##VIDEO ID:Y0NseC8KLu0## e e e uh can I have a motion to resume public session so moved second all in favor I any Nays or extensions all right have Mr good okay uh please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag United States all right section D approval of the minutes can I have a motion to uh say I'm sorry recommend recommended action is to uh resolve to approve the minutes of the public session executive session of the Robinson Board of Education as submitted and release as appro this time can I have a motion to approve the the minutes vot second all in favor any any n extensions all right uh board president report uh good evening my fellow uh board members parents community members administrative staff and students welcome to January 2025 monthly uh public meeting of the Board of Education I'd like to extend a warm welcome to all of you who are able to join us this evening and thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to be here it's great to see everyone back after the winter break and I hope the holiday season was restful and rejuvenating for everyone the annual 2025 reorganization meeting was held on January 3rd there were minor changes to the committee members and uh committee uh the Committees during the reorganization I encourage everyone to watch the reorg the recording of that meeting to hear the discussion and head over to the Board website see the full list of members in of each committee I'm deeply honored to have been selected again as the uh president of the Board of Education I'm looking forward to working alongside the dedicated group of public servants you see before you to move and continue the important work that we've been doing here for our district we have an exciting rest of the year ahead I also want to take a moment to welcome our new superintendent Dr Patrick piso he's only been with us for a month feels like he's been with us for a while longer than that but uh and he has and he has acclimated very well to the district Dr pis shares the community's vision for the Robinsville School District he looks forward to working we look forward to working with him in the in the coming months on a number of new initiatives focused on student excellence and enhanced communication with all the stakeholders I'd like to share that the financial aid uh the financial audit is complete and we'll be discussing the results uh during tonight's meeting our finances remained a critical aspect of the board's oversight and I'm pleased to report that we that there were no findings however the finances of the district continue to be tight although the state aid numbers also are not available which is typical for this time of year uh we are anticipating their release towards the end of February in the meantime our Administration is hard at work preparing various budget scenarios so we'll be ready to move forward as soon as we receive that information I'd also like to address the ongoing situation in the proposed crematorium near our school the board is working closely with all relevant parties to address the matter and while the details of these discussions um I'm sorry and while we are are encouraged by uh recent legislative efforts by our local representatives to prohibit the building of crematoriums within 1,00 feet of our schools we will continue to update the uh the community as uh more information becomes available now on to more fun things I encourage everyone to attend our Middle School production of the Beauty and the Beast production running for from February 7th to 9th the students and staff have put in a lot of time and energy to bring this production to life and I know it's going to be a fantastic show also I had the pleasure of attending the Nemesis LEGO League meet and greet which is a wonderful event if anyone is interested in joining um the uh the LEGO League team please uh don't hesitate to reach out to the Nemesis team they'd love to welcome new members um I also want to highlight the many sports events happening across the district our Robinsville athletes work hard year round and we encourage everyone to come out and support them please check the athletic website for schedules and please uh make the time to attend and cheer on our talented students thank you again for the continued support of our uh students in schools here's to a successful and productive rest of the year thank you and superintendent report Dr piso all right thank thank you um with a couple of different items to go over in my area one to start by introducing the Robinsville High School executive Council report we're going uh right uh today we have Marcus rudolphi the vice president and also javine sish uh the treasurer who are going to make their report now thank you uh starting first with uh Robinsville High School athletics Junior uh a Al delli scored her a thousandth Point as a junior this past Saturday additionally they won the game against W West wins their Plainsboro South winter treack uh just attended the CVC championships this past weekend and Drew deitz broke the school record for indoor shot put and Trent dundale and Drew also both broke the school record for the shop put relay this past weekend rhs hosted the wrestling CVC tournament which was a two-day event Vinnie grippa Liz Mahia Lucas messenger and Andrew O'Reilly all took first place in their weight classes boys basketball went two- one last week and they are looking forward to another game on Thursday against Notre Dame uh winter swim both boys and girls place first in their division and are Valley division Champions uh moving on to clubs the Black Culture Club will be hosting their annual Black History Month Festival on February 6th the math Honor Society is holding a Chick-fil-A fundraiser tomorrow and students and staff were able to uh pre-order uh tedex youth is hosting an interest meeting in preparation for the huge and success successful event that will be held in the upcoming months we are excited to see how it will turn out uh National Honors National Honor Society and exec teamed up to help the Robinsville rotary club with their Winter survival kits items were donated by both students students and staff members uh for the EXA Council uh we are working with Capitol City cancer classic to raise money for their organization during lunches this week students will be encouraged to donate any amount of money to this organization and if they donate $5 or more they will get a chance to spin the wheel and receive a gift and then for uh the Middle School the kindness Club collected and will be displaying the work the entire school did in conjunction with the MLK Junior activity that they did the charge was to have students write short blurs on how they envisioned making a better school/ Community the students did a great job and the kindness Club will be utilizing some of the information garnered to inform some of their work and activities for the rest of the school year they are running a winter clothing Drive in cooperation with Homefront they are looking for winter jackets scarves hats gloves warm socks boots etc for all sizes and genders items will be collected during advisory items will be accepted through January 31st and advisories with the most items collected will be awarded pbsis ports this week uh January 31st 2025 uh they will be hosting the pre-ap butterflies fashion show in the main hallway of pond they have two very excited eighth grade MC's for the event a red carpet was borrowed from rhs and they are ready to go tea with Belle and friends will be held at Sharon school on Saturday February 1st from 2: to 4:00 p.m. princesses and princes from all over Disney will be present to celebrate the opening of Beauty and the Beast Junior there will be snacks music face painting crafts games Story Time and much more all proceeds go toward the prms musical production uh then for Sharon on January 9th uh Dr buer and Mr pasero hosted a virtual read aloud in in honor of Martin Luther King Jr we hope all students and families uh that attend attended enjoyed the experience Sharon School celebrated one of our pbsis expectations we are ready to learn with the spirit week on January 13th during this week students and staff participated in theme days and also engaged in meaningful activities on the evenings of January 14th and 16th our second grade students participated in a musical performance the snowflake spectacular we are thankful for Miss applebe on Friday January 10th plor one of our I ready mascots visited all of our students during lunch service during this time poror and other members of the SCS staff shared some assessment strategies students and staff have been participating in our inaugural I ready Bowl it is great to see the students tracking their home rooms progress on our bulletin board outside the main office and on Friday January 31st Sharon school will host our first annual preschool fashion show as a culminating celebration of their clothing study uh thank you so much for us to speak on the board today and we are looking forward to attending next month's meeting all right thank you very much um I I think this is is so important to have as as much of the meeting really be being led by by our students I think that's what we're that's what we're all here for that's um really is the high point for me of the meeting so uh thank you uh you know for for joining us today uh now we have some presentations coming up uh as well we do have the the Black Culture Club which is going to do a presentation wanted to mention that they're advised by Mr Donald Estrada and he was the Mercer County Educational support professional of the year for 2024-25 so it's here for Mr Estrada so if the uh if that if the club could come up and do their uh their presentation we'd appreciate if they could come up now and um of course gentlemen you're you're welcome to stay but I understand if uh if you want to move on but we'd love to have you here whatever you decide evening everyone I'm down on Strada I'm the Black Culture Club um advisor and we have our executive members here today who's going to present to you about the facts and history of our Black Culture Club uh so here's our presentation uh some historical context uh for our origins of Black History Month Black History Month started in 1926 to celebrate African-American achievements and history it was expanded in 1976 to a month-long OBS observance and uh the significance is recognizing black history helps address the injustices faced it Fosters understanding respect and appreciation for cultural contributions and for the themes each year Black History