livereamed. The representative of the sending district is authorized to vote on such matters that affect the sending district students or affect the governance of the Princeton public schools as more specifically designated in NJSA 18A 388.1. Sending district votes pertaining to
personnel actions refer to high school, central administrative, and districtwide staff only. Votes otherwise are considered abstensions. In the event that NJSA18A 38-8.1 is amended, the law shall take precedence over this bylaw.
All right, roll call. There we go. Beth Bon >> here. >> Adam Beerman >> here. >> Debbie Brownfeld >> here. >> Mara Francesky >> here. >> Elellanar Hubard >> here. >> Susan Caner >> here. >> Ariel >> here. >> Christopher Sanarpio >> here. >> Katherine Lara >> here.
>> You have quum. Um, welcome to the meeting. As uh those can see, Da Kendall is traveling and I will be handling her duties this evening. So um first we want to do the adoptions of the minutes from the October 28th meeting. Are there any
comments from the board? >> Need a motion. >> Motion to adopt the minutes. Anyone approve? Debbie second. R >> Beth Baron >> abstain. >> Adam Beerman. >> Yes. >> Debbie Bronfeld.
>> Yes. >> Mara Francheski. >> Yes. >> Ellaner Huard. >> Yes. >> Susan Caner. >> Yes. >> Ariisel. >> Yes. >> Christopher Sanarpio. >> Yes. >> Katherine Lara. >> Yes. >> Motion carries.
>> Um, welcome to the meeting. I'm going to immediately turn it over to the superintendent for his comments for the evening. >> Thank you, Miss Caner. Uh happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Uh it's a busy time of the year and we've had a lot going on in district. Uh just had our
fall production at the middle school last week and we've got our high school production coming up. Um Dr. Tu worked with our supervisor visual performing arts to host a consortium last week to look at our visual performing arts program. Uh, and that was a ton of work
and um a special thanks to Pat Lahan for putting that together and and doing so with such attention to detail. Uh, I would like to um make two sort of special statements. The first is to thank all of the families and our PTO in particular for helping to support a food
drive at this time of the year. As all of you know, um there was a disruption and continues to be some disruption to uh food assistance programs uh that the federal government supports and uh we know that our families in district were affected by that. And um we put out a
special call and of course the response was terrific and our principles, our PTO members helped deliver food to families who need it and continue to do so. Just got a note uh earlier this evening about um some needs at one of the food banks. So, a thank you there. And then by the
end of the week, I probably will send yet another reminder about a very special guest that will be here on December 1st in the Performing Arts Center at 7:00 p.m. Uh, she is a uh has become a friend of mine. She's about to turn 90 years old and grew up in the
Netherlands uh and uh survived the Holocaust. and her story is really quite moving and inspiring and it will make anyone who shows up thankful at this time of the se uh season and this time of the year for what we have in our
lives. So I hope everyone is able to join us including the students who are seated at the table tonight uh and that they bring a few friends of theirs. Um, and uh, I just want to wish everyone uh, a happy and peaceful season as we enter the holidays. And to kind of uh, hit
that cord hopefully, um, we've invited uh, some of our students and some of our staff from Riverside Elementary School. So, I'm going to ask our principal, Mr. Max Act, to come uh, to the microphone and introduce some of our guests and um,
give us a brief presentation. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. All right. Come on up. Okay. Thank you for having us this evening. Uh I'm here with team Riverside and we're very excited to be here. And uh we're going to take a moment to
introduce ourselves. My name is Max Octile, principal of Riverside. It's my third year. And hi everybody. I'm Ben Samra. I'm the school council at Riverside in my 17th year at Riverside. >> I'm Emma. >> I'm Emma Gomeco. I'm in fourth grade and
I'm in Miss Levy's class. >> I'm Maya Vir and I'm in fifth grade in Mr. McGovern's class. >> All right. Thank you. And our presentation this evening is going to be uh building community at Riverside School. Uh we would wanted to share with
the board and with the with Princeton basically what things we do at Riverside that we really enjoy that brings us together as a school as well as with the greater community. And um I have my our student representatives here to also give their feedback of the events they
enjoy and why they like them. So that's why we're here this evening. Okay. So one of our goals uh for this year from uh my goal, one of my goals as principal and a staff's goal is to create a to create more opportunities to bring um staff, students, families, and
the greater community together. And that was based on feedback just from anecdotally from students, from staff, from families. Uh what are we doing? what can we do to bring more families together, more of our community together? And um you know, as principles sometimes you say, "Oh yeah, we do
things, we come together, but we wanted to do it a little bit more structured this year." And our goal to make it tangible is once a month we have to come together as an a full school for an assembly, for an event, for something so that we know that we're doing it at least once a month and um celebrating.
