001Okay. I will call to order this meeting of the Somerset Berkeley Regional School Committee at 6:03 p.m. Due notice having been posted. Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium. Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions may be made, whether perceived or unpersceived by those present, and are deemed acknowledged and permissible. We'll do a roll call of members present. Miss Ferrer, >> present. >> Miss Ashley, >> present. >> Miss Corville, >> present. >> Mr. Postnac, >> present. >> Mr. Borges, >> present. >> And the chair is present. Also with us this evening are our principal, Dr. Susan Browford, our director of curriculum, Elizabeth Haskell, our chief financial officer, Raquel Pelerin, and our recording secretary,
002Robin Ball. Would you please rise for the pledge? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you everyone. Please note that the next regularly scheduled meeting of this body will be held on Tuesday, October 21st, 2025 at 6 p.m. here in the Somerset Berkeley Regional High School Library. The first item on the agenda for this evening under student teaching and learning is a report from our student representative, Mr. Bores. >> Good afternoon, everyone. It's great to be back. Um, my voice is a little gone from cheering at football and volleyball, so I'll make this brief. Uh, me and Izzy are both very happy to be back, but unfortunately she cannot
003make it tonight, but we've talked very much about student advisory and this, and so we're excited for what the year has in store. Um the student body is also very excited to be back. Our class election ballots uh open tomorrow morning. I'm thrilled to see who our student body elects to represent their grade. Uh our sports team have had a very strong start to the beginning of the year. Uh uh we hope football can secure their first win this Friday in Malden. Other than that, I've met one student who's not rested and excited for the school year to come. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Um the next item on the agenda is um a recognition of our HOSA leadership conference outstanding achievement award recipient. So I'm going to ask Julie Morera to come
004forward. Come on down. We're going to stand. We want you on camera while we honor you. Is that >> I know, right? >> Okay. Someone give us a moment. Oh. Oh. Oh, thank you. Okay. Um, Miss Morera, today it is our honor to recognize an exceptional student from Somerset Berkeley High School, Julie Julia. Sorry, did I say Julie? Julia Morera for her outstanding achievement at the HOSA Leadership Conference in June of 2025. Julia placed in the top 30 internationally, an incredible achievement that speaks volumes about her talent, dedication, and perseverance. The field of physical therapy is known for its rigor and complexity, demanding not only deep knowledge, but also practical skills and compassionate patient care. Julia's determination to advance to round two of the competition, where she had the unique opportunity to work with a
005real-time patient showcases her readiness to face these challenges headon. Her ability to apply what she's learned in a live clinical setting is truly commendable and highlights her passion for making a difference in people's lives. Somerset Berkeley Regional High School is immensely proud of Julia's hard work and resilience. She set a shining example of what dedication and commitment can achieve and we all look forward to seeing the incredible impact that she will make in the future of physical therapy and healthcare. Please join me in congratulating Julia Morrera on this remarkable achievement. [Music] We have a little something for you. But I also want to in invite uh Miss Littlefield down and Dr. Browsford and her parents. And I think we might have proud parents here as well. >> Oh, there we go. All right. >> All
006right. Why don't you come on down here? So, congratulations. Great job. Thank you for representing us so well. >> We're going to take some pictures. >> Oh, sorry. And I think we should have Is that mom and dad? They should definitely come on down. >> Congratulations. Congratulations. [Applause] And I think um on behalf of the committee, we also want to make sure that we recognize uh Miss Littlefield for um guiding these students through this organization. Um this does not happen without your commitment and your dedication to our students. So, thank you very much for that. [Applause] Thank you. >> Okay. >> Byebye. Thank you. When I was a student, >> um the next item on the agenda is to discuss and act on the revision to the 2025 2026 student and family handbook. And just