Month has a theme focusing on different aspects of the African-American experience promoting reflection and learning hi my name is Ariana Tomlin and I'm a senior um I would like to talk about the culture impact that we talk about a lot in our meetings at the Black Culture Club for starters um we talk about a lot of music and arts um genres like jazz hip hop and blues have all been create or originated by black culture and we like to talk about all the artists and performers that have been inspired and made this type of Music um a huge platform that we get to celebrate um every day we also like to talk about literature contributions a lot of AR authors that we talk about like Sora Neil hson and James Baldwin have paved the way for American African-American um literature and has provided deep insights into black experiences um in everyday life and then lastly cultural celebrations um events like juneth and and K Quanza are huge um black holidays that we celebrate to honor tradition and Foster Community while educating others on our heritage hi I'm Maj Fowler I'm a sophomore so I'm going to talk about our purpose Mission and goal so our purpose is to celebrate and educate people on African Caribbean and black culture and our mission is to help students with of all Races celebrate Embrace and expand their knowledge of black history and culture and that moves on to our goal which is to provide social support while fostering students development and Success Through cultural awareness leadership philanthropy and community service hello I'm Olivia Walker I'm a senior at Robinsville high school and I'm going to be talking about the achievements and what we' do and what we've done as a Club at Rell high school so in the beginning when Co was happening we would have bi-weekly meetings on Zoom but now that we are not in Co anymore we are doing it bi-weekly in person every Wednesday but recently we've been having them every single Wednesday to prepare for the Black Culture Festival that's going to be happening on January 6th at the high school which is really exciting we're going to have a lot of different black vendors who can who are going to be selling their like things like clothes jewelry or food we're going to have a couple soul food uh vendors I'm pretty sure which is very exciting we're also going to have a little Museum like type thing there which like different students are going to be running where I know personally my group that I'm going to do with Taran uh Yao and Ariana is going to be about music where we're going to play different like music from different black artists for like five seconds and whoever guesses the song first gets to get a point or whatever so the trips that we've had we've been to Apollo Theater in New York City we've to the African-American museum in Philadelphia along with the African-American Museum in DC where we also visited the Lincoln Memorial center our most recent trip that we took was to Howard University which was very exciting and not to flex but my mother and my uncle both went to that Black Culture University so that's pretty awesome wo um during my sophomore year we had a trip to Montclair State University where my uncle had an Art Exhibit about the Tulsa Race Massacre which was something that I learned after seeing his art which was very informative to all of us the community service that we do we work with Homefront which we just did a couple weeks ago we work with the like kids ages eight and Below or maybe 13 and Below 13 and below and we recently did a black we did a Martin Luther King day where we talked about their dreams and I know one of the girls that I worked with she had a dream of having a big house for just her and her mom so that was really sweet and it was a really nice thing that we did a fundraiser that we do is we sell chocolates and we are so good at selling these chocolates that another group they decided to sell chocolates and they're like wait you're not the black cultra Club why are you selling chocolates I thought that was the black ulture Club thing but like it's really our thing so like we sell chocolates so if anyone's selling chocolates just know that it's probably us those funds are used to provide and fund the arnet Peterson rhs Black Culture scholarship which goes to the seniors woohoo so that's really exciting and thank you hello I am Taran Allen and I a senior the D the direction we plan on moving and starts with educational initiatives which means being able to include all of the schools in the district by having club members and black authors read to students in the classroom or Library time in order to Foster understanding and combat racism in future Generations along with this we want to encourage dialogue by encouraging more and more students to join the club in return we would be able to have open conversations about Race and History that helps us to build empathy and Community all of this helps us with our goal of making change towards equality and justice lastly we plan on involving younger Generations in celebrations and historical discussions the importance of including them is that it will strengthen cultural pride and awareness across the community and ensure um recognized right right right recogniz in insure continued recognition thank you uh my name is Yao I'm a senior and this is just a photo section of the presentation where we just display all the trips we've went on as you can see the Apollo Theater and also other trips so we keep our members you know engaged and then you can go to the next slide more pictures and yeah you can see our MLK Day of Service pictures right there and also pictures we have for like Club days at our school so obviously these are just pictures of the trips we've won on So yeah thank you so much so just to U go back over the Arnette Peterson scholarship fund is something that we established this year it's the first time for those that don't know Arnette Peterson was uh the only black principal at Sharon school elementary um for years in the past so we wanted we felt it was relevant for us to name our scholarship that we did last year Arnette Peterson we've got on board with her family her daughters they're excited to be a part of this and they're going to be doing a lot of funding and when we've uh send out the applications for that it will go through the guidance counselors and then they will come back together and we'll all pick um our students who deserve the scholarship we don't have a set amount yet but we're looking to raise at least $1,000 dollar or more to be able to give it to those two students um and lastly like I mentioned a Black Culture Club Festival is happening this uh next Thursday February 6th we're inviting personally inviting all you guys all the board members to come out and support this uh Endeavor we also have our students who are doing a um Black History Month um Museum where's five rooms and the students will present to you some facts about black history and then you get a a passport stamp and a chance to win a prize but also as you leave out the comments you'll be able to explore some Black Culture food Black Culture um items that people are selling and just a good time some music and stuff so we're excited about that this is our third year and it's been very successful we're looking to grow lastly our fundraiser t-shirts as you can see do it for the culture this also goes towards our scholarship fund that we want to help present so we do have those t-shirts if you like to buy they are $20 a piece and we're proud of these to sell around the school as well so we just want to thank you for the opportunity for us to come up and share with you what the Black Culture Club has been doing we work really hard and we're excited to have you be a part of us thank [Applause] you I I would just like to to mention um a couple of a couple of things I've been in communication with Mr Estrada and I'm very impressed with um with the work that he's doing and and the young people who are a part of this club so I I will be going to one of their future meetings I thank I thank you for inviting me there also would like to mention I did share this presentation with the president of one of the longest standing branches of the NAACP and she was very impressed and and like I mentioned to uh to Mr Estrada she would like to meet with the group via Zoom um to really share some of her experiences and um like I said she um when I shared shared some of the information she was very excited to uh to learn more so thank you for the good work you're doing and for other clubs I'd love to attend the club every club that we have I'd love to uh to be able to attend uh so that that invitation is open to uh to all of the the clubs that we have in our great District um thank you again uh to the uh to the Black Culture Club and the great work that's going on there now we do have one more presentation we do have coming up we we do have the uh Robinsville Asian-American dance Association advised by Miss Pam uh vagal uh if you could please come up uh now so we could uh enjoy your presentation good evening everyone I'm presenting on behalf of the Robinsville Asian-American dance Association are suuri Yara gunla Ria shre savash I'm sorry Sav saashi Papu and kunda um this group Works tirelessly putting on the annual showcase coordinating multiple chog um choreographers over 70 dancers auditions costumes rehearsals Etc um they are all involved in all aspects of planning and all this while still keeping a full load of classes and working on their college apps um this group has grown since its exception in in 2019 and it requires a Collective effort of the exec team and the members of the club to be successful they are well known not only in our school but in the Robinsville Community for all the work that they do um in our community and how involved they are so without further Ado here are the girls from the exec group um hello everyone my name is shti erla and I'm the president of r hello I'm Rya I'm the vice president hi my name is k Curry and I'm the secretary hi my name is Sai and I'm the treasurer hello I'm a chit I'm the digital director of this year can we get the next slide thanks so um ra stands for the Robinsville Asian American dance Association and essentially we're a group of like 50 to 60 kids who love to dance but more than that we like to spread the Indian culture around Robinsville um so we perform at cultural events so one thing we do is the wlhs culture night um that's going to be in April we do our own showcase and within the Showcase we choreograph many different styles