001great welcome welcome everyone welcome to this meeting of the the public meeting of the Princeton Board of Education this board is an elected unpaid group of 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 when the members of the community attend our meetings the board in 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 the right to limit the time allotted to public participation law limits discussion of individual personnel and confidential matters we desire that our meetings provide useful opportunities for
002communication between the board and the community thank you for attending as required under the open public meeting act n JSA 10 for six that sequential adequate notice was given for calling this meeting it was authorized by the Board of Education and forwarded to the municipal clerk Princeton packet and The Times On January 9 to 2020 and 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 22:30 recording devices requires that we inform those attending this virtual zoo meaning that the proceedings are being recorded this meeting is not being live-streamed the representatives of the sending representative of the sending district is authorized to vote on such matters that affects sending district students or affect the
003governance of the Princeton public schools as more specifically designated in NJ sa 18 838 8.1 in the event that this statute is amended the law shall take precedence over the bylaw sending district votes pertaining to personnel actions refer to high school Central Admin and district-wide staff only both otherwise are considered abstentions would you like to come the roll please yes bath parent here Debbie Brown fell here and art here Jess storage that's you bag wheel here by McDonald Michele talk ponder as it Peter cats Daphna Kendall here Susan Cantor here thank you the first item on our agenda is the adoption of the minutes from May 26 2020 can I have a motion please Bryan second Betsy any discussion if you could call the roll please on the vote bath Barron yes Debbie Brown so
004yes and art yes Jess storage yes that's your bag wheel yes Ryan McDonald yes Michelle tuck ponder yes Daphne Kendall yes Susan cancer yes motion passes thank you the next item is I guess the last and final report from our student board members Mateo and Charlie hello so we just have a couple things to cover that have happened since the last meeting just pertaining to student council so and the whole student body I guess so the graduation virtual ceremony is going to be held on the 16th it'll be virtual and I can't remember whether this happened this has happened since our last meeting or before our last meeting but students have been going to the school and getting filmed receiving their their diplomas and turning the tassel on their caps so we think that the
005school has done a really great job trying to give us as close as possible to a real graduation ceremony and I think they made it feel pretty special which is great um the since our last meeting there's also been the senior award ceremonies and the gold key award ceremony which were both virtual and I was also able to present a gold key award to Matteo so congrats you tomorrow Charlie had a wonderful speech and it was actually absolutely lovely so I'm so glad that you and my grades on coal EA's on for this year so thank you thank you um and now I'll give it over to Matteo alrighty so we're gonna conclude our last support by thanking everyone in the board for the hospitality all of you show Charlie and I beginning this year
006as we embarked on our June journey as a student representatives but weren't Charley and I did this year to help address some of the most pressing issues affecting our student body would not have been possible without the support of the Board of Education so from the bottom of our hearts thank you so much and in spite of the coronavirus crisis we are really grateful that we are still able to be included in the conversations and we are still able to report back to student council on everything that's going on in the district and not only on behalf of me and Matteo but on behalf of the entire student council we're so grateful for this opportunity and just like a great way to like hold a relationship between the board and the students so thank you
007very much thank you thank you Charlie and Matteo I I'm going to take the liberty here of bringing up the part of part of our agenda that says recognition and tribute of departing student board members so I hope that the board will join me in in thanking both of you for attending our meetings for sitting for hours and listening to all of our business but bringing to our meeting such an important element which is the real voice of students and it's to have you two sitting at the table I know for me it makes it a lot more real in terms of what we're doing and I'm grateful for the time that you've put in and the patience you've had and and coming to our many meetings we have more and then ever this year
008then I think we've had before and it's just been a real pleasure having you having you work with us so thank you with other board members like to comment let's jump in and say we are so grateful as Beth said to have your voice represented here so thanks so much for doing it so thoughtfully and responsibly and and in for coming to all of our meetings we appreciate and I just want to wish you both the best of luck in the future I'm sure you're gonna do great things and I can't wait to see what they are so good luck and I've known Matteo for a long time they've seen him fly around ice drinks since he was probably about three and a half feet tall and it's been amazing to watch his journey journey
009like a lot of our kids you know who kind of grow and thrive in our schools and it's wonderful Matteo that you know you've been able to serve in this role and do so many things for the district and Charlie I think that most of what you said about Matteo was true and wish we had recorded what they said about you last year with the gold key because it's really been great to get to know you and I'm grateful for all of your work Thank You mr. MacDonald thank you so much yeah Nolan what do what do you your plans for beyond high school I'll start then um so I'm gonna be attending do University of Miami I plan to study sport ministration there but I'm still unsure of whether I want to do that
010or exercise physiology in terms like training I'm really interested in the business aspect of sports especially marketing selling the product that's what I love doing so I'm hoping that all goes well next four years I'm going to be on campus I don't know if it's the same for Charlie but um for us we're gonna have a few classes online while we're on campus and then a few minutes and so it should be interesting for the first semester yeah yeah let us know I will definitely keep you updated yeah um so I still don't know whether or not I'm gonna be on campus or not but I'm going to George sound next year and hoping I don't know what I'm gonna study either so I'm hoping to I don't know maybe study law or something to
