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 thank you all
right welcome to the South River Board of Education regular meeting of Monday March 17 2025 and in compliance with the open public meeting act chapter 231 laws of
1975 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 January 15 2025 the notice was delivered to the office of the South River Burough Clerk and
posted at the Board of Education Administration building on January 15 2025 the notice was faxed mailed to the following newspapers: Home News Tribune The Star
Ledger on January 15 2025 the notice was posted at the South River Burough Clerk's office mr rosa would you please call the role mr basak mr basak has been excused mr budson here mrs bush mrs bush
has been excused mrs burn here mrs laauo here mr nielsen here mrs sabowski here mrs yung Yao mrs yong Yao has been excused mrs zanic here calvin Samiri here have a call
thank you uh going into our agenda the first item that we have is the use of facilities do we have any additions Mr rosa we do not have any additions from our premeating okay uh board members what is your
pleasure on the use of facilities move the use of facilities in accordance with board policies we have a motion by Vice President Nielsen is there a second second second by Mrs saddowski any questions or comments seeing none all in favor i the motion
passes thank you um Mr rosa what minutes do we have so no addition from our uh premeating okay so we have the minutes uh board from February 24th and February 27th
2025 what is your pleasure on the minutes move the reading of the minutes we have a motion by Vice President Nielsen is there a second second second by Miss Lel any questions or comments on those
minutes seeing none all in favor i Okay thank you uh our next item on the agenda is our financial report miss 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 treasur of school monies for January 2025 be approved and
I so move we have a motion by Mrs l second and a second by Vice President Nielsen any question on the superintendence report all in favor i thank you the motion passes at this time we're going
to turn the meeting over to our uh superintendent of schools for her report Dr zer thank you Mrs urbanic um this month the board will be approving a preliminary budget that we will be submitting to the county for approval um
the budget uh was really focused on addressing the academic and extracurricular needs of our students um we've received reductions in state aid this year um we also received some reductions in federal and our prek aid
but um although this presented quite a challenge we did balance the budget um and we managed to do so without reducing staffing without reducing any major programs and continuing to provide our students with um supports such as mental
health services um and so on we're able to uh upgrade some of our classroom technology we're able to upgrade some of our um instructional materials as well we're able to maintain our facilities our security resources
um and like I said our mental health supports as well so the public hearing on this budget where we will be going over um this budget in detail will be on April 28th on this uh superintendence report i also
cover the unused snow days and their allocation so as of right now in our calendar we have three unused snow days if we don't have any snow the rest of March beginning of April which I hope we do not uh April 11th our schools will be
closed uh May 23rd and May 27th i wanted to mention um a bit on student attendance because our staff our climate and culture specialists as well as our administration have really been putting a lot of time and effort into
improving attendance and reducing chronic absenteeism um this is a measure in our school performance report which is going to be published shortly by the New Jersey Department of Ed um and schools can be categorized in need of improvement if chronic absenteeism is
more than 10% so it's essential that we work with parents to make sure our students do get to school do get to school on time um and we've been addressing concerns for getting to school um with parents through our guidance counselors um our social
workers uh and so on we are also working with our truency officer our truency officer does visit homes um when students are not in school on a continuous basis and we also do file um with municipal court um file a complaint
when we need to in order to um really help parents address this issue of of truency and getting to school also in my superintendence report I put a little note um about cell phone usage in school i know this has been a
big topic in the media um I know that the governor's uh recent budget address also spoke to an initiative to reduce the use of cell phones in public schools and um I did want to update the public in terms of what we do here in South
River public schools we do give our teachers the autonomy to manage this in the classrooms uh the majority of teachers do have students put away their phones during instructional time um middle school classrooms are equipped
with uh some pocket holders where the students drop the phones there are some some issues with that um with that process at the high school in terms of um things like we found students who have multiple phones um believe it or
not so they put one in the pocket um but then still have another in their pocket in their own pocket correct um also we we run the risk when we put those phones into those um pockets of students grabbing somebody else's phone and now
the administration and teachers having to be responsible for now searching for phones looking for phones filing police reports um and so on so a little bit more challenging at the at the high school um but teachers like I said do ask students to put the phones away
