Thank you, Cass. Uh, welcome to this public meeting of the Princeton Board of Education. The board is an elected unpaid group of 10 citizens who set policy and make decisions on educational, financial, and personnel matters for the Princeton public schools on behalf of all residents. We're always
pleased when members of the community attend our meetings. The board and the school district operate under applicable New Jersey laws and under regulations of the New Jersey State Board of Education. Each meeting includes an opportunity for those attending to comment on items on the publish agenda or other matters of
interest to them. The board reserves the right to limit the time allotted to public participation, law limits, discussion of individual personnel, and confidential matters. We hope our meetings provide useful opportunities for communication between the board and the community. Thank you for attending. As required under the open public
meetings act, adequate notice was given for calling this meeting. It was authorized by the board of education and forwarded to the municipal clerk, Princeton packet and the times on January 9th, 2025 and distributed to the schools and others on the standard distribution list. The board reserves the right to enter into executive session during all meetings of the board
of education. Board policy 0168 recording devices requires that we inform those attending this in-person meeting that the proceedings are being recorded. This meeting is being livereamed. The representative of the sending district is authorized to vote on such matters that affect sending district students or affect the governance of the Princeton public schools as more
specifically designated in NJSA 18A 3881. 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 NJSA 18A 3881 is amended, the law
shall take precedence over this bylaw. Okay. Roll call. Daphne Kendall here. Beth Baron here. Adam Beerman here. Debbie Brownfeld here. Mara Franchesky here. Ellen Hubard here. Susan Caner here. Ariel here. Christopher Sanpio. Hello.
Here. Here. Thank you. Hi. We have Thanks for coming. I missed last week. Last month. Okay. So, can I get an adoption of uh the minutes for August 20th? Ari second Debbie. And uh just remember if you were here or not
because I don't think a lot of people were here, but I was here. Ari and Debbie. Yes. Beth Baron. Yes. Adam Beerman. Yes. Debbie Brownfeld. Yes. Mara Francheski.
[Music] 20th. Yes. Yes. Elanar Hubard. Abstain. Susan Caner. Yes. Ariel. Yes. Christopher Sanarpio abstain. Katherine Lar
abstain. Thank you, Mr. Harsh. And that is because we had to uh change the meeting at the last minute. Usually we have perfect attendance. Um so moving on now. Welcome everyone. Uh we do have uh several people from the public here.
Thank you for joining us. Um the school year is off to a good start as the superintendent will let us know. Um, and I'm going to take this time to introduce our new student uh board members. Uh, we have Annie uh Ben Benton Court and Ash Nean. Did I say that right? Okay. Welcome. And do you want to take a few
minutes to tell us about yourselves and then later on we'll come back to you if you have something that you want to talk about? Okay. Hi, my name is Anie. I'm a senior at Prison High School. Um, I'm very active in sports and I'm interested in studying medicine in the future and hope
to get into college this year. Hi, my name is Ash Nean. I'm also a senior at Princeton High School. Um, I am co-leader of Vote 16 Princeton and I go to Jiuliard for vocal performance and I'm hoping to study political science and music.
Okay, thank you. Well, welcome. Um, we know that senior year is very busy. So, um, we'll try to move your have your report at the front of the agenda and um, so if you're bored or you just have things to do, feel free to leave after that, but we welcome you to stay
and okay, so now we're moving on now. Oh, to the superintendent. Hello. Hello. So happy you're here. I'm happy to be here. Uh, thank you very much, Miss Kendall. It has been a good start to the school year. It's September 30th and we've got a month in the books
already and the back to school nights have occurred and uh I think everything is is going well and there are positive vibes out in the schools for the most part. Um I have kind of a number of items on my agenda that are going to take some time including multiple presentations. So, I'm going to begin
with the first one, and the first one has to do with the 250th uh commemoration, 250th anniversary or or celebration or set of celebrations of the um Revolutionary War. And uh over
the summer, Dr. Tu and I were notified about um a couple of opportunities very early on in the school year, September 17th, which is hard to pull off for some districts to to enable special celebrations to happen that early. Um but we enlisted the help of our
supervisor of humanities uh Kesha Smith Carrington uh who tried to corral as many students and staff members as she could to partake in uh a special set of events in Newark. Uh so we've invited Miss Smith Carrington and uh one of the
students, one of the 50 or so or however many went from uh Princeton High School to talk a little bit about what they experienced and what they saw. and um we really appreciate you taking the time tonight to come to share. So, please
Good evening. Um I'm excited to be here tonight with Avery who is going to be my co-f facilitator for the evening. Come closer. Come closer. Um uh one of uh to my knowledge, one of um Dr. Lusa's first
acts as superintendent um for us uh was actually approving the district to be a revolutionary schools district. And so as a revol revolutionary schools district um we were one of the districts
across the state who received exclusive invitation status for the events on the 17th which did include um multiple portions of the day. So as we move forward um if we click or move the deck. Yeah.
So so the morning agenda consisted of two workshops which were each facilitated by one of the recent um uh teachers of the year. And it so happens of course that both of them were history teachers who
were um giving us the pleasure of that instruction for the day. And so as we move forward, you'll see the title of the first session that we went to. So the first session focused on um revolutionary ideals, the promises and
the contradictions. And to the right of the ideals that were shared with us that day. Um you'll see a quote from John Adams which was kind of uh one of the dovetales to an extent. I didn't get a picture of the second of the second
quote. Um but the dovetales for us really considering um when exactly did the revolution occur and so there was a lot of thought and a lot of practice where we pretty much in a small group um unpacked a document-based question. So,
we looked at primary sources and really worked through as a team um some of the thinking around those ideals. And then we got to a portion of the morning that Avery is going to share about where we had some dignitaries come in and and
speak to us in that smaller setting. Yeah. So, first um we got to meet the Lieutenant Governor Taiisha Wei and that was pretty cool, especially for me as a student who's interested in going into politics. It was cool to kind of see it up close and personal. And then secondly, we got to meet Ken Burns. And
for those of you guys who don't know, he's a very wellrecoognized history documentarian. And it was really cool to see him and see his work. He showed us um this was later in the afternoon, but he showed us part of his unreleased um American Revolutionary, American Revolution documentary, and it was
really cool to see his process and get to know him better as a person. And then of course we had the commissioner of education as well as later in the morning um a representative from the um Newark Public Library who spoke with us. And so the second
workshop for the morning was actually one where um you'll see in a moment we got to look at some different voices of the revolution than those we typically note in our history courses. And so this gave us an opportunity to hear about
some of the perspectives from that time. And so um these are just three examples of probably 20 or more that um were divided across all of us. And there were some interesting facts. some of us knew about the fact that there was a
connection to Nova Scotia, but um one of the um one of the representatives in front of you not only had a connection to Nova Scotia, but then ended up in Sierra Leone. And so there was a lot of conversation about some of those voices
that typically aren't included in history education, including we know that there was the battle, it was one of the battles where families were split, one of the wars where families were split, but um one of the ones that is before you, um actually had a great
divide in the family that ended up with some of the family being um going to Britain along with um those who' lost the war. And so as we move forward, we had the afternoon, which Avery
already began to introduce us to. And so that portion of the day was held at New Jersey Pack. It was kind of surprising to me how many people hadn't been to New Jersey Pack. So I will put in a plug selfishly because it is a place that I've been going since it opened well
over 25 years ago. I can't remember exactly when, but it is a beautiful and there were comments from some of our group about the beauty of um the main hall as well as we didn't go into it but the smaller smaller theater space as well. And so that afternoon was
moderated as you can see um by Brian Williams and Ken Burns was there. As we move forward you'll see that he was also joined by two other people. Sarah Bosine, who is one of the one of the
other of the three um co-producers and co-directors of the film, which airs on November 16th, so everyone can put that date on their calendar. Um, and then we also had Christopher Brown and Avery will share a few words about who he is.