011do with government not sure yet okay yeah that's great yeah well this prepared you well congratulations both of you thank you this is definitely a wonderful experience especially in terms of public speaking one of the most important skills in life as well yes thank you to all of you and I hope you guys stay in touch with us and that may be who knows in 10 years in 20 years you might decide and you find your community where you live and raise your families and that you might want to do this type of service again that you've seen what it's like you know I think all of us on this board would would would encourage you to remember this and hopefully serve your community when you are you know done with your education and settled
012down and because this type of public service is really important so thank you for joining it and doing it at this time in your life so big round of applause these guys good luck thank you okay and the next item we have kind of at the beginning of our meeting is something very positive and it involves it involves a very exciting project that was completed last year at the Johnson Park school and let me just look at my agenda and could I have a motion for us to consider before we discuss this the JW amphitheater naming a Dan and second Daphna are there so we will have some discussion of this item and I think there's some members of our audience who would like to lead that or go first may I could you bring
013them in so they they just texted me that there's coverage is very bad they're actually not at home they asked for us to read it for them so I don't know if you have that yes the reception isn't great if I have their letter to us I probably could find it if I I look I can pull that up as well it's on the agenda if you want me to read it oh well I can yeah they sent us a letter it's right in the agenda it's right there well this is actually from that was the letter press release about it but it's a it's a good one so shall I read some of that we so just to give some background we were contacted by the Johnson Park PTO and who asked us to
014consider whether it would be possible to name the amphitheater after dr. Ginsberg who has served as the principal of Johnson Park Elementary for twenty-one years and is beloved by that community and they are grateful for all of his contributions and he is moving on to replace a citizen superintendent and Gonzales Kosek who's retiring at the end of June and he will be joining the team at Valley Road and what else can I read or shall I read from the press release Daphna you want to hope I could just say that I spoke with the PTA the co-president of the PTO and they they were Bob a little annoyed with your timing because as you know they just fixed the foundation of amphitheater and had they known that you'd be moving on they would have taken
015the time to put a G in there but I think that ship has sailed we had some miscommunication I think with the PTO as far as I thought this was going to be on the 23rd right I have the letter in front of me I'm happy to I'm happy to read it yes they did think it was it was going on the 23rd so and they're happy it's on tonight but they just don't happen to have great reception so let me read to you into the public it says dear Beth 10th fellow members of the Board of Education we're writing this letter to request approval to name the Johnson Park amphitheater the dr. Robert Ginsberg amphitheater at Johnson Park as you are well aware dr. Ginsberg will leave our beloved school in just a few
016weeks dr. G is the heart and soul of Johnson Park served the commute JP community for 21 years he is not just the glue but the very fabric that has made JP what it is today he has weaved packed the tapestry of amazing teachers and staff engage parents encouraged and delighted in their involvement and has touched the lives of countless children unlike any other dr. G embodies our district beliefs and is a champion of equity and a force of good he continues to instill a love of learning as he strives to make an impact on our children's lives he knows every child and works tirelessly to leave no youngster behind dr. G will only be a phone call away but he'll be missed more than we can imagine and his foundation legacy will continue to
017echo through the halls of JP for a very long time we are seeking board approval to name the Johnson Park amphitheater after dr. Ginsberg upon his move to Valley Road on July 1st and Bob they did ask us to to maybe do this secretly so they could surprise you and in the fall when they unveiled it and I'm unfortunately if we couldn't do it in closed session but but we're very happy to do it tonight and because we couldn't do it in secret we just went ahead and did it as quickly as we could because we thought it was a great idea so here we are so is there any other discussion that we can vote does Bob want to say anything how would you like to say anything you're on mute thank you why
018don't we vote and then see if he has anything to say after he learns the result so the resolution is where is dr. Robert Ginsberg will be leaving Johnson Park on July 1st to act as act is to serve as acting assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction whereas a recognition of 21 years of dedicated service to the Johnson Park community they the public's Princeton public schools will name the outdoor teaching space and amphitheater after dr. Robert Ginsberg so Matt would you read the role F parent yes Debbie Bronco yes dan dart yes gas storage Betsy Bagwell yes I'm McDonald yes Michele talk ponder yes Daphne Kendall Susan Cantor yes it is unanimous thank you all well that was a nice nice piece of business for us tonight thank you for that opportunity we could if
019we have to have if we can have a board meeting in person and yet still need to be a little distant I can think of a really nice place to consider doing it and we will we will admit that we met dr. colosso there for the first time yeah you of us standing six feet apart in your nice amphitheater we probably shouldn't have to over that orange fence but we thought if now that's who can do that so we felt it was important and we enjoyed using it thank you so much really great all right now I will go on to the president's report and I will be very short today but I first want to just note that we as a Board of Education we share in the collective anger and grief over the
020racial and justices that have targeted black people and people of color for centuries and that for too long institutions of democracy including our schools have been complicit in continuing systemic racism that is insidious in our society and that we recognize the powerful role that education has in teaching students and staff and administrators about the shameful history of inequality that has been pervasive in our country as well as the accomplishments contributions and courage of black people and other people of color despite these and justices and we also recognize the responsibility that education has in teaching our students staff and administration to examine their own prejudices our own prejudices and guiding the hard work that is involved in changing these perceptions and we must all admit that there is work to do and work together out judgment