during instructional time and um we are looking out for the New Jersey Department of Ed's information about any potential grants for more advanced equipment um for uh these types of cell phone um mandates and and so on so we'll
be on the lookout for that and apply for any available funding uh in that regard I also have a note in here about the warmer weather and and what's happening on our school campus um we do notice a lot of activity on our campus when when the warm weather arrives and there are
just some things I wanted to ask the community to be mindful of our playgrounds are now locked after school hours we have had several incidents on our playgrounds of vandalism i've had to work with SRPD on these we've had everything from um believe it or not
over the weekend um birthday cake um and plates and and birthday cake found all over our ELC playground we've had um our elementary school playground on multiple occasions have uh has been written on
spray painted um and so on and then we also find um dog waste on our on our playgrounds occasionally so now those areas are fenced and locked so that we know on Monday when we return to school that our playgrounds are available and
safe and clean for our students um so we do lock those in the evenings and the um and the weekends our turf field our turf field um has been getting a lot of use after hours but that turf field does
have to be used by our teams prim uh primarily we are not allowing any persons on that field when our teams are using it whether it's for games for practices and we understand that it's a large field and people have asked us if we are in for example the softball side
of the field if they could be on the farther end um we are not allowing that at this time we've had electric bikes being ridden on that field the um baseball and softball mounds are being used for bicycle tricks we found trash
on the field um benches taken and thrown in the middle of the field i received a video just this weekend of bikes um all over that field um so we really have to remind the community that the priority
for those fields is for our athletic teams our um middle school and elementary school PE classes they use it for instruction and then also our uh elementary students use it for their recess period um that's what we built
that field for so we need some cooperation and some some collaboration from our community on that there are garbage cans located throughout our campus we do ask assistance in keeping our grounds clean we ask people to please dispose of trash in those
appropriate garbage bins that are found um and those electric bikes that I mentioned we ask that they not be ridden through our parking lots um because we do have a lot of traffic in and out we have our sports teams getting on buses
we have um our teachers that might be working late and working through walking through that parking lot um so we are allowing of course the electric bikes to be used to ride to and from school but not throughout the campus um at other
times and through the parking lots so we're hoping like I said that the community can work together with us and help us keep our school campus safe and clean um also in my superintendence report you have several confirmed PIP investigations
um for your review and approval as well and that concludes my report for this evening thank you for that comprehensive report Dr zer we'll be handling that under the consent resolution but I wanted to ask if any of the board
members had any comments on her report yes I I do it's a shame that um she has to bring up you know about the people littering littering and and just the disrespect that they're showing to this field that we just put in there you know we we listen to the people we spend
millions of dollars to upgrade our system you know nice places for the students to come and and people just treat it like it's a trash dump so they're going to force our hand in the future to not just lock it up but to fence it off and restrict everybody all the time and then they'll complain about
that so if you if when it comes to that because it's going to have to come to that Sunday because people for some reason just don't want to listen don't to us it's your fault you're the people who were you know it can't come up here and respect the facilities that we allow you to use so
when you destroy them and we lock them up the onus is on you that's all I have to say thank you any other board members okay at this time we are going to open up the meeting for the reception
of visitors and this is so that the public may address agenda items only there will be a session a public session later on in the meeting to address any items that any public has for the board
of education if you do come up please come to the podium state your name and address and please keep your comments to a 10-minute time limit so now it is open to the public on first
call on second call on third call we're going to close this public portion and at this time we're going to go to an item under the president of the board uh this will also
be done under consent resolution but I wanted to point it out here uh we have a board member who is resigning this evening this is Lisa Burn uh she's been on the board for four years three years
four years four four years and we um have her resignation effective March 31st i'm going to turn the meeting over to you Mrs burn and ask if you'd like to
give us any parting words um just that I really enjoyed my time you know we're a great group of people we work well together hopefully we'll find another person to replace me as soon as possible i know it delays losing my uh
delay process sometimes depending on who's here and who's not um going on to bigger and better things personally all right thank you very much good luck to you Lisa your board members
good luck good luck yeah best of everything best wishes they'll see me now i'll just be out in the public okay good then we'll have more than one person in the audience okay then thank you uh at this
