[Music] thanks 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 are always pleased when members of the community attend our meetings the board in 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 it 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 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 meeting act njsa 1046 at sequena adequate notice was given for calling this meeting was authorized by the Board of Education and forwarded to the municipal clerk Princeton pet in the Trenton Times on January 9th 2025 is
also distributed to the schools and others on the standard distribution list the board reserves a right to enter into executive session during all meetings of the Board of Education board policy uh 168 recording devices requires that we inform those attending this in-person meeting that the proceedings are being recorded this meeting is being live
streamed the representative of the sending district has authorized vote on such matters that affect sending District students or affect the governance of the princ public schools as more specifically designated in njsa 18a 38.1 send any District votes pertaining to Personnel actions refer to
high school Central administrative and districtwide staff only both otherwise are considered abstentions in the event this statute is amended the Wake presidents over this bylaw thank you Mr Balden would you please call the RO sure de the Kendall here Beth Baron here Adam
Beerman here Mara franceski here eminor Hubbert here Susan caner here Ari Melle here Chris santarpio here Katherine here we have a quorum thank you Mr Balden can I get a motion for the adoption of the minutes for February 11th 2025 Mara second
[Music] Ari sorry having a little technical difficulty here take your time I I mine just went out too AWS again I think it's me no my server went out too Ted
uh let's see if it comes back it's not coming back I have paper though so we will go [Laughter] on all I think is it back mine's back okay good thanks
see thank you now but it didn't hold on the roll call didn't I can't save the roll call here what the heck hold on nope I got it hold on I got it
take yeah I got speed hold on okay all right just uh we'll go uh get a motion in a second I'll just do it oldfashioned okay okay so uh it was uh Mara second was Ari
great DNA yes or Susan yes Beth yes Adam yes Debbie uh Mara yes Elanor yes Ari yes Chris yes Katherine yes okay motion passes we're good right yeah okay um
thank you everyone welcome uh this evening we are um thrilled to welcome you all and and uh the first item up on the agenda is the appointment of uh Margarita Balo as assistant superintendent of uh special services um so those of you who um are inside
baseball know that that was a director position and um the board and administration thought um it was in the best interest of the kids that we serve uh to elevate this position to assistant superintendent uh of special services um we interviewed um four outstanding
candidates um Mar Gita uh Rose to the top um and her being uh a bilingual educator in Spanish um really excited the entire committee um so uh oh hold on can I get a motion please I'm so
excited Beth second Eleanor I'm not gonna start over just everything I said um you know as as as a parent of a child who had an IP in the district um special education is my passion we do it really well in this District but there's always
room room for improvement and and the committee um Dr Foster believe that Margarita is the one to to take us there um so she joins us from upper freeholds uh Regional School District where she spent the past three years as a director of special services previously she was a
supervisor of student services in Hamilton Township and a child study team member she's a licensed clinical social worker uh and she's currently pursuing her doctorate in um social work clinical social work at Ruckers she also holds a bachelor's and master's degree in
clinical social work from Ruckers um we're so excited to welcome you to the district um we have high expectations so no pressure um but we have every every um belief that you will exceed them
um the board is committed to our students and um the kids in our district there are kids who are always going to do really well um and then there's kids who need supports and we need to do better for those kids and so part of that is
bringing on someone like you um and we're so excited that you're going to be you're bilingual and you'll be able to communicate with our bilingual families um in a way that they haven't been able to been communicated before um you shared that every special ed parent will get your cell phone number um I'm first
no just kidding not everyone not not everyone um but um just like your passion for children um came through um and just be yourself and things are going to be
great um so um that's all I have to say for now um I don't know if you wanted to add anything no we we are really excited um uh we um she she's going to be the light
uh that we need uh to bring uh and uh enhance all of our student um learning and so we're just really excited to welcome you and um I look forward to working with you for a month before or less than a month maybe um uh but I know
um the district is in great hands so welcome and and Margarita is so excited to start she'll be starting on um May 27th so she wants to get in here right away and I just want to say that um she uh Margarita met with the Personnel committee and after you left two of the
um other four board members were crying um Margarita also brought her parents here tonight um she's first generation she um she said that um you know this is something her father always wanted and so we're thrilled to have you
both here tonight um and we know you're local to the community and we welcome you to the Princeton Community after we vote hold on all right Mr Balden daffon Kendall yes Beth Baron yes Adam Berman yes Martin franceski yes
Elanor hubard yes Susan caner yes Ari misel yes Chris Ario yes Catherine Lara yes motion passes welcome to [Applause]
Princeton so I wrote something and I brought it with me because I'm very like you know nervous and emotional so I didn't want to uh lose my thoughts um so I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr Michael Lusa Dr Kathy Foster the Board of Education and the
Princeton public Public School Community for trusting with me with our students educational and social emotional well-being it's truly an honor to step into such an important role where I have the privilege of ensuring that every student has access to Equitable and inclusive opportunities that will
Empower them to reach their fullest potential I am excited to embark on this new chapter and committed to advancing the success and well-being of every student in our district thank you for your incred for this incredible opportunity thank you to my mentor Miss is Nancy whan who's here this evening to
show me her support and thank you to my parents William and Carmen gavara who sorry who are also here with me tonight through their strength sacrifices and support they instilled in me the values of perseverance compassion and service
to others their guidance has shaped who I am truly today and I carry their lessons with me at every step of my journey and now would like to translate that um for the Spanish speaking families in our community Michael Kathy Foster
Willam [Applause] I I did also want to say there's cake we have cake and coffee for everyone after the meeting if if you want to stay around it might be long meeting um but we're just really excited to welcome you to the district and if if not today there'll be other opportunities for to
hold it together you did great you did great you you showed everyone you know why we're so excited thank you um all right so now moving on uh we're gonna try to move this along uh we're having a
presentation um by Jackie cats is Jackie cat's here hi Jackie and if you could and they're students but they didn't tell me their name so are they here yeahyes all right well come on [Music]
up yes please uh so Jackie cats and her Jackie cats is the science supervisor and her three students just won uh some awards so we always like to highlight kids because that's why we're all here but it's always good to remind us ourselves of that so thank you for coming well thank you and and thank you
to the team that rallied around all my annoying emails um but this crew um really I'm just honored to be in able to work with them they were all in the top 300 of the regenon student science Talent search which is a national talent
search thousands of kids apply and what's truly amazing about this is the award is really looking for like humans immersed in science we're not looking at a singular science project and of course they all have incredible singular science projects from you know melting
points of chemicals and ankle replacement surgery and microbiomes of jumping spiders like truly incredible but like these humans live it they live it they breathe it they're curious they ask questions they think critically and that's what regeneron saw in them that's what I was able to see every day working
with them as students so we are oh so proud um uh Amy and Ben were both top 300 along with your your I then went on to Top 40 was in DC for the last week so truly incredible I I just told Ben earlier when I'm a footnote for the
Nobel Prize later on he will remember this day and I I pass that on to your ey and Amy because I am sure it will be bound but really cool if you have a chance to ner out about science call these guys anytime okay can you give us a really brief summary of like what your um
interests were and what what the prize was awarded for you want to give like a quick sentence uh sure about our projects yeah yes oh okay yeah it could be not so quick but yeah it's all good we' we've done this enough times okay
okay exactly um so my personal project I was looking at um I was using computer vision on X-rays of ankles to be able to make measurements and then later we're going to be using it to make predictions on ankle replacement surgeries with the hopes of increasing the accuracy of the
actual surgeries themselves and increasing uh the how effective the process actually is and then in the future looking towards preventing potential failures because like any surgery they um especially newer ones there's a really
high chance of it not taking and obviously that can cause many issues in the future so really trying to see what we can do to prevent that sort of thing from happening and you know help some people be in a little less pain and spend a little less money on surgery and
just be able to live their lives that's fantastic and you're a senior are you a senior wow you I can't wait to see the things you do thank all right thank you Amy um hello I'm Amy and my project was on predicting the melting temperature of chemical compounds using machine
learning so basically um this has a lot of applications and obviously like construction and such but um also in designing efficient fuel cells for clean energy um which is something we really need in this day and age and um another thing I did with my project was I tried
to find out um a little sciency but the different properties that affected melting temperature the most so hopefully this can be you know Advance the um studies of Material Science but I guess um in terms of my scientific interest I also I obviously love machine learning and AI um I actually did a
previous project on predicting my dogs Behavior using machine learning it had an 80% accuracy rate so I will say it kind of worked yeah yeah I want to talk to her I could use that we'll talk and what year are you Amy are you a senior or Junior yes I'm a senior senior too
okay well best best of luck to [Applause] you hello um so I speak uh two languages Spanish and English but my first language is Spanish so um I'm very happy being here um thank you for uh invite us
here and uh well my Pro it's called um How the Lion becomes a lamp and that means um well it's like a trans a transferal bacterial um from the an Arby to The Spider and I wanted to know how a spider that is like that was designed to
be carnivore um becomes uh vegetarian and because uh I wanted to know how like a buddy that it's like um uh like the sign naturally uh like being like have to like hunt and like to um um eat like
more like insects how this spider could actually um uh be able to survive um like just based on material plant so that's why I have this project and I'm very happy thank you all so and what year are you uh I'm sorry are you also a
senior yeah okay I just got the memo all right well thank you well congratulations and of thank you thank you so much thank you so much Jackie um all right next up is um Mr McMichael and so our February meeting