021so that we as all members our our school community are valued and treated fairly and as a board I know we are an agreement that we wish to show our commitment to this principle through our work and through our deeds and not just through words so with that I would like to just move us forward with our meeting but we keep that in mind and all that we do and we wanted we felt is very important that we made a statement about this tonight and this is a difficult subject but we want to talk about it and speak about it and recognize it so with that I will move on to our regular business and I would just note that as a board right now we've been very busy we've met almost every week and
022we have obviously first and foremost in our in front of us is the restart work and Steve Cochran has been coordinating that with a group at the at the schools of over 35 people he'll report on that and that as part of that we've sent a technology survey out and in the last one or two days and we do ask that everyone if you received one that you please complete it and return it to us so that we can help have some data for that will inform some of our planning we also are in the midst of transition of leadership and we just wanted to let you know that tonight you will hear from Steve Cochran about the goals that we've set as a board for with him and for him and for the district
023last year in July and we adopted those goals in September and and now in the course of of most years is the time when we have an evaluation of these these where we've come to and so we wanted to do that in public and I apologize for the phone and as a board we will be setting goals with dr. Galasso when he begins July 1st and dr. glosso has been meeting non-stop with members of our administration with our educators with members of our board and has been transitioning and will continue to kind of transition throughout June so we are grateful for that so we're in the midst of a lot of transition we are also looking for a search firm to help us with the search for our permanent superintendent and again the timing of
024that search would probably take five to seven months we may have a candidate as soon as January first or perhaps as soon as perhaps it will take until July 1st of next year but we are putting in the time and we will take our time and we will take care to find the right person for this district going forward so that's really what we have been focused on a lot in the last couple weeks and with that I will move it on to superintendent Cochrane um thank you Beth and good evening everyone I share my screen Matt I can able to do that go right ahead actually before I do that I just I need to take a moment and acknowledge as Beth began just the the pain the sadness the anger the the need
025for action that has that is fomented in our community and across our nation since the the killing of George Floyd and I have done a lot of soul-searching myself as I know everyone here has as well I've heard from my staff and from parents from students and I had the sense that we're we're in a war it's a war that that some have been fighting for four generations someone I respect a great deal recently told me in 50 years and it's a war that others may be coming to for the first time maybe they thought they were fighting it but realized they were standing more on the sidelines and so there is this this desire that I'm this this desire to pick up arms and take action and do something meaningful and at the same
026time I'm acutely aware that we also have people who were wounded and lying on the ground who were grieving right now who want to take up but and and will and but need time for healing and I think a lot of us are sort of somewhere in between and so as a as a district we've reached out for help I contacted Marceline DuBose who did our equity audit and talked to her she actually met with our administrative team for two hours last week to help us begin to process what we are experiencing individually what we need to do collectively we took a hard look at how we as an institution are complicit with racism and how we as individuals have a responsibility and when we don't act on that that we are complicit with racism
027there's healing that our administrators are going through and we recognize that all of our teachers all of our staff all of our students our families need that as well so I did want to spend just a second on some of the steps some of the actions that we're taking at least towards healing and let's see if I can can you see my screen now yes yes so tomorrow night there is going to be a webinar here a talking circle hareem a teeth Kahn is from the Teachers College reading and writing workshop we're incredibly excited to have her be joining us I think there's a link to this on the on the district website and an email that went out we were able to get her into to join us through the the work of one
028of our teachers and a parent at Riverside who connected with her and used the reading and writing workshop at TC is that's our K through 8 language program but she is leading a session on for parents on raising writer activists and I'll just because it's hard to read the see the the text here it says how do we help our children make sense of the world when the world hardly makes sense to us what tools for social justice and self-actualization to our children need to lead purposeful fulfilled lives how do we empower our children to protect the tenants of social justice so critical for a peaceful prosperous tomorrow in a world riddled with social media amid a global pandemic what does it mean to raise right our activists she's going to be talking to parents
029about the power of writing to process feelings and to to change the world so it's it's my way of people coming together in a constructive way to begin to process so much of what's happening right now one of our other consultants that I met with today spoke with today dr. Tara Doty who's done a great deal of work with us in the area of restorative justice she talked about looking at at our lives right now through the lens of trauma the trauma of what we're experienced when experiencing with koban 19:00 and that the trauma of racism and and killing as a result of that so her her work has been with helping staff and students process the the trauma that they are experiencing right now and we are looking forward to having her join us
030next week for a series of sort of talking circles through zoom with our with our staff which we're hoping to be able to offer at the beginning of next week and then also with our students dr. Doty Doty is she knows our community she's worked with us for years she's very skilled in in counseling and trauma and helping people express their their feelings and and she wants to make sure that we also are able to take action new things that people want to see changed and so we will be listening carefully to diff the the idea is that our staff have that our students have so that we can incorporate those into our our actions our goals moving forward which which leads me I guess to a quick review of my my goals for this
