##VIDEO ID:0MFGzyNQpV0## e e e e e e e hello yeah I'm on mine is [Music] on testing testing there you go is it okay we'll just leave here in the middle so we can share it yeah give me a second okay did I just touch something go ahead good evening this Trenton Board of Education is now open please stand for the Pledge of [Music] Allegiance I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all R call Yolanda Lopez present Gerald truart Jean buoy absent Edie Daniel Lane present Austin Edwards present Denise Johnson absent s mat here Larry trailer present Jeanie weam present we have a quarum the New Jersey Sunshine Law the New Jersey public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right to the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted on on the rules of this act the Trenton Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting by publicizing the date time and place therefore posted on the web page the times and the Star Ledger formal action will take place at this meeting our mission our mission statements all students will graduate with a vision for their future motivated to learn continually and prepared to succeed in their choice of college or career may I please have a motion to adopt the agenda some moved second roll call Yolanda Lopez yes Gerald truart yes Jean buoy absent Edie Daniels Lane yes Austin Edwards yes Denise Johnson absent Sasa Manana yes Larry trailer yes Jeanie weand yes motion passed at this time we'll have the superintendent presenting our students and our hip report superintendent all right thank you welcome everyone on this beautiful fall or winter evening uh right before the holidays we want to wish you all a happy holiday season uh just have a few announcements and then we're going to get to our treat this evening uh just wanted to notice everyone that um we are starting the attendance billboard campaign it starts on January 6 um we're excited that we will be placing three to five Billboards around the city uh there'll be age appropriate focusing on coming to school and encouraging parents and uh parents to get their students to school and encouraging students to come to school every day on time Toto Losa inmo uh we are currently soliciting volunteers so for any brave people who want to do a send a video message to our young people about coming to school board members included uh you will have an opportunity potentially tonight uh right as we go to exec session to share your quick message with students about how important you'll do it as a group so don't get stage fright um and the messages will be posted on the district website schools websites and social media all over the district we're trying to send a message about how important it is to be at school on time every day uh the next announcement is the uh uh regarding the FAFSA the free application for federal student aid beginning with the class of uh I'm sorry the 23 24 11th graders it was announced last year that they would uh need to complete the FAFSA application for anyone in here who's ever had to do uh complete that process it's daunting uh particularly if you have never seen it or not sure about that process so we had our first session last week with high school students and families around 150 families Ames uh came and we're starting to educate uh everyone about that process it has a student component and a parent component with a lot of documentation and it is required for the public we want everyone to know it's required that you complete the process uh for graduation there are three ways that you can complete this one is to complete and submit the FAFSA application uh the other is to complete and submit the New Jers New Jersey alternative financial aid application so there's an alternative application and the third way to complete this process is to complete and submit the waiver form so we State those over and over and over so that families and students and uh our Public's not spooked about this large process that there are three things that you can do we will have two more sessions uh Mrs Grant the day dates are January 6th and January 24th again with high school students and families at Trenton Central High School that includes uh Capitol City High School students and families also but that doesn't keep you from calling your counselor for those seniors and families listening you can call your counselor schedule a time to come and speak with them we will continue to do this as we assess January we will likely have opportunities for this process in February then again in March then again in April as many times as it takes us to get everyone through it with uh some comfort so just wanted to talk about that as I mentioned at the last board meeting we will be launching our Citizens Academy uh we will send out applications through a Google form in January if you're in interested in participating in this on the Citizens Academy uh this is a great opportunity to re uh interact with the board and District leadership to learn more about how the organization operates some of the goals included in creation of this Citizens Academy is to create better engaged and informed stakeholders uh create awareness and understanding of board the board decisionmaking process uh familiarizing the public with the roles responsibilities services and or operations of District officials to build positive Community involvement and interaction and to hopefully Inspire future board members about what being on a board of education is we're often uh uh often it's said we we don't respond at a board meeting there's some rules around responding uh there are uh processes that we follow that we want to educate our public about and hopefully uh have people more informed informed about how the Board of Education and District uh decisionmaking process works I'll be a part of that Academy also uh the topics covered are things like budgeting um how do we balance a budget every year and produce it to the public and get approval uh harassment intimidation and bullying policy Safety and Security procedures board governance board operations creating and revising policies and there's an Etc there's so many other things that we can do uh and we'll create those components as we start to get our people in and have our first session we are expecting early February late January so the goal is to get involved and get uh individuals uh um ready in that process um we are also launching our where are they now series that's the best uh title we could come up with but we're going to the district will highlight the accomplishments of Trenton graduates you get a Trenton diploma there's so many people in this room and in our district in our community and in the world doing so many outstanding things as we will see tonight from some of our cool third graders um so we want to highlight some of those we our district is moving to highlight two to three um individuals every quarter uh we'll give information we'll talk about where they came from it could be as far as 20 years back so we're asking you if you know people share it with us uh and we're certainly willing to highlight their accomplishments and share it with the public uh the other announcement is on June 16th uh Tonight We are continuing our Healing Heart series at four of our schools that's already been promoted but we're working with families um and identifying strategies to support their children with mental health and social issues around at home in school so we're really bringing the family and the parents into this process and not just leaving it up to the students it's a daunting task to raise yourself in this world so uh we want to make sure we provide as many opportunities families to ask questions and to get information to help at home uh tomorrow Tuesday January 17th our parent uh coordinator Denise cre will facilitate a parent seminar as a component of of our uh parent empowerment series focused on external stretch stressors impacting chronically absent students this event will be held at CAD Waller Elementary School from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and we've had several of those again engaging parents in this process giving them the tools to work with their young people away from school um our Trenton basketball program um male and female uh officially opens at home tomorrow Tuesday January 17th our boys home opener is tomorrow versus Notre Dame at 5:30 come out and support the tornadoes a girls home opener versus Lawrence is on Thursday girls are on Thursday January 19th at 5:30 in the gym so come out and support our students the games and schedules are posted on the high school website for more information if you're interested and um tonight we have our Gregory Superstars our third graders with um the Gregory team I want to make sure I get everyone uh principal Janette Harris thank you for coming teacher Amanda short and teacher colen babori uh welcome all three of you with our three Superstars which I think you will introduce and share with us our tonight's presentation with the board thank you press the button Janette there you go good evening um board members and guests my name is Tod Brown and I am a third grade student at Gregory we came here to share our newsletter with you the purpose of a newsletter is to share information we are using our newsletter to inform you about some of the things we are learning at Gregory School each grade level and class created a page of the newsletter hi my name is Nina Selenas and I'm in third grade Gregory school um usually a newsletter uses pictures and words to inform the audience what makes the newsletter different is we use videos Miss s Miss Sydney and Miss Claire came to our classrooms to teach us how to use Clips to take video on our iPads when we then we interviewed each other about the things that we are are learning and doing in school once we com completed the interviews the videos were put into a newsletter format using Pages