time Mr rosa would you please go over the consent resolution so the South River Board of Education by means of a consent resolution adopt various resolution of a routine and non-controversial nature at one time and whereas the below listed resolutions are
hereby adopted by the said board of education in whole as if the same were individually acted upon and those are under the superintendent of schools 3.1 through 3.2 under the president of the board 5.1 under uh finance 8.1 through
8.27 under instruction 9.1 through 9.4 4 under policy and legislation 11.1 under human resources 12.1 through 12.7 okay those are your items for the consent resolution board members what is
your pleasure move the consent resolution there's a motion by Vice President Nielsen second there is a second by Mrs saddowski any questions or comments mr rosa would you please call the role
mr budson yes Mrs burn yes sorry uh Mrs laauo yes mr nielsen yes mr saddowski yes mrs urbanic yes motion pass thank you okay we're going to
review our committee reports first the athletics committee mr budson there's nothing on the agenda but to say that the high schools uh future business leaders had a conference in Iowa City and some students did very well but I
unfortunately I lost the name so it's a shout out to them that's all I have okay thank you madam president if I may yes under athletics um last week or so ago was the um Mr south River and towards the end um the
five gentlemen who were uh picked to move on they were all asked the same question about why they felt like they should um be Mr south River julius Rosado got up and um spoke that he felt that one of the reasons why he would really enjoy being Mr south
River was because of the friendships that he built playing baseball here with the the young men that were standing behind him and the coaches that he's had from Little League all the way up to South River that he was recruited by other schools to come and play in their programs but the the the bonds of the
the the coaches that we have here at South Mr leapour and his crew and the young men that Mr rosado has played with from little league all the way up through his high school years is the reason why he stayed here and I think that speaks volumes for the fact that you know he has been recruited by other schools but the coaching that he has
received through all those years from the the men that have coached him from little league and continue to coach him in his high school league says a lot about our program and I think um our coaches should get a nod and that's all I have for them thank you it certainly
does say a lot uh why don't you continue with the buildings and grounds um nothing to report tonight on uh buildings and grounds Madam President thank you finance Mrs lel thank you so much i'd like to bring attention to 8.1
um specifically first in terms of a statement and then I will do a general um uh finance committee uh information so the finance committee which includes Mr sowski Mr basek and myself um agreed that Dr zer Mr rosa and the SR administration ranging from our
assistant BA to the building principles and athletic director have proposed the best possible budget given the loss of state aid and rising health insurance costs prioritizing both student education and the retention of our dedicated staff remains central to the process so I just wanted to make sure we
put that out there first as information and then having said that um in terms of all of the finance items uh a brief summary um close this let it um the board approved various budgetary grant
and contract items for the 2425 school years including the tentative budget submission and multiple service agreements for nursing physical therapy transportation and internet upgrades key approvals also included tuition contracts security and tech grant purchases for non-public schools and
capital reserve fund transfers additionally new contracts were added for preschool expansion grant a school food pantry donation which was beautiful uh chatbot software and storage containers so the finance committee after review of all items on this
month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of the items 8.1 through 8.20 with additional items 8.21 through 8.27 on the agenda as listed including routine items and that is all I have for
this evening thank you the instruction committee Mrs l okay here we go so for instruction um from Dr travisano's report the South River High School juniors recently took the New Jersey GPA while teachers in grades
three through nine are preparing students for the upcoming New Jersey student learning assessments in May teacher leaders have been analyzing student achievement data discussing instructional strategies like small groupoup instruction and reviewing teacher created assessments to enhance learning professional development
efforts have focused on supporting multilingual learners and integrating social emotional learning while preparations uh continue for key annual events including the South River Day of Service the curriculum fair district art show and the wellness
fair having said that the instruction committee after review of all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of the items 9.1 through 9.4 for with no additional items on the agenda as listed including
routine items and I have concluded thank you there are no items under negotiation uh for policy and legislation mrs burr thank you the policy and legislation committee after review of all items on this month's agenda and upon
recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of the item 11.1 with no additional items on the agenda as listed including routine items okay thank you our next committee is human resources vice President Nielson
thank you Madam President the Human Resources Committee after review of all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of items 12.1 through 12.6 with additional item 12.7 on the agenda as listed including
