Good evening, South Brunswick. It's Thursday, August 21st, 2025, and I'd like to welcome you to the meeting of the South Brunswick Board of Education, and to call this meeting to order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Statement in advance notice. The New Jersey Open Public Meeting Act, NGSA
104-6, also known as the Sunshine Law, was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting the interests is discussed or acted upon.
The primary purpose is for board members to discuss and vote on board business. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the board secretary has caused notice to this meeting 48 hours prior, including date, time, and location to be
posted in the South Brunswick public library and board office, filed with the township clerk and communicated to the home news and the star ledger. It is also posted on the district website. Roll call. Mr. Powski, please.
Miss Julie Ferrara, present. Miss Alicia Khan here. Mr. Raja Krishna here. Mr. Mike Mitchell here. Present. Uh Mr. Rajes Sony here. And to be sworn in this evening, Mr. Barry Nath call.
I did call Smith. Oh, Dr. Smith Raj. Yes. Okay, we have a quorum. Thank you. And now we'll have the approval of the agenda. A motion for approval of the agenda.
Second. All in favor? I thank Thank you. Now we'll have the approval of the minutes uh board minutes and executive minutes of June 19th, 2025.
May I have a motion, please? So moved by Miss Khan and seconded by Dr. Raj. All in favor? I just one I think the executive uh minutes are are a little very short. So the other ones are fine. The board
meetings, the executive meeting I don't approve. If if you need to review any executive m minutes, you need to do those in the board office. We can't physical or Yep. They're physical. No physical notes in the board office. Non digital.
We're not providing digital um minutes for executive sessions. It's confidential um minutes. It's our policy dictating that. Yep. Okay. I'll review. Thank you.
That it. Thank you. Now on to the administration of oath of office for Barry. Mr. Barry Nathansson. Okay. Barry, if you want to move over to the podium. Just a note, I think when I first did
this, I didn't have to wear glasses. Mr. Nathansson, you have you have your oath. Yes, I do. Feel free to commence. I, Barry Nathansson, do solemnly affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of
the State of New Jersey, and that I will bear true faith, true faith, and allegiance to the same and the governments established in the United States and the state under the authority
of the people. So help me God. I, Barry Nathansson, do solemnly affirm that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of the board of education and
that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all duties of the office according to the best of my ability. So help me God. I affirm and declare that I
am not disqualified as a vote voter pursuant to RS 19 col4-1. Mr. Nathansson, welcome aboard. Thank you. You may come and take your seat. Thank you. And so on to the next item
number two. Motion to move into executive session. Be it resolved that the board of education of the township of South Brunswick hereby moves into an executive session in accordance with Sunshine Law Chapter 231 of the public
laws of 1975 NJSA 104-6 through 104-21 for the discussion of legal matters. B. It resolved that the discussion conducted in executive session can be
disclosed to the public at such time as the matters have been resolved. Formal action may be taken at any meeting. May I have a motion to just just real quick before we take our motion, we are also having discussion with regards to personnel. Okay.
So, we're going to amend that amend that motion uh for legal matters and personnel. Got a motion. So move Nathansson right out the gate. There you go. Second, Dr. Raj.
Yeah. All right, we'll be back, ladies and gentlemen. motion to reconvene. Uh Mr. Krishna and seconded by Dr. Raj. All in favor? I we are moving forward. At this time
before we move uh continue, I'd like to announce that our president Hernandez and Vice President Car Vice President Caric are not here because they are out of the area. So uh that accounts for their actions tonight. And the next item
on the agenda is the report item three, the report of the superintendent of schools, Mr. Scott Federer. All right, hold on one second for me. Hey Rej, I'm going to share something with you if you don't mind. Would you be
able to throw it up there? All right. So, I'll do my quick report for number one. First of all, welcome everybody. Um, today is Mr. Mitchell's birthday. Let's wish him happy birthday. And he is our acting president today. Thank you, Michael, for stepping up and
doing that. This is your second This is your second meeting you've run or more three. Three. All right. So, fourth meeting. He knows what he's doing. Good stuff. Um, we're gonna have a student presentation a little bit. Har, are you here? No. Oh, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold
on. Hold on. Um, all right. We got this. All right. I'm gonna I'm gonna go to the podium for a quick second. All right. So, I'm leaving you with some good information. So, this is a list of the top 50
schools that for SAT results in the state of New Jersey. Okay. This is what's up there. No. No. Stay. Go back. Go back. Don't start moving on me yet, Re. Now, here's the thing about this list. I am I I'm going to share with you how I
read the list, and I believe it is a nonbiased review of the list. First of all, I believe this should happen by district, not by school, because it should be we have one large school. we would technically be
penalized if you broke it up and let other districts have individual schools depending on the makeup of those schools. So, let's look at the first one. Let's actually look at the first eight schools on this list.
