001of the the reading of the open public meeting statement and the pledge allegiance so the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public B which time any business affecting their interest is discussed and acted on in accordance with the provisions of this act and board of ucation policy 0162 Board of Education of the buau of Bound Brook has caused notice of this meeting to be posted in office and high school and may go back to The Courier News Bound Brook cler southbound Brook Board of Education and any person who has requested individual notice and P the please stand Al Mr yes sir Mr Bell here Mr Dawson here M here M Lima Mr zco here miss
002L Mr Minh here miss H here Mr bmer here Mr janzi Mr President you have AUM thanks very much um for my president's comday just again welcome to everybody that's here in the audience always happy to see so many great smiling faces um and I'll just say happy holidays to everybody as we wind up the rest of so Dr Freeman up to you president good evening and welcome everyone to our December board meeting our last of the calendar year as always it's great to see everyone in the audience we're excited to recognize everyone we have so many wonderful activities going on throughout the district uh door decorating contests parent visitation concerts all great things to get us into the holiday spirit and the spirit is definitely in full effect before we move on to recognize
003everyone in person I'd just like to take a minute to give a couple shout outs the first is this week or last week we recognized our Educators and teachers of the year uh they were selected by our colleagues to represent their schools for their outstanding contributions and I just want to shout them out for Lamont an Lam Lamont anex we have MCA and miss Kiss for [Applause] lafette we have Miss Nelson for [Applause] [Music] Smalling [Music] yes [Applause] [Music] she might not show up also small scho um educational specialist of the Year Jeff jel at CMS we have this SEL psh and M Guerrero [Applause] classs miss fatro and miss bini all very deserving Round of Applause in addition to that we have uh last night was last night we recognized last night yeah we
004recognize Mr melis Sero for his going into his 20th year of coaching in addition to that he will be inducted into the New Jersey coaches Hall of Fame on January 14th so we want to recognize him [Applause] for okay next up we'll get to our program we want to recognize our students of the month let's have Dr es come on up to recognize our students [Music] fromont congratulations to Jason delaqua currently in prek in his stranders class um Jason likes to work a small group with his teacher learning about letters and numbers he favorite hobbies watching football and playing t- ball Jason wants to be a police officer when he grows up the reason he was selected by missr is Jason is very is a very caring friend and a great teacher helper he's always
005trying to help his peers and keep everyone on task Jason's always making sure everyone knows the classroom routine and rules he's always using kind words and makes his teacher smile every day conratulations [Applause] Dad you can get [Music] [Applause] closer congratulations to Marco Sarina curently kindergarten and Mrs gander's class Marcos enjoys on math in school he especially enjoys when we use counters uh his favorite hobby is he enjoys playing football uh Marco wants to be a football player when he grows up reason he was selected as Marco's very smart and plays nicely with his friends congratulations [Applause] Marco [Applause] okay next up [Music] next up we have M K [Music] from our first student of the B Barco from Miss Smith class his favorite school subject is math loves writing a moped and playing soccer
006and he wants to be a football [Applause] star [Music] [Applause] yeah our next student of the month is Sophia Moran Cortez [Applause] from Miss way and Miss Fitzgerald's class her favorite school subject is math as well she likes coloring cheerleading and building and she wants to be a teacher one [Applause] [Music] next up from small school we have [Applause] Mone our first student of the month is in third grade and her name is Genesis Angelina inz she is in Miss Dinka and Miss guilford's class she has Si a sibling and his name is theago her favorite school subject is coloring and she loves most recently to sing and practice for the school concert and she enjoyed making [Applause] snowflakes [Applause] our second suit of the month is in Miss das's class and her name is
007Jessica Flores gar is she here there you [Applause] are Jessica has no siblings and her favorite subject in school is math her favorite hobbies are playing outside with her friends and listening to music and when she gets older she wants to be a a makeup artist [Applause] good [Applause] job our fourth student of the month is [Applause] aeria ier has no brothers or sisters but his favorite subject in school is math but he also really likes science he says I love collecting Pokémon cards I enjoy hanging with my friends at middle when he gets older he wants to be a soccer player soccer [Applause] player good [Applause] job our fourth student of the month is in sixth grade and her name is Natasha [Applause] Miranda Natasha is in Mr Bayer's class she has one older
008brother and also two younger brothers her favorite subject in school is science her favorite hobbies are hanging out at home and listening to her favorite music and her career plans we're still thinking about that but we'll figure it out later [Applause] conrat good [Applause] job next up we have Dr s St hello everyone the community school is proud to recognize Benny Velasco Dominguez as its student of the month Benny was nominated by his teacher uh social studies teacher Mr Bender uh Benny has one brother and one sister and favorite subjects are gym and math Benny enjoys you know as a hobby going to the gym playing basketball and playing video games as a lot of my students do at middle school and when he grows up wants to be an NBA player [Applause] Community Middle
