001all right well good evening everyone welcome to this public meeting of the Princeton Board of Education the board is an elected unpaid group of 10 citizens who set policy and make decisions on educational financial and Personnel matters for the Princeton public schools on behalf of all residents we are always pleased with members of the community attend our meetings the board and the school district operate under applicable New Jersey laws and under regulations of the New Jersey State Board of Education each meeting includes an opportunity for those attending to comment on items on the published agenda or other matters of interest to them the board reserves a right to limit the time allotted to public participation law limits discussion of individual personnel and confidential matters we want our meetings uh to be to provide useful opportunities
002for communication between the board and the community thank you for attending as required on the Opus public meeting act njsa 1046 at sequential adequate notice was given for calling this meeting it was authorized by the Board of Education and forwarded to Municipal Court Princeton packet and the times on January 6 2023 was distributed to the schools and others on the standard distribution list the board reserves the right to enter into executive session during all meetings of the Board of Education board policy 2230 recording devices requires that we inform those attending uh this virtual meeting that the proceeds are the proceedings are being recorded this meeting is not being live streamed public members who wish to make comments at the appropriate time as noted the agenda added by the presenting officer officer shall be asked to
003uh click the mute button when called upon representing the sending district has authorized to vote on such matters that affect Senate District students or affect the governance of the Princeton Public Schools as more specifically designated in njsa 18a 38 8.1 in the event this statute is amended the law she'll take precedence over this bylaw sending District votes pertaining to Personnel actions referred to high school Central administrative and districtwide staff only votes otherwise are considered abstentions Mr Bolden would you please call the roll yes Daphne Kendall here Betsy bag wheel here that's Baron here Debbie braunfeld here Gene Durbin president Mario Francesca here Brian McDonald president Susan Cantor yeah Rob Christopher here we have a quorum okay that's great um I'm moving on to item D1 adoption of the minutes uh for January 24th can I
004get a motion please Brian second Mara Daphne Kendall yes a two baglia yes Baron yes Debbie Bromfield yes Gene Durbin yes Juan franceschi yes Ryan McDonald yes Susan Cantor yes Rob Christopher abstain motion passes okay uh can I get a motion for item D2 adoption the minutes for February 7th 2023 uh Gene second Rob Daphne candle yes that's a bag wheel yes that's Baron Yes W braunfeld yes Gene Durbin yes Mark franceschi yes Brian McDonald yes Susan Cantor yeah Rob Christopher yes motion passes thank you Mr Bolden well good evening everyone welcome to um our February Board of Education meeting um and before we begin I just wanted to take a moment uh to talk about um some exciting wins for our students and our student athletes uh we want to First recognize and congratulate
005congratulate the following PHS National Merit Scholarship finalists Armand Ahmed Christopher Beau apparent change Rohan Chevette Jonathan goo jukon Swan Ethan Lee Hanley um James Lee Michelle Peng Sophia song Connor Stewart Luke Tong Matthew Wu and Allison zo congratulations to all of you who were named National Merit Scholarship finalists and we wish you all the best as you continue your academic Journey and now I have breaking news uh the Princeton High School girls swim team won their meet today and in the state semifinals and they they beat Shawnee High School and they will be swimming on Saturday for the state championships for the first time in 30 years good luck to the swimmers and coaches um all right so you know we have a lot of great athletes I'll just say the boys hockey uh Team
006uh are the Mercer County Champions as our um the boys swimming team the boys hockey team is moving on to the first round of the NJ Sia tournament um uh the PHS wrestling team um was at the Regionals and I'll just call out uh call Rose Blaze meal Marty Brophy Christian Paul Chase hammerschlag um let me see um I think Ava Rose um and uh the psh they had an impressive 18-6 season and um congratulations to the coach and all uh the wrestlers and then finally the pH girls uh basketball team they were the Mercer County Invitational Champions um so uh congratulations uh to them and all the players okay with I'm glad to have so much to congratulate our students for as we start the meeting um so now we're going to move on
007to item uh two in the president's report which is student perspectives and I'm going to introduce uh Miss D Sebastian who is the seventh the eighth grade counselor in at uh the middle school and I will let you take it away please yeah hi hi I'm the 8th grade counselor yes and I'm also the advisor to the student advocacy club which is an anti-violent student-led anti-violence anti-bullying Club um a few of my students took the initiative to advocate for gender-neutral changing rooms at Princeton middle school and they researched in their own time and created a presentation one of my students is having some technical issues with their laptop so I think we are still prepared to go uh indeed Julia you think you're good if you want we could we could delay it do you
008want us do you want us to go to something else and then try to come back Indy what do you think um I can't hear you Wendy so yes maybe yeah why don't we come back okay okay because we always like to hear from students and we want to be able to hear them okay thank you yeah so we're going to move on now to um item F1 which is an addendum to the collective negotiations agreement uh with Pressa um is this a consent item or an action item Mr Bolden action great can I get a motion Betsy second Mara and I just want to say before we discuss on the agenda for board approval tonight as an addendum to the contract with the administrative support staff Union Presa this agenda increases the starting salaries
009of the instructional aides custodians and some secretaries this is an investment in our people while we are not a business school districts face some of the same challenges that businesses encounter with Rising inflation we have had difficulty hiring for some positions that that we did not have difficulty in the past uh the board on went to the union and asked uh to increase the starting salaries um of this instructional age because students and secretaries and the union agreed to that and we also ended up extending the contract for another year this will allow us to be competitive with other school districts in the area and hiring and keeping qualified staff to work with our students in recent years the board has been proactive with managing labor relations with our three labor unions whose membership has
010been a priority uh whose membership comprised almost all the 800 employees of the district it's been a priority of the board and I just want to thank the board for their dedication to the staff um an investment in our people all right so now we have a motion Mr Bolden Captain Kendall yes Betsy baglia yes Beth Barron yes Debbie bronfeld yes Gene Durbin yes Mara franceschi yes Ron McDonald yes Susan cancer yes Rob Christopher yes motion passes okay that's great thank you and we have two special guests tonight we have Ashanti Thompson uh and Eric karch um who are the co-presidents of the Union Presa and I don't know if you uh we want to thank you um Michelle Tech Ponder's not here tonight but she was my partner and the negotiations we want to
011thank you for your uh professionalism and uh willingness to do what we have to do um for the best interest of kids um so I don't know if you wanted to say something Ashante or Eric but we're glad that you joined us tonight no nothing no I'll say something I'll just say um thank you for um always trusting that um we will always be professional and thank you to the board for recognizing the importance of Presa um within each and every one of our buildings so we just appreciate working together with you um and always look to do what's best for the students thank you Ashante my only sadness is that we extended the contract a year and that'll be another year that I don't get to sit with you and talk that is always
