##VIDEO ID:axTc4xj0ANg## 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 we're going to call the meeting to order pursuant to the New Jersey open public meeting act njsa 1046 adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by advertising such notice in the home News Tribune the sray Park Press the the board office the schools and on cable vision cable vision channel 118 Verizon FiOS channel 24 and by filing such notice with the Township Clerk this meeting was scheduled for Tuesday January 21st 2025 the board will take formal action on payment of bills and other agenda items the Oldbridge Township Board of Education acknowledges that the law of the state establishes that members of the public including members of the board have the right to record public board meetings using audio or video recording devices provide that the act of recording does not with the business of this public board meeting therefore the board makes it known that any such recording is to be considered the private recording of the individual and in no manner represents the official record of this board the board therefore takes no responsibility for such private recording and completely disavows any future use roll call please D Francisco here gardano here jri here Mone here sled here solowski here V T here danant tuno here uh we have a quorum can everyone stand for the pledge and remain standing afterwards I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all the Board of Education acknowledges the death of Charles C Gordon retired vice principal and expresses it de deepest sympathy to his family and friends thank you okay code of ethics is mine tonight the board the board member will make decisions in terms of educational welfare of children and to seek and develop and to maintain public schools that meet the individual needs of all children regardless of their ability race Creed sex our social standing thank you approval of minutes I need a motion please miss motion second Francisco will second roll call please or discussion roll call please done Francisco yes gardano yes jri yes maone yes SL yes zakowski yes venka ton yes danant tuno yes resolution one for approval minutes passes thank you the report of the student rep hi everyone happy New Year we jump right back into things at Oldbridge high school after a great winter break it's hard to believe but the second marking period comes to a close in two weeks winter sports have been going well and multiple athletes have accomplished impressive Milestones Nick Gallow on the ice hockey team has surpassed 100 points and chrish Patel on the boys basketball team has scored 1,000 points and Counting spring sports physicals are due on February 1st the seniors going to Disney had our first meeting this past Friday and we are all ecstatic to go on the trip in March Miss O'Reilly and the drama Department have begun production of the musical 42nd Street which will open in March the Arts Festival will take place on January 29th guidance counselor week begins on February 3rd and we are certainly grateful for other the all the hard work they put into helping us succeed finally the student Senate will begin selling tickets at the end of the month month for our nights out event which will take place on Friday February 7th this event is open to all students in the high school we will have Inflatables crafts a DJ a band food and more as you can imagine it takes a lot of help to put this together we are asking High School parents for donations of drinks and snacks you can reach out to our adviser Mrs abik for more information any items will be welcome thank you for your support and have a great night thank you very much uh recognition we have none superintendent report thank you madam president uh first I I do want to say we do have a bit of recognition tonight um as member of the public may or may not know that uh the month of January has long been recognized at least since 2002 by as the New Jersey school board's recognition month uh it's an place takes place to honor the the work of local school board members New Jersey school boards Association uh they started this to raise awareness about the roles of school board members in public education um the School Board Association started this like I said uh in the month of January of 2002 uh it's about the month is the time to recognize board members for their volunteer work and I say volunteer work because a lot of member a lot of members of the public think that school board members are somehow compensated uh they receive no compensation um they are one of the few elected officials that I know that do receive no compensation no benefits um they're strictly here uh for the betterment of our schools it's also time to raise awareness of the school boards and their role in public education so what do school boards do school boards make decisions about curriculum financing and Staffing that comes from the recommendation of the superintendent and his administrative team they also adopt policies oversee the budget set District goals and hire and evaluate the superintendent school school words serve as a link between the community and the school system what oldd township public school board members have accomplished in the past years just a few things that I've taken note to recognize um the members of the public may not know uh they D diligently this board diligently performed research to support a very difficult 20042 2005 uh 2025 budget they advocated for student programs in CTE UniFi academics the Arts and