The adequate notice of this regular meeting as required by the open public meetings act was provided by the posting, mailing, delivery, and filing of this notice on January 9th, 2025. This notice was on that date posted on the bulletin board in the township
office sent to the courier news echoes sentinel and tap in the warren and file to the township clerk of the township of Warren all in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United
States of America to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all >> for entry into the minutes. I I've been provided with the uh election certified election results from the Somerset
County Clerk's Office for the annual school election that was held on November 4th, 2025. At that time, three three year three-year seats for the board of education were open and they were uh the following individuals were elected as
follows. Kevin Brozy's, Nicole Dalton, and Patricia Zhan. At this time, I will administer the oath of office to those three individuals in alphabetical order, starting with Mr. Bratzby's. We're going to do the oaths up front. You're welcome to bring anybody up that you would like
at that time. Um, I'm going to stand on this side, I think, and your, uh, group can stand to side. >> Mr. Brodies, please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Kevin Brodbies, do solemnly swear
>> I, Kevin Brosbies, do solemnly swear >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey. >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey. >> and that I will bear true faith and
allegiance to the same. >> And I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same >> and to the governments established of the United States and of this state. and of the governments established of the United States and this state >> under the authority of the people >> under the authority of the people.
>> So help me God. >> So help me God. I, Kevin Brodzb, do solemnly swear >> I, Kevin Brodzb, do solemnly swear >> that I possess the qualifications >> that I possess the qualifications >> prescribed by law >> prescribed by law
>> or the office >> or the office >> of a member of a board of education >> of a member of a board of education >> that I am not disqualified as a voter >> that I am not disqualified as a voter >> and that I am not disqualified due to a
conviction >> and I'm not disqualified due to a conviction >> of a crime or offense >> of a crime or offense >> listed in NJSA 18A12-1 >> listed in NJSA18A12-1
>> and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform >> and I will faithfully justly and impartially perform >> all the duties of that office >> all the duties of that office >> according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability.
>> So help me God. >> So help me God. It's okay. Um, Mrs. Dalton, I'm gonna ask you to raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Nicole Dalton, do solemnly swear >> Cole Dalton, do solemnly swear >> that I will support the Constitution of
the United States >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey. >> And that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same
>> and to the governments established in the United States and this state >> and to the governments established in the United States and this state. >> Under the authority of the people, so help me God. >> under the authority of the people. So help me God. I, Nicole Dalton, do solemnly swear
>> I, Nicole Dalton, do solemnly swear >> that I possess the qualifications >> that I possess the qualifications >> prescribed by law for the office >> prescribed by law for the office >> of member of a board of education >> of member of a board of education
>> that I am not disqualified as a voter >> that I am not disqualified as a voter >> and that I am not disqualified due to a conviction >> and that I am not disqualified due to a conviction of a crime or offense listed in NJSA18A
12-1 >> of a crime or offense list listed in NJSA18A12-1 >> and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform >> and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform >> all the duties of that office according
to the best of my ability >> all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability. >> So help me God. So help me God. >> Right. Mr. >> There we go. >> This is on. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. You got it. I,
Patricia Zan, do solemnly swear >> I, Patricia Zhan, do solemnly swear >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey >> and the Constitution of the State of New
Jersey. >> and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same >> and that I will bear true allegiance and faith to the same. and to the governments established >> and to the governments established >> in the United States and this state
>> in the United States and this state >> under the authority of the people. So help me God. >> under the authority of the people. So help me God. I, Patricia Jean Zhan, do solemnly swear >> I, Patricia Zhan, do solemnly swear
>> that I possess the qualifications >> that I possess the qualifications >> prescribed by law for the office >> prescribed by law for the office >> of a member of member of a board of education >> of member of a board of education
>> that I am not disqualified as a voter >> that I am not disqualified as a voter >> and that I am not disqualified ified due to a conviction >> and that I am not disqualified due to a conviction >> of a crime or offense listed in NJSA
18A12-1 >> of a crime or offense listed in NJSA18A12-1 >> and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform >> and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform >> all the duties of that office according
to the best of my ability >> all the dut duties of that office according to the best of my ability. >> So help me God. So help. Right. The next order of business is to call the role. I will do that at this time. Mr. Brody's
>> here. >> Mrs. Dalton >> here. >> Mrs. Granholm >> here. >> Miss Keller >> here. >> Mr. Malfeta >> here. >> Mr. Tour >> here. >> Mr. Valentino. >> Mr. Weinstein here.
