Please take I'm here. Dr. Connor present. Mr. King. Dr. Nelson here. Mr. Patel here. Miss Rivers here. Mr. Salgado Cowan. Miss Smith here. Stafford here. Quorum. Thank you. Hereby it be known that the
Piscataway Township Board of Education has complied with the notification requirements of the open public meeting act for the announcement of this meeting date in place on April the 4th, 2025 in the following manner. Posting of this public notice on the posting board for the board of education in the
administration building. Email notification to newspapers serataway the home news tribune and the courier news. Email notification filed with the municipal clerk at the municipal building on hose lane. This meeting is being videotaped. This recording is not
an official record or supplement to the minutes. It is intended only as a source of information that the public might utilize later at a later date in time to familiarize themselves with board activities. Executive session. Be it resolved that the board adjourn to executive session for the purpose of
review and discussion of personnel agenda litigation HIV monthly report and other matters persuant to NJSA 10 semicolon 4-12B. Can I have a motion? Have a second. We're in executive session.
Now, the rest I'll follow up for, Mr. That part was Have a second. Second. All in favor. We are now back in public session. Okay, we're going to jump down, skip to my little and go to the president's report. All in that fashion. The
president report for July 10th, 2025. Congratulations to the class of 2025. It was wonderful to watch all of our graduates be rewarded for their hard work, talent, resilience as Piscatoaway High School grads graduated over 550 seniors in a joyous ceremony at Jersey
Mike's Arena. Congratulations to all the parents, family, and friends who celebrated this great achievement alongside their children. And to the teachers and staff who guided and encouraged them. Congratulations also to all our students on their promotions in 2025, who will continue their education journeys in September. Best of luck to
all of our students currently taking advancement advantage of the summer programs offered through our office of community education. The jump ahead academic assistance enrichment program combines digital and direct instructions to turn the summer months into valuable learning time. Our summer camp provides
every child with a memorable trips and experiences and families with safe, secure environment for their children over the summer. Other summit sessions include SAT prep, robotics, coding, tennis, basketball, science, intro to theater, and more. We're happy to be able to offer so many opportunities for
our children a memorable summer. Everyone, stay safe, enjoy your summer, and that concludes my president's report. Next, we have a superintendent report. All right. Good evening, and thank you, Miss Cherry, for your comments. Um, tonight I'd like to
acknowledge also the graduation ceremony, the fifth grade move up ceremony, the middle school graduations, and the grade three move up ceremonies. When you go to a ceremony like that, you see all aspects of the Piscataway
community. You see how all in our own way contributed to the development of a child and uh as a superintendent or a teacher, a principal, very very humbling experience to see that. So I would like
to acknowledge all our faculty and staff and contributing to the children in our district. And the highlight the highlight was the high school graduation. Really? Come on. It's fabulous. Really?
Not the bus. No, the bus was good, but really, you know, it was those kids. They looked beautiful. They presented themselves so well. They were focused. You know, everything was excellent. And just think
for a minute. You were part of their story, all of you. So, thank you. Um, I have to acknowledge Miss Richie. I left her off my uh acknowledgements at the last meeting. You don't need to know why, but Miss Richie, if you hear this
or someone tells you I acknowledged it with one of our little people, you did a really good job. you really did a good job. And Omar is doing well. Also, I called his mom about two weeks ago and I'm waiting to hear back from her, you
know, and she's doing well. August 5th is the night out and um our kids, they're still here. Don't think summer's quiet scatter. They're everywhere no
matter where you go. And I have to commend Mr. a vera because the projects are moving on uh track. You know, they're moving on track. And I have to commend the administrators because I know you think it's the summer, but I don't know about you, but I've never
worked like I have in the last month. It's like, where am I? Who am I? What am I doing? I'm going to have to have the board take up a collection for filler and my hair. Please don't record that. Um
uh personally uh when I'm in my quiet moments uh somebody in my family said to me, you know, aunt so and so, how do you how do you take care of so many kids in
school? And I said, I'm not in it alone. I'm not in it alone. And I I never thought of it like that. You know, you're not in it alone. And if you service the people that you service,
the people in turn will service the children and together we'll be all right. But um I want to tell you a Piscatoaway story. I went to one of your little local stores. I don't usually take a lunch,
but I leave the building every day just to get air. And I came out of the store and a young man with the most beautiful hair I've ever seen, he held the door open for me and I had tea in one hand
and my wallet and keys in the other and I said, "Oh, you made my day." I said, "I don't have to worry about how to open the door." And then he looked at me and he said, "Well, I'm feeling good." He said, "I'm a student at Ruckers." I
said, "Good for you." Manny tells me he said my name is uh and I couldn't pronounce it now. I I I really couldn't. And I told him my name and uh he said I just came from my um counseling session.