Athletics They promoted School nutrition programs They promoted to improve them they performed site visits of all alridge toall of public schools and part participated in bus tours to learn about our sending and pending sending communities they lobbied for fair school funding and transparency for oldridge Township Public Schools and I know many have done that over the course of the year and uh last week we took a trip to Trenton uh and many of us 12 people from the district uh in inclusive of many School Board members took part in that they participate in mandatory training to serve as board members and they serve as conduits to public information through my office and administrative team and a lot of that comes with you know when something comes up from the public uh it's the role of the board members to bring it to uh my attention prior to bringing it to attention at a public meeting and many of them do that my phone is always open to them um we we meet uh I know that uh just in the past week we've been able to accomplish many of the issues that the board has been presented with and get answers to so I want to thank them for that having that transparency and that openness to present us with the concerns and so we can deal with them and address them uh at the best needs of our public so the uh students of Miss grov Kaya's art art program they put together a little art project for you guys they did all the work and they present you with that uh this month to thank you for your work your volunteer work as uh uh school board members I know Mr vasin is like you arrived and already you're being recognized for all your hard work so um it's interesting that um they do it in in January imagine that when uh elections used to take place in April and so forth that it was you know had halfway through you spent some time in it but um welcome aboard and thank you for all your work at the same at the same time uh the second item is that you'll see that tonight we have the um the letter in reference to the from the state for the New Jersey qac review New Jersey qac is the New Jersey quality single accountability Continuum it's the review of the school district on matters of instructional program fiscal management governance operations and Personnel uh in in their review which took place uh during the course of last year they have they found that the district in instruction and program had a 78% uh scoring fiscal management a 96% scoring governance a 94% scoring and operations a 97% scoring and Personnel 100% scoring so one of the things that we we have to do now is that and in area any area in which we were below an 80% we would have to De have a district Improvement plan so District Improvement plans How would how do we address that how do we get to that get above the 80% so in the instructional program one of the things that you know it it's one of those areas that you never get 100% for because it's based upon student performance if student performance in state state standardized test everyone scored 100 you get 100% but that's not a reality uh as As a matter of History we always are in somewhere in the the mid 80s the low 80s on that area one of the things they they did get us for is the health curriculum they they reduced Us by four points for not adopting a health curriculum um this is one of those areas so now we have to address that how we're going to address as a board um and we will work with the board in the future to come up with that District Improvement plan and to address that um the only other area was in the area of governance and that had to do with the superintendent evaluation uh we would have got 100% in that area uh but they reduced by six points there um so that is on the agenda's night for the board to review and work together with us to have that uh District Improvement plan the last thing I want to do is I just want to uh I can't I can't like um go on without acknowledging uh the passing of Mr Gordon um Mr Gordon at his retirement was when I entered the district uh he was the vice principal at sulk school at the time and he retired and uh I I was hired to replace him there and those were some big shoes to fill uh talk about a beloved person in in that school who um really built a history without throughout the course of the district um the only thing I can say that really was a great thing about it was that uh through that I was able to meet his son who wanted to fill his dad's shoes and he became a colleague and hired him as a colleague to work in that school and he's done a great job since so uh my condolences go out to uh Chuck and the rest of the Gordon family um I've I've got to know his brother Wade a little bit as a police officer in East Brunswick so all the condolences got to the the Gordon familyes and um I'm sure collectively through the community there's lots of people who feel the same way back includes the superintend report for today thank you very much progress towards goals uh the board will meet February 4th to work on not only the district goals but the board goals as well so that we will have more on that uh next month any correspondence no correspondence okay special committee reports I have three okay um on January 9th uh the Dei committee met and Dr hoker PR presented information to the committee with assistance from Dr candria they discussed the Second Step social skills program used in elementary schools as well as targeted support in Middle Schools she discussed that the Hib presentation from the Family Academy night is available on the