Yeah. So, Christopher Brown is a professor from Columbia University and he specializes in the American Revolution, but specifically the British perspective of the war. And I think overall coming to this event really you realize how unlikely it was for us to have won the war. The fact that we won
the Revolutionary War was that the odds were not in our favor. And so for me I think the main thing that I took away from it is what are we going to do as a society moving forward to continue making the world a better place. And I think this can connect to um our current
history classes but also just like as a society like what are we doing? what do we owe to each other to try to keep, you know, bettering the country and living up to our constitutional ideals. And so, of course, um, this would not have happened without the participation
and support of the board. So, we thank you for that. Um I we also want to thank Sophia and Aaron who weren't able to be here this evening but were um willing to be here and and contributed to the content for tonight. Um of course also
Dr. Miller and Mr. Campbell were the teachers who were um pivotal crucial to the event happening. And then of course we also needed chaperones beyond that. And so I'm really grateful to Mr.
Johnson and Mr. McCann and Miss Russell who were willing to sacrifice a day to join us. I do want to share some of the takeaways for folks who aren't here. Um there were comments made about just how scholarly our children were when it came
to and I'm sorry young folks. I know I say children still so forgive me. um but how scholarly our our students were when it came to really engaging in the morning not only in both of the workshops but especially in the
afternoon because you can imagine I can't remember the exact number but there were well over a thousand students who were from across many districts in our state in New Jersey pack and so you're talking about four tiers of children and and sometimes the attention
wasn't always where it needed to but that wasn't the case for our students. So, we were really really pleased that our students showed up as the scholars that they are. And in addition to that, we've received um emails from parents who are talking about what their students came home sharing with them
that they learned as well as um we as adults ourselves um having appreciation for Kim Burn's work and having the opportunity to be there and to have the takeaways because the afternoon the video clips were seven that were
specific to the New Jersey components of the documentary. And so we got to see specific details about New Jersey as well as learn something about the cinematography behind it because there was drone use and for any who love film. Um there was talk about the rate of the
film and all of the ways that um technology was used to really kind of focus us as viewers on what was intended in the messaging. So thank you again for the privilege of experiencing that opportunity.
[Applause] Oh, thank you, Miss Miss Carrington. Thank you very much. We appreciate um your like pulling this all together and what a great opportunity for our children to attend. So, thank you. [Laughter]
You know, we do that to people. [Music] Come on back. Yeah. So are there next and more opportunities? Are there other opportunities that we will be a revolutionary school? Yes. So there will be opportunities. Um
at at present they're saying for two years. So it seems as though it's intended to go slightly beyond the actual anniversary. And so at this moment we're not sure of all of the happenings. There is a website for the whole initiative that the state is
offering. There are events on the website for public members who want or citizens who want to participate in any of the events. And I was looking at the calendar the other day. There's a lot of things if you're interested in participating that you can be involved
in. for us as school districts who are involved. There is some um curriculum that's available to integrate where it dubtales with your curricula. Um and there are also resources to come including things that PBS has already
released um to support the viewing of the documentary. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Just want just want to say thank you to Kesha. she was spreading the the plaudits to her teachers and colleagues, but this was really she spearheaded this
entire project and got all of these folks up uh to experience this. So, thank you, Kesha. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] All right, we're we're humming along now. Um, perfect. Okay. So, I'm I'm just
going to touch on uh attendance districtwide, although most of what is shown here is going to be driven by the high school and the middle school. Uh, and I'm doing this for two reasons. Uh the first is this is just something we began discussing uh administratively in the summer and more as uh a wondering
meaning that that uh the data that we were looking at which came from the department of education website uh spurred some questions about uh our own processes and systems uh some of our priorities or messaging to students
about coming to school. Um and then those discussions ended up coinciding with uh some of the training that we've had in relation to our NJQs audit that is coming up later on this school year. So QAC stands for uh quality single
accountability continuum if I'm not mistaken and that's the department of New Jerseyy's mechanism for ensuring that districts are doing what they're supposed to do and complying with the many uh requirements that the the DOE has for all districts in the state and
our QAC uh audit will begin with some facilities inspections by the department and then in February we will undergo the full audit which touches upon curriculum and instruction and personnel and governance and some other areas. And one
of the things that we were told in this uh in the leadup in the training this year is that uh the DOE is going to look very closely at chronic absenteeism and any district with any school uh that has a chronic absenteeism rate above 10%
will be put on a corrective action plan. And in our case, we have two schools that will wind up on corrective action plans which we have to develop and adopt as a board of education as soon as possible basically. So probably, excuse me, in October or November.
Dr. Lusa, I'm sorry. What schools are going to be on? Middle school and high school. Thank you. Uh so in addition to the QAC part of it though of course instructional time is important and we can't uh do the great things that we want to do including what uh uh Miss
Smith Carrington was just talking about if students are not in school. So uh the reference here or the citation in 18A which is the the primary statutes that govern public school district operation New Jersey is here on the screen. Uh,
and I won't read through this, but it's 18A 38-25.1. Uh, so as I said, we have two schools that rise above 10%. Uh the middle school just last year ticked up dramatically and I want to underscore
that we are still trying to determine whether that is the result of some of our own recordkeeping some of uh the process of submitting all of our data to the DOE in June which we're required to do every year or some other issues or a
combination of lots of factors. So there's no single blame game uh happening or definitive uh conclusion that we've reached with any of this. And then the high school the last couple of years has been high higher than it should. So to put that in um context a
little bit, I I I shared this in the summer in my newsletter uh just to show the trend and how we're a little bit of an outlier when it comes to other um school districts. And just to get to those other school districts, um, I simply took some districts nearby. This
is district-wide rates of absenteeism, uh, and districts that we might compare ourselves to just from an achievement standpoint. And you can see that we were, you know, we were the highest when it came to, uh, rates of chronic absenteeism. And then uh because it's
not always uh it's not always the best path to look at schools that we might compare ourselves to just because of geography or achievement levels. I tried to take some school districts that uh are com are comparable with respect to
demographics. Uh and Summit is a is you know fairly close if you look at the subgroups there and the percentages of those subgroups. So that's how I came out with the various uh school districts that are a combination here of ones that
perform similarly and are nearby and others that are similar demographically. And again, you can just see that our rates of absenteeism as we're reporting them to the state um are higher. And chronic absenteeism is defined by
student who misses 18 or more days of the school year, 10%. Uh if we look at our demographic group group groups and this is districtwide, you can see uh where some of our higher rates of absenteeism lie. Um and then uh
just moving through the other school districts and looking at some of the subgroups, uh our multilingual students are up there. Almost a quarter of them are absent 18 or more times over the course of the year. Economically disadvantaged
special education, Hispanic, white, black, Asian. And so you can just get a a feel in those charts that it's really kind of widespread across demographic groups. We're not talking about just one
particular driver. Uh so for us um we're going to uh we're already of course working with the middle school and high school administrations and talking about this. We're looking at our um systems including our student information system. So we will develop the
corrective action plan and there are some required components like a parent survey about what could be preventing students from coming to school regularly or what are the obstacles of of in terms of uh regular attendance. Uh we have to
have some form of collaboration with the PTO which is to talk with them and then we do need board approval. Uh we are waiting for the new performance reports to come out this year which should happen. Usually it happens by the end of the calendar year although it depends on the state but we're hopeful that we'll
actually see some improvement just before we do anything. Um and that last year we had better attendance rates than we did uh in prior years. We'll go through the QAC process and we are going to do an audit of P school. We've had P school in place for a very long time.
