the community the committee sorry the committee also discussed a revised job description for the stman position of coordinator of health services and we had a first reading of revised policies and regulations as related to the uniform State memorandum of agreement for Education law enforcement officials these include 55112 harassment intimidation bullying 7441 electronic surveillance in school buildings and on school grounds and 9320 cooperation with law enforcement agencies and this concludes my report thank you um as Dr Patel had mentioned um we obviously will be speaking a lot more about superintendent choka's retirement but obviously on behalf of the board it was definitely information um that we were all obviously um surprised to hear but obviously very happy for you um happy that you're moving into the next chapter of your life and we look forward to working with you over the next you know 5 to six months to make sure that we are in the right spot to move forward um and we hope that you know the staff the community um you know has great trust in us we obviously take you know this very seriously we have a lot of transitional work to do um and uh we really just appreciate everything that you've done to set us up to for success in the future so more to come on that but thank you thank you uh all right Mr Ali is our new chair of Education Mr Ali your report please yes thank you Madame President the education committee met on January 22 2025 at 6 p.m. we have three items that we discussed that are on tonight's agenda and there are several other districtwide updates that I'll be reporting tonight in the area of Assessments and grants Marcy changer the director of accountability and special program shared information on access for E ell which is our English language Learners is the online testing all staff and teachers were trained on the software that they use on on January 9th testing is said to begin on February 3rd and we will be testing a total of 544 students with an expected end date of March 28th 2025 we also review the map growth test which helps us see growth and achievement in area of support throughout the District results of this test will be further discussed At a next at our later meeting and lastly the NJ P GPA which is the 11th grade graduation assessment will be held from March 10th and 11th 2025 and there will be delayed openings for NB bths 9th 10th and 12th graders and messaging will be out shortly for parents and students and in the area of curriculum and Technology this committee received updates from Dr Johnson who's our director of curriculum instruction technology on two items for tonight's agenda the first of which is the central New Jersey comp computer science Hub which is a partnership between TC andj and it's going to be on stem education which is the the goal is to create Equitable access in K to2 School settings and this grant will improve our stem offerings throughout the district and is also going to help our stem Department because staff will re receive free trainings in PD and we'll be starting with the lower grades and then working our way up upon review analysis of the results next we have a a mirand understanding that's going to be starting or mou starting in 2025 year 2026 with TC andj for dual enrollment and students in AP classes will be able to receive college credits upon comple of courses whether grade of C or better and those are going to be for select classes and additionally the district has done a comprehensive review analysis of our current place in regarding the njsla to focus on areas of Target and Improvement next we had our first multilingual parent committee meeting on January 2022 uh 20 22nd 2025 at the Boe um at 9:30 a.m. and this meeting was used to share information resources and offerings that all North W Township um School parents and all parents and multilingual families can use at at that meeting on the 22nd we had 10 families attend and during that meeting there were two teachers who were translating in both English and Spanish back and forth so it was pretty awesome and our math task force which is a group of Staff members that were task with taking a deep dive into our current math curriculum to identify a new one and we're currently piloting our new curriculum this year starting in fifth and sixth grades and that's going to be starting in February and upon data collection and a deeper analysis the task force will report back out to superintendent shoka and the district St and the District board over here to understand what's working and what's may not be working and what we could do to to see how we can make it better and we discussed a few new courses that are going to be coming for next year at the high school introduction to entertainment technology and honors English which is going to be titled race class and gender we also reviewed policy number p546 which is for high school graduation and this was the first reading and the policy now includes requirements for high school graduating classes of 25 26 and 27 to require students or their parents to submit a fast form which is a financial aid form and parents will have the option of requesting a waiver graduation requirements that are no longer are part of the law have been removed from the policy and this a policy is State mandated and must be implemented by our district lastly we heard about the following updates and up upcoming events and celebrations that are going around districtwide we have our elementary counselor Wellness Fair which will be on February 6th 2025 at the high school