009School is also proud to recognize Naomi Castro Villalobos as student of the month Naomi [Applause] was Naomi was nominated by Mr Heiser and has two siblings favorite subject in school is Ela social studies and art favorite hobby is soccer and wants to be a doctor when she grows up [Applause] congratulations and smile and [Applause] we're and next up we have cbhs Mr Smith I said Mr Smith all right good evening our first uh Crusader CI Crusader citizen of the month is awarded to Sarah th Sarah has two siblings Alex and Jenna both of which came through the Bound Brook schools um her favorite subject is science she enjoys Sports and Hiking as her hobbies and After High School she would like to attend college and become a nurse [Applause] SAR you [Music] [Applause] all right
010next up we have Luca soles Luca here all right Luca Luka has two siblings Daniel and Mary and her favorite subject is mathematics Luca enjoys reading skateboarding drawing and writing um career plans for Luca include college and hopefully studying some sort of some form of [Applause] engineering [Applause] all right next up we have Carlos Rado [Applause] Flores Carlos has one brother Harold his favorite subject in school is Art he enjoys playing volleyball and walking with his friends eventually he come a business administrator or a volleyball player [Applause] and last but certainly not least we have Dennis Morland Dennis Dennis has two brothers um his favorite subject in school is math he enjoys weightlifting listening to music and watching movies eventually his career plans include becoming a filmmaker how we know that uh students of the
011month don't happen without some very dedicate committed parents so let's have a round of applause to next up I would like to call Miss Carbone to the microphone to recognize our district educator of the month it's Jamie [Applause] Bell it is [Music] with it is with great pleasure that we honor Jamie Bell as our employee of the mount Miss Bell's unwavering dedication creativity and passion for Education deeply impact our school Community Miss Bell is more than an educator she's a beacon of inspiration her classroom is a lively Sanctuary where learning transcends the confines of textbooks through Innovative teaching methods she's transformed complex subjects into captivating journeys of Discovery for her students her commitment to fostering critical thinking and creativity has empowered students to excel not just academically but also personally I had the pleasure observing
012Miss Bell this past week she's currently teaching Percy Jackson to a combination of General Ed and special education sixth grade students Miss Bell gives these students a great deal of confidence to answer as they were in groups analyzing character she circulated and listened to what they had to say before sharing out about each group's character Miss Bell asked if they were ready to share out and gave them more time to write their answer to make sure they were prepared to read out loud for the lower groups Miss Bell made sure they had something written that they could read this developed confidence in all her students to share because she differentiated what they needed in order to share this this trait of hers about developing confidence and making people feel comfortable is her so special most
013recently Miss Bell attended the governor's holiday party she was invited by her aunt to attend with the span Parent Academy Network and the New Jersey committee for school shortage what truly sets Miss Bell apart is her tireless efforts beyond the classroom her involvement in extracurricular activities mentoring programs and community outreach projects showcases her dedicating to shaping well-rounded individuals her impact extends far beyond the walls of our school her colleagues admire her leadership her friendship and students cherish the her guidance and parents commend her unwavering support and encouragement in fact you can tell how much they love her by seeing how many SMY teachers are here tonight [Applause] some notes from Miss Bell's colleagues include Jamie Bell's a consistent beam of light and energy in our school She's committed to her students in her community she's
014involved in after school programs and works tirelessly to meet the needs of her student she's kind and welcoming to her co-workers and is always there to help when she come when she can personally Jam's been a mentor and guide from the moment I was hired at Bound Brook she inspires students and teachers alike another Stu another teacher wrote Jamie Bell is an incredible teacher an except exceptional rapport with her students Jamie shows incredible dedication to her both in and out of the classroom and is always trying to become a better teacher for them those are from her colleagues in every interaction Miss Bell embodies the qualities of an exceptional educator she has empathy resilience Innovation and in genuine passion for nurturing and mind it's an honor to celebrate Miss Bell and the invaluable contributions she
015makes to our [Applause] school got flow congratulations congratul okay okay okay okay our last and final group a very special group to us uh they have a collective of over 60 years of time serving our students parents and the great Comm who is recognized tonight they will not be returning with us after the break these members of our family will move on to the next phases of their life in retirement although we will miss them we're very happy that they will be able to spend the majority of their time enjoying their favorite pastime at this time we like to recognize them and give them a small token of our appreciation who couldn't make it tonight but as always miss deluz is able to make it tonight we would like her to come up front so
016we can recognize her as always a smile okay Mr Smith you're all right Miss Josephina Dela Cruz was born in south of Dominican Republic on March 12th she is the mother of three wonderful girls and the grandmother of two cute boys and one beautiful girl she's married to the Dominican celebrity Dr Gade palano since since uh prior to becoming an ed an educator Mella Cru was a well-known trilingual engineer speaking three languages including Spanish English and Russian Miss Del Cruz came to the balber school Community 20 years ago in 2003 and has since been responsible for providing learning experiences to her students in a supportive and positive classroom climate Miss Del Cruz epitomizes versatility as an educator as she has taught regular education class classes advanced placement chemistry special education and bilingual classes for our