012a joy foreign we do appreciate the support from the board and the administration and we look forward to moving the district forward and you know always providing a professional attitude toward the students and the staff and the guests yeah I mean we're very grateful for what your union members do for our kids so thank you we appreciate it all right um Miss D Sebastian are we good with our audio or do we need some more time um we went backwards one of the students got all blurry and disappeared uh Indy can you hear it can we hear you now uh can you hear me yeah all right all right yeah it looks like one of my students uh got kicked out they're trying to get back in oh and I just while we're waiting Dr
013Kelly reminded me that Princeton Middle School finished uh is it girls or boys Dr Kelly boys boys finish the season with the best record for the first time in school history the team made it to the middle school Mercer County basketball tournament finals so well done boys and thank you Dr Kelly for directing that oversight all right Miss uh D Sebastian I don't want me to sing all right Andy do you want to start it you did really well this afternoon all right okay and hopefully the other two will be able to get back in yeah okay Jules has just informed me that their Zoom is restarting okay yeah all three of them seem to be having a little trouble I see uh Indies keeps getting blurry as well go ahead all right we want
014to put up the PowerPoint Miss um D Sebastian yes please okay great Okay so this is our plan for uh gen neutral locker room uh just Jules Carmella Cass Alex uh also help make this presentation and cast angels are supposed to be here oh Jules is back in oh he's back in great hi I'm I just joined on this phone because my computer just kind of gave up on me so okay so here are some statistics about why we should have uh generator tool locker rooms so transgender and non-binary teenagers face a greater risk of sexual assault in schools that prevent them from using bathrooms or lock rooms consistent with their gender identity and uh here's a quote the sources are at the end of the slides by the way uh lgbtq plus students most
015commonly avoided school bathrooms locker rooms and physical education or Gym classes with approximately four in 10 students avoiding each of these spaces because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable uh among transgender and non-binary students those in schools with a transgender slash non-binary student policy or guidelines they are less likely to be prevented from using bathrooms align with their gender uh less likely befriended from using logarithms that lend with their gender and some more statistics are that 70 of transgender students say they've avoided school bathrooms because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable sixty percent of transgender students were forced to the bathroom or locker rooms that did not match their gender every day for transgender and non-binary students the the 12-month prevalence of sexual assault was 25.9 which is much higher than a national rate of 15 versus
016gender girls in high school and four percent for cisgender high school boys thank you okay back on my computer um so we did a few interviews with students um inside of PMs and um so some questions that we asked here um so I asked that how do you think a gender neutral locker room could benefit students at PMS and um an anonymous student said that um I think this school prided itself on being accepting and inclusive of all types of students and a lot of students don't feel comfortable changing in the two gender locker rooms provided by the school um yes there is an option to go um walk to the a-wing which is somewhat close and change into gender neutral bathroom but um it's small it's one stall and you're going to be walking
017down the hallways with um with just a swimsuit on so it's not really the ideal thing so um yeah they said that it would be they think that it was the important step in the right direction to make students feel more comfortable in general and um they said that they identify as genderqueer and it will make um them feel more comfortable being in the school and make them feel more welcome so uh this was an interview that casted with again an anonymous student so same question how do you think a neutral locker room could benefit students at PMS and the answer was uh I think that all students should have the same facilities and the right to take a shower and the generational bathrooms uh which is where a lot of gender non-conforming people change
018don't have that also there is a chance that when you go change someone will be using the bathroom which is especially uncomfortable if you're what Android B and cold in your bathing suit and it's uncomfortable to be in a bathing suit in the hallways even if you don't have to wait outside the bathroom and then how does this affect how how do you feel this issue affects you personally as someone who uses the donorial bathrooms both as bathrooms and changing rooms and as someone who's non-binary I feel like everyone will benefit from it it's uncomfortable to be in the hallways in just your bathing suit and if you need a change in someone you see in the bathroom or if you are using the bathroom and someone needs to change that is a very awkward
019moment and something else that the student Cass interviewed included was that once they were just like using the bathroom not as a changing room and they got out and there was another student who had been waiting in the hallway for a while because all of the general bathrooms had been taken and they were like really cold so we also did a video interview um so this is me oh I think you have to unmute yourself because we're not hearing it uh I should be immediate but I don't know if the sound is working on the video uh did you are you sharing your um computer sound it's in the uh well I'll try and find that interesting okay it should work now this is Julia savinski and Sarah chender um and I'm here to interview
020you about the idea of a dental neutral uh locker room here at PMS so how do you think a gender neutral locker room could benefit students here at PMS I mean it would definitely make people including myself feel a lot more comfortable doing swim teams Eric just even swim class when it's required and I think it would make students feel a lot more comfortable in their skin and their identity how do you feel this issue affects you personally well as somebody who has um agenda dysphoria and is gender neutral I feel like this would lessen my anxiety and it would just make me a bit of a happier person during swim season yeah so how would it really make you feel more comfortable um I think that it would make me feel more comfortable because
021um I don't have to constantly be worried about um like about if other people are looking or like other things I could just be comfortable like in my own skin and private I like that thank you for speaking with me Sarah no problem so here is our plan um we would like the current women's team room to be converted into a generation locker room uh the layout would be five bathroom stalls and five showers and we think it's a good idea to keep the men's team room for its original purpose so the wholesome team can choose that room a weird thing that we could possibly apply for a grant perhaps under accessibility for the money to convert to convert this room into an accessibility neutral locker room for anyone so uh there's a picture of
022the locker room and we were thinking we only need one we'll for one because you don't we you wouldn't actually like need to and also because since like currently it's a women's team room and men's team room it would probably end up unnecessarily gendering them which is exactly what we're trying to avoid foreign and that's it are there any questions well thank you very much um we love to hear from students and we appreciate your um advocacy for for other students and I guess my question is have you spoken to um Mr Burr about this and and what do you think the next steps are we I did share this with Mr Burr he said he was you know in support he was really proud of the students um and kind of advised us to