which is another app on our iPads this was our first time doing something like this it was fun we are looking forward to creating another one in at the end of second marking period we would now like to show you some of the finished products today is class we are learning about a brand P they're are going to St because they're cutting their habitats treats got [Music] my favorite book is because he he was being bad so he had go to the Sumer camp but he got chck so he gets the I read dog man and I like it I like the stuff that's in the story and it was about dog Sav and all the time because the last time they had they um dog the dog and the man were um hit by a car so then they replaced the head the dog with the man body and her name is it's mer her name is Mercy and she and she her neighbor trying to get rid of her and she likes to eat to this year I learn multiplication this year I learn rep this year I learn the vision of next I the vision because it's like multiplication oh nice good [Music] job can you show me it what's that called give me that triangle good job [Music] is good evening my name is n Tim Bryant and we I want to take a clip to use in our next newsletter what will you be in our class for it want to know if it's okay if we take a clip for the next newsletter so that he can put all so if the board members would say hello as he comes around with the iPad come here Hy ready y turn it turn it that way there you go go around and say get everybody to say hello their name just wa you guys you can speak yes please got something together thank you uh [Laughter] newsletter thank [Applause] you let's give our students another round of applause so we um I know at uh the district we're talking about Tik Tock opportunities and video opportunities and you can see the students third graders are ahead of us because we wanted to start to publish some of the same type of work because we know that people in general watch videos and so while we write our messages and we put lots of information out I think it can be better said in a video so we're excited to see this and we may borrow some of uh the content here that helps uh you all are outstanding that's amazing uh and to be brave and be able to do that so we thank you so much thank you superintendent could I just ask a question will this be sent out to the families to the parents will the newsletter be sent out to the wonderful yeah come on up and give us details yeah there we go every um everyone in the school participated this was our Apple schoolwide project and we plan to put one of these uh digital newsletters out after every marking period so they kids will get to Showcase what they're doing they tell the story of the learning that's happening in the classroom and like Mr Earl said we're at a point in time where everyone watches video so all the parents will have this thank you I just want to say I was really impressed with the kids reading skills for third grade level that was really quite well done thank you that's a testament to the the teachers at Gregory school they work very [Applause] hard thank you we'll make sure we send Mr Earl the finished product so you have it thank you so much so we we're going to move forward with our next presentation we have our annual uh school safety data system report uh it's the midyear report on information regarding violence and vandalism so we uh present this every year and then we'll do it again in June uh it's always interesting to see where we compare uh from year to year but I was talking with Mr Stokes uh earlier today about doing a four-year comparison go back four years because we see a rise in some of our data this year but would we see that from four years ago or would we still see a you know a steady decline so and we we we're Gathering lots of data around the why while we see an uptick and we know in some of the neighborhoods how these things are connected um we don't see the large events but we see smaller multiple over and over and we're working with principles what I was really most impressed about and I'll let them get to the presentation was in each of my conversations with our principls they had a good sense of why this is happening and asked themselves and their staffs a lot of questions uh and then they're planning on what do we do next to get our numbers back down or back to where they were or un uh below where they were this time last year but uh we we're excited because we think this gives us a great opportunity to look at our culture to make sure we're still pushing uh some of the initiatives that we put in place uh to see some of these numbers continue to go in the other direction so that being said I'm going to allow Mrs Grant and team the uh attendance managers will share the report and then of course uh any questions that you have you can uh share it with [Music] them good morning board members my name is iselda Neptune I'm the manager of school support for the elementary school level um so we're going to be talking about um three different topics today we're going to talk about the hip investigations that we have um we're going to be also talking about the 2425 first reporting period school safety data system submissions that involves violence and vandalism and other suspensions and we're also going to be talking about the 2425 year to-day suspension data so before I dive into the slide I would like to note that every allegation is report that that is reported is required to be put on the hip form 338 the numbers that we are reporting represent the allegations that did turn into investigations so as you can see that in the year of 23 24 we had six investigations and out of those six investigations only one was founded and so far for the school year of 2425 we' had seven investigations and out of those seven investigations only two was founded so this is comparative of the same time period last year right okay okay good evening my name is Damon C I'm the manager of school support for middle schools I mean secondary and intermediate on this slide you would see just the reporting of the violence of vandalism from this time last year compared to this year as you see last year was at 85 um violence reports of violence and vandalism and 59 others compared to the 124 of violence vandalism and 60 others which is around about a 34 um 39 increase 39 increase and this is just a breakdown as you can see the comparisons from this year to last year's we have the assaults and fights has risen um and the other susp iions are just around about the same good evening so before discussing this data I think it's important to put things in context um I did had a conversation earlier with uh Mr Earl and while it's not included on this partic on in this screen because I didn't have an opportunity to update it I did want to give you the 23 24 or 22 23 numbers at least for this slide so you it kind of adds context to where we're going and it gives it allow us to see the type of progress that we're making so in 2223 this the first reporting period we've had 156 reported incidents of violence and vandalism which outpaces where we are today the suspensions of others there was 60 three so we still we see that there's still a decline from two years ago from where we are um the biggest number though is the number of suspensions that we had this time two years ago we had 461 suspensions between the months of September and where are we December right so we can see that we are making progress so the spikes that we see again it's about putting it all in context right and so and see that the the work that we're doing around restorative practices social emotional learning that stuff is working however there is a need to for us to do more right and to take that next step particularly as it relates to um restorative practices because in the conversations with the building administrators what's happening is it's working they're committed to it they're doing doing it and while the students are there in their presence they're making progress once the students leave and mix with the I'm going to say general population because I don't have another quote um once they mix with other students and things are posted on social media or a friend says something that's when we see the re-escalation of things so then that next step in restorative practices is about how do we bring families into this process so that families can begin to be a part of helping us resolve some of the issues that starts outside of school but makes its way inside the school and now it's labeled as a school issue when in actuality it's a community issue that made its way into school so as we talk about restorative practices the city was one of two years ago the city was one of four municipalities throughout the state that that was granted that was awarded a grant from the juven now Justice Commission to form these community and I'm sorry they're not Community they are restorative justice hubs so there's a restorative justice Hub in the city of Trenton that just got kicked off finally last month so in the and that is managed through the county right so in the conversations that I've had with count with the director of Health and Human Services for the county which oversees this project project is about how can we now make this a place to be a community resource for our students and our families who are experiencing these issues who go through the restorative practices here at the school and in in one of our schools but now we need to make sure that the community right because restorative practice is about Resto repairing the harm right and making people whole once again within the community and how can we use that Hub to be a resource for our families where we're seeing some of the repeat offenders or the repeat acts you know of of having to do this multiple times so those are conversations that are that have begun and that will be ongoing we also have to make be mindful of the social media