Power School is our student information system, but many of our other systems like our budgeting and financial software and staff uh management have already migrated to another system. So, we are going to sort of look under the hood uh when it comes to powers school
and we'll report all this back out and again board approve a corrective action plan some point in the next couple of months. So, Andrew, you can take that down and now pivot to the calendar. Wait, I have a question. Sure. So, um I know when you got here, um you
looked at our absentee to our numbers and they were not good. So, what's your gut check on this? Are our kids really like not going to school like in multiples of other districts or uh what do you think?
I think that we have some um idiosyncrasies with our data that we are going to find inside of P school and that we have some um belt tightening that we could do just in terms of potential human behavior, potential
followth through with ensuring that we're reconciling absenteeism appropriately. Uh, I think we there might be a culture here perhaps at least in the upper grades of um a little bit more of just a loose orientation to
coming to school every day. Uh, so I think it could be a combination of factors. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? No, but we'll see. We all want to see students in school every day and we all
know that the magic happens when students are in school. Uh so then the next item for me before I turn it over to some of our high school uh folks uh is just we have not yet adopted a calendar for the 2627 school year. So
we're a little late in the game because we've already begun this school year. Uh and looking at next year's calendar uh and this is just a draft of the calendar. So, there's some tightening up to do, but uh Labor Day happens on September 7th next year. Uh and when
Labor Day falls that late, which is as late as it can fall, it really is not possible any longer in my view to begin the school year for students after Labor Day. Uh it becomes necessary to start school before Labor Day. Uh and the reasons for that are uh first of all we
are a district as we ought to be that has made the decision that our school calendar will be reflective of the communities we serve. Meaning we will not just recognize Judeo-Christian holidays uh over the course of the year but we will try to have a representative
approach to the uh to the observance of special days and religious days. Uh and then on top of that, it's really just become a reality that it's not possible for a K through 12 district in my view uh to end the school year really beyond
uh June 20th or so. And because we also commemorate as we should Junth in this in in New Jersey and in the United States at this point, uh in reality the school year needs to end by June 18th. Um otherwise what happens is that some
students at the high school level who are graduating need to be at their colleges and universities for orientation programs and we wind up losing some students who can't attend their own graduation and even students who are juniors or sophomores may be in
uh preol programs and they end up missing the final days of school. So, uh, when you add all of that together, it becomes necessary to start the school year before, uh, Labor Day. And if you could just go up to September, Andrew, real quick. Um, so if if we accept that,
and some may, some may may not, but if we start before Labor Day, the question just becomes when to start before Labor Day. And, uh, Monday, August 31st or Monday before Labor Day next year is August 31st. My recommendation would be
to begin the school year on that Monday and then have a 4-day week so that the Labor Day weekend begins on the Friday the 4th and there's still a long Labor Day weekend. People can still get away. They'd be off Friday and Monday for uh the Labor Day holiday. Uh and then
they'd return and we would move forward with the rest of the school year. Uh this draft calendar has only five professional development days allocated whereas the current year and last year's calendar has six. Uh if we insert another uh professional development day,
uh we can discuss when that would be. So potentially election day, potentially um Columbus or Indigenous People's Day, and then doing that would back up the final day of the school year from uh I believe June 16th on this calendar to June 17th.
But that is something that the board uh can discuss or we can talk about. So that's the draft calendar. Um I leave it to you to discuss and then uh we can circulate it throughout the district after tonight. Thank you, Dr. Lusa. Um brave coming in
here and making all these changes. Uh impressed. Um so I just want to say that you know the first thing people are going to say is what do the teachers think? And I think that we have been laying the groundwork for this for many years. Um their contract going around
their contract requires them to begin work in August. So um the feedback I know you've spoken to the staff and I I know some staff are not uh you know don't like change but overall do people
understand um the reason? I think as I said we we started looking at this in 2017 um in conjunction with the Stanford survey that we um administered at the high school and um you know kids learn better in September than they do in June
um and there's a lot of studies on that so if people want to look into that and um also for our students at the high school with AP testing um first of all right now they're doing a lot of work over the summer So starting school a
week earlier theoretically will help them. And also on the other end of the year when the AP tests are over um there's there's less time to fill. Yes. Well, let me start by saying I
wouldn't characterize it as I've spoken to the staff. I have spoken to the the leadership of the association a little bit about this. um they understand by and large. Uh I have been through this before, so I don't I'm not delusional. Uh some people
will embrace this, especially after they live it for one year, because it really is great to hit Labor Day and already have some routines established for students and for uh teachers and so forth. And the less time you have after Memorial Day is generally something that is very wellreceived once you get there.
Uh but on the other hand, there are folks uh particularly parents who do not have ele who do not have uh high school age students um who would prefer to have a summer that stretches all the way, you know, till Labor Day is over. Um so
there there's no you can't please everyone. I do believe definitively this is better for students overall. So, high school students, um, we don't control the, uh, the athletic calendar for starters. So, the NJSIA determines the
start date of fall athletics. They've moved that up in order to try to create space in between each season during the year because there was too much overlap uh, with sports between fall and winter and then winter and spring. So the fall season starts about August 10th uh for
football and then the other sports fold in after that through about August 24th. Um then the the and we're going to hear about this in a minute. The the moving up and the acceleration of the college admissions process has created a lot of
stress in the beginning of senior year. And even though our professionals tell students to make sure they've contacted all of their teachers for recommendations junior year and even though they they counsel them to get ahead ofhead of things, uh the beginning
of senior year is is quite hectic and uh just about many many of our seniors apply to college before the November 1st uh deadline or thereabouts in the in the fall. Uh and then of course like you say standardized testing. uh the rest of the
country, we're an outlier in the majority of the United States. So, giving kids a little bit more time with their teachers before some of the big tests like AP exams uh can also be helpful. Having said all that, the reality is some people like the very warm water that you get at the end of
August and early September. It's not perfect for everyone, but all students in this district eventually will become high school students, and I do think it is better for high school students to start even earlier than this. So, my former district started like a week before this. Uh, so and my own children.
Um, again, not everyone's cup of tea, but there are reasons to do it. Well, and thank you. But I I will go back and say this is something we've been talking about for many years. and in 2022 and I think I saw Michelle Tuck ponder back there. So she was in the room with me when we talked to the union
and uh so they this is something that we discussed when we negotiated the contract that it was really important to us and they were like and there was agreement back then hence the August start date in the contract. So um you know I just I think you know over the
since 2022 we've had a lot of you know ups and downs and I think um this is like our first opportunity to really um make uh strides into into doing this and I think it is in the best interest of kids and I really do thank you uh for
undertaking this. This one isn't that heavy a lift. I don't think that they're going to be tougher lifts out there than this one. Okay. But your first one we'll be we'll be we'll be good. And the association has been terrific. The leadership is is great and collaborative
and uh they did have a couple of asks on our end if we could be mindful of certain uh things which of course I've already spoken with Andrew about uh one of those items. We will do whatever we can to make the the entry point uh as frictionless as
possible. So are we putting a water slide in in in the pack? insurance. Not in the pack. Maybe on the front lawn. Not in the pack. All right. All right. Well, thank you. Can I Yeah. Sorry. So, the Memorial Day. Sorry. The Memorial
Day. It just I don't know. Is Do people like that having that much time then? You know, because it's so close to when school's ending. I I don't know. I was just asking time off. The two days around Memorial Day are only if we don't have any snow days.