I said, "Good for you." I said, "Good for you. I don't know this child." I said, "Good for you." I said, "You know, you go to counseling for one reason, to become a better you. we don't go to counseling for anything else. And then he he looked at me and he said,
"Have you ever gone to counseling?" I said, "Well, I really shouldn't tell you this because you know, but yes, I have because I want to be the best Johanna I can be." And sometimes my faith and my parents, you know, I needed more. I
needed an expert. and uh he told me he's majoring in Ruckers to be a director. I said, "I hate to tell you this, you're good enough to be an actor." He said, "Yeah, but there's more
money in directing." So, he's going to he's in Ruckers to be a director. He's a graduate of South Brunswick High School. He was he's a sophomore at Ruckers. So, I said to him, his name began with an O. I said to him, boom. I said, "We've been
talking for about five minutes." I said, "What did our conversation start with?" And I could tear up over it. He said, "John Hannah, it started with kindness." That's right. There's your Piscataway story.
There you go. There it is. There it is. Right or wrong. But none of us have hair like this kid, Mr. Connor. None of us have hair like this child. Look, it's Mr. Ruben. I haven't had here since the Nixon
administration. I really mean it. None of us do. And the other thing I love about Piscatoaway, I love it when I tell the people and I when I hear it because they're very intense. They're very, very serious.
They get their work done. They get their job done. But I look at them and I go, "Guys, we're not doing surgery. Could we just have what? What do I say to you? A little fun. A little fun. A little Can we laugh a little bit?
We're dealing with children or the humanities, you know, and uh I'm glad tonight we had a laugh over, you know, that. Uh before I end, um Summer in Piscataway, as Miss Cherry said, is is still very engaging. And I'd like us to
just take a second uh to be to acknowledge our neighbors in Planefield with the declared emergency. Um we escaped it. Two one of our schools lost power. Uh nobody was injured and I also in your
thoughts think of the families in Texas. You know that um that that was a tragedy. But when you come from from a town where a young man says to somebody he doesn't
know and you're talking he says it starts with kindness. This town can get through anything. You're good people. So thank you. Thank you for kind words. Um personnel and labor relations, Miss
Nancy Salgado Cohen. Um, be it resolved that the following motions identified as items A through R be approved as presented. Second. Second. Ruben, can you take the roll call?
Dr. Connors, yes. Dr. Nelson, yes. Mr. Patel, yes. Miss Rivers, yes. Miss Smith, yes. Miss Stafford, yes. Miss Elgato Cowan, yes. Miss Charity, abstain. B1, yes to the rest. No committee reports. Approve of
minutes. Miss Rivers, remember I was going to Oh, I thought you were doing that another time. My bad. Time's time's up. All right. There were no committee reports, but um as chairman of fiscal, I just wanted to share with everybody that we didn't we didn't have a meeting, but what happened is that on May on June
30th, uh the governor signed the state budget for the fiscal year 2026 into law. And I just wanted to highlight what that meant for us in terms of um you know, K through 12 formula state aid. Um the the budget includes some significant
developments um regarding the funding formula that reflects various advocacy priorities. Um first the budget includes several tools to decrease the aid volatility and increase p uh predictability. And so what they're doing is that they are keeping from last
year that budget language. So the state will limit on a maximum of 3% decreases on the those four main categories of categorical aid. Um and uh but on the biggest piece um equalization aid the uh
the budget again it will be uh capped uh year-over-year increases uh at 6%. In other words, as you recall from our budget presentation that if this wasn't done, the scatteraway based on our uh on our on our figures in terms of the
town's taxing authority versus uh what the state calculates for local our local share contribution was a gap a bit a huge gap. And what that meant is that if they would have run the formula without this 3% uh mac uh de decrease or 6%
maximum increase, we would have lost $13.5 million of our $27 million in state aid. Instead, it was 3% of the 27, which is about the 800 $800,000 that are talked about. So, so the good news is
that in this budget approved by the governor on June 30th that includes K through 12 formula state aid, that is what's going to happen again next year uh through budget language rather than the traditional legislation. And so I
just wanted to report that to people because that helps us plan for next year. Correct. Uh as opposed to good. Thank you so much for that information, Dr. Connors, keeping it transparent and keeping the public notified of what has taken place already
and what's in the record books for the state. Thank you again. Um, approval of minutes, Miss Rivers, being resolved that the following minutes be approved as submitted the special meeting on June 2nd, 2025 in executive session June 20 June 2nd, 2025.