017English language Learners additionally Miss Del Cruz was always willing to take on the responsibility for extracurricular activities as an advisor mentor and an advocate of children whether attending prom and dancing the entire evening or chaperoning home homecoming activities she always put her students first her dedication and passion in making boundbrook high school a better place face has been commendable and we would like to personally recognize her for her hard work and dedication to the craft of teaching thank you for being a part of the process and making the high school a positive work environment to learn and grow we congratulate you on your retirement after a tremendous career at Bound Brook High School and we are fortunate to call you a part of the bbhs family of script Josephina I just want to say thank
018you for everything you've done for us as a school community me personally I feel like I'm a better person for having crossed life's P I wish you the best in everything you do spend time with your wonderful husband your beautiful grandchildren your daughters your son and uh hopefully you'll be able to spend the time doing the things that you would like to do so thank you congratulations please don't be a stranger and we will miss you [Applause] tremendously together yes off let's [Music] [Applause] have asking you to show your shirt your what your shirt officially [Applause] retired thank you so much for your I've only been here for a year every time I walk into the class like walking in Sunshine see the kids respond to you we will miss you but I'm glad that
019you will be able to enjoy time with your family your grand kid your husband who [Applause] deserve next up they she couldn't be here with us tonight but we have Miss Lord's way from Lafayette school if we could have Miss Griffin come up and say a few words she is watching online so make sure you give the same amount of Applause that you [Applause] Mr Smiths but um so I had the pleasure of working with lordis way my entire career so you know I feel honored to be able to say a little bit of something about her lordis s has been a dedicated educator for 26 years of service in the Bound Brook School District she initially began her journey as a World Language teacher at high school and then she taught World Language at
020the elementary schools as well and finally her a last um her last part of her job was second grade teacher at laia school and finds immense joy in witnessing her students growth and learning she's fostered lasting connections evidenced by former students returning to express their gratitude by families us other staff member other staff members coming and seeing her her commitment to education and advocacy for students is evident through her years of service and just the relationships that she's built upon retirement lordis plans to devote significant time to her four grandchildren in New Jersey and Colorado and she um anticipates another grandchild on the way her Legacy and education and impact on students and undoubted will undoubtedly continue to resonate in years to come so uh thank you lordis for your time in our district and
021uh you be greatly [Applause] missed watch all the love in the room and the Applause that was given for you I know you're a very humble person every time I want Clash smile you're so dedicated to the kids we're going to miss you but we're very happy that you're going to be able to enjoy time with your family you won't have to get up early and come in we can just enjoy life we appreciate you and uh hopefully we'll see you to give you your your award award and your gift uh over the next couple [Applause] days next up prom I knew next up is Mr is mol is Mikey here come on up Mike to say a [Applause] few so I just want to start off by saying I'm honored to be able to
022speak tonight because uh all three retirees have had an impact on me um there are my teachers my mentors so it means a lot to me um on behalf of vren he's worked for the district for roughly 20 years he began his career in 2004 as a technician like myself before being promoted to the director of Technology where he's led the department since then um our team describes him as someone who's caring compassionate and always concerned about making sure students and teachers have what they need to make um teaching and learning the best it could be in their classroom he has worked nights weekends and whatever other time needed to make sure that everything's up and running and classroom learning takes place in an efficient manner this is going to be very because he plans
023to spend the rest of his time with his grandkids that he loves very much so I just want to say it's it's an honor to be able to speak tonight and I hope um all our retirees can do all the stuff that their hearts desire so thank you very [Applause] much that smiling face sometimes to grow you know that smiling face and your dedication to making sure teachers students Havey but they wish you the best I know you're going to spend a lot of time with your grandkids because you have and so I talk about but we appreciate you all your years of service and we wish you best one last round of [Applause] applause okay at this time we would like to call out all the students and their parents to come to the
024stage to take [Music] [Applause] a on the stage I'm the wrong one what conratulations remember you were in a no we yeah need Rich out of the way at there's a lot of cameras out there yes don't know where [Applause] to just okay everybody we're going to resume the meeting if that's all right Dr I believe we are still in the superintendent report okay I think that that is it for today I talked to our student Ry said that he gave all the information last time is there anything you want to say like May happy I mean the wrestling team won their match about 30 [Applause] minutes thank thank okay so we're up to actually item 2.4 which is a presentation by Miss Valerie Dolan from our audit is your mine assuming this mic any