aspect of it and how we are utilizing social media and that was one of the one that was one of the biggest issues with all of the building administrators that I had conver ation with is the stuff that's happening on social media and it's no different than us as adults right we see what's happening particularly here in 2024 how the level of toxicity and just how we get along with one another and social media has gotten out of control we as adults fortunately have the ability to to compartmentalize that stuff what's real and what's just talk whereas our young people don't have that that that those skills and those abilities just yet right so as we are managing as a community how we deal with social media we have to make sure that we are equipping our student our young people with those skills um to be able to understand what's just talk on social media versus what's just real and the last part the last piece that came from conversations with our building administrators is sometimes our kids just want to fight and that is a reality that we have to deal with sometimes they just want to fight so we're putting all the work in we're doing utilizing all the resources but sometime that issue to that young person is so deep that fighting is the only way that they know how to resolve it so conflict resolution skills continuing pract continuing the the investment that we made in um restorative practices and managing social media those are the things that our schools our building administrators are identifying as areas that we need to continue to improve upon and I think I need to commend our schools on the work that they or the commitment that they have made to um to really bind into the district's move to restorative practices right because we've been around for a while and we know that there have been initiatives that's been out there that have not been bought into this is initiative this is an initiative that our schools have definitely bought into the three of us see it on a daily basis when we visit schools um and just so you guys can understand it is a time commitment that the schools are making to this they can spend our two hours in a in in a restorative Circle or in a restorative conference just trying to bring some resolution to the issues and it's also important to note that just because we've move towards restorative practices does not mean that we're not going to have suspensions right we want to reduce the suspensions as much as we can but sometimes a suspension is definitely warranted so I just wanted to make sure that I stated that publicly that our our schools are definitely bought into it there issues that we still need to resolve that we still need to work with and we're committed to continuing and doing that work and bringing in outside Partners to be able to help us in the areas in which we are struggling that or which we don't necessarily have the resources or the capacity to be able to address at this particular point and I think Mrs Grant has a couple slides on this as well are we able to ask questions before um just two brief questions what are what type of things are under other suspensions so those are things that fall out of the realm of violence and vandalism so if we go back a slide right so all those so the other other suspensions are those behaviors those can be at the high school level cutting class leaving the school building um possession of a vape right just because I have a vape does not mean that it's a drug and alcohol possession or uses right if I have a vape it's another suspension um one of the things that I I have issues with is the quote unquote disrespect right so student may talk to an administrator in a particular way or talk to a a teacher in a different way and at that particular point in time it's not really restorative conferences is not really it um a student may get a suspension for that falls under so those are the things that fall underneath other suspensions thank you and then my other question is the the um restorative Hub that you spoke about is that a uh focused only on the city of Trenton or is it a countywide grant so the JJC Juvenile Justice Commission awarded the municipality of Trenton okay um this particular Grant along with three other municipalities throughout the state of New Jersey so it's not countywide at this point it's only those dollars are only to be used for uh city of Trenton residents so but it is being led by the city and we're a partner in that no it's not being led by the city it's being led by the county so the funding came through the county which contractor with an agency with a vendor to be able to provide to to run the Hub okay so any can you share so I'm sure that there's there's communication with the city right because they wouldn't have created this without having some uh conversation about what the need is but right now we need to figure out how do we now get the district involved in that because I don't believe that there was much conversation with the district and that's one of the things that the director of Health and Human Services has spoke about is is really how can how can they get into the district right AAL basis we have anou on the board agenda tonight okay for that VAR yeah okay so who is the can you share who the vendor is that they chose that you will be working with I know the initials is it creative change creative change that is it yeah I know it was CC right creative change okay yeah great thank you no problem all right good evening uh to just go along with what Mr Earl and Mr stook said everything that we're doing in the district is about systemic change and to create those long-term results um in the schools but will also be felt in the community and often times with systemic change we have to get down to what the root causes are uh and most times it's not going to be a straight line so um you've seen this before but this is kind of what we are doing in the school in order to to continue to create that change it is a continual circle from leader in me to trauma informed care to restorative practices go on yes what we are seeing is and I'm calling this Slide the village what we are seeing is that the change that we need to see in our schools cannot just be done through our teachers and our school staff we have to reach back out to the families and to the communities to see how we can support what we often hear when we are having parent meetings or care team meetings um or hope team meetings with our families a lot of our families are struggling with parenting um back from when I was younger and definitely back from when I was parenting uh when we are hearing parents say my child rages when I take the PlayStation away or when I take their Game Boy away or when I take their phone away they lose it they go off they won't go to sleep and and some of you may think well in my household that would only last for about 5 Seconds Miss Lane I don't know right the the game the PlayStation is not going to be an issue but these are some of the realities our families are are um dealing with and so we wanted to create a space where the whole goal is to just give families an opportunity to talk about the struggles of parenting and to be a support to one another so the Parent Connect series that's called the impairment uh parent impairment series overview is held during the day every single month and October through December it's in CAD waler January through March will be at Grand April through June it will be at MLK but it is open to all parents I have attended these and it is powerful some of the conversations that you hear parents talking about everything from um how do they what can they expect from their child at certain ages to things that deal with child custody and with mom and dad are not necessarily on the same page and sometimes not even speaking how do you raise a child with a shared Vision if both parents aren't even able to communicate and then some of the struggles of social media and the pressures of just our young people are under even in first second and third grade with wanting to have a cell phone and then they have a cell phone and then they have access right to the big gigantic internet and how do parents m manage that um so that series is incredibly powerful and is providing our parents with an outlet and then in order to make sure that we are providing our parents with the same education and knowledge and words uh that our teachers and our staff have gone through with trauma informed care we have The Healing Heart series which is building your child's emotional backpack again these are series that are held at multiple schools every single month to talk about how what do you do when you see that um your child is under stress how do you manage the stress of your child how do you manage the stress of being a parent right and um and what's up with your child's behavior and again that varies based on their age and you know how do we Pro support our parents in understanding some of those behaviors are developmental with young people wanting to push back and to secure their own independence and how do you assist them and also protect them in the same way so we have these series that are going on multiple times at multiple schools um at multiple different times in the evening and in the morning in order to support our parents in this work again systemic change is not going to be a straight line and we are continuing to peel back the onion and figure out what are some of the root causes so that when we work together as a community we we will see the changes not only in our school but also in our community all right thank you just one question this is phenomenal but I'm just curious how many do we have good attendance are parents coming we do at our Parent Connect uh the um sorry the go back the parent empowerment series we have it in a small group so there's probably 25 to 30 families that attend um and it takes we could be there for about 