Okay. Um I think a lot of people love a long Memorial Day weekend. Um, but one of the reasons to do that around Memorial Day is just to be sure it it gets you past any of the the months where you could have a surprise with the weather. And
the longer you wait, the less um audible you have to do, whereas sometimes if you try to build them on to spring break, you can have something very unusual happen even with just like power power outages or something that causes you to reconsider. So, I've always stuck them
around Memorial Day, but that's something we could we could modify if we want. Right. And then I do know I mean I'm glad we're having school on election day, but we have one more school that you know still has elections in it. So,
can look at that. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. And then you have one more. Yes. And so, actually, I'm going to let Dr. to introduce the final um presenters because she has worked closely with them and will give a better introduction than
I can. Um good evening everyone. So um Neperna and John do you want to come on up? Uh so with us tonight are Neperna Shaw our college and career counselor at uh Princeton High School and John Mcichael our supervisor of counseling uh for K to 12. Um and each year we present a
metriculation report to the board. Um so at this month's student achievement meeting, Neperna and uh John gave a nice overview of the class of 2025. Um where they're headed next. Um and this is really a time to celebrate all the great work our students do. Anie and Ash,
you'll be in the report next year. Um and so it's really great to see the the counseling that happens behind the scenes to kind of help kids land where they're supposed to land um once they live leave Princeton High School. Um, so this work is over the course of an entire year and it comes to fruition in
this metriculation report. Um, so I'm going to let them um, present, but just so thankful for all the work that happens behind the scenes uh, to bring this to fruition. So, thank you. Thank you so much. Um, I really just want to begin by saying I feel blessed and honored that I work get to work with
all the amazing students at Princeton High School. We saw evidence of it with Avery. We have two great board leaison up here. So, um, every day I learn as much from you guys as I hope you learn from me. Um, my mission for the Princeton High School College and Career Counseling
Program is really to align individuals with whatever their strengths and interests and goals are. And those can fall anywhere between a four-year college, a two-year college, technical school, vocational programs, employment opportunities. really it's a broad broad spectrum of different um avenues that
our students choose to pursue um upon leaving Princeton High School. And really our mission is to foster a culture of equity, access, and informed decision-making to make sure every student feels seen and heard along that journey and supported and confident as they leave Princeton High School.
Um in terms of the highlights for the class of 2025, we had 396 graduates. Those graduates attended college or university in 29 different states and three different countries. We had 371 unique colleges and universities our
students were accepted to and 150 unique colleges or universities where our students attended postgraduation. In terms of our uh percentage of students attending either a two-year or
four-year college, overall we had 92% of our PHS graduates pursuing uh higher education path directly after graduation. Um 85% of those were attending a four-year college. 7% of those were attending a two-year college and 8% fell into various other
categories including the workforce, trade school, military, or a gap year. Um, if we look at the placement by college type, you will notice between the four-year and the two-year. Um, let's start with the four-year numbers. The, uh, the majority of our students
land at private notfor-profit outofstate schools, followed by public outofstate schools and then public in-state schools. When we look at our two-year numbers or two-year college, um the majority of our students land at public instate um institutions, a few public
out of state and a few for profit out of state as well. Um this is a list of our most applied to colleges and universities. Historically, Ruckers always has the number one spot as the college that the majority of
Princeton high school students um overarchingly apply to. Princeton is on our backyard and you you'll see that there's a robust number of our students that apply to Princeton. Um Nor Eastern in the last few years has really gained traction and uh has a lot of
applications from PHS. And then you can sort of follow that list uh down. Um on the average we have our students applying to about nine unique schools um in their year.
In terms of the most attended universities and colleges, Rutgers once again tops that list where we had 31 enrollments at Ruckers University, followed by Mercer County Community College. We had 24 students enrolling there. And Princeton, New Jersey, right
in our backyard, 17 enrollments there. Um, we are New Jersey strong and proud at BHS. Um about half of the most frequently attended colleges are public universities and as I mentioned Ruckers really continues to be the most applied to and most attended to college.
Um in terms of applications this is these are numbers from the common application. So year-over-year common application saw a 7% increase um and a continued growth in the number of collegebound applicants. Um, in terms of our PHS applications on the common app,
they stayed pretty flat, but um, what you will see in the next slide is that outside of the common app, we had students applying through other means directly to the college or through the coalition app. Um, so we also see that steady increase in the number of applications.
Um, here is our uh, application numbers from 24 to 25. You will see that for um the total applications our numbers increased year-toear. For the common app they decreased slightly but not much. But then for other applications there
was a pretty significant increase year-toear. In terms of the the application plans, our student our accepted students um indicated we had the most students in 2026 apply via a early action plan. And
that makes a lot of sense because early action is a non-binding agreement. So students really um get ex their acceptances early on but don't have to commit to those colleges until the May 1st decision deadline. Um rolling admissions or sorry regular decision was the next popular um that deadline is a
little bit later on January 1st. So it gives students a little bit more time to put their applications together. Um we had a robust standing enrolling uh decision schools. Those are schools um where once the application opens students can apply immediately and are likely to get a decision within four to
six weeks after the application rates. So we again have a strong growth in our early action and regular decision and rolling action numbers um early decision saw a slight decrease probably shifting away from like those binding commitments which also come with a strong financial
commitment. um emerging categories like early action three and early action four. Auburn University has like four early action plans. Crazy. And it starts September 1st, October 1st, November 1st, December 1st. It is wild. But colleges are really
trying to get creative in uh securing the yields for their classes. So they're coming up with all kinds of new uh new plans. Um and then early decision 2 and restrictive early action also had a significant percentage increase though through smaller bases.
Our PHS graduates um land in different places in the world. This year we had attendance at for seven students in Canada, two in France and three in Scotland. Um, we are a pretty well-known school in not only the United States but
across the world. Well recognized and our students uh show that there. Um, here is a visual image of the different states our students uh are attending college within the United States. Um, they truly span across the
country. The Midwest is not as much uh densely applied to, but you'll notice Texas, California, and the East Coast um show high numbers of enrollments. Um in terms of our underresourced students, and by underresourced, I mean
those students that are currently enrolled in a free or reduced lunch program, we had a strong uh placement in four-year colleges, an 82% placement rate. Um, I always like to mention that I have a very strong partner in crime here with Andrea Dynan that she and I
work extremely closely together um to help these students from the summer through the entire application process and financial aid process um throughout the year uh to cross the finish line. So, we're especially proud of these numbers that we have such uh strong
post-secary placement in a four-year or two-year college there. Um, in terms of the ethnicity breakdown, PH the majority of our students are white students at 178, followed by 101 Asian students, um, 49 Hispanic
students, 42 multicultural students, and we actually had one student that identified as Alaskan and Native American. Um if you look at the post-graduation placement rate by ethnicity, you will notice that our four-year colleges four-year college by far is the highest
attended um type of postsecary plan across all the different ethnicities. Um we have a few other scattered um post-secary plans in the gap year in military and trade school workforce.
Um, this is our post-graduation placement rate by ethnicity. Uh, we had 100% placement rate for our a Alaskan and Native American with that one student attending college. The second highest was our Asian students with a 99%
followed by our multi-racial and white students at 92 and 93% respectively. Our black students fell at an 84% uh rate and our Hispanic students at an 82% rate. For those students uh that have an IEP,
um their four-year uh four-year college attendance rate was at 58%, two-year college rate at 18%. Um and then you'll notice the numbers sort of dwindle between vocational school, workforce, post-graduate year, military, and other opportunities.
And that's just a visual image of the numbers that I just talked about earlier. And with that again, I just want to say thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Neperna. First, I want to say the blessing is ours that we have you
working with our kids and our families. So, um it's really you you do a great job. And and I know you know each one of those kids and where they all went. Um I do. So, thank you. Thank you. Oh, hold on. Hold on.