was on February 11th and it snowed that night so we cut all our presentations so our staff could get home quick so we have a lot in this meeting um Mr McMichael is going to give us a presentation on social emotional learning and preventing HIV so take it away thank you very much for inviting me and if next time I could not be after
our amazing students that would be awesome I have no idea what they even just said I I can't train my own dog so maybe I'll talk to that young lady um so I I I believe there's a another part of the agenda tonight where um colleagues will be talking about the Strategic
goals so oh that's you okay um so this ties into um strategic goal number two Wellness inclusion and supports for all and I'm here tonight to we love our acronyms in education socl being social emotional learning so going right from the hard Sciences into uh our feelings
and such um so I'll go really quickly tonight even though I am very honored anytime I get to talk about the work of the counselors because you know they may be small in number but they're outsized I'd like to think in their impact across the district so um the first few slides are about training so suffice it to say
every single staff member is trained on our anti-bullying legislation you know New Jersey Prides a tone having some of the toughest laws in the country um but I'd really like to focus on the positive tonight but one slide with the training I'd like to point out where it says ABS training at the top are anti-bullying
Specialists um the ones that are listed on that slide are uh have gone through training through New Jersey principales and supervisors Association which is $500 a person and it's 16 hours it is extensive it is in depth you will basically be an
expert at the end of that so that is one of the slides uh that I had for you this evening as well as some other oh here we go okay keep going um that's the one I was talking about you can almost all of our ABS has went through it within the last year and everybody has gone through
it at some point um and then the next slide talks about um opportunities provided by uh the New Jersey State Bar foundation and then the New Jersey Department of Education on the next slide so basically what I'm demonstrating to you here is I take it upon myself to make sure that all of our folks are aware of training
opportunities so they can stay on top of their game and make sure that they are well versed in the law you know it inside and out so they can support our students um when they are uh you know wrapped up in in these hibs which you know can be challenging all right so we're going to shift gears now and just
focus on the great work that the counselors are doing K to2 uh to try to be proactive how do we get in front of this stuff how do we just try to teach kindness empathy understanding resilience all of these fun things that you know we push into classrooms and we
hold special events for so just allow me a few minutes I will be brief we'll go through it um so the four Elementary buildings are up first um Community Park they're just in alphabetical order they're doing kindness in the classroom this year which is through the random acts of kindness Foundation this was free to the
district it is a castle approved tier one evidence-based social emotional learning curriculum um so you know a whole lot of bullet points there on the right if anybody W wants to hear more about this I'm happy to point you in the direction of Miss Mrs Liz Cameron at CP
the counselor there um or I will be happy to answer any questions about anything on on the presentation this evening all right next we will go to Johnson Park where we have Miss Kristen Whitmore who is the uh newest member of the elementary counseling team uh she is
only in her second year but was an experienced counselor in the Robinsville school district and she hit the ground running um she also happened to be trained by a fabulous person to my left at this table here Dr C so stence um so we know that you know Kristen was in great hands for her first year with us
here in Princeton she came up with all of this stuff on here that just out of her brain all of you know her expertise um and jumping into a new community you know it was great her coffee with the counselor was actually um my first
observation of her and Angela was there supporting her and um you know it was really just a great morning to have some coffee sit down here there's cake here later right so what brings people together better than food and drinks uh so it was a great way for her to I think that was like in October it was very early in her time here and it was just a
great way to throw open the doors to the School welcome people in talk about her role as a counselor and all the great work she's doing there all right Littlebrook school so uh just in November uh of this school year you heard all about character strong and you're going to hear a lot more about
character strong because Little Brook piloted the program for us and it will be expanding to all four elementary schools next year which we are very excited about um actually sent some emails today just to make sure that we're moving in the right direction uh we would like our counselors Prin
principles and to be you know ready for this and then to be able to TurnKey it to all of their staffs in the four buildings before the end of this school year we want to be able to come back in September hit the ground running and off we go um so if for anybody that's um interested if you go back you know these
meetings are fabulously streamed and recorded so you can see uh Miss Walters and Mr Ramirez's presentation which they did a fantastic job with and that'll give you a hint of what's to come in the other three buildings starting next school year Riverside School Mr Ben Samara who we all know pretty well I
think um similar to miss Whitmore just has a lot of experience a lot of expertise um you know nobody's winging anything he just gave me some samples there to show you things he does with his students in classroom settings um you know his personality his his
infectious nature um his easy demeanor um you know the kids love him at Riverside he's especially been a great support to to Mr akow the new principal there and they they've like they're like two peas in a pod the two of them they're a team and and I love it um Princeton middle school so we're going
to move up sixth through eth grade um another opportunity for folks here if you didn't see the board uh meeting on in March um as well as November so I think that's really you know amazing that the board has invited three folks
between Elementary and Middle School to hear directly from them and you just see that passion you know when Angelo Kola came up for streak of kindness which has been in amazing initiative I have that sticker on my computer on my desk I see it every day and I love it um and then to hear um Miss steel and Mr Burr who
you know Miss Steel in a leave replacement position brand new to our district first time she's ever worked here and she is you know carrying this wingman program forward with Mr Burr it's it's been amazing to watch so um you know the slides here start with
streak of kindness we go into some things that they just do as a matter of course it's just part of the practice at pm M and then we go into the wingman program that board meeting was October 29th you have to fast forward a little bit to the 26th minute if you would like to see that um I put a note up there on
the well you you don't have to they can watch the first 26 um and then you know for those of you who have not met me before my office is physically located at Princeton High School so we'll move up now to the 9 through 12 grades um and this is where you know we have um
different things through throughout the year that are building wide we of week of respect Spirit Week pep rallies Black History Month Hispanic Heritage Month right where we really have these cultural celebrations that are building wide um if any of you were here for the Black History Month presentation last
month it was absolutely fabulous the gym was packed it was rocking it was fun it was exciting um and it was also very informative um and we're looking forward to um to more of those to come um small group sessions you know the Sunday night message from Principal bur um you know
the community I think loves hearing those and just being well informed of knowing what's going on at the high school um now to get down to some granular programs that come through the counseling office the sophomore leadership team which is run by um Mrs Diana ligas and Mrs Samborski um it's a
group of sophomores obviously they are basically our ambassadors if you'd like to think of it that way they go to Princeton Charter School they go to Cranberry they go to the Middle School to help students get excited about coming to high school um obviously our you know our friends across the street maybe not as big of a jump as our
friends from cranberry and Charter but we want all eighth grade students to feel ready to make that transition to high school and they're a big part of that and they bring a nice group of I'd say about 20 students with them and you know the the little kids love seeing the big kids right so um it's a great
program and then they have done some uh vaping awareness they're hanging flyers in all the bathrooms and then they're going to move on to uh you know Dating Violence awareness they're going to be doing bulon boards around the high school just to raise awareness um write it down poetry Counseling Group run by Mrs rahan Garcia um she is she is our
Wordsmith she is our editor she is our go-to with grammatical stuff you know she is I I Look to her all the time to make sure I'm speaking correctly um and she has this you know write it down so using writing and her expertise and her strength in this area as a uh way to
deal with you know feelings emotions frustrations challenges um and she does a fantastic job giving Sim students with similar proclivities an outlet for um your emotional turmoils um a new one uh new to Princeton High School this year
through a new hire Miss Miss Beth Zeta Matos um is called ruling our experiences a girls Empowerment Group run by a national nonprofit organization called rocks ruling our experiences she calls the students that are now part of this program her rock stars and we love
that it's so fitting um she just she took this on herself Miss Matos um ran with it applied for a grant to be trained went to Ohio for three days to go through that training program not a dime out of our pockets to do that when it's normally $1,500 she's just a
go-getter she's ambitious she's energetic um and she was able to get a group of students up and running I think that's all from December till now and the group is now underway and running and it's amazing um last two and then I'm out of here um our another fabulous
colleague at the high school Miss nerna Shaw we all know her we love her she does a fantastic see some head nods over here nice right right love it um she is amazing amazing I actually have to tell her to say no to things because she says yes to everything and she's doing too
much um so her Junior College workshops um that was a transition last year that we implemented and we carried forward this year with some slight tweaks to make I think make it better um she is currently in the fourth of a series of five of these Workshop she meets with every single Junior five times
throughout the spring and then she will meet meet with all the seniors in the fall and that's how she has 800 of her students as she likes to call them um so the junior college workshops um helping students um self-acceptance you know it's it's about this we think of it as a
process but I there's a a couple famous um well famous that's nerdy um some um College admissions folks who like to talk of it as a journey right it's it's it's for these young people it's self-exploration and they learn I hope they learn a lot about themselves and what's important to them as go through
this and she I can think of no better guide than Mrs Shaw so lastly student alumni panel um I was in the room in PHS when she brought um it was about eight students back and they sat in front of current high school students and they were able to ask questions and answer
questions and Miss Sean and I just stood there and watched and it was amazing and to be able to provide you know something to look to something to Aspire to you were in these Halls not that long ago and now you know you're wearing these shirts of these well-known colleges you're successful and one young lady was
a a senior computer science major I was like hey we might want to hire you you know and what are you doing next year I called Mrs Brennan the supervisor I said we might need to hire her um so that is a very quick I'm sorry for talking so fast but um I know it's a busy night