from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. we have our 2025 Young Women's Conference in stem which is going to be at the princeon plasma lab on March 25 2025 and this is this program is hopefully and the goal is to increase stem interest in young women and we have the district artfair which is going to be on March 27th 2025 at the high school between 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. and it's going to include art and music and I want to give a big congratulations to the njmea which is our music Ensemble and they won um their All State Ensemble and we have one student who's a sophomore who is accepted into the the orchestra for the Wind Ensemble and this is an exclusive invite so he had to audition and you know get vetted and they made it there so that's that's really awesome for them and the last update is at the high school we received the 2024 AP cons computer science female diversity award and to qualify for that we need at least 50% of students enrolled in AP Computer Science at the high school um they were they had to be female and we were one of 237 schools Nationwide to receive the distinction and that's all for Education committee report thank you madam president thank you Mr Ali at this time we will move to our new leader Mr Carter of business operations Mr Carter thank you madam president uh the business operations committee met on January 22nd at 7:00 p.m. uh presentation was made by Mr Switz reviewing the audit report uh on the agenda this evening you'll find the following items approval related to nbths Stadium updates for painting decals and fencing in finance section 3i purchase of cafeteria tables for Lynwood in finance section 3F and the purchase of dividers for the mbts media Resource Center in finance section 3j uh we also reviewed policy 8500 related to Food Services in policy section 1A of tonight's agenda and finally we' received status updates on the Lynwood Chiller which should be completed at the end of the month and fired up starting in April uh Middle School Roofing updates John Adams gym divider which will be installed this Friday uh Livingston Park Paving and traffic flow updates which we hope to have bids by April 9th which is my daughter's birthday and uh ECC Courtyard draining issues which we've scheduled repairs for this spring uh districtwide HVAC control updates which are covered under our Rod grants are ongoing and districtwide annual mercury vapor testing which indicates all of our schools results meet the allowed parameters that's great thank you a lot of these um updates that Mr Carter had mentioned uh specifically are ones that we've been hearing and are moving along um so that's really great to hear thank you uh at this time our last uh report will come from Mr Lori Mr Lor's new role uh on our board is kind of a hybrid role we probably need a smaller title for you um but we we'll work on that but he is currently an acronym yeah we need an acronym another Acron um he will be our liaison for the New Jersey school boards middlex County School boards and also working closely um with our town um mayor and Council so Mr Lori your report this evening thank you madam president I'm honored to be taking on that role yeah just a couple points from uh the standpoint of the state school boards Association and the county school boards Association first um this past weekend Mr Sing completed his new board member orientation and he went for the in-person option rather than the virtual option which I think is fantastic uh all of us board members should be availing ourselves of the daily email updates that come from New Jersey school boards uh and just a heads up that the next County School Board Association meeting is next Thursday February 6th it's virtual only this time around it starts at 6:45 and we'll be joined by the chair of the Senate education committee Senator Vin go pal among the topics he will discuss are school funding and the pending Statewide cell phone ban so uh all board members are are welcome to join that call uh from the standpoint of the mayor and Council just two quick points they held their annual reorganization this past month uh some dignitaries were sworn in including councilman Soo and councilwoman Hutchinson and this year councilwoman guadino was named uh the board's council president uh the department of parks wreck and Community Services held their annual Dr Martin Luther King Jr remembrance ceremony uh there were three human rights award recipients one was detective Adrien Al uh one was officer Fedor Salvador Romeo and the third was one of our own staff members rahee Byam uh who coaches our nbths boys basketball team not only does he coach the team he's an nbths Hall of Famer uh for his part on the 1997 nbths basketball team uh several of our students participated in that uh ceremony including Anushka vakal lagada and John Whitworth from the high school and our third graders from the Parsons and Livingston Park combined choirs so that would conclude my report thank you appreciate it all right that wraps up our committee reports for the evening so um Miss Dr Patel would you please take item 12 yeah I'd like to make a motion to approve the admin student and committee reports second all in favor I anyone opposed all the reports are accepted thank you at this time we will take a moment to review our agenda for this evening January 29 2025 um as previously mentioned in last year's meetings we receive our agenda uh way ahead of time um we've had the chance to review it as a board um any new uh items are listed in bold uh or changes are listed in bold on the agenda but we will