All rise for the pledge, please. 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.
Good evening and welcome to the South River Board of Education regular meeting for Monday, July 27th, 20126. In compliance with the Open Public Meeting Act, Chapter 231, Laws of 1975
as revised by chapter 72, Laws of 2025 of the state of New Jersey. Adequate notice of this meeting of the South River Board of Education was provided in the following manner. On May 14th, 2026,
the notice was delivered to the office of the South River Burrow Clerk and posted at the Board of Education Administration building. On May 14th, 2026, the notice was posted on the district's website, sriverj.org,
or and delivered to the Department of State. Notice has also been provided that as of March 1st, 2026, all future meeting advertisements are posted on the district's website, sriver riverj.org,
and are no longer advertised in physical or online newspapers. >> Mr. Parton, would you please call the role? >> Yes. Mr. Bzac, >> here. Mr. Buzz, >> here. >> M Bush, >> here. Miss Le >> here, >> Mr. Nielsson >> here, >> Mr. Woodway >> here,
>> Miss Sidowski >> here, >> young >> here. >> Mrs. >> here, >> thank you. So, getting to our business for this evening, we have a few items. Uh, the first of which are the minutes.
We have the regular meeting minutes of June 18th, 2026. Do any board members have any comments, questions, or edits to those minutes? What is the board's pleasure on the minutes? >> Move the reading of the minutes into the
record. >> Motion by Vice President Nielsen. >> Second. >> Second by Mrs. Saddowski. All in favor? >> Thank you. Believe we have one use of facilities request on the agenda and that use of
facilities request is for the South River Police Department. Are there any questions on this use of facilities request? Is there a motion on the use of facilities request? >> Move the use of facilities in accordance with board policies.
>> We have a motion by Vice President Nielson. Second. >> Second by Mr. Basak. All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you. We are now going to go to our financial report as well. >> Thank you. Be it resolved that the board of education hereby certifies that it is
in receipt of the financial report which indicates that no major account has been overexpended and that sufficient funds are available to meet the district's financial obligations for the remainder of the fiscal year. The finance committee recommends that the reports of the board secretary and the treasurer
school monies for May 2026 be approved and I so move. >> Thank you. Do we have a motion by Mrs. Low? >> Second. >> Second by Vice President Nielsen. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you. At this time, we're going to turn the meeting over to our
superintendent of schools, Dr. Zer. >> Thank you, Mrs. Urbanic. A few items on my report this evening. Beginning with classroom and teacher assignments. We will be opening our panel portal to parents on August 20th. Uh through this
portal, parents will be able to view their child's schedule, their child's teacher, classroom assignments, etc. Uh in order to access the information, however, parents will have to first review and sign all of the required annual forms. So, giving parents a head
up a heads up to mark August 20th on their calendar for that purpose. Classroom supply lists are all posted on our district website. Please visit those so you can see what um what the children will need. Uh right now elementary is
posted um as well as primary and ELC and the rest of our schools will be posted by August third. I'm happy to report that on Friday we actually found out that we were approved for a summer grant. It's called the HIT or
highintensity tutoring grant. We are approved um in the amount of $127,227 to be used this August um which is a great problem to have but we are trying to see how we are going to
best um implement this program. Uh it is for students entering grades 3 to 8 and it will be presented as a virtual instructional support program because we do know that this far into the summer our students are engaged in a lot of the
activities. Um our teachers as well and so we felt that the best um the best format for this type of tutoring towards the end of the summer would really be to provide it virtually. uh participating students will receive customized small
groupoup instruction. The ratio is 3 to one. That's a great ratio um for support and because it's virtual, we needed a very small ratio in order to make sure students were really benefiting from the program. 2 hours of instruction per week
in each subject area, language arts and math. And the funding will be covering the tutor uh stipens, the virtual resources that we're going to be using and educational technology such as uh brand new laptops and so on to use for
this program. Um so please be on the lookout parents for information coming up in this week's for how students are being selected for the program um and um and all of the details pertaining to it. We're excited
to be able to offer that this summer. Um, there's a lot of good information on our district website. I do like to occasionally remind our parents of this. There is a lot of information on the website to help build skills with your child over the summer. And I've listed