3 or 4 hours um because when one you know sometimes families come with a lot of heaviness on their heart that they just need to express and I think that is the perfect size for what we have going on um because it really is to provide resources and to have conversations um and we want it to be in an intimate environment for our Healing Heart series um it really has fluctuated we have school that are specific to um just doing the program um for a bilingual program and then we have schools that uh which means all of the information that's provided is done in Spanish because again we wanted to give families the opportunity to have the full program and not as do split half in English half in Spanish because again we're our goal is to provide a venue for parents to start to talk about how they can work collaboratively with their children so so we've had upwards of Dr Conway um of the number of participants the high number of participants yeah like about 60 and we again have about three two to three sites at each each visit I mean at each uh date thank thank you yes um so it's available for all parents right all parents any school you can go to any of those programs okay and then I guess the next um the next question is related to to that um how are we communicating this particular program because I think it's invaluable right to to parents on a regular regular basis I am glad you asked if you look at our so it's all over social media it's on our social media pages but um we're also working very closely with um our public relations office to redo our district website a little bit as it pertains to the parent Series so we will continue to have the icon for parent connect but we're also as soon as you see it it's going to hit you right in the face all of the parent programs that are happening at any and all of the schools right so right now we're doing it for our districtwide programs in the in January you will see us listing all of the programs at any of the schools because we want you know wouldn't it be great if we were overrun with the number of parents coming to anyone program and if there is a program that is going on at Parker School surely we can open open that up to parents all around the district who would want to attend so you're going to start to see that change but if you look now you will actually start to see the events that we have in December and January already listed front and uh front and center on the in the news section part of our district website in addition we are going to be taking over doing the robo call so it's not just on the schools so the dist at the district level we're going to be doing Robo calls to all of our families um to announce these events okay just one more I'm sorry so um Jesus Christ I forgot that quick oh my God uh shs uh what was it never mind I'll ask you on the side what while Jean is thinking one these third graders got me thinking is maybe short video clips from some of the parents if they feel comfortable about they you know how wonderful this is for us and whatever might be an idea prepar to recruit other parents that's a great idea now I got it okay so you mentioned I some of the programs were during the day yes are they available in the evenings also because some parents were absolutely so the parent empowerment series is during the day and our Healing Heart series goes from 5:30 to 7: and the parent impairment is at 9:00 a.m. all right all right and I'll be back up here before yall go into executive session to film you guys thank you they can answer to you need a particular slide or you good yeah it sounds low right it's actually on so here's mine all right cool we'll share thank you um my questions my questions all right so uh they're mostly focused on two uh I guess separate thoughts right uh the first one had to do with um some of the bullying that was coming in can you and I know you explained that Hib right like all of that process has to be specifically documented written down right you have to fill out a specific form uh for an investigation to continue right or to begin but I guess where I'm coming from like a lot of this is coming at you were saying from social media and cyber bullying how how much is this is correlated with a lot of the reports that come in like because I know it's just an ongoing issue with cyber bulling so HIV is its own separate reporting requirement within the ssds system um so we can have a suspension that's related to a founded allegation of Hib or we can have a suspension that's related to an unfounded allegation of HIV right it can be that something happened that wasn't HIV so at times there's a correlation other times there isn't of the investigations that we've had I don't believe that we have any suspensions that were um that were that were given out as a result of a founded HIV because it's about now how do we address the victim as well is the perpetrator so often times there's some counseling that takes place at the school level for that right so suspension is not always going to be the outcome of a founded hi of of a founded um claim of HIV okay got did that answer your question I have something go ahead yes um specifically about social media in most of the situations that you see that results in a fight or a conflict there is always going to probably not 98% of the time an underlying thing that's happening on social media or text messages on you know Instagram or whatever and so that is a huge problem because we don't control a child's phone and in some cases we can't take a child's phone um but there's that social media is definitely connected to a lot of the conflicts that we see happening in schools okay got you and I guess I guess the ongoing problem is because it happens I guess outside of the Four Walls of the school we just deal with it when it specifically happened in the school right to to mostly to a certain extent right so we deal with it when it comes to our attention right sometimes the schools get Advanced information um about something that's taking place um that's started on social media and the culture and climate specialists at the schools that have them are jumping on that stuff immediately immediately to try to resolve the issue and often times they're able to resolve it in that moment but now we got the peanut gallery right that wants to come in and CH and and and chime in and make their comments about it and I've sat in many of the um restorative conferences that they've had with students and The Parting words for each of them is always what happens in here stays in here if people ask you about it please don't respond right even if they reach out to you on social media now as adults we can handle that often times but sometimes with our children our young people they're unable to manage that whole process and if I get enough people sending me stuff that someone said or someone allegedly said I'm going to react at some point gotcha yeah thank you thank you for both for those answers um and since we're on the topic uh with these restorative justice hubs uh amazing idea amazing concept I know a lot of Community Partners are involved in it's been a conversation that's been happening for a while so you know really excited for uh that being placed I think it's on uh Front Street if I'm not mistaken right yeah so please just keep us updated I don't know the super mentioned that we have anou with them uh to work with it so please keep us updated with the results of that right I know that's something that you know we all would love to hear um I guess the last thing I had to say was just uh um I think you mentioned that there were some students that you know you go through the restorative justice hubs and like you go through the circles in X Y and Z but some people still just want to fight I think you said um speaking of Community Partnerships do we have any Partnerships with uh organizations that do boxing or anything like that I know like you know what was it guns down gloves up uh they have like an annual thing there's a few other boxing gyms out here that work with a lot of kids you know is is that something that we're pursuing as well cuz you know it's a good listen I do have tomorrow morning 5:00 a.m. all right I'm getting out all my Angry all my Angry all right on the on the bag so you know that's something that we're looking at right so we we've definitely actually started that already at Capitol City um Mike Hilton who's part of uh part of one of the street teams um also a championship boxer um he came in I bought him into capitol city in October um and there are about four students now who are involved in his gym um good good sometimes cost is is a factor right so there are few that not to put my business out there that I'm covering personally um to participate in this but sometimes cost is a factor and Mike has been really trying to work with that um so that is an option that we are we have ex we we've we've started and we're looking to see if there are more students who would benefit from participating in that absolutely amazing thank you for those updates I I just I would like to hear uh the opinion of the team and certainly you as well superintendent this is probably a very unpopular view but given all the issues you talk about with our students and social media um I don't know that we have a policy about cell phones in schools and obviously um especially the older kids I assume on their lunch break or whatever they can just check their phones and so I'm just curious if there's been discussion and I'd love to hear from the team about their thoughts of somehow restricting that uh at least during the school hours that might you know I'm just curious what people think so there's lots of research out there in many districts now Banning cell phone use uh throughout the district uh I think that takes we're going to have to engage this entire Community around some structure that supports the mental health of young people I've