Sorry. Sorry. Thank you. Um thank you. It was excellent. I super appreciate all the hard work you guys do. Especially love seeing the underresourced um because I know the amount of work that must go behind that. I have one request. I am very concerned about the u about boys
there. They women are now girls are now 60% of college things. I would love to see um how we're doing here in Princeton and are we serving our boys and are we are we getting that men? So I would love to see that break out if that was something you might consider. Thank you. Sure. Thanks.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Anything else? I think that's it for my report. Okay. Thank you. So moving on our first public comment. Um, so this is a public on on anything agenda or non agenda. So
if you would like to come up, let's go outside. Sorry. Oh, there's a respons. Um, okay. So, uh, public comment. speak about anything you like. Uh if you can keep it to three minutes, we appreciate it. And first up is Brian Levenson.
Your mic. Um if you could just state your name and uh the street you live on, please. Uh good evening. Can you hear me? Great. Uh my name is Brian Levenson. I live on Patton Avenue in Princeton. I'm
speaking here tonight in support of common sense limits on smartphones and social media during instructional time. Uh so this is happening right now in public and private schools, red states and blue states all across the country and it's not yet happening in Princeton.
Um and I think there's no time like the present. Uh just last week the Murphy administration issued important guidance to New Jersey schools spelling out different types of influ implementation and even necessary exemptions. Uh for me the issue is doubly important. So I'm a local parent. I have a third grader at
Riverside. Uh but I'm also an educator. I teach high school history in West Windsor where we have a great absentee rate. Um in my experience, I've worked in schools now for more than a decade. Um unchecked smartphone use by teens is just bad for
the school community. It's bad for student health, especially mental health, and it's bad for academic achievement. So I won't bore you with stats. Uh the governor's report already makes a compelling case. Uh it's a database case for taking a more hands-on approach, but here's what I've observed in my own
classroom. Uh first, there's a substantial increase in focus and engagement when students are not distracted by smartphones and social media. Uh this became clear several years ago when many of us teachers required students to put their phones in pouches at the start of class. Uh second, there are surprisingly few
student complaints when this happens. I think the teenagers more than old folks are pretty quick to realize that smartphones and social media are not uh actually expressions of freedom. Um in fact sometimes they act in just the opposite way.
But uh no classroom exists in a vacuum. It's simply not enough that some teachers in Princeton or in West Windsor are putting up pouches. Uh we need the board and the school administration to articulate a strong district-wide position because
when you shift responsibility down to the classroom level, I think you're doing a particular disservice to new teachers in the district. Uh new teachers are dealing with all kinds of time pressures and curricular pressures. They're working to tirelessly develop new lessons and find their voice in the classroom and they don't want to be seen
as taking things away from kids. That was certainly the case for me when I started. Um, so having a strong board approved policy and a coordinated approach across the district would no longer force teachers into that corner. Uh, it would help unleash the potential of students and teachers alike. So, in
closing, members of the board, this is the easiest decision you get to make this year. Uh, you have political support, you have community support, you have teacher support. There's no great financial investment here. And it's not as if you're the first school district that's going to put common sense limits
in place, but here's the problem. You you risk becoming one of the last. And I think that's a real concern for the Princeton community. So, thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Yeah. [Applause]
Next up, we have uh Mary Lungquist. Hi. Can you hear me? Okay. Thank you all for being on the board and for what you do. Um my name is Mary Lungquist. I live on Merwick Court in Princeton. Um I'm a parent. I have three kids in the school
district. Um a sixth grader, a third grader, and a three-year-old in the 3K um program. Um I am here also to talk about cell phone policy. Um this is a huge concern for me. Um just um piggybacking off of
what Brian's comments were, there was the governor's report on on policies. Um New Jersey is behind in the country um setting up a a districtwide policy. Um, I personally would like to see a
bell-to-bell policy that promotes um not only uh more focus in the classroom, but also uh more connection and focus outside the classroom in between classes. So, bellto bell would be um they put pouches put
their cell phones in pouches for the whole day. And there is strong evidence for this to um to be good for kids throughout the day. Um being less distracted. Um I really care about kids um being able to uh have
their minds wander have um curiosity about things, being observant about things in their surroundings. Um I think that uh meeting it's def definitely going to be hard. Um, so I I prefer not
to call it a cell phone ban, but a pro- focus, pro play, pro-socialization phone policy. Um, that I'd like Princeton to think about and adopt. Um, those in between times are great opportunity for for children, for kids, and for all of
us, frankly, to um to grow as people um free of distraction. And and um Mr. Luza, you talked about absenteeism and it just made me think that when we are looking at our phones and our devices, we might
be physically present in a place, but our minds are not there. And I think that in school, if we care about being present um and making the most of that time, then having a policy that promotes um promotes that just makes sense. And
and New and Princeton could be a leader in this if if we take action soon. So, thank you for your time. Thank you. Uh, next up we have Avery Bar. She left, right? She leave. She left. The student. Yeah.
Um, if if she's not here, I also um if you I have permission to speak for another parent who um submitted one, but it was kind of last minute and she asked me to read it out loud if there's time. Um, who's the parent because we have some. Yeah. and Dector, have you got it?
We'll read that. Yeah, you read it. Okay, Mi Mr. Harris will read it. Yes. Okay. When we're done with the people who are here. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um Michelle Tuck Ponder. Good evening. I'm Michelle Tuck Ponder, Laurel Circle, and for the first time in
21 years, I have no children in the school district. And this is how you're spending your nights? This is how I miss you all so much. Um, so I have three three issues and I'm going to try to get them done in three minutes. And um, the first is going to
take a little privilege. I'm so excited about the Revolutionary War um, activity that's in the school. I'm the class of 1976. I'm a bsentennial graduate and so I spent most of my senior year celebrating the bsentennial of the United States and it's so rich and so
important and New Jersey played such a big part. So I am thrilled that our students are getting to experience that. So that's that's very cool. Um my second um matter has to do with the um metriculation report which as usual is stellar and it looks great for our
school district. But as I stated um in the sack meeting um one of the things I wanted to bring to the board's attention and also to the attention of the college um counseling um group is that according to the journal of blacks in higher education among highly selective
institution institutions black firstear student enrollment dropped by a staggering 16.9% this year the sharpest drop of any major racial group. This was the first admission cycle since the Supreme Court ended the use of race-sensitive
admissions at colleges and universities. In contrast, white firstyear student enrollment at these highly selective institutions only decreased by 5%. Over the past two years, black first student enrollment at the country's top
universities has decreased by 18.4%. Now, we can't do anything about who the colleges admit, but I think having that awareness and being sensitive in counseling black students who are applying to college is critically important and the recognition that there
is a movement in this country that is negatively impacting black students specifically, but all students across the board. So, I just wanted to raise that issue um for that. And my third um issue is a question and I know you're not answering questions but it's about
preschool going all the way to the other end of the spectrum and um what we've been what we've been hearing and I'm here on behalf of Princeton Parents for Black Children is that the preschool program at Princeton Community Village is um in jeopardy of being moved. And I
don't know if that's accurate or true. Um but that is something that we're hearing. So, it would be great if there's any intention or um any discussion around that issue. We would certainly like to weigh in about the importance of locating that preschool
program at PCV. So, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for what you do. It's good to see you all. It's nice to see you, too. Thank you, Michelle. Um Dr. Tu, is there um I know it's early in the year, so has there been any discussion? Yes, I I going to
just want to maybe talk to you u Michelle offline and find out more information about what you're hearing and then we can clarify that. That would be helpful. Yeah. Thank you. Um so that's it for the people who signed up. Is there anyone else here? Come on up. Just state your
name and the street you live on, please. Good evening. Uh my name is Hun and I live on Bertrand uh Drive. Uh, I got an email about the cell phone thing and it's something that I've been uh feeling about strongly for a long time and I was thrilled that there's a meeting where we
can uh address you guys um doing this important work. Uh I have two children that graduated from Princeton High School uh one this year and one three years ago. I actually asked them about this matter and they said yes absolutely we would have preferred if we had not
had access if not everybody had had access to cell phones all the time. Uh as a parent I was always stunned that you can uh ask them uh on a text message or WhatsApp any time during the school uh day and you get a response immediately. I always thought that's
just unbelievable that that can be true and it is true. um they were just responsive to my text which I guess is a good thing as a parent but in this context uh I just found it truly shocking. Uh so I cannot emphasize enough that uh this should be changed as
quickly as possible. Um I'm also an educator. Uh I teach at uh Princeton uh an economics large economics class and uh I have an electronics free learning environment policy for many years now. No cell phones uh in my classroom. If I
get any if I see anybody, they first get a talking to and then they get points deducted from their final grade. It is absolutely detrimental to learning if people can sock uh can shop for socks or uh or be on social media. It is uh it
not only creates uh um a diversion for them, but it also everybody else sees that there's this alternative activity that you could rather be doing. So it creates an atmosphere of what's happening there in front of you is unimportant. It is really in my mind one
of the most important challenges uh to education. So I urge you to move as quickly as possible. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else here who would like to say something at public comment? No. Then Mr. Harris, I think you have a
few emails to read. Okay, the first is from Ann Dector. Dear public Princeton school, Dear Princeton public school board members and Dr. Lassusa. My name is Anne Dector. I'm the mother of two PPS students. Our son is in sixth grade and our daughter is in fourth. I would like to express my
strong support for a bell-to-bell cell phone and smartwatch policy in our schools. in line with strong recommendations from the New Jersey Commission on the effects of social media on adolescence and the guidance from the New Jersey Department of Education. I thank you for all your hard work for all the hard work you do for our kids and urge you to adopt and imple
implement this common sense policy for PPS and please know you will have the strong support on this policy from the vast majority of Princeton families. Sincerely, Anne Dector. The next comes from Allison Mueller or Mueller.