So that's what we've done the first two or three months. Um okay, we can go to the next slide. And I want to say uh Mr. Actton and I have talked a lot about this and and he really uh is adamant about making a concerted effort push towards more
community and in the day and age we're living in when there's more more and more isolation we're seeing uh amongst kids community in all sorts of forms is so important. Uh and it's not just the school community, you know, it's the school community connecting to the wider
community, to the university community, uh to the parent community. And that's what I think we're going to show you today is our effort uh at community across all areas. And so the first place is during our morning meetings, uh we're really happy to be using the new character strong curriculum. Thank you
to the board, uh and to Dr. Tu and to John Mcichael, uh the counseling supervisor for spearheading that. that had started in Littlebrook and is now at all four elementary schools and the kids are really loving that character strong curriculum. It's a time for them to come together. Um we do that during our
morning meetings. Uh Mr. Octtow makes his rounds every day to make sure that he is part of every classroom community uh stepping into classrooms and uh making sure he is seen and known as well. And so those morning meetings are really really important. Those kind of
start things off for us. >> Yeah. And I always tell the students, I always say, "You should see me at least once a day. You have to see me at least once a day." So that is my goal as a principal just to make sure I make the rounds and do that. Okay? And so our all school morning meetings as we as we talked about, you know,
we're getting together once a month. So this month there's no morning meetings. We're doing the turkey trop. But in the months where we don't have uh little activities like that, we have instituted these morning meetings which is a really good chance for the school to come together. Uh there's a picture on the left of us doing the tree song, the
Riverside tree song all together as a group. And these have been really, really great. And uh I'm going to talk about our spirit days in a little bit. But one thing I'll say is we've had more participation in our spirit days this year than any other year. I think because of these morning meetings because we're able to really get to the
whole school all at once and say, "Hey, participate, join us." Right? And it is building that sense of community. So I have really personally enjoyed these. How about you girls? want to share your experiences. >> I really like the full school morning meetings because we can see every single
grade level at once and we don't have to go to like every single classroom and do things individually. >> I like it because we can all like join together and sing this song and like see everybody and it's really fun. >> So, it's been a really good opportunity
for us to all get together >> and with the morning meetings we try to make it very studentled. So they run the song, they run the they introduce it, they do the pledge, they welcome everyone. So our fourth and fifth graders predominantly do the introduction. So it's been it's been very positive so far.
>> Okay. So as I said, our spirit weeks, uh we have a couple spirit weeks throughout the year where we'll do theme dress up days. As you can see, pajama day is is a big hit, but we call it uh dreaming of a kinder world. Uh we have uh team up against bullying. You know, we try to make these spirit week days and some of
the other schools do similar things as well. We try to connect these specifically to our upstander values, which is something that we have at Riverside, which I also think brings together a sense of community. It's a set of shared values that we have as a school community that we try to uphold, and that's something that I try to
reinforce in my meetings with with the kids as well. >> Do you have any favorite spirit days? >> Uh, yeah. Go ahead. Um, at the end of the week, we usually do a school spirit day and the PTO bought every single
student in the school a blue t-shirt with the Riverside sign and we all wear it to show school spirit at the end of spirit week. >> My favorite is pajama day because we can all come to school in our pajamas and it's really fun.