Middle County Vocational, Mammoth County Vocational, Middle Sex Vocational, Mammoth Vocational, Bergen Vocational, Union Vocational, Mammoth Vocational, Union Vocational. What that means is those schools only accept
extremely high-erforming eighth graders. They handpick their students. Good for them. My child was in one of those schools, so good for her, too. But it is not a fair comparison to load your school and then
say that, "Wow, look at that. They have higher SAT scores than a regular public school." So, I would eliminate all vocational magnet schools, which means we start with number one. The highest performing SAT school district in the
state is Milbour with a 1382. Then let's look at 10, 11, 12. More magnet schools. Remove them. Let's see who number two is. West Windsor is now number two. But
West Windsor has two of them on there. So, we're going to get rid of one of them and we're only going to count the first one. So, West Windsor is number two. Number three, Bergen County Vocational. N Mammoth County Vocational.
N JP Stevens. Now, JP Stevens is half of the Edison School District. So I went and did a little leg work and found out that the other half when you combine the two would not be higher than South Brunswick.
So we're not counting them either. Morris County Vocational, no. Montgomery, we are finally at another regular old public high school. They count. What is that? Number three or number four? I forget. Number 19, Mammoth County Vocational.
Nope. and a vocational. Nope. West Windsor. We already counted West Windsor once. We can't count on them twice. That's not fair. Now we're at Livingston. Yes, that counts. That's number four. Princeton, Tennifly, Highland Park. Go Highland Park. By the way, I shared this with
Highland Park superintendent. She's a friend of mine and said, "You cannot accept being number 25. You're definitely top 10." So, I don't know if she used it or not, but this is the sheet I sent her. So, Highland Park, I think, is number seven. Bernard's is
number eight. Northern Valley Regional, that is a regular high school number nine. Somerset Vocational, Bergen Vocational, South Brunswick, number 10. So, South
Brunswick is a top 10 public school SAT winner. Congratulations, Now, I am open to anyone who likes to challenge my ways, but I believe that is actually fair. I believe that is fair. What I want to
show you now is look at the school districts after us. If you've know the state at all, Ridgewood, Glenn, these are some of the highest, you know, um affluent areas in the state. Bergen
County. Then you have Summit, Westfield, Mountain Lakes. If you know, again, if you know the area, these are all extremely wealthy areas. You're outperforming all of those areas on the SAT scores. Hopewell, Robinsville,
Madison, Crescill, Hillsboro. Again, be proud of our kids. They do great things. Be proud of our staff who helps them become great at what they do. And no, I am leaving you with a top 10 SAT school district.
Thank you very much. Okay. And summer hours. I don't know why that's on here, but um because it's almost done. We're almost done. Um we are Monday through Friday starting this week. So we're open tomorrow and we're open next week Monday through Friday.
And that is that. Um before I introduce uh Hari, I do want to say I feel I'm leaving the district in in a very good hands. Your your admin team up here, your admin team, some of them out there tonight, but your admin team in general,
your staff, um Lordis came tonight. Um takes care of all of us. And we're leaving. We're leaving Dave to handle two jobs. Um feeling good about that. How you feeling? Awesome. Good. Y good. Didn't really leave you with a bunch of choices. Head's still spinning. All
right, we'll take it. Take it. Um, but I thank the district for allowing me to be here for eight years. It's been a great ride. And um, I will end my report by the great thing we have Harish Shriram who's going to talk to us about I don't know, but you're going to
talk to us about that, right? All right. You're up. So, I'm not sure if um my slides are pre-approved. So, would it be okay if I would like send them all to you guys like before I start my presentation?
You can. You can send them to I don't know. Do you want to send them to me and I'll I'll forward them. Yeah. Okay. I sent it to you. All right, I'll forward them to them. So, but you can go ahead and get started. Okay.
An insight to the financial literacy at South Benzik High School. So, my my name is Harish Shiram. Um I am a rising senior at South Brunswick High School and this June I embarked on an independent research project trying to
understand the financial um what influences the decisions that we make at South Brunswick High School. So um in this journey I discovered that there were like very there were various patterns and I wanted to present them to
you guys today. The first pattern that I observed today was um that high that higher income students as their income goes up they are more confident in the decisions and
the business decisions that they make. This is uh this is seen in um the data point that I made known as financial educational confidence which uh which merges the students course level which
could be uh AP like um not taken academic honors or AP along with their confidence in scenario questions. The purpose of these questions is to help understand how well fit a student
would be to make a financial decision decision in a certain context. So um on the slides as you can see that as student uh student income increases their financial education confidence
goes up. Additionally another thing that I would that you can see is um as income does increase students are more influenced by peer and social media influences. This signifies that students are more
vulnerable as their income increases. The ne the next uh um part I wanted to share with you guys was um the I was um in demographics and especially in ethnicity. So what I um observed in
different ethnicities was their um spending, saving and investing habits were pretty were very similar overall. Um actually um my bad. Um the what I found in students in different students
of different ethnicities was that their financial education confidence was very similar overall. This shows that students in met in different households despite their different cultures, they're all very wellprepared and very well confident in making business
decisions. But one thing that I found that was that this was a like a disparage in it was that how they distribute and allocate their income. It's because certain races um would prefer to spend more and certain races
might save more, some invest more. This um shows that different families and cultures may prioritize different values in their household. Um showing that which shows that um different family that they
have that they treat prioritize different things. For example, uh I'm not sure if you can see the slides at the moment. So a a certain statistic was African-American households um do save the most and which is at the highest around 50% of their
income and they do invest above well above average and then um then Asian families um are very like more balanced in their allocation of spending which it's like very all like evened out and balanced.