um that we'll talk about a little bit later and overall we just try to promotee diversity inclusion and artistic expression um among all of Robinsville um expanding on a couple of the performances we've done in our community the slide before thank you so um one of the things we do is the Robinsville deali parade so usually in town center um a lot of people like walk around and then in front of the Gazebo everyone performs so in previous years our club has performed as a community event and then as Ryan mentioned we've done the World Language honor society's Culture Night for the past few years as well as um Robinsville High School's winter and spring pep rallies we also have performed for a holy event in front of the Robinsville high school and last year we got the opportunity to perform for a restaurant opening um in front of the Hamilton mayor and one of the Hamilton councilmen you can switch to slide so our biggest event of the year is the annual showcase that we um hold it's usually held during the second week of December and it starts off with some outside performances so anyone in Robinsville can participate we send out a link to the community and anyone who's interested can sign up and then we go into the teacher dance we ask any teachers who are interested um to perform like a one minute choreography that we do and then we finish off with the r feature it includes styles styles like classical Bollywood Bunga and Garba um we have a theme every year and it changes annually but um this year we did Bollywood through the decades so we took songs from the 80s till now and then we wrap up the night with dinner and an open dance floor so we have four types of dances that we do the first dance that we do is classical which focuses on traditional dance forms like bachum and has um intricate footwork and graceful hand gestures called mudras the second dance style that we do is Bollywood which is a vibrant Fusion of traditional Indian and western dance styles and is performed to expressive music which is shown in Indian films the third style that we do is bangra which is a lively folk dance from Punjab and is characterized by high energy movements and rhythmic beats and the fourth we do is Garba which is a traditional Gujarati folk dance and it's performed in a circular formation often during number R three I think you need to click on the link okay before the video is played this is one of our performances during our annual showcase which happened December 13 2024 um this the particular two dances that we're about to show one of them is a Bollywood mix with a little bit of Garba which is a class um a traditional folk Indian dance from India and then the second song is like the song itself is in the language telu and it's kind it's not particularly Bollywood but it's kind of just like a fun Indian dance form that like people are just like dancing around to we can play [Music] spe spe spe [Music] spe [Music] for for you can pause it okay um so the link is on the presentation so you are more than welcome to watch the whole show it's just really long but these are two of our main dances you can go back to the slideshow okay so we'd just like to say thank you for listening to us and also um Mr Gadi R foods and also the school for funding us um putting on a showcase is really expensive um because we have so many dancers this past year we had to rent 49 like Indian dance skirts as you saw they're really heavy intricately like made so they cost a lot so it like costuming food decorations it's really an intricate event to put together so the money that we receive is really important to us and this year with the funding that we're receiving from the school we're looking forward to purchasing permanent costumes that we can hold in like Mrs beno's room and also decorations that we're able to use for the years going forward and thank you we'd also like to thank uh Miss Gonzalez for helping out with audio lights and all sorts of technical stuff uh she was super helpful so thank you to her as well okay that that was really uh I'm definitely going to be watching the entire entire piece uh so thank you thank you that was great absolutely beautiful and and you know thank you so much to to all of our our young people who uh who presented today so uh it's really uh great to have them here with us so a couple of other items that I have on my report is I have some mandated uh reporting in accordance with the public school safety law we are committed to reporting all acts of violence vandalism harassment intimidation and bullying uh and incidence of restraint to the board of education for the reporting period of September 2024 to January uary of 2025 uh here are the incidents per building uh Sharon five restraints Pond zero Robinsville High School uh one uh one incident uh additionally districtwide uh we had three um Hib investigations and the outcomes uh were all unfounded this is a very small amount of issues we are a a a a a fairly a good siiz District in in regards to over 3,000 and students so um this is uh we are uh absolutely an outstanding district and an outstanding Community but there's always going to be things to share and we're always going to be transparent about that um the uh next uh piece that I would like uh to go over is we're going to have two items approved um that I would like to ask uh Dr wisnoski to uh to speak about so if uh if you could take it from here uh thank you Dr piso so um I'm excited to announce two opportunities tonight for our uh Robinsville high school students um one is going to be on the agenda is the dual enrollment program uh the other is the potential option two summer program um that we'll have this summer I'd actually like to begin by thanking uh the partnership between the curriculum department and our counseling department and I see Lori rundo and Christy defaz sitting out there they really led the charge on both of these but uh also their entire team um David Fusco and Megan tenery Stacy camerano and Priscilla Ramirez Silva all worked very closely to make these two opportunities happen we had an opportunity to discuss them um in our in our committee structure uh but to let people know what those are um so dual enrollment is an opportunity for our students who are participating in our AP programs and in our multivariable calculus program to earn college credits through TCNJ uh it's a wonderful opportunity for our students um we have about 20 21 options that our students will be able to uh participate in uh with the memorandum of agreement that is being proposed tonight um the cost for a 4 credit course at tcj is $550 um it's an unbelievable uh discount for our students in fact the same uh rate for somebody at tcj would be about $2,100 so we'll be saving students about $1,600 for a four credit course and students could take multiple uh courses and and accept it through TC andj so you know if you're taking if you're someone that takes five or six APS and choose to go this route uh you could be saving your family up to $10,000 uh with this opportunity so really really kudos to our our two departments that worked on this um I also want to thank TC andj they were wonderful to partner with they've been uh they've been fantastic they've held multiple meetings with our departments um and when the students are registering they'll register directly through TC andj they'll be handling everything on their end and they've even offered to host a parent night later in the uh school year uh if we're interested in in getting more information so students are taking AP starting in September will have this opportunity to either take AP take AP and take the AP test and get the credits take the AP test and the dual enrollment or just take the dual enrollment so all of those options are going to be available to our students and it's a it's a wonderful step forward with a fabulous institution and so I encourage everybody to to take a look at that um our second piece is our option two program once again the same group worked really hard option two is our ability to expand um supports for students in the summertime to take courses to get high school credit and we are looking to bring that inhouse for the first time um so what we're proposing is to allow students to participate in a program here at the high school over the summer to get credit for Spanish to throughout the summertime that would allow the students to then advance to Spanish 3 in their sophomore year which would put them on a great track if they so desired to get to AP Spanish by their senior year um once again I I want to point out the the two groups from central office but really the World Language department and the Spanish Department have been working hand inand with them and I see a member of the Spanish Department sitting right there and so uh you know this is a perfect example of a group of people that saw a need and a common vision and all work together for the betterment of our students so you'll see that on the agenda tonight um and we are we couldn't be more excited to bring it inhouse because not only will we be able to control the program but we'll also be able to control the cost which you'll see as compared to a lot of the private institutions that are out there is a fraction of the cost and so uh I wanted to highlight both of those programs it was months of work uh for people that are sitting in the audience and I get to to announce it and you know it's almost unfair but I want to thank uh I want to thank them all for all their work that they put forth because these are two outstanding opportunities for our students and it really represents the tip of the iceberg of where our two departments want to move this District forward so thank you yes I I I wanted Dr uh was nki to uh to you know of course you know speak to that as this was something that when I came in the door that had so much work had been put into and this is really so important uh you know so many important opportunities for our students so so thank you to our entire curriculum area everyone involved um you know thank you it's uh really my good fortune to be able to come here and serve in this role working with such an outstanding team um some some other items and I have several items here to cover the next uh next item I'd like to cover is uh when we have um public commentary the public comment period it's very important to me and you'll find that any anyone who calls anyone who emails you'll always get a response for me so um I am asking that with um anyone who participates in public commentary or doesn't participate in uh public commentary