>> We all like pajama day, everyone. Principals included. Okay, we can go to the next. Okay. >> And so, uh, another thing that we are doing for the first time this year is, uh, one thing that I'm seeing a lot as a counselor is that I'm having to react
more to a lot of different things around the school and trying to create more of a common language around that and doing my lessons instead of in individual classrooms in a community meeting style where we're bringing the kids together almost like an assembly, a fun assembly
for them. I don't need a microphone, but I have a microphone and I walk around with it and I'm giving it to the kids and we're doing activities together in this space in a way that kind of breaks the mold for what I've seen counseling lessons be in the past. And Max and I,
we're really not afraid to kind of try to do something different. And so we're really trying this year to see if it works. And so far, it's been working pretty well. And I think it's helping with our sense of community, right? to have the whole grade together at once listening to these things, reinforcing these topics. That's uh the character
strong responsibility topic. They had a different definition for responsibility. I changed it to doing what you're supposed to do because it's just very simple for the kids to understand. Um and I've really enjoyed this. This is one of my favorite things that I've done this year uh with the kids and I think it's one of the best examples that we
have of community right now. Did you guys want to say anything about the community meetings or are we good? You're good. We're good right now. >> Okay. Okay. Um so we have some pictures of um grandps up there and I know we do this across some of the buildings in the
the elementary division. This is kind of our outreach to our seniors in the community. We they come once a week to our kindergarteners. Uh they partner in the library. They read. They become buddies, friends. A lot of tales are told, stories are told. Um it's great to overhear some of these conversations because you have a very young often a
5-year-old with a senior and it's a wonderful thing to hear and see. So that that is um we've loved that outreach and that's been going on for quite a while. And then we have our kinderg kindergarten buddy program uh which with this we've partnered our kindergarteners and fifth graders together to connect
two or three times a month where they have time where they come together again reading do a craft maybe play a game just trying to make those connections from the two ends of the spectrum at the elementary level um and those fifth graders really become mentors to the younger ones. So, it's it's a really
neat program. And uh Maya, would you like to >> I like doing um fifth grade buddies because we can do like um we can read to the kindergarteners and like hang out with them and I like it a lot.
>> I think it's all right. >> Great. And another thing we do to to kind of build community at the grade level is because in elementary as many of you know students are in their classrooms for about 75% of the time with one home room teacher. So you know we might we have three sections for instance at each
grade level but a lot of times the kids have told me shock it's really nice to see our friends in the other classes. So what we do, what we offer in fourth and fifth when the schedule's conducive and it is for the most part uh is an enrichment program where uh during recess students can if they'd like uh
pick art, one of our specials, music, and instead of going to recess, if they want to go with their friends or with it, they go visit that teacher and they have an enrichment uh program during those 25 minutes of recess. So it could be sketching, it could be painting, it could be playing the ukulele. It's pretty neat. So uh and
that seems to be pretty popular with the students because they choose. It's a choice if they want to do that or not. And you want to share maybe some of your experiences with it? >> I really like to do enrichments because I love to go to the library and I love to read and I also love to help our
librarian and I help check in the books and I help shelf the different books just to like help out. >> The librarian loves it too. Super. I like doing art enrichment because we
can draw or like make stuff and catch up on art projects we didn't finish in art class. >> And this is something that's new within what the last year or so, right? And something I think has been a a great addition to our lunch recess periods. Uh
and giving kids just tons of options for things that they enjoy and connection as well. >> Okay. And so another thing that we've been trying to do over the last year or two uh for community is our staffto student
mentor program. So for students who we feel who are identified that need an extra connection just another adult connection. We want every child to feel like they have someone in the building that they can go to if there's if there's a problem if they need someone
to talk to. Uh and so we have about 25 students receiving onetoone mentorship. It's pretty simple. It's just connect with a kid. Do something for 10 to 15 minutes once a week. And we have some really great mentor matches. I have teachers who tell me it's the favorite
their favorite part of the week. And you can see how it'll be great for a kid, but it's also great for for teachers to keep that spark with them as well. And we're seeing that with this. And and you know, I'd like to continue to expand this. >> And I want to commend Mr. Samara. That
was something new last year that he started and put it together and we have about 25 partnerships right now. >> Um I'm up there with my mentee. I'm a mentor as well. Uh we cleaned my fish tank that day. But what we do is it's as Mr. Smar said spending time together, building community, spending time making
those connections. Okay. Thank you. >> And then we talked about the the youngest students feeling part of the community and now we go to the oldest students feeling part of a community and then we have that connection with our fifth grade. the kindergarten buddies of course do, but the Riverside student council and it's taken many different
forms over the last couple of years, but but student council is really our fifth grade representatives meeting throughout the year. Um, this year we we have several meetings where they're going to meet with Mr. Octtow and myself to input their student voice into the conversation so they really feel a part
of the student of the Riverside community talking about the bathroom, about the recess field, about one of our meetings is about uh building community. what are their thoughts on building community and supporting uh new students perhaps uh being upstanders and building
a culture of respect. We're going to have a meeting about that. We want to hear student voice in that conversation so that it's not just coming from the adults. And so this is a way for our oldest students to really feel like they have a voice. >> Okay.