Dear President Kendall and members of the Princeton Board of Education, I would like to voice my strong support for the adoption of a bell-to-bell phone policy in our district. I am the parent of a pre-K daughter who will be entering the public school system in the coming years. And as both an educator and a parent, this issue is very important to
me. Phones do not belong in schools. I also bring professional perspective to this conversation. I hold a pedigogy certificate from Columbia's un Columbia University School of Professional Studies where I participated in the pedagogical lab, an immersive program designed to help facilitate help faculty
translate real world expertise into effective classroom practice. Through this training, I studied classroom interactions, engagement strategies, and methods to create focused, supportive learning environments. From that lens, it is clear to me that smartphones are a major impediment to meaningful learning.
The evidence is overwhelming. Unrestricted phone use undermines attention, interrupts peer-to-peer interaction, and negatively impacts mental health. Schools should be special places of focus and connection where students are free to fully engage with their teachers, peers, and learning materials. These goals are incompatible
with con constant access to smartphones. New Jersey has now issued guidance recommending districts prohibit phone and social media throughout social media use throughout the entire school day, not just during instructional time. I urge you to follow that recommendation. A bell-to-bell policy will send strong,
consistent message that our district priorities, learning, student well-being, and healthy school and a healthy school climate. Thank you for your attention and for considering the voices of parents and educators who want to see Princeton lead with a policy that protects students ability to learn and
thrive. Sincerely, Allison Mueller. We have two more. Uh this one is from Reena Bliss. Dear members of the board, as senior personnel as senior personnel of a National Science Foundation Center for
Responsible AI governance and a technology researcher focused on the harms of social media, edtech and AI platforms, I strongly advise that you adopt a bell-to-bell limitation policy on internet enabled devices for our school district per the New Jersey Department of Education guidance for
schools on student use of internet enabled devices. I cannot attend tomorrow's meeting, so feel free to share my statement with those in attendance. Reach out if you have questions. Dr. Reena Bliss. And our final comment online was Rachel
from Rachel Winfrey. Dear BOE members, I am the parent of two PHS students, one who graduated in 2022, one currently a sophomore. I am writing to submit a comment on the topic of smartphone bands in Princeton schools, which I believe is on the agenda for your September 30th meeting. I'm sorry
that I am not able to attend the meeting in person. I urge you to support a smartphone ban that prohibits students from using phones while at school. There is so much published evidence that phones in schools are harming kids learning as well as their social interactions. Parenthetically, although
speaking as a parent and as a teacher, the problem doesn't really need studies as it is obvious. End parent parenthesy. The studies I've read show that bell-to-bell phone bands work best. Students leave their phones in their lockers and do not carry them to class or to lunch recess. For example, a 2024
National Education Association survey of K to2 teachers found that phone use in classroom is two to three times more disruptive at schools with cell phone policies that are left up to individual teachers or that allow phone use between classes as compared with schools having bell-to-bell policies. Jonathan hates
Substack has good resources on this topic such as the recent post how to and how not to mandate phone-f free schools. As a PHS parent, I think removing phones from school is particularly important at the high school school level. This is supported by a 2024 Pew Research Center
poll which found that 72% of high school teachers say cell phones are a major problem in their classroom, a much higher percentage than teachers of middle school or elementary school. The results from counties and states that have banned cell phones in schools are encouraging. For example, this article
with a link included shows that a year after cell phones were banned from public schools in Australia, 87% of principles said students are now less distracted in the classroom and 86% say social interactions among students have improved. Thank you for considering these comments in your discussion. Best
wishes wishes, Rachel. Thank you, Mr. Harris. Um, is there anyone else here who would like to speak at public comment right now? No. Okay. Um, so we don't have anything on the agenda tonight about cell phone policy. So I guess it's in the air. Did you have
anything you wanted to share on that, Dr. Lassusa? It's in the air for all parents. I think speaking as a parent um and I I can't recall in all my time agreeing with more with almost every word stated in uh the
public comment section of the of an agenda as I do tonight. Um I guess I'll say a few things. So uh it's correct that there's no district level or board level policy governing the use of cell phones, which is probably true in most districts in New Jersey, I would say. Uh
but there is uh there is school policy and um and that happens through the student handbooks and codes of conduct and essentially in this district like I would say most uh there is a ban right now of cell phones in K8. The students
at in our elementary schools and uh at the middle school where I was today, they're not walking around with their cell phones. They're not permitted to have their cell phones out in class. Uh so um there is essentially a bell-to-bell ban I would say in practicality K8 in the high school
there's a different uh set of circumstances so uh I have been involved in implementing I agree wholeheartedly with uh especially the gentleman from West Windsor about it being impossible to think that there's going to be a policy
that could work on a teacher classroom level. uh it places teachers in a very poor position if they're trying to uh implement a ban if colleagues down the hall are not doing the same. It has to be something that comes from a board or district level or a school level and
where there's a lot of buyin. Um I have been involved in a in that level of policy and it involved having to place every student in every classroom having to place the phone in a holder. they were not permitted to retrieve the phone to go to the restroom, which actually
dramatically reduced the number of visits to restrooms. That was one of the things we didn't anticipate, but it was true. Um, the only times they were permitted to have their phones was during recess, but during lunch, excuse me, or study hall, which I know is not a
bell to bell. Uh, I have to echo some of the remarks about uh students and their response. I was very surprised at how supportive students were for the policy once we implemented it. Uh as were parents. Uh and of course students still
could retrieve a phone if we had an evacuation or an emergency of any kind. So it reduced the concern from some parents that they might need to get in touch with their children uh in an emergency or the concern from some parents which can be legitimate that they might not need to get a message to their child immediately but they might
want their child to know something by the end of the day 3 hours later. And if a student was able to have their phone on their person in between class or during study hall, at least they knew that they could get an some type of message to their child. I probably deep
down think or not even deep down, I think if you put a lie detector in test in front of me, I would I think the best thing is a a bell to bell ban or just incinerating every phone in the community. Um, but there are some real logistical challenges to that which are
and some of those reasons are ones we didn't in my prior life go for a bell-to-bell. Princeton High School welcomes 1500 students every day. Uh, the building was probably built to house 250 kids, I would guess 100 years ago. And even though there are many many
additions and many entrances, trying to have 1500 kids enter their phones into a sealable pouch or remove them from a sealable pouch in the beginning of the day and the end of the day requires a lot of work and expense potentially. Uh so it's it's hard to do
that. I think also there's a a reality coming from someone who was a high school administrator, both a principal and a and an assistant principal, and that is that trying to um ensure that 1500 students are complying with that