>> And Mrs. >> here. Right. The next order of business is to elect a president for the new board. At this time, I will take the floor is open to nominations for president. >> Does it need to be a motion? >> No. The way this will work, it's very
different than other motions. We just need nominations. They do not require a second. And at that time, we have based on how many nominations we get, we'll take a take a vote where instead of saying yes or no, you'll say the name of the person you want to vote for. I'd like to nominate Patricia Zan.
>> Are there any other nominations? >> Can I entertain a motion to close nominations? >> Motion to close. >> Second. >> At this time, I need to get my list out. I will take a roll call vote on the nomination of Patricia Zan for
president. >> Mr. Bratzby's >> yes to Mrs. Z. >> Mrs. Dalton. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Granholm. >> Yes. >> Miss Keller. >> Yes. >> Mr. Moffetta. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Tor. Yes, >> Mr. Weinstein. >> Yes. >> And Mrs. Z. >> Yes. >> All right, Mrs. Congratulations. >> Yeah. Thank you. Congratulations. >> Thank you. Thank you to the voters of Warren for
this opportunity to continue serving on the board and thank you to the board members for uh their confidence in me continuing in this role. And with that, I would like to open nominations for vice president of the board of education. >> I'd like to nominate Miss Keller.
>> Do we have any other nominations? Do I have a motion to close nominations for vice president of the board? >> Motion to close. >> Second. >> Okay, Mr. Hegel. >> All right. The motion is um Miss Keller as vice president for the
2026 calendar year. Mr. Bratzb, >> yes. >> Miss Dalton, >> yes. >> Miss Granholm, >> yes. Miss Keller, >> yes. >> Mr. Mfetta, >> yes. >> Mr. Tor, >> yes.
>> Mr. Weinstein, >> yes. >> And Mrs. >> Yes. >> And Mrs. Keller. >> Congrats. >> Okay. Moving promptly on to annual reorganization items. Uh, the board of education has three standing committees.
the curriculum and technology committee, the personnel negotiations and communications committee, and the finance, operations, and security committee. I am going to ask that all board members by the end of business on Wednesday, please send an email to me
and copied to Miss Keller um listing your preferred um appointments to our standing committees. If you have an interest in acting as a chair of any of those committees, please indicate that in your email again by 5 on Wednesday.
Um I will circulate the committee assignments um for the standing committees um by the end of the week. Um please note the finance committee has its first official meeting on January 20th. So if you're hoping or planning to be on the finance committee, um please
know that that meeting comes up very quickly. Uh, regarding the annual reorganization items, I draw your attention to section D. Uh, annually the board appoints a representative and an alternative to the NJSBA delegate
assembly, the Somerset County Educational Services Commission, and the Wong Hills Municipal Alliance. Also appointed are representatives to the Somerset County School Boards Association and the Warren Township Opioid Advisory Committee. As is the
board's custom, we offer these positions first to our newest board members. In this case, it is Kevin. Kevin, do you have a preference? If so, express it now. >> I I would gladly serve as the uh representative to the Warren Township Opioid Advisory Committee.
>> Okay. Thank you. Would you like to take anything else? >> Not at this time. >> All right. Then what we're going to do then is um move one by one down the list of appointments. The first is the um representative and alternate to the New
Jersey School Board Association delegate assembly. Do I have a volunteer to act as the board's representative? Mr. Tour, thank you. Do we have an alternate? I'll take the alternate. Okay. Okay, moving to number two, board
representative and alternate to the Somerset County Educational Services Commission. Do I have a volunteer for representative? >> I'd be happy to stay on that one. >> Thank you, Miss Stalton. Do we have an alternate? Miss Granholm as alternate. Thank you,
Miss Granholm. Uh, moving on. Uh, board representative, the Watch Hills Municipal Alliance Committee. Uh, do I have a volunteer for representative? >> Mr. Metta, thank you. Um, Mr. Valentino did advise us he wouldn't be here tonight, but we were free to put him as
an alternate on anything. Let's put him as an alternate there. >> A great idea. [laughter] >> Do everything else we can assign to him in his absence. Um, that takes care of those. We are left with the Somerset County School
Boards Association representative. Um, in the past, the president of the board has held that and I'm happy to continue doing so. And I think that takes care of our appointments. >> Okay. Um Dr. Mingle, do you have any comments as to annual reorganization
action items? Does any board member have any item on annual reorganization action items they'd like to pull for separate vote or conversation? No. In that case, Miss Keller. >> Motion to approve annual reorganization
action items A through D. >> Second. Second. >> All right. Before I call the role, I'm just going to um read out what we agreed to section D just to make sure I got my notes correctly uh for the appointments.