about three different areas in our website with links for parents for exactly that purpose. And this superintendence report of course will be posted on our website as well. Um, but please go ahead and do that. And if um if you don't remember to go into this
report to do these links, parents can always use our chatbot and just simply put in a sentence such as, "Help me find a way to support my student this summer or my child over the summer." And the chatbot will actually bring you right to
these links, which quite frankly is how I got us there to put this information into the report. So, I know it works because I used it myself. Um, so please be sure to use the comments and feedback gauge on our website. Please make sure you're using the chatbot. Please make
sure you are constantly um keeping up with our emails even over the summer uh as it as they pertain and have good good information. Um that's helpful. And we are of course preparing for the opening of school. Um many projects
going on this summer. We just completed our parking lot here at the high school, middle, and elementary school. We have a um courtyard being uh remodeled this summer in order to be able to be used at the elementary school for an additional
recess um area. This will be very helpful. Our numbers are quite large per grade level at the elementary school and having different areas really reduces the ratio of staff to students for supervision for support during these times. So very excited to be able to
open that for September. Um we have new windows being installed here at the high school. We have some roofing projects. um just really consistent upkeep and maintenance in all of our buildings as
well as new opportunities for students through our facilities usage. And with that concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you. Any board members have any questions or comments for the superintendent report? Okay, that report will be carried under the consent
resolution. At this time, we are now going to open up the meeting to the reception of visitors. And this is so the public may address agenda items only. There will be an opportunity later on in the meeting for the public to address any items that
are of concern for the board of education. So if you have anything that you would like to address regarding the items on this night's agenda, please come to the front of the room, state your name and address, and please keep
your comments to a 3minut time limit. And this will be on first call and on second call and on third call. Seeing nobody wanting to comment at this time, we're going to
move on to our committee reports. Our first committee is the athletics and extracurricular. Mr. Woodson, >> there's only one item, the annual membership of the NJ SIAA membership.
Athletic Athletic and Extracurricular Committee after meeting all items on this on the agenda. Find a recommendation to superintendent recommends approval of item 6.1. No, no additional items on the agenda as
including the two items. That's all I have. >> Thank you. Under our buildings and grounds committee, Vice President Nielsen. >> Thank you, Madam President. Buildings and Grounds Committee after reviewing all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of
the item 7.1 with no additional items on the agenda as listed including routine items. That's all I have. >> Thank you. Our finance committee, Mrs. Low. >> Thank you. I would like to abstain from 8.11.
The finance committee after reviewing all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of items 8.1 through 8.38 with additional items 8.39US 8.40
minus through on the agenda as listed including routine items. >> Thank you Mrs. Lou on instruction committee Mrs. Bush. Yes. The instruction committee after reviewing all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the
superintendent recommends the approval of items 9.1 through 9.19 with no additional items on the agenda as listed including routine items. >> Thank you, >> Madam President. >> Every year uh when this comes up, I
think of uh Tony >> and his love for the Tikva International Academy. If you were to add them up this year, it's over $343,000 that we have to give to the HICA school
to take children out of our school. And Tony was a firm believer that it really isn't a charter school that it hides behind the charter uh school. It's really a religious school. He looked into it. He came to us with documents that everything was, you know, not what
it said in the uh in the thing. I think it's just a shame that we lose that much money every year. And I'll bring it up every year as long as I sit. That's all I have, Madam President. >> Thank you. And that's very noteworthy. It's >> a lot of money. >> Certainly is. Certainly is.
We've had a very remarkable increase in our curriculum and in what we offer here. And I sometimes don't understand not just for religious reasons why people send their
children anywhere else but I do understand the religious thing of it. Um and we offer a very good education here. There are no items on the negotiation. Committee policy and legislation. Mr.