district website Dr hoker provided information regarding a reduction of Hib investigations um and Hib investigations being founded due to targeted initiatives such as SEC the Second Step social skills program increased counselor lessons using restorative circles throughout the District programs such as PBIS which provide instruction for students in personal responsibility inclusiveness generosity helpfulness and trustworthiness as well as an array of motivating rewards for students who demonstrate good character all of this has led to a reduction of HIV investigations and Dr hoker provided a detailed provided detailed information broken down into multiple categories she also discussed the benefits of standardization of school committees districtwide Dr kandria talked about new and upcoming initiatives which will help to bring to get together as many different students from different cultures as possible under the Oldbridge rooted EMP power initiative in February character ambassadors from elementary schools to high schools will join together to take a metaphorical trip around the world they will return in March to host an assembly or host small groups to read books to students in an effort to help students see themselves in literature the care committee meeting was the same night um directly after it the Committees were kind of um they overlapped somewhat so during the care committee portion of our meeting M Rachel O'Neal um District instructional Ela coach provided us with the opportunity to participate in the same type of restorative circles that our students experience in a circle we took turns responding to questions posed to us and also engaged in the metacognitive process of noticing how we each thought and felt during the exercise there are many ways to structure and utilize restorative circles but the process is built around feeling seen heard valued and empowered then on the 13th we had a technology committee meeting uh Mr yanaz Zuli uh director of Technology hosted a presentation about um just basically how the the flow of the Year happens with respect to technology and at which times during the year they um prep for testing uh they evaluate devices inventory of devices which result which result in repairing replacing inventory and ordering new technology he did um mention that in the tech world it's really difficult because although they want to prepare and have inventory of supplies they also don't want to have an abundance of supplies uh and make sure they're not overspending um we had a discussion for future meetings about um how we can do elementary schools can still do a lot of Hands-On activities he we talked about devices that can last 10 years K to two devices may only have one grade depending on what we have at the end of the year uh some of them don't have to have a full refresh they can be partial refresh but just things that we have to look at um going forward and um he basically explained like how the flow of their whole year happens in in the technology um department and the next meeting for technology is going to be March 17th yeah that might change with the new it might change yeah with the new committee chairs and stuff like that and and different days that might change but that's a tentative meeting date for now any other comments or conversation on the Committees the one thing from the the care Dei combo meeting that I um was a big takeaway is Dr hooker was saying how we're getting we're finally getting back to the preco character counts like we we've readjusted our academics have have you know picked up from postco um but now the district is getting back into the full swing of the character and and the practices that we had going into that so um that was nice to hear and seeing the results from that so thank you very much okay we're going to have the hearing of residents on any agenda items only is the book at the yep okay just please sign the binder I appreciate it when districts provide a moment of silence when faculty or staff members pass away tonight we had a moment of silence for Charles Gordon a former School administrator in the Oldbridge school system not many of you up on the stage knew Mr Gordon so I'd like to take a brief moment to share with you a little bit about Charlie Charles Gordon was a teacher and administrator in Oldbridge for well over 30 years Mr Gordon just like so many other Educators has spent his life working hard for the betterment of others especially children Mr Gordon always had a special place in his heart and found time for those students who have fought through personal obstacles to Achieve Personal success he also took pride in finding the student who thought they were going about their life unnoticed not ruffling any feathers or causing any waves however when all actuality these types of students were Bright Lights of academics Independence respect responsibility and maturity he found those children who thought they were just like every other bulb in the Box in his own way twisted and work them to show them that they too can shine as bright as the rest and that they did not go unnoticed you see I've been very fortunate I've had very I've had four influential people in my life my grandfather my father my stepfather and Charlie you will notice the where father was embedded in the first three monikers but Charlie was like a father of me as well Charlie was part of the wils bear crew who came down from Pennsylvania and helped build the educational system here in Oldbridge Charlie helped lead Sandberg back in its