Um Mr. Tor will act as the board representative to the NJSBA delegate assembly with Mrs. Zan acting as the alternate. Mrs. Dalton will be the board representative to the Somerset County Educational Services Commission with Mrs. Granholm acting as the alternate.
Mr. Malfeta will act as the board's representative to the Wong Hills Municipal Alliance Committee for 2026 with Mr. Valentino acting as the alternate. Somerset County uh school boards association representative will be Mrs.
Zon with no alternate. All board members are actually invited to that meeting each month. >> Yes. Um, and the Warren Township Opioid Crisis Advisory Committee, Mr. Bratzby's, will serve as the representative. Uh, with no alternate to
be selected. >> Did I get that right? >> Yes, sir. >> All right. Right. Then I'll now call the role. Mr. Brobby's, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dalton, >> yes. >> Mrs. Branholm, >> yes. >> Miss Keller, >> yes. >> Mr. Malfeta,
>> yes. >> Mr. Torp, >> yes. Mr. Weinstein. >> Yes. And Mrs. >> Yes. >> Miss Keller minutes. >> Resolved that the board of education approves the public and executive session minutes of the December 22nd, 2025 board meeting.
>> Do I have a second? >> Second. We're going on a lot of stuff. I just need to get another uh tally sheet out. All right. This is on the minutes. Mr. Broads, >> abstain. >> Okay. >> Mrs. Dalton,
>> yes. >> Mrs. Granholm, >> yes. >> Miss Keller, >> yes. >> Mr. Moffetta, >> yes. >> Mr. Tor, >> Mr. Mr. Weinstein. >> Yes. >> And Mrs. >> Yes. >> Motion passes 60 with two abstensions.
>> Correspondence and information. Dr. Minko. >> Nothing to report here. >> Okay. President's remarks. Uh good evening and welcome to the first 2026 meeting of the board of education. Let me extend a warm welcome to our newest board member, uh Kevin Brozb. Um, and a
welcome back uh to all of the other board members, the staff, the administration, and the students. I hope everybody had a wonderful um winter break and I look forward to um uh 2026 being a great year. And that's my only comments. Uh superintendent's remarks.
Dr. Mingle. >> Yes. Happy new year everybody as well. Welcome Mr. Brothbast to the the board of education. And uh as many of you already know, Mr. Braspiece has been a frequent attendee at our meetings and on several of our committees including the planning for growth working group which I'll speak a little bit more about in
just a few minutes and uh I think I was going to welcome the members of the Warren Police Department but I think we're going to do that formally right after I finish commenting. So I'll turn it back to you. >> Okay. Um we have uh two presentations this evening and the first one is um
just a a great opportunity to thank our local law enforcement. Law enforcement appreciation day falls this Friday on the 9th. Um and so uh we planned a couple of months ago that we would add this to our reorganization meeting. It's usually pretty dry meeting and we don't do anything really fun here, but an
opportunity to recognize um our relationship with and and the support that we get from the Warren Police Department is um something we really wanted uh an opportunity to do. So, I want to welcome formerly our attendees here. We have Chief Ferraro in the audience. Um we also have uh Lieutenant
U Matt S and Lieutenant Robert Disour and I I see Oscar are is over there as well. Who am I missing? Is there anybody I did not name? No. Um, thank you very much uh for being here. Um, and for all of the parents and the students that are
watching us currently online or will watch this in uh repeat when when they see the video. Uh, welcome to them as well. On behalf of the board of education, I I just want to express our deepest gratitude uh to the men and the women of the Warren Township Police um
who are more than just law enforcement officers. Your mentors, role models, and vital partners in the educational journey of our students. U there your positive presence and genuine care make a significant difference in the lives of
everyone on our campuses. Um, we're truly grateful for the seamless integration and unwavering commitment shown by the department in working alongside our administration and staff. Um, your dedication and your courage and your service are deeply appreciated and
it's um, it's rare that we have the opportunity to have you right here where we can express that gratitude and I hope you you know that it is very heartfelt. Um, it's not just coming from the board of education. our students um adore you guys and I have a lot of evidence of
that. So, I'm going to bring that more >> our students we the the um and Dr. Mingle can weigh in here. Um uh we told them that that we were going to be showing appreciation to all of you and um they
please Dr. Mingo they made you cards and I you know we're going to give these to you and we we hope that you'll go and you'll share these maybe post them when people can see them so that you know just how much um you're appreciated. Here's a card um from William.