So the third thing that I w the third and most important metric I wanted to present to you guys was the change in students financial literacy in grade level. This is because students in grade nine and as they go as as they go up
their financial education confidence increases by a lot. This is because in grade nine, students are around a 1.9, which could signify they're not they're not well set to make that many strong financial decisions. But when they go to
junior and senior year, they're very wellprepared and can make a majority of the financial decisions. This stat um surprisingly is due to South Brunswick High School's very strong personal financial management program, which is a
graduation requirement here. This co this course boosts students from score from 1.5 to two and which is um a huge improvement on the financial education confidence metric as it shows that they can make a majority decisions majority
of their decisions. Um additionally I found that social media in that their investing confidence also doubled. So students are more likely to engage in investing activities from freshman from starting from from
senior year compared to freshman year. So now I know you guys might be wondering why did I what is the point of me presenting all of this and giving you guys all these statistics. This is because I want to share with you guys a discovery that I was able to see.
As students like increase in age level and in grade level, they are like slowly learning more f they're becoming more financially literate and making better decisions. But this is only starting to peak during junior and senior year. My
proposal or um what I feel like could improve south improve South Brunswick would be to allow students to be able to take courses like personal financial management like from a younger age like before they start freshman year so that they can carry these financial skills
that we teach them that are so strong throughout high school and along with though they do have like different family cultures and values which do influence the way they spend. If we can integrate diff our um curriculum and the
values that we teach in it, we can prepare them to be very successful in their high school. So now I want to know if you guys have any questions for me. Um yes. Hi Hari. Do you think uh that in junior
and senior year when students are able to work it improves their understanding of financial responsibility or did you do any research on that? Like so I in my survey I had did not research
how students jobs would impact them as I wanted to have the survey be as open as possible and more flexible to get the most averaged out information studentto student. But I would agree that having a job would make students more responsible
as they're having a sense of what is their own money and how to spend it. Thank you. Questions? Just a one quick one. Hari. So all the savings and spending percentages listed there are they the pocket money that
they receive and from that they are saving or what's the source of their money to even respond to the survey. So the sources of their money yet is their allowance. So we tracked students of different allowance and most of them although there were slight variations a
majority of them were around the same amount of around 50 to 100 a monthish in total spending. So that is what I observed in their distribution of income. Anyone else?
The mixed category, who does that refer to? The mixed the mixed category was for people who are one or more races. So, I didn't like it was kind I didn't want to have too many categories on the survey so that students might be confused of
this or that. So, to like reduce the reduce it, I just put a mixed category if students were one or more races. The Julie, the state the state just calls that multira and it doesn't ever um tell you what the multi-races are. Okay. Thank you.
Yeah. Is that it? All right. Thank you so much for doing this. Good job up there and keep up the good work with that. I would like to thank the board again and Mrs. G especially for like um working fill out giving me this
opportunity and all of you guys for letting me present my research to you guys. Thank you so much. I think it's a great idea to maybe uh incorporate financial uh strategies in the middle school especially eighth
grade. Um perhaps um maybe it could be like a club or some kind of extracurricular activity that gets gets them involved in learning these learning about their finances and things. So I I agree with you.
Thank you so much. Um thank you. Yeah. Thank you guys so much. Thank you very much again. All right. I'm um that's all my report. Okay. Thank you for your report. Thorough as usual.
And um we're going to miss them. So on to the next item. Item number four, board brief by our um it's the South Brunswick School District study enrollment increase and budget
constraints impact on 2026 27 school year presented by Mr. Peter Ratine, Miss Christina Vadoski Vadoski say VC and Mr. Rob Sears. I don't even know if she can pronounce it. So
and your hands. Got it. Good evening. Uh Scott, David, members of the board, thank you for having us here this evening. Um thank you for the warm introduction. Uh for those of you who don't know me, I'm Christina Vdastigisa, better known as VC, and I'm the very proud principal of
Constable Elementary School. I'm joined here this evening by my colleague and friend Rob Sears. And Peter Atine can't be with us this evening. He very much looks forward to joining us next time. We'll be here pretty much monthly going forward. So, uh you'll see plenty of him. Uh this evening, we're going to ask
you to turn your attention. It's short. It's a brief um update, so you should be comfortable where you are, but just turn your attention to the screen so we can give you a little bit of an update on what we've been up to since we were here last. Since our last um board brief, which was
I think in June, end of May or early June, uh we've continued studying the dual challenges of rising enrollment and the tightening budget. We are keeping the focus squarely on what's best for students. And tonight we're going to give you a little bit of an update.