Glory Days and took that experience over to sulk with him Charlie loved working with and being next to omnipotent leaders like Joe wyra and Ken papovich he didn't have to have the focus on him Charlie wasn't about himself he was about others Charlie had no need for recognition with Awards signs or plaques Charlie would not have been a fan of Twitter or X or Instagram recognition either and actually now that I think about it you probably wouldn't even know how to use Twitter X or Instagram technology was not his Forte while Charlie was quiet and reserved he was also very creative and loved developing programs for students such as Outward Bound and project respect Charlie was a fine art Fine Arts enthusiast often finding poems and writing poems and creating beautiful artwork in reflection toward the latter part of his career I felt like I was a piece of his art while he was no Da Vinci and I'm definitely not Theona Lisa we two were bonded together I can remember wanting his attention so badly like a child sitting on Santa's lap asking for that special present Pam russowsky his secretary would see me giving that side eye peek into his office to see if he was there and if he had time for me she would give me a smile and wave me into his office Charlie presented me with so many Priceless experiences such as sitting in with him during uncomfortable parent meetings and sitting with him during disciplinary meetings with students Charlie taught me not to be a yeller to understand that students were kids and needed guidance not fear I would spend countless hours with him asking millions of questions however he would never answer one of those single questions instead of giving me the answers he would prod me to help me discover the answer for myself then would help mold and sculpt that answer I will never forget when he told me it was time to learn how to do Middle School scheduling I was so excited I wanted to impress him he gave me a blank schedule and I asked are you going to show me how to do it Charlie and he responded in his car calm tone no you'll figure it out and when you do come back to me and we will discuss I Must Have Spent days trying to figure it out with all the variables of special education basic skills honors courses etc etc he wanted me to learn organically not through a sheet true learning not taking a shortcut while Charlie taught me so many lessons one message that he shared with me will always stick with me he said do what's right because it's right and deal with the politics later those who know me professionally know that I live this message I have tried over the years to lead teach and develop the next generation of Administrators and Educators as he's done with me Charlie's Sons Wade Eric and Chuck need to know how special their father was he was a father to me when his family Was preparing for his funeral his son Chuck sent me a picture of his father's refrigerator the refrigerator was filled with pictures of all his lovely and adorable grandchildren as well as a recent picture of my three children that was his way of telling me that he loved me with his passing Charlie taught me one last Priceless lesson never be afraid to tell someone you love them I never told Charlie I love them and I have to live that knowing that for the rest of my life I've learned my lesson Charlie may be gone but I will never forget him I am fortunate to have had him in my life and for him allowing me into his he believed in me and I can only hope that I've made him proud well this year would have been the 20th year I where I have honored Charlie at both Sal and Grom graduation ceremonies by bestowing the Charles Gordon award honor to the student who quietly shines and makes other people's lives better I would like to thank the board of education for allowing me these few minutes to honor Mr Gordon here tonight and lastly Charlie I love you thank you [Applause] that was beautifully said very done very well done Dr R if I can because it was a beautiful message just the mo point of Lake levity that Tony brought up about whether Charlie would be able to work on Twitter or Facebook or anything like that I remember my first day going into the the office and and there was a computer there that it wasn't Brand New by any stretch of the imagination and I put it on and I kid you not it was the startup mode for the computer like it was the first day it's ever been used and that computer was probably in the office for like three three years prior to and uh Pam said no he never really used that so right on point great man thank you okay we're going to close that um policy I need a motion motion there only second any discussion okay um in everyone's attachment part of their agenda is the final listing for the Committees uh Personnel the chairperson will be Elena Francisco with members Christina Mone Matt Sakowski and Jen duno curriculum and policy the chairperson will be Jay Slade with members salano Elena Francisco and marjerie JRE on the operations which will include buildings and grounds technology and transportation the chairperson will be rich Dunn with committee members Christina mazone Matt Sakowski and Jay Slade student life will include Athletics extracurriculars deib and care I will be the chairperson with members Rich Dunn marjerie JRE and Kieran Vana Ty Food Service Christina maone will be the chairperson with committee members Jay Slade Matt Sakowski and myself special services the chairperson will be margorie Jer with committee members Rich Dunn Elena Francisco and Kieran vas an i