007to remind folks, um there was one change after our last meeting that was um added which was based on the re uh recommendations of MASC um to address a recent Supreme Court ruling. That is the only change. Am I right, Dr. Browns Fred? So I don't know does anyone have any um questions on the change? >> Just to clarify, that was the one on page 89 that I read highlighted. >> It's um I have to check the page number. I think it says it right on the bank eje. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Yes. The highlighted language from MASC. >> Um if there are no questions, I would entertain a motion to approve the revision to the 202526 student and family handbook as presented. >> So moved. Second. >> A motion by Miss Ashley and
008seconded by Miss Corville. Is there anything further on discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I opposed. So voted. Thank you. Um the next item on the agenda under the superintendent's report is uh Dr. Skoonover provided us with some updated enrollment um numbers um I think as late as this afternoon. >> Um I don't know if anyone has we could have further discussion on that when at our next meeting but does anyone have any questions? Um comments. Um we can see um a very slight decline from last year compared to this year um but relatively steady. >> Um okay. Um the next item on the agenda are staffing updates that were provided by the superintendent. I have a motion to just receive and those in place on file. >> Yes. So move. >> Second. >>
009Motion by Miss Ferrer, seconded by Miss Formal. Anything further on discussion hearing? None. All those in favor? >> I oppose. So voted. Um the next item on the agenda is to consider and act on appointing a voting delegate for the resolutions at the annual MASS MASC joint conference. Um I would suggest we table this item until um we have a clearer picture of exactly who is going to be attending the conference. >> Make a motion to table it. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion to table by Mr. Pastor Neck and seconded by Miss Ashley. Anything further? >> Hearing none. All those in favor? >> Oppos. So, voted. Um, okay. The next item on the agenda is an update on the annual building and facilities inspection. Um, the committee met on August 27th. >> They really want
010us out of here fast tonight. >> Okay. Um, >> we're just going to pause to see if we can get the lighting. >> Oh, yes. I was like, who else was Thank you. Um the uh committee met on August 27th for the annual building and facilities inspection. Present at that meeting were myself, Miss Barrera, Miss Ashley, and Mr. Pastnac. We toured uh the inside of the building. Um, but we focused most of our attention on the improvements to the um, baseball and softball fields, the practice field, and the turf, which I think we're all happy to say is being used. >> Yes. >> Um, does anyone want to comment on the annual inspection? >> Sure. I just want to say we were here after the first day of school. So this building had been in
011use and as always it was in perfect condition as it always is. The custodial staff always does an amazing job uh to be keeping up especially I mean there was still stuff going on while we were walking through. So uh I want to give kudos to our custodial staff because they always do an amazing job. Yeah. And just to piggyback on that, you know, and I think we all have some awareness of this, whether we have kids in the district or, you know, we just know of kids participating in programs that are physically housed in this building. It goes all summer long. My my own child attended the kids summer learning program, for example, that goes right up and until, you know, like the first through the first week of August, and then there were
012still programs running after that. So, the fact that the custodial staff can work around those programs and be flexible and still make sure that the building is ready to reopen the school year even though the building never physically closed, right? Um, I think that's tremendous. Uh, something that, you know, we just have to keep in mind is the staffing level and to be able to maintain this. So, because I I know, and I'll talk about this when we get to the Somerset update, but something that we heard from the custodial staff at the K to8 preK through 8 level was that they're feeling stressed. So, I think that um I personally think that we should just keep this in the forefront of our minds when we come to budget season again. >> And that's that.