023take it to the next next step and uh bring it to the board um I just want to thank you both as well and and also Miss D Sebastian um I so appreciate your advocacy and also your Solutions oriented you're already thinking about grants which I think might make you an ideal board member someday you're a wonderful business manager at a school district or a superintendent so we need people like you to continue to advocate for for all students and you've done a great great first step here and we really appreciate we really appreciate it yes I'm really proud of all of them in the initiative yeah thanks Deb yeah I just want to thank you guys I think it's it's really beautiful that you created all this and brought it to us and um
024and you know what you did your facts you did your research and you really came with something and also I can tell how passionate you are and I'm excited for the board to kind of take it on the next step and see how you know we can work on this but um really really thank you for bringing it to our attention I think that's the key thing because I'm not in the middle school so I don't know that that's not there and we need that so I really want to thank you guys so and I would suggest um so um Mr McDonald oh Mr McDonald go ahead I was just going to ask for clarification from the board perspective and the administrative perspective what the next appropriate steps would be to pursue this um compelling
025uh concept so I was going to suggest to chime in they reach out to you Mr McDonald and Mrs Cantor as co-chairs of the operations committee and I'm not sure um because of the USA swimming rules that you can have I'm not sure how the USA swimming worlds works I'm not sure if you could convert a locker room um but um Mr McDonald and Mrs Kenner will definitely help guide you um Jules and indy uh and Misty Sebastian as to what if there is a location at the middle school that we could uh convert into a gender Mutual locker room what do you what do you think of that Mr Bolden I think it makes sense I uh Mr Burr had talked about uh some possibilities before relating to uh team room that might be
026uh renovated there are some definite uh ways we can uh work this through so we can add it to our operations agenda and I look forward to getting back to you and and we might have some further questions to follow up with you guys but we appreciate you coming to us as the first step and I'm sorry can we get the names again of who um we all should follow up with uh sure um Brian McDonald thank you uh Susan Cantor okay but I guarantee you they'll be reaching out to you and the operations committee meetings are eight o'clock in the morning right so Indian Jewels you could probably uh join for a little bit um maybe get a late pass yeah yeah okay um and they'll be in touch and then we could go
027from there but it's something you know the board supports um you know we want all kids it's awkward enough to be in Middle School in a bathing suit but it's even worse if you're standing in the hallway and we want to do whatever we can to help people feel more comfortable help students feel more comfortable in the building Gene thanks yeah I too wanted to thank you for the presentation and since I have you here I was hoping I could ask a question just about gender neutral bathrooms in the middle school and if there are enough of them if there's ever a line for them how they're used you know uh I wondered if you could share a little detail there because I too am not in the Middle School uh yeah sure so I
028think there's three they're pretty spread out around the school and for the most part they're fine it's just that like once somebody is using the one closest to your class you either have to go into a gendered bathroom or oh walk all the way to the other side of the school and also like I think this is generally applies to all middle school bathrooms they're not incredibly clean oh that's another issue for Mr McDonald and Mrs Kenner and Miss Bolden Mr Bolden yeah I mean like I feel that um often that if you wait like after um if you're waiting outside because someone's in there it's kind of like awkward if someone knocks and you have to be like in here or you know I feel like there could be like a few more because
029in like in some parts of the school there's just female male and you have to like walk all the way or wait and teachers don't want you to walk all the way because they don't want you missing that much class but then they also are mad at you when you come back and it took you like seven minutes to go to the bathroom because you're waiting for another person inside of it good point thank you all right many other questions no well we'll we'll definitely you'll be hearing from us but if it's not timely enough please don't hesitate to reach out and we really appreciate your letting us know of this concern and and we'll work with you to address it so thank you thank you thank you so much yeah thank you for allowing
030us the time and hearing us I really appreciate it good job guys great job thank you good night good night all right and with that I will turn it over to Dr Kelly for the superintendent's report thank you very much everyone Hi everyone I'm so sorry I'm not uh feeling well all of a sudden this evening so I have two items on the agenda I am super excited uh first I'd like to uh is Dr BJ there I think so I'm going to invite Dr BJ to just take the mic because we have some really important dates that we want to put on everyone's um uh radar Dr BJ good evening everyone thank you so much for giving me this um opportunity to share uh with everyone the exciting ways that we are trying to
031build capacity for our spring assessment our um assessment teams in every building has worked really hard to make sure that everyone is ready to do their best and that we shift the culture in our community to support gaining information about where students are and so coming up um in March March 13th is the beginning of the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment which is an 11th grade requirement for high school graduation um excuse me this year we hope to increase the number of students that not only take the assessment but especially in our most vulnerable populations but their actual performance and success on that assessment working with Dana Karis and Adam Rothschild we have begun and Cecilia Burge we have actually begun the process of preparing our school uh aligning it with our technology demand thank
032you Krista and Tech Team and getting ready for that the second major string of testing that will happen this spring is the New Jersey uh uh student learning standards assessments and those will be happening from May 1st through June 2nd that feels like a long time but it's spread out over several weeks and so what I'd like to do let me see if I can share my screen is point out a few really exciting updates that are happening to our school website so you will notice you will notice that this is where you can find information about njsla and the messaging has been converted to both Spanish and uh is available so that everyone gets an opportunity to see where we are so this access for English language Learners is happening now our New Jersey
033graduation proficiency assessment is happening March 13th through 17th with makeups there our Dynamic learning Maps April through May and here's the big one for for the New Jersey student learning assessments that will happen across all grade levels grades three through nine um and we are really excited about it so communicating that information here you can click and see the links we want to encourage families to understand that testing is not really uh the problem right it's an opportunity for us to recognize our greatness and identify places where we need to revisit some challenges and open new doors and so here is just a vision statement for our district where we're using large-scale assessment and the Technologies available to us to actually improve performance levels and identify growth areas for every child in our district and