seen some in between measures where you have parking lots and classrooms where when the students walk in based on what the teacher decides to do you can park your phone that's called a you know if you think about it if you're on it all the time and we can meet you halfway put your phone here for half the class or maybe the whole class depending on what's happening because right now they have powerful devices with the onet to one initiative so we just what we know is that we will not be I won't be able to stand here or sit here as superintendent and say we're Banning cell phones so we need a coordinated Community effort around the dangers of the cell phone what we see in some of this data and how the cell phone connects to the places that create some of this and so we have that conversation going on and that team the team knows that I'm eyeing the 25 26 school year for something to move us in that direction I don't know about banning I would love to see if we can teach and create spaces where students use them responsibly but who knows I mean we might just decide because we have to make that next move in academic achievement and everything that we do and is that the thing that pushes us there so students can pay attention in the rooms and so anybody who argues against that know I mean we we're just saying so what about children who can't can't focus and uh as Miss Grant talked about a few minutes ago parents talking about their students raging when they take the games the cell phones and things like that so our responsibility will be to find a way to disrupt and interrupt that so that's the goal going forward and they they haven't been in that conversation yet but for 2526 I would engage like the uh Association leaders teachers board members my myself parents and a big group to really talk about what's the next move for us in Trenton so that's the goal you know superintendent if any other schools in Mercer County have done anything about this not that I know of I I'm in multiple meetings around spaces and some of maybe some people here know of others I don't know anyone who's gone with a total ban but they're dealing with the same issues we're dealing with and I just thought there there seems to be ways that we can meet students and families halfway so that we know in age of communication maybe there is a need to be connected however there are more districts if you watch news reports that are Banning every week I see one more and so there's the research is telling us our students are struggling in that process and so if we can't fix it we may pursue that also so how exciting Trenton will be another first in the in the county so we do we do that we do the same thing in uh in surrounding District I'm administrator in Lawrence so in Lawrence we this year we started unn cell phones and instructional space and instructional times and it's a heavy lift but um this is the first year we're doing it so we will'll let you know how we how we do and I'm sure you speak to to Robin a lot so we'll keep keep you informed but is happening in in other District thank you good well happy holidays everyone have a blessed here moving on we will now have our committee chairs present their reports for the month I'll start to my right with Austin I think the mic is working now this sign used to tear computers apart as a kid so uh you know I got got some actual usable skills not not the lawyer part um anyway with the uh HR committee uh we have um you know it's a fairly similar report to the ones that you've seen uh in the past um as always we have a uh plethora of opportunities for people to come into the district I know um you know weekly we're trying to get out the information uh both on social media and other platforms of um different opportunities are available I think uh this past week we had 19 opportunities for people to come into the district so um we're constantly hiring people um allowing people into the district to be a part of this great work um other than that we have a few um you know normal stuff retirements that are coming in uh different uh stiens and the like for people that are pursuing different educational opportunities or uh coming to be uh assisting Us in the work with the district so uh pretty pretty normal HR report from uh like we have from month to month yeah I'm sure I served on the uh family community engagement committee as as chair with our my fellow board members Austin Edwards Denise Johnson of course Mr Earl um many of the conversations in our committee meeting this month was were presented in this meeting I hope presenting a lot of the things around you know the uh Healing Heart series as well as the empowerment series um and the department of family community engagement with Denise Cree um as a coordinator there um spending a lot of time communicating with parents and the heavy lift has always been and my decade on the board is getting the parents to to actually participate and come out um so they have 40 plus or 30 plus parents 10 here 10 there come out to different series is is a win for us as a district uh because we're meeting the parents where they are whether it be during the day whether it be in the evening time we try we try to balance out um as I understand it the different times that we actually have various series around the parent whether it be Parent Connect whether it be healing hearts whether it be the empowerment Series so many of the conversations that we had in our committee meeting centered around the work that um hope just presented and her team just presented through Terence St and the attendance officers presented uh tonight one of the things that we also had a conversation about with the superintendent is around his quarterly updates uh to the board but also reflective of that work to the community we like to to encourage everyone to invite people out our next one for our quuly update will be in February with our superintendent going over our 5year strategic plan it's a lot of data so it's not you know it's not like a movie or a video um that people are more interested in but it's great information to find out where we are in the district where our trajectory is the things we're working on our successes our challenges that that we're facing so our next one is in February and then we'll have two more after that we'll have four a year uh this year and so I would encourage you to to invite people to come to hear our superintendent and his team present on the implementation of our 5year strategic plan and in fact we're up to renew our fiveyear strategic plan going into our 2025 uh session uh so we'll have we'll share more information uh more information about that also in terms of policy committee I serve on the policy committee as well with my colleagues um and we have a first reading and a second reading of our series 1,000 series uh which focuses on Administration uh for a second reading tonight about 13 about 12 policies around our that particular series Administration and then we have a first reading on our 2000 series which focuses on program and there's about 15 13 uh policies in this particular set for our first reading for this month so there's a lot of reading board members and uh over the next couple of months throughout throughout the rest of this year we're going to go series by series through uh the policies updating our policies so 1,000 2,000 3,00 4,000 we'll present those policies in that order according to that number uh we don't want to give you too much to read so we're trying to limit them in our conversation on our committee Mr R is General Counsel on the committee we decided to try to limit it between 12 and 13 maybe 15 a we can squeeze in but some small policies in there so you can have an opportunity for 30 days you know to read those policies and come back with any questions that you might have either prior to the second reading or at that second reading so there's not substantial changes to those policy you can pass those policy at the second reading if you have some small minor changes to those policies so we're moving right ahead with our policy work and we'll continue that work throughout the year thank you good evening everybody um the facilities meeting um met committee met on uh December 10th um myself and Larry triler were in attendance for the board as well as superintendent Miss Howard and Mr Mosley uh the current issue going on right now is the old Junior 1 building the project is currently on hold still because the waste management company is place the contractor's account on hold to determine and review uh whether the demolition materials and the content and containments are properly being identified and labeled um there does seem to be some hazardous stuff being dumped but um once that's resolved the project will start up again um Capital maintenance projects going on Harrison uh they've issued the purchase orders for the HVAC projects um we have districtwide electrical upgrades going on at Harrison Franklin and KB wallad were working together with PS to get this done um they're starting the they're adding an elevator to Harrison School to make that school ADA Compliant and um that project is beginning and what's going to happen is they will build the Elevator Shaft actually on the outside of the building and it'll connect to the building so that way uh everybody will have access to it um currently at the Zigler building which is a warehouse building um the business office is received the contractor bids and um one the low bidder was missing the required documentation in their bid package resulting in them being disqualified the second lowest bidder is being awarded the contract and the project kickoff meetings are scheduled for early in January 2025 um the Project's duration for the complete is the summer of uh 2025 um the YMCA purchase uh the district is reaching out to schedule meetings with the current owner uh because um the conditions are worsening due to