oh Finance shared services longrange and strategic planning chairperson will be Sal gordano Rich Dunn Jay Slade and Kieran vatas negotiations the chairperson will be Elena Francisco with committee members Sal orano Christina mazone and Jay slate our liaison for SEPTA and cpeg will be marjerie president Council will be myself NJ SBA will be Elena and Marjorie and then the um health and safety with the Oba will be J Slade and with um either margerie or myself in attendance I did get an email from a member of the public asking about the share drive that I was talking about last week with the board um that was for the board members to look at prior to the meeting so that we could ask questions um and bring some more feedback for the committee members so um my understanding is that's not necessarily going to be open to the public that's going to be for internal board use if you have any questions regarding that um please send an email I have a question that's not that's not doesn't exist yet correct the drive and folder exists and the template is there um but that hasn't been shared out to the board until the policy tonight was approved to approve the new member the new board the new committees as listed um with the assignments so then I would put the notes that I yeah use your regular notes we're working I'm working the actual form the template is a work in progress but um I'm going to tweak a little couple things and uh one it is available and everything shared out you'll get an email from me thank you roll call please so can I have I have something to say can I be taken off the food services please I have no kids in the system sure thank you who is not on is there someone that would like to take Matt can I take a spot well just for the record um this there is an actual resolution in board secretary and board business so you can wait until then to amend it um it's resolution number two later in the the meeting so I apologize stand all good but I do have I noted the request for Matt to be removed from food service and only okay roll call any more discussion on any of the policies that are in tonight's agenda okay roll call please Francisco yes Jano yes JRE yes Mone yes Slade yes solowski yes venaas yes Dunn and danant tuno yes resolution one for policy passes for curriculum and professional development items one through four need a motion M motion Francisco Jo second any discussion roll call please jirano yes jri yes maone yes Slade yes solowski yes Bena T yes dun Francisco yes Dan tuno yes resolutions 1 through four for curricul and professional development passes Finance item 1 through 14 I need a motion please just got one motion jar second any discussion I just had a quick question Mr cadino uh the qack scores that we discussed is there a way to define like what they mean like we we we miss points how does that get broken down to like punitively is there's a an Excel spreadsheet that kind of goes through that is that part of the attachments okay we can can send that to the board members as support of the attachments okay Jay do you mean is there any consequence or something yeah I mean like right you lose points I know we're going to have a summary of how we're going to make ourselves look I would not look better be better um just you know what the consequences are or my understanding is if you're below 8 too many years in the row row then the state can step in well you'd have to continuously be a district that doesn't operate um within the the framework work but as of right now the only area you have to do it at any place that you're less than 80 uh we've already appealed the the student assessment piece and they said they're looking at our spring scores and going to make the correct adjustment on that um but that'll be part of our dip or District Improvement plan so that won't take this away but it might help us you know in securing our district Improvement plan that we've already met the that that that student piece the uh student assessment piece um so we have to show in in that area of curriculum uh instruction and program that we are working towards at 80% or higher so in the area of uh assessment and and the area of curriculum are the two areas we have to make adjustments so the only part of the QX score that the board can can help with is the policy passing and uh Mr sadino or whomever the superintendent is like the assessment so the goal we've already said is to do that already in May so the governance is part we can do um I guess I'd like to kick it back to the policy committee to discuss and and revisit the health policy it can we curriculum well they're one curriculum and policy are the same committee okay um where do we you know are we comfortable keeping that hit on the QX or do we want to move forward to to gain those points back because then with those two improvements we're already back on track to being within the framework we're supposed to be can I clar or can you clarify for me so you appealed to the state because you believe our assessments weren't properly um evaluated no we we appealed based upon that we we know our spring scores are better than the previous years in which they Bas this upon okay and then our score can go up if they deem that to be true correct and then will we still need a district Improvement plan if our score goes above 80 it is if it goes above 80 then no okay and when we find out if our score goes it's in late late spring late spring okay so we might not have to do anything at all it's it's possible okay you want I have this feeling