034so all of these resources are available but we've also embedded links so that parents and caregivers can support their students at home by accessing things like practice tests so that if you know a little Saturday tour in each of the language areas excuse me each of the testing areas are available and we want to just really change the way we think about assessment in our district so that we can ultimately gain precious insight into how we can build programs for youth all year round hi Gene yes question hey there thank you for that um love the links so we know where to go I have a question about whether or not the tests are offered in Spanish yes they actually are so we have um Pearson who is the service provider for the New Jersey
035Department of Education makes assessments available in English and in Spanish and do kids just um volunteer which one they want or is it assigned in advance how does that work teachers and the the teachers that work most closely with families who speak other languages in this case Spanish they have a full sort of scope of what their learning needs are and so a teacher can actually and a counselor can make the request to have a student tested in Spanish but that's uh an accommodation that is most appropriate for ESL students typically that we make we so we have a system now where we can actually assign students who need uh Spanish transcribed text to a digital platform that will allow that Beth I see Beth Stan yeah thank you so much I just really appreciate
036this um idea of kind of an over thinking about it from a larger perspective and why we're doing the testing and I you know we've been asking I think I asked for this like five years ago that we would just say to parents here's what we do here's the overall picture of what your child is going to be tested on and here's why um I hope that you might also indicate in there some of those are mandatory by the state so we don't really have a choice as a district we've got to test them and I think some parents are always thinking well we do too much but actually I think we're really mandated to do most of it so it's helpful I think to indicate this is a state required testing and I think
037that there's some other testing that we then use as a diagnostic so I appreciate the um the transparency and the information on the website so thank you so much thank you yeah I think it's it's one one important thing that we are trying to do um and to mitigate what we think is an increase in test anxiety and fear around testing and if we you know I think of it in the same way that I think about discipline discipline um can be a good thing if it's going to cause you to do something different and for me for example my new discipline this year is to exercise every day so it's it's a way of punishing My Flesh while at the same time rewarding my entire body I'm testing in in a very similar way
038gaining insight into what I actually know may feel at first like a punishment however because we do everything digitally now we have the ability to have results in much faster in real time that would allow us to sort of say oh okay I need to do this thing differently and so as we get more efficient at communicating those results then I think it'll it'll take care of itself and more people will recognize their value foreign thank you thank you so I want to thank Dr Joy if okay I will go to the next item on the superintendent's report uh if I can share my screen I am really pleased to present to the board and also the uh Community uh this evening our new uh strategic plan for the board's consideration and uh hopefully your
039approval by clarifying the goals and measures of student achievement and by outlining a roadmap for establishing annual priorities and action plans our strategic plan will focus on the district's promise of delivering high quality education for all of our students enhancing their plans posts High School graduation increasing student academic achievement and building Equitable learning experiences the plan if you recall was developed by embracing diverse voices within our community uh it took a little bit longer uh than perhaps the traditional process to uh do a strategic plan uh we began almost if you think about it a year ago with collecting uh information via survey and we continued our meetings through almost the beginning of February of 2023. the plan was developed by a diverse team members and I would like to thank every member of each
040team whether it was students who met in focus groups or students who took a survey if you were a member of our core planning team our instructional Focus team our supervisors and school leaders our alignment teams uh the board I especially would like to think because they set through many a meetings and we also conducted Community forums so all of the community members our families our students that came out and provided input during those forms and obviously our cabinet team provided input as well uh these teams that individuals uh engage in a data driven Equity Focus planning process and the ultimate product or result is the final draft that is posted and the agenda item G2 and I am coming to the board this evening for approval it is on our consent agenda you will
041see as you go through the the highlighted recommendations in the plan that at the center of our strategic plan would be everything that we plan to do for student learning that is inclusive of our promise our portrait of a graduate our Universal goals and measures of Student Success and our performance or we like to call them our excellent targets you will also see that this is an Adaptive plan and that basically means that at the start of each school year every school every department will prepare and present to the board for approval an annual action plan outlining our priorities and performance indicators for the year which we then using an Adaptive approach plan to create a system a discipline system uh communicating and collaborating with our board our Educators administrators parents and the community at
042Large to present our progress as well as outline what we're learning and use that learning in a cyclical reiterative process of planning for the upcoming school year so I'm not going to go in depth with what's uh all the goals you can follow that uh this evening and I have shared a copy of the plan with the board if you are watching by way of the community I would love to invite you to the February 27th state of the district as well as the Highlight or launch of our strategic plan at the high school beginning at 6 pm and concluding at 8 pm but now I'd just like to pause for any questions that the board might have about the Strategic plan no well thank you Dr Kelly I think uh we all like you
043said we're involved in many many meetings and we appreciate uh the collaborative approach um that you had uh throughout the process thank you that concludes my presentation for tonight okay um thank you Dr Kelly all right now we will move on to item H1 the student board member report and uh with Andre and Rohan and Rohan when you emailed us and said um that you have the basketball game go uh as we we were out but we lost by one okay oh I'm sorry to hear that but I was gonna say don't worry you could go into overtime and you're so your support yeah we have a long meeting tonight but anyway I'll turn it over to you and Andre oh yeah good evening everyone just want to first thank you guys again for all
044your continued service to our school we really appreciate it uh we just have a relatively short update for you guys on the mental health resources that we talked about last meeting uh we have begun spreading it on our stuco social medias and personal um Medias and to our peers through messaging and we are working to continue its spread yeah and then also just in terms of like what we updated from when we showed it to you guys we um added the name of the new um services coordinator who's like Miss Parker um we also added the um suicide hotline number which is 98 988 um and um yeah that's basically the only changes we made to the um to the uh the resource after we showed it to you guys yeah um yeah and we're