policy uh is also an inordinate amount of effort and potential expense. Um because students will bring burner phones in, they will have multiple phones on their persons. I've experienced this. uh it is very hard to
watch over 1500 students all day long in between classes that change uh with different activities that they go to uh in the afternoon. So I guess what I'm saying is that um it's irrefutable that heavy cell phone and social media use is
terrible for children. Uh it's much better for them in every way we can probably think of to not be married to their phones. And I do think it's appropriate to be having this conversation and considering ways we can implement um consistent and district or
schoolwide policies that reduce the amount of cell phone usage among students and increase the amount of focus and socialization that they experience with other people including not just their peers but their teachers. So no definitive answer but it's one we
can continue to talk about. we can bring it to the policy committee and discuss it there. Uh and and of course broaden the discussion with some other administrators in the district who would be the ones ultimately tasked with ensuring that whatever policy we create
is actually can be implemented and administered appropriately. Um memory serves, didn't you have a lawsuit when you were in Chadam against the major domos of social media or something and how's that going? We have one here too. Yes. Princeton is is
and that's on that's about social media though, not cell phones. Ash, of course. Okay. Hi. I know this is the first meeting, but I have a couple quick thoughts. And as a student, I think there actually is a lot of support for
having cell phone um like not bell-to- bell, but like in classes having um cell phone pouches. A lot of teachers have this already, but I think having it um standardized throughout school um and having that consistency for students uh would be supported by many students and it would help um not only the students
who have problems with their phones, but also the students who care about other students learning and want to have a more productive classroom environment. I think one of the main concerns I'm not trying to speak for all of the students, but one of the main concerns that I hear for students um at least among my the
people that I talk to is that we like live in a society where most people have cell phones and most people have constant connectivity and like even many of you now have your cell phones like on the table. So having a bell-to-bell ban doesn't provide an environment where
we're teaching kids how to manage having it like on their person and also um like being able to learn and be separate from it. Um so having a belt bell band might just result in kids going home and spending a lot of time on their phone. Yes, they already do that, but like spending a lot more time on their phone
because they've been without it all day. And so having um classroom ads and then having like providing students with opportunities to learn how to manage having it um is something that I think is really valuable. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So more to come on
that. Whoever picked you guys did a good job. I think this is a good sign. Thank you. Thank you for those comments. All right. Um moving on. Oh, no. We did public comment. Now we're moving on to
uh I1, harassment, intimidation, bullying. I2, school self- assessment, anti-bullying uh bill of rights. The student board members, I'm going to turn it back to you. It's not on the agenda. The agenda got mixed up, but if there's anything that you want to tell us about
what you want to do this year or um take it away. Yeah. So, obviously we haven't really been in school for that long, but there's homecoming this Friday and the homecoming dance this Saturday. So, we've done a lot of planning around that as student at student council. This week is spirit week, so we all get to dress
up and kind of do themes within um among our peers. Today, Monday was what was it? Pajama day. Today was surfers versus versus bikers. It's very fun and a way to get everyone involved in this fun week leading up to homecoming.
And yeah. Yeah. I also think to answer your question in terms of our goals. I think for me and Anie talking um we see a lot of disconnect with the students and like the board. A lot of students that I know don't know like what the board is or what they do. Um so I mean as liaison um
we obviously help lies with the students on the board but we're also hoping that we're going to be able to um inform the student like the students more about what happens with the board like on a more widespread like student body um basis and just have like more awareness about that. Okay. Thank you. We look forward to
having you here this year. Um, now we're going to go to the board committee highlights. And Beth is up first because I could tell she you you twitched. I did? Yeah. Twitched. I just wanted to to note that you notice how most of the board members we we don't have our phones on the table. That
was actually intentional this year. And no computers. No computers. Just the people who are running the meetings because we used to have them. We also we we don't we really want to set an example that we're here present with each other. So hopefully that helps. Um uh so policy first? No, long-term planning.
Oh, long-term planning. Uh the committee met on September 11th with the district team to preview next steps to review next steps in the implementation of the growth referendum projects approved by taxpayers in January 2025. The district architects noted that the projects remain on track for a targeted mid-
November bid date. Prior to this date, the projects will be reviewed by the NJ Department of Community Affairs or DCA, the Office of State Comproller, the local soil conservation district, and the Delaware and Raritan Canal Committee Commission. In addition, the projects
are also the subject of a conditional use hearings before the town planning board. At a September 25th hearing, the town planning board reviewed MA and made suggestions and approved the referendum projects plans at Princeton Middle School and Littlebrook Elementary. We anticipate that the remaining projects
at Community Park School will be reviewed in October 16th. On October 16th. Yes. Okay. Uh and that's a public planning board meeting. Yes. Uh the committee remains highly focused on getting these projects out for bid in time to ensure work can begin next summer in keeping with the schedule
communicated to the public in connection with the January 2025 referendum. We appreciate the hard work of our district team and the cooperation of municipal officials and staff on this complex and time-sensitive work that will help us welcome new students as our community
grows. The next scheduled meeting is on October 20th. Thank you, Beth. I I did want to add that um the meeting on September 25th was a special planning board meeting that um the town the municipality officials set up for us understanding the urgency. Uh so we appreciate their
collaboriveness. Yes. And the October 16th is also um a special meeting. Yes. So, we're very grateful for their partnership um as we try to outrun the tariffs. That's right. That's exactly right. And get approval. So, thank you for reminding me of that. Um up next, we have operations. And I'm going to guess
it's Susan because she um hi, we met on September 18th at 1 PM. Uh first we received an update on the referendum projects that will be closed from the work over the summer. Um we've received reports that between 95 and 100% of almost all the projects have
been completed which was great news and you know are hopeful for the uh final few projects the last few items to be uh closed shortly. We then got a report from Sustainable Princeton who is working uh with the district one on
potential uh thoughts on implementing solar in our district. Uh we received a small update on the trees for school grant that the district had been awarded and then on the electric bus grant where we were watching out the window to see
if we now have our two buses um which were delivered. Um, we also received um updates on smaller non-referendum projects, including an in-house solution for district building signage that um
are are uh will handle in-house. Uh talks about bike racks and HVAC, smaller HVAC projects that are being done around the district. And finally, we got a technology update uh from Todd on and he focused on uh communications both within
buildings and between buildings and the process that the district is going to to explore different ways to upgrade our systems um in terms of security. Um our next meeting will be October 23rd at 1 p.m. and is open to the public.