too like you know the the student assessment penis is a little more subjective you know so do they knock down a few points on student assessment piece because you know you don't adopt curriculum who says maybe not I've seen funny things happen with Trenton so you're probably thinking the same thing I'm thinking uh one one question from my side um have we been doing this historically or this is the first time we conducted this uh every 3 years every three years okay how did we do the three years back we met all we we because of Co well the prior part of that we had we had met the achieve the goals okay all right I think for this I think we need to go back to to the uh Commissioner of Education with a district Improvement plan and how we are planning to improve the instruction and program category which we are at 78 and that's the only action item I think we need to work on right correct okay thank you that is correct we lost four points for the curriculum so if that wasn't the case it would have been 82 and then any other points we make up with just uh assessment pieces okay thank you you're going to send that to us I was trying to write it down as you were reporting but the the Exile spreadsheet yes yeah I also I didn't realize it was in the agenda too until just now so all right um any other discussion on finance roll call please ji yes maone yes Slade yes solowski yes fetas yes dun is absent Francisco yes Jared Dano yes Dan tuno yes resolutions one through 14 for finance passes Athletics item one and two need a motion please J move it Francisco will second any discussion roll call please maone yes Slade yes solowski yes Bena T yes D is absent Francisco yes Jano yes jri yes d duno yes resolutions one and two for athletics passes oh I see thank you non-certificated Personnel item one need a motion please miss motion second Francisco will second any discussion roll call please SL yes solowski yes f t yes D is absent Francisco yes Jano yes Joe yes maone yes danant tuno yes resolution one for non-certificated personnel office passes okay there's nothing for non-certificated personnel operation so we'll move on to non-certificated Personnel other items 1 through eight can I have a motion please J move Miss second any discussion roll call please V T yes D is absent Francisco yes Jano yes jod yes maone yes Slade yes solowski yes duno yes resolutions 1 through eight for non-certificated personnel other passes okay certificated Personnel items 1 through 13 can I have a motion please it's SL to move second Miss second thank you I believe I do have one administrative correction on this um it is a resolution it's number six number six yeah on the attach on the separate page it actually says number 46 it's number six yeah and the motion that's on that separate page is actually incorrect it goes with motion number six which is um a six period coverage this is uh was already in place it just needed to be extended um and we have one of our new hires here today can we invite up uh kelsean yes sir please M Von would you like to stand and take a picture with our new hire sure yeah sorry we take pictures here yeah and you teaching fizzed at the middle school thank you very much 10 jumping jacks that's it thank you welcome to the district any other discussion on certificated Personnel did we have a motion on that yes uh Slade andone and when you're ready roll call please D is absent Francisco yes Jano yes Jodi yes mazone yes Slade yes solowski yes vka T yes Dan tuno yes resolutions 1 through 13 for certificated Personnel passes thank you we have nothing on non-certificated Personnel Transportation so we'll move forward to Transportation can I have a motion on items one and two please J anal motion thank you Francisco will second thank you roll any discussion roll call please Francisco yes Jano yes Ji yes maone yes Slade yes solowski yes venaas yes d as abson Dan tuno yes resolutions one and two for transportation passes thank you supplies equipment and services items one through three can I have a motion please SL to move there's almost second any discussion roll call please Jano uh just one oh I'm sorry go ahead sorry nope go for it add this clarification from uh uh Mr David Vel already just want to call that out uh I know we we are a Microsoft shop here meaning we use Microsoft teams and everything I questioned as to why we are using Zoom even it's a small amount why do we use zoom but I got the clarification that we use zoom for more external interface predominantly we use Microsoft teams more for internal and that works a lot better but when we go to external companies or vendors or anyone I think Zoom is pretty much we know know how it works so thanks for clarifying that it's a very good question thank you any other discussion roll call please Gano yes ji yes maone yes Slade yes solowski yes FK Tas yes D is absent Francisco yes Dan tuno yes resolutions 1 through three for supplies equipment and services passes okay miscellaneous uh items one through seven can I have a motion please motion sorry go ahe I'll second thank you any discussion I have a question um for number seven the bridge of books Foundation is that what we discussed in our curriculum meeting Dr tuy the donation from the library is that part of that no no this is from Mr daily an outside group that's donating books to his school okay thank you that's pretty cool that's a lot of books yeah congratulations to students of Madison Park enjoy your books any other discussion yeah thanks to you know Mr Delhi for um working together