vagrance and people living in the abandoned building so we want to get that a little more secure um and that's pretty much it for this month that's it okay so um good evening the curriculum committee met on uh Tuesday December the 10th and um at that time we reviewed um board agenda items and a few updates from the um special education um department so in terms of that um we noted that the agenda items um were not as lengthy as they have been in the past because it was a quick turnaround um there are a number of amendments that are there um because the language needed to be aligned or the Gap code needed to be um revised um we also talked a little bit about uh new programming being offered in terms of ESL classes for parents or Guardians at uh grant school and then there will be additional opportunities for um districtwide offerings for um staff members so that again the program would be offered uh again to staff members as well as parents and Guardians one from school-based and the other from the district um also on the agenda were a number of Multicultural offerings there is um support for the art including um music therapy so music therapy is going to be um offered and I did not list the location but again music therapy is going to be incorporated um there's also uh items relative to early reading and intervention programming and also U mentoring opportunities there are items that are relative to um support for inclusive educational practices and of course a variety of uh student trips were listed and again students are being uh exposed to um the theater um various colleges um the zoo as well as uh City Hall functioning so students are being um exposed to things outside of the classroom uh in terms of um special um needs uh we talked about the existence of a couple of special education um uh vacancies um we talked about init excuse me attendance initiatives to reward students who have um good attendance and also um we talked about behavior um analysts that are working very closely with staff and also again uh there was one other thing that we talked about um and that was um professional development that in that um was aimed at prek inclusion and self-contained teachers um regarding behavioral support strategies so that was um the agenda for the curriculum committee for this month um and so this is a report for the operations and finance committee we reviewed transfers to secretary's report treasur report it was a short month um only 15,17 n, were paid and um I I guess um a couple of things stood out for me um during this meeting is one I'm kind of excited about the entrepreneurs start startup workshop for teens so often our children go to school and they go to school to get a job well the really nice thing about this is it helps it'll drive students not only to get a job but potentially um be a job maker right and so so I'm really excited to see the the outcomes of that and then um so glad that uh We've extended or amended um the agreement between the Trenton housing authority and the school district um it was outlined that there's some things that got in the way and so we've extended that for another year because we're in real support of that and I'm excited I'm waiting around to to get a number of students that are are participating in what we call share time so they go to our schools during the day and then um merca County Technical Schools half day um because the trades is a huge opportunity um when you think back to that entrepreneur thing um for folks to get the skills necessary to um U build a business but also create jobs for others so I'm I'm still very very excited about that opportunity for our children um I didn't see in in this particular month probably because it was only a couple weeks ago um a list of donations but for those people who have donated and it'll show up in the next month thank you very much for your um support for our children thank you at this time we will uh address concerns presented at our last board meeting November 25th uh we had one of our parents Sandra Marin come in to discuss her child's one to one placement she was seeking assistant and proper placement for her child because she did not have that placement and response uh she was told that the onetoone placement resigned from the grand school assignment and that created a lapse in service Kelly Services was in the process of recruiting and onboarding individuals for that position the special education department principal and Kelly Services worked together to resolve the vacancy and a short amount of time as they were able to reassign another paraeducator as a result of a student move excuse me another uh of our parents Amanda Eli teacher I'm sorry one of our teachers uh had questions about dyslexia she wanted to know who was in charge of screening dyslexia students um she was told that classroom teachers begin the process of screening for dyslexia by gathering data the teacher will be supported by the principal content supervisor and or special supervisor when appropriate she wanted to know what is the universal screener in K3 schools uh the answer to that is Dr foundations and Link it her other the question was why are students not being screened by the first semester of second grade uh all students are screened multiple times per year next question was can the district provide more training for teachers the district embeds annual dle dyslexia training through gcn and will continue to support teachers if additional training is needed she wanted to know if there were any dyslexic kids downtown um if so where could they be located and could she be trained to use the kit at present there are no kits to screen students for dyslexia her last question was how long should it be appropriate to get an email response from a supervisor the district Works to respond to request in a reasonable time hopefully between 24 through 48 Hours District administrators reached out to the staff member to schedule the meeting for further discussion and support we also had Michael Jones requesting support uh dyslexia support for his child in response the assistant superintendent communicated with parent regarding his concerns prior to the public speaking section during the November Board of Education meeting a followup email was sent to the teacher and date on students have been gathered and is in the process of being analyzed further classroom visitations and meetings to discuss student support will continue and support will be provided to staff where appropriate parent was also informed that there will be a follow-up communication after data has been analyzed discussed and a solution has been reached we had Reverend Jose Rodriguez from the Rodriguez Foundation share information about fast boss and in response uh he was we were told that beginning with the 2023 2024 11th grade class and for two school years thereafter students and their Guardians will be required to complete and submit either the free application for federal student aid which is the FASA or the New Jersey alternative financial aid application as Guided by the higher education Student Assistance Authority in order to receive their high school diploma there are three ways for students to meet this graduation required IR m one to complete and submit the FASA two to complete and submit the New Jersey alternative financial aid application and three complete and submit the waiver form moving on now to public participation I just want to say that the Trenton Public School District welcomes the attendance and comments from all members of the public at its meetings this public com comment period is your time to be heard on any school or School District issue that a member of the public may feel is of concern to the residents of the school district each person who signed up to comment will have five minutes you will be notified when your five minutes are up you cannot yield your time to another person when it is your turn to speak please address all of your comments to the board president please conduct yourself in a respectful and courteous manner for anyone whose comments or actions either harass intimidate or threaten the safety of any person we will provide you with a warning or immediately end your common time also if you curse use vulgar language or make personal attacks we will provide you with a warning or end your comment time comments that adhere to these guidelines will not be interrupted if you have any questions please ask your questions during your five minute comment period after the public comment period is closed the board super intended or design will address your questions to the extent provided by the law we also ask that members of the public not interrupt the speaker during their public common time and please excuse the way my voice sounds right now okay um is Paul Bea here then yeah okay first first paring up Paul Bea first of all good evening boy God bless you all thank you uh I stand before y'all tonight uh I'm very concerned about the school board I mean the schools first of all Monument school um my grandson go there and uh I went to pick him up and I didn't even know you it's locked down like uh Fort Knox so I tried to go to the um the principal office um they said I couldn't go I I ain't never been to no school I just couldn't go to the uh principal office you know and I know y'all got metal detectives if you clear a medical detective you should be able to go right to the uh principal office and meet the principal for any kind of concern that I have for my grand my grandson and by the way while I was standing there it was a lady came out and said that oh I'm glad I met you because he was uh very uh disrespectable but come to find out that wasn't true um she talk about had something to happened when a year ago so that wasn't true so um it just went on and I kept waiting I ask the guard let me go to office he said no uh you have to do this and have to do that I said so what's in