there's a lot on the agenda I just appreciate the opportunity to shine a light on the counseling staff K2 and all the great work they do day in day out for the students of this amazing School District we appreciate you thank you for for coming um if is there anything you
need um you have a lot of kids in the district and you know I know these are trying time especially with the seniors and they're not coming to school you know because it's senioritis I know because I have one so um I you know I know it's you know we're going to pass the budget
tonight but you know is there is there anything if you had a wish list something in the next few years you want the board to now I get more time right yeah I uh I I've I pester Dr ceso SS quite a bit we had a nice long conversation on Friday so I have um I
have expressed some wishes to her so I thank you for that I do um speaking of Miss Shaw right at the end there right I remember we presented um at sack in September and you said man we might need two of you and I think you were maybe in just you were saying that but I keep bringing it up I keep saying hey
remember when Miss kenel said maybe we need to so I I really do appreciate that I I I um I have and will continue to communicate to Dr C and um the Dr Lusa for the next budget is behind you but you know 800 8 800 children for and
having one college counselor that's a lot and I know U Mrs Shaw is tremendous from my own experience but that's a lot to put on one person and and if we want to make sure that all kids have you know the help they need you know it's something the board has been considering
for many years um you know well I would say I've I've been very it's an opportunity for me to Express gratitude so I mentioned Miss Matos tonight right so the board agreed to bring her on this year it was a fabulous Edition for us I mean you know you never really know with interviews right so sometimes you get
lucky and except one yeah she is just so great two so um thank you yeah but thank you Mr mcmo and we're so grateful for for all you're doing and we appreciate that you dress up for us so thank you very much I TR thank you
all right um I'm going to turn now over to Dr Foster okay good evening everyone uh I'm going to transition and capitalize on uh the wonderful programs uh that are run you know under John's leadership with
the counselors and um all of the building uh staff members because you know every every member contributes um and really talk about giving a quick update um and stay tuned because there'll be more next month as well so
um as you know we believe it or not we are in the third year um of our uh strategic plan already and um and we always like to share progress using the data that we collect uh and then analyze
as we then set goals and um uh you know make adjustments revisions and also celebrate so we've got a lot to celebrate right and we also know we have more work to do so I thought it would be fitting tonight to really focus on strategic goal two which is on um the
social emotional Wellness of our students so we'll go through first I'm sorry am I I was talking too fast no I'm I'm pretty I don't have the presentation oh I sent it oh I'm sorry hold on hold on we'll get the presentation want to
plug in do you have it where is it why did you send it you send it today all right I'll find it hold I'll talk a little I I promise I won't sing give me
one second one second I'll find it yeah what time you send it time did you send it does have it I just sure yeah he all right it's on its way uh so um what we're going to do is focus on um goal
number two but I will review all of our district priorities um because next month um I will highlight uh goal one three and four which are uh more of the academic uh measurements there we go okay great thank
you yeah no problem hit the red thing then give it a second okay social emotional learning so let me read our promise and our our our mission and our promise uh because this is
really um uh grounds the work that we do we promise to prepare all of our students to lead lives of joy and purpose as knowledgeable creative compassionate citizens of a global Society uh so I just want to again highlight uh the four priorities uh that
um we've been focused on for the past few years uh the first is early years um age three to grade three the second which I'll um capitalize on tonight is Wellness inclusion and support for all the third is opportunity and achievement
for all and the fourth is preparation for a meaningful life beyond um Princeton Public Schools so um tonight we're going to focus on Collective priority to Wellness inclusion and support uh so I'm going to go through um and preschool is included and I think
it's really important those are our earliest Learners uh and that is where um uh we learn some of our most important skills uh about kindness uh listening to each other um getting along
uh asking questions uh and um under uh uh Dr nasco's uh leadership this year she has uh worked hard to uh create some family events um that really highlight um the prek families and um in
particular Target lower socioeconomic families for accessibility uh to attend the events so I'm just going to highlight her her work here um you can see that she was working with the climate change Grant this year and she was offering also prease
Snippets they were called and this these were a series of short educational virtual family meetings um to just help connect families uh bring them together uh since preschool has many many locations and buildings um and her next
steps will be uh to continue to expand the prease uh Snippets uh and then uh other ways to um engage our DLI families so one of the uh the most important U measures that we use for uh
this priority goal number two is our student wellness survey um it is administered uh different times of the year and so we have the data from and you can see sort of the spring winter spring winter uh so this would be we're going to highlight the winter
which is uh the 2024 um if you notice um they ask uh four different questions um but this year uh what we've also done is asked some open-ended questions to really explore what kids think about and how
they interpret questions because we know um a survey is self-administered and so it depends on we get it on whatever day a child is feeling uh they're going to respond but they can also give us some specific feedback in writing as well so
I'm going to first show you the data and then just um elevate a few um of the responses is so you can get an idea so if you look uh what it shows is that um there was an increase in the four qu uh the four statements my school is a
welcoming and safe place to be I look forward to going to school when something is really bothering me there is at least one adult that I can go and talk about the problem and adults in a school treat students with respect so
you can see there is an increase um uh o over over time uh from the spring to the winter if you if you look you can see um sort of the progression um one of the things that they talked about um that they enjoyed most you can probably guess
anyone want to guess ah number one recess who doesn't love recess friends gym and fun project projects um but the other thing that they highlighted as well at Community Park is that they said teachers are really nice and I feel safe
and so those are really good indicators um that um you know kids feel a sense of belonging um so if you go to the next you can see some of the takeaways so what happens is um the counselors um together uh with other staff members and
um principal and um support staff come together and look at the data and talk about where they want to go so these are the overarching themes that uh CP uh recognized uh some of the action uh that they were taking and if you noticed in um Mr McMichael's presentation he talked
about the random acts of kindness Foundation um they also launched a CP chant and affirmation we are kind we are responsible we are Cooperative we are in control I I think I need that one yeah we are in control and we are CP um and
then they also have uh established kindness ambassadors uh so um they're really working um to provide again making sure that all kids uh feel seen and heard uh and then you look at other takeaways from that uh the the monthly
uh the final Fridays uh and uh World Seal day they all had a be kind t-shirt author presentations and then of course they're going to continue to do the spring is coming up this next climate survey and also explicit instruction
because that is really important in understanding what does what does kindness look like sound like feel like uh as we support teachers and model outcomes uh the next uh is up is JP year-to-year uh survey and again it's
the same four statements and you can see some increases and decreases and one of the things that emerged for JP is a concern of uh of probably students not only across J P but across uh many many
schools and what do you think that is that they don't like don't like homework yes I should have like prizes I should have prizes um home homework emerged as
a big theme uh for JP uh as as they worked through um but you can see some of their overarching themes um that they they they they're comfortable that there is an a trusted adult and it is interesting because a lot of times they um we have to be explicit in
understanding what does it a trusted adult look like and who are they and who can they be and then certainly they're reviewing this they have morning meeting uh the counselors are embedding social emotional topics into their lessons they have the JP connections and they're
continuing with the JP Pals um you can see some of the next steps um uh we talked we heard from Jenny uh Walters from Littlebrook who uh piloted character strong now all of the elementary schools are adopting character strong as a resource for
classroom teachers um to provide um more tier one supports in in the classroom and then continue to recognize um staff and there there are lots of um Mentor staff for children um who um they identify okay uh next is Littlebrook
same for questions uh and again uh for little Brook uh some of the comments that emerged the overarching themes now this is interesting so of course um one of the things that was most important is they like seeing their friends and that's why they like to come to school
but at Littlebrook they also said I like studying science and having plenty of time to read so I want to do a shout out to Martha friend who is um who loves
science and does a lot of great science and all the teachers do but I I wonder if she has a little influence there in Littlebrook um some of their overarching themes um are that um they look at the data uh again they were the pilot for character strong they have responsive
classroom uh and we heard from Jenny about the tier 2 character uh strong strategy groups and then obviously they celebrate which is really cool the country of the week which is a lot of fun so every week if you go to Littlebrook they're celebrating another country
okay uh and there's some more takeaways as well we can post this on the website as well because I'm going to try to move things along um and then Riverside um so again the four statements uh and you can see uh there was a little decrease in my schools of welcoming Place others
increased um this is interesting too um because here uh at uh Riverside some of the themes are what makes me want to go to school any guas you would think recess friends they said
math so yay for Riverside math and and they don't want to go to school for homework um the other quote that I just loved uh one of the students said is I have friend drama and uh you know so um
so you know these Earnest feedback um you know statements are so critical for us and really help us understand um what kids are thinking and how we can help support them and and make them feel um safe and loved uh because I think that's what that's all
about um you can see some of their actions taken uh as well everybody does morning meeting their principal morning rounds um they have upstander values that they've developed at Riverside um um Mr Samra and Mr akow do go in
together as a group to uh to as a team to really talk about uh uh what what is conflict how to resolve conflict um and some of their next steps as well is they're going to implement character strong and just um take a look uh at some of their mentoring program okay
we're going to move on to the Middle School uh and you can see um the increases and there was one I I I look forward to going to school uh decreased a bit um again these are middle school students uh so one of the things uh that