031year I spent 45 minutes talking to the board in closed session about these and I'm gonna try and take about five minutes to highlight some of the things here there there are five major goals advancing equity through student achievement stewardship of our facilities the financial stewardship and sustainability of our district transforming child nutrition and hansung our mission through food and creating a new communication structure when we set these goals last year we had no idea that we would be facing a global pandemic and on one hand the the pandemic short-circuited the achievement of a number of these goals on the other hand the the pandemic highlighted underscored the importance of each one and maybe a new way something as simple as enhancing our mission through food who took on a whole new meeting when we
032were attempting to try and feed five hundred students on the federal lunch program during the this time of remote learning obviously food if your food insecure is fundamental to learning and fundamental to equity and so you know that goal took on a whole new meeting I'm gonna highlight just a few of the things that I think we were successful at and maybe some of the things that that I would like to see move forward if if the superintendent if Barry and and the board feel it makes sense so we did a great deal in the area of achieving equity we we had goals around restorative justice and restorative practice the practices building the relationships and the Justice is what happened when those relationships get broken how do we restore them in a meaningful way and
033so we did a great deal of work in training our our staff our counselors our in equity teams in restorative justice restorative practice the piece that that I would love to see us move forward on that we were just beginning to do is around bias reporting and ensuring that when people report by us that they have a clear way to do that but that there are trained a cadre of trained people to receive those bias reports and to counsel people about about the right steps for them empower them to either seek if it's a disciplinary consequence if it's mediation if it's just the opportunity to share what they're feeling with someone we want to make sure we have trained counselors to receive those bias reports we're working with dr. Doty which we had that plan
034for this March we will continue our training of those people through dr. dodi's work over the summer and into next year cultural responsive teaching we really focused this year on what are the specifics when we say culturally responsive teaching what what does that really look like sound like feel like in a classroom looking at data looking at curriculum looking at our the relationship the teachers have with families looking at the physical arrangement of the classroom so we trained our administrators in that work we put the elements out to our teachers and we've looked at ourselves as equity coaches and that that were responsive teaching coaches that work will continue next year particularly is we have achievement coaches as part of - achievement coaches as part of the budget for next year response to diverse learners
035is our our special ed program review we're excited to we started that Kovac came in place remote learning we put a pause on that we're gonna be we'd hope to finish in June we're gonna be extending now through next year it's gonna involve focus groups with parents it's gonna involve focus groups with teachers classroom observations those kinds of things that will get more of that work done enrichment for all was our TNT focused Pro but with an equity lens so this is wine we're looking at through the multiple intelligences in all the ways that our kids are smart and how we can tap into their their their strengths focusing on our students unique strengths so that's the term we use focus so that moved forward this year at the elementary level in grace three we
036wanted grades four and five this year but the Kovach crisis sort of cut that short but we will pick that up again next year I know that dr. Ginzburg is is trained in this kind of work and is eager to to take the mantel from from Annie and continue our efforts to ensure that we're providing enrichment for all the equity dashboard was something that we really wanted to have in place consistent with the board's goals around having clear data to see how we're what we need to do and whether what we're doing is effective so we have begun to put together multi-year data related to achievement you know students access to honors courses participation in the the Arts we have attendance data on students recognizing that when we have students who are chronically absent who
037miss a lot of school there are lots of reasons for that some of them are economic barriers and some of them may be barriers of bias so we want to pay attention to that we have multi-year data on our hiring and multi-year data on how our distribution of students by ethnicity and how that compares with our teaching staff our support staff our administrative staff so we look forward to processing that data with our administrators and our board committees and and pushing out what we can for the community to see as and we'll continue to do that the piece that I'm hoping we can pick up on that we we didn't get to this year that we wanted to was a some kind of a survey of inclusion survey for students for staff for parents to
038get a sense of how welcome they feel in our school and in our district and I think that data would be important to have and to get on a regular basis facilities stewardship this is referendum oversight which I think this anyone who's tuning in to this board meeting knows how closely we have paid attention to all aspects of the referendum from bidding to building to finance and I'm grateful to to Matt and to Dave Harding into the co-chairs to Brian and to Susan for their work into the community for being involved with this energy efficiency we were talking initially about the ISA program which is a state program dave harding came in as our director of facilities he's got two other programs that he's using he's moving full speed ahead in this area and trying
039to you know look at LED lighting and control systems for our HVAC units and other things that we can actually save money and improve the environment so we're moving forward with that planning for growth that's our work with our consultants mmm looking at enrollment moving forward we got started with that we had to stop because of the COBIT and the remote learning the zoom world that we were now living in we're gonna pick up again with them but focused on more shorter term goals what are we doing in the next three to five years and particularly focusing on on the growth at the middle school and then shortly at the high school support of pedagogy that's it as we look at our we didn't get to that this year we will really looking at best