that school gold I ain't I ain't never seen nothing what's in the school go and he said no I just can't let you in but then he lets a cop in and I said well how you going to let him in he got a weapon on him how you how you trust him I ain't got no weapon on me you know I ain't never seen a public building that shed down like that and you can't go in and meet the uh principal or meet who you need to meet you know to dress your concerns you know so that's why I'm standing before y'all tonight you know know uh why is that the only school I go to um uh the school in up there in Cal Waters with Miss Bea you they let you in you go in to the thing you sign in and you go back to the principal office you know what I mean I go to Junior 3 that should be named Mama mik school I don't know why it's named Junior 3 anymore she be named Mama m because as I was coming I'm going to switch it I'm going to go back when I was coming up she fed us when we was hungry she raised us she did the things that y'all these young ladies are doing today I go there you sign in boom you go you you go right upstairs uh but when I go to Monument school you can't go in you know that's the real concern because I hear people uh standing up here tonight is um addressing the issues about um these children that's on social media you know uh how they accessing their foone and everything you know but these kids outthinking us you know they got their own web line they got their own thing how they do things when we beat one way they going to get you another way but anyway I need y'all to address that issue because I got custody of my grandkids and if they get out of line I dress it right there I don't go to bed and um if he disrespect anybody uh and let it be unturned I'm a very concerned grandfather I'm not going to raise them up to disrespect no Elders I don't care who you are black white green and purple if we got a problem in school we going to dress it in school and whatever they said I'm I'm going evaluate the situation and then we'll go from there you know 30s huh you have 30 seconds left thank you Mr cop I want to say something to you I thank you for telling me I have some names in my pocket that I you said that you do you need to um look at the women that was honored in Trent two women three four women you need to look at and think about I mean consider their names like Mama mikas for junior 3 and there's other names on on here that's great names that uh two black women that got I think the Blue Ribbon or something like that that they should be honored too like Dr Copeland so y'all did a good job on them but I like to say thank you for allowing me to speak but hook me up with the right people where I can go see mine thank you guys get this to you thank you thank you next Darren freom green good evening superintendent Earl board president board members Darren Freedom green my my first point is to remind the board that our winter sports season starts uh we're back at it tomorrow at the high school brother Jean babies were back at it um basketball but I received a few texts from some of the other babies who said and reminded me that that along with the football field and basketball court we also have a state-of-the-art pool that I haven't seen so I apologize to them and I want us to make sure we support all of our babies doing the great work that they're doing I think Sports becomes a conduit or a space where we can engage many of our families are struggling with poverty and working two and three jobs and they're unable to support or attend the games and when we approach whether it be Community Advocates or leadership or board members we become the family members that they need to see in the stands and it also becomes a great opportunity uh to engage in dialogue so many of our babies have dreams of being great sports figures I don't have a problem with that but I always ask them what's the plan if you're not in the sports and again they graduate with no plan and then they're lost so again I think with the sports season starting it's a great opportunity for us to show our presence to Advocate to educate and Empower them second I want to salute the elder brother Jean for keeping the community aware of the weed dispensaries and what's going on with that topic the Board needs to be aware there's an ongoing movement to bring those kind of issues to our community anybody who thinks it's a joke just remember uh some months back maybe a year ago or so uh right at Southern and Brunswick right right across from MLK uh it was a barber shop but before that I mean it is a barber shop now but before that it was a weed dispensary and again they are very comfortable bringing that kind of stuff into black and brown communities because we're asleep and I want to again thank the Elder for making us aware of the planning board I think their goal and objective is because he put the spotlight on them to wait a few months till nobody's paying attention and to bring it right back to the table so as board members community members we need to show up at those meetings and make sure they know that's unacceptable on our watch uh they don't do it in the fluent communities Austin you know that you speak about it within wacp but they're comfortable doing it because many of us are asleep at the wheel or just not attending those meetings and we need to do that and last I want to thank and salute assistant superintendent grant for a great work with the zoom call last week with engaging the community on uh coming together and working with the superintendent and the board with the attendance issue uh it's going to be a great movement but I just want us to understand that the issue really isn't us now moving to deal with just attendance but really the issues that cause the lack of attendance right and some of it is the value or lack of value for Education as a young man coming up my my community valued education right and you were not allowed to stand outside stores at 10 11:00 and an older brother sister didn't engage you that's that's gone now like people are comfortable seeing our babies conditioned to failure and I just think when we make this movement we've got to work on rebuilding the value system for Education again when I came up uh young brothers who were 5ers stood on corners and ciphers and talked about sound traveling at 1,120 ft per second that a that inspired me to get knowledgeable on the knowledge and I valued speaking and that's part of what brought me to where I'm at now and I just think if we don't rebuild the value system for Education we don't rebuild the value system for our communities and we don't build the revalue system for ourselves and careers we will just have another emotional moment and again I can prove it by the election is over and you don't hear anybody talking civics or civic education or agenda or platforms nobody's asking any questions now because that season is over but the problems that persist due to our lack of understanding of Civics are at us every day right and we know what's going to happen over these four years and I'm not worried about Trump or any other individual because I know if we're doing our work on the ground then we'll make residual impact on the people the places and things that are here but I just wanted to come down and give some good news that we're doing some great work but there are Monumental issues problems and concerns that need our attention I'll close by one of my favorite Say by Mr Balwin that the Perpetual idea of coming along in communities where we don't come along just becomes an idea and those people are destined to never arrive I hope this city can arrive at a place where hope education empowerment come to Norm and I want to salute you for the work that you're doing and continue to work with you to build a better Trend God bless you thank you um at this time the table is open if any of the members have any comments Genie uh I had the pleasure of attending uh Bruce Boyd's Capital City rowing rata on Saturday at Kilmer school and once again it was an excellent event um his numbers of students have increased um I think there were four or five times as many boys in the program now as there were last time so you can see it's it's having a difference and the kids had a great time and the stem to stern impact of it I I think is a really creative idea on how to get uh these kids learning without even knowing they're doing it but it really was a good program any other comments yeah um brother free mentioned about this um weed store right um I am fighting to keep that from happening I actually took a um a little wheel that people do for fencing and I walked it off myself the ordinance says 750 ft it's only 450 ft from the door of 359 Suite 13 to the Big Y where the preschool is but as brother said they've cancelled the planning board meetings or they didn't hear this particular item for two months they will be presenting in January you sure that they were supposed to present in December November January so so I what I would ask is that for those people that are watching this if we don't speak for our children who will and um it's it's as simple as this I don't I have a problem with a guy trying to make earn a living right it's legal now but it doesn't have to be in the face of our baby what example do we give them when you have the clientele going in and out of a weed shop within eyesight they play in the playground for Christ sakes so so so you know I'm just you see I'm on my soap box and I'm I'm a man of my word I will fight this even if I have to fight by myself so that was that was it thank you but you don't have to worry about fighting by yourself okay I had I had I had the uh conversation with Louise MCC why you know T YMCA a week ago yes sir um she mentioned about that issue so keep us informed keep me informed we text one another so yes sir when that planning board meeting comes I'll be there all right we'll be there all right all right