Good evening. It's Thursday, March 19th, 2026, and I would like to welcome you to the meeting of the South Brunswick Board of Education, and to call the meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. The New Jersey Open Public Meeting Act, NJSA 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 interest is discussed or acted upon. The primary purpose is for board members to discuss and vote on board business. In accordance with the provision 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, communicated to the home news and star ledger, and it also posted
on the district website. Call roll. Mr. Palowski. Uh, >> Miss Laura Hernandez here. >> Miss Darthik here. >> Miss Alicia Khan here. >> Mr. Raja Krishna. Mr. Mike Mitchell >> present. >> Mr. Barry Nathansson >> here.
>> Mr. Deon Patel, M Dr. Smith Raj >> here. >> Mr. Rajes Sony. We have a quorum. >> Um, may I have a motion and a second to approve tonight's meeting agenda?
>> Motion, Mr. Mitchell. Second, Miss Khan. Approval of minutes. Does anyone know have any questions? You don't. Um motion to approve board minutes and executive session minutes of March 5th,
2026, >> Mr. Nathansson. Second, Miss Carik. So moved. And then next up is our student rep who's not here either. So her reports from home,
which leads me to our superintendent, Dr. Braen. >> Right. Thank you, Mr. Nerz. It's easier when I don't have to follow such a better speaker as our student rep. Um, just a couple things on the update. Uh, >> on our redistricting, we had a core team meeting on March 12th, and we met to
explore, review, and evaluate, uh, our various possibilities. We have a community meeting that's scheduled for April 16th to review these ideas and gather additional input with the idea of having a final presentation to be prepared um, and ready for the board for our meeting in April on the 23rd. Right.
So, we look forward to moving ahead with that uh budget presentation. We're going to present u Mr. Powski and I in in a little while. We'd like to say uh that we are grateful to the mayor and the town council for their generous $350,000 contribution to
help fund our school resource officers and their continued support for our community. That's going to help us greatly in our budget. Um some upcoming dates, the South Brun School District spring 2026 state testing schedule is out there. Earlier this year, we distributed that annual assessment
notification about the standardized testing. Um, this week we administered the NJ GPA to our students in 11th grade. This assessment is a high school graduation requirement and the assessment includes reading, writing, mathematics. The later in the spring,
we'll have the NGSLA testing done and that those schedules will be posted shortly um and communicated out through the building principles. Our special education parents advisory group will be meeting on Wednesday, April 15th at 6:30 at Blackhorse Lane. Hopefully you can
attend. Um, educator and educational educational support persons of the year will be recognized at our board meeting in April um on the 23rd. Take your child to work day is going to be also Thursday, April 23rd. If your child will be going to
work with you on April 23rd, please inform your school through the Genesis parent portal absent absence notes. Also, please take time to read the take your child to workday letter to familiarize yourself with the age and guidelines. And lastly for me, the Joan
Kirkus student art gallery is taking place on April 22nd in the main gym at South Brunswick High School. This is a time-honored tradition in the district and we promise you will be blown away by the talent our students and by the talent of our students and art teachers. The community is invited to the gallery
between 4:00 and 8:00 p.m. and the art teachers will be on site between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. Mrs. Blair Iceman will do a brief presentation at this time. >> I'm sorry. >> Good evening. I'm Blair Eisman, director of programs and professional development
as well as supervisor for visual arts at the elementary and middle school level. On behalf of Tim Sweeney, supervisor of art at the high school and our K12 art specialist, I'm here tonight to give you a sneak peek into this year's Joan Kirkus Student Art Gallery. Where, as
Dr. Brian shared, it is a timehonored tradition where we come together to celebrate select student artists from across the district. This will be our 21st year the gallery is taking place in South Brunswick and it's always an amazing evening that brings the
community together. Thank you to Rebecca Bufus, High School Art Specialist, for putting together the video you're about to see, as well as our Viking Television Network, who created a time-lapse video of last year's gallery, so you can see how our beautiful gym gets transformed
into a truly awe inspiring space. Gentlemen, Hey, hey, hey. Our official advertisement for the art gallery will in next week's district news. It's a student creative flyer, so
we're looking forward to seeing that. And events like the gallery remind us the power of art and education, giving students a voice, a means of expression, and an opportunity to be seen and celebrated. So, we hope to see you on the 22nd for the celebration. Thank you.
>> Just want to apologize. I think I said u Joan instead of Joanne Kirkus. My apologies. Okay, next up we have we're going to bring Miss Misman back up again along with Mr. Ratine and Mr. Morales. Yes,
for our very exciting HIB and safety school safety report. >> Thank you. Good evening. I'm Peter Ratine, director of special projects and joining me again is uh Blair Eisman, director of programs and professional development. Together, we serve as the
district's anti-bullying coordinators. So, we're pleased to present the first part of the safe schools report. Our presentation tonight will focus on data collection during the reporting period of July 1st, 2025 through
December 31st, 2025, which is reporting period 1, the first half of this school year. We will begin by reviewing harassment, intimidation, and bullying, often known as HIP. uh the data including the status of our investigations and the comprehensive prevention measures currently in place
across the district. These five sub bullets are the components that are state required for reporting to the board of education. Following the HIP portion of the evening, we will hand the presentation over to Raphael Morales who will provide the school safety data
system SSDs report for the same period. We'll now dive into the HIP data for the first half of the school year. Our goal here is to provide transparency regarding the nature of the investigations conducted by our school level specialists and to highlight the proactive work being done to maintain a
safe and inclusive environment for all students. Each of our schools is supported by dedicated anti-bullying specialists who manage the initial reporting and the investigation process. These professionals listed here were the ABS's during this reporting period, the first
half of this school year. They're essential to our compliance with the ABS Bill of Rights and serve as the primary point of contact for our students, staff, and families during the investigation phase. So during the first reporting period, the district conducted 30
investigations. In total, as the data indicates, approximately 43% of these cases, about 13 in total, met the specific legal criteria to be confirmed as HIPP. This slide provides a more granular look at the activity across our individual
schools. You'll notice variations between schools. These figures can vary for many reasons, including situations that may arise during this particular reporting period. I'll leave this up just for a moment longer. So when an incident is confirmed as HIP, we then categorize it based on the
protected classes def defined by the state. This data is reported to the state and allows us to target our prevention programming more effectively to meet the specific needs of our students. You'll notice that uh there's a fairly extensive list here. Uh there may be a
few others that did not uh that had zeros. There's one at the bottom uh that we always point out called any other distinguishing characteristic. That is how the state words. It let me give you an idea of what um can fall into that could be weight, height, physical
features, intelligence, vegetarianism, things like that. to give you an idea of what the three represents this time for this reporting period. One of them um was a a disability that did not fall into um that part there and then two
were appearance. Our response to confirmed incidents varies and is not a one-sizefits-all. We implement we implement a range of disciplinary actions to ensure accountability, but we also lean heavily on other things such as restorative
practices, counseling, and parent conferences to address root behaviors and ensure learning has occurred in order to maintain and support the school climate for everyone involved. As a district, we always aim to be as proactive as possible in regards to HIB.