025so sorry to get the record um once again I would like to say thank you it was a pleasure to do the audit um as you know we come out and we kind of go through everything it is a lengthy process from start to finish um but we feel that it is a partnership that we work with the business office all year long so that when we come in to do the audit it really is not an aod kind of audit we're coming in to work through all the things that we have just to give you a quick refresher for anyone you all have your audits in front if you have your audits or electronic or if you have the actual it's really broken into two reports there is a large bigger book which is
026the AER and that is broken up into four main sections of the report one is a a little small intructor section tells you a little bit about the district there's a letter to management in there additionally there's a large Financial section it covers a lot of information a lot of financial details specifics um and then SEC thirdly there's a statistical section that is the J section that statistical section is 10 years comparative data it gives you 10 years comparative data about boundbrook it gives you 10 years comparative data about actually the burrow the county there's a lot of great information sometimes if you're looking for some history each Year's audit has that a little bit of that history and then lastly there's a section on compliance with all of the grants and all the grant
027funding second report you received from us is a management report that report details all of the things that we went through during our audit procedures and kind of walks you through any comments findings any issues we might have we would be documenting all of those items within that document um just to go through while it's a lot of reporting I always take you back to the what I feel are the 13 most important Pages which is what we call audit schedule seat one it kind of funny you get all way to report it doesn't actually start until probably I think it's almost like the 90th page of the book it almost kind of get the book that audit document really is your budget when we look at a school district that is the primary focus
028where does your budget come and where does it take you um so it goes through all of your Revenue it shows you all the detail it walks you through all your expenses all of the Char charges for that budget then then at the end you land with the picture which is really what everybody wants to know how did we finish our year what I would say is that really did finish their year financially stable that is the best way to do it and what we say when we look at these numbers and we go through everything we look at our area of when we come through we start looking at all the accounts did I have to make any real changes to the numbers that have been presented you receive financials every month we come
029in and look at them overall and so when we made very little changes to those numbers we that means the district has been given reliable financial statements 10 the whole 12 months out of the Year all your decisions are being made off of reliable statements can't say that for all districts but your District you have all those great information I do want to highlight a couple of financial information you do have $2.5 million in a capital reserve that money is your month for Capital future Capal projects and or for things like any broad grants it's your contribution funding back you that ability you have just a little under a million dollars in a maintenance Reserve that money is there to offset and help maintain your facilities for work that's done internally you have a small
030emergency Reserve that money is set aside just in case it's about $250,000 that just in case Reserve emergency Reserve um there is a small unemployment Reserve that's where the unemployment claim money that sits and so with their R employment claims and then you also have what we call your the last three pieces which is really your h signed fund balance the state of New Jersey allows you to hold 2% of your expenses in a reserve two previous years that we've been here that during the pandemic they let you hold 4% this year they've released you back to the 2% so now you held at 2% you used about $2.4 million in the budget that you're currently operating on and then when I look at it I look at all of those numbers and I say
031what's the piece that you're going to use to build the budget for next year it's the most important piece you'll be looking to use about 2.3 million ion you'll have 2.3 to Bild which means your budget will be stable from year to year you landed yourself in a place where stability exists a couple other financial highlights you did have approximately over $10 million that went through federal state local grants it's a lot of grant funding that goes through and is managed by the board office additionally your food service has an increase of about $95,000 that really is between the change over from sales back from previous the last two years under the pandemic which fully funded the federal government now we're seeing it Circle back there was some additional grant money that came in in
032the area of supply chain so that money was given to the districts to help offset some of the costs that you were incurring at a higher rate to try to get that information due to supply chain issues for products um SEC now I want to look at the management report which is really the area that I feel has been the most focused the last couple of years Mike and the business office has done a fantastic job getting you back to a clean audit they worked very hard and very diligently working through and resolving all of the recommendations that have been in the report last year and the year before so they did a fantastic job and I do live issuing a clean audit with no recommendations mayting no formal action on corrective needs to be
033taken by the board tonight the other area that we do like to highlight is what we refer to as suggestions to management we do school district dotted so across the board we've seen it all so we try to make sure that boards are aware of things that have either become problematic for other districts and or problems that we see coming into the future to give you true planning um one of those areas as I said you had a lot of grant money when there's grant money there's a trail of Auditors so there's always other Auditors besides myself that might come out and look at your grand funding especially with that large dollar sitting out there of receivables and then the other area was we had in the area of food management companies um food management