Get a motion. Motion second. Uh, mad madam chairman, no I I I I had a a question for uh the board secretary or the board attorney. Don't be don't don't don't be given a board secretary. What matters is that there's a whole list here of meetings.
There are special meetings, right? There's a lot of special meetings, but if you look at the minutes of the special meeting, uh the special meeting is about the superintendent search and our board president was conflicted, but it says on the minute on the minutes
that she was just absent. So my question is for the record, uh is it okay for her to be listed in these all of these special meetings, uh just be absent versus being conflicted? It's okay to say she was absent.
Okay, that was my question. Go ahead. Question. Are we going to We have to do them one by one. Okay, that's my question. No, one by one. They have to go officially record one by one. All right. So, we were on that first. Yeah. So, so Nancy made the motion. I second.
All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. Okay. Special meeting June 3rd, 2025. Executive session June 3rd, 2020. Motion second. All in favor? I oppose.
I'm sorry. Motion passes. Special meeting June 4th, 2025. Executive session 4, 2025. Second. All in favor? I. Opposed. Motion passes. Special meeting June 9th, 2025.
Executive session June 9th, 2025. Motion. Yeah. Okay. business meeting. Oh, we still recording? Are we still recording? All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. So, we're on June 12th. Is that Yeah, we're going to business meeting now. Okay. June
June 12th. Yeah. Business meeting June 12th, 2025. Executive session June 12th, 2025. Motion. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. Special meeting June 16, 2025. Executive
session June 16, 2025. Second. Second everybody. All in favor? I opposed. Special meeting June 17th, 2025. Executive session. Motion.
Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. Special meeting June 25th. Executive session June 25th. Motion. Second. All in favor? Opposed. Motion passes.
Okay. Public comments from the floor. Anybody going to be speaking from the public comments before I read this? Okay. With that in mind, can I have a motion to open public comments? Motion. Have a second. Second. Public comments. It's open. Can I have a motion to close public comments? Have a second. Public
closed. Fiscal. That was Nancy for motion. Brenda for second. All in favor? I opposed. Fiscal F and operations. Dr. Congress. You resolve the following motions identified as items A through L approved as presented.
Second. Mr. Secretary, can you take the role? I just second it. Okay. Okay. Dr. Nelson, yes. Mr. Patel, Miss Rivers, yes. Miss Smith, yes. Miss Stafford,
yes. Dr. Connors, yes. Miss Elgato Cowan, yes. Miss Cherry, yes. Confess curriculum. Mr. Patel, your turn now. That was your turn. I'm so excited. We resolve the following motions identified as item A
and B be approved as presented. No, no, no. Not your turn to do that. Your turn to say yes. No, no, no, no, no. It is his turn. No, it's his turn. No, but what about Brenda? Brenda, there's nothing there. Oh, okay. Fine. That's what we're we're hung up on. Sorry.
Okay. Mr. Patel read his part. Amd can uh second. Mr. Secretary second. Can you take the role? Yes, ma'am. Mr. Patel, yes. Miss Rivers, yes. Miss Smith, yes. Miss Stafford, yes. Dr. Connor, yes.
Dr. Nelson, yes. Miss Elgato Cowan, yes. Miss Cherry, yes. Motion passes. Tupal services. Dr. Nelson, be it resolved that the following motions identified as items A and B be approved as presented. Second. Mr. Secretary, can you take the role? Miss Rivers? Yes. Miss Smith?