Thank you for keeping us safe. Uh, thank you for keeping our community safe. I appreciate how hard you work to help everyone in our town. You are a hero for helping people when they need it. Sincerely, William. So, I
know these are these are wonderful. I could sit here and read I read them all night. Here's one from Jocelyn. Dear warm police officer, we appreciate your hard work and bravery. We appreciate the sacrifices you make to keep us safe. Thank you for keeping us and our town
safe. Once again, we really appreciate you and hope the people that are watching can see some of this here. You want to read a few? Sure. I'll just uh I told Chief Ferraro before we when when they came in. There are also several cards here
for the K9 members of the department as well, >> which I think they'll appreciate. Um we we asked the principles just to kind of talk at a couple schools see you know we we were expecting we would bring a couple of cards to you and to the department and as you can tell it's an overwhelming outpouring of love from our
from our uh students and there's there might be a few staff member cards snuck in here as well. So just to reiterate what Mrs. says, and for the people who are who are watching later on as well, there's the visible part of the partnership, but there's also parts that the general public doesn't get to see on a regular basis, like cell phone calls
and texts of here's here's what we're, you know, what's going on, how can we work through this together? Um, meeting outside of crisis response is a really important part of the community policing aspect. And, uh, Chief, since you've come on board, uh, the visibility of the Warren police in our parking lots and
our schools, you know, we couldn't ask for more. So, we appreciate everything you and uh your leadership team and everybody has done for for the community. >> Yeah, absolutely. Would you come forward? Can we share some of these with you? [laughter] [clears throat]
Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> It was kind of squish. Give your time. Something to look forward to. I just like want to keep going on about how grateful we are. Um but we are going to move on. We have
another presentation this evening and this is Dr. Mingle uh demographic study. Dr. Mingle. Cheers. Good evening everyone. Tonight's presentation is a very brief summary of what the updated demographic study shows and how the district is using that
information as part of our planning for growth work. There's no proposal tonight. There are no decisions being communicated about anything. This is just an update on the process and the progress we've made so far. uh with the goal of sharing facts that are helping to inform our responsible and long-term planning. And at the end of the
presentation, I'll share where you can go to find more information about all of this as well. The chart on the screen now shows the enrollment just for K through 8 students. So, this excludes preschool students. Even when looking strictly at kindergarten through 8th grade, you can see that enrollment has increased steadily over the past 5
years, about 10%, and is projected to grow throughout the rest of the decade. What you can see on the screen here are the in the two different colors. The lower line is the projection based on existing housing units and the orange line is the projection when you add in
approved unbuilt round three housing. This slide does not include any proposed round four housing that's in the township's fair share housing plan. So you can see a continuous growth line from existing housing. But when you add on future housing that is approved but
not yet built, it grows even faster somewhere in the range of 10 to 15% over the remaining 5 years of the decade for a total growth of somewhere in the ballpark of 20 to 25% over the course of a 10-year period. This obviously matters significantly because K through eight enrollment is the primary driver of our
elementary and middle school capacity planning. Later, I'll show how certain programs are growing faster than the overall population, uh, which adds additional complexity to any decisions we might need to make in the future. So, the key drivers for our K8 enrollment growth really come from three
different places. First, we have the natural growth of students who are living in existing communities moving through the grade levels. So as a as a younger cohort that is larger than a cohort that's ahead of it in the system replaces we wind up with growth
happening at that uh level. For example, next year sixth grade will be larger than the exiting eighth grade by about 30 or 40 students which will lead to a 4% increase of war middle school population which has nothing to do with anything other than there's a larger fifth grade cohort than eighth grade. So
that's one driver. The second driver is housing that's already been built in round three. We we can see it around town. You see where it's where it's going. It's being occupied the housing in different phases and at different rates relative to families versus non-families that might be moving in. It
doesn't um all happen with kindergarten. So typically many of our families move in or establish themselves in the community and then raise a family there. And so we kind of know as time goes on before they even get to kindergarten. What's happening with new housing is
that people move in with kids of all different ages, especially in the housing developments where there is more moderate and low-income housing as people are making decisions to uproot their families specifically for the opportunities provided to them in Warren. And so we see more school age children coming into certain units
there. And finally, additional housing that's approved and not yet completed. Again, you can still see this u but depending on where you live in town, you might not see some of the larger developments that are in the Woodland zone that are only just be beginning to come online. Um these are the units that
led to us doing the resoning several years ago. Um which we'll talk more about as well. As we knew from that work 5 years ago and is confirmed by our updated demographic study, the growth is not evenly distributed across the community.