I think it's January 26th I believe I think so yeah okay um um before I just want to say before you close comment um I just wanted to say that I appreciate seeing the um Gregory school students here because we invested a lot in technology and students having um you know onetoone pieces of technology so it's great to see them expanding the way the technology is being um U technology is being um utilized and uh in creative ways like a video newspaper I love it right and so actually having them to interview different people and and interact and just create things that are something that we probably never thought about right so again it's just good to see our technology investment um being utilized yes yes and the other thing is that we really need to um make the public aware of the translation devices that we now have for the Spanish and for the Creole I think we slacked on that we slacked on that um so for next month's meeting we need to to do better and as far as that's concerned because we want to see more parents attending our meetings um having said that is there any discussion do you have any questions on the consent agenda yes I do um letter S on the finance um agenda which is the approval of the uh or the extension I guess of one year for the um the project with the Trenton Housing Authority I was hoping that um the superintendent could just give a brief update I I understand from Genie's report the reason on our end that they will need additional time because we haven't cleared the you know cleared the space yet but if you could kindly just for the public just give an update as to where your understanding of where the Trenton Housing Authority is with their project so yes we had an agreement with the Trenton Housing Authority that we signed off on to um provide the land where Junior one is located I don't know the exact address uh and uh we were supposed to we were due to have that land cleared uh within two months starting in August so maybe September October uh it was supposed to be clear but we did run into some issues the one of the vendors who was uh removing or uh doing the demolition part ran into some issues and then of course we're on hold because we have the deter where the uh some of the dirt and I guess the things that come out uh the contaminants uh will go uh and we have to wait until someone else decides what takes place in that process uh as Genie mentioned in her report um so we wanted to extend the agreement for another year or at least until we get clear it's our goal as soon as we start back up I mean if you go there there's only um one portion that's the portion close to um I for Southern Street yes it's still up and so they have to clear that part the rest of it pretty much down and there's a piece in the back and then we'll uh you know I guess level out the land and then uh talk with thaj about turning it over uh there's also the issue of the grand award and there was a an expected Grand Award of $50 million uh they came in short of that but we've been in conversation about our agreement for land Swap and so uh th has committed at least verbally and we're going to get more information that that is still uh a possibility in their plans uh they will keep their side of the agreement as we will and so right now we're just we're getting through we need to get it demolished get it cleared get it leveled and I think we'll have more information about that process but we extended the agreement because we weren't done on our end and there were questions regarding that it was due to expire at the end of this month so we needed to put more time on the clock to let us do our part to honor our end of the agreement and then we'll continue to have the discussion about uh the land Swap and the location and probably still in that area uh I think there spaces identified in my preliminary conversation and I'll bring that to the board when we confirm so the original the original agreement is exactly the same nothing has been amended other than the year extension other than extending okay yes and then but on their end they still have a significant amount of money that they need to raise yes and and uh in my conversations they are working uh to secure everything that they need to secure to do what they needed to do because this was as much as it was about Junior 1 it was red veloping that area and so they're still committed to that and we want to stay as committed as we have been with them through this process uh and I'll keep the board informed if we need to Pivot or I'll bring information I know that I don't make decisions on my own so uh I'll certainly bring It Forward if anything changes in that process the reason I brought it up is that you know better than anyone the how many kids we have in our district yes and we're going to need a new school yes so that's why just we hope we don't perpetuate this for much longer yeah um because we're going to need land yeah I think we're we're moving I mean each opportunity we get to identify uh space in this city uh we need clear land for the public we need clear land for the SDA School Development Authority to consider building a school there's no guarantee but when they get funding if we have space they can put us on a priority list just like they're doing with the space uh over near the dun site so um we hope to and then to be try to get ahead of what we know are aging buildings and that may come offline at any point in time and I think our team's done a good job of keeping the buildings up and running but we have to be prepared every day as if we might have to Pivot and so that makes us nervous but this gives us an opportunity we have a new building in that area that will hold about 800 students and if we can get one on this side about the same because the big uh grades are four five and six and the k3s they're all big and so and of course we'd love to have another high school so I think we would another 2200 you know student high school with all the um the trimmings so um but we'll we'll keep doing that work thank you you're welcome M any other questions any other questions or comments on the consent agenda in that case may I please have a motion to approve it approve second we got you roll call Yolanda Lopez yes Jo truart yes Jean buoy yes Addie Daniel yes Austin Edwards yes Denise Johnson absent Sasa man yes Larry trailer yes jeie weam yes motion passed great um I just want to say guys since we do have new microphones we don't actually have to get so close to them because then sounds too muffled these are really good so let's keep them at a distance and for the very last time I will be reading the executive session resolution whereever as the open public meetings act codified as njsa paragraph 10 colon 4-6 permits the exclusion of the public from a meeting under certain circumstances and whereas the Trenton Board of Education is of the opinion that such circumstances presently exist indicated as follows any material considered confidential by federal law state statute or Court rule any pending or anticipated litigation or contract negotiations to which the board is or may become a party to and any matter falling within the attorney client privilege to the extent that confidentiality is required to preserve the attorney client relationship and allow the attorney to exercise his her ethical Duty as a lawyer for the following matters one approval of interim assistant superintendent contracts wo settlement in the matter of LP Trenton Board of Education and Trenton Education Association doc number co- 222- 098 for T claim notice in the matter of ic5 negotiations update now therefore be it resolved by the Trenton Board of Education County of Mercer state of New Jersey that an executive session will be held on December 16 2024 for the statutorily permissible purposes indicated in this resolution via further resolve that action may be taken by the board when it reconvenes an open session be it finally resolved that the minutes of the executive session with regard to the above subject matter shall be disclosed to the public at a later date and to the extent that the same is not prejudicial prejudicial to the interests of the parties involved no longer adverse to the public interest or does not endanger any individual's right to privacy we now a motion a motion a motion to adjourn into executive session please Austin Edwards so second roll call Yolanda Lopez yes J truart Jill truart Jean buoy yes Addy Daniel Lane yes Austin Edwards yes Denise Johnson absent SAS mat yes Larry tril yes J yes jour into executive session all right board members remember right down here for if you give me five minutes she's going to make a quick e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e does this work yeah this uh Trenton Board of Education meeting is reconvened May I please have a motion to approve the interim assistant superintendent contract I'm I move that we approve the assistant uh superintendent contract I second roll call Yolanda Lopez yes Gerald truart yes Jean buoy yes Addie Daniels Lane yes Austin Edwards yes Denise Johnson absent Sasa man yes Larry trailer yes jeie weum yes motion passed may I have another motion for settlement in the matter of LP I motion for us to move settlement in a matter of LP I second roll call Yolanda Lopez yes Gerald truart yes Jean buoy yes Addie Daniels Lane yes Austin Edwards yes Denise Johnson absent Sasa man yes Larry trailer yes jeie weam yes motion passed may we have a motion for the Trenton Board of Education and Trenton Education Association docket number 222- 098 I move that we approve the agreement between tea and Trenton Board of Education I Austin Edwards second that motion roll call Yolanda Lopez yes Joe truart yes Jean buoy yes Addie Daniels Lane yes Austin Edwards yes Denise Johnson absent Sasa Manana yes Larry trailer yes Genie Weakley yes motion passed a motion to adjourn motion tojn so moved all in favor all opposed you did it I did it