034companies are tracking and running all of your operations um what we're suggesting and recommending is that those districts really go through and make sure that the revenue we're always good at looking at expenses and make sure they're spending our money well we want to make sure that our districts are looking at and making sure that the revenue that their recording are is in agreement with the district record um this was not a problem in book we were able to tie everything out but it did occur in a number of districts that we struggled to get through that information so we wanted to make sure that all of our district were aware and we actually talked as a firm we're actually going to be holding a round table to train help train the business office to
035look for what we're looking for so that we can like I said it's a partnership so that we can make sure that everyone's trained in attention and here if anybody has any questions that's great thank you Miss Dolan and before we get to questions I just want to give a round of applause to our business office they really deserve I know we're a relatively new board but if you go back just two or three years the number of corrective actions that we were expected to take was not a small list and to have that turned around within just the first year to 18 months of having uh Mr Gorski and Dr Freeman on board really speaks volumes to the work that they're doing so again thank you guys you're doing a fantastic job thank you
036I just wanted to add to that um Mike I know he sits up here he's cool com collected uh in meetings and such but I can tell you he's taking work at home on the weekends he's pulled his hair out running down the hallway you guys don't see it but he's working so hard to make this a reality and he's so relentless I just want to let him know how much I want everybody to know how hard he works and how much I appreciate [Applause] it okay so with that any questions from Miss looks like you got all easy there we go thank you very much for the opportunity evening and a happy holiday to everyone thank [Applause] you okay uh just a point of order do we have to move item 2.5 for approval
037uh yes sir we we have to take a look for the board to accept the results of the audit and the management report and also the corrective action plan and indicating that there's no recommendations that's required by the county thank you Mr Gorski so be a resolve at the B repard of education on the recommendation of the superintendent accepts the June 30th 2023 annual comprehensive financial report the auditor's management report on administrative findings Financial compliance and performance and the corrective action plan and authorizes the school business administrator to submit all documents to the New Jersey Department of Education and other agencies as required can I have motion please motion thank you Mr B second second thank you Mr zco any questions hearing none can we do a roll call please yes sir Mr B yes
038Mr Dawson yes Mr cazino yes Mr zco yes Mr Mr minhas yes Miss H yes M hmer Mr Mr colmer yes thank you Mr Januzzi yes motion passes and Mr chair I may have 60 seconds of course um this is my 24th perfect audit and there's there hasn't been one that that I've been more proud of than than bound books this has been really satisfying I want to thank Valerie Dolan the auditor for all her advice and guidance through the year certainly Dr Freeman and the board without your support none of this would have been possible to all the principles supervisors directors you all played an important part of the internal control process here leading to the results tonight and I want to especially thank Rasha Nasser uh for her collaboration throughout the year emphasis
039on labor and Tom deido Who provided a lot of technical support with Genesis and state program and so on thank you very much and uh we're going to build on this and hopefully U improve results next year thank you thanks Mike and thanks everybody who made those [Applause] contributions all right at this point we are up to the committee reports so let's start with education Mr Doss good evening everybody uh in our education meeting earlier this month we spoke about an exciting new partnership that the district has been selected to participate in I believe we are one of only two districts who were selected to participate in with a group called elnick which I believe stands for some variation of the Early Learning Network and several other letters um which will help us really look
040at how to design uh datadriven instruction based around the needs of our kids in both math and language arts so our work with the group will focus in kindergarten in first grade we have a great cross-section of folks who have been selected to participate that represent a variety of of classrooms and needs including general education inclusion settings bilingual academic support ESL reading and this is going to be an exciting adventure for us that will allow us to connect with some experts in the field get some really targeted professional learning going on that will help us look at assessment data um try out some new strategies look at the data that is resulting from that instruction and go forward so particularly um in math we're focused on numeracy and spatial reasoning and in reading the transition
041to uh the science of reading uh which has been a a big shift in education that we spent some time talking about in our committee meeting so we're very excited about the district's work with this group which will ultimately involve coaching and some walkthroughs and then looking at the results all of us very excited and uh grateful for the staff's work the ad administration's work um to connect with these new resources that's great thank you Mr Dawson any questions from the members for the education committee all right how about governance Mr B okay so at governance we focused again on our strategic planning uh scheduling um the bulk of what we talked about is actually who we want to invite um personally obviously we're going to advertise to everyone in the community in a broad