within external organization and getting you know some good donations I think maybe we should find what is the secret Mr D is following and maybe noos it along to other schools or Mr s if you know the secret please I think it comes down to I'm just looking at I think it comes down to uh principales responding to a request from them um I I just got an email um over the weekend that I worked out with Mr weell uh Cooper School is their second year of receiving that and uh the maintenance goes and picks up the books it's a substantial amount that you know you have principales putting him in the back of the cars driving here so um so we do have multiple schools also receiving that donation as well okay that's good to know thank you it's pretty cool thank you any other discussion roll call please ji yes maone yes sled yes solowski yes FAS yes dun is abson Francisco yes Jano yes Dan tuno yes uh resolutions 1 through S for miscellaneous passes board secretary and board business items one and two can we have a motion Francisco will motion Miss second okay and now we can go into discussion where Matt would like to be off of food service and Elena you would like to be put on yes any opposition from the board on that any other um discussion Mr wiell on any of board secretary business nope not at this not at this time okay um roll call please so we will'll have an amended version to for Francisco okay uh maone yes SL yes solowski yes venka T yes dun is absent Francisco yes Jano yes jri yes Dan tuno yes resolutions one through two for board secretary and board of business passes hearing of the residents on any District item okay we'll close that portion um any old business okay um I know the Food Service committee meeting was originally U mentioned to be this Thursday we're going to postpone it so that the new committee assignments can find a date so if that was on your calendar please take it off so that you don't have to come out in the cold on Thursday any new business I have some um so uh last year during Food Service committee it was brought to our attention um that there was three elementary schools not receiving breakfast um with that and the help from the board help from admin we were able to implement the breakfast back into uh Shara starting January 2nd um and I know we're working on the other two elementary schools to get that back implemented um so Mr wisel thank you for your help with that the committee thank you for your help with that um also I know last week the students of Grom were able to take a field trip to the the Oldbridge library and they they had an amazing time they loved it I just wish that we were able to implement more field trips for these kids because I feel like we approve so many spots and I understand it's hard with you know busing and and the nurses but they look they look forward to the like to these field trips and I I just wish we were able to add more into the school year and I think it would benefit the kids it would benefit the teachers um so if there's something that we can do to try to add more field trips to the for the kids I think that would be great for everyone I was actually going to ask that question not necessarily today but is the biggest obstacle to field trips the transportation cost well Transportation nursing and is you know is a curricul related I know there's a lot of U opport well there's been several opportunities for field trips within the the community it gets more difficult when you go outside the community so ones like the library um we used to use the ice rink uh again that became more difficult too with nursing uh gotta promise you every time we went to ice rink there was an injury so you need to have a nurse you need to have a nurse there um and it's tough because you know we we don't have ample amounts of nurses that we could leave a school uncovered so um these are some of the challenges we you know ever ever since there you know there's a nursing shortage as well as um teaching yes teaching shortage and everything else that as you know times have changed there's obviously definitely more health concerns of our within our students as they are or in our our settings um health concerns that may not have been there years ago um we educate in a more inclusive environment more students who come to school with uh feeding tubes and everything else so you have to have full-time nursing within the schools and um it makes it more difficult to get ample nurses to from outside schools even you know getting a service was even easier back in the day just you know you have a service um to go on a field trip and stff like that and that's even become way too costly and every very been very hard to get so uh but if we have Elementary ones with inside the community uh it's a lot easier so after we finish fixing the state formula and get more money then we can send the kids on more field chips sounds like a fun um but definitely something to to keep um and Christina you're a big advocate for the breakfast so thank you for your hard work on that as well um any other new business anything you want to add on the nursing on the field trips um I'm just sitting here thinking a lot I think more of our elementary schools probably do some of those trips than you might be aware of so I want to get a list and we can share that with you so you can see what they actually are going to because I know there's other schools that go to the library in the police station um I think you're you hit it on the head you know there's a difference between going