they said is they look forward to coming to school for the school lunch now I think this is after pomptonian but I don't know for sure so we'll have to confirm that uh but they don't they they what they were using and this is their quote this is massive amounts of work
and homework so that's what they don't want um massive they used um so overarching things they' really worked hard to do a lot of cultural connections this year they had some special celebrations and um days uh student
leadership with we know the wingman and streaks of kindness uh and they are working to really develop relationships within the houses this year and um obviously uh respect student to student staff to staff and Stu and staff staff
uh and there are some of their um pieces there that they've listed uh with their wingman and then last one is oh wait am I okay Princeton High School uh now um maybe I was going to say Nick and and Maya can help us as well give their own
feedback um but you can see there's a little decrease uh from the winter um and uh one of the motivating factors this is what someone wrote um is friends and um that I love to learn so uh there
is a lot of value in learning uh but we heard overall arching theme was mental health and workload stress what do you think is that fairly accurate no putting you on the spot but you know here we go um I actually had a con
conversation with Miss bir about this a few weeks ago um and I think she something really interesting about um I think it kind of always declines more as they start to like choose classes and they take those classes and they realize it's a little bit too much from the handle so I think um especially with
like the enjoying going to school I think um it's definitely about like maybe having greater rers of like balancing that like I don't know like there's a fine line between just enough to handle and like a little B too much so exactly yeah
I mean high school isn't meant to be easy and I think that the best thing we can do and that we do very well is support students who are challenging themselves and I think that uh we have school environment that doesn't encourage students to challenge themselves and um like we saw at the
science Awards earlier they're doing a wonderful job at that we're really excelling um um but I I think the degree to which we invest ourselves in our course work can be stressful but it's nothing that we don't bring upon ourselves and I think we we do look back
at it fondly and I think one of the greatest things about PHS especially in the area is that we have so much room to be able to have those accomplishments you know like at PDS they limit number of APs they can we could take and like I think it's really great that PHS
recognizes the potential that we have students I think it's really important that they continue to allow us to be able to like keep pushing those barriers I guess that that's great and thank you for elaborating on the data and also that confirms a a few other comments
about choice and the opportunities that Princeton High School affords and that is something that kids love and and truly appreciate all of the extracurriculars all of the leadership opportunities and certainly all the course offerings um and so some of the actions taken
um there you know uh I think we heard from Mr McMichael about the um rocks uh program uh strengthening student voice I know Miss Burge is doing a lot of sort of listening sessions with Belle's schedule survey empowering student council and then uh aligning support
service with student enjoyment and engagement okay and so thank you thank you Dr [Applause] Foster um you know um I think this time last year we raised some concerns about
how some of the behaviors of kids were weren't wasn't so kind and part of that had to do from effects of the pandemic um and you've really like embraced um if you all see out there it says what does it say about being kind I know it says it says uh if you can be anything be
kind kind right and so thank you for your leadership and that's important and I think what'll be really interesting in a few years just to see how the Middle School s kids are interacting after we have implemented all theseal programs at the elementary school but thank you very much for your leadership we appreciate
we're very fortunate to have you thank you all right now we're moving on to Nikolai and Maya and we put you ahead of um Mr Balden in case you in case after this you would like to go home um no disrespect will be taken oh boy but take
well we missed last meeting uh because senioritis is a dangerous dangerous thing dangerous um no I was I was expecting to miss it actually because I did have the date wrong but but I thought it was going to be while I was in Italy for the school
choir trip um and that is part of the good news from PHS is our Arts uh Division I guess has been doing so well we went on this trip to Italy and the choir was singing in a bunch of cathedrals and it was a really beautiful experience a lot of kids learned a lot
and they were minimal Shenanigans oh that's good to hear thank you and General Mr Lenahan he's he's doing so well we had Groundhog Day the School Musical and it was with a live Orchestra and uh everything from the produ production of it to the performances it
was wonderful like we're doing great in the stands drama competitions um and just recently student council we're putting together PHS Got Talent which is gonna be great Yeah March 20 what is it 28 on attending yeah it's GNA be lovely
um is that the pack it's that the pack pack what time yes I think seven seven I'll get back to you all right and let me know if we need tickets absolutely no y'all Y hope someone's fundraising exactly um but that's that's an important thing to the student council we've been trying to get school spirit up all year we met with
other student councils of local uh schools and they all just have a like these these councils have enough money to be as a council donating to organizations where we are trying to get people to come to our events and so that's something we're working on but after scheduling a few events and
canceling them because not enough people signed up we've kind of like finally agreed to just do these events and we figure if we do them well right it's going to build and in a few years they're GNA be well attended and already I think this this PHS Got Talent is looking like it'll have a good turnout
so we're excited about from the stud so much so much uh school lunch continues to be great we had a ramen bar the other day which was awesome uh Mr Johnson he's my vice principal and I got an email from him saying come to my office
hello and then I kept I kept reading it said you're not in trouble and I was like I'm in trouble for some and I went there and it turns out he's just taking like a half hour to meet with every student who falls under his uh designation I thought that was beautiful and like we we just got talk about life
and that was that was really cool and I don't know if I'm for as for good news I don't know if it partis to call this Good News but as someone who brings a coat to history class every day because of air conditioning I was glad to see that the
referendum passed the way it did so happy about that um on to other good news um so like I think Dr Foster just mentioned um we did celebrate Black History Month um the assembly was amazing as usual um we had
a lot of really talented students come out and um show their Heritage show their appreciation um and it was just really great to see um it did go over a little bit but I have sad I statistics afterwards like I was I definitely
wasn't too upset about that um and this week actually we have Asian Fest um which you know I'm I'm part of usually I'm I would dance this year but um it's always really great to see that we're able to celebrate our culture and celebrate um kind of what makes us part
of us um at school um another thing that we as student council have been continuing is the form with Miss BGE um we've had three meetings so far um and we've been able to talk about some of the issues and um kind of like our thoughts about certain things at school
so one of the main topics we brought up with the bell schedule um and I think we had mostly positive um there are some mixed feelings about it especially the 90-minute periods which is to be expected um but I think Mr was definitely very open to listening and hearing what the general student body
had to say um and yeah so we're going to continue working on getting more um student output and have hopefully having them show up to more of these um and have their voices heard and then finally for academic Integrity um we'll continue to work with M brige on this and we're
hoping that maybe some kind of committee can be formed like something uh similar to what we do with student council for like prom or for different events um we form like temporary communities um and we're hoping this could be more of a permanent one yeah that's great um make sure you do that before you leave make
sure miss bir sets it up before you go tell her you won't leave until it's done um I thank you both um I hope you are having some time to take some breaths as you come towards the end of your senior year I know spring break is coming and I
just hope you have a chance just to relax and enjoy some time without some pressure this quarter has been lovely this quarter has been not too not too much not too like I I should not too lovely like no level three absence
letters right k no Miss Kendall didn't say that no no no Miss Kendall no no no no she wants you to enjoy this time but like in school yeah um but we're really grateful for all that you do for the kids and how
you're bringing everything along and look forward to seeing you and your talents on the 27th 28th 28th yeah well you you know somebody like just make sure she lets me know a oh in the
back but thank you and and seriously if you want to get going we understand um Mr Balden will not take offense I will not and with that Mr Balden the 2526 tentative adoption of the budget yes so the budget is due uh to
the state tomorrow um because of the holiday on Thursday um so this is the tentative uh adoption we submit it to the state uh they review it and get back to us and then our final adoption uh the budget hearing if you will is April 29th um it's a little outline of where
we're going to go um we promise to prepare all students to lead lives of joy and purpose as knowledgeable creative and compassionate citizens of global Society that's our promise um to our students and our community strategic planning I'll skip over this since um Dr Foster did such a
great job um zerob based budgeting is our goal each year to start from zero and build up um to try to eliminate waste as best we can um these are some of the things that make Princeton Public Schools really unique um small neighborhood schools with comparatively
small class sizes um princ university a world-class research University in our backyard a large number of students uh programs and opportunities um a large number of student Support Services really experienced teaching staff programs that are well above the state in minimum uh we also have a charter in
our uh neighborhood which is unique for uh District like us and our commitment to equity a budget calendar uh we do go over this you can see the highlighted uh tonight's a tenative budget adoption as I said uh they're due tomorrow to the state and then the hearing will be on the
29th um these are some of the accomplishments um we have um passed referendums recently I have it here as referenda was always an internal argument about the plural of referendum we've decide on referendums but clearly I I missed uh my own thing here um so uh
super uh important um the large one we just passed on January 28th um we're issuing debt a week from today um uh improving pedagog pedagogy with rolling out new data tools and improving multi-tiered structures for support
which help our students who help need it's been a big Focus the last couple years um we're utilizing grants from Prince University and the state to offer extra support and tutoring for our students and uh we did Implement a new Enterprise Personnel payrolling accounting software package um in the
last last year so it's been a heavy lift um the budget drivers uh really so you know meeting student needs um more students needing extra services and added placements as well as maintaining small class sizes really Drive our budget um inflation has slowed um but
there's certainly a lot of uncertainty uh in the economic environment right now we are having pressure on our health care costs uh specialty RX and increase uh widespread usage of glp1 drugs and we are continuing to focus on maintaining and improving our
facilities uh this is the calendar tax bill you can see that the pi is sliced up uh then 2024 the calendar year slightly a higher amount went to the county um and that uh decreased our percentage of the tax budget the overall