One of the most important findings here is exactly where we anticipate the future growth to be coming. Some of our schools are absorbing a larger share of new students than others. And some buildings have less flexibility to respond to that growth. And unfortunately, in one case, a part of
the town where there is a large amount of growth is also where the school with the least amount of flexibility, the central school zone, is located. which means that we can't solve a district-wide problem just by looking at uh one solution. We have to think about a lot of different opportunities and challenges that might be coming. So
there's planning that must account for where students are enrolling, not just our overall bottom line numbers that we saw on the opening slide. As I was alluding to, uh we we can see the growth affecting different parts of the town in different ways. We knew that Woodland School would have the largest
growth from round three housing. We made the necessary adjustments to our zoning several years ago. We're in the middle of that period now of implementation. Woodland School has enough room to absorb the remaining round three housing uh projections as we see them. And which is why for the families that are in
Woodland School for a little while, it's felt like there have been fewer students there, which was on purpose to make sure there was enough room as stu students moved into that area of town. Central school has grown more rapidly than anticipated. Uh not only in overall population but also in special programs
that are housed there. And so Central will face pressure from the growth from housing as well as existing uh student populations more rapidly than the other schools. At this time ALT, Mount Horb and the middle school have fairly stable populations. In fact, Mount Horb is
projected to decrease in population next year. that was a known uh factor due to a bubble of students at a certain grade levels. Um so we we believe we have flexibility at ALT Mount Horb and Warren Middle School uh in the near term. Again, we're not talking about any kind of decisions. We're just trying to lay
out some of the information that we have from our demographer at this time. There's a lot of information on this slide, so I'm just going to leave it up on the screen and and try to talk through it piece by piece. Uh this is about special programs. Special programs include areas like special education
especially um but also preschool uh programs we offer for students who have limited English proficiency. These are state and or federally mandated programs and they often take additional staff or space uh more than a general education
home room might. So this slide shows the official year-over-year changes. I say official because every school in New Jersey, every public school in New Jersey submits a snapshot on October 15th each year so that you can have direct comparison year-toear and district to district on a whole uh slew
of data points. In this case, the enrollment, just K8, not including preschool, went up by 3% year-over-year from October to October. That's 50 students. the lowincome enrollment which in the state of New Jersey there's a proxy for establishing that among
students which is students who qualify for free or reduced lunch and there are several different ways that that could be achieved. Uh that area of growth was 4% year-over-year and you can see it's 13% of our total student body um there in the numbers on
the screen. Our limited English proficiency enrollment actually decreased year-over-year. So we have uh fewer students who qualify for that program through a combination of factors. One, our teachers do a phenomenal job bringing students to a level of proficiency and they exit the
program relatively rapidly. So students who move in and meet the criteria to receive services for uh what you traditionally might have heard referred to as English as a second language or multilingual education. those students are only in in that category for as long as it takes for them to demonstrate a
level of proficiency on an annual test to exit from that program. So, uh it's a combination of factors there. The special education resident enrollment and there's a wide spectrum of special education uh programs and services that
that student body grew by 5% so growing at a faster rate than the overall student population. And I'll dig into that a little bit more into specific programs that are more um space con that use more space in just a m moment. And then I do want to point you to the last
line here which is preschool with a decrease of 25%. That is not because there was a decrease of demand or need for preschool. We limited the access to our preschool program because we knew we were having space constraint issues. And so in order to open up classroom space
for mandated programs, we limited access to non-mandated preschool programs this year. So we have a waiting list of 30 or 40 students, uh, three and four-year-olds whose families wanted them to come to our preschool that we were not able to accommodate because we needed that classroom space for other