routine items and that's all I have tonight Madam President thank you uh Mrs saddowski do you have anything for safety and risk management uh no I do not there's no items on the agenda for this month thank you and our school board burrow council lea is on committee
vice President Nielsen uh nothing to report but Mr g's in the audience tonight i see uh filling in for the uh festivities nice to see you sir he's got He keeps an open dialogue which is nice he calls me before prior to every council meeting and ask me if there's anything we'd like
to you know put out there and uh we greatly appreciate that so thank you for being here to take his place tonight i was going to have a public comment that it's really impressive that you guys got cuts from the feds and the state and most of your programs as I've
heard from other towns all around the state drastic well Dr zers brought up at uh Thursday night's meeting that we're still millions of dollars in the holes from all the years that they wouldn't give us money so you know we they're we have a great staff that makes do with what we
can give them that's great and improvements along the way too thank you sir and that's all I have tonight Madam President thank you Mrs saddowski anything from the PTAs i do have a
couple items for the ELC primary PTAs um yearbooks are on sale and they're also looking for photos to include include in the yearbook um over the last couple of weeks there have been several events including um ReadAcross America week was celebrated they had a Red Robin
fundraiser um Gertard Hawk fundraiser and just this last week on Friday I'm sure everybody saw the pictures of the Pie Your Teacher Day for Pi Day um that was um a fundraiser that they had um for elementary uh yearbooks are also on sale
they're looking for fifth grade baby photos for the yearbook uh they're hosting a book fair um March 31st through April 4th and the elementary PTA is also looking for parent volunteers to help with the fifth grade um end of the
school year activities including fifth grade fun night um they have a general meeting to discuss um themes and fundraising on Thursday March 27th and as we all know we are almost headed into funday which is probably the funnest day
of the year and um there's a lot of planning that is going on behind the scenes and I encourage all parents to get involved thank you thank you uh how about our residency committee Vice President
Nielsen anything nothing to report tonight Madam President thank you our next committee would be the South River Public Library liaison mr budson well last week the founders of Weird New Jersey had a presentation at the library
and was very informative and my uh opthalmologist was list mentioned tomorrow they're having their the 18th adult craft night mondays are still yoga
for adults march 24th is health healthy living uh Thursday April 6 is a meditation class and April 14th to the 17th you have in there book sale that's all I have thank
you and from our student board representative Miss Kelvin Sidi thank you um a mic the FBLA club went to the state leadership conference in Atlantic City last week where we had four students
place top 10 uh the freshman class had a fundraiser on in Chipotle on March 3rd ram Runway is hosting a prom dress drive throughout March the Rampacked Community Service Club is having a fundraiser with cones and crepes on the first week of March two assemblies were held one about
mental health and another about Women's History Month mr southover was a success snacks and beverages were provided by the FBLA club and on Tuesday March 4th there was a parade hosted by the languages language courses where everyone got to decorate and wear masks
for Fat Tuesday yes thank you is there any old or new business to come before the board at this time madame President I would like to acknowledge um athletic trainers month is the month of March so for Miss
B and the student athletic trainers I just wanted to make sure that um we we sent a message uh acknowledging their efforts and how they help our teams um and students in general uh as needed so that that's all I'd like to say they
certainly do provide a uh valuable element uh I just wanted to ask do we have a date for the curriculum fair yet or We do if the calendar stays the same it is the Thursday before
Memorial Day weekend okay I could find that thank you may 22nd and do we have anything from our attorney Mr parton only for executive session okay i think we got to pay some bills
Mrs well we should uh the finance committee recommends that all bills presented having been certified by the school business administrator board secretary be paid as listed and I so move we have a motion by Mrs l second and a second by vice president Nielsen
is there any questions or comments on the bill list seeing none all in favor i thank you the motion carries at this time we are now going to open up the meeting again to visitors
and the public so that they may address any concern or comment that they have for the board please state your name and address if you come to the podium and please keep your comments to a 10-minute time limit this is on first
call on second call and on third call okay this closes the public portion and the board is going to go into a closed executive session at this time so be it
resolved that pursuant to sections seven and 8 of the open public meetings act the following subjects be discussed at a session of the board of education closed to the public and that subject is personnel it is presently anticipated
that the items to be discussed in close session can be disclosed to the public when resolved is there a motion neielson there's a motion by Vice President Nielsen second by Mrs burn all in favor i
motion carries we are in close session mr gianopoulos thank you for your attendance that's it