>> Want to talk about gratitude challenge? >> Okay. The gratitude challenge is when you fill out a piece of paper and you either rip it or cut it in half and half of it goes in a box and half of it goes to the person that you wrote it to and
it says something kind or a compliment and our we try to get like more than 200 gratitude slips filled out each year just to make someone a little happier. The kindness challenge is like a piece of paper with things like compliment
someone or make someone laugh or make a piece of paper that says be kind. And if you complete all of them, you can get a prize and like it can help people be kinder. >> So those are just two activity kind of weeks or or programs that we do during
the school year again to try to build community. Uh I'd like to also just mention our outreach with with the greater community of the university. Uh great partner with us. Uh so we had we just had reading with the Tigers uh last week which is then the student athletes come down and they read to our K12 students. Uh
wonderful program. We do it about twice a year. Uh and they come in and they talk to the students about what they play in high school. A lot of the kids say, "I saw you on the basketball court." Because a lot of our kids with the university do go to the games and we do have that connection. So that's been really fun with the university. Um uh we
have science day which is also a big thing we do at Riverside in the um spring and we have a lot of university family connections and uh a lot of uh models. They come down and teach us a lot about science. So we love that partnership with the university and we also have the predental student service
committee who comes down and talks to our kindergarteners about uh oral hygiene and things and and all those good things. But those partnerships we value quite a bit. So, and that the piece about the university just kind of sparked me to just think about too that that we at Riverside, you know, our
community uh for years now, we we every school gets a lot of university families, but we get a lot of university families that particularly are transient that they're only there for maybe a year or two. And so this stuff that we're talking about tonight is especially
important for those families and especially just to see that logo or to see someone from Princeton University and they maybe say that's where my mom or dad works, right? That that in and of itself helps build community and help them feel connected to the school.
>> And this is just a list of events and I figured we would pick one or two each and just kind of talk about one or two that resonates with each of us. Um, I was going to pick um I love the choir instrumental concerts that we have in the arts. We just had the um uh arts consortium come by, but and they observed at Riverside, which was great.
But every time the students do a concert, if it's instrumental or vocal, we make it one of our all school assemblies because the students love to perform for their siblings, for their friends, for their neighbors, and again, kids are seeing other kids in different lights. So, we always do one in-house
and the kids get then the kids get to play a second time because they practice so much. So, it's nice they have two concerts uh two for one, right? And then we have the parents in the evening. The other thing I like is the stay in plays we do. Uh that's uh as Mr. Samara said, we have about a sixth of our student body turn over each year. We have about
50 new students or more each year turn over with just transition. Uh a lot of it's the university. So, we really make a concerted effort in September on Fridays to stay and play. We just stay on the playground and play. That is our big and there's no necessarily an agenda. Um we we get a lot of families
back there. a lot. It's great and um a lot of the new families meet other parents, students get to meet and um it really kicks off the new year. So that's again trying to build the community families but also within for our new students as Mr. Samara said. My favorite event is definitely field
day because I love that we just get to play on the field and do a lot of fun things and we don't really have any tests or work that we need to do cuz I know not everybody likes to do that and
everybody likes to just run around and play. My favorite is the Halloween parade cuz we can dress up in our costumes and walk around and see everybody else's costumes. And also on Halloween, we don't have to do any work. So,
>> and as you can see from the pictures up there, I think the Halloween parade is probably the teacher's favorite, too, right? Um, I want to shout out the PTO clubs because as a former former track coach, I, you know, always thought for years that, you know, it was a shame
that the elementary students couldn't do extracurricular activities. They didn't have anything after school. And the PTO clubs have been amazing for the kids. They Mr. Beck is doing a running club, which, like I said, is is awesome because we got to recruit him young. And, um, you know, there's so many cool
clubs. sticky fingers, ooey gooey cooking, like just fun stuff for the kids after school. And uh we really love that. And that is definitely community building at its finest. >> All right, and that's a wrap. And that's that's the four of us right up there with River
Bear. So, we just wanted to But I'd like to thank our two student presenters this evening. I'd like to thank May and Emma for joining us and giving feedback and Mr. Samara, of course. Thank you for having us. >> Thank you very much. All right. All right.