Let's see. Did that go? There you go. So, the reason that we're engaged in this work is pretty straightforward, but we want to make sure the why is at the front of what we do each time we come to you. Uh, the district's facing increasing enrollment from new construction. And at the same time, we
are working within budget constraints. The heart of the matter is pretty simple. We cannot allow these challenges to compromise the quality of the education we give our students. Scott just showed you a good reason why. If these um if there's ways for us to
deliver a better outcome, better instructional opportunities, more equitable and efficient education, we're going to do that. So, that's the premise of the study and and why we're doing all of this hard work. Let's see there.
Okay. There we go. So, we're going to take a look at recent enrollment. Last year, our kindergarten class had 394 kiddos and we had a graduating class of 674.
That is down from uh a larger recent graduating class of 789. So, if you're paying attention to the math there, it shows a clear pattern. the number of students who have been entering the system has been smaller than the number leaving. Uh but when we account for new
housing, as you can see on the right, uh that will change very quickly. See here, we're moving pretty slowly with this clicker. There we go. So, our demographer study estimated that
a little over 1,600 new students would enter our schools as a direct result of the residential developments. Importantly, 23 or more of the 3,100 new housing units are in the Brooks Crossing
attendance area. That is concentrated growth which has had a significant implication on our capacity, the planning and hence the study. So while the construction was delayed from the original prediction of the demographer likely due to the pandemic and other
economic factors, it has started and it is coming to fruition very quickly. All right, as you can see here, this is a map of South Brunswick and our attendance boundaries or zones for all of our schools in South Brunswick. In
the top left corner, you can see that there are eight new approved developments. Um, we're also aware that more are on the way, but as of right now, there are eight newly approved developments. And you could see there that 2/3 of those 31 3,177
units are located in the BC attended zone, which is what VC just mentioned. Now, three of those eight are actively being worked on and developed in multiple phases of development. Um, and it's causing our district to having to
in a sense redistrict already. And while this study is ongoing for now what feels like over a year and it will continue until a recommendation to the board happens in the December, January of this upcoming school year, um, we're already actually redistricting actively. For
example, the Henderson Square community, which is over near um Henderson Road, those students that would be registering who are moving into those units in that in those properties and those apartments, they normally would be going
to Brunswick Acres, but we are actively redistricting them to Greenbrook. Our district is actively redistricting them to go to Greenbrook. Why? Because that's where there are seats. That's where there are space. Let me just um we had a little recent correction. Okay.
So, we are we are the Henderson Road community. I forget is it called American Herit American Properties. American Properties is the Heritage South Brunswick which is off of Shocks. Okay. Let's So, whichever the one is on Henderson. Yep.
It's Yep. RPM. They are currently slated for Brunswick acres. Correct. And we have uh and the board is aware of this. We have closed. We're not wholesaling the whole group to Greenbrook now. Okay. We had to alter that. What we are doing
is they're scheduled for Brunswick acres. However, two grade levels are already closed at Brunswick Acres if they come from that community. Those families and their siblings or not, that's you know a case by case are being
um placed at Greenbrook. So your the original plan already to your point had to be altered. Yeah. And is being altered from the alteration that was already altered. Altered as you can hear what Scott's saying is
that this work is it's real time. It's happening in real time. Our communications and emails with Jill, our director of transportation, and now with David and the transition is they are real time. The these shifts. Just one other community that I'll mention is that the Heritage South Brunswick is
which is the American Properties um development company. That attendance boundary um would normally have kids going from Mammoth Junction to North, but those kids will go to Mama Junction and South because that's where the space is.
You've seen this picture before. Um, but it's important that we continue to show it to you to help clarify for the public and the community, those watching, those here today to just reiterate the fact that the current issue is a matter, it isn't the matter that we have a lack of
seats, but of that the seats are being in the wrong places. Uh, and if we don't do anything, which we obviously are doing something, hence this study and our work and our update today. Um, if we don't do it, some of our schools will be significantly overcrowded while others will not, leading to an inequitable
educational experience, and we do not want that to happen. Um, okay. So, long-term considerations. This is a new slide, and this is um data that you'll recognize, but it is
it's something that in my opinion is has brought us to a pause, if you will. So, while our committee VC Peter and I and working with Scott and and a larger core team, while we've been focused on the planning for the new construction, it's important that as a community we
keep the long-term view so that we don't have to redo things again, it's important that we really take a look at this. So, the new construction, while it certainly will bring the projected 1,600 new students, um we also need to plan for what's happening with the real estate when the real estate market
potentially turns and there's a turnover of the existing housing. So, um if you look up here, our highest recorded enrollment from the existing housing, this is not the new 8 developments was in 2011 and 12 school year and it was
9,36 students. That's the highest recorded enrollment. And I want to say that we did about a 25-y year look back of data captured by the school district um to bring this to you. The projected new students from the eight new developments um from the demographer
study project 1600 students being added um once that is taken consideration once all eight developments are built and they're built out and all of those spaces are occupied with families. So next, I'm pressing the button.