040practices looking at our how our buildings and our spaces can support best practices we have a lot to learn from the Kovach crisis as in remote learning as we think about leveraging technology and using our facilities adequately and the maintenance of our facilities really want to thank Dave Harding for his work to when he came in got us right on track with prior preparation for our cusack review by the state which we passed with flying colors a lot of small things that make a big difference whether it's you know fire safety regulations or fixing plumbing and you know broken fixtures those kinds of things are being taken care of next year we're going to have fully functioning software program that's going to allow us to track this much better financial stewardship and sustainability most proud
041here of the budgeting work that we did we shifted to a priority based budgeting where we used our starting with our values particularly around equity and student achievement started the process earlier we looked at at a multi-year way of getting to our goals we didn't have to do everything all in one year and we stayed within our means we made sure that whatever we were recommending we had the revenues to support we ended up presenting a balance this is pre co-ed presenting a balanced budget that did not reduce any staff and actually enhanced our our efforts and achievement so I'm proud of that work there's a lot more that we have to do obviously as we're looking at the looming insecurity financial insecurity that's coming with the response to the Cova crisis potentially lost state
042aid or and additional expenses but that highlights again the importance of community partnership and I really am grateful through the Kovach crisis how so many organizations came forward to join with us to do the work that we need to do I think coming out of COBIT as we reopen we're gonna need even more community partnerships to feed our kids to provide childcare to support with technology and so we look forward to having those conversations moving forward - we've implemented some savings this year in the RX program in our use of substitutes we strive to generate more revenues who are really proud of the the grant we received from the state for early childhood and the pre-k works that we're doing so now we're able to offer free preschool and and bring in funds to do
043that and then advocacy we're gonna need to do a lot of that as a board we started that this year with joining the Garden State coalition another hundred other districts that are focused on funding issues and and obviously through the Kovach crisis we're gonna need to be doing more of that advocacy mentioned briefly about enhancing our mission through food and I'm incredibly grateful for Kaylee Dickson who's the food service director from nutri serve and how she before koban came in we were we have a group that we call the kitchen cabinet of administrators and parents and community members with expertise in nutrition and and and and food science and we developed menus that were better quality food that that's that spoke to cultural diversity sustainability we developed a survey that we were supposed to put
044out in March that will have to wait till next year but the real effort came when we went out on remote learning when we had to figure out a way to feed our 500 students and quite honestly the the program we have in place where we're providing really high quality fresh freshly prepared meals once a week to our students for all five days we deliver once a week that is and then we're getting to 90 percent of our kids which never national average is 30 percent during this remote learning time for four other districts so I'm really grateful to the way our community came together and was led by Mike Halley and that effort and then the last is the communication structure we ended up dissolving our Director of Communications last year that position as
045a budget savings measure but we were able to work with Elizabeth Collier and we hire three University interns and we're able to push out actually a lot more on social media celebrating our students our staff the learning that's happening in our district we were able to respond I think more nimbly when questions came up we have a web email address that questions came to and Elizabeth would make sure she got answers back to people so I'm grateful the work we did press conferences we reached out to the widows from Jackson community they invited us to present a few times I think we need to do the same with our Chinese community and I know they would welcome that and that would be beneficial for the board and as we move forward I would once again
046highlight maybe the need to do a survey so that we get a sense of how people want to get their information and we can also learn more about the things the changes they would like to see the so that's really the five goals and I don't have that many more board meetings I do want to highlight how proud I am of this mission that we developed and the actions that we continue to take to ensure that all of our kids are leading lives of joy and purpose there are not many mission statements that that speak to joy and purpose and I hope that that is one of the legacies that I can leave as as I move on and as the the district continues so thank you thank you Steve are you is that way
047stop sharing Matt oh wait I see it up here I'm back oh good job while you're figuring that out i yeah I wanted to thank you you know as I think we all do for for the incredible amount of work you've done this year and every one of your six and a half years you've been with us I want to thank you I want to thank you for managing and bringing together a really incredible team got Annie and Mickey and Mike and Matt Dave and Elizabeth and I could recite you know dozens of names of the people that you brought to this district and fostered and managed and developed and you know the team that you you you created for us is just something that will obviously outlive your outlive you or your time with
048us but we're grateful and we're grateful for all the work so does anyone want to ask any questions about the report we had a good discussion of this in closed session so I appreciate that Steve did you have anything else you wanted to speak about just continuing to you mentioned Barry is working really hard in in in meeting lots of people and learning the goals and directions for the district he and I are spending a lot of time talking about the reopening of school and both at the district level we have another meeting tomorrow of our reentry leadership team about 35 of us now on that team once again it's subcommittees focused on physical health of our staff and students the emotional health and then the educational health so we are thinking through various scenarios
049that will make sense as we reopen in the fall and hopefully we'll have more information to share within the next couple of weeks I know that you know Barry had an opportunity to speak to some parents today and talked about making sure that we have that he holds information sessions with people over the summer too to share ideas to get feedback and to make sure that people are informed in having it we are informed by by their ideas as we move forward through this with this work I just make one note I thought I was very comprehensive Steve I thought it was good a good testament to your enormous capacity for hard work and your commitment to doing anything and everything that you wouldn't improve the opportunities we provide for a great educational opportunity I