045also working with the administration to introduce the resource to the bathroom as always and the schmeel shreel and also a few counselors have actually reached out to us about um spreading it within the counseling department as well so we're gonna pursue that as well yep and then also we're still like working on like brainstorming like what other initiatives we could do for students and for the school um during the rest of the year and we're excited to keep working with the board yeah that's it that's it well thank you for the update and I just want to know um did you put those uh stickers in the bathrooms or where are they are they up yet um that's what we want uh to talk about because we don't know like the logistics of like who
046needs to be approved uh things to be put up in the bathrooms because like social media is easier but that's why we're gonna talk to Shamil before the next meeting too uh or some Administration to get those out all right well doctor two can help too oh okay yep so well definitely send out an email okay that's great well thank you so much we really appreciate the update and Rohan you're late to the meeting and you missed the congratulations on your um National Merit um scholarship finalists so thank you very much thank you exactly we're very proud of you thank you so much oh all right um and with that let me get back to um we're gonna move on now to Mr Boldin with um discussion of the acfr AMR and corrective action plan
047thank you so uh tough act to follow after the uh students and the other students earlier so uh real quickly we are required to discuss the audit we do have the Auditors each year come out and operations uh we do have new Auditors this year so we've made a change it's been over a decade uh with our so every year we have to have an annual external audit um there are of course many audits that governments are subject to uh the state various agencies Etc but this is our annual uh external annual comprehensive financial report audit um they look at compliance issues and they issue two reports the 169-page akfer which was distributed to the board each year the board has to accept both reports the second report is a smaller more concise audit managers
048management report which goes over um specific compliance requirements that are external Auditors nissavachi and Company are required to apply on uh there was one uh finding a corrective action plan we're asking the board to accept it is required it is related to a uh to um each year basically it was a kind of a newer take on it that uh the new firm had versus our old firm that we are required to so if we paid a teacher like some of the larger urban and rural districts that get a lot of uh Title One Aid uh hire teachers um and so if we pay staff directly out of that Federal grant we're required to uh send in this form and we're required to reimburse the state for the um features pension and annuity fund and
049the Social Security payments the state as uh some of the board knows um definitely operations committee knows pays for every certif uh certified teacher and administrators uh pension contributions not the individual's requirement but the district's payment of those pension and also Social Security funds uh we didn't have any people that we were required to remit those funds to the state however uh nisavachi pointed out that it it is a requirement regardless if there are funds that are due uh to the state essentially it's viewed as double dipping if the state uh pays those funds on behalf of the teachers if we get federal funds then um and we are required to remit that portion which is a lot of money uh back to the state um I also wanted to briefly go over the uh
050financials just trying to find the zoom's always fun here we go nope there we go real quick so the uh operating results for uh June 30th 2022 show uh operating uh excessive revenues over um expenditures of uh uh 1.35 million however we did uh expend a lot of money on capital reserve projects um uh over uh I think I was doing everything else off my head uh we did a lot of HVAC um that yeah that's right it was about 700 000 in HVAC uh repairs we also did about um 900 000 for the pool HVAC system which was uh I hear a big Improvement um one of the things that the Middle School uh prior to uh me starting here was that you could smell chlorine in the hallways at the middle school that's
051dissipated um so those uh things we did some roof work at the high school so net we've uh expended down our fund balance uh about a million dollars but most of that on needed Capital Improvements um that's really the highlight of the two things uh while asking the board to uh accept the audit report it was distributed a couple weeks ago um and I'll take any questions uh from the board members relating to audits seeing none uh Brian uh not really a question I I just and Susan will say more about this later but we did receive a 45 minute presentation from the Auditors um that was very thorough we did ask questions um and um most of us have reviewed the two reports that Matt referenced and um while one of them is very
052long it's also very good and has a lot of helpful information and um while I wouldn't sort of encourage you to do it right before you're going to bed um it is it is um worth a read if you can find some time because it prevents presents a very clear um kind of look at The District's finances and we're grateful um to Matt and his team for all the work that they did to prepare for the honor are you inferring that it's uh somewhat mild reading uh it's I found it to be scintillating I'm just not sure that others others would feel the same way got it any other questions thank you so much Matt uh really for a great job one area we really um leave in your good hands thank you and I
053can tell you from first-hand experience it doesn't smell like chlorine in the hallways and it's much cooler upstairs and clearly it's making the kids much faster oh there you go yeah there you go all right uh so now we're going to move on to item uh J1 uh public forum uh public comment on agenda items I don't know um so I was just asked to please just say um the street live on uh your name and please uh keep the three minutes or less Mr Bolden Jail North yes hi my name is Jill North I live on Sycamore Road and I have two kids in the Princeton Public Schools I have a comment about the Strategic plan I'm concerned about how the district plans to achieve the goal of 90 participation in advanced classes as
054it says in the current version of the Strategic plan I have a sixth grader who placed into a math class that is called pre-algebra accelerated this year this class was created a few years ago out of what used to be two distinct levels of math instruction in sixth grade in other words it was created by D tracking sixth grade mathematics so that all sixth graders except for the few who place into seventh grade math are lumped together into one class that is called accelerated in my own child's case this has been a disaster she has spent the entire year sitting through class time entirely devoted to materials she already knows the only way she learns anything new and I should say this is through the heroic efforts of her wonderful teacher is by means of
055extra credit worksheets I think this is completely unacceptable and yet it should be clear how D tracking sixth grade math has furthered the goal of having more students in advanced classes simply by slapping an advanced label on a class that has no actual course time devoted to Advanced material real increased representation in advanced classes is a worthy and important goal but the way the district has been doing this so far is not working and it also goes against the goal something that's also stated in the current strategic plan of giving quote every student access to challenging academic programs my child has not had that access I would like to ask the board and the administration to consider first of all reinstating different levels of math courses in sixth grade and second to rethink the goals
056of the Strategic plan so that it is absolutely clear that increasing the number of students in advanced classes cannot be achieved simply by watering down courses and calling them Advanced for my own experience of the district's approach so far has been a case of exactly this with my child receiving no new instruction in regular math class time for a whole year thank you Joe we want to just for a minute just comment on um our math review and I just I do want to say Jill that those changes um at the middle school happen I think in 2018 and and really the goal um was to improve transitions um but Dr two would you just comment on um you know we realized that um especially the Middle School um the curriculum needs to be looked