but would like for me to contact them please um we have my friend Anna up front she'll uh she'll take your information and I would be uh happy to get back to you I'd really appreciate the opportunity to get back to you because everyone's voice is important and I could only address an issue that I know about and the the more people are open with me about their concerns the quicker we can we can go forward together and um you know collaborate towards getting to a better tomorrow so um there is also before I I actually have a prepared report but I want to make a statement I I know a lot of members of our community and I think really everyone is is on edge with some of the the is issues related to uh some of the changes in regards to enforcement with immigration so I'm going to make a a statement to really Define where we are at this point okay we are following the law and confirming that all of our students legal rights are protected all principles and administrators are aware of our protocol of contacting the superintendent if an issue does arise the superintendent in consultation with District Council will confirm that any request made by an immigration agent is in alignment with applicable laws okay that's all I I can share at this point this is something that's an ongoing issue but I I wanted to make everyone aware that this is something that we're watching closely and as relevant information becomes available of course we're going to act in accordance with uh with what we need to do so um just thought that was important to let everyone know uh now on to uh something positive my my presentation and i' would like to uh so go through that now okay first of all good evening to our Board of Education parents community members administrators staff and most importantly our students my thanks to our board of education for their leadership I am looking forward to our partnership and collaboration for the benefit of our students I'd like to uh first offer my sincere thanks to the many stakeholders of our community who I've been honored to meet in my first three weeks there are still numerous other groups which I would like to meet and I'm available to meet individually with anyone from our community please have your voice be a part of our discussion all are welcome and every perspective is valued entering this position I bring over 32 years of educational experience my focus is always been and will continue to be student centered I have held multiple leadership positions as a school administrator and have led a community group designed to identify Equitable opportunities for all students my advoc advocacy led to my election as education chair of one of the longest standing branches of the NAACP what is of Paramount importance to me is not the past but what we can do moving forward together we can build a path to a better tomorrow for our students but we need to work collaboratively through my prior research in in three weeks evaluating our district it has become clear that our teachers and administrators are dedicated to your child success with your continued continuing support we can accomplish great things to support all of our children thank you to our Robinsville High School Black Culture Club uh who was advised Again by Mr Donald Estrada the Mercer County Educational support professional of the year uh I'm looking forward to their continued uh continuing success in meeting the needs of our students and thank you to our great Robinsville uh Asian-American dance Association for their outstanding presentation as well moving forward we'll be featuring our students in each meeting Multicultural mully events will be highlighted which is an area that means so much to me personally and is a growing strength of our outstanding Community publicly we will be ramping up our communication in every imaginable modality look for our traditional Outreach resuming in the form of quarterly newsletters but that is only the beginning look for my monthly community outreach which will be supplemented with timely updates on topics which will be facing together as a school district and as a community expect to hear from me and see me often I here and would like for these initial one-way communication protocols to prompt two-way communication other ways for us to connect is by our mutual Presence at school and community events I'm looking forward to having many engaging conversations while we enjoy the outstanding happenings in our school Community planning has begun for a coffee talk initiative which would be a great way to highlight uh short videos uh in short videos uh issues that affect our school community there will be uh more to share in this initiative as I collaborate with our outstanding principles to incorporate the participation of our students in this initiative our role as school leaders is to create a holistic array of opportunities for our students therefore we will build on the work already started by our longtime leaders let's celebrate our students in all areas that they work one example is that we need to exhibit the work of our young artist I have a wall in my office and key public spaces in our buildings for their work to be appreciated uh through our shared vision of putting our students first anything is possible it is truly an honor to be entrusted with the role of superintendent for our outstanding District I look forward to continuing my active schedule of meeting with each of our many fine Community parents Guardians and stakeholders thank you thank you Dr piso board secretary report uh Mr McCree good evening evening ladies and gentlemen uh couple things before we go on to our audit presentation uh so I'd like to point out that questions have been asked about trainings and so forth the board does trainings they have uh uh four trainings uh once per year called governance as well as school boards and some other items um on our website we posted and the link is here in my section as well New Jersey school boards Association also has resource and webinar Library there's about 100 videos and webinars and reports and Publications U you can go on that link and you literally can type in the word budget in their search and you'll get reports of getting ready for next year's budget budget and areas to review state budget Recaps the board's role in the annual budget fy2 24 budget highlights and so forth so that's just one example a lot of information is there uh you L can just Google njsba resources and it will pop up as well so that's been posted on our website in the business section uh for for the public to to research as well and point them that way uh the March we have a special uh board meeting on budget only um I've requested and the board has agreed and thank you very much for that and the ad has gone out already uh to shift that from March 11th to March 4th I have a conflict but it also works out a little bit better for us so um that uh the week before there will be a budget uh address from the governor two days later that Thursday we'll have the state aid numbers we'll be working over the weekend over that come in on Tuesday have the special board meeting and depending on that outcome uh we'll have discussions and options for you all you'll provide us feedback we'll go back to the drawing board back and forth um we'll have a business committee meeting get more input and and and rinse and repeat and go back to the administration and so forth obviously if the number is supportive of our budget we will cancel that meeting so let's hope uh we have one less board meeting uh this year um as we move on to the audit um uh for our I call up Mr David MCN of Hol MCN and Associates I like to say this was it was a difficult budget uh year um in in having uh uh the records taken care of and so forth um we had turnover in the office we had a new payroll system we had retirements we had a new accounting system um you know launching all these new initiatives all at the same time and I'd like just say thank you to my staff uh uh especially payroll uh miss Karen Bach and Miss Felisa Cora of uh my assistant business administrator for handling all those items without them uh we would not have gotten a clean audit um so thank you for supporting me and my staff over over the years I'd like to call up Mr David MCN uh of H MCN and Associates Mr MCN um you're report your two-pager has been distributed to all the board members you will have it on you uh this is Dave's summation of our budget and this he is your auditor he reports to you and you directly um we gather all the information for him um any questions that you have please ask him uh I know it's a lot of the repeat that you've seen of other boards as well I think he has about 40 school districts he reviews uh so thank you Mr mcnali the floor is yours sir working you guys hear me okay there we go um yep Dave MCN from HMA uh thanks for having me tonight um going to go over the highlights of the report uh we issued our report uh in December it was statutorily due January 15th so we were uh well ahead of that deadline which is great um when we do our audit we're on site uh two to three weeks physically at the board office and then there's various cleanup back and forth uh to get to the point of us issuing our reports we issue three reports every year our first is our independent auditor report this is our opinion on the financial statements this basically says we conducted our audit in accordance with generally accepted uh auditing standards government auditing standards and requirements set forth by the Department of Education we issued what's called an unmodified opinion which is the best opinion you can receive um basically says we feel the financial statements of the district are fairly stated in all material respects as of June 30 2024 so best opinion you can receive there we also do a report on internal control over financial reporting and compliance so when we do all our procedures we're looking at controls uh we're looking at compliance a lot of what the doe wants us to look at if there were issues this would be where we mentioned these things if there are weaknesses findings um there are none uh this is what we would call a clean report our third report is our report on compliance over major programs and internal control over compliance of those programs we do what's called called a single audit because the district spends over $750,000 in federal and state aid so it's a separate audit we do the financial statement audit but then we do the single audit um and looks into some of the programs closer um we looked at the special education