Our anti-bullying specialists as well as administrators throughout the district, teachers, par professionals, really every staff member work hard to help build community, form relationships with students, and explicitly teach them important
social and emotional skills to help prevent acts of HIP. So the next few slides we have some of the many proactive initiatives and measures that our schools have done during this first reporting period. Week of respect and
school violence awareness take place in October. There's always expectations and hip reviews at the start of the school year. Counselors are doing lessons on various topics. Peer leaders
are models for our kids in our schools. student committees, buddy bench at junction. Let you read through some of these. Peter and I do meet with the anti-bullying specialist a few times a year for job alike meetings where we
discuss concerns, look at patterns, and talk about what else can we do to prevent acts of hip. Some schools have character education newsletters. Uh the hot dog assembly. I was I think uh Raphael was there as well at Brunswick Acres. Was a fun community
event uh for everyone but the principal and assistant principal who ended up with ketchup and mustard on them in the end. Uh but great schoolwide event and community building there. The last few uh kindness week super friends and lending libraries. Those are initiatives
at our preschools. Brunswick Acres had a 50th anniversary this fall. school climate committees. We actually Peter and I and a few of the elementary schools are piloting a new climate survey. Lots of spirit weeks throughout the district. Whole school morning
meetings and buddy class activities. Our SEAL committee meetings happen regularly throughout the year as well. Couple of the schools have done parent academy like sessions for parents at night virtually.
So, really lots of good work happening and a thank you to all involved and I'm going to turn it over to Raphael Morales. Good evening everyone. My name is Raphael Morales. I'm the student services director for the school
district and my office manages the uh entering and reporting of school safety data. I only have two slides, so I thought I would maybe just give you a little bit of a backdrop to uh make sure you understand this system, especially because our reporting period
one is is usually less exciting than when we report out for the entire year. Um during reporting period 2, uh the state used to uh record this data through a um vandalism uh and violence
report. uh that is usually what was um uh delivered to schools and and during board meetings. Uh that system changed to the school safety data system and and my office uh manages the the entering of this data directly from our uh student
information system. So our schools enter those uh incidents into our system. Our my office reviews them, make sure there's no missing information and then we go ahead and enter it into the state system. uh and it's reported out two times a year and uh like HIB uh we're
here to to show the public the uh the results. These are the categories uh on top that are monitored. Uh in addition to to reporting out the same HIP information that that uh Blair and uh Peter reported out, uh this uh reporting
requires us to indicate incidents of violence and vandalism, uh incidents of substance use and uh instances of uh uh weapons. In addition, there's a monitoring and and making sure that we're keeping our eye on the suspensions
both in school and and out of school suspension. Those are the numbers for reporting period one at the elementary level. Like I indicated, not not too much action uh during this reporting period, September to to December.
This is the for that same period, same categories at the high school. I mentioned this last time when when when I shared the information for the previous year. The suspension rates at our high school have
dramatically uh been reduced uh with some good initiatives going on at the high school. One specifically is that we uh shifted our program from a inschool suspension program to an inschool intervention program. Uh this allowed us to to keep students continuing to learn,
continuing uh to be with a certified teacher during this time of suspension. And instead of being removed, they were being supported uh with social emotional supports uh getting their work done and and hopefully reflecting on the situation that that put them uh in the
uh in school uh intervention room. However, there are still instances where we still uh feel it's appropriate to suspend the student and that's what is reported here. So, what I described the inschool intervention uh this is not a
reportable uh incident. Uh only when it's in school suspension or out of school suspension and that's what you see here. when we report out after uh the school year ends, uh you'll see uh you'll see
these numbers um increase because it's a cumulative number. And I'll also be able to share with you a year-to-year comparison so that you are aware of uh what it looks like trending wise. That's a small picture of our numbers from from uh the last reporting period
or last year's reporting uh of the same period. You can see the numbers are pretty similar. not a good shot. It's a little small. Uh but I can tell you the numbers are pretty similar. Uh the high school um is much lower again because of the inschool intervention program.
That's all I have for tonight. Uh thank you for your attention to this and I uh will take any questions or Peter and uh if you have any questions for Peter or >> any questions just want to uh point out that the
substance abuse uh incidents have produced. Um so I do I do want to acknowledge that programs uh are working. >> Yes. Yes. >> I I did have a question. All right. >> So, um there are those three categories,
right? Like substances uh and weapons and I forgive >> violence. So, the last column which you had uh in school and out of school suspension that uh those numbers indicate other code of conduct and those kind of suspensions also.
>> Yes, it could be other uh suspensions for for different activities or it could be uh one of those incidents that led to a suspension. So, we would have to report out uh both. we report out that an incident of violence happened and if a suspension happened. >> Okay. Because I saw that in the high in
the elementary there was just uh there was the three categories and three three reporting categories you had zero but you had in the in suspension out of school suspension you had a number there. So that could be a code of conduct or something. >> It's a code of conduct violation. Yes. It didn't raise it didn't raise to the
level of a SSDS reported reported incident. >> Got it. Okay. Thank you. had that same question. >> I had the same question. Exactly. Anyone else? Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate
that. Okay. Next up. Yay. It would be our budget presentation by Dr. Brian and Mr. Palowski. >> Yeah. Good. I don't have to push myself in. I'm freezing. I'm freezing.