Oh, our current planning looking at last year's 2425 enrollment as a district around 7,600 students. If we were to add our new housing or the projected incoming new students from the new housing and the new developments, that would put us beyond our highest peak
that was in 2011 and 12. And this is where we really have to pause and take a breath because when you look at that 9,330 and you consider it, that's not including the potential turnover of the existing housing. And I'm going to add one more thing and VC mentioned this
when we were just talking before at the time of this 20112 which was the highest recorded to date um in our school district that did not include preschool students. So when you factor in the these kind of
four pillars here, um it's a very real scenario that we would go beyond our capacity. Um but there's a question mark because we don't know that yet. These are all projections. So it is with sincere pause that our work not only
looks long-term, but that the work we do considers the existing housing turnover as well. And that's very important that we kind of just spend a little time to articulate that that it's not just about the new developments. It's also take into consideration the existing housing
when it does turn over. Um, this slide might be familiar, but this is really just summarizing the current challenges almost like how we kind of started off, which is we've been experiencing a steadily declining student enrollment over the past 5 10
yearsish while also having a extremely challenging um loss of state aid that has been debilitating. Um, at the same time, we have these new developments shaping the landscape of our community,
um, which will bring our enrollment up and will kind of force us to be very, very intentional about how we plan with our committee to make the most
specific and um, great recommendation to the board. So, we have to kind of pause and and see what matters most here because there's so many variables. Um, so now let's talk about what we've been up to. Whoops. There we go.
Okay. So, since June, we've been pretty busy and we have some exciting things to share. Uh, perhaps um the best PD I've had in a while. Uh, members of our core team, not just Peter, Rob, and myself, but other representatives joined us for three site visits. We spent about a half
a day in each place, West Windsor, Hamilton, and East Brunswick, learning from the superintendent, the administrative teams, touring buildings, looking through plans, talking research, really learning from their experiences. Um, so that's a lot of the data we've been synthesizing this summer um to
learn from the work of others. Um, so really exciting work for those of us who got to attend, but also some great updates for you as we synthesize that and bring it here to South Brunswick. We had a community team meeting. Again, that's the larger stakeholder meeting about 60 people um that we did in in
early June. You can see that there on June 12th. Um a really fun day on July 15th spent with the UEES team. For those of you who don't know UEIES, that stands for Upper Elementary School. We mentioned it last time we were here. It was the last time South Brunswick had a
big re sort of shift in how um the the grade levels are banded together. So that was the the upper elementary uh back then. And so we met with staff and that included teachers, secretaries, a wide range of folks. Scott came because he was actually involved in it at that
time as well. Um we spent several hours together talking about the strengths and the challenges of that model uh what it felt like to have to go through that process u both into it and out of it um and what we learned from that experience. So that built really nicely. If you remember last time we mentioned
that we had um interviewed three different administrators who were present during that transition. Um so that those two meetings sort of dovetailed nicely together. So in all we spent uh three hours with three different administrators, half days in three of those districts, lots of
community and core team meetings plus that UEES meeting. So we've really done a lot of stakeholder input um that we can learn from. We also launched a website. There's a page on the district website u to make sure that this work is captured and to be clear and transparent with the public. Uh we are continuing
now to build out some models uh that includes a lot of work with Jill. As you can imagine, our director of transportation is pretty busy right now. She has a whole bunch of kiddos she needs to bus in just a few weeks. Uh but hopefully in September and October uh we'll be able to come to you with more details as we we map this out. Um
there's a lot of work going on behind the scenes trying to narrow to the most feasible models to build and that includes some transition work um with Scott and David. They have both been very uh tied to this work the whole time just by nature of their existing roles um and as superintendent and BA. Um so
the transition's been very smooth, but we're going to continue uh that over the next month or so to make sure that we're all rowing in the same direction. And we're excited for our next core and community team meetings which will take place in September. and shortly after that we'll be back to you with hopefully a lot more details and plans.