Aid on the federal side which is your ID Ida funding and on the state side we actually looked at three programs extraordinary Aid preschool expansion Aid and the Social Security program we issued what's called un modified opinion on this as well best opinion you can receive um um so that's great three clean reports um a little bit of financials that we you know we verify when we do our audit you do have governmental funds um I give you the balance there at the end of the year you $439,000 in your special Revenue fund that's student and Student Activity and scholarship funds um I do mention you did start that preschool program this year there's an exhibit in the report the E2 exhibit you don't need to look at that now but that would show you where you stand at the end of the year uh with your preschool program proprietary funds um you have a food service fund that fund balance decreased $889,000 um excluding your Capital assets that's actually in a negative at the end of the year as of June 30 2024 of about $177,000 your red program uh that fund balance increased $100,000 to $187,000 at the end of the year you have a school school facilities fund that increased 293,000 so that $117,000 at June 30 2024 and then your Athletics fund balance decreased about $9,600 to $14,000 um I do like to go in more detail of your general fund which is main operating fund that's on page two this is you know the budget that you work on in pass and and how it performed I gave you a five-year comparison um on the presentation and and I boxed off there uh 2024 for you so the top kind of shows you know how you got to your net fund balance generated for the year so fund balance did increase this year $2,414 th000 from the year before and that's driven from a few things you had excess Revenue so that's a revenue that came in above budgeted of $742,000 there were unexpended appropriations of 4.2 million so those are funds from your budget you didn't spend and that generated fund balance of a little over $5 million um you did use fund balance to balance your budget in 24 of a 1.5 million there was Prior year incumbrances so those funds that had been obligated to spend of $729,000 and then there was an additional withdrawal of Maintenance reserved during the year of $300,000 so that gets you to the net increase in fund balance of 2.4 million you'll see in the middle of the page I show you budget uh your total budget to what you spent and what percentage of the budget you spent so you'll see that you spent 92.4 1% of your budget this year um last year you could see that was 94.7 % so that drop in what you spent helped generate the fund balance during the year the bottom third of the page is a recap of where your fund balance stands so like I mentioned your fund balance increased from the year before at June 30 2024 you're at 12, 634 996 in total fund balance that's obviously not all available to you to spend that's broken into various legal reserves um and just to go through those Reserves at the end of the year 1,607 579 was cerces so these are funds that have already been obligated to spend yet had excess surplus of 1.4 million that's going to be the starting point of your next budget when you're building your new budget you'll have to use that amount at a minimum the prior year was also $1.4 million that money's been spent already in the year you're in now um you have capital reserve of 3,793 343 so these are funds set aside for future Capital needs of that amount however 2,435 has already been uh obligated or used in the 2425 year you have a maintenance reserve of 2,472 at the end of the year again of that amount a million 411 782 was used in the 2425 budget you have an unemployment reserve of 597 939 you use an additional 33837 in the 2425 year or sorry 232 no yep 2425 year and then that left you with unreserved fund balance of a million 97 so that million 97 99 is your 2% of your expenditures the amount you're allowed to keep in fund balance without it having to be legally reserved or used uh in the next budget so we spent a lot of time to make sure these these numbers here are are legal in accord in the Doe's eyes um so I really like to go through those thoroughly and those are the main highlights again the auto went really well I appreciate all the help we receive as Nick mentioned there's a lot of uh changes in his office but we were were able to work with the team team and and get what we need and and things went really well any questions at all on any of that I'm gonna ask a question sorry this might be for next so tell me if I'm I'm not supposed to talk about it right now but I'm looking at um page two third half of the page under fund balance at end of year and I'm looking at uh reserved excess Surplus must be used in next budget could this balance out a little bit of the deficit that we're going to face into next year this 1.4 million that 1.4 we talk about this uh year after year um we borrow that money from the year before to pay the next year's budget and so we have a budget basically your closeing your budget so it's already been it's been spoken about um it was from like 1.1 1. two it went up to 1.6 uh many school districts I shouldn't say many uh the preferred and preferred way and best practice is not to put it in your budget as operating and recurring meaning hiring staff and recurring positions typically you best practice would be a one-time item like construction or something because you don't want to count on it it's been here like that for maybe a decade if not longer it was always counted for and so uh We've pushed it down to 1.4 and the strategy is keep it at that number and anything above that will go into capital and or maintenance reserve and so uh you see the capital and maintenance Reserve go up because of the difference so anything above 1.4 we do that and then I'm already counting that to close the budget for this year uh Dr piso has a different terminology for it giving it back to the community um I forget you know but it's if not you would have to raise tax to get that 1.4 so whatever is left over at the end of the year people think you know it you you are forced to use it in the following Year's budget or or not and then lower taxes or move it into reserves and so we're we're closing that budget for that so um thank you for the question but I know it gets a little bit we're not allowed to keep the cash and hold on to it you you are forced to use it in the following Year's budget yeah I know Dr pis had a very good terminology explanation for that particular fund balance appreciate if you can actually explain that okay I think you're talking about about funds rolling forward is that's that's correct yeah it's and Nick I kind of touched on that when you when you have when you have funds you know rolling forward it's basically a refund to the taxpayers as that you're mitigating the impact on your your local uh burden by using that money you know rolling into the next year thank you I would like to point out um capital reserve it's shown 3.8 million and then maintenance Reserve at 2.4 right so a large amount of funds but that ends as of June 30th of 2024 it's as if that date and time and the next day we pulled Millions out we have almost a million project to redo you know U Sharon Elementary School's HVAC and this HVAC in in this room as well so you see that and it gets pulled literally the next day and set aside so there's a PO to be cut for that and held on to that and so whatever gets whatever's left over at the end of this year that wasn't fully spent it will be put back in capital and maintenance and then we're looking for other future projects to do to maintain the buildings in the corporate world you would be having escro accounts you would be building you know maybe 5% of your budget for your buildings and so forth our buildings are worth about a half half you know half a billion dollars right repair you know it's about thousand dollar a square foot and we have over half a million square feet um and so this is a different method um because of of government accounting and so we don't have those types of access and so forth so we have our reserves and you lock it in there for those projects so um this is the end of time on June 30th you know date second before midnight okay and I just remind everyone that hbac project is part of the rod Grant So eventually we the taxpayer will get some of that back so of that you know it's it's about 4.3 million um we'll be receiving 40% of that back but after it's completed which takes you know another year so we're looking at the summer next upcoming summer to do massive so Sharon will be you know nobody be in Sharon basically all the programs will be moved to the Middle School uh that were there um all that projects will be done and then there's close out the problem is with construction projects of the size close out could take six months to a year to close out and do the final statement so after that is finished the state would chip back 40% and will come back to to the board at that point we would designate it back into Capital maintenance or just let it go into the operating budget obviously we're going to be recommending to put a capital because we have a second Rod Grant and that's the high school's hbac and I think that was about 17 million we're we're never we're not going to get there unless there is a a referendum and that's three years away falling off and that's a further discussion in the future but that'll be an opportunity to talk about that is at that point the high school will be about 25 years old okay so the best way to think about that kind of Rod Grand Nick is like a rebate where you pay for the goods and then EV and have to claim them back right yes absolutely all could you touch on about the uh rolling off rolling on because you did mention about I I think we should should say that that's that's part of a a long-term plan yeah so this goes back to fund balance so the money that you have at the end of the year right you didn't we can't run negative simple as that we you know we there is no not going for a loan out can't go to the bank and and do certain things I know some you hear of Lakewood doing that you know that's you know boring and certain things but you know uh it's not normal what's there the normal thing is you you budget for it uh typic you know and you go through it and you get your Tighter and Tighter budget as you go through at the end of the year the decision is where do where do those funds go and and that we decide about that and then you um you have your fund balance and then you have to plug