>> Thank you all for being here. Girls, are you running the turkey trot? >> Yeah. >> All right. Good job. >> All welcome, by the way. Turkey trot. >> My question was really for Dr. Lassusa. How many turkey trots are you running this Thanksgiving? >> I Well, I saw JP's today and they were
pretty intense out there. I stood aside and that's it for my report. >> Thank you. So I think um next on the agenda is our report from our student board members Ana. So please uh take it
away. >> It's great to be back. Um the first thing we want to talk about today is AI usage at the high school. Um so the school district has blocked chatbt claude and a couple of other AI chat bots on the school computers. But I'm
sure this is a shock to nobody that every student who is using AI is just working around that. Um, so despite there's a no tolerance uh or a no tolerance policy for AI misuse in many classes and I think that was made by the school board. Um, and most teachers have
it on zero, but there's still an overwhelming amount of students using AI AI for every assignment. Um, personally, I cannot walk down the hallway without overhearing people say they're just going to like ask chat for homework answers or test prep or writing help.
Um, and a lot of students are saying that even though they know it's bad to use AI, they feel like they have to because they need to be able to keep up with everyone else who is using it. And a lot of students who are using AI don't know about the negative impacts for the environment and ethically and on their own learning.
So last year in my media studies class, my teacher, Miss King, who is fantastic, um, started the year with an assignment about how AI was really uh, negatively impacted learning and the environment. And there were a lot of students in that class who didn't know those things and
actually changed their mind about AI usage and it was very effective for the students to have to do their own research about that. So, because AI isn't going away and it's still going to be part of our lives after high school, I think we need to give students a proper understanding of what AI is and we should be encouraging teachers to start those conversations in the
classroom uh and let students make their own decisions about um if they want to use it and how they can incorporate it into their work without it becoming detrimental to their learning. Okay, this is kind of on the opposite spectrum, but recently our um world
language classes, the Italian classes and the French classes just came back from their trips to Italy and France. Um, and I just thought it was important to shout that out because it's um a lot of the students get a really good immersive learning with that. They get to learn and be more experienced to the
language specifically and also like the food, the culture, all of it. um every year they usually have the opportunity to travel abroad whether it's to France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Cuba or Peru and also a bunch of other countries. Um we have the amazing
opportunity to host exchange students as well from those countries which I know that happened before we went on the trips. Um and yeah, so a lot of like this includes living with the host families in that country in the respective countries. Um they get historical visits. I know they went to
um the French students went to a concentration camp. Um they get to eat authentic food, practice a language with native speakers, gain confidence kind of um and yeah, they also get the independence and responsibility that comes with traveling abroad with just like your classmates and um your the
chaperons that come along from the school. And but they also get lifelong memories and it's super fun to obviously go abroad and experience a new country, especially during like kind of a more boring time in school. Nothing's really happening sometimes, but it's just really fun.
>> I don't know if I'm supposed to comment on any of that. I I also think traveling abroad is fabulous and Dr. Tu will handle all the questions about AI. >> Weren't you talking to the humanities teachers about that today? I heard you pop by. Um it was interesting. Um so we
are undertaking a humanities program review and it really kicked off today. So we had teachers from the history and English departments from the middle and the high school and obviously AI came up. Um and what was interesting was as we had breaks in the it was a full day session. I saw you know Dr. Miller on
chat GBT0 checking student assignments. I saw uh Mr. Lev on uh checking assignments. So teachers are aware. Um you know AI checkers are not infallible. Um, but I have talked with Miss Burge and I I think the plan is to have some
class meetings about this so I can follow up with her of what that looks like. Um, to kind of talk to students about um, you know, there are benefits with AI, but we want you to do the thinking for yourselves, right? Um, because sooner or later you're going to
have to know what's real and what's not. And if you don't have that foundational understanding, and I think I'm talk I'm preaching to the choir here. Um, you're not going to be able to think critically. And that's why I think this humanities program review of you is so timely because that's where we do that deep work, right? That's when we look at different sources and where are we
getting information and and how do we do these critical literacies. Um, so I think the teachers are trying to catch up as as best as we can. I think every adult in this room is trying to catch up as much as we can. Um, and I'm glad to hear that Miss King did that work. She's wonderful teacher and there is a huge