So just a reminder of the timeline we showed you next time we are on track. Uh we are transitioning right now from our summer to fall work. Uh so basically that's bringing us um from sort of the information gathering synthesizing stage to a lot of action. And so that's what
the next uh phase of the study from fall through winter is going to entail. Uh we promise to be back often. Um our goal is to be in front of you monthly as this unfolds. Um in addition to that in his new role, um David Palowski will give you updates behind the scenes as well
because we're going to be moving relatively quickly from here on out. Um this work is very complicated. It takes a lot of people to come together to really see what's best for kids um and what we can afford, what we can fit. Um and we're looking at again the short
term of how to manage the kids who are already arriving. We're looking at the near-term of what to do with the new construction that we know is coming. And now we have to adjust a little more because we know that one day the market will turn and and people will either age out or we'll choose feel comfortable
selling based on rates and we don't want to put the district in a position that we have to do this again in in short term. So, I hope you see um the time that we're putting in and sort of the slowness of this initial build, the amount of data and research that went into the initial stages as us trying to
be really diligent and thoughtful so that when we come to you, we come with something that is that is fair and appropriate and and will sustain us for some period of time. Um, so a lot going on in a very short amount of time in this district, but it's exciting work. It's fun work. Um, and we appreciate you, you know, supporting it. So, if you
have any questions, we're happy to take them. um or we can just come back to you in a month or so with more details. Have a question. Yeah. No, no, the the question not exactly to to you guys. I think first of all, thank you for the update. Uh very clear um the the topic of ongoing or
dynamic redistricting that that Scott and team and David now are currently doing. I think the only comment or feedback I have is we be way more clear with our stakeholders because sometimes what happens is they're neighboring building kid might go to a school and they might be asked to go to another
school. So just kind of be more clear why uh the process we are going through so that there is no it's like a PR type thing right we we want to maintain our um maintain our relationship better because we don't want somebody going jumping on Facebooks and start saying oh
that sounds kind of idiotic why are we asked to do this whereas others are so I think it's better to to have our stakeholder management up front explaining why we are doing it and also telling it will change in another couple of years again So just kind of doing that more. It might take a little bit
more effort, more talking, but that will hopefully save some heartburns later and and other um social media campaigns later. So that's just the input and I know we have exchanged notes on that, but that's something we want to be more
proactive about on our stakeholder management, but that's it. See, uh the final projected number um does it include preschool? I just wanted to clarify. No, which which number specifically were you
speaking to? That's our Let's go backwards. That's our district. The projected one total capacity. Yes. Okay. Yes. Preschool. Yes. We are we again rough estimates here. The numbers are pretty changing. I'll tell
you um one of the challenges right at the building level every summer we watch kids come in and come out and we never know what grade they're coming into or what grades they're going out from and it's never what we need right they arrive in the full grades and they leave in the low ones. Um so this this is really complicated prek through 12th grade we don't know
are the existing families going to bring young families is the new housing all going to bring the numbers are really fluid and that's that's why building the model is not as simple as it sounds. um you really have to be nuanced and we need to leave a little room on each side and um it it takes many many minds to come around and figure out what what the
estimate is there but yes preschool's very much a part of our family now they're stuck with us so we want to make sure that we have room for them going forward for sure ju just more clarification to that so 9723 is including prek and the number the highest recorded enrollment that
probably doesn't include prek right yeah and you know again I think we spoke to this once before at a community meeting. I can sort of describe it holistically now. The capacity is also a challenge to explain to folks because when a demographer looks at a room, um
he looks at it differently than a construction worker, than a teacher, than a principal. Um the reality in our schools is that a room can't always hold what the capacity says. So an example is we are now using many of our rooms for preschool. They have a max of 15 kids in
a class. the capacity of the room might be 25, but if we need it for preschool, it's 15. Same with as our autism program grows, those uh, you know, classrooms might have five or six students in a room of a capacity of 30, but it's
lower. So, when we're doing a study, we're not, we can't really use the same formula. we have to actually go, which we're doing, school by school, map by map, looking at how many of these rooms would need to be allocated for preschool or for um any of those special education
classrooms I referenced. So sometimes when we I think we want to latch on to a number and a capacity and say that's it, but it's just so much more nuanced than that. Um and so for those of us who want kids and teachers to be successful in programs, we really need to make sure we're looking at at those little pieces
as well. Anyone else? No. Thank you so much. It's our pleasure. We'll be back. Really appreciate the work that they put into uh this redistricting and um and um
making sure that we're ready when the enrollment goes up. Um, I think sometimes when you're not directly involved or you're not on the inside and you're looking from the outside, things look differently for when you're on the inside and people tend to, you know,
gaze things differently. But do you know I appreciate we appreciate the fact that you're working so hard and we look forward to next month's report. So with that being said, we're over to item number five, which is board committee committees and liaison reports. We did
have one board committee that did that did meet the education committee. Would you like to say something to the meeting? Hi, good evening. The education committee did meet. We are still waiting for a chairperson for that committee.
We've just recently reconfigured, but the focus of that meeting was on the student code of conducts, which are being approved this evening at tonight's board meeting. Okay. Thank you, Miss Luckorn, for that um brief report.
Um I'd like to um share with you a report from the ad hoc committee, the for the superintendent search. Um briefly, the committee met with the search firm on August 4th to review potential candidate resumes.
We will meet again as a committee on August 28th to finalize the first round of candidates to interview. The first round of interviews will take place on three dates, September 4th,
6th, and the 8th with the entire board at at that point. So, um, just to give you a little blurb and thanks to President Laura Hernandez for leaving this for me to share with you all. So, she was very adamant about
getting this information out. Uh, because we want to be as transparent and open as possible and as this process continues as a board. So, with that being said, that moves us over to Oh, we don't have any old business and we don't have any new business.