community tax burden if you will um we look at our tax uh um levies is basically on the left you have the general or operating fund it makes up uh 93% of our budget um and even with the uh Bond referendum which has brought us to just over our last Peak um in 2021
for our debt service or our Capital side of the balance sheet um we talk a little bit about our asset valuations we had this done uh every every uh few years uh buying Insurance uh for our insurance purposes we can see that over the last
four years our uh replacement value of our assets are buildings the contents site improvements has increased um significantly 25 % over the last four years um so we really uh are increasing our Focus um on maintaining our
facilities super important to delivering Educational Services in the community um we're talking about our Debt Service uh next week we're issuing $89 million in bonds um the interest rate Market has stabilized it it's ticked back up recently um we have three other Bond
issues outstanding this brings us uh a little bit above where we were uh four years ago with our debt service um this is a graph of that as you can see graphically what I just stated uh we're going to be here so we were here um a little bit
higher um the taxpayer impact so the uh the tenative budget for um calender uh 25 so the the town collects all taxes New Jersey and then passes them through so to us for our school tax we're on a fiscal year June 30th um estimated total
Levy of 94 million the uh asset the uh Seth valuation in town has uh ticked up almost 1% so that helps to uh deflect even though the 4.7% estimated calendar uh year school tax levy just the school tax side not the town or the county um
would feel like just over 4% so the increase in the asset valuation uh the assess valuation spreads that over a larger base so that's good news question can is that everything um the operating and debt that's School tax
on the calendar year so it's only half of the increase for the debt but it catches up correct um and this is kind of another way to look at it you can see here the uh the increase uh for the fiscal year
is 7% but the calendar year it's only spread over half um we can see here that the the burden to our uh taxpayer will go up about $433 for the average taxpayer there's a here that shows um how it affect um individual taxpayers
based on uh the valuations um of course if people rent they pay that through their rent um so it's you know [Music] um this we're looking at our general fund tax levy growth versus our uh in
District enrollment um 2.91% is the operating uh tax levy increase that we're proposing uh tonight and uh would be adopting on April 29th if nothing changed um that one was supposed to be out of
there anyway but this shows our uh the increase on The Debt Service 7.27% so it has ticked up but over this time period it's uh under 3% a year compound animal growth rate we look at our bank tax uh cap we
really don't have much we're going to generate a very little amount this year um on a little bit of unused healthare uh waiver our fund balance um is ticked back up to the highest in recent years um our capital reserve we put back money
into our capital reserve um here at 24 was the last year that was audited um so we're in better shape with our fund balance um this is a breakout of our operating budget how we spent our money um for calendar 24 you can see that
um 82% is salaries benefits and Charter so it only leaves about 18% uh left for everything else aside from those three categories um Insurance um special services Transportation has ticked up
quite a bit in recent years um another way to look at it we show here the the other uh 4.85% um the total budget um we have insurance here in light blue
um this is other which is uh about only 4.85% of the total budget so we have very little discretionary funds to spend we have U maintenance and custodial um transportation has gone up significantly out of District
tuitions so this is our tentative adopted uh budget tonight um what we're looking at um this is um Compares uh I started looking at this a couple I look at a lot of things a lot of times but trying to
portray uh all the costs including salaries in here you can see the different levels of growth um this is our estimated actual 25 and 24 um here in the gray are areas of sensitivity uh to our cost structure uh student
services transportation and uh benefits are the areas where we're seeing a lot of uh inflationary pressure um those are operating revenues local revenues make up 93% of our um The District's Revenue so only 7% comes from
state aid uh locally um the biggest piece is uh the tax L 81% um the next would be uh cranberry tuition Princeton University contribution um some other tuitions and miscellaneous income and then fund Balan
is 4% of the proposed budget um these are big picture of movements year to year try to even isolate further um you can see on the revenue side uh most of the increase of our budget in the last four years is tax levy um and the university contribution has helped
significantly to um offset the inflationary pressure um you can see down here the same uh effects I'm looking at student services increases Transportation has gone up 11% over the four years and that's a compound annual
growth so that's 11% each year for four years um so that's a lot of a lot of pressure and um those are really the drivers um we're trying to keep salaries um under control and uh uh usually our state aid has
increased uh didn't increase this year um but usually that goes in tandem with Charter and this year we did get a slight state aid um decrease but Charter tuition is flat uh also so that helps to um offset that decrease um this is our
adopted uh tentative adopted budget um for the year we are uh planning on taking almost 800,000 in healthcare waiver um here you can see our our uh state aid
decreased 3% the state um shifted the formula the biggest uh the largest decrease any uh District would receive would be a decrease of 3% which is what we got um but then you can see our uh you'll see on the next page that our
Charter stayed kind flat um it actually is forecasted to be a little uh less than this year so that's not a bad thing um Revenue side um interest income has helped us a little bit over the the so the offset to uh so some of the
inflation is a little bit higher short-term interest rates school districts can only invest in very stable uh nothing longer than 13year maturities government bonds or agency bonds so you know really stable things that's helped a little bit um and then of course the university you
can see has helped their contribution um they do inflate that by 4% a year so that's a good thing too uh and those are kind of the big pictures on the revenue side you can see here um you know how important it is to maintain our salary and benefit costs to the overall budget
um and we've had a little bit of of pressure with uh um special services costs those are hard to manage in the short term um and let's see what else jumps out of me
here um school supplies we've basically been flat funding school supplies um since I've been here which is starting to have a little pressure um you know we're worried about some of the tariffs and all those things I thought paper costs were going to be going up and they may go up later but they just did a bit
and they actually came in flat um but even though we're able to maintain you know no increase that's still I think pretty good compared to our peers so we really um appreciate our uh schools for being efficient that way um you can see here the transportation costs increase
um significant pressure there those are kind of the big picture movements of our um of our budget I'm happy to take questions uh from the board so thank you thank you Mr Baldin that was great um so a question that I hear a lot lately given the federal
environment is how much money do we get in federal aid and uh so for all intensive purpos is a little over a million dollars um and we get ide8 is the biggest chunk for us that goes towards special education tuitions um out of District tuitions so
H about a million dollars a little over uh and then we get some title grants however that uh cannot go to offset regular operating cost uh supplement uh versus a plant is one of the principles so it's extra programs a lot in the summer some extra things that we do so
it would have an effect but um idea would be the big effective I assume you're asking if you know the federal well let government can eliminate or or minimize the doe well let's say you know they wanted certain philosophies to change and and it was contingent on
state funding and we said no we're good uh you're saying we would lose around a million dollars correct so that's about less than 1% of the budget yes yeah okay thank you anyone else have any questions yeah go ahead
Adam are we looking though at deficits again my my concern just when my own going over the budget is we have a volatile future I think we're kind of on the edge when it comes to money coming in money coming out and how do we look
at reduction reduction and we're gonna look at reduction in staff is that something that's going to come up I think it's important to talk about I know there's some plans in place possibly is that because again I looked at our Moody report too and I talked about the again fun funds again
basically money coming in money coming out we're on a very thin margin did you moody just did our uh our dates uh our debt service whenever we issue bonds Moody's is our debt rating rating agency standard apports is the other one in in
the um in the area in the in the country I should say so they maintained our triaa status which was good but um of course they do look at our fund balance and they compare us to the whole country they rate um bonds from municipalities across the country and New Jersey has very conservative rules so we're not
allowed to maintain the fund balances at other states so um and of course they look at our free fund balance so if we tied up uh too big of a percentage in capital reserve they would ding us for that however if um the the more free fund balance we live in in this state at
least at times governments have governers have come in and taken some of that free fund balance so it's a balancing act there um but yeah you're right it's important to you know maintain um you know balance there can we just take a step back um are we
considering any staff cuts no we are not considering any staff Cuts what we always do is try to maximize our resources so we look at efficiencies um and the other thing too is we look at sometimes if there's a retirement maybe repurposing a position that is more
needed and so that's kind of how we um maintain and support our staff but we also know our staff you know with the referendum as it expands we're we're going to need staff so um we want to just really maximize um what we have okay thank you and also just to say we
we don't have a we we balanced the budget we were just presented with a balanced budget yeah I just think this rais we have contractual costs inflation just from my understanding the numbers I'm looking at I we can't go into a dissertation no we might have a we have
a deficit looming possibly and we might see a contraction I just think that has to be said that's what I that's what if I'm wrong hopefully everything could work out but I plan for the worst and hope for the best I don't know what kind of Governor we're going to get either we get a um I don't want to get partisan we
get a republican Governor he might have a different view about the budget too all these things might be happening it's happened before in Princeton schools we have incredible Financial Resources though and if I can say this team I see it as like coaches implementing a new offense I like what they're doing from
the infrastructure from from um Learning elementary school core classes getting to grade level by fifth grade all that's important our teachers are getting raises but I'm just telling you we got inflation we have construction costs that might be going up we have teacher raises deserve but we have to pay them
so we're on an edge I feel and I just have to say that publicly thank you and La last thing though just maybe it's a prinstone in even though we can't change the world economics are the way they are we are kind of losing our our middle class and
low middle class and it's just a reality I understand that but we have to I'm not asking for proc proclamations to change that but besides schools we have a community and we're going to be losing I mean people I grew up with you know who make the heart and soul of this town our
black community the one I knew is like disappearing um but I guess that's you know that's reality you know I'm not change phobic thank you anyone else no all right great job Mr Balden