Look at that. Good evening everyone. Um before we get started, I just want to thank the finance committee for their work they did u in advance of this meeting as well as um Mr. Palowsk's office and the business office for putting all these numbers together and giving us the
opportunity to present to you what our our school budget is anticipated to be for the next school year. So, uh that's our introduction slide there and we'll move on. With every decision we make when it comes down to our schools and our education, you know, we get up here and
we talk about the needs and how much money we need and sometimes we talk in large numbers that we really can't even understand, right? When we're talking about $144 million and the tax levy and going up this much and $13 million in state aid, we kind of get lost in the
numbers at some point. And that's it's a shame because the reason we're all here, I know all of us that work in this field, all the board members who dedicate their time um and get no compensation for that and our community members and they hardearned taxes. Why
do they do all that? They do that for our children, right? And the kids that come into our building as either preschoolers um or kindergarteners, we have an obligation to them. we have an obligation so that when they get out of our our system and they go through our
programs that they have all the opportunities that we want for them and they're capable of becoming anything that they want to. So I think it's important we start about a budget. We talk about why why do we do this and why are we here and we're here for the kids and we're here for the children that come into us as three, four, and five
year olds and hopefully when they walk across that stage at the Cure Arena in graduation we've done them the justice that they deserve. And some of the examples, it's going the wrong way. Sorry about that. I I brought up some of these examples from when we recognized some of our high
performing students at the last board meeting and some of the schools that they applied to, right? And then some of the schools that they actually got accepted into. These are some of the highest institutions of learning, not just regionally, but also within the country. And that doesn't happen by
mistake. And that's what we want to do. We want to take that young child that you saw in the first picture and give them the opportunity so they get to be at that stage of the game. They can get into these universities and more. Right? So when you look at what our vision is
as our stated vision statement is we have children come to us from all over. They come to us with a variety of backgrounds across all different perspectives. Some coming into kindergarten as readers, some coming in not knowing their alphabet. Right? And our expectation is that every child that
enters through our doors is going to be able to leave with the opportunities to do whatever lies ahead for them in life. And that's not easy. And it starts with our vision, which is really clear there, right? We take all of our individuality, all the students that come to us, and we give them the skills and provide them
the opportunities to become whatever they want to be as they walk through the doors when they leave. So, how do we get there? Right? that doesn't just happen by accident. It's not something that we just kind of oh we hope this comes out this way and it just materializes. It's a concerted effort on
a lot of different parts. It starts with our board governance, right? It then goes down to our teachers and staff. We need comprehensive programs in order to do this and we need stable funding or else it's just unpredictable and we can't maintain that continuity for the
child that enters in our preschool program for the 13 14 years it takes for them to graduate. So, as I said in that first slide, it begins with the school board. And the school board is our overarching leader. They're the ones that one, hire the superintendent and oversee all our
policies and practices and make sure we're doing all that we're supposed to be doing and also they're the ones that put together the budget and approve or don't approve our um financial requests as we move forward. So it starts with the school board, then goes to our staff, our teachers,
administrators, and all the other people involved in the school system. And sometimes we forget it's not just the teachers and administrators, it's the bus drivers, it's the custodians, it's the maintenance workers, it's the cafeteria workers, it's the lunch and recess aids, it's the safety aids, security officers, and everyone else
that is involved in this. And for us, one of the things that I could say that we're really proud of in South Brunswick in my short time being here, I I think our staff are second to none. We have some of the best people that I've ever worked with. And where does the rubber
meet the road and all the things we're trying to pull together? It starts with our staff and we should be really proud of that. Moves on to the programs that we offer throughout the district, right? Um, you saw some examples and you know we had the art program we were talking about
tonight that's going to be displayed in in a couple weeks but we offer comprehensive programs across our entire spectrum from preschool through high school and it starts here in early childhood. We have the preschool expansion aid. We're getting a little bit more money
this year, but that's an initiative to make sure our programs reach out to our youngest learners in grades three and four and we're able to begin the process there of getting them acclimated to the South Brunswick school system. Full day kindergarten goes without saying, you know, it lays those foundational skills.
And then our core academics, we got rig rigorous educational programming through all of elementary and all the core academics. And then in addition to that, we have the SEAL learning and the steam learning incorporated with our digital and technology learning. So even starting at our youngest grade level,
the South Brun School District provides a comprehensive program for our students, transitioning to middle school, building upon the same core curriculum, going to more honors and advanced classes for our accelerated learners. Our world language program, again, our STEM and technology really
start to kick off at that point, too. and um get our get our students to the next level. And then our arts and and electives. You know, one of the things that we should be really proud of is that we educate the whole child here. It's not just the, you know, the the core academics, but it's everything
because not only is it all important for developing um really strong, capable citizens for our community, but it's just good for them as well. And then we get to our high schools. You know, we have a comprehensive high school that offers programs across the
spectrum. And again, it's one of the things I would put our high school up against not any high school just in New Jersey, but across the entire nation. We got a comprehensive high school that offers programs for everything from career career pathways, dual enrollment, um, honors, advanced programming,
college and career readiness skills. It's something that we should be very proud of. And sometimes when we're from South Brunswick and this is kind of all we know, we take it for granted and we don't really see what a great high school we have here and how much we have
to offer there. And then some of the specialized programs we have throughout the entire district. You know, we have programs for our accelerated learners. We have programs for our multiple language learners, right? Our students that are coming as English not their primary
language at home. And then the the uh services we offer for our students with special needs. We offer the full continuum and trying to make sure we meet all their child all their individual and unique needs. In addition to all of that, right, we have all this other programs for our
student supports for mental health, our counseling programs, our response to intervention. We talked a little bit about our committee learning at our committee education committee meeting before about some of the tiered interventions we we provide. and then all our athletics and clubs, the
performing and um visual arts and then our summer programs. Like we do so much in this community for our children and it's something that I know I'm extremely proud of just to be a part of it and all of you should be too. So when you look at the things as we put in place, what's
required, we need a board governance that understands that and puts those processes in place. We need highc caliber dedicated staff members in order to bring that to fruition. We need programs that are comprehensive that will cover all the areas that we need to
right to cover all these areas that I mentioned. And then the last thing we need is sometimes it's the most important need but we need stable funding without making sure that we have the finances in place and not just for one
time or one year but over a series of years to provide the stability to make sure those instructional programs are there for all our kids. Um, that's why I thought it was important to start this budget presentation, not just drilling down with the numbers, but why
does it matter and why do we need all those funds and why does what we do here and what we vote for here at this board meeting in the future board meetings coming up matter so much to our community because the dollars are not just dollars, they're kids. And for
that's why we're all here. So, I'm going to pass it off to Mr. Powski to go to the numbers right now. This was for >> Yeah, it took me a while to figure that out. >> Thank you. >> So, let's talk a little bit about funding. South Brunswick has been in a difficult
situation for quite a while now with regards to uh state aid. Uh we fall into and have fallen into the S2 funding formula that for I would say the past seven years has really decimated our our
budget. We have done u a lot of uh different things to accomplish or or maintain our actual programs, but we're going to talk about I'll get a little bit more into what that funding looks like. But let's talk about our budget
and what we really need to focus on and what our objectives are for our overall budget. We're here to provide and support a high quality instructional program. We strive for academic excellence. That's the that's the overall utmost important piece of of
what I feel like we do here in South Brunswick. We foster safe learning environments. If you walk into any one of our facilities, you will see safe, secure, by far the cleanest and the the most um
the I would call it the shiniest floors you'd ever imagine in any school anywhere. They our guys are are exceptional and our buildings are are really well-kept. We have um another objective. We have a fiscal responsibility.