013>> And I just wanted to add too that um you know, the field looks great. Um, I was at my son's football game this past Friday and got a lot of compliments from the parents, you know, the field itself, not me, but they were very happy with the field, how it looked and know it's nice to have it looking very refreshed out there cuz it was getting pretty abysmal. And unbeknownst to me, I was glad of the the discussion we had with the custodial staff because I was not aware of, you know, some of these call them, I guess, unauthorized uses of the field and the damage that has been incurred in the past with them moving nets around that people shouldn't be moving around and trash being left. So, I found that very informative
014from them. >> Thank you. >> I think I would just add to Mr. Prosnack and this is really more for the benefit of the public who may be watching this. Um I think the committee um in the entire district is extremely appreciative of the investment that both communities have made um in the campus um starting obviously with the construction of this school um the maintenance of the school and then um the the turf, the fields. Um, we want to make sure that our students have access to the quality and our faculty and our coaches have access to a quality facility that that they deserve. And we're very appreciative to the community for supporting that. Um, we are also we're happy that we did not have to go back to either town to ask for additional
015funds to complete these relatively significant capital improvements. Um, and we would respectfully ask that the community um adhere to the district's policies when it comes to the use of facilities and be mindful that um in order to preserve that significant investment um and um be good stewards of that investment that we need the public to cooperate by adhering to the signage um and the appropriate use. So, there is a there's a permit process to use the facilities. Um, and we respectfully ask that folks adhere to that. We have some great relationships with some community organizations that do precisely that. And we want to be able to continue to do that. We also need to um protect and preserve that investment so that we can um maximize that um on behalf of our students and our
016taxpayers. So, um, and if there are questions about appropriate use of those facilities, they should be directed to the superintendent's office. Um, anything else on that? >> Just again, um, very grateful for the maintenance and custodial staff. They are tremendous. This place still looks new. Um, after 12 years, 13 going on 13. Okay. Um the next item on the agenda under business and financial is an update on the 2425 and the 2526 budgets. Miss Berin, um I do want to apologize that we did get um the FY25 update to the committee this morning. Um we are working with our treasur upto-date information as we work to close out the fiscal year. Um right now we're tw we're trending with about 664,000 left uh as a balance in expenditures. Um our incumbrances are still at 50,000.
017Again, we're confirming that everything has been received by June 30th and actively getting those bills in. Um, as you know, in our past or previous meeting, we talked about the need to make sure that we're closing out all our federal grants and all our statemandated spending. So, we made sure that we accounted for that and we did report out to the committee on on the work we had done there. Um, in a regional school district, unlike um a non-regional school district, we also have to take into account revenue. So, we're trending about 27,000 under budget on the revenue side. Um, so we're looking to net that out. Um, we will come back at the next meeting with a full review of the fiscal year. Um, we're filing our end of year report. We did get
018an extension to the end of October. So, the next meeting will fit in nicely in how we're pending the fiscal year. Um, couple of things that we do have to take into account. uh you have the ability to prepay special education which we'll give you a final figure at the next meeting. Um also we're looking at um our excess and deficiency dollars. So we're at about um I did give a a trend on how we were trending. We're at about well little over a million and so a million35 our 5% of budget gets us to a million 81. So you do have the flexibility to be able to add a little more to excess deficiencies. I also provided the balance for our stabilization funds. Um we want to give you a full uh breakdown of
019the anticipated expenses for those um stabilization funds as well. That'll give you a good picture at the next meeting to be able to make those decisions. um as you go throughout um 26 and you you have make any decisions that you want to transfer any money into the stabilization or going into the 27 budget that's something that we can discuss moving money up there to be able to um move forward with any capital um projects that are necessary. Um when we look at the 26 budget um we are working on our teacher last payroll which was um September teacher first payroll September 12th. So at this point we're making sure that because we operate on two systems we're reconciling and we will have our incumbrances ready for the next meeting which will give you an
020idea of what we look like um with full incumbrances for our compensation. Uh the plan at that point is to in November to go forward with our first budget amendments and we will have a much better idea on how um our grant applications are going as well. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions? Okay. The next item on the agenda in business and financial is to discuss and act on non-union personnel hourly rates including special education van drivers, crossing guards, hall monitors, lunchroom supervisors, um non-un cafeteria workers, and substitutes. And you have that uh spreadsheet in your folder. Does anyone have any questions? If there are none, I would entertain a motion to approve the non-union personnel hourly rates as noted on the spreadsheet from Dr. Skoonover and Miss Pellerin. >> So moved. Second. >>
021Motion by Miss Ashley and seconded by Miss Corville. Anything further on discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? >> Opposed? So voted. The next item on the agenda under policy is a report from the policy subcommittee. Sure. Who wants to deliver that? Sure, why not? We we actually just met before this. Um we actually have another meeting, a joint meeting next week um with K through8 because there are a couple of new policy small changes from MASC. So we'll have more for us um next month. I think the only thing we really met about or talked about was uh there was a little bit of a change to the handbook which in turn made us have to go back and just tweak the policy uh so they match and those will be on next month's
022agenda for us to review for first reading. Okay. So um next on the agenda we have policies for a second reading if we can take them as a slate. I would entertain a motion to approve the following policies. Um, school attendance and extracurriculars policy JH, promotion and retention of students policy I K commencement exercise participation policy I KF and background checks policy A DA. So I have a motion. >> I have a motion by Miss Ferrer. Do I have a second? Seconded by Miss Corville. Anything on discussion hearing? None. All those in favor? I opposed. So voted. Um next I would entertain a motion to approve the facility rental fee schedule revisions as presented. So move. >> Second. >> Motion by Miss Fer and seconded by Miss Ashley. Is there anything on discussion >> hearing?