go Page by Page in review and we will start on page three and then four and five six and seven eight and nine 10 and 11 Pages 12 and 13 14 and 15 16 and 17 Pages 18 and 19 and uh wrapping up on page 20 so at this time we will have a uh public session on agenda items only at this time if there's anyone from the public that would like to come and speak uh on agenda items only we ask that you please just state your name and you'll be given 3 minutes okay seeing none can I please have a motion to close the public portion of the meeting so moved second all in favor anyone opposed this session is closed thank you Mr Wen would you please take item 16 for consent agenda yes Madam president i' like to make a motion to approve the following consent agenda items Personnel curriculum miscellaneous Finance items 1 through three policy and transportation second I'm going to take roll call on this one okay Mr Ali yes Mr Carter yes M James yes M Keith yes Lori yes Dr patau yes Mr Singh yes M to yes and Mr one yes all the Motions resolutions are approved and accepted thank you okay at this time we can jump to page 19 on our agenda to item 17 we will at this time have a public session on any matter at this time if there's anyone from the public that would like to uh come up and address the board we just ask that you state your name and you'll be given 3 minutes good evening Mrs pasner good evening okay good evening everybody um good evening to the north buer Township Board of Education good evening to the community at large before I start I also want to express my congratulations to to M shoka retirement I'll save my stuff for as well uh my name is Beth pner I am the President of the north rer Township Education Association uh we are the union that represents the teachers and the support staff for the school district often times the relationship between a board of education and the local union can be perceived as naturally being adversarial which can be true especially when negotiating a contract however more often than you would think there are many times where the Board of Education and the union have shared goals uh goals which strengthen our schools and serve to keep our students and our staff safe the upcoming vote on the referendum is one of those goals the upcoming referendum strives to address ongoing health and safety issues in our schools the two questions look to address concerns over hbac masonry updating bathrooms doors windows locks these are items that are desperately they needed to be addressed um most of our school buildings are close to um and many are already 50 years old our HVAC systems have reached their end and yes as the video described um you know and especially at the high school where where I personally teach um students bring blankets to class class um and are in classrooms that are you know 50° um or less than that um other times they're in classrooms that are 80° or or higher and U for those in the community if if you don't believe this ask your children please um and um sure the administration will put in portable units they'll attempt to relocate classes you know try doing a science lab in the Commons right um but but these are just temporary fixes um I can speak to my own experience as a history teacher at nbths in this spring uh spring um it was so hot in my classroom maintenance actually decided to put two portable cooling units in my classroom and I had relief for about a minute um when to no one's surprise a fuse blew and turned off the power in my classroom plus five others in the pot um so um we we can't keep doing this is essentially the the bottom line the HVAC needs to be replaced and this is the opportunity to get something like that done um our doors windows locked they need to be updated for security safety Energy Efficiency we have cracks crumbling bricks they need repair um just in order to prevent future costs also from leak leaks and building damage um our bathrooms are not ADA Compliant um you know the only way to to Really fix this is for the north Bruner Community to vote Yes on questions one and two for this referendum we have this unique opportunity at this moment where we'll come at a zero tax increase for the North Brunswick resident I mean aren't our students and staff worth it um and so I do urge the north W Community to to vote Yes to referendum question one and two you are going to hear from other staff members besides me I know I'm here every every month and you you know appreciate me coming every month I'm sure but we do have other staff members that are here tonight that are going to share their personal experiences in their classroom um to show that it is something that is happening across the board um not just in One Singular school so thank you very much um to to you all for putting forth the referendum but I I do appreciate um and hope the community um you know listens and and does vote Yes on these two questions so thank you thank you thank you thank you okay on yes yes yes yes uh good evening superintendent shoka and the north Bic Township Board of Education my name is Heather Angeles and I'm here today not only as a staff member in the district but as a resident as well additionally My Two children attended North BR Township Schools and graduated in 2018 I'm here to express my support for the referendum that will be brought to the township for consideration on March 11th I feel I have a unique perspective as a resident who is a staff member and I'd like to share that with the community tonight I have been a physical education teacher in North Brunswick since 2009 I first started at