050would just note that you mentioned on a couple occasions that some of the goals you didn't reach the the end point because of the the coronavirus and that came after you announced your retirement and while I don't mean they jumped the gun with my offering plaudits I would just note that from experience when some people announced their retirement they they get pretty comfortable pretty quickly and I've admired the way you have sprinted to the finish and have really stepped up at a time when other people would have been sitting down to do the very best you could for the students for the for the teachers and for the staff that this challenge in time and I was trying to say thank you thank you very much thank you and I also wanted to mention for
051anyone who is listening tonight who might be interested in sharing their thoughts and and with Steve about his work or their thanks with Steve we are collecting written notes to Steve at the through our communications website so if you write to communications at Princeton k-12 org Elizabeth Collier is collecting those notes and we will share them with Steve so given the strange environment where we can't be together physically if you would like to pass on your your regards to Steve that would be most welcome so thank you for that I believe that brings us now to the public yes one question thank you Steve thank you for that and thank you for everything as we'll continue to say I just wanted to pass along a comment as I listen to you speak about the equity
052dashboard and about the data I was at a conversation in the community this weekend that was focused on response to police violence and a member of the community who's a graduate of our School District when when he when he heard someone who was speaking talked about data his response was data like we've been telling you the story of our experience for so many years are you hearing us and I just thought it was it was a really interesting and important comment and I know that we are within the school's hearing so many stories of the experience of our students and I am both excited to see that we have the beginnings of the dashboard in place and I just wanted to bring that comment forward so that we can as we continue to build the
053dashboard I hope that there's a way that we can capture the stories because I think the stories are in a lot of ways the data that we want to be paying the most attention to and I would just add one of the things that I've always said is that numbers tell a story so the idea is that the the data itself looked at over time you see the patterns emerge you and it tells a story and it forces us to ask questions questions that we can't ignore when we're looking at the disproportional classification of students of color and we see that number it forces us to ask some hard questions and and but there's stories embedded in those numbers and I think it's really important that we always think of them together and this we
054often say we're not like a corporation where we deal in widgets we deal with people with children yeah everything's about children it's a lot different than units of other people think about okay I think that takes us on to public comment Matt do you want to introduce we if if you would like to make a comment we now are opening it to the public forum we ask that you keep your comments to three minutes that you state your name and your address and this is not a Q&A we will listen and hear what you have to say and afterwards if it's appropriate one of our administrators may address a question but we this is not a Q&A session thank you I think one of our administrators wanted to say something Keisha yes good evening everyone
055I supervised language arts currently from preschool to grade 8 it is in my best interest to amplify the announcement about tomorrow night's of it and so I just really want to give a little brief history of how we became privileged to have this activity which we've been circulating inside the district and I'm so happy to see that Steve has now made it public so that it has an even wider audience but I do want you to know that this event tomorrow night and the talking circles which are an outgrowth of work in Gaeta Varadarajan's classroom and her current partnership with the PTO co-president and Lord really grew out of writing workshop and so this all came from her poetry celebration at the end of last year from that they decided to begin having a community
056forum because the parents were so impacted by it so that they could have more opportunities to come together and and share poetry and that led to even deeper conversations which being completely responsive to this time have become virtual and so they meet every Wednesday night and Gaeta has brought in people from someone who works with the woman who talks about minimalizing your environment I don't remember her name right now but she's had that person come in they've had someone come in to talk specifically about SEL and tomorrow night's guest speaker is actually Vitas best friend and her very powerful professor and presenter at Columbia University and so I really want to encourage anyone who's able to participate tomorrow night I want to amplify the fact that this is some strong work happening in Utica Radha
057Rajan is classroom over at Riverside and I just want to let you know that you know these are practices and mrs. power that our children are learning and that can really as we see by tomorrow night's activity which has been part of an ongoing conversation but can really impact our community and hopefully our world thank you thank you thank you mr. Carlos Stephanie de Carla hi this is Stephanie DeCarlo I just wanted to pop in I was nominated or I guess approved at the last board meeting for the bridge and I've been following the board for a while since the crisis happened given obviously my interest and I'm very excited for the work you're doing in equity and I know last meeting was very lengthy so I wanted to stop in today just to introduce
058myself and just say that I'm very proud of the work you are doing and I think that I'm very eager to get involved and see what we can do for staff and students and the community as we move into the fall with all these uncertain times Thank You Stephanie now it's wonderful for you to come back we had another meeting great day you're a glutton yes well I love to hear what's going on so I can make sure that I'm ready to jump in with two feet on July 1st I think that what's happening in our world is really terrible but also amazing at the same time that we can be a part of the change that for sure is coming and make sure that it keeps getting heard over and over and not let