it in the next year after that you want to go with what yeah I really wanted to get into about the uh a bond closing out new Bond coming uh coming in with the roll off roll on so we're talking about talking about committing new funds I just want you know people understand how that's how that's mapped out how you tradition how you transition from the previous debt coming off going to the new okay so that that that discussion point is about the bond referendum um so in three years from now we have about five million in in debt payments coming off we pay about six million a year five of the six is coming off all in one shot um that five million you know if you don't do anything um will impact your taxes unfortunately you can't say oh let's roll it into the operating budget and help out it's not it's a separate question it's completely a separate item that's merged in with the taxes and so you know if you choose to do that how are you going to fund your operating budget and maintain everything you have to go back out to a bond referendum and you have to do it was best practice at the same exact time because last thing you want to do is have taxes fall off and then a year or two you you know hit them back up again um five million coming off is a massive amount it's a massive amount we tried to restructure it we tried to refinance it when when the interest rates were low we were not allowed to because of certain state laws um and so forth five million it it's like borrowing $100 million in one shot okay um we are going to be talking to we're in discussion with the business committee and The Architects will have to in the future and this is for the next year to discussion and then you have to get serious about it in the following year very very serious because it takes almost two years to do a bond question through the whole procedures we're going to have to do a feasibility study have the Architects come in and look at the whole entire School District what has to be changed painted floorings roofs and so forth and they'll give us an estimate of these costs they also do do a demographic study as well mandate ated by law then you're going to have to pick and choose these items so as one thing comes off we'll have to you know it'll be picking up and so forth so we're going to be doing a profor to match manage all these items so we can pick and choose what can go in and and and the money goes in and out and and it's well balanced and affordable and the right thing to do for our district um even if you had let's just say it was and I'll throw a big number out 100 million you can't do everything all in one shot in all three schools you wouldn't have a school right so you have to do a multi-year project based on this and the state would also chip in 34 to 40% depending on the items if you want to go something specific but I'm just going to explain it in a little little different way um the point I want to want would like to make is that is that we're not looking for spikes it's it's a long-term plan and and how we we transition going forward so that we have a so that we could be constant in in regards to not having spikes in regards to uh impacts on the local contribution so um I you you know Nick and I are speaking about the same thing I just explain it in a in a slightly different way but when we talk about these larger numbers you're talking about bonding it the reason for a bond would be that the value of what you do in the bond is paid for by the people who will be utilizing that value for the improvements we're doing on on the building so uh I think sometimes we hear these these numbers you know it's it's part of a long-term plan and it's about managing really the cash flow in relation to our debt service so more to come more to come but I just wanted to you know we touched on it so I just wanted to kind of kind of pull that together can I ask a question real quick um on on the first page just so that I'm clear unrestricted net position position that's money that you can kind of spend on anything which uh uh fund which account yeah where it says uh down where the red program and Food Services said unrestricted net position so is that like the terminology for you can spin it on whatever yeah those funds are for that purpose though so if it's red program you should spend it on the red program same thing with food service um the reason I point out the unrestricted is because in your audit you'll see a bigger number but that includes Capital asset value which really doesn't mean a whole lot to you so the unrestricted is really cash or liquid um so yes to answer your question for the most part but it would be for the for that fund that it's related to oh so it goes back into the where red wherever it came from right it should it should be spent to improve the red program I mean there's some exceptions to that but but that's that before so the red program uh you know successful program covid had an impact on it it's back in the black so you can charge a few things to it not much until it gets you know very well set off and you want to you don't want to be hit again uh on some other items so as that grows we can start charging them rent or something some item like that um school facilities that's the facility rental's money and so it's showing a half a million um but don't forget we spent almost 300,000 this summer to redo the high school floor the the the stage floor um so we have about a couple hundred thousand left but more rentals came in and so we're in discussion with the business committee what to do with that I don't want to take Dr Piero's uh Thunder on this because he's got a comment on this but we're looking at what to do with these funds and we've speaking about this before no impact of the taxpayers but go fix the buildings up because as we rent them people want to have you know we can continue those rental programs and then increase those sales and if you've seen it we've gone from about 150,000 rentals to over 300,000 rentals per year in the last couple years alone because of these reinvestments um and and so forth and the athletic fund that's actually um ticket sales and advertisements so they make about 20,000 a year um you know and one year we paid for the new sound system at the at the at the stadium um I think now Mr delesio wants to buy uh some some some items Capital items for some of the teams so we're going to look at those as well and bring to the business committee for that once again no cost but they have to reinvest it back into that program or he's going to hit me with an audit finding on on on not properly using it uh and some direction on it um so that's why those were created to sustain themselves and not be a burden to the taxpayer uh at the same time sure if there's ever anything else um please get in touch with me I also gave you page numbers to reference back if you really wanted to go through that big report um and again uh thanks for having me tonight and uh good luck with the budget process thank you have a good night thank you after tonight I'll be posting it on on the website tomorrow uh or give me another day or two and we'll have everything posted uh and this is also attached to the public as well the presentation that we just thank you and thank you thank you very much great job of the team thanks Nick for you know you and your team's hard work anything else Nick no thank you all right uh board committee reports uh Ed policy Miss Tanya Leeman thank you so we met on the 21st at 6 um so we talked about the AP the um High School AP program and how the numbers um are improving student surveys indicate that the programs are successful and that they are interested in having additional AP course options so um they're in the middle Administration is in the middle of um discussing the possibility of this happening in the future and also the possibility of pre-ap cours workk at Pond to prepare interested students for AP classes at the high school um then we discussed the I ready Super Bowl that's happening Super Bowl competition that's happening at Sharon um the students are engaged in a friendly teacher-led I ready reading competition the leader board is on the display in the main lobby bulletin board grade level winners will be getting a pizza party so the kids and teachers seem excited about that we discussed a number of policy updates and really was just minor language updates committee made no changes um we'll be voting on those tonight as well uh Dr wisnoski discussed the option to summer program the tcj dual enrollment program um and tonight we will also be voting on the district calendar draft the next meeting is going to be on the 18th of February thank you thank you Miss Leman um I'm going to take a moment right now we talked about at the reorg um the restructuring of the Committees so what we did was trying to make things a little more integrated within um the four main committees so um there was a topic to talk about how special education you know we we talked about integrating that into the uh Ed policy committee because we thought it' be a good tie in with the Ed policy meeting at the time to really get those interests of those children um and in that you know that that represents into the actual Ed policy so uh Miss Hill DeAngelo I know you were the chair of that last year can you give a report as to what you think the recommendation would be going forward sure so Georgine and I met and we discussed at length um the the pros and cons of really looking at um um having an ad hoc in in its Silo because we were meeting just as ourselves and talking about special education but truly special education is something that is both inclusive and integrated across curriculum and Ed policy and we really thought that if we were going to make the biggest impact with those fabulous special education brains and our amazing general education typical um students we need to apply it AC cross the setting and so if we're going to make the biggest impact we really want to make sure that Georgine Johnson and ad hoc are really represented in Ed policy and so that will be um something that we suggest for tonight uh we really did think about all uh community members as well and we wanted to make sure that we um thought about what parents would say and and our cpeg would say um so we really wanted to make sure we delved into that and we think this is a really good dire um and thank you for the time for letting us really um discuss this at length so that we felt like it was the best decision so there would be a line item at at policy for this commit you know for what