So that brings us to the consent agenda walkth through by Mr. Palowski. All right. Good evening everybody. We have a consent agenda this evening. It's a summertime agenda. You'll see some approvals uh financials transfers. We have a bills list, typical business
office operations, non-public uh technology orders, nursing services, and non-public IDEIDA. We're approving our chapter 92 1921 193 agreements. Um, we're approving allocations for our um, ESSA funding,
all of our titles, uh, grants. We are approving our textbook purchase, some textbook purchases and related materials. We have the sale of buses, which I would, um, just like to note were uh, very um, positive for the school
district. We sold some really old buses. Uh took those funds and bought down our lease purchase for our new buses, which uh worked out well. We have a purchase over the bid limit uh for some services in our technology department. We have a
not to exceed amount for um our New Jersey ESCJ for our Delta T group that does nursing services for us. We're approving the appointment of uh urgent care for our services for drug testing. We're approving parent transportation
contracts which always help um offset some cost with student transportation throughout the district for students with special needs. We're approving a professional development plan, the statement of asurances that uh go along with that plan. We have a option for
highly effective educators for the 2526 school year. We do have our code of conduct uh for student code of conduct for elementary, middle, and high school. We're approving uh a virtual remote instruction program. Uh we're adopting our curriculum tonight, a title nine
coordinator. We're approving uh Mr. Edward Knapp, our new athletic director. We have uh we're approving I get to part of my new uh role, I get to sit on the educational services commission's uh
board. um to thank Mr. Federer for that opportunity. It's going to be a wonderful experience. We're approving our interlocal agreement and then we have our travel related expenses uh student field trips. Uh we're approving our HIV reports and bullying reports. We
have a sidebar agreement and a separation agreement. And we then we have our personnel um at the end of the agenda. And that's your consent agenda for this evening. Quick questions. Anyone? None to the right.
Let's go. Couple of them. No, no, no. I think so. So, okay. So, for context and for audience if they're viewing, we have a lot lot of back and forth. So, most have been answered. Uh just couple one just more of a clarifying question 1.14.
Um we avoiding drug testing to an urgent care. Uh and the question from you was can health center do it uh for them and and you you reverted that we don't do drug testing. So I just wanted to confirm that health center does not
provide those services to take it on and absorb it. Right. We're we are we broached that topic uh when we first started with the health center and it was we were adamant that we did not want to send um our our
participants um those who are participate in our health care plan or our students to the health center for drug testing. So they do not provide they do not provide drug testing services. So they do not Okay. So that becomes a mood point. Perfect. Thank you.
You got it. any others and one more point of uh our curriculum I think there's obviously a lot of work put forward by by the leads on preparing revising the curriculum uh just one area
I find and maybe it's a little bit of a question and education for myself I believe we are introducing textbooks is still accurate for we're not introducing new textbooks they're not new no they're not new did we They're not new. What you are referring
to, and I think I have something scheduled to go back out to you for the last set of questions. These are picture books and mentor texts that have been in our elementary um in our elementary curriculum for
years, way before I got here. We're just moving them up because yes, they are based on a true story, but we're using it for a historical writing unit because it gives in kid-friendly language
um historical facts and yes, they're based on real events, but it also takes liberty at looking at um elements of writing a good fiction. So it's easy for our kids to see the dialogue and so on
and so forth and use for that and we have never had a problem with it especially I think because it is that basic picture meant a text rather than a textbook. It is not a textbook. And so I
think part of what I sent to you was the read aloud from YouTube just to so that you could see that we're not trying to make any statements at all. It is for the purpose of students understanding outlining in a simple way
so that they can um apply to their own writing. That's it. Okay. I I have couple of folks actually looking at my face and kind of seeing Julie's neck like what are you talking of? So just for context what I when I was reviewing what I found was couple of
books were were a little bit in controversy in few other states not in New Jersey never in South Brunswick so my question was are these new textbooks and she's confirming they're not new they were always there so then it becomes again a mood point but my my thought process was if they are
controversial why do we want to invite controversy here I would avoid it but if you are already using it then it's nothing new we are introducing I guess good it it is you know um I know you sent from states and that's why part of what
I said to you was we do have standards that we have to follow and I do not have any options in fact we pick those specifically so that there are no controversial issues it is not dense I hear you I'm just saying we don't have any problems Mr. Sony,
we we want to keep it that way. That's why I'm reviewing. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you both. Exhilarating conversation. Any other questions on the consent agenda? Good. All right. Good on my right. Good
on my left. All right. Let's have a roll call vote. So, you don't need a motion. Well, we need a motion and a roll call. I'll move it. Mr. Nathansson. Krishna. Second it. Krishna. Roll call, please. Here we go. Miss Julie Ferrara,
accept. Miss Alicia Khan, yes. Mr. Raja Krishna, yes. Mr. Mike Mitchell, yes. Mr. Barry Nathansson, yes. Dr. Smith Raj, yes. Mr. Rees Sony, yes. And my other two board members are
absent. So, our motion carries. Okay. Over to item number 10, which is public comments. The board of education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing
members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest. Complete copies of policy 0167 which govern this portion of the meeting are available to the public at the auditorium entrance online or by
contacting the board office to premiere the fair and early expression of comments. We ask that participants are recognized by the presiding officer and preface comments by announcing his or her name, place of residence, and group affiliation if appropriate and by
completing the sign-in sheet which is over on the podium. Please print legibly or we may be we may be unable to document your name for the permanent record. Each statement made by a participant shall be limited to three
minutes. No participant may speak more than once on the same topic. Mr. Palowski will indicate when you have 15 seconds remaining. All statements shall be directed to the presiding officer. No participant may address or question board members. No discussion between a
participant and respondent shall extend the threeminut limit time limit with a total time limit of about one hour. It is our plan to listen to each member of the public. Once all questions and comments from all members of the public are made, the board of education
may respond via email or um or here at this at this place in this presence in the most timely fashion and efficient manner available. All questions and comments made will be noted. Are there any registered?