So when it comes to fiscal responsibility, we're really talking about how we manage the health benefits, the maintenance while preserving our long-term uh fiscal health. And this year, like uh the past two years, we've
been in a situation where we're finding that our fund balance that we borrow to to support our next year's budget ha we have to end up at the end of the year with enough to put that money back into like the piggy bank so that we can
borrow it again the next year. So our fund balance is at a point to where there's just nothing left in the bank. And when there's nothing left in the bank, you're pretty much you're broke. So, we're we're we're teetering right
now. Our fiscal health uh could use some improvement and we have some plans uh for the next few years to to accomplish that. And then eventually, the last one on we have on this slide is program efficiency. Uh we're evaluating programs and support services to ensure uh
efficient delivery. When we talk about efficiencies, every department this this year in particular, we sat down with transportation, technology, security, we we sat down and went through everything, every line item. Where can we find some
efficiencies uh because we know just like past years, this year um is like no other. So, we have some strategic investments. We have some health benefit management and some long-term financial stability. These are objectives that
follow us uh in line with the the previous slide that we just saw. We're going to continue to targeted investments. We uh you utilize an NJRM um investments u program with the state of New Jersey. And for our um
our miscellaneous revenues last year, we brought in about $630,000 in just uh interest in investment or investment returns. Uh so strategic investments, health benefit management, we're actively monitoring health benefits. Uh we have some uh things
going on right now in health benefits that are surely going to benefit the district. And we have some long-term financial stability where we have to maintain and um provide some type of sustainability through these efficient operations. You know, when we talk about indirect
costing where we're charging our cafeterias for operations that we do in the house, uh those are the kinds of things that you don't hear about in a lot of different districts, but we do them here on a yearly basis. And every year we go back and we look for more
opportunities to utilize our prek program and the funding that's that's existing there. uh or we're looking forward to utilize our our um cafeteria program and and some of the operations that we can transfer uh expenses into those funds to help benefit our
classrooms uh with the funds that we with the funds that we uh play with expenses and back and forth. So our key budget drivers like in any other budget year we have we have salaries, we have employee health benefits and we have
state aid impacts. This next slide is is the slide that gets us every year and it's like this in every school district I would imagine in state of New Jersey especially one that's in a S2 environment. So, you can
see from this chart that's on the right there, we have a salary uh obligation of about $3.1 million. That's $3.1 million. That's the obligation that comes from our increases on our negotiated agreements with our um collective
bargaining units. We have a tax levy growth. If we took a full 2% on the tax levy, uh $2.8 8 million is the most we could increase our revenues uh from uh our tax levy for next year. And we also know that we have
a health benefit increase of $3.2 million. So when you look at the two the graphs on the right, you can see the disparity. Uh we talked a lot a couple years ago about our ability to in a school system to generate revenue. We
can't sell stuff. We're not we're not in we're not a typical organization. I remember uh previous superintendent talking about you know Coca-Cola and when Coca-Cola wants to generate more revenue they can cut expenses or they can increase the cost of their their product. Uh we can't increase the cost
of our product but the only thing we really can do is cut our expenses. So, a school district like us, uh, we're in we're in this dilemma where we know that every year when we come to the table, we're 6 million in the whole and we have 2 million that we can generate in u
additional revenue. Our overall operating budget and our expenditures kind of looks like this table where you have 80% of your salaries already already um identified for salaries and benefits. So 80% of your
budget, 80% of everything that's in our actual budget goes to salaries and benefits. And then you look at the other side, about 20% of everything else is, you know, your supplies, your maintenance, your transportation, tuition, and and professional services. I think that's a wonderful slide only to
just give us perspective. You know, it's um we're we're putting our funding where it counts. you know, we hire one of the most the most incredible people and we do a wonderful job educating children and uh but when you turn around and look at what we're spending in tuition and
transportation and uh some of those other professional services, only a portion of the budget goes to classroom supplies or or uh curriculum development. So, it's it's it's really your salaries uh is a is a massive
driver and benefits. When we talk about state aid in the state of New Jersey, we're really finding ourselves in a in an interesting situation. This year for state aid, the the state of New Jersey um increased uh educational spending at a point of uh
$372 million. $23 million went to just Middle Sex County school districts. South Brunswick being one of those Middle Sex County school districts, we were cut $415,000 this year.
So when we talk about the state funding formula, the S2 formula is an interesting one and I'll talk a little bit about it here on this next slide. The the funding formula really goes into the idea of property value, what a local
fair share is, and how we determine how much people uh generate in revenue or how much their salaries look like. So district income. And it also the big one of the other biggest drivers is your student enrollment. So what you'll find
is is our student enrollment is decreasing and it has been decreasing for the past few years. Because of our our decrease in student enrollment, the amount of money the state is saying it costs to educate a kid as students in New Jersey or in South Brunswick is
less. So that coupled with your equalized property values in South Brunswick are increasing. So your values of your properties are are going up. They're very valuable properties. Likewise, your district income is high.
Your salaries and what your people are earning in South Brunswick is very high. So South Brunswick's a wonderful place. Your property values are are very high. you have a lot of high earning individuals, but your enrollment for your school
system is dropping. And when you put all of that mixed together, the the state looks at this and says, "Well, because your property values are high and because your district income is is so high, you should be paying a local fair share that looks like this." Your local
fair share in South Brunswick is $168 million. So, based on this school funding formula, South Brunswick Township should be paying $168 million uh in a tax levy to support your school
system. Because of your resident uh in student enrollment dropping the way it has, the state of New Jersey is saying it only costs $143 million to educate kids in South Brunswick Township schools. So, the disparity between those
two is about $20 million. And that that being the scenario means that you're not going to get any more aid in this funding formula until those two numbers flip-flop. Right? The state saying it cost $143
million to educate a student um in South Brunswick, but your equalized property values and your district income and your local fair share says the state or the the residents should be paying 168 million. Therefore, you get no state
aid. You're upside down. That's what I talked a little bit about in this slide here. It's the same kind of information. Our adequacy budget right now is 143 million. The local fair share is 168 million. uh because the local fair share exceeds the adequacy
budget, the state budget for what we say what the state's saying would cost to educate children in South Brunswick, that 24 or $25 million difference uh means that we are awarded zero in what's called equalization aid.
So even if we had our local property taxes increase $25 million and we got that number to be hundred our local fair share is $168 and we made our tax levy $168 million. Guess what's going to happen next year?