the committee would have discussed as well as it being integrated into all the other topics perfect so does any any discussion on that topic from the rest of the board good idea great okay so we'll move forward with that just can I just mention one more thing sure go ahead I just wanted to say uh Dr mow did I wanted to mention her name she did a great job she came in and she she did the presentation on the AP enrollment and the test scores and everything going on I forgot to mention that so thank you very much to Dr mow perfect thank you ladies any any discussion topics for Ed policy nope uh Personnel Miss Banda okay so we met and had our discussion on current Personnel issues for the month this is the Personnel committee um and then we also had a chance to discuss evaluations for all staff members within the district and discuss the evaluations and the plan for implementation and what that might look like and how to leverage technology as well and then we also talked about option two uh Dr wisneski spoke already about this and um we just had a little bit of an early read as to the pilot program that would run for the summ summer for Spanish 2 students and then we just went over some devel Vel ment of that program compensation and the hours thank you thank you miss mandut any discussion topics for personnel all right business Dr Pier thank you Mr alberg so uh business committee met on January 23rd at five o'clock uh we had a long agenda um very efficient I think we only went 20 minutes over our time but um overall pretty efficient so we start off by talking about our energy audit um the visits have occurred and we're waiting for results on that to kind of tell us where we can go uh we talked about IDF door installation uh Sharon that work is scheduled to be completed we also uh talked about door replacement at the high school uh so Mr Murphy has met with Architects and modern fold uh waiting on pricing and direction from the architect we also looked at interior door Replacements and uh the F of Maintenance Shop shipping receiving set design uh set design is right now scheduled to be contractor first um as Mr mccre uh mentioned before about the rod Grant um we're looking at sces and uh Pond Road at the HVAC system so electricians came out to assess our requirements um and we right now we are planning on installation summer of 25 uh we've been kind of notified the summer programs that there is a conflict with like extended school year red in the township procreation uh and so we made ments for any kind of conflict with that uh talk about our waste disposal contract uh the new contract is for $115,000 per year and savings okay and that is uh completed Pawn Road and for Sharon we have our building management system okay our right now our current system is uh from 2012 so the replacement cost for that is 36,000 and then for Pawn Road uh preschool bathrooms uh we have contracted for design and additional bathrooms to absolve any kind of bathroom waivers um that all being funded from our preschool funds after that we talked about facility rentals uh just a reminder to the public that these facility rentals are um not taxpayer funded they are paid for by Revenue that's generated from our rentals themselves so as uh Mr mccre mentioned before uh with the completion of the auditorium stage that has increased our value so what kind of that kind of pump primes our process whereas we proov this in facilities we're able to charge a little bit more facilities which also increases our revenue and we're going to use that system to kind of constantly upgrade the facility and use that the spiral upwards so uh for the prime uh for pwn Road uh AV upgrade a requested a quote for additional upgrades um still waiting a response um in the coming days uh for Wednesday Thursday Friday is a texo which is a big um a conference down Atlantic City um goes over instructional Tech technology but there's also a lot of vendors there we're going to meet with different vendors to discuss options there uh future projects we're looking at um new carpeting in the auditorium that would run us about 78,500 uh lighting waiting on quotes um and uh AV upgrade those are all things that we could have for in the future projects to increase the value of our Auditorium and enhance the student experience for facility summer projects we're looking at Sharon uh working on building a cricket pitch for Robinsville Premier League uh right now we're waiting for the weather not to be snowy and freezing uh to Begin work on that uh Finance NBA miscellaneous so uh the bills list review so every month a member of the committee goes through uh bills review this month um Arthur did uh next month is Ru was scheduled uh we also got an update on the crematorium uh curcum projects from Mr wisuki Dr winki I'm sorry um talking about jump start um as as a possible you know potential cost and what that would take a curriculum projects also by druski talk about option two and the dual enrollment and uh the Mr mccre talked about the audit um that we just heard about in the budget update so um we also begin discussion on bond referendum for 2028 um the data and the be discussion of data and future creation of the bond committee may require a pability study and a demographic study as well uh other thing we have is preschool uh preschool authorized to pay for bus Aids on the preschool buses and for the grant writers uh two potential projects we are looking at one is local Recreation Improvement Grant and the other was a local um efficiency achievement then we also looked at uh talked about amending our grants for carryover for Esa and uh Ida finally oh not finally for for security we looked at our um own system integration with our PA system uh that digital and analog communication bridge is going to cost us about $7,000 but will greatly improve the system uh Readiness and communication process for school security uh security system demonstration uh we looked at it's a 1.3 million for full implementation it be uh looking at the Pond Road Middle School Preschool Wing U funded by the preschool and it's operational and also the installation of panic buttons 41,000 to replace the existing Panic system um the recomended option is to replace um IP phones for $250 which include a panic button um so it's a much uh cheaper cost for us but also much greater capacity so it's a win-win in that in that idea um our action items for today is the grant Amendment accepting the grant amendments for Esa and Ida our next meeting right now is scheduled for February 20th at 5: pm thank you Dr any any discussion for business you just a quick question about um if we go up to I mean it would probably be page 15 I know you probably don't have time for the agenda more agenda topics but if you were to take one more just curious to know um with facility rentals in regards to selling um Goods to people patrons that come to the games or to the auditoriums for events have we thought about and I don't know what cost efficiency that would be since we Outsource so I'm curious to know if it's actually a revenue building yeah I'm not sure if that's already handled by clubs in the local athletic team I I I can handle that quickly uh typically local clubs and athletic teams like they'll they'll do their sales and their rentals uh on those items uh we have tried uh at our larger rentals for especially for the dance competitions and having our food service do it now they do work for us uh they are contracted but the profits go back to our district they've tried it it it didn't work out very well it wasn't even worth coming in um but we do have the vending machines and know we've adjusted those as well so that comes back to us as a partial CU we somebody we somebody else owns those machines but um we're open to it uh if there's any groups that want to do that or get back to us but typically rentals also do their own sales so there has to be some type of an agreement uh between the organization and so forth but most of the times the boosters are somebody will rotate especially for the games um the biggest opportunity I saw was the dance competitions but it didn't it didn't work out but we did try it a year ago so thank you thank you any other discussion topics for business all right uh Comm regulations Mr nandon thank you the community relations met on January 23rd at 6 p.m. uh we discussed the crematorium update um we wanted to actually just make sure that we are on top of you know what's going on there um and we also discussed the 20 2 my 26 District calendar draft and we also discussed the Multicultural calendar where we want to make sure that we add anything related to all the cultural events and be aware of them um we kind of touched upon rebranding Community Relations Committee but decided to stay with what we have today as a community relations um we also discussed an idea about podcast with kids and teachers um where there is an action item taken by Dr pizo to see how we can actually achieve that that's more what we had for the committee relations the next meeting is February 20th thank you thank you any discussion topics no uh the Aon reports oh yeah so I've signed up for every single one of them um and there was one on Ed policy and it was dry and I learned about the basics of Ed policy which I already knew so not much to report on that um but then I went to one on AI and Georgina and I were talking about a lot and so I'm going to put together a little presentation so Ai and education really is only three years old and it is moving extremely fast um so I think the presentation that njsba gave is just the tip of the iceberg so I've taken it upon myself and Anthony I'm sure you'd want to too um uh to really delve into this and it's something that I hope to bring into uh our Ed policy meetings or or anything like that but it is ever moving it's really fabulous and um I'm excited to share that I believe that's the cover story on the njsba newsletter that just came out was the AI yeah topic anytime you want to watch these videos they're on YouTube thank you um one other topic um I know is the njsba 2025 merer County on song Heroes award award ceremony and um Anthony wanted to bring up something that discuss about that yeah this came up in one of the presentations that I attended along with Amanda and Ai and another one but there is for the administration's teachers and staff to nominate uh Administration students teachers for the Mercer County um unsung heroes award which is being held on um March 20th in West Windsor Plainsboro High School registration for this has to be completed by February 