We have no registered registrations. Anyone from the audience would like to comment? Nope. Anything for Come on down
and 58 seconds. There's no pen. There's no pen. I put that up there. Somebody stole my name. You know what? Lisa, go ahead and get the Lisa. Lisa, Lisa, we'll come back to the Those redistricting folks. They took my pen.
I noticed it on the floor. I didn't put it there, but I saw it. It wasn't me. Lisa Garwood, South Brunswick, Princeton Walk. Scott There's so many thank yous and appreciations that I would love to give
you, but I only have three minutes. So, here's a summary. On the evening before snow day last year, a group of special children were honoring you. You had them help you record the snow day message. I think you enjoyed it as much as they did. The joy
you take in children is one reason you've led this district so successfully. You did it with love. So much of what you've done to improve our schools shows your deep knowledge, respect, and love of the classroom. You've truly known how to support our
teachers. You bought us copy machines. You are, and I quote, not from me, always fair, never show bias towards or against anyone. It was also said that Scott quote always researched for facts before making
decisions during COVID. You demonstrated a deep commitment to protecting your staff, students, and their families through research. Scott was a New Jersey leader when it when clear directives weren't provided by the state. You wrote
an open letter to our families and our staff that was so well regarded it can still be found on a website for school nurses. When the state began to cut our funding, Scott went to Trenton and spoke at hearings about school funding formula.
He was even interviewed by news and the press. You've always been clear in your decision-making, even when it wasn't popular, and explained with facts the process by which difficult decisions were made. You put together presentations for our community which
were given many times live and virtually. We asked questions especially about budget and they were all answered repeatedly so that all community members always had the opportunity to be informed.
Quote, "His leadership has continued to shine through the fiscal challenges from a teacher who wanted to remain anonymous. They're shy. Scott worked with township members and the board to make sure all points of view were taken
into account when hard decisions needed to be made. When thinking of the continuous and drastic challenges you've had to navigate, I can't imagine how you did it all so competently and with such dedication.
You never lost sight of your priorities, no matter the push back. You never lost the sense of fun and love for the children you're ultimately in charge of. I keep hearing the same comment from friends and old colleagues. Quote, "The
next superintendent has some large shoes to fill." That's for sure. I think if we find someone half as capable, we should consider ourselves lucky. Scott, many of us mourn your leaving. We
know the enormity of what we're losing. On the other hand, we celebrate a retirement from South Brunswick that may well be the most deserved in our history. Thank you, Mr. Federer, for all you've
given and all you've done. I wish you nothing but joy in your retirement from South Brunswick. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you for your comments. I just think if if Lisa has more, we can extend the three minutes. I already did.
Wait a second. Did you pay her for that? Thank you, Lisa. Oh, thank God. Before you gone, can I go for it? Okay. I I just want to uh
thank you all uh for the warm welcome tonight. As I step back into my role on the school board, filling the uh seat of my uh longtime friend, Lisa Rogers, I'm grateful for the trust you've placed in
me, and I want to express my sincere appreciation to the board for this opportunity. I pledge to work diligently just as I have in the past to support our district to ensure the best outcomes
for our students and our communities. Thank you all. Thank you, Mr. Nathansson. Are there any further comments from the audience? Seeing none, we're going to move to the next item before we adjourn. Um, once
again, welcome back Mr. Nathansson. We look forward to collaborating with you moving forward. The next board of education meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 18th, 2025 at 7 p.m. We look forward to welcoming the return of our staff and students. Mr. Feder,
once again, we thank you for your commitment to South Brunswick schools. Any last words? Uh, no. I I think No, it's um it's it's a bittersweet, you know. I mean, this has been a great
place for me. I've shared that before. 14 years of my career, we're here. Um, it's a it's meaningful outside of just my professional life. So, uh, I leave I leave knowing it's in good hands. I know that we're going to continue to do great things
and, um, I encourage the board to keep stay in the course and, uh, you know, maybe keep keep reest, you know, three questions a week, maybe. But um actually I I will say I think Reess shows the importance of you know
board members getting involved and and the importance of having community involved in school and uh it's good work and you have a lot of talent. Trust your talent. Trust the people up on this deis. Trust your principles. Trust your teachers and
um let them do what they do. Take care of the kids. and the board's always been has always done that while I'm here and hope you just continue with that path. So, best all. Thank you again, Lisa. All right. Can I entertain a motion to adjurnn?
Moved by Dr. Raj, seconded by Mr. Sony. All in favor? Good night, South Brunswick, and go Vikings.