programs. Uh, preschool is not mandated for general education students. It is mandated for some special education classified students. Uh, and so I just wanted to point out why there's a decrease there and why we separated out K8 from the other numbers to dig into the special program growth a
little bit more because when we get down the road a little bit further in planning for growth, this will be a large part of the conversation. Special programs in Warren include programs for students uh diagnosed with autism, students with emotional regulation impairment, ERRI, uh which tend to be
exhibited through behavioral uh needs, students in certain kinds of language and learning disability programs where they are primarily in self-contained classrooms for most of the day and then for part of the day are integrated into the general uh education programs where
appropriate. Students in these programs often have significant needs. 10 years ago when I started here as superintendent, we served fewer than 10 students in these programs. Now we have 51 as of October 15th of this school year. And we have built programs as
required by federal law to make sure that we can meet their needs in the least restrictive environment. What that means is in their local community. They may not necessarily be in the school where they would have otherwise been able to go. uh but we are able to keep students here in Warren rather than
being uh bus to another school district or to a private school for students with disabilities. However, doing that comes with a capacity crunch. As you can see, we just in the last three years, we have more than doubled the number of students who require these services under federal
law, which necessarily requires more classrooms, more teachers, more paraprofessionals, more special spaces like sensory rooms for students with sensory uh needs and deescalation spaces for students who are having a a an issue behaviorally or
emotionally and need a space where they can use the calming uh techniques they've learned through our programs. So the point here is it's not just about the numbers on a page. It's the programs that the numbers represent that really come into into play. Our planning for growth working group has been spending a
significant amount of time, hours and hours learning about each of these programs, visiting the classrooms, hearing from the staff who work on the programs to understand what they look like, what they require, uh, and why questions that we often get might have
difficult answers. Like 25 years ago, there were 2,000 students in the school district and we had enough space. However, 25 years ago, programs like this didn't exist in Warren and in most public school districts in the area. And now we are able to keep students here
where they where they should be educated with their peers. So what does this all mean as we're getting into the moving out of the gathering information stage and into the what are the options for the future stage? It means that we have capacity
challenges at the elementary schools affected both by enrollment and the programs that uh we we house. Some of those programs require special spaces that can't easily be shifted from one year to another or certainly not in the middle of a school year.
We have different timelines for when the challenges will be felt at each school. We've made decisions in the short term to free up space. For example, at Central School by reducing preschool capacity and moving some of our preschool classrooms to Mount Horb and some of our autism program classrooms to
ALT. Uh but that doesn't solve the problem forever. It buys us a year or two each time we make a a decision like that. And I should say those changes come with huge challenges for the staff and the families who are affected by them. even if they do solve the problem from a capacity standpoint. So we must consider what are our flex what
flexibilities do we have? Where do we have flexibility in the community? Not just the total number of rooms but all the factors that go into that. And so finally how is the planning for growth working group using this information? Just as a quick reminder we
have uh established through our 2025 to 2030 strategic plan a planning for growth working group. There are 20 members of this group. Uh nearly everybody in the room is a Warren resident, either a parent, a staff member who happens to also live in
Warren. Uh community members who don't have children in the school district, a mayorapp appointed representative of the township committee, as well as several administrators. That group has been uh working really hard to learn as much as it can from all the experts we have locally and people we need to bring in
from the outside. and we are now about to move into the phase of pressure testing different options for what this means for us over the next several years. Uh we'll test scenarios against criteria that the committee has uh established and will continue to refine.