Yes. Miss Stafford? Yes. Dr. Connor? Yes. Dr. Nelson? Yes. Mr. Patel? Yes. Miss Elgato Cowan? Yes. Miss Cherry? Yes. Motion passes. Administrative auxiliary. Miss Straford. That the following motions identified as items A through C be approved as
presented. Second. Mr. Secretary, can you take the role? Miss Smith? Yes. Miss Stafford? Yes. Dr. Connor? Yes. Dr. Nelson? Yes. Mr. Patel? Yes, Miss Rivers. Yes, Mr. Gowen. Yes, Miss Cherry. Yes. Motion passes. Old business. Anybody with old business?
I have old business. Um I just wanted to report to the board um as well as the community that we are concluding um the search process for our new superintendent. Um all the interviews have been done and we are
proceeding to the next step. Thank you for that updated information so the public stays informed about the superintendent search and where you are in it. Thank you board members for all of your commitment and hard work you put in. Great work. Additionally, all those special meetings as um Dr. Connors had mentioned um
involved eight of the nine board members um coming on all of those nights. So, I do also want to acknowledge my fellow board members who were able to um assist during the numerous events over the month of June. They uh we really worked
hard and we worked together as a team very well and I appreciate every single one of you. Thank you, Dr. Thomas. Well, on the superintendent search, thank you, Nancy, for um step stepping up and uh really doing a stellar job on uh leading us to that
point in all of those special meetings. I just want to remind people that uh we still will be working on our um New Jersey School Board Association uh master board certification. Uh we are in need of five and a half credits. Uh and we and that's five and a half hours of
um of training. And so we'll be scheduling that. Um the good news is we don't have to be uh finished until a year from November. So but we we you know it's just imperative that we that we keep going on um learning how to uh
do uh good governance and um as a board. So um you'll be hearing from me. I'll be the doing that and try and get something going in the fall. Uh and we'll pick a couple topics and we'll move right along. That was my old business. Thank you Dr. Connor and uh Dr. Roberto
will like to say a few words. Um, I just want to thank our three uh videographers in the back stand. You make us look so good. You really do. Uh, is this the field you would like to go into?
I'm not. This is it. Right. Right. Not doing well. Really? We got two nos and a I don't know. That's a good one. That's a good one. But we do appreciate your services and thank you for your talent. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much.
John, could John, could I impose upon you to ask Robert to come in just for a minute? Robert, we'd like to publicly acknowledge your service to the district. Thank you. Shine a light on him. Wait,
Robert, come in so the video can move through. I'm okay. I'm okay. You You represent the people in our entire district that keep us safe and we do value and appreciate you. He's polite, you know. And standing next
to Robert is John Bastram. Did I say it correctly? No. Ball trough. Ball trough. Ball trough. John, just call him John B. John B. You keep us in communication. You keep
our equipment and systems in place. And uh thank you very much for your good work. And you know, Mr. Toma, you also, you're a fine gentleman to work with. And now tomorrow, no reflection on Mr. Toma or anything. Tomorrow, let's get
back to work. Oh, we're closed. Monday. Monday. Let's get back to work, you know. Thank you, Madam President. Anybody with new business? New business. And madam this time is ma madam president um we touched upon this
topic earlier and that is about how as a board and we're here as members and hopefully like for a three-year term or whatever is that we begin to um gain institutional knowledge
and along those lines that I would challenge everyone to go back to this time last year and see all of the things that we as a board do in September, in October, November, etc. And the reason I
say that is because we're at a point in that calendar where I'm going to recommend that we that uh meet with the superintendent is that the beginning of school in September will be upon us before long. It'll be tomorrow. The thing is that as a board what we
never formalize that we talk among ourselves is what will be the message the board wants to give to the public on back to school nights and then what we end up doing is coming up with the script with talking points because it's our opportunity as
school liaons to all get out at the same time during that month to deliver the same message to to the school community. So I would just say one We have a wealth of institutional knowledge. We're at a point in that calendar where we need to put together
the back to school nights talking points and think about them. And this is our opportunity. Okay. Thank you, Tom. Um, in that same vein, Madame President, I would like to um put in uh
some sort of group that perhaps we can think about um having a a leadership summit just for us board members. Definitely where we would, you know, a retreat of sorts. It doesn't necessarily have to be overnight
or anything. Um but where we would come together as our um full board and uh gain some you know of that knowledge and maybe put it together um in a manual or some kind of document that's living breathing that we can update as we go
along so that this way when there are new board members they have that to reflect on and then they also um don't have to just rely on all of our memories. As a 51-year-old I may not always remember. So, um that's the my first uh point. Um I think that the best
time I went I did attend um a leadership uh conference for vice presidents through the New Jersey school boards recently and many of the school boards uh have this um summit retreat whatever you want to call it um in the month of
uh June I believe so that this way they can do their board self evaluation on time for the following year and they reflect upon that once the close of the school year. So, um before July 1st somewhere between like you know May and
June and um I would be more than willing to um chair that committee in order to speak with the board members and figure out um especially with the fact that we're going to be getting a new superintendent. I think it's vitally important that we all stay informed and
cohesive and try to include our our new um superintendent into what we're doing in the future. So, um that's my suggestion um for new business and I will follow it up with your approval. You have Okay.