25th but I did want to take this opportunity to let the administration student staff know that if they are thinking of nominating anyone to please do so as soon as possible and to also make sure you register you're registering for yourself uh students and staff who are nominated in a potential recipients of an award will use a separate um form for that but everyone needs to make be mindful the fact that the registration closes February 25th thank you thank you so much any other report all right move on to public comment see um public comment time will be allotted for public comment at this meeting members of the public uh wishing to address the board of education on agenda items must State their name municipality and the group if any they represent a member of the public shall not be permitted to speak until he or she is recognized by the presiding officer in accordance with District policy 0167 each comment shall be limited to three minutes no participant may speak speak more than once no dialogue between a speaker and board and or superintendent shall extend the three minute time uh provider here in live streaming shall be for viewing only please use proper deorum um the rest is in in the uh in the notes um so this is public comment on agenda items only can I have a resolution to open public comment again on agenda items only for 30 minutes so moved second all in favor hi any needs or extensions okay please Amanda grber Robinsville resident um I apologize if I misheard the date but the hi report dates mentioned earlier were from October to the end of December of 2024 um I'll need to correct the earlier statement um I'm sharing this information with the permission of the child's parent in October of 2024 at the Pond Road Middle School there was anti-semitic incident involving swastikas being drawn in a classroom when other students confronted the perpetrator they said quote I didn't know there were so many Jews in this class end quote that Hib incident went all the way to Mercer County prosecutor's office that hip case was founded and I want to make sure that it gets counted thank you nin can Robins resident um I wanted to First say thank you for you guys to say crematorium but just by saying that you talked about the crematorium does not help me to know okay what did you talk about crematorium I know there are legal stuff and I know there are some stuff that you cannot talk about but it's been a while that you have not been able to talk about anything other than the letters that we ReRe so if the DAP that's going to have a meeting right now public still doesn't know what you guys are talking about did you talk to the owner are you going to talk to the owner did you talk to the township did what was the outcome I don't know how much of it is going to be able for you guys to talk about but saying the word and the Board of Education once a month crematorium is not good enough for me please a little bit dig a little bit deeper the next thing that I wanted to talk to you guys about is about that um immigration the law and the Child Safety thank you Dr pizo bringing it up but at the same time again we are not in a bubble people are anxious we do not want the students not to show up in the schools we would like to have for you to tell us what legal actions that you have in place to make sure that there are safeties and what they are going to be doing and parents are going to be notified what is the plan we are not going to be able to talk about it and we obey by the law congratulation we are all all all law obeying people but we need to know details we need to know what are you going to do we are not in a bubble take that bubble out the next thing that I wanted to ask you guys about is about the safety meetings the last time that we I was here that um you you guys talked about to put it in a different meeting because you guys are not able to meet at all the time so today when I was listening I did not hear much about it maybe I missed it I am sorry if I missed it but what about the safety meeting what did you guys talk about safety meeting did you guys meet did you guys talk what was the outcome I would like to for you guys if you are putting something under something else to bring it up and touch on it because I may have missed it and some other people could have missed it too thank you okay uh first of all I'd like to apologize to miss grber she is correct um unfortunately I wasn't here in the fall and when I read the comments I realized after this was pointed out that I said all three were unfounded when in fact one was founded so my apologies that was a misstatement on my part so I want to correct the record before we go and and make the approvals thank you Dr piso any other public comment on agenda items can I have a motion to close public comment on agenda items I'm sorry can I have a motion vote second all in favor I need or extensions thank you U Mr President just a quick clarification uh so security and Technology have been rolled into committee um I might have talked fast so I apologize if I talked too fast so the security just to reiterate um was our pH and integration system um we are looking to make from an analog to a digital which is a $7,000 Bridge um also with that um technology so reason why we put the technology and Security in the businesses because almost every security and Technology Improvement also has a dollar figure ofr so it's a natural fit um we are talking about them in subsections uh very transparently uh for the people in uh watching online or people of course in the audience on our board docs um the agendas with the notes are all right there for you to click and you can kind of read through them um but just to reiterate um one was a phone system and the other one was implementation of um a 1.3 million for the preschool Wing um that was funded by the preschool Grant as well okay that's the security system demonstration thank yeah another piece of the security meeting that was happening was the the principles would report out you know what was happening for that period now the they were ad hoc they were every six to 8 weeks the security meeting so we have to we're still working on how we're going to integrate it it's only been a couple weeks since we said we're going to do this so we're still working on how that integration will happen um and it's a work in progress so thank you for bringing it up and Dr P thank you for clarifying monthly resolutions uh the superintendent recommends that the Board of Education approve the following Personnel educate education policy and business actions um can I have a hang on one second where is it oh have to scroll down where's can I have a motion uh to approve the monthly resolutions moved second all in favor or extensions he's he knows I'm going to say something wrong any discussion I'm getting better point of order uh any discussion yep okay uh roll call I'll take roll call Miss bandua yes Dr G yes Miss Hill dangelo yes Mr Howard yes Miss Leman yes Mr nandon yes Mr Ray yes Dr SPO yes Mr olberg yes thank you sir motion passes thank you everyone old business so I'd like to bring up the crematorium real quick I think it be you know there was no other place for it in the agenda but old business um we are pursuing many different things um we have done legal review and I'd like Mr Carri maybe to give us a quick update on that perspective right so the the township which is a separate entity than the Board of Education approved the crematorium on September 17th um that approval has a 45 day time frame for appeal which has expired so there isn't an application or a mechanism that can be made to challenge the approval by the township um the njde approval is a separate process Alto together um and as I understand it they've got they had scheduled a public hearing um which has has to be rescheduled or will be postponed um and has not been rescheduled today as far as I know um that is a a separate process um where D comes in and then um renders their approval at so at present where it lies is really um it's a matter of political will and not legal um uh something that can be challenged legally um and I understand that there are various um people and entities that have um gone down that road to to address the political implications of an approval and it's in process right now so at this present time though there is an illegal mechanism or remedy available for the Robinsville Board of Education or anyone else to challenge it at the township level and this is you after you reviewed it with other smmes in the respective areas yeah correct so my office is a my office is 16 attorneys um and among those attorneys are professionals that um either represent or have appeared before uh zoning and planning and so they reviewed the matter and even had um some contact with Town officials uh to go over the approval process and they confirmed that um there is not a legal mechanism to challenge the town's approval at this time so so right now the the Board of Education and I we've we've written a letter to the njd we published that on the website um I've signed it but the board has reviewed it um so we've taken a position with that and that's where we are that's the current that's the current update I can give any other discussion around the crematorium you know Ju Just want to add that we will continue to monitor it you know closely you know um things change if things change you know if you need to actually take another stand we will so I and I can't say that if the hearing continues I'll be at the hearing that evening um any other old business that we should be discussing any new business not seeing any um public comment I won't read the statement again but this will be on school school related matters can I have a motion to open public comment on school related matters moot second all in favor any n or extensions all right motion open for 30 minutes hi uh my name is Sharon Martin I'm from Bordentown um I've recently assumed the role of the Rea president and we just wanted to officially welcome Dr piser to the district we want to congratulate Barb on joining the board and we want to thank Tanya and art for continuing their service with us um we just want to let you know that we look forward to working with you in the administration to create en enironment that supports the success of our schools our Educators and most importantly the students in our district thank you thank you any other public comment can I have a motion to close public comment on screw related items and adjourn the meeting vote second all in favor these are extensions