Your property values are going to increase and everybody's going to get a raise. You're never going to catch up. There's no way. There's no way to catch up in this formula. And this is an impact. So we looked at our enrollment over
time. In 2021, we had a 7 7,535 students. We're down to 6,336 students. So our regular education enrollment has declined. Our special education
enrollment kind of stayed steady. Uh but you can see in this situation where our enrollment's declining, but we're still running all of the same buildings. We're still running and keeping all of our same operations. We're still running all of our buses. Have we found efficiencies
in all of those systems? Absolutely. U but at the same time, we're we're decreasing in enrollment. And at the same time, you can see from our district income and equalized property values, they're rising. So, if
we put numbers on how much you were cut over time here in South Brunswick, we we came out of the gate in uh 21 1819 and we actually received a little bit of uh state aid additional and in 1920 they
took it back. In 2021, they hit us again. But in 21-22 they didn't take a whole bunch of state aid from us. But from that point moving forward it was absolutely devastating what they had taken. So our district
income and equalized property values are on um opposite trajectories. Your your district income and equalized property values are going skyrocket while at the same time your student population is declining. So, those two
are just pushing your local fair share and your adequacy budget in opposite directions. Here's our state aid history if you want to, you know, put that up there so we can all cry about it. It's uh it's a difficult one. Uh state
aid's fallen 24.8 million and uh from in 201819 to 13 million in 2627. So over the course of time that impact we've we've done everything uh possible and I would I would imagine if I went to
anybody and said hey do you remember back in 2021 what did our buildings look like? They're just as gorgeous as they are today. What did the educational programs look like? They were just as um academically challenging and good for kids as they are. What did our athletic
programs look like? We've worked so hard to ensure that what happens in the classrooms and what happens on the fields and what happens in the buildings has not been touched by our financial dis our financial situations. Um and that's a testament to everybody here in
the district. So another couple uh interesting points on understanding equalization aid. So the structural reality because South Brunswick's local fair share is the 168 million and exceeds our adequacy budget
which is 143 million. State awards zero equalization aid and um says this is not a penalty. It's the mechanical outcome of a formula that assumes wealthy communities can fund their own schools. And if you think about that, it's it's
an interesting scenario where we're saying, "Hey, what we're going to do is this is a wealthy district based on real estate and based on uh people income. So therefore, that that community can, you know, afford to pay this much more for
their schools, but there's no way we can ever get there. We can't get there because we're stuck at a 2% cap." And for the past two years, they gave us avenues to get there. this year. Nothing heard. We've heard nothing about being able to recoup or be able to move
forward with some type of additional aid of some sort. They provided us stabilization aid in years past. They provided us opportunities to go above the 2%. Uh this year we had an opportunity or we looked at using some um a healthc care waiver but it was it
was something that we didn't have to do due to some financial um acumen in our health benefit lines. So our sources of revenue in our operating budget right now if you look at our operating budget
our revenues are 88% tax levy. I mean let's think about that for a minute. South Brunswick Township School District is paying eight the the people in South Brunswick Township are paying 88% of their schools budget
in the operating budget. We have some miscellaneous revenues that we get from investments from selling buses working our lease um purchase bus uh program. We have a little bit of a fund balance that we carry over from year to year and we have some state aid. So our state aid's
at 8.2%. Our fund balance is at 2.8. We have some miscellaneous revenues, some other state aids that are minimal that that come and go. Um, so again, an interesting slide when we talk about revenue breakdown and what it looks like, the impact of um our S2 funding
formula on the township and South Brunswick Township. Finally, we'll talk a little bit about revenue and tax levy. So our tax levy this year is 141 million
um for the 2526 school year. Prior year we approved um the tax levy was this prior year approved. So our tax levy uh moving forward uh we're proposing a 2.4 uh million increase which is a 1.7%
increase. It's below the 2% cap for a tax levy for the 2627 school year of 144 million. So the local fair share is calculated by the state at the 168 million and uh indicating that the state
believes South Brunswick should raise significantly more. But again, there's no pathway for us to be able to do that. Um and at this point in time, uh in talking with our finance committee, based on what was h based on what happened the past two years with
astronomical tax increases in the township um for our school districts, uh it was it was pretty clear the expectation was that we go out for nothing. Um we worked really hard within uh our administrative team and tried but
you know without really impacting it anything more than this has a true impact on academic program and and educational programs. So this year we're looking for a 1.7% increase uh on the tax levy or $2.4 million.
There is an opportunity next year. What this does is because we're below the 2% cap, what happens is there's this awesome thing called bank cap. It's like a savings account. If you don't take your 2%, the full 2% or you don't take your full health benefits waiver, they put it
in what's called a banked cap and you can pull that next year for use if you need it in addition to your 2%. So banked cap's not free money. uh it's it's it's added to your tax levy uh for next year's use if you need that. So our
total banked cap for next year will be about 1.3 million. Um and if needed next year uh it's it's kind of like a little safety uh safety valve. A little tax levy historical review.
Those are the past two years. And if you do an average across the board from 21 or 2021 to 2020 or 26 27, we're at about a 3% average over the course of time, but
heard it loud and clear from our finance committee. Those last two years really uh something special for the township. Uh hard pill to swallow. Uh but again, we survived. uh every year I tell I tell people every year after we're after this
is all over kids will come to school they will be educated and they will flourish in South Brunswick and that's what our budget does year after year so we have some continued budget pressures we have personnel costs transportation special these are all
items that just constantly year after year after year have a difficult impact on our budget in some way or another and We're addressing our structural budget gaps by providing personnel reductions. We're doing some operational reductions
and we have some healthcare cost adjustments. So, these are the areas that we went into uh with this budget right now and this budget being a tentative budget. So, we're not really drilled down exactly on what those uh personnel reductions are. We're pretty
solid on the operational reductions and from what I'm understanding, we're pretty clear on what our health care cost adjustments are moving forward. So, this is how we're addressing those gaps that we saw on the in the first slide, that extra, you know, $3.5 million. Uh,
this is how we're going to attack that gap in this year's budget. So, our estimated tax impact for 2627 for a 200,000 assessed home in South Brunswick, you're looking at a $57
increase. For a $300,000 assessed home in South Brunswick, it's an $85 increase. Um, that's what our 1.7 uh six 1.76% increase on our tax le would impact on
our um on our homeowners in South Brunswick for next year. Budget at a glance. So, for the past nine years, and you know, I'm this is budget. These are numbers. This is all the fun stuff, right? But for the past nine years, my superintendent would
stand up here, Scott, and he would talk at nauseium. And every once in a while, he'd let me stand up and say two slides and say five words. So, I'm passing that right on to Steven Corso. He's our assistant business administrator. I'm going to give him a couple slides to get
him acclimated to budgeting and presenting here in South Brunswick. Mr. Corso. >> Good evening, everyone. So this slide um was one that we liked just uh give a good overall picture of um what makes up
our our overall budget. Um so if you look at that first column there under our general fund for total expenditures at 166 uh million that's all of your your operational um expenses. So, um you
you're you know consider your your salaries and benefits goes into that. Your transportation expenses, your special ed expense, uh buildings and grounds maintenance, all that stuff is is um in that $166 million number.