Thank you, Susan. Um Mr. Harris, are those electric buses in use yet? They are. So, they're in use. And we also did get our DC fast charger installed as well, finally. Wow. Are they yellow? Yes, they look like standard buses. You can tell the difference. There's a little blue bird on the top of one of
them. And it does say electric school bus down on the side. And if you're behind it, you're not inhaling exhaust. That's also correct. So, that's great. So, hopefully maybe we all be behind one of those. Thank you. All right, moving on to personnel with Deb. Thank you. The personnel committee met
on September 11th. We discussed our district liaison. We discussed a sidebar with pressa that is on the agenda tonight for approval. We discussed some personnel reorganizations that are also on the agenda. And then we discussed several other personnel issues. Thank you.
Thank you. Sounds like an exciting meeting. Moving on now, uh we're going back to to to Beth for policy. policy polycy met on se September 9th and we discuss the policies that are on
tonight's agenda um they are coming from stars estimate for the most part uh updates on procedures um and you know such things as student sun protection which is where we're kind of required to do that. So um you'll see those tonight on the agenda and we look forward to
talking about the cell phone and cellular communication policies in the future that's on our our list. Um, we meet next on October 7th. Thank you, Beth. Um, next up, last but not least, student achievement with Eleanor. Thank you. The student achievement committee met on September 18th at 9:00
and we had two presentations on our public agenda. The first was a preview of the metriculation report that you've all heard tonight uh from John Mcichael and Sha and the second was an overview of the timeline for a 6 to2 humanities program review um from Kimchu. So the
district periodically conducts um curricular reviews for different subjects to make sure that our offerings are strong, accessible, and coherent and up-to-date and everything. Uh and while elementary English language arts have received a lot of attention recently
with a new ELA program, 6 to 12 English language arts and social studies have not had a review for several years. Uh and so they are due. We expect that a report will come to SAC in May. Um, and so we'll see. We're very excited to see what that will be. Uh, and after those
presentations, we went into close session. Our next meeting will take place on October 23rd at 9:00. Thank you, Eleanor. And I almost forgot about equity with Debbie. Thank you. The equity committee met in person on September 9th. We discussed
how and why the equity committee was first established. This led to a discussion on extra costs associated with attending Princeton public schools if your child wants to participate in academic clubs, music programs, athletics, and language trips. Language
trips, sorry. We also discussed who participates in extracurricular activities and who does not and why. Margarita shared her findings on disproportionality in special education and a few next steps which will include more training and professional development. The last
item we discussed was chronic absenteeism which Dr. Lasusa had shared with us today. And in spirit week, whatever you want to call it, we are wearing our spirit shirt. So wanted to be part of that. I want to make a comment. It's not that
I don't care. It's that my house is really disorganized and I can't find my shirt. We'll do it again. Don't. Please. Give me Let me tell you first if I can. [Laughter] Thank you, Debbie.
Okay. Uh, moving on now um to the rest of the agenda. K1, the policies for first reading that Beth mentioned. Then moving on to personnel. Um, L1 retirement, L2 resignations. Um, I just wanted to say a special thank you to Anna Rose Gable. Uh, she was one of our
um, ELLL teachers at the high school. uh and she's someone who uh the her teaching uh became part of uh the fabric of her life and uh she's taking a job closer to home uh but we'll miss her um
and thank her for her service. L3 we have appointments. L4 transfer reassignment. L5 personnel items. L6 leave of absence. L7 substitute student placements. L8 curriculum and instruction. L9 student services L10
non-athletic EPS uh L11 six period compensation L12 athletic appointments L13 separation agreement L14 pressa sidebar agreement L15 pressa schedule C stipen appointment 2526 U moving on to M1 curriculum and
instruction grant application acceptance um N1 uh for special services commission for the blind revise and two educational ational placement of students 2526 and three educational placements of pupils 2526 Mercer County Technical Schools and
N4 care option for kids revised u moving on to the business agenda 01 construction payments O2 contracts 03 financial reports is an action item can I get a motion please second Mara D Kendall
abstain. Beth Payon, yes. Adam Beerman, yes. Debbie Brownfeld, yes. Mara Francesky, yes. Elellanar Hubard, yes. Susan Caner, yes. Ariel, yes. Christopher Sanpio, yes. I'm going to say it right correctly one
of these days. I promise I won't stutter. And Katherine Lara, yes. Motion is passed. Thank you. Um 06 is funds transfer. No, I'm sorry. 04 is fire and evacuation drills. 05 is fundraisers. And I just
want to um clarify that this is an internal um actually Mr. Harris, why don't you enlighten us, please? Uh it's just it's for anything that happens within the district. So it doesn't include PTOs or anything like that. It's just for uh fundraisers that
are anticipated to go over $5,000. Okay. Um, so I guess in the whereas preamble it does say parent student uh parent teacher associations. So is it possible to strike that from um I believe I would need a motion to
modify that. Can I get a motion? Debbie second. Mara, can you Oh, wait. You have to note also that some of the booster clubs are also 501c3s. They're separate legal entities just like the parent teacher organizations.
It says just cuz people are going to wonder who we're talking to. Sorry. We do. Um in the wording I think it says parent teacher organization or association. So we're organizations and booster clubs and booster clubs. The point being that
those are entities that are separate legal entities from Princeton public schools where the other organizations are within Princeton public I'm sorry what nothing anything separate that are separate organizations this wouldn't apply to this would apply to just make a
motion that would be any organ can we make a motion to limit uh this uh authorization to uh school district only clubs and fundraising issues. Is that right?
Any or we can make we can say at the end this excludes any organization separate from any legal organization separate from the school district. Do you want to say something on that? I'm debating on whether we should just postpone this one so that way we can workshop it so we get it correct.
Okay. It's up to you. I would cut this out for now. Okay. We're going to table it. Y. So this 05 Yeah. 05. Okay. Is that going to cause any delay in any implementation? Good. This is this is again this is best practice. This isn't required. Yes. So I
think if we postpone till October it's no harm. Great. Thank you Mr. Harris. All right. Moving on. Uh 06 funds transfer. 07 um grant acceptance. Um yes we're hopeful to get some of that.
Uh 08 items for disposal and or sale. 09 miles reimbursement. 010 registration travel agenda. 01 student transportation uh contract addendum. Moving on now our second public comment. Is there anyone who would like to speak to us about
anything? Nothing. Doing a great job. Thank you. Thank you. Um moving on now to the consent vote. Can I get a motion? Chris, uh second Elanor. One moment. I just also want to point
out that I just removed that from the consent vote so that way it's not there. I'm sorry. Repeat the first and second, please. It was uh Chris Elmore. Thank you. All right. D McKendle. Yes. Beth Brenon. Yes. Yes. Adam Berman. Yes.
Debbie Brownfeld. Yes. Mara Franchesc. Yes. Elellanar Huard. Yes. Susan Caner. Yes. Ariel, yes. Christopher Sanpio, yes. Katherine Lar, yes. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Harris. I appreciate uh
that we table that. Thank you. Um closing discussion of the board. I just wanted to say um Dr. or I wanted to ask I forgot to ask the calendar. How will that get out to the community? I was going to email it to all parents
and staff tomorrow. Okay, that's great. And the metriculation report uh Dr. 2 will be on the website tomorrow. Yes, I'll put a tech ticket in and it will go on the website. Excellent. Thank you. Um with that, our next meeting is the last Tuesday. I think it's the 28th. Is that
right? Yes. Of Yeah. Thank you. of October. Um in the meantime, great things. H have a great homecoming. That's very exciting. Um if it's the only time all year we have lights at the football field, so I'm sure you've been invited.
I have and I've heard that from a lot of people. Yes. Yes. Um and with that, could I get a motion to adjourn? Mara second. Ari. All in favor? I. All right. Have a good night, everyone.