057at and so I'll let Dr Chu explain what the steps are um so we put out an RFP um twice um our first go-around wasn't exactly what we were looking for because we had it bundled with science that was back in December and we put out a singular RFP um to look specifically at grades three through eight math inclusive of computer science as well a small Committee of Representative board members from sac and administrators looked at some of the proposals and then we have a full Sac team as well as admin and District education educators are going to be interviewing two top finalists to conduct a math program evaluation depending on the successful finalist that would start happening April and May this year and go in probably into the the next school year and one
058of the things that we are going to be looking at is course alignment and course sequencing at the middle school level the other thing is if um if you are a Middle School Parent we did um I think it went out today from the middle school and for Rising sixth graders we are going to have a math placement night that will be a webinar format so that people can attend from from home or traveling or wherever it may be and if they can attend it can be it will be recorded and posted on our website and that will be Thursday March 23rd at 7 pm and that will be about our current programming and just trying to be more transparent about timelines about rubrics and about placement processes at that Middle School level thank you
059Dr too you're welcome Dr Kelly I also um just wanted to say that the board Miss North and those that are in the community are listening have also supported the district in making sure that we are attending to the needs of all of our students so we um have recently received approval to hire another staff member to help support the quest program um and uh Dr two could speak about that a little bit um later in addition to that I know that she will be leading several staff members and administrators with visiting various districts um beginning in March uh looking at different programs where we are teaching mathematics by using a workshop approach again making sure that we are attending to all of our students needs um so you know there's a lot more that
060we could share with you again please come out on February 27th at the high school 6 p.m uh you'll get a chance to meet a lot of Administrators as well as hear more of the things that are currently being done as well as what those administrators are looking forward to in light of our new strategic plan thank you Dr Kelly you muted Mr Bolden Lisa Jack now hi thank you um I actually wanted to Echo the concerns of the first caller when I looked through the final strategic plan that was something that really stood out at me of having 90 of our students and accelerated or advanced classes well I think it's a it's a beautiful goal I think that the point of a strategic plan is to have realistic goals I don't think 90
061of our students want to or are necessarily capable of being an advanced or accelerated classes so if we set a percentage that's unrealistic I think we're in like the 70 percentage range now or something if we set a percentage that's unrealistic are we going to then try to dumb things down later to be able to meet those goals that's I I'm just very concerned of how we're going to meet goals that are set that are that that really appear unrealistic for example I don't have it right in front of me but I think there was a goal for a hundred percent of students to be College ready in ninth and 10th grade um how can 100 of students ever do anything we don't have a hundred percent of students showing up for school every day
062I I just think having a goal of a hundred percent well ideally we would love that isn't really realistic um so I guess my my final question is just you know as we have a plan to start sharing the Strategic plan with the public on the 27th in terms of some announcements at the meeting is there room for the board to have any questions on this plan to be able to go back and change anything or is it an automatic we have to approve it tonight so we can start moving forward I know it's been going on for a year I've been involved in it um and I would love to see it final and move forward but I want to make sure that we don't finalize it unless everybody really agrees and feels that
063everything in there is how it should finally be thank you so at least I'll just say that first of all I think a strategic plan actually should be aspirational um everything else is like perfunctory and and and wrote and you know um but a strategic plan should be aspirational and we do Aspire for you know um all our kids to have the chance to succeed and if you were following the meetings which I know you were you know that um you know the board um has some questions about proportionality and this and that and so I'm not going to speak for the board I speak for myself uh we've all raised many questions um we all live in this District we all love this District all our kids went through the district and uh we
064wanted to see the the district's um reputation for excellence continue but we also um know historically we have not served all kids well and um I think you know that's something that we want to do um so uh thank you for sharing your concerns um and I think the board vote will tell you um how the board members feel about it Mr Bolden do we have another talker uh yes Linda Dot um yes I've also participated in this process for um several months off and on I appreciate all the work that went into it um I think that a lot of members um of the board and some of the new and long-standing members of the Princeton Public Schools know that behind the scenes I have also been advocating for more rigor uh beginning in
065kindergarten um and continuing on through High School at the same time I don't think that this is an either or issue I think um what I'd like to see and you know time will tell uh is that more students are prepared for the most rigorous classes I you know as a college professor um have seen students who are underestimated counted out and really left behind flourish with the right resources and have performed um equally um um or much better than their peers and I have been a professor at Princeton and CUNY and I have seen this happen time and time again so I hope that we will go into these debates about new curricula options for science for math I hope that we revisit social studies and English there are great high quality instructional materials
066out there that will help prepare students better for some of the most rigorous classes in the school district I really really think this is a both and issue and um I certainly don't think my son would be harmed um to to be in a class with more diverse students that is also rigorous and I don't think that we should have any kind of Advance um judgments about who belongs in certain classes and who doesn't I I think that if you are a doubter uh these kids are going to prove you wrong thanks all right thank you and do you have anyone else I'll just give it a second because I'm always proven wrong no we're good all right we're going to move on now uh item K1 is harassment intimidation bullying is that action that
067is an action item do we want to vote on that now Mr Bolden we do can I get a motion please Brian second Beth Daphne Kendall yes what's your bag wheel yes at Baron yes yes in Durbin uh I'm unclear what we're voting on are we voting on a block or are we voting on a single uh single issue no we're voting on a block um I think we need to separate it out it is that's what we're doing now is this the block yeah there will be something separate coming after I'm sorry I can't see it on the agenda so I I don't know it's all the hibs uh that are um that we discussed in closed session yeah and I wanted to abstain on one uh okay I think you can just say