to the library and going to the ice skating rink and we are short nurses we have one less nurse in District this year um and you know add to that any of the additional health concerns it's it's been difficult and what we found is even when we do hire a nurse from outside they're not as reliable as our own staff in um I know we had one trip earlier this year and we were down to the the kids were loaded on the bus and the nurse wasn't there and what were we going to do and were we going to you know you don't want to cancel the trip when you've got a whole grade level of students sitting on the bus ready to go but we would have been leaving our building uncovered um fortunately she arrived in time um and was able to make the trip but we deal with that when we're looking at those at those trips and really trying to make sure that we have the right staff you're talking the police station I think I still have a picture somewhere of like our fifth grade teachers in the police station we've kind of put them behind the jail cell so it was definitely like a fun trip back then um anything else on new business I um I'm sorry did you have something to oh um it was mentioned before that the Arts Festival was on the 29th it's actually the visual and vocal Arts Festival is on January 28th at the Oldbridge High School main campus at 6 o'clock so it's the 28th not the 29th I add one clarification maybe when is the current contract for the Food Services ending is it this calendar year or this this calendar fiscal year fiscal year so it ends June 30th 2024 five so we have to go out to RFP during this year to get an award whether it's the same company or a competitor uh for July 1 so a new contract will be starting July 1 okay this is this was from my daughter she was saying when I'm coming for the meeting when are we going to get new food so I just start get answer for and that'll be part of the committee is what do we want in that RFP exact like that so thank you perfect thank you I would like to also um make note of a change that's part of this agenda that we um approved this evening and I had mentioned it last week but we are no longer off on June 3 we are now off on June 10th due to the primaries being moved so for anybody who's here or listening if you're anything like me and your calendar's already marked now you just go in there and change it and then I'm assuming it'll be changed on the website as well now that we've passed it and just for anyone who has a kindergarten student that'll be starting in September of 2025 registration will open on February 5th we are in the process of finalizing the revisions to our registration process and our website hopefully make it a little bit more streamlined a little easier to complete the documentation um but that will open up for kindergarten regist a on February 5th I have one more thing um septo was awarded the national um Jan harp domain diversity and inclusion award for 2025 by the national uh PTA and National diversity inclusion and Outreach committee uh this award recognizes ptas uh that best demonstrate exemp exemplary work in the area of diversity equity and inclusion as well as efforts to end discriminatory practices uh SEPTA will be honored at the national ptas 2025 Convention as well as receive a monetary award for our achievement um so I would like to congratulate SEPTA and um seriously anyone that can get involved and help them these ladies Rock they really they work their butts off all day to advocate for our special needs community so congratulations to SEPTA and that's it and there was one winner for the whole country so it's not like they were one one of many they were the winner of this year so congratulations great job anything else under maybe I think we should have them to recognize uh one of these next few meetings I think so we should do that I think okay and just last thing I just want to um our public relations person Scott Melle I just want to thank him for joining us uh when we went to Trenton one we were lucky to have him a lot of districts did not have someone there to take photos and I was speaking with a Consortium of superintendent that are S2 districts in our usual yearly fight against to get more funds and um they were looking for photos from the event and uh I was able to license them out some of Scott's uh photography so thank you for helping us and since certain us two J we can't charge them for the the services either so because they're hurting just as well as we are yeah one note on that U yeah you keep talking right uh thanks to David vdel to keep us informed about that event because when we were socially communicating about this some of the neighboring towns were not even aware of it some of the probably board members or parents or the community were asking us hey when did this communication go out and how did you come to know and we said you know our school administration you know brought this up so thanks again for keeping us uh on top of it I think I mentioned last week I randomly I was counting chairs I think there were like aund chairs in that room so for alberge to have I think 15 residents I'm going to borrow the ba from Nork cuz she was an Oldbridge resident um you know that was quite a showing so it's great jobd right anything else all right we are going to go into executive session to discuss Personnel so can I have a motion to go into executive session miss motion and a second J down a second all in favor thank you everyone please be careful and stay warm tonight going home and see you tomorrow for