Um, continuing to the right under special revenues, that $11 million number, um, that that is a makeup of your um, federal grants, u, preschool aid, uh, non-public um, funds that are
given to South Brunswick to manage. It's important to know though that those those funds are reserved for very special uh, things. we we can't spend that on uh any way we'd like to in our on our regular operating budget. So,
it's a part of our budget, but it's not able to be used um for, you know, operational purposes and salaries and and things like that. Um debt service uh you'll see next um that's our debt service payment for this
year. So, that impacts the uh both uh on the expenditure side but also on the tax levy side. And then that gives you your total number. So our all-in budget with all those categories considered is 180 million. Um
and we subtract our uh our revenues here on this slide. So on that next row, you'll see 22 million is is a makeup of our um what I we you'll hear us refer to sometimes as as your local revenue or local aids. That's
state aid. Um that's the miscellaneous revenues that David had touched on earlier. Um tuition that the district receives from uh individuals and from other students. Um and and some other fees and things like that that the district may charge for certain programs
that that is in that 22 uh million number. Um and then again going all the way over to the right, the 34 million is just your your general fund revenue plus your uh special uh revenue funds. Um and
that final row is uh what makes up our tax levy number. So when you take your total expenditures and subtract your uh local revenues, you get your tax uh general fund tax levy number. Um and and
and finally the same thing on the other side. Your all-in tax levy next year is 145 million. So just uh schedule ahead. Um of course tonight was our tenative budget presentation. Um important to remember this is the tenative budget. Uh the
state has mandates and requirements that we need to have our budgeted submit submitted by that I believe it was March 27th. Um and then our final budget uh would be adopted uh and due uh our May 7th meeting. Um, and then our user
friendly budget, all the things that are available to the public will be posted the next uh the next day on on May 8th. And I believe that's it. Any questions? >> Wow.
>> Go ahead, Barry. So David uh I know we at operations we spoke about it and the committee uh the entire board spoke about it. I know you've been working hard with burning and everything about
that the health center uh actually uh their contract is over soon. Correct. and we're we're going to do an RFP to look at what's going on with that. Right. >> Correct. >> So that that possible savings is not in
this. Right. >> No, that that that's in that's some of that is inclusive of it. >> Oh, okay. Okay. >> Thank you. >> The bank, how long is the bank? >> Three years. >> Three years. >> Yep. It sits for three years and if you
don't use it, you lose it. Um so do you do you strongly feel that um uh it is something that needs to be done or uh going 2% is not a bad idea because uh go looking around the town's development the rate will probably cushion us uh if
we go 2%. >> Well so I'm I'm your as your business administrator I'm always I'm always going to say use the two full the full 2% >> because it builds your base. It builds your base. And what happens is we have to just remember something on this
budget. It's it's another one of those budgets that doesn't have um a roof project in it. You know, so our our roofing project schedule um we have roofs all of course every building has a roof, but we have a schedule for roof replacement. And right now we're about
two years behind in roof replacement. Um, and with with some of these pieces and what we're doing, we're still in that barebones budget. We're still locking things down in January and saying if you didn't buy it now, you're not going to need it. You're not going
to get it because we have to come up with that $5 million at the end of the year. So my suggestion is always build your base as as much as you possibly can, but understanding the uh the ramifications of going out for the past two years in a row uh was was pretty
impactful for the for the township and for the residents. >> Um impact two more clarification. uh the average tax levy increase the average tax increase for a 200k assessed home that is based on constant ratables right that the it's uh any change in ratables
it will not be reflected in the number >> those are the actual ratables we have those we got them from the proof books yep >> oh okay >> those are actual numbers they're real >> oh those are actual numbers okay um and the debt service is also coming off this year >> that the debt service we had a massive
debt service roll off uh two years ago This is just a a remainder. It's for I think this uh this debt service I think it's three years. Yeah. EIE's in our uh general in 11. Uh this is debt sub service in fund 40. I
think you have three more years. Next year it's about 1.7 million and it decreases a little bit for the next three years and then it rolls off. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. So Dave, um I forget what they call it, but if we we go to 1.76,
>> so 0.24 can get applied next year. >> That's correct. The bank cap >> the bank the bank cap. So we can apply that next year. So we can go up to 2.24 next year if need be. Correct. >> If need be, you can. Yes. >> Okay. >> Anybody else have any question?
>> Go ahead. You first. So I was curious to to know I know your recommendation is 1.76 and it would be my preference to use the why are you recommending that we use a bank app? >> I'm not recommending use bank. >> You're so the prop your proposed uh rate
was 1.76. Are you saying that we use 2% and then uh how do you want to use a bank cap? I'm not clear on that. >> You're you don't have bank cap to use this year. the bank cap, the bank cap that you would receive would come next year because you didn't go to 2% this
year. So, it's still on the table. You can still grab your 2% this year. You just have to wait to take it in an additional percentage increase on your tax levy next year. So, not not moving to 2% this year doesn't mean you can't
access that 0.24%. You can access it next year in banked cap plus another million in a healthcare waiver. Yes, I I get that. So my question was, are you recommending that or you are not recommending it? >> We'll see what next year brings.
>> Okay. Can I can I answer that? So So where that came from? We got hit so hard in the last two years. We came in the first year and went to what eight 8.9 almost 9%. And we said this is it. This is our chance. You know, the state's
saying we can raise it. We did it. Then we came back the following year and said, "They're letting us do it again." And we jumped on it. So when the business when the business committee met, I mean, I'm sorry, the finance committee met, we went, "We we just can't do that again. We just can't do
that again." We went there. We sat from that DAS two years in a row and said, "We won't do this." So we gave them the order and that's kudos to them. They said, "What do you want us to do?" I said I don't want to raise taxes. I sat
there and told South Brunswick we were not going to raise taxes again. And so we were they were very cognizant of the fact that we were adamant me and Rajes and Alicia and Raja and said we don't want to do it again. We can't in good
conscience get up there and charge them more. Hence they did an amazing job the senior administration and the business office when we said I don't care how you do it but you got to come up with some kind of money where
these taxpayers are not absorbing it again and do it without it affecting the kids and they did and that's why it only is going it's not because Dave thinks it's a good idea but because we said we can't raise these taxes again and through all the cuts that they were able
to do in the savings with the healthc care center. They were able to get us everything and only raising it 1.76 with us being able to bank the that part of the percentage we we aren't taking this year. >> Okay. So then that brings me to my
second part of the question was uh we the anticipated revenue I saw was at 24 22 million >> additional million >> addition right >> so um in the past years I mean my my confusion lies in the fact that here we
are today in the in the two preceding years we had increased the taxes because we were in such a hole that we had to pull ourselves out of it. Are we in such a you know as far as revenues are concerned are we in such a better place today that we can fill that hole with
these additional revenues that we're talking about. Therefore we don't have to go to the 2% uh 2% gap. Is that what I'm hearing? >> No. There's there's no additional revenues. >> There's not revenues. There's there's there's cuts >> two two million
that we were able to save in healthcare >> by putting putting that out to our RFP our provider since the contract was up and then in staffing almost a million um Kim and her crew looked at that and then
in operations Dave and his crew looked at and came up with 400,000. So, we were able by them going and digging deep without affecting any programs, without affecting any of the kids,
they were able to round our budget out with only a 1.76 increase. >> I I would definitely like Yeah. Sorry, you have a It sounds like you have a question like with the question I'm asking. >> I'm not I'm still stumped on where the additional revenue is coming from.