all right moving on now our first uh public forum public comment on agenda items and non-agenda items um have a a list of people who signed up we'll go through them and then anyone else who would like to come up and speak uh first up is uh Erica Snyder um just uh if you could please keep your comments to three
minutes and just let us know your name and the street live on thank you I appreciate you telling me that every time I come up here DNA um sorry for my voice um my name is Erica Snider in lawrencville Road uh most of you know that an advocate for
bilingual education I'm also an educator and that my family moved to Princeton specifically for the DLI program four years ago we were told that after Community Park a bilingual social studies class and an oper an appropriately rigorous Spanish class would be the curriculum for the middle school this past fall the bilingual
social studies teacher took a leave of absence and was not replaced leaving three grades of Spanish ersion classes without a teacher the year-long courses were replaced with a semester long course that was not a comparable substit intitute and in my son's case did not
deepen his language skills at all uh on tonight's agenda we see that the social studies teacher will not be returning as a parent I'm here to ask that you start the search for Teacher immediately for the Middle School social studies position these students cannot afford to lose another year of language
acquisition due to inadequate programming as an educator I am perplexed by the lack of clarity for a program that is 10 years old how is there no clear path from prek through high school for these students having a vertically aligned map isn't too much to
ask why is it a mystery that completing what why is it a mystery what completing the program means since the Seal of biliteracy was removed what is the end goal for students how are there Curriculum maps that are incomplete with low-level essential questions that then are not
taught or assessed in class or in some cases there are no Curriculum maps at all this includes for English language Learners as a supporter of bilingual education I also hope you ntion Al encourage English language Learners from Spanish-speaking backgrounds to take advantage of the amazing opportunity to
learn and explore content in their native language immersion whether the primary language is English or Spanish should work both ways and benefit both communities parents want Clarity and for the district to fulfill their promises this means we need better leadership and oversight of the program please do
better for the students that have chosen to commit themselves to this program it would be really wonderful if the district Comm committed to the program too not with words but with actions of hiring a teacher for the bilingual social studies Middle School courses creating clear and concise Curriculum maps that parents can understand and
hold teachers accountable to and putting Renewed Energy into the leadership of the districtwide program thank you next [Applause] iseta hello I'm vieta Medina from 232
Road um I would like to speak about the cap in CP for incoming kindergartens in the LI last year there was a waiting list there were nine families who couldn't access the program this cap create the biggest inequality in the district for the kids it causes that the
kindergarten in CP are in classes of 22 versus classes in 13 to 15 of other schools Pro for prospected CP staff there is no warantee that their kids could be able to join CP for the parent it breaks the tenant of equal access of
educational opportunities for the children it provokes that there is a criteria that gives priority for accessing the CPD uh slots I am a a mother of an aspiring kindergarten that I would like to enroll him in CPD Al let
me clarify that the criteria as far as I'm aware of living in the CP catchman area CBL School Spanish speaker put my kit at the top of the list but the fact that the criteria widely benefits me doesn't prevent me to highlight how
unfair for other parents are I would like for the board to please reconsider increasing the cap to 60 kids and create three sections in kindergarten CP to avoid having to enforce an unfair criteria of enrollment and to leave people out of a prog they want to join I
would like to also bring another topic the future construction that will occur in our schools I have heard that in this in this forum it has been repeated that Elementary School students will be fascinated by the construction equipment I agree with that that statement but as
a licensed civil engineer I am very alarmed at the levity in which this topic has been discussed I would like to stress that construction sites injure construction sites MIM construction site kill in 2023 alone 1,75 construction
workers in the US went to work but they never made it back home professional much better trained that any person in this this room were killed because safety measure fail because safety protocols fail so exposing hundreds of small children to a
construction site that Fascinate them that attracts them is always a risk and it shouldn't be considered that it has entertainment value if enlargment of the school capacity is a necessity the duration the how and the when of the construction happen is still a choice so
I please urge to all the decision makers in this room and to those who advis them to take take this risk into account thank you up is Kush [Applause] chaty
um Kush chaty did I say that right uh yes okay good hi thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak uh my name is k CH I have a fourth grader in Community Park Elementary School um my family moved
from uh New Delhi India to the Princeton School District specifically to send our child to the DLI program because we believe that bilingualism and biculturalism is a superpower that our children possess and it produces
citizens who are open to students and and adults of other backgrounds and respond on to a world of difference with enthusiasm and empathy as opposed to fear and ignorance and these are the values that we want into inculcate in our own children so even though I don't
come from a Spanish-speaking home I do come from a bilingual and bicultural home and I think it's extremely important that we send our children to bilingual and bicultural schools I would like to re reiterate what Erica um and
um vieta thank you what vieta said about our concerns about the limits that are being placed um to enrollment um many of us moved to this District because we wanted to send our children to the schools to the school and so I think
it's essential that we allow all parents who made this choice to be able to send their children to this bli program so please consider expanding the kindergarten sections to three sections um so that all students can come in into
the program we also would really like to see a commitment to bilingual education through the whole school district um not only at CP but in the middle school we have concerns about the curriculum and also the Staffing as they have said um
as well as in the high school we would like this to be an integrated part of the program at at Princeton um Public Schools thank you thank you uh next up is David uh mov good evening uh David morkov 100
Jefferson Road my daughter is uh in third grade at uh at CP uh I want to reiterate what uh my the previous speakers have said about the importance of the the DLI program uh here uh we moved from Brooklyn two and a half years ago my daughter had
been admitted to a Spanish Immersion program in Brooklyn we chose to move here to Princeton in order to for her to be able to continue that same type of educational program and she's now half you more than halfway through the program and are concerned with the lack of a clear path as we move forward into
the the upper grades of the elementary school and then uh into the into the Middle School uh and I think it's important that the board consider I said increasing the cap for the grades below uh my daughters at this point to allow more students to uh to attend uh and to
participate in this program which really I think draws people to this District uh and especially as the uh new apartment complexes open up you're going to have more people there shouldn't be an artificial cap uh on the on the CP enrollment and then on a more minute
level uh something at at CP last year uh the uh the budget changed from a full-time art teacher to a 0.6 uh equivalent uh art art teacher and this is in no way an indictment of the new art teacher who is doing a fantastic job
with a very limited amount of time uh time that she has uh but last year A bunch of us uh raised this concern uh to the board before the final budget was passed uh and we received an email that said you know we cannot justify a full-time art position Community Park
students will continue to have the same amount of art instruction as every other PPS Elementary student and while that might be true in terms of the number of minutes in the art classroom the level and quality of the art instruction that the CP students have gotten is well below that of the
other elementary schools uh and that's not because of the teacher it's because she's only a 0.6 and she barely has time to deal with each of the classes that she has uh my daughter pointed out an extremely minor disciplinary issue in the in the classroom in her in her art class and I went to speak to The Home
Room teacher about it uh and she said I know that I've ever seen the art teacher and that's not because she's not here it's because she's a 0.6 and she has to spend all her time in the classroom or barely trying to put together her program so I ask the board that when this budget comes back for review after
hopefully the state approves it that you consider uh allowing increasing CP back to a 1.0 um uh equivalent for the uh a full-time position 1.0 for the art teacher to truly allow the the students
to get the uh the same experience that the other elementary schools do with h with a full-time art teacher uh art is really important at this age and and Beyond and I think the CP students are not getting what we told they were that's it thank you thank
you is there anyone else here who would like to um speak at the public forum please state your name spell it for us you already know my name yeah but we need it for the minutes come on I'm
Michelle tuck Ponder and I am I live in Laurel Circle and I'm here representing Princeton parents for black children but I want to preface my remarks by offering gratitude and congratulations to Matt Balden we are really grateful for you
you've been a great partner to us and very helpful and I have personal feelings but I'll Express them to you privately um thank you uh the Princeton parents for black children's mission is to advocate for equity and support for all black children in Princeton Public
Schools we recently sent a letter to um all of you Board of Education members but we thought it might be a great opportunity for us to read Salient portions of this letter um communicated to you dear Board of Education having recently learned of yet another
resignation by a black PPS staff person we are writing on behalf of pbbc to express our concern con ER and alarm about the Exodus of African-American staff in PPS over the past three years and the harm it causes to our students and
Community between 2021 and 2023 Princeton Public Schools appeared to be a welcoming place for black women to lead and Excel the positions of superintendent principal of Riverside School a seat on the board of education and supervisors of math science and Humanities as well as several counseling
positions were held by black women today only two black women remain in administrative leadership at PPS and one of the two black counselors in P at PHS has decided to resign Friday was her last day citing what has been described as a toxic environment for both students
and staff of African descent I won't read the part about um Princeton's history I think a lot of you all know what that is um but I'll go on pbbc is acutely aware of the challenges faced by our PPS black staff and admin
ministrators which includes underrepresentation in leadership and curriculum stereotyping bias tokenism and lack of support from the district when challenged by vocal parents and community members this is demoralizing and
wrong in good faith these individuals accept positions in our district believing that job performance will earn the trust and confidence of their students and Community only to learn that they will be endlessly scrutinized by parents and the District administration while White staff are