>> Wood agenda. >> Thank you for human resources. Mr. Bas. >> Thank you, Mr. Ren. The human resources committee after reviewing all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent
recommends approval of the items 12.1 through 12.14 with additional items 12.15 and 12.19 on the agenda as listed including routine items. >> Thank you. And on to our safety and risk
management committee. Mrs. Saddowski. >> Thank you. The safety and risk management committee after reviewing all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of item 13.1 no additional items on the agenda as listed
including routine items. Thank you. >> Thank you. And our residency committee, Miss Young. >> Thank you. The residency committee after reviewing all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of the item 14.1. No additional items on
the agenda as estate including routine items. >> Thank you. We're now going to go back to our consent resolution for action on all of these items. Mr. Parton, if you will. >> Yes. The South River Board of Education
by means of a consent resolution adopt various resolutions of routine and non-controversial nature at one time. Whereas the below listed resolutions are hereby adopted by the set board of education in whole as if Sam were individually acted upon and we will have
under superintendent 5.1 athletics 6.1 buildings and grounds 7.1 finance 8.1 through 8.40 40 instruction 9.1 through 9.19 human resources 12.1-
12.19 safety and risk management 13.1 and residency 14.1 >> Thank you. Is there a motion on the consent resolution? >> Neielson move the consent resolution into the record. >> We have a motion by Vice President
Nielsen. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Budsen. Are there any abstensions other than the one that Mrs. L cited on any of the items under the consent resolution? Seeing none, would you please call the role? >> Yes. >> Mr. Bez, >> yes.
>> Mr. Bud, >> yes. >> Miss Bush, >> yes. >> Mr. Le, >> yes. >> Mr. Nelson, >> yes. >> Mr. Wood, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sedeski, >> yes. >> Miss Young, >> yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Uh moving on in our agenda,
we do have some other committee reports. The first is our school board burrow council leg is on committee. Vice President Nielson. >> Nothing to report tonight, Madam President, but Hank is in the audience. Um he does reach out to me every uh
premeating to them if there's anything that we should uh you know have read out down at their meeting. And uh I go through our agenda and pick things out and email them to him what I feel should be disseminated down there. He's always very good with that and it's a pleasure working with you. Same.
>> Thank you. Our PTA lia is on, Mrs. Sowski. >> I do not have an update for tonight, but I'm sure there'll be plenty of updates. >> Our South River Public Library liaison is on, Mr. Woodson. >> And the summer reading program is continuing. Uh, knitting and crochet is
every Friday. The walking club is Monday at 10:00 a.m. Uh, Story Driven is riders June uh July 12th 30th at 6:00 p.m. Gentle yoga is a Monday at 400 p.m. Then they have an ice
cream party on August 12th at 2 p.m. That's all I have. >> Thank you. >> Is there any old or new business to come before the board at this time? Do we have a report from our attorney? >> Just that we will be starting
negotiations with the SRA in the coming month or so and we will be my firm will be working with Dr. Zer's office on the impending cell phone ban which for anyone watching is not a South River board initiative. It is a state law like
a speed limit and we are required to implement it. >> Thank you. And our next item is the payment of bills. This is >> the finance committee recommends that all bills presented having been certified by the school business
administrator boards secretary be paid as listed and I >> we have a motion by Mrs. L. >> Second. >> Second by Vice President Nielsen. All in favor? >> Thank you. Bills will be paid. Uh at this time we are going to open up the
board meeting for the reception of visitors and this is so that the public may address any concern or comment that they have for the board. When you come forward, please state your name and address and please keep your comments to a three minute time limit. And this
would be on first call. Then on second call and on third call. Seeing no one from the public coming forward, we will close this public portion. And we do not have another
executive session for this evening. So at this time we will look for a motion to adjourn the meeting >> by vice president Nielsen and a second by Mr. Beza. All in favor? I >> thank you. This meeting is adjourned.