059it go silent for sure wonderful thank you for coming thank you so much thank you thank you Kipp cherry okay thank you very much I want to make just a few comments about the bathroom concession stand and as Beth and Steven both referred to with Koba 19 and the George Floyd murder we are in an unusual times and this is not business as usual respectfully five hundred and thirty thousand dollars for a couple of bathrooms and a bear concession stand deserves another look this is a great deal of money and if we can reduce the cost we should do so given that many people in Princeton have most likely been suffering economically in another way is during the Cova nineteen Demick we have a real responsibility be careful with taxpayer funds we also know that
060there is a lot of eating our community among students and their families you've discussed quite a bit program which is a very good program we also know that our business district has been suffering major economic losses and it's real possibly there are tax collections will be down as we begin to move into the summer in the fall as federal aid runs out also it is very possible that the BOE will have to cut back on its budget because of a reduction in school aid and there's always the possibility that there could have to be some layoffs because of that so we know that there's a tough road ahead I think it is critical not to look at to look at obvious cuts that might improve the bathroom concession project in this environment at five hundred
061and thirty thousand dollars an amount with which BOE could construct a whole house and the face seems unnecessarily expensive and would in fact be better would be a better long-lasting building in my view if it was redesigned using the enhancements and quality materials that were discussed that the facility is meeting just a few days ago such as using wood frame or steel studs instead of masonry and there are many other ideas and suggestions that came out of that meeting we had a very good public discussion last week on this and it was generally understood I thought from that meeting that the BOE was going to take time to improve the project and reduce its cost and I am extremely disappointed that you would set aside the results of this meeting and I ask you to
062reconsider although the bathrooms concession stand was bid under budget the overall referendum is way over budget if there are savings that can be gained from this advantageous from the advantageous reductions that we are suggesting for the bathrooms concession stand we should take advantage of this why not finally again I think we need to show more concern for those less fortunate in our community and how we spend tax dollars and take the time to reduce $530,000 cost of three bathrooms and a concession stand if we use fast-track construction and push the architecture move quickly I think there is a good possibility that the redesign building can be constructed close to the original schedule thank you for hearing me out and I feel strongly about this obviously thank you thank you Kip that's actually been taken off
063the agenda for tonight we won't be your right doing so well there any other questions from the public at this time I don't see any okay okay I'll put my glasses on you see there all right we'll move on then and because we are doing this is we have two meetings a month and this is our mid month meeting they're not doing committee reports unless anyone has anything urgent to report to us we otherwise we'll have our reports at the end of the month in our next meeting on the 23rd so the next item then is board business for the 2021 budget year item J and these are I think there's now we're going to be doing consent items and so if you have want to discuss or have questions please just stop me but
064I'll slowly read through the items okay so item j1 the appointment of other district officials item two is appointment of treasurer of school monies item three approved of uniform chart of accounts these are all standard things that we do each year then we go to item K personnel first item is summer hiring second is Job Description manual third is appointments fourth is retirement fifth is athletic staff appointments sixth tuition reimbursement seven personnel items eight student services nine sidebar agreement with Princeton administrators Association ten retirement tribute Steve did you want to say something there I note that we are here now recognizing the retirement of it looks like about 15 people with combined years 266 combined years of service to the district which is really a wonderful thing and we're grateful to all of those individuals
065for all of their their service and their years given to our our students we are and we have we've shared about many of them during the course of the year yes okay thank you then we go to item l1 info healthcare associates l to invoke healthcare associate station language all three Wilson reading in Latin language services how four professional consulting services and then we go to m1 financial reports m2 authorization to pay bills and award contracts m3 transferred to current year of surplus to reserve m4 facility use annual term agreement with the Adult School m5 resolution increasing the bid threshold of the qualified purchasing agent this reflects a state change in the statute m6 NJ si a a membership m7 annual integrated pest management service eight Omni groups third-party administrator nine school athletic physician question
066about that it would be prudent to add the school position onto our reentry task force he actually he is so he's not on the leadership team when the nurses are meeting around with Mickey around a health the health related things they're consulting with him if I have at all so yeah I can't have everybody on the nobody or not he's involved yes yeah good question thanks okay and then ten school Brooks breakfast lunch prices eleven travel reimbursement twelve send/receive agreement yeah I just want to thank Matt for spending a lot of time and energy and including in this annual agreement with charters with I'm sorry with cranberry the resource center costs and I'm really happy that this is now part of the money that we will be getting back every month because we left a
067little bit on the table a few years ago so Matt I would just really want to thank you for including this and having this is part of our money now thank you I think we actually separated this out as a separate item action for action Matt could I have a good I have a motion that we vote on this one gonna have a motion from someone at Bryan second Debbie and should we call a roll on this one this is the again we're item 12 the son receive annual tuition it's required by law that we we set this it just explains the money that's going back and forth between us and yes Abby Bravo yes hand art yes gesture which j-jason yes she says yes you're meted yes that's look Brian McDonald yes Michele talk