largely exempt from this burden in addition efforts to empower our students to advocate for themselves are met with resistance from some principles who openly support self- advocacy efforts from White students initiatives to support underresourced students are overly scrutinized denied
and amount to very few while the district happily supports International trips and AP classes to further the hopes and dreams of privileged students both of these examples of resistance and denial should be front and center for the equity committee yet what progress
has been made so I'm going to stop reading from there and just point out that we spent some time talking about the collective priority too Wellness inclusion and support for all we um as
black parents are very concerned about the departure of Bethany sadik from the staff at Princeton High School she was a counselor and a social worker when in her absence pulse which is a group that was started by Shirley saterfield to
support black and brown girls in their experience at Princeton High School the minority student achievement Network and the diversity Council are left without leadership and rudderless which leaves our students who have to struggle to be
to um Advocate and come together and find a friendly place or place where they feel appreciated um without any recourse that is unacceptable so our question our ask is
when can we expect to hear about how those positions are going to be filled who are our students going to look to for for leadership and how are they going to be able to see themselves in our schools when what we have been
experiencing is um a m departure of black people in leadership positions thank you thank you is there anyone else here who would like to speak at public comment right now go ahead I wish I had gone first
but thank you um my name is Lanna juny and I live on Lynden Lane and I also want to start with gratitude I've gotten just a little little insight into the amount of service and time that you all dedicate on the board and so I'm just very grateful for that um I am a DLI
educator myself I'm certified DLI teacher so I'm obviously an advocate for the program I too also moved here for um the D program and I want to share a story that when I first moved here I was you know doing the last walkthrough of my house and the person who was telling
me about Princeton and how exciting it was going to be to live here um let me know that we were Zone to CP and immediately said but you can get out of that and so since I've been here that wasn't the only comment that has been shared with me that there seems to be a
dark cloud unfortunately over CP I I personally believe it might have to do with a little bit of our prins and history and maybe some of the previous comments that we've heard um it's hard to pinpoint that but especially also given the increase in Residence that we
expect to have at the shopping center how can we remove that cloud how can we really look at the program in such a positive light where in my DLI program families would cry to get off the weight list where it was such um a value and the gift that we all know that it is um
so that's my best piece about di but I also wanted to speak about the increase in class sizes at CP um I was an educator kindergarten in first grade my best year teaching was in 2010 it wasn't just because I was much younger it was a
lot of different factors but the biggest one is that I only had 19 students I was able to really connect with those students some that I'm still in touch with today um who are much more than my height my most challenging year teaching was in 2015 where I had 27 students I
had a co-teacher who was there with me the whole time but it was the most frazzled that I was feeling as a teacher I was like the duck working hard with my feet moving underwater but it really does impact an Educator's day-to-day where just that from 27 to 19 greatly
impacted me where I can still look back on those years and distinguish that I also wanted to speak as a black educator as well uh the first time I spoke at the board meeting was after the data was shared for black and brown students who were failing kindergarten science and as
a science kindergarten teacher I still feel emotional about hearing about that data that is very real and also part of our history too so the increase in class sizes at CP will undoubtedly hurt those students that we we I know are seeking
to support even more um and then the SEC the last piece I want to share about is just as a princ and Community member it really does feel that no matter how wonderful the DLI program can be there seems to be a community um history that we need to start rewriting and I ask
that the board just take those steps and maybe be that change so that we can see what the next chapter holds thank you thank you [Applause] is there anyone else here who would like to speak how's it going good
evening I know most of you Jason Carter I'm a born and raised in Princeton graduated from Princeton High School and uh physical educator now 22 years I had Nikolai in my gym class uh you you've come a long
way um I just wanted to Echo uh Michelle tuck Ponder's words uh so I sat in this room in 2017 with Ashante Thompson and uh Steve Cochran and a bunch of other black Educators and we talked about how
we could make change for the district uh and we formed a group called Beacon which was black Educators affirming Coalition operating networks that was our acronym uh myself Dr Barnes Olive
childes um and and we would meet every week and this was again unpaid uh just like the board members and you know the volunteer jobs are always the hardest uh and we would talk about how we could make it better for our uh black children right we felt that
they weren't getting enough support we felt that they weren't getting uh seen enough and from that we uh formed pbbc uh Veronica Foreman took that uh and then we had meetings with Luke Goldstein and then Luke Goldstein passed
the Baton to Mike vulpi and they said we're going to hire more black Educators we're going to hire administrators we're we're listening uh and that did happen and that was 2020 and there was George Floyd and they changed the name of uh
Princeton middle school and then uh Princeton unified middle school for a year uh and I felt that this was a really welcoming place and I felt that we were being heard and I felt that um there was change happening and I think
over the last couple years we came out of covid um and the one thing I say is uh like the kids as a teacher they they know when you're not looking right they kind of know when you're not looking like is is anyone is anyone looking uh
and we're here to just to say we're still looking all right we're still looking uh and uh we did see change and I understand that progress is not linear right you take two steps forward we take one step back but I think we're taking a step back right now uh and I just uh
what did you what is your name Leanna lyanna and I really like what she said is far being on the right side of history with the board and I think right now is a critical moment where we can make some decisions especially with the budget passing uh to really make change
and think about like the young children that you could be affecting uh years from now all right thank you thank you all right anyone else all right Mr Balden has a letter to read uh Christine uh blumire CP uh
second grade Mom after seeing overcrowding at JP and Littlebrook the last past couple of years it is now cp's turn to face overcrowded classrooms that is because a cap is artificially placed on di enrollment which to be clear appears to be dis connected from when actual construction and expansion will
occur at CP the quote unquote swing Spa swings space argument does not hold and should not be used to degrade the academic experience of CP children nor the working conditions of our dedicated teachers my request requests to the district and board leadership are therefore simple first
increase di cap from 44 to 60 at K level entry and reopen a third K classroom currently our 2K classrooms are are 22 each when K classrooms average 15 to 16 other schools and all other schools have 3K classrooms last year nine students were not admitted because of a cap at 44
and so lifting the cap also enable the district to meet demand where it is at considering a growing student population overall second reopen a third first and third second grade section again to ensure parity and academic experience and teach your workload across the
district short of that our current km first students would continue to suffer from large classroom sizes and their teachers two others should have three sections in each grade and or class sizes third keep uh three third grade sections third grade is the only grade that still has three sections that CP
current CP second graders are in classrooms of 23 when the averages in other elementary schools seem to be around 18 to 20 thus the disparity among schools is substantial here too we must prevent them from being in overcrowded classrooms again next year fourth reopen a third fourth grade section we
currently have three third grade third grade classrooms with each 18 students having them in only two fourth grade classrooms we yield classroom sizes of 27 again inconsistent with classroom sizes in that grade at other elementary schools finally reopen a third fifth
grade class for the same reasons as above and considering this year's fifth grade class sizes which were at 23 and 26 [Applause] respectively um all right moving on
now uh going on to right J1 arest bullying and then we're going tolight and start okay um long-term planning met on the 13th of March we heard from our
Architects and planners who are uh coordinating with the town and working hard with our administrators to develop uh preliminary schedules for the 2025 referendum projects across four schools with PHS hbac and the bleachers to be started out this summer the bleachers
will be completed this summer um we look forward to um sharing updates with the board and the community as the preliminary project time frames take shape and our next meeting is on April 24th thank you sorry U Miss Kendall I think the Hib is an action item uh I
believe it was unless I made a mistake I think there was someone yes I'm sorry no uh D Kendall yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman yes Mar franceski yes Eleanor
hubard yes Susan caner yes Ari miselle yes Chris antario obain Katherine laa yes motion passes sorry thought I'd talk about enough all right uh thank you Mr so going back to
board committee highlights and operations okay um hi we met March 5th at 8: a.m on Zoom um the public as always is uh welcome to come to our meetings we began as we have been uh with updates from
past referendum projects so we got detailed reports not only of the projects that are ongoing but uh what will be taking place this summer but I wanted to highlight today things on our agenda agenda because um Matt has been
bu a busy beefer this month and we have a lot of things that uh we're going to be approving on our agenda we're going to be approving a contract uh that refers to the 2022 referendum for the PM PMS roof talk Replacements to do plan
planning for that we're going to be um hiring a solar energy consultant which as we always do in our meetings we highlight sustainability and this is our first step to exciting uh steps that we're going to be taking toward bringing solar to our district which we're all very excited
about and Matt's been um really working us toward getting to that position um we also um we're going to be approving things for electric buses which also enter our sustainability um we're not quite sure how they'll be financed we're
waiting for Grants uh which could come through but the board is wants to go forward um with uh acquiring two buses and charging stations uh for that which is a very exciting development um we are going to be this summer doing the first
project for the 2025 referendum which will be the bleachers at the high school so that is on the agenda for this evening and finally uh which I'll highlight uh we're going to be doing work which is partly paid for by um the last referendum and partly from our
maintenance Budget on the PHS Basin and we're going to be resurfacing and regrading the tennis courts uh to make them um last for the at least 5 to 10 years so these are just some of the projects that Matt um has on our agenda tonight for approval which you'll see on
the agenda um our next meeting is April 9th at 8: am and all are welcome to join us on Zoom thank you Susan next up is personnel with Mara uh the Personnel committee met at 8:30 on Thursday March 6 we discussed a variety of personnel topics including nurse coverage and
rates and the uh enthusiasm many exciting prospects that our team um saw at the tcj job fair um tonight we're going to be voting on four job descriptions which was really just updating the information in those descriptions and we also have the pleasure we already did I guess of