There's no additional revenue. the the 22 millions are state aid. That's state aid and that's also our fund balance that we have to replace every year at the end of the year. >> Can you pull up the slide the previous one? >> Yes. So, anticipated revenue. Sorry,
just I think that was okay. So, this was the 22 million, right? >> That 22 million is your that's your state aid, your fund balance >> and your cuts that that Laura was talking about. >> And no, your cuts your cuts are expenses. These are these are just
revenues. >> Cuts are >> Yeah, your cuts are your cuts are >> coming over. >> One second. >> If we did make those cuts, we have four. So the cuts are coming out of one. >> Only two two pages.
>> Okay. >> Now it's not. >> Okay. >> That's your tax impact. >> If we go all the way to 2%. It's >> come again.
>> What would be the impact if we go all the way to 2%? another5 six dollars on your tax levy or on your assessed homes. But it's but you again the the the idea is that
we're putting together a budget that meets the needs of the district at this time for next school year at 1.76%. We can do that. >> That's good for the taxpayers. >> Okay? >> That's good for the school. That's good for the district.
adding another.24% isn't going to get you another wonderful program or a roof or an HVAC unit. It it doesn't exist. Those you're talking millions in in uh in that world. >> My only uh my only um the only reason
why I why I tend to think of 2% is because it builds on >> um so going forward um it's it's probably a little more comfortable. Uh but yeah, because it is being banked and uh the bank cap has a three-year validity. Maybe it is just
>> grab it next year if you need. >> Yeah, next year if things go really south, it's still not bad. >> Okay, >> any question? The slides are really nice this time. It is clean and very um very intuitive. >> Dr. Bragan's new uh >> new app, Gamma app.
>> Yeah, I love that too. >> Okay, Reesh, I think you had a question. Go ahead. Hey, yes just just want to kind of summarize everything because I was in the committee so I won't go into the details but first of all thank you
um Dr. Braen Dave and the administration for doing the hard work. So to summarize what we are saying is there won't be any major astronomical tax increase like we had last two years and the the only increase is 1.7
something which is under the 2% cap and you have found savings uh within the existing um structure to balance our budget and meet our programming needs. So there is no no additional tax and we found savings to
to balance our budget for next year as part of this senator budget. Correct. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> As we as we've done for the past seven years the last two were difficult but we we did accomplish that. So
>> any other questions? Tenative budget presentation complete. >> Okay. But I just want to say thank you. Really thank you to our senior administrative team sitting here at the DAS in the audience. Um and Dave's whole crew over there in the business department because we were just like we
don't care what you do but we're we're not raising these taxes again. We can't do that. So do whatever you got to do where our kids aren't affected. And we we are raising our taxes either not at all or very very minimal. 1.76 is very
minimal. So, thank you. Thank you for all that hard work. We really appreciate it. Okay. Next order of business are our board committee and liaison reports policy. Miss Caric. >> Yes, I do have a quick uh quick report.
Uh the policy committee met on March 11th. Uh we have six policies that we reviewed as a first reading. So present at the meeting was myself uh Rajes Sony, Dan Patel and President Laura Hernandez along with Dave Blosski uh Kim Malloy
White and uh our superintendent Dr. Brian. So we reviewed six policies. I'm just going to uh read out the numbers of the policies as well as the uh what the policies contain and they will be available for the board for the first reading and then we will we will be
approving this at the at the next meeting. So uh please have a look at the policies. If there are any questions please send them to Dave and myself. The first policy is 0142.1 nepotism. This is a mandatory policy.
Then the next one is a policy 1220 employment of chief school administrator. Again a mandatory policy. Policy 1552 sexual harassment staff mandatory. Policy 2530 resource
materials. Policy 2535 library material a mandatory policy. And policy 9130 public complaints. So I urge everybody to have a look at these policies and their wordings. We've gone through it in detail. We've raised some questions
also. Uh but if anybody has any other questions can please send them to Dave and myself and we'll be happy to address them. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Scarik. Um finance it's Mr. Krishna but they just covered that one.
Uh operations. >> No um report Madam President. >> Okay. Education Mr. Nathansson. Yeah, we had a meeting actually this evening for the board. I posted I sent emails out so
you got what we got. Uh it was some really great presentations about what we're using to help uh all our uh uh kids going forward. a lot of
really useful tech stuff for the teachers and for uh the students. So, it was a really good meeting. Uh I encourage the board to read what I sent out and it has uh uh some some or all of
what we dealt with this evening. >> Okay. Thank you. Any liaison reports? All right, moving on. Oh, I'm sorry if there's no >> No problem. Uh, no, I went I I attended the Indian field science uh convention
center. Um, it was I think last weekend. Um, excellent event, huge participation. Kudos to the PTO team and and the staff to organize it. very well organized and it just screams out loud. The feedback again from the community was it it was
so good. The kids were so excited to present their science projects and the only demand was to have them more frequently. That's about it. So again, thank you to everybody uh to the organizers who did it. Uh wonderful event and kids were were really having
fun uh presenting their science projects. So great event. >> Awesome. Awesome. Any more liaison? Okay, there's no old business at this time. No new business at this time. We are going to have public comment on
agenda items only. 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 permit the fair and orderly expression of comments, we ask that the participants be recognized by the
presiding officer and preface comments by announcing his or her name, place of residence, and group affiliation, if applicable, and by completing the sign-in sheet. Please print legibly or 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 or respondent shall exceed the three minute time limit with the total limit of 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 or respond via email in the most timely and efficient manner available. All questions and comments made will be noted. Please note, as always, differences of opinions are always
welcomed. Disrespect is never welcomed. This is for agenda items only. Mr. Palowski, do we have anybody registered? >> No registrations. >> Okay. Do we have someone that wants to come up to the podium? >> Speak on the budget, right?