Jud working there for 6 years and then transferred to Parsons in my many years as a North Brunswick staff member I have seen the gamut of heating and cooling issues in the gym in both schools I taught physical education to my students in both extreme heat and freezing cold temperatures there were many times that I was trying to teach a lesson while myself and my students were wearing our winter coats gloves and hats that would make sense if we had taken our classes outside but unfortunately we were inside the gym hbac improvements would allow teaching and learning to take place in a comfortable and safe environment for us all a persistent problem that I face in the gym at Parson's is water when it rains water pours into the gym from the ceiling it runs down the Walls comes through the vents last year we were very unlucky on our field day and just as we had started our day unfortunately it began to for we tried to keep our indoor events going and keep the day as fun as possible for the students and the staff about a half hour into our first event we had water continuously flowing into the gym staff quickly acted we used large buckets to collect the incoming water we laid out lots of cardboard on the floor to prevent our staff and students from slipping and potentially getting hurt as they were entering and exiting the gym that is why I was so pleased that an improvement of the masonry in our buildings was included in this referendum this referendum is not just about the comfort of our students and staff but it is for their safety as well as you can see these are issues that are detrimental to the education of our students as a teacher I implore the community to vote yes to both questions it could make such a difference to our schools additionally when schools are not in good condition our property values they decrease we can have the issues in our buildings fixed with a zero tax increase so as a resident I will be voting down and I encourage the community to vote yes to both questions as well thank you thank you good evening good evening superintendent shoa congratulations I'm little thank you I'm the North Brunswick Township Board of Education my name is Candy hofman and I am here tonight not only as a staff member in the district but as a resident as well I am here tonight to express my support for the referendum that will be brought to the township for consideration on March 11th I have a unique perspective as a resident who is a staff member who is a staff member that I would like to share with the community tonight I have been a science teacher at Lynwood School since 2001 I also serve as a School treasurer of nbms and as head rep for the staff at lwood over the years that I have taught at lwood I have seen a number of issues happening in our building that this referendum would address in the past 25 years I taught both Sixth and eighth grade and have had seven different classrooms the temperature and each classroom has never been in sync with the rest of the building it's either been too hot or too cold most recently when the new building was built I moved out of this classroom which is now the board meeting room and I noticed that the windows were not changed in the renovation they leak then and I'm sure they still leak every window in this building should be changed and the heating and cooling system should be updated students and staff continue to walk around with their coats on which inhibit their mobility in the classroom in addition the lywood faculty room toilets are made for todders I feel like I am sitting on the floor when I use them please feel free to visit and see them as you can see these are issues that are detrimental to the education of our students as a teacher I empore the community to vote yes to both questions additionally when schools are not in good condition our property value decreases we can have the issues in our buildings fixed with a zero tax increase so as a resident I encourage the community to vote yes to both questions as well thank you thank [Music] you anyone else all right seeing none um thank you all for for coming out tonight and expressing you know your support and um that's why this board you know has taken the the the jump to do something like this um we recognize that there are things that need to be done in our buildings um many of us you know have grown up here and have been in those same buildings that you're talking about so um we recognize it as well um for our future Generations coming up so thank you for being here um at this time uh we will look to close the POR the public portion of the meeting can I have a motion please so move second all in favor I anyone opposed the session is opposed okay thank you thank you alab oh at this time we'll motion to go into a closed session whereas Section 8 of the open public meeting meetings act chapter 231 PL 1975 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 Bruni Township Board of Education that the public shall be excluded from discussions of and action upon the here and after specified subject matters the general nature of the subject matters is to be discussed is as follows number one negotiations number two legal matters and number three personnel matters it is anticipated at this time that the above stated subject matter shall be made public at at such time as the need for non-disclosure no longer exists this resolution shall take effect immediately can I please have a motion to go into Clos session so moved second all in favor I anyone opposed we can go to close session thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e