welcoming and approving margar but she's still here I she she's she's a trooper she she deserves that [Laughter] cake you're gonna fit right deserve the cake
our next meeting will be closed on Thursday April 10th all right thank you um next up is uh policy policy yeah policy are we all living for kick now yeah we can just
keep going Poli policy for anyone who wants to know policy met on March 5th we reviewed the policies which are on tonight's ref uh agenda and we will next meet on the 9th of April thanks Beth uh student achievement with Elanor uh the student achievement
committee met on Friday March 14th at 10:30 with Debbie bronfield myself D Kendall Christen tarpo and Susan caner in attendance we first heard an update on our partnership with Dr Salange Lopez Murphy our TCNJ professor and residence who's helping the district address the
dis disproportionality in the numbers of Hispanic students who are classified as having specific learning disabilities that issue is whether multilingual Learners academic difficulties stem from language gaps or from disabilities it's important to tease out the causes of individual students challenges so they
can be appropriately addressed and Dr Lopez Murphy is working with our staff to help us do this we also heard an update on the ongoing pilot of a new Possible English language arts curriculum for our elementary schools our current Ela curriculum um Teachers College reading and writing reading and
writing Workshop is no longer being supported and in the fall a committee was convened to identify a new curriculum to meet our needs we are now piloting arts and letters a brand new knowledge building curriculum from the makers of the well-known Wht and wisdom curriculum the pilot has not yet
finished but so far the feedback is positive and a decision about adoption will be made later in um the spring um after that we went to close session uh and our next meeting will be on Friday April 11th at 10:30 on zoom and all are welcome to attend thanks
Elanor and I hear you have an update about the equity committee meeting and I do I do this is from Debbie um the equity committee met on Monday March 10th uh and Dr Angela cisos sense shared a presentation about investing in our staff we discussed many ways and
opportunities uh to recruit hire and retain skilled diverse staff despite the growing teacher shortage we discussed the goal of investing in people um investing in our staff by supporting them uh with good onboarding and mentoring and learning about our strengths and weaknesses from exit
interviews we discuss student teaching red tape for certifications and other ways to be proactive with hiring and our next meeting will be Monday June 9th at 6m on Zoom thanks elor all right moving on now um we have policies L1 for first
reading policies L2 for second reading um then we're going to uh retirements uh we just want to wish uh Joanne Mitchell Peggy Thompson and Pete Vasquez all the best as they have submitted their retir ments um it's about 60 years of experience uh that
we'll be losing um and then next up we have uh resignations uh and just wanted to highlight one uh that I'm very sad about um Matt don't go go um and so um Matt's been here for about six years but in
Princeton years is about 42 um you uh were an integral part of planning for several successful referendums and you saw the implementation completion of dozens of referendum projects that improve the safety and comfort for everyone in our school school buildings um you put up with all of us um me for
the past three and a half years and before that Beth for three years if that's not enough to drive anyone out of the district I don't know what is um but I'm gonna miss your sense of I'm gonna miss your sense of humor um and uh but we wish you all the best thank you all right so
much Beth has something say too I just like to Echo what dapa said and say that Matt Balden has given his all to this community over the past six years you ensured budget transparency and accountability to fund our mission despite a pandemic and significant
inflation and at the same time expertly planned and oversaw multiple bond issuances in related maintenance and construction to ensure that our school facilities remain safe and supportive of students and staff we will terribly miss your deep expertise tireless dedication
to kids and patient smile and we wish you all the best in your next next of course thank you I'm not I haven't seen patience but okay I think it's patience just um I'm new to the board but I know some history and Matt and other people here really provided excellent infrastructure and really Balan this
school district and I think stabilized it and set it on the right course and I guess maybe you would I've never seen your uh you always seem patient and you're able to answer questions and at the same time you balance like five different things in your at one time so it's and you have encyclopedic knowledge
it seems as I'm learning about the budget so I wish she wouldn't go but thank you very much uh Susan and then you um it has been my pleasure to serve with Matt we kind of joined the board um
at the same time and he um has always stayed true to his values um he made sure the finances of our district are always designed to support students and that's always been his uh Mantra he'll leave us better in every way better
Financial systems better Building Maintenance uh for safety um a referendum record of oversight and prudence and a focus on sustainability that it was always um as important to him as to our community um I'm going to miss Matt a lot because one I need Met
fans to support me but I'll miss his friendship but we'll always um you know we wish him well and what whatever his has his new Endeavors start thank you so much Mara as usual Susan I think a likes I'll repeat a few things that she said
um Matt you will be S sorely missed it has been a pleasure working with you your knowledge and expertise has been indis indispensable to the district um you leave us in significantly better shape than when you came and and how you found us and we're grateful for that and in all your decisions you always put the
kids first um thank you told you [Laughter] thank you for your uh dedication we wish you nothing but the best thanks thank you so much it really uh nice I really appreciate it um this is really hard decision it was based on a desire to kind of relocate you know the kids are
almost all growing up Big Jake is on his own getting promoted moving to Chicago and Wednesday's almost done with college so we're going to move up to North Jersey and uh these five and a half almost six years have been you know a growth experience for me and uh this community is wonderful um
uh the board is wonderful and uh we have great uh staff here and it's about processes and controls as much as anything so um I think it's important to keep that momentum going forward um for the district thank you so much thank you all right moving on M3 appointments
M4 Personnel item M5 leave of absence M6 curriculum instruction M7 student services M8 job descriptions M9 athletic appointments M10 is an action item can I get a motion Mara second Ari oh that one's a
consent um yeah it's I had sent you an email about that that one yeah uhuh okay [Music] y let me go to hold on sorry about that
no it's all good um take a motion patient smile Pati uh the first motion was Mar the second was Ari great DNA yes Susan yes Beth Baron I
don't know why I'm reading the first names and I'm doing it this way Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman uh yes Debbie bronfeld oh sorry she's not here still not here Mara franches yes Elanor hubard yes AR MAA yes Chris santarpio Stein
Katherine Lara yes I thought this was the other settlement agreement Oh shoot that's what I was saying it was this the other one um you're good on this one I don't know which one this is yeah it's down below yeah yeah yeah mistake my mistake so we'll undo that we'll undo that this is
consent never mind I got you all right uh M11 substitutes placement M12 six period compensation uh we're moving on to the N1 NJ doe 2526 preschool expansion Aid and and 2 25 26 remote
learning plan and three research project um moving on Special Services o1 Prince and speech language and learning center revised um then moving on P1 Financial reports P2 fire and evacuation uh drills P3 adoption of the budget P4 travel
expenditure P5 uh architectural contract P6 Professional Services contract um p7 gust toown Communications p8 electronic security electronic access contract award uh P9 is it where we P virtual
server up upgrade contract award P10 PHS bleachers purchase that Susan mentioned P11 uh formal bid award PHS Basin and tennis court site Improvement um p12 uh can I get a motion
to table that please uh Mara second Beth is that unanimous uh AC you want to call it are you going to call it sure D Kendall yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman I'm still obstain um Mara franceski yes Elanor
hubard yes Susan canther yes AR Melle yes Chris sarpio yes Katherine Lura yes did you want to change your vote the appointment of yeah okay it's okay um moving on oh no obain
yeah p13 electric um School Bus contract p14 Grant application acceptance p1566 kilowatt by directional fast charger and then p16 settlement agreement can I get a motion but may I
make a comment about the B the electrical bus thing sure um the only thing is I'm for it and I'm for the PO program but I just people should know that it might we talked about possibly moving to Westminister choir College don't see it in the future but if we did it might cost money because we would
have the charging stations at Batley Road and then we'd have to move them again to Westminster Ka College was that correct we when we discussed that was like an issue and and and that's I thought and I just thought people should know that might happen I don't think it's going to happen but it is and and they were pretty easily
movable Matt we yeah we did discuss that in committee we would have sunk costs uh in the installation of the equipment the equipment could be relocated if uh the administration headquarters uh were to move in the future um so you know we'd have to deal with that right but nothing's planed additive cost plan at
this time and we wanted to move forward with the installation should we tried no we tried to balance out yeah where are we on p16 did we do that correct and uh I didn't get the motion uh it was Mara and
yeah great dff Kendall yes Beth Baron yes Adam Beerman yes Mar franceski yes Elanor hubard yes Susan caner yes Arin maelle yes Chris santarpio obain Katherine laa yes motion passes thank
you um p7 registration uh travel agenda and then moving on to our next public comment oh there's one public hiding over there you want to come talk to us nothing oh oh thank you we appreciate it because
there's cake and you picked us over you picked us over cake I'm gonna remember that uh moving on now R1 approve consent agenda items could I get a motion Chris second Mara daan Kendall yes Beth Baron yes
Adam Beerman oh that's that's everything the budget too everything oh did you want to bring Mar franches what well I mean I The budget's Happening anyway I just was considering yeah
yeah um no okay uh Mara franceski yes Elanor Hubbert yes Susan caner yes Ari maelle yes Chris santarpio yes Katherine laa yes consent agenda passes all right thank you um our next board meeting
thank you everyone tonight thank you CL session yeah y but I'm doing the closing comments I wanted to thank uh Kathy Matt Kim for all their work on this um meeting um and thank you to everyone who came to present um and with that can I
get a motion to adjourn to close session Ari second uh Beth all in favor I I just have to read it okay uh Beth was the motion and Ari was second or was did I reverse that it doesn't
matter uh sorry I'll read it real quick but we do have to read it resolve the Board of Education approved this close session resolution whereas njsa 10412 allows for public body to go into close session during public meeting and whereas the Board of Education in the prince Public Schools as deemed it necessary to go into closed session to
discuss certain matters which are Exempted from the public and whereas the minutes of the Clos session would be released where the need in confidentiality in accordance with this statute no longer applied regular meeting um and there therefore be resolved the Board of Education the principal schools want a close session to discuss um legal and contractual
matter um the board uh would would um close uh would um end from close session uh no action will be taking thank you and it was unanimous to go into close
session did you say a piece yes cut for you