Looking at things like the overall student experience, the quality of education, how could this be an opportunity and not just a challenge? Where are the ways that we can grow? How do we ensure that all students, regardless of the school they attend, the special programs requirements they might have, has a wonderful experience
while they're with us? And how do we make decisions that are sustainable for as much of the foreseeable future as we can so that we're not making any changes that disrupt the community that we don't have to make. Importantly, we are not at the recommendation stage. The the goal of pausing here at the beginning of a
new year is just to provide an update to the community so that we can talk about what comes next. We'll be working over the next several months to continue refining our enrollment and projections uh especially in the special programs area now that we have the overall population projections. We'll start to think about space, staffing,
transportation, the finances of any potential adjustments that need to be made. What criteria will we use to evaluate the options that are before us and make sure that any information that uh is coming out of that working group is communicated to the public and the board uh regularly. And just in case you
haven't been on the website late lately, on the district website, there's a planning for growth link right on the main page and it brings you to a handout with a summary of every meeting the group has had, including lots of backup information for those that are interested in all the details. So, if there's one takeaway that I would like
to leave everybody with, it's our responsibility to use data clearly and transparently so that everyone in the community can weigh in and help us think about what are the best options before us, but also to confront realistically the challenges of what a growing
community looks like. And regardless of of views about how and where and when housing might come online or where it might be built, it is our responsibility uh in the school district to provide for the needs of every child who lives in this community. So the way we'll do that
is by keeping you informed. As I said, there's a lot of information available on the website. The entire demographic study I some of you were at the presentation, it's probably 60 or 70 pages of of data is currently posted on the district website. and available for anybody who wants to read it. Uh that
full public report includes a lot of detail, school by school data, classroom byclassroom data about space capacity and where the limits will be and when we expect to have them. You can go on and see that now. And we are completely uh happy to receive questions and comments
that will help us refine future presentations at communitywarbe.org. And we are also board members and administrators alike. Uh happy to go speak with any organizations in the community that would wish to talk about this topic or other topics. Uh you can just email us at communitywarrante.org
and we'll be happy to set that up. With that, I'll stop here. I'll come back uh to the table and answer any questions. >> Questions from members of the board. >> I had one. Um, so the preschool enrollment down 25%. I understand why based on space
constraints, which likely is not connected, but it seems like, and please, correct me if I'm wrong, that we may run into space constraints in terms of the special ed growth. I think I took a note from 23 to 51
students was at the year-over-year growth, which is significant. So I guess the question is as the committee regularly meets are we looking at that as a potential space constraint as well because there's specific facilities and rooms that are
required which aren't easily duplicated like you said from classroom A to classroom B. So I guess where does that sit in the consideration set? >> Yeah. So that that is I would say a a primary concern and consideration of the committee. So, uh, we did take facility
tours so that everybody could see what those spaces look like and understand what, you know, we're not talking necessarily about, um, students who have, you know, who get speech therapy once every 3 days or something like that. We're talking about students who are in these classrooms most of the day and have specialized needs. Uh, and that
is a concern. As I said in in the presentation slides, I and I want to reiterate, you can move those spaces, which we did this year from central to ALT. However, it is a significant burden on not only the staff but also the students and their families to to switch schools and switch buses and yeah have
new peers and all that. So, I appreciate the question. The other comment I want to make about preschool is um the reduction came from tuition paying general education students. And so not only does it hurt us to have to do that from a serving the community standpoint,
it also led to us losing 25 tuition paying preschoolers. >> Yes, that was on my mind as well. Um, is the demographer, and I'm assuming not, but are they able to potentially
forecast with new communities being built and families coming into town, how that number of special ed students from 23 to 51 could potentially increase from the current 51 or is that not doable based on the data that they have? >> That's a great question. So, that is not
something the demographer does. >> Okay. But we are working on a model of that internally. And so um on Wednesday actually our director of special services will present to the senior leadership team a model for the next five years based on the trends we're
seeing. So um basically what we're as our enrollment is growing the enrollment in the highest need special programs is growing faster. >> And so one of the reasons for that which is a [snorts] great reason is that our programs have good reputations in a lot of these places. Uh there is a
community-based provider for students uh for children with autism from birth to age five in Warren. And so people bring their children there when they're young. They meet local residents whose kids go to the schools and then some of them say, "I like what I'm hearing." And then
they move in. And so we're seeing a faster growth in those programs. A demographer can't possibly predict that, but we're looking at, okay, if if the enrollment goes up by 20%, what percentage of that 20% will be students who need special programs based on the
trends that we've seen for the last three to five years? So, we're basically going to use a five-year running model to to predict that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions from board members? >> Okay. Thank you, Dr. Mingleton. Um we do not have any discussion items
on the agenda this evening and uh because it's our reord meeting no committee reports. Um those committees as I stated earlier will be formed this week uh based on the feedback from individual board members. Um please again get that to us by um close of business Wednesday.
Um at this point we're going to move to the first opportunity for public commentary. I ask that anyone interested in addressing the board please raise their hand or use the raise your hand feature on Zoom. Each speaker is asked to limit their comments to three minutes. Please begin your comments by
stating your name and address and by directing your comments to the presiding officer. Please know that the board of education welcomes and encourages input from the public. Public commentary is intended as an opportunity for the board to receive such input, but is not
intended as a Q&A session. Following public commentary, if appropriate, the presiding officer or superintendent may provide some response. For this first opportunity, we ask that your comments be limited to items that appear on tonight's agenda.
There will be a second comment opportunity for all other comments later in the meeting. Uh so at this time looking to the live audience if there's anyone here that wishes to address the board on agenda topics.