042sense through the website and hopefully social media um attacking through the PTO and getting helping having them help us get the word out but we really brainstormed a list of people in addition to those that we want to personally invite so in addition to the board and the staff and the parents and the students which are the you know the meat and potatoes of our school district we also are talking about senior groups Church groups uh we want to personally invite the the council and the mayor um police and fire Recreation alumni so we came up with that fairly short list but if there are more organizations that we're not thinking about that you guys have in mind please send it my way so that we can get a comprehensive list going because we want
043to get that started soon we also talked about dates um when is getting booked up really quickly and she'll be there to facilitate all these meetings it looks like our first one is most likely going to be February 1 um so put that in your calendar um we will probably take about two hours of your time that night um but more information to come for sure but that will be blasted out in a million different ways very very soon to everybody involved um excuse me the last thing that we did talk about just in the interest of transparency um there had been a notion uh from some board members to maybe because we've had so much trouble filling board seats in the past to possibly decrease our board down to a more manageable number like
044seven instead of 10 and then we learned from Mr Gorski that it could cost tens of thousands of dollars to put that referendum on the uh on the ballot it was I think 40 45,000 these I don't it was big it was a big number it was more than we want to spend it was basically like a new teacher so we decided we'd rather have a teacher than than decrease our board I thought you could just do it I didn't even know it cost money to put things on the ballot but apparently it cost a lot of money to put things on the ballot so that was tables so that was the that took out about 10 minutes of our time until Mr Gorski was nice enough to give us that little nugget and then
045we shut that down very quickly so that was the that was our entire meeting any questions for me uh the only thing that I would just add is it's not absolutely necessary for the entire board to participate in the strategic planning exercises but as we were talking with Gwen you know the committee as a whole and you know Mike specifically thought that it would be a great opportunity to have as many of us participate as we possibly can so you know that's likely to mean that we will have a quorum so we'll have to advertise that the board will be meeting in doing that and that's why we're going to be a little bit less flexible with those dates as we probably would have if it was uh an informal type of gathering so we're
046going to try and firm those up as quickly as possible if you have any major objections um please do let Mike know but otherwise just try and be as accommodating as possible okay sorry I'm going to jump back in so there will be two more meetings after that again we do want hopefully all of us there the way it kind of works is we're hoping a ton of people show up and then when randomly assigns them to tables and one of us would be at each table to facilitate the conversation we're not in any way leading it we're not in any way guiding it we're just there maybe to take notes so the more of us that are there uh the better the other kind of ancillary benefit to that is that if uh more
047than half of us show up we also get hours towards our next certification uh so that would be three extra hours if if we have enough people at each of those three meetings so there's really two benefits to that all right any questions from Mr B governments yeah Mr minous um just put in the words my head um so in terms of facilitating the the meetings is there are we looking to prepare a list of questions or to have an agenda no of what some items to disc to we don't do any of that Gwen takes care of everything and she basically sends us to tables and there's there are three meetings and each one has a kind of a separate focus and just as an example one of them is you ask the community
048what do you want and we're just there to take notes and then we hand it all into a larger posted note so to speak we put it all out there for the world to see and say Here's what our group came up with we're just we we really are almost like no takers we're not supposed to be any more valuable to the process than anyone else sitting at those tables honestly okay thank you other questions all right hearing done we will move on to Human Resources uh so Joan is not here with us tonight Sue I know you were at the meeting and taking C notes I'm not going to ask you to do the whole committee report on the fly but if you want to jump in and add anything that I might miss
049please do let me know um you know in the course of all of our human resources meetings we usually do start by reviewing the register of open positions as well as uh potential upcoming retirements or resignations uh so we did uh complete that activity again this time uh we spent a talking about the job descriptions that you see on the agenda for approval in item uh 7.2 uh we think those are actually going to be significant changes but significantly positive changes that redirect some of the resources within the uh District uh and apply them for better effect so we were really excited to have that conversation to hear that development from our administrators and to see those changes happening scho um those were really the the top two things that I had Sue did you
050have anything you might like to add obviously no then I guess I did a good job any questions on human resources for from the board no all right we are up to operations Mr Z operations Miss Dolan kind of stole my thunder seriously everything that she had said in relation to the numbers is what's representing my notes Here I will go over some but Mr dski again the board onf of the board and the community we want to thank you and Dr Freeman phenomenal job um does anyone need to rehear those numbers thank you as a result I yield my time back Mr President thanks and then the only other operational item I would like to highlight you've probably heard it about 100 times by this point but the laia C cafeteria has been officially