023None. All those in favor? >> Opposed? So voted the next item on the agenda um or um updates. Um Miss Solomon is not present and I don't know what's happening in Berkeley. So um I assume no news is good news. Um do we have an update from Somerset? >> Sure. >> Do you mind if I do it today or you >> Okay. Um, we had, um, our report back from the administration on the opening of the new school year. Um, this is not an exact quote, but I believe Dr. Spoonover said like the best opening yet was the gist of the the story. So, that's always good. Um, I remember last year we had >> like a a minor bus accident on the first day of school. So, like as long as we don't have
024anything like that happening, I think we're winning. Right. there's no safety concerns, so that's always a good thing. Um, we talked about our enrollment, um, just like we did here at the region tonight. Um, we also talked about some great news that we received the Prism 2 grant um, and as part of that, we'll be getting um, to pilot some new reading curriculum um, for the elementary level. Um and there will be a lot of professional development invested in that grant as well. Um and then ultimately we'll have a new literacy program um at the at the end of that process. So that's very exciting for us. As you know, money is hard to come by these days. So um we had an introduction to our new South Elementary School principal, Mr. Matt Talbett. Um
025and the assistant principal is also new, Angie. I don't think I wrote down her name. >> Fenton. Angie Fenton. Thank you very much. Um, so they seem like a dynamic duo and I know that South is in good hands, so we feel good about that. Uh, we approved our elementary handbook and our middle school handbook and we talked about we had received the financial update from the 2425 and 2526 school years. Um, we talked about our building walkthroughs which are a little bit more in-depth than you know our discussion at the high school because as you know we have a lot of capital improvements needing to be done in our elementary buildings. And um we also talked about and and I wanted to make sure I mentioned this. We also talked about um having retreat
026as a committee um and I think that this committee had a retreat at some point a few years ago. Um, so Miss Andrews, if you don't mind, I'll I'll sidebar with you after a meeting and we can talk about what your retreat looks like because I was appointed to be in charge of the retreat since it was my idea. That's how things go, right? So anyway, so I would appreciate any insight that you have and that's pretty much what I have from our great. Thank you. >> Okay. Next on the agenda, we have topics not anticipated by the chair. I have none. Next on the agenda action items for future meetings. Um we the appointment for MASC which we tabled we'll move to the next meeting. Um anything else? >> Okay. >> I'm sure we'll
027have some policies to add to that. >> Okay. Um, next on the agenda is to consider approval of the open session minutes of August 19th, 2025, joint open session minutes of August 19th, 2025, and to consider approval of and to release, redact, withhold um the joint executive session minutes of August 19th, 2025. So, there's three sets of minutes as ite uh to review. >> Okay. Um why don't we break this into um the open session minutes first. So I would entertain a motion to approve the open session minutes of August 19th, and the joint open session minutes of August 19th, 2025 as presented. >> So moved. >> Second motion by Miss Breer and seconded by Miss Corville. Anything further on discussion hearing? None. All those in favor? >> Opposed? So voted. And next, I would
028entertain a motion to approve and release with redactions the August 19th, 2025 joint executive session minutes as pres presented. So moved. >> Second. >> Uh motion by Miss Ferrer, seconded by Mr. Pastnac. Anything further on discussion hearing? None. All those in favor? I >> uh so voted. Um next on the agenda, we have public input. Do we have anyone for public input? Okay. Well, in that case, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. >> Second. Motion by Miss Fer and second by Miss Ashley. Everyone in favor. Opposed. So voted. Great. Thank you everyone.