Uh seeing none looking to our Zoom audience. Is there anyone on our Zoom audience that would like to address the board on agenda items? Seeing none. Do I have a motion to close the first opportunity for public commentary? >> Motion. Second.
All in favor? >> I >> I opposed abstain. First opportunity for public commentary is now closed. Dr. Mingle, do you have any comments on um agenda items? >> Yes, just one. I do want to bring
everyone's attention to item B3, which is a phones free grant acceptance. uh as as many as the board certainly knows and probably people in the public who have been following meetings, uh the board took uh action in advance of this becoming a a popular topic in the rest
of the state to uh re revise its policy around keeping cell phones out of school during school the school day. Because we have that policy in place, uh we were able to access a grant. Uh we are one of 82 districts in the state which will allow which provides a small amount of money but money nonetheless to help us
implement that policy. um during the school day. So, I just wanted to bring that to everyone's attention. >> Thank you, Dr. Mingle. Uh does any board member have any item for board consideration they wish to pull for a separate vote or conversation? >> Seeing none, Miss Keller.
>> Motion to approve items for board consideration A1 through A2, B1 through B3, and C1 through C6. We have a second. >> Second. Right. I'll call the role on the consent
agenda. Mr. Brospey's, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dalton, >> yes. >> Mrs. Granholm, >> yes. >> Miss Keller, >> yes. >> Mr. Mfetta, >> yes. >> Mr. Tor, >> yes. >> Mr. Weinstein, >> yes. >> And Mrs. Mrs. Zong, >> yes. >> Motions pass 800.
>> Thank you, Mr. Hegel. Uh, we do not have unfinished business or new business on the agenda this evening. So, we are moving to the second opportunity for public commentary. Uh, this second opportunity is open to any topic you wish to raise to the board's attention.
Again, I ask that you raise your hand or use the raise your hand feature on Zoom. Remember that comments are limited to 3 minutes and please state your name and address before beginning looking first to the room.
if you'd step to the podium, please. >> Name and address. >> My name is Joanna Rosenthal and my address is five Hardwood Court, Warren. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much for um giving this space for public comment tonight. I have three daughters in the Warren Township
School District and I really value their experience and the reason why I'm here tonight is regarding the December 19th bomb threat and anti-Semitic graffiti that was found at the middle school. I want to applaud the police department for their involvement and applaud the
school for involving the police department. I also appreciate um Principal Velar's quick message to parents on the following Monday, letting them know about what happened so that we could address it with our students and our daughters at home. Um I did note
that in the message um Principal AR said that in classroom staff will continue to reinforce expectations around respect and address student questions in an age appropriate manner. We ask for your partnership in speaking with your child, reinforcing that hate symbols and
messages are unacceptable, and encouraging students to report concerns to a trusted adult, which we did at home. But I'm left with the question, how do we know all students received this message? And I believe we're left with a runway of opportunity to be able
to be more proactive in making sure that students received this message and perhaps provide more education given that there was a a hate symbol and bomb threat together that the whole school
experienced. And so my question is where do we go from here and how do we ensure there are no further incidents like this and that students feel safe and comfortable. >> Okay. Thank you. We'll respond to any questions after all
public commentary has ended. Thank you very much for your for your comment. Do we have any other um public commentary in the audience? No. Moving to the Zoom audience. Do we have any public commentary from anyone
in our Zoom audience? And seeing none, do I have a motion to close the second opportunity for public commentary? >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Opposed? Abstain. Second opportunity for public commentary is now closed. Dr.
Mingle. >> Yes. Thank you for the comments and the questions. much of the much of that response is housed at the middle school with Mr. Velar, but I did want to share um with with you and the community. I know Mrs. Zan was on the emails as well that over
the winter break period, we were in touch with Rabbi Greenbound from Temple Harsh Shalom and are scheduling an opportunity for school district staff, administrators, and um temple leadership to meet together to talk about the exact questions that you raised. uh we
understand that there's a similar relationship in place uh with the high school leadership and so we're looking forward to that opportunity. However, you don't have to wait for that for feedback. So if there are specific suggestions or if you've heard of ways other communities have responded to this sort of uh hateful experience in a way
that has been you know reaffirming for the community. We'd be happy to hear those as well. Happy to talk to you directly or you can certainly reach out to Mr. Velar as well. But we're very open to to getting that feedback. Thank you. Okay. Um,
uh, Miss Keller >> motion to adjurnn. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> opposed abstain. Uh, first meeting has journed. Thank you everybody.