068the one that you want to abstain on is that right Mr Bolden I don't know what that is until we call it out right we don't call it out though don't you aren't they numbered yes that would be on the report that's an executive session I believe it's eight or I don't know Betsy do you know which one um I'm I'm wondering I think there were two questions we had an executive session one was on number eight and one was one from a different year which ones did you want to abstain on um Ms Durbin the different year got it it will be marked that way thanks thank you Mr Bolden yes for the others got it uh Mara franceschi yes uh Brian McDonald yes who's in Canter yes Bob Christopher uh I'll vote similar
069to the gene uh I'll abstain on the one from uh previous year and yes to the others it will be marked that way thank you Mr Bolden all right where are we now oh board committee highlights all right and we're going to start uh with the long-term planning Beth Behrens and Brian McDonald and I'll just preface it by saying um we were gonna we're and I know you guys will mention it but just in case you don't uh we're gonna have a more robust board discussion at a future meeting once we pick the date but about the demographic enrollments go ahead I think I'll take it tonight if that's okay with Beth um the full board received the updated demographic projections from our demographers at the firm slam slam on February 7th this update can
070be viewed as part of the February 7th board meeting recording that is available on the board section of the district website the committee has not met this month we will hold an open committee meeting that's now confirmed on Tuesday March 21st at 6 pm to which we invite the full board and the public to discuss next steps in the facilities planning process in support of the district's new strategic plan and informed by the updated demographic projections we look forward to continued Community Partnership in providing appropriate teaching and learning spaces for the years to come in a timely cost-effective manner and consistent with the board's approach to planning in recent years we anticipate three things first looking at solutions that do not require the modification or expansion of our schools an example of this is the
071scheduling changes made at the middle school two years ago that significantly expanded capacity two exploring solutions that maximize the use of existing space an excellent example is the successful renovation of the old library at the middle school that created four new flexible classroom spaces and three if needed we will investigate potential solutions that require some expansion of existing school facilities an example of this is the four new classrooms at the high school that are part of a new second floor edition of an existing Wing we look forward to discussing these topics and others on the 21st of March at 6 pm thank you very much all right thank you Brian next up is operations with Susan and Brian co-chairs I am going to take this one and as always Brian feel free to chime in
072um I will start by saying the committee met in closed session on February 14th and is continuing that closed session meeting tomorrow morning at 8 A.M uh Matt we might have one or two agenda items that need to be added based upon uh this meeting so far tonight but our topics of our last meeting included um the the annual meeting with our Auditors um and they presented a comprehend the annual Financial comprehensive financial report and the orders management report uh this was a very thorough presentation there were no major findings in our business office was once again complemented for their professionalism and thoroughness and we also complement them for those attributes as well on the 2022 referendum we do have an update that is on tonight's agenda the referendum on the on tonight's agenda the
073Administration has recommended that we reject the sole bid that was received to replace the roofs and eight-track units at several of our schools uh for work that was to be done this coming summer the bid was two million dollars over budget we were told that can continuing long lead times on HVAC equipment were problematic these projects will be be rebid no later than this fall and possibly sooner unfortunately this means that most of the work will not be completed until the summer of 2024 rather than this coming summer Matt and his team are trying to see if it is possible to get some of the smaller discrete projects done this coming summer including the siding and related work at some of the elementary schools and the masonry repair at the high school we then began
074discussion about major maintenance and small capital projects that may require attention sooner rather than later and two potential funding sources our major maintenance fund and a possible small future referendum this discussion will continue tomorrow we will also be discussing some of the parameters around the creation of the current budget that will be presented on March 14th for preliminary board approval before submission to the county and the state for review final approval of that budget is scheduled for April 25th thank you thank you Susan can I ask a question uh you mentioned a possible uh future referendum can you like share what kind of items would be addressed in something like that a possibility I mean we were going to discuss that on March May 1st because that's part of what we were looking at with
075Matt but it could be security enhancements in our buildings it could be changes to our space like cafeteria improvements at the high school to better serve our students it could be um an update of uh you know you know the roof work or things that are wow I guess unless we're going through right now right and this is something that you were planning prior to the demographic report absolutely these are again these are not chain these would not be things related to the demographic report dedic related to either students that are currently exist in our schools to make their experience better it would be for Safety and Security and it would be for maintenance the continued Focus that the district has on maintaining their our buildings this any discussions of changes based upon the demographic
076report are obviously a little further out if if we're going to need to do any of those I know one thing we've heard from our student um board reps is the Wi-Fi the tech is on that list and just if just so the community is aware of the cost what would it cost to upgrade our Wi-Fi at the or approximately Matt has at least a half million dollars and is that just because of technology or is that because the building's so old and or is it combination upgraded the infrastructure um you know from one to ten gigs so uh a lot of um switches need to be replaced okay all right thank you for the time these are exactly the types of things that um we've been looking at or the administration's been coming to
077us uh and we're looking at the time frames so that we can best uh make these changes and that discussion will continue and then be brought to the full board obviously um when the administration's ready okay sounds good thank you very much um moving on now to um personnel with chair W Brownfield and Mara yep and Mara I'm sorry Mara it's still February the Personnel committee met on Thursday no um February 9th we discussed additional staff needs in the district Dr two shared the 2022-2023 non-tenure review process with the committee the committee was updated on the Riverside Elementary principal search the committee was updated on the assistant superintendent of HR search the committee heard how the HR department is preparing for Cusack and working on the comprehensive Equity plan the committee heard how codes of
078conduct for family handbook are being reviewed the committee was informed about several job fairs that the district will be attending and setting up ourselves they include TCNJ writer CJ pride and Princeton's own job fair and I personally want to thank Maria Hernandez who is on our retirement list this year tonight for all her help as I've been on Personnel for several years so thank you that's it thank you Debbie uh moving on to policy with co-chairs Beth Baron and Gene Durbin hi there um we met on February 10th at 8 15. uh we're going to next meet on March 17th at 8 15 in the morning um on February 10th we reviewed again the Strauss May policy alert 229 this policies are on for second read uh tonight um and we talked about the sustainability