051opened uh Dr Freeman's weekend report U was probably one it was one of the highlights for me just hearing how um excited the students were uh when it was finally announced so I'm sure that's a big relief to our friends at laf at school and uh you know for those of us who have kids in the school we were actually able to go and see the Winter concert uh with the big windows in the backdrop pretty so pretty the windows in the back so just happy to report that that's operation is this supposed to be a ribbon cutting ceremony we were going to do something and we may still do something but we thought that it was more important to get the kids in using the facility and give the administration the relief of having
052the extra Wing in the building and not for that so it's possible but uh we did deprioritize it any questions for Roger or really any of us on operation question the moisture the dampness in the basement that what is this What's the progress or Mr Gorski would you like to speak to that yes sir it was brought to our attention that the new basement walls had an inordinate amount of seage coming through being groundwater from the outside and especially after this last Heavy Rain Dr Freeman noberto and I went down into the basement and all of the four walls were wet and actually bleeding water through it was collecting on the floor there certainly not an expert on this but there appears to be an issue with either the pitch outside of the stool brick
053where it meets the asphalt the asphalt itself because it may not have been tamped enough and it may be too course or the sealant that was put on the outside of the block could be failing and that's more probable of an explanation because it's so widespread U we met the contractors at the school this morning they were ripping up the expansion chains in the sidewalk and putting in a waterproof caul they were cocking along the edge of the brick where it meets the the pavement they also used a a driveway sealer and put it over the asphalt and they were going to do another coat tomorrow and they also put a sealant on the of um the block so we are going to monitor this and uh and we recommended to Dr Freeman to bring
054in a independent third party consultant to review the um the outcome here to make sure that it's satisfactory and the board and the taxpayers are getting what they paid for thank you thank you Mr Gorski any other questions on operations all right hearing none we're up to you Miss Gino on Athletics and co-curriculum okay so we had a really great meeting uh I want to thank Jeff steel for coming in and having just a whole lot of feedback for us a lot of notes um a lot of insights from his team um we did talk through you know coming out of our fall season moving into our winter season he's been meeting with all of our winter coaches um getting goals from them on what they what they'd like to see out of this coming
055winter season which I think is amazing um also some highlights you know we we talked about um you know wish lists that those coaches have of things throughout the buildings that we could improve on um things in the gym in the West in the wrestling rooms locker rooms um things like floor paint ceiling upgrades so for my understanding uh Mr steel and Mr Gorski will be walking the facilities reviewing some of those uh wish list items and then bring those back to the board so we can see what we can do um to make improvements there um he also brought up we had discussed uh our tennis team coming out of The Fall season um because our tennis program does consider their home field over at Colonial we discussed the idea of maybe having like
056a fan van or a fan bus where we could get students that want to come and cheer those students on for tennis that maybe we could arrange for some kind of a commuter bus that would help take students over to Colonial Park to cheer on uh those tennis players because they are so far off site um which I think is a great idea um we also talked through our partnership with ASG football so that's an ongoing um conversation that uh coach Lain and the ASG team leadership and Jeff steel are having so you know continued progress on that that um we also um discussed some um some hiring and some new position that he might like to see within uh the athletic department so more to come on that um we also discussed uh the
057idea of having a a doctor coming in to perform uh athletic physicals for students that um kind of don't have the resources to go out to a physician maybe they don't have a a major practitioner so if we can offer that service I think we're finding in a lot of the Athletics um that that would be a big service to our student athletes to do that so we discussed you know how we can move that forward a little bit and then um last but not least we brought up school branding I mean personally I'm a huge advocate for the B Brands um keeping it consistent we you know we've got a lot of history here in the district so um I'd love to continue that conversation of how we keep the consistency around who we
058are as a crator what that looks like using our doubleb um keeping color fonts things like you know so that we don't see as much variation amongst all the breadth of our um Athletic program so more come on that too that sounds like a very busy meeting nice job Lisa uh any comments questions on extra perul yeah just uh comments uh I actually met with Coach Le the other night have that you set up having nothing to do with being a board member um but I mentioned to him kind of off hand about The Branding and he was in love with the idea as well so being a coach of two different sports he sees the variation as well so um you're not alone thinking that's a good idea that we should have an identity
059I can share a little bit of an Insight this is like kind of new information coming in but um I also had the a chance to meet the leaders at ASG and right now they're marketing that program as a straight up ASG program and we discussed that that program needs to transition to boundar program so me knowing what I know we're g to convert logos design helmets uniforms to be bound work football and not ASG so I'm going to add to just seeing that you put some work into the logos and everything that came out here and they look they just look sharp they look so nice and just again having that across all the schools just to be the same is a plus did a nice job all right any other comments or questions