environmental impact every time we use AI. Um, so those are some of the topics that I think we could do a better job of exposing maybe through our, you know, um, peer group, freshman academy and then kind of build up across. But if you guys have ideas, we'd love to hear them. I actually am a peer group leader this
year and this is the first year um, that we're working on instituting an AI outreach for the freshmen in the next coming months. We're like the students are writing it, so we're working on that. >> Happy to help in any way. and and I was teasing a little bit, but we we uh I do
want to note and I uh met with some of the students who write for the tower yesterday that a lot of the the website blocks that students are concerned about um haven't been a deliberate set of decisions. They're the default settings in some of the software that we're using
for the new MacBooks and for other um software programs that our tech department has on board. So it could well be that a number of the chat, a number of the AI um models fall under those default settings. Uh and we are
having a lot of conversations as a district, as a board, sometimes individual conversations, sometimes in committee about screen use, about cell phones, about AI. A lot of this stuff is is wrapped together and um there aren't
necessarily any easy answers except that I don't think homework can be graded any longer with any fidelity and that we probably are going to have to move more toward the blue book um experience that you all don't understand that reference
but um it's these are complicated conversations. I think it's fabulous that you're you're doing the some of the heavy lifting about helping other students who are younger and and coming into our fold understand uh what they're doing and of course our teachers are doing a lot of great work um navigating
this world too. >> Um I I'd like to make a comment. Um, I think it's also great to be in partnership the students in partnership with the teachers and the admin team and and um the super and assistant because I
think there things like the phone policy like an honor code like AI are great places for to hear student voice with teacher voice and come up with policies that everyone understands and can really support and understand why certain rules
are made not just uh you know guess as to why they're made. So, I think what you both reported on was like really important into um how we can best hear that voice because I think you you guys know uh the consequences of using some
of these things and and teaching your fellow students is the best way to go forward with that. >> Okay, you guys good? All right. So, now we're up to our first public comment, and this can be on agenda items and non-aggenda items. Um,
I have two people uh who signed up before the meeting, and then we'll open it to see if anyone else's needs to talk. Uh, the first person is Denise Deleó. Please identify um your name and uh where you live. Thank you.
>> Hi, my name is Denise Deleon and I live on uh Do I need to put the full address? No, >> just the street name is fine. >> Okay. Sassifrass Row in Princeton. Um, I just prepared something so this way I can make sure I hit every bullet.
Good evening and thank you for giving us the time. My name is Denisa Leon and I'm the proud parent of a Princeton senior cheer athlete at the Princeton High School and I'm here with some other uh parents from the cheer team as well. Tonight, I want to bring awareness to
something many in our community, our community may not realize. For the past four years, our cheerleaders have accomplished every achievement and without receiving any funding from the district. These young women raised
every dollar themselves for cheer camp uniforms, bows, travel, and training. They re reused old uniforms that were worn down or falling apart, yet still represented Princeton with pride and professionalism.
And they did all of this while still performing at the highest level. The results speak for themselves. This season alone, the cheer team brought home three CVC trophies, demonstrating their excellence, consistency, and
teamwork. From there they advanced to regionals that where they won and earned their spot to compete on the national stage. They didn't just show up, they earned their way through hard work, discipline,
and the kind of determination that reflects positively on the entire district. What makes this even more extraordinary is that they reached these milestones without the same funding support of other athletic programs received, especially in other districts.
This is not about comparing or criticizing. It's about awareness. It's about recognizing the impact of four years of effort done entirely through fundraising and community support. These girls worked relentlessly hosting
bake sales, flower sales, doing car washes, partnering with trampoline parks, organizing sponsorship outreach, and participating in our successful annual golf fundraiser. On top of that, they invested in highlevel training. They partnered with
UCA coaches. They trained with Princeton University cheer team as we have a strong partnership with the university. and practice long hours after school and on weekends, often in a gym with no air.
The commitment has been incredible. All of this, every fundraiser, every late practice, every reused uniform led them to where they are today. CVC champions, regional champions, and national qualifiers.