079policy that will be um rolling out uh safe routes to school policy um a question of free speech and expression in the schools came up and a discussion about virtual meetings after the state of emergency is over and whether or not you can vote if we are in a hybrid State um uh as a board of education member um you know if we have a hybrid meeting and or you're calling in from a telephone for example are you able to vote uh once the state of emergency is over um getting clarification on that and we also talked about um some governance issues um setting Retreat dates in the board calendar so we can be better prepared for planning each year thanks thank you Gene um moving on um I'm sorry it's I know it's student
080achievement but I just want to make sure with co-chairs Betsy baglio and Michelle took Ponder great thank you um we met on February 3rd we we now meet on Fridays at 11 30. um on our public agenda we um spoke about the quest program that Dr Kelly mentioned earlier our elementary supervisor Sarah Moore came to talk with us about plans to develop a committee and Lead work for the K-5 tier three enrichment program also known as gift and talented education here we're calling it Quest and we eagerly anticipate our new um our new staff member joining us to lead that program which is very exciting um Dr Joy Barnes Johnson came to talk about the science department vision and goals science programming and departmental goals and she also told us about summer programming and then
081something on the agenda for approval this evening is the Colmar Exchange in November of 2023 that trip is back post pandemic and Priscilla Russell came to share information about about what that exchange will look like this year then we did adjourn into closed session we meet again on Friday March 10th at 11 30. it's on zoom and the public is welcome to attend thank you very much Betsy any questions no all right well thank you thank you everyone I mean it's amazing the amount of time and effort we all put into the to our board work so and it doesn't get we don't get thanked enough so thank you um moving on now to item N1 policies for second reading no all right I'm just gonna go now and uh I'm reading so if you
082need want to say something just say hey you all right and one resignations and two retirements I also want to wish uh Maria Hernandez a a long and healthy retirement we really enjoyed working with her um and three appointments and for transfer reassignments and five leave of absence and six Personnel item and seven substitute teachers and eight athletic appointments and nine student services and 10 curriculum and instruction and 11 presses salary revisions um now moving on to item uh one student day field trips O2 student overnight trips O3 Grant application Amendment uh and 04 uh student disciplinary item moving on to item uh P1 educational placement of pupils uh P2 professional Consulting Services silvergate prep um q1 Financial reports uh is an action item can I get a motion please uh Rob second Brian Captain
083Kendall abstain Betsy baglio yes that's Baron yes Debbie Brownfield yes Dean Durbin yes Mario franceschi Brian McDonald yes this is a cancer yes Bob Christopher yes motion right moving on to item Q2 I know School District audit annual Q3 annual School District audit management management report to for fire and evacuation drills to five uh registration and travel agenda uh uh to six Transportation agreement Q7 renewal Transportation contract Q8 joint Transportation agreement q9 rejection of bids Q10 purchase of various items from maintenance Reserve q11 renewal of athletic transportation all right um and with that we move on to our second um public comment do we have any takers Mr Bolden all right we have one please just um I've been very relaxed and not asking people to uh say the street um but they live on
084or the town and I get chastise a little bit so please just say uh your name and the street you live on and the town you live in and please try to keep your comments to three minutes or less thank you yes good evening my name is Anne Morrell and I live on Nassau Street um and so I have a question I am the mother of two um the oldest one uh graduated from PHS almost two years ago the other one is so for more um at PHS and uh I have a question for the board um about something that has happened to us um So and I've been in touch with the school counselor and with Mrs band sorry DR Boss Johnson about this and they've been very helpful uh but still don't completely
085understand the process so let me tell you what I know so my son who's now in college um was able to do the following at the high school he took bioexcel in freshman year then he took um chemical as a sophomore and then he was able to enroll in AP Physics one uh as a junior and um so my second Son who's now so for more wanted to do the same thing his brother did but then we found out that it was not possible anymore there had been a change in the program of studies and now to take AP Physics one we first have to take physics Excel so I've been in touch you know Mrs Dr Bond Johnson was very helpful you know this looks like there are ways out of this maybe we
086can you know we can test and anyway there seems to be you know ways out of this but I've just been wondering about the reason for this change and also how do we keep informed of those changes because you know those this took us quite blindsided and so if there is a place where we can go and know what's going on and what's going to happen in the next year or two that would be helpful thank you all right thank you um so the course of study changes um every year and I think I don't know Dr Chu I don't know if you know if there have been changes and I mean AP Physics as a junior so um this we talked about this at Sac um this month um so I know that Dr
087Barnes Johnson talked to Rising 8th graders and so what I'm going to um ask her to do is to provide a blurb for the board update for those who are not a part of the um Sac committee sort of explaining it yes sorry as well as you know parent um communication um the one thing that I know that um as what was shown in Sac was data from our AP Physics showing that our students really didn't have the foundational pieces compared to our other AP science courses and meeting success and I believe years ago we did have an accelerated Physics course um that kind of got phased away um so there are alternative Pathways that you mentioned um so I think maybe that needs to be spelled out a little bit to Rising sophomores and
088juniors um and I ironically got stopped at Costco this weekend and got the same question so to me uh obviously Oh My Goodness Communication needs to be put out there in the freezer section I was not prepared so um so yes I think uh thank you for bringing that up and I think yes more communication is definitely warranted and we want to make sure students know what their options are um to talk about AP Physics so thank you thank you Dr Sue um I hope that answers your question if not I encourage you to reach out to Dr Barnes Johnson um and Dr two offline uh to discuss your concerns in more detail all right thank you you're welcome all right to anyone else all right with that can I get um and we're moving
089to S1 consent vote approved consent agenda items can I get a motion please Maura second Brian after the candle yes that's your bag wheel yes that's barund yes Debbie braunfeld yes Gene Durbin yes Omar franchesky yes Brian McDonald yes she's in cancer yes Bob Christopher yes our consent agenda passes Mr Bolden um so Dr Kelly so February 27th at the high school at six o'clock um is there a zoom option uh someone asked me I I forgot to ask you is um option they're gonna like miss all the like Emperors no no I know but it's gonna be Facebook live okay all right thank you yeah no Zoom but we're looking forward to seeing everyone in person um on the 27th at six o'clock no Zoom but Facebook live great they get to meet board
090members and pictures that's not selling point I think all the administrators will be there they know to go to Costco if they want to see doctor too well I have lots of student performers so I think it will be a nice Fellowship uh opportunity for the community if they're able to make it yeah well we look forward to seeing everyone there uh and with that can I get a motion to adjourn you guys have to think about it we can I can keep talking no Gene second Beth and everyone in favor unanimous unanimous good night everyone thank you