068ponder yes Daphne Kendall yes Susan canter yes I apologize Betsy no you're just trying to move a quick Magma didn't call it out no words speaking up great item 313 which is the acceptance of the donation from Firmenich and this is actually I just want to speak to this one because this came to us through a parent in the district Sabine Finch I know who works for Firmenich and she arranged a meeting with us to speak with their leadership of North America and they have generously donated us and a remarkable amount of hand sanitizer and we are grateful to them and we are also grateful they have offered to just as an ongoing basis just to provide us with know-how and consulting on how they've dealt with coming back into their work environment and they
069are a leader in the in the world I think in some of their policies and have put a lot of effort into figuring out how to do it in a safe way and so we we had a nice conversation with them and I know that they've made themselves available to our reentry team and we really appreciate that so thank you for much another wonderful example of the importance of community partnerships during this Kovach crisis and as we reopen yeah we're grateful we learn from our community partners and whoever wants to talk to us we appreciate that so anyone else wants to talk to us we'll meet with you or donate hand sanitizer it was such an exciting idea there um okay next one is item 14 travel and related expenses and then that brings us
070to the consent boat mat can I have a motion for the consent vote somebody Michelle second Brian and would you call the vote please Beth baron yes w Brown felt yes dan dart yes yes gas storage yes Betsy bag wheel yes Brian McDonald yes she'll talk ponder yes Daphne Kendall yes Susan cancer yes consent agenda passes thank you that brings us to our second public comment on any topic is there anyone in the audience who would like to speak again we ask you keep to three minutes tell us your name and address it's not a Q&A yeah going once I don't see anyone raising their hand okay that brings us to our closing comments I just have one item that I said I'd bring back to us and that is our meetings in the next
071weeks going forward we have a meeting on June 11th that's this Thursday I believe from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Matt in my correct where is it 6:00 7:00 to 8:30 I mean we may not need all that time we are going to meet in closed session to talk about priorities for our interim superintendent now that we've heard where Steve has left off we want to make sure as a board we understand and we're on the same page in helping determine priorities for his time so we will be meeting this Thursday and then we need to pick a date and joltin July because we don't need to know for sure if we need a second meeting but given all that is going on I think we all like to have a date reserved and the question
072I think had been posed to the board and I'm not sure that patty got a response from everyone is that you know what day works best for people in July and that the suggestions were I think the 14th this is it anyone have a conflict on the 14th the 14th for a board meeting at night because she'd given us retreats through the week of seven six thing there's two things we need to say a retreat then one is just a regular board meeting let's a board meeting that might be easiest okay sorry thank you um so we could do a 7:00 p.m. meeting on the 14th or 7:30 as we normally do with a closed session at 6:00 I guess if we need it does that work for everyone no wonder is a long term
073goal I know we've been locked into 7:30 I know that some of our comedians can go long and you know I wonder if we'd consider starting at 7:00 over the summer and just sign a trial basis should we should we try that too maybe if we need clothes we can do it at 6:00 and then regular at 7:00 okay okay 6:00 7:00 on the 14th you got that max oh good yeah it's July 14th correct okay and then the question is the week of July 6 Barry has said he'd like to have a retreat with us and we'd like to block five hours we may not use the whole five hours but we'd like to do that and we'd like to invite staff to part of it I think we have to figure out where
074the where we can find a block and that could be on an evening I would assume for our friend you know many of us have work so it's probably easiest if we do in the evening or we could do it on Saturday the 11th I don't know how few people peel I don't have to work on that day so I don't want to be the one that forces people into a set right like days matter on my account and I'm not available that Saturday the 11th but go for it if everyone else's but what is Friday like if we maybe even do it five hours from like 9:00 to 9:00 to 2:00 during the day on Friday yeah if I know we have some people who have real work hours I'm good okay and I
075know justice got a heavy load but you know what's it what's the day we're looking at now it's July tonight for five hours during the day for four and three-quarters okay we're gonna ask our staff to join us as well it's nice to do it when they're you know during their hours as well okay can we start at 8:00 or do you prefer us to start later and yeah it's like noon to 5:00 better Jess yeah the morning I won't be able to do but I could do it by the afternoon if I know now so what do you think would noon to 5:00 noon to 5:00 to work right now yeah that'd work for everyone work for you yes okay if we could that's maybe no I think we're gonna say that's definite okay
076and I think Larry has some ideas about some maybe facilitate tation we might have for just a piece of it and then we might might invite some of the staff in but I think we'll talk about that and come back to the board on how we structure it and that this is a clarification I'm not sure when New Jersey's gonna move into stages 3 & 4 but yeah function right now that this will be a zoom I'm just wondering I think we have to stay tuned I think a five-hour zoom is going to be challenging but we may need breaks but if it can be a distance and person there may be a way of doing it so I just want to wonder whether on the date works well in either format for everyone yeah
077so it doesn't for me I can't be in person on the 10th but you okay question don't you know don't change it for me zoom you in for it yeah that's right no no he can yep yeah that's great okay for our board meeting on the 14th are we thinking evening board meetings or in person I don't know yet I won't I wouldn't be in person either but I'm happy to zoom in on the 14th okay okay hey I had one other comment this is more to the public on that Annie's office put out a technology survey this week and the results are due on Friday and I just implore all parents in the district it took me about 30 seconds to answer this survey you have to answer it separately for each of your
078children but it is critical information for us as we plan for the fall it's information about device technology and internet speed in your home and devices that you have or might be willing to purchase if possible so I just would ask that everyone please complete that by Friday thank you and thanks to Annie's office for putting that up yeah for doing that so quickly all right is there anything else otherwise can I have a motion to adjourn Susan second Brian all in favor motion passed we are adjourned thank you very much