Looking forward to you. Well, let's let me say this. what we're getting ready to embark on is a new beginning, but something that should have already been existent, but it's we're not going to a could a should have. We're just going to do it now. Um, with that in mind, uh, small committee
get together. I don't know who wants to be the other two volunteers that we sit down and we come up with the talking points for back to school night. Therefore, the administration doesn't have to worry about it because we, the boarders collectively are the ones who are speaking. We are the one talking to the families in the audience. So therefore, all the verbiage and
information should be coming from us. Don't everybody raise your hand at once, but just let me know. Hey, gotcha. Okay. But Tom was already there, right? Well, well, Tom is always in the talking point. That's my encyclopedia over there. Okay. So, we're going to do two newbies
over here. And we should do it collectively. We could do it collectively, but then we have to put a meeting together being we're all going to be together. So, you wanted less than five people. I think we want less than five. Oh, yeah. That's true. But here's what you can do. We can send it through a email what your talking points you want
to be to me and then I can collaboratively put them all together. Send it back to you. That way we don't have to worry about a quorum. Okay. And we'll get the job done that way and nobody has to leave their home. Okay. Easy peasy. And that way these three, these two and me, we'll make it happen. Well, you know, I on that
as the sort of board historian and with a lot of Okay, I said encyclopedia. I didn't say historian. historian, encyclopedia, whatever it may be, is that if you look at the um I was still leadership leadership. No, if you look at the leadership of
what Nancy is talking about is this is a practice that we've had in the past that we've gotten away from. Exactly. And and what it is is that and we're we're a pivotal juncture now because we we will be bringing on boarding a new superintendent. And so we
we couched them in the past as retreats, but in these retreats we picked specific topics. And um and so people are aware that in 2016 when we did a series of these, it actually resulted in our
inspire theme for the entire district which we've kept. So it's a great idea. I was I was giving one example back to school night talking points that is just one part of this bigger picture that that Nancy wants to start up again and
that is a a retreat but based on future leadership for the board and the people here addressing specific topics moving forward. and that could morph into another retreat to bring back the
book club, to bring back certain things, but it's a beginning. So, she's talking about starting up something that we've done in the past that had a lot of success that we got away from and that was okay. Now, now back to Nantie's talking points and what she's
I have one more thing um just to bring up. Um, we board members were sent an email um from the Council on American Islamic Relations of New Jersey. Um, I encourage all my board members to read the email um completely and I would like
to um ask once the board members do read that email that we can have a discussion um at our next meeting about whether we want to actually take action. um similar to the National Education Association
NEA um to sever ties with the Anti-Defamation League, the ADL. Um so the they're asking us to think about that. Um, so please do read your email in reference to this um, subject matter
and um, bring whatever your thoughts are about it um, to our next um, meeting so we can decide whether that's something that we as a board here in Biscato want to do. Good. Okay. Okay. And that meeting will be on August the 14th. So it gives you time to read
it and come back with what your feelings are and what your thoughts are. All right. Anybody else with anything else with new business? discussed. With that being said, can I have a motion for adjournment? Motion. Second. All in favor?
We are adjourned. Number 2.