060for extracurriculars all right Sue anything for scce is yes we met on uh December 6th and in um there was a presentation for the SLA St uh student learning achievements and you know with you know the Somerset County at is um students who come from many different schools and many of the students there were below grade level some of it was with covid and some was just the uh you know where they were in their district and then just you know functioning where they are and um you know just working with the teachers and the staff Etc um the superintendent report he said that he went down to njsba the workshop in Linux City and you know was just networking with other districts and and consortiums um they did hire a new cosmetology programming instructor
061they've really been trying to do that it was something that was high interest and now they have that and they're starting to kick off that program they're also meeting with Architects um for the Career Centers for supermarket and pulling are learning um there're still you know they had uh sold off the majority of the buses and their transportation now is basically dealing with special ed and um rooting for districts but not getting the buses there and they have 350 groups that they that they manage now um they're still in negotiation with their teachers they did have their annual Thanksgiving dinner which is the staff and students all you know all together uh celebrating um Thanksgiving um there were some new hires three new teachers and three new support staff um they went over policy and
062regulations and it just was revisions proposal proposals and just abolishing old policy um and the Moa with Bridgewater Township law enforcements which you have to do every year and that is it another pretty full meeting thank you for the update any questions for suit on the SCC all right uh before we wrap any other comments or questions on committees in general hearing none thank everybody for the reports again another full uh set I know that the Committees are actually where we spend majority of our time in terms of understanding the issues and deliberating on uh what actions need to be taken when we get to the table for these uh business meetings so thanks everybody again for both participating and uh for my committee chairs for the leadership you guys are doing a great job
063and it shows in the work so nice B time at this point we're up to item number 5.1 which is open to the public for agenda items only uh please note that in accordance with District policy 0167 members of the public must sign in at the podium or online provide the name address and group affiliation if applicable um the public participation is limited to three to five minutes in duration and no participant may speak more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard anybody in the room how about online agenda thank you I actually remember this good uh none on none on the agenda online very good so we are up to item number 6.1 approval of the meeting minut be resolve at the
064bound Board of Education upon recommendation of the superintendent approve me the minutes for the following meetings regular and executive session November 29th 19 uh 19 can I have a motion motion thank you Mr F second second thank you Miss H any discussion all right heing none can we have a roll call please certainly Mr B yes Mr Dawson yes M cazino yes Mr zco abstain so loed Mr minus yes M High yes Mr vmer yes and Mr Janus yes motion passes thank you up to item 7.1 be it resolved that the superintendent recommends for approval the resolutions as outlined in District Personnel resolutions this is 7.2 through 7.31 I have a motion motion thank you Mr B second second thank you Mr Z any discussion all right hearing none can we have call Mr B
065yes Mr Dawson yes yes Mr zco yes Mr vas yes m h yes Mr yes Mr janosi yes motion passes thank you item 8.1 resolve that bound Board of Education approves resolutions as outline District education resolutions this is 8.2 through 8.16 I have a motion motion thank you Mr B second second thank you Mr Dawson any discussion really talking to group tonight how about a roll call please Mr B yes Mr Dawson yeso yes Mr zto yes Mr Minas yes m h yes Mr bmer yes Mr J yes motion passes thank you item number 9.1 be it resolved that the B Board of Education approves the resolutions as outlined to board action resolutions this is 9.2 through 9.16 can I have a motion motion thank you Mr B second second thank you Mr zco any
066discussion just want to thank everybody for all the organizations and individuals for all the donations that they've were given to us especially this time here thank you very much who El said sir I have a question actually on number 9.2 is that only restricted to students or are members of the general public able to buy as well you'll get there don't worry oh yes student students only right I just want to make sure it's a great idea hope you guys have a lot of fun with that at scho Pie Face we were going to do pie of board member but we weren yeah next time next time you know funny in my school we do p teacher as well and somehow I've won twice both times we've done it I've been ped it's phenomenal something
067that's it any other comments or questions on anything in section n all right hearing none can we have a roll call please Mr B yes Mr Dawson yeso yes Mr zco yes Mr minhas yes M High yes yes yes thank you we are now up to other matters to come before the board hearing none is there any new business from any of the board members I'd like to propose something new to add to the agenda that if this is the right time and place for can so I've been uh really intrigued with the data collection that we've been doing as a district but yet I don't really understand it enough to really I feel like I could use some education on it I'm wondering if there's a way we can include um you know we
068do committee meetings is there a way we can include an update on data or just a quick like learning it doesn't have to be a full-blown presentation maybe it's just a couple of slides but just something we could do every month to just like pick a topic pick something how