>> You can. That's right. Absolutely. You can speak on the budget. >> Good evening. My name is Vina Meta. Hello to everybody again. My heartiest congratulations to this wonderful team. Uh earlier it would be
Scott and Dave and his entire finance team. And now Dr. Reagan and Dave for the amazing job that you all do with this whole S2 funding and the balancing of the budget. uh I don't know for how
many years I've been sitting here and listening and trying to understand how these things work but once again heartfully thank you to each and everybody on this team who makes it possible for the resident and the
students of Southwake to survive and to swim through against the odd currents despite of S2 funding hitting us so badly Like in past I have gone as the community resident to Trenton and you
know said my two cents to our so-called elected and chosen leaders but we know the story over there but just wanted to thank you for amazing things that you'll have done. I have something more to share but I'll come back for my additional three
minutes for the public. Thanks >> agenda review Mr. Palowski. So, we have a pretty concise consent agenda this evening. We're approving some transfers, some financials, and a bills list. We have some preschool education aid. We're approving a contract renewal for our preschool
providers. Uh we're approving an extension of professional services. We have some transportation parental contracts. We're also approving the renewal of transportation contracts for 2627. Remember, that's just a portion of them, not all of them. So, we're also
approving a tentative school district budget. You can see the numbers as they exist there. We have some student field trips, an HIB um and bullying report. We also have some travel related exper uh expenses.
We're appointing a consultant uh services and authorization to solicit bids for an energy supply. We're authorizing a third party electric supply agreement. And we're approving an appointment of a health insurance consultant. And then we have our
personnel. And that's your consent agenda this evening. >> Any questions? Audience, please keep in mind that we get this ahead of time and we ask lots and lots of questions before we get up here. >> Just one again, I apologize you have
responded, but I haven't caught up with my emails as I was on my way. So on the transportation contracts, these are the contracts which are not run by our buses and our drivers, right? in addition to that. >> Correct. >> Wonderful. And can you elaborate on the
Hyperion Energy Partners? I didn't find those information. So, >> so Hyperion is a um energy consult consult. What they're doing is they're putting our energy invoices or energy consumption out on a public auction.
They don't get paid by us. They get paid by the energy company. Um and they're they're doing a public auction for our energy. We had um a silent bid that came in and Hudson Energy was one of the
lowest in the silent bid. So what they do is they use Hudson Energy as a base. We didn't commit with Hudson Energy yet. So we're in a process right now where we can uh commit to Hudson Energy if we don't get any lower bids in the public
auction. >> Perfect. And I I saw that it is the the sealed bid that we got for Hudson. So I'm good with it. And and another nice question there is we I see the the third party electricity supply agreement which is kind of norm
on how we we have a predictable expense on electricity. So that's that's okay. My my question is just on the solar panels we have, >> right? >> Do we consume that or it's on the rent? >> No. What what happens is that those give
us um that reduces our energy bill. So it's consumption. >> So we consume it and this is in addition to >> Yes. This is the >> this is only for the energy consumption after the solar consumption. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Mhm.
>> Anyone else? Okay. Roll call. Mr. Powski. >> Roll call vote we go. Here we go. >> Miss Laura Hernandez. >> Yes. >> Miss Deepik. >> Yes. >> Miss Alicia Khan. >> Yes. Mr. Mike Mitchell. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Barry Nathansson. >> Yes. >> M. Dr. Smith Raj. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rajes only. >> Yes. For everything except for one sub item within 1.11 for PD. Uh especially out of state. Um again as part of the
principle I believe we can adjust PD within the state. We don't have to go out of state and incur lodging, boarding, their expenses. So except the Charleston trip has been approved. >> Motion carries. Abstain or absention
noted. Not absention. No vote on one. >> Okay. All in f you know the motion carry. I don't have to say I. None of that stuff. Right. We're all good. >> Voted. I >> Okay. Um now we're up to public comment on any
topic. Please rem uh please be reminded that my previous statement regarding public comments still applies. Do we have anybody registered? >> No registration. >> We do not. Do we have anybody that would like to make Oh, >> we do. Miss Bina.
>> So my name again is Bina Meta, community resident of South Brunswick for last 21 years. Dave, please give me extra minute if required. I have nothing but all great news and feedback to all of you all. In last 10 years, we have seen that
there has been lots of you know drama here and most importantly hideouts on the skills management of the entire team of South Brunswick School District. people have stood on this
podium and shared their doubts where anybody was even capable of running the district and you know etc etc. I stand here today as a community resident and as a parent. Uh my daughter, she graduated from the school
district and uh she was class of 2023. Right now she's in Florence, Italy. If any of us has or have slightest of idea what it is to live outside of America and especially to go outside and live in
a country like Italy and that to in Florence it's very different visiting as a tourist and going and actually living over there. So we have about 700 kids uh in this semester just in Florence from United States of
America and my child happens to be one of those and life is not simple at all. We are living with bed bugs, hardly any heater in 24 hours, 5 or 6 hours and the list can go on and on and on. But what I
really want to share with you all is that out of those 700 kids, by the way, I was staying over there in the apartment across to their dome uh for almost a month observing what was happening over there. We have three students from New Jersey
from Summit West Caldwell and one student, my daughter from South Burnswick. And like I said, things are not easy. They are cheated, they are robbed, you know, because they are students and they are Americans, lots of dollars. Uh you go for your pizza, the bill could
be €11 and they're going to charge you 13. So before they got into this program, this fear factor was injected in them that hey this is Italy, so you don't do this, you don't do that, the reports might go to police or might go to the immigration. So they were all
really actually scared to speak up. And I'm very proud to say this not only as a parent because I can take some uh credit for that but I have to give lots of credit to this entire school district. The administrators mainly the
educators that my child was one out of those 700 who finally developed some guts to speak up. It's very easy to be able to
fighting for your rights when you are in United States of America. It's very difficult when you go to foreign land. You're just 20 or 21 and to have the guts to speak up to fight for your rights. And she has been successful so
far. But just wanted to share with everybody who's sitting over here, everybody who's watching, anybody who has any doubts about this great school district that we are in great shape. No matter what anybody comes here and says
on this podium doubting the capacity and the capabilities, half a minute more, Dave, uh you are in good shape. You're in great school district. And thank you to all of you because this one child from South Brunswick did what 700 kids
from United States could not do. So thank you to all of y'all once again. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Anybody else? All right. With that being said, we will end our uh the public comment portion.
And please note that the next scheduled board of education meeting is set for Thursday, April 23rd, 2026 at 7:00. Can I have a motion and a second to end the board meeting? Holy cow, everybody went up.
>> Barry and Mike. And with that, and all in favor, I >> Good night, South Brunswick.