And may I just add, this is in Florida for the Nationals. This is something Princeton should be proud of. And now, as they move forward to represent our district on one of the biggest stages in the country, this is the moment for the board of education to step in and show
some support. Not because they asked for it, but they never did. Not because they expected it, they didn't. but because they shown at year after year that they are worthy of it. These girls have
poured their heart and their hard work into this school for years. >> I'm sorry to interrupt a little, but um as you come to the conclusion, >> absolutely. >> Thank you. >> They have carried themselves with excellence. They have represented
Princeton with pride and they have made history. Now, as they prepare for nationals, it's time for them to finally feel the backing of the district behind them, the same way we've shown up for Princeton time and time again. Thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting
these incredible young women as they continue to make our school and our community proud. >> Um, thank you. We have a second uh person that signed up, Edgar Trail. Uh please state your street address, street name and
>> my name is Edgar Trujillo. I live in Aber Princeton and good evening to everybody and basically she say everything about our girls for cheerleader. So we asking here just um to fill it the hard work for they do all the children all four years they working
very hard like the other kids and just coming here to ask for support to all the you know you guys for them because they working very very hard like say every summer skip vacation a lot of a lot of things to become better to
represent Princeton so that's we asking support the first time for the board meeting thank Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Um, is there anyone else from the public that wishes to speak? >> Hi, my name is Valyria. I also live in a
barian court. Um, I'm one of the captains of the cheer team and like like they were all saying, yeah, we've I've been on the cheer team since my freshman year. And since my freshman year, we've had to pay for our uniforms or I use borrowed uniforms because not like a lot of us cheer girls don't have like enough
money to pay like the uniforms because they're like pretty expensive. Um, and like even like our backpacks and stuff, we've been using them for like the past four years and like had to fix them and stuff. So like the money has kind of come from us a lot. But we've always been happy to kind of like support like
the football team and like do stuff like that and like raise money to be able to go to like our clinics and like all that to like up our skills because since freshman year we kind of started going to competitions. So um we had to like go to more clinics and stuff to like up our skills and be able to do more stuff and
like move on from like competition to competition. So like this year um as a senior like it was really exciting to kind of get a bit to nationals cuz it was like the first time ever. So like we would really like to get that experience on hand. Um but yeah, it would be like really nice to have more support um from
the for the cheer girls and like for mostly for like upcoming years for the other girls that are on the team um so that they know like that the path is there for them. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you.
>> Yeah. You know, a a week and a half ago, I ran the Princeton half marathon and I came down and parked right over here in this lot at 6:10 in the morning. I pulled in and there were two buses. It was a Sunday morning with their lights on and and they were running and I said,
"Who what? What? Where are we sending buses today? I couldn't. It was a Sunday morning, 6:10." And when I came in on Monday, I asked uh Miss Braden or someone and they said, "Oh, that was for that was for cheer." they were going out and they had a big competition and I met
uh Miss Foreman for the first time yesterday. She introduced herself to me and I said, "I've seen your name on so many emails. Uh so I just want to say congratulations on your accomplishments. Uh you deserve enormous credit for what
you guys have achieved. And when you're I don't know what time the bus you had to be at the bus, probably 7:00 a.m. But 7:00 a.m. on a Sunday when it's cold outside and dark uh shows real commitment and you should be really proud of yourselves and of course we
will um discuss uh your request tonight for for support and um we wish you the best in in the winter if you're still keeping on in the winter. And if not, thank you for representing the the school district so well. All right, I think we'll move to the
board committee reports. Um, let's start with long range planning and Beth Baron. Um the long-range planning committee met uh on November 11th and we are basically in our meetings focusing on the continued monitoring of the plan approval process at the state level.
There's a number of uh requirements that have to happen before we can go to bid. Um but we're kind of going through some typical comments and review back and forth. It takes time. Um and we appreciate the work that our professionals are doing on this kind of complex process. Um and our next meeting
is on the 9th of December and we look forward to hearing more from them in terms of as we move through these uh approvals. >> Um thank you. Next we'll do operations with Susan Caner. Um we met on October 24th at 1 p.m. on
Zoom. As usual, our our meeting was uh packed full of agenda items. First, we had a brief update on the projects that are open from the 2022, 2023, and 2025 referendums that are in the final stages
of completion. Uh Jenny Ledmer from Sustainable Princeton uh presented on energy initiatives in the school as well as a potential solar power initiative she's working um with our district um to put together. In the operations uh port
portion of the agenda, we discussed ongoing projects including building management systems uh PHS cafeteria display and audio projects and an upcoming two upcoming bids for both playground upgrades and HVAC at PMS. And
then um the they the district discussed how uh their upcoming uh QAC work was moving along and they've been having a great focus on that. Um in finance we re we received an update on the progress of the 20 242 audit and we have a contract
that will appear on today's agenda updating paging systems within the district. and in technology. We received a comprehensive update of a future uh communication purchase for the district. Our next meeting is December 11th at 1
p.m. on Zoom. Thank you, Susan. Um next we have personnel. Uh the personnel committee met on Tuesday, November 11th. We discussed many many personnel items with administration.
And the other thing I just wanted to bring up, the equity committee will be meeting in person on Thursday, December 4th at 1 p.m. So hopefully you can join us. Thank you. >> Um, next we have policy. >> Um, there actually was no policy meeting
this month, so I have nothing to report other than the fact that the items that were a first read last month are now second read and have moved forward. We meet next on um the 4th of December. >> And finally, Zack
Um, so SAC met on November 13th at 9:00. We had one item on our public agenda. Um, Dr. Amy Hinasco, the early childhood supervisor, made a presentation about our prek programs evaluation by Grow New Jersey Kids. U, this is a state
evaluation that is similar to CQAC. And we're very happy that our prek sites at Johnson Park and Community Park both earned four stars, which is a high quality rating. The outside provider sites are also assessed by Grow New Jersey Kids, but they go through a separate process. Uh we then went into
close session and discussed a research study that's on the agenda for approval today. And we also discussed a possible partnership with Fairrown Farms to expand access to local produce at no cost to the district. So t stay tuned there for future developments. Our next
meeting will be on December 11th at 9 on Zoom. All right. Thank you. Uh we ready to read the cons? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> I1 I1 harassment, intimidation and
bullying acceptance policy acceptance and I2 harassment, intimidation and bullying affirmation. K1, we have second reading of um several policies that are listed on the agenda.
And then we move to L personnel retirements. Um I wanted to just call out one of them on the agenda and that's Jen Bioni who's been with us for uh decades who announced her retirement effective in March. Um, I personally
have known Jen for um, well over a decade and I just wanted to call out her passion for her students, making sure they have access to uh, books both that they need for research and for joy in their reading. And she's made the learning commons at the high school a
place kids really want to come and hang out. So, I appreciate um, all her work and good luck in her retirement. Then we have uh L2 resignations. L3 appointments.
Um L4 transfer and reassignment. L5 personnel items. L6 leaves of absences. L7 substitutes and student placements. L8, curriculum and instruction.
L9 student services. L10 athletic appointments. L11 sixth period compensation. And L12 termination. Then we go to curriculum instruction. M1 student day field trips.
M2 a research project that was mentioned by Elnor. Then we go to N, student services, special education. N1, educational placement of pupils 2526 at Mercer County Technical Schools.
Then we go to O, business, finance, plant, and transportation operations. 01, bus safety drills for the fall. O2, cooperative purchasing agreement with Mammoth Ocean County, ES EC, ESC.
Three, cooperative purchaseing contract award for Eastern Datacom. Four, we have a grant acceptance. Five, financial reports. Six, fire and evacuation drills. Seven, purchasing
manual. And eight, registration travel agenda. And I will note that one of the personnel items L10 uh had to do with one of our staff members who passed away tragically and suddenly. His name was Quaison Williams. And I never had the
the the privilege to meet him, but he apparently had a a pretty significant impact on some of our student athletes in the basketball program and also the football program as a youth football coach. though, of course, um I'd like to extend our our deepest sympathies to his
family and um just note that the reason that appeared on the agenda was that he he tragically passed. >> Motion, >> uh can I have a motion to accept the consent agenda? We'll go Ari seconded by
Beth. We can go after the >> Beth Bon. >> Yes. >> Adam Beerman, >> yes. >> Debbie Bronco, >> yes. >> Mara Franchesky, >> yes. >> Hu. >> Yes. >> Susan Caner, >> yes. >> Ariel, >> yes.
>> Christopher Centurio, >> yes. >> Katherine Lara, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Uh, we're going to open up for public comment on any topic. Anyone in the audience? No. Looks good.
Do would you have a motion for to close the meeting? Uh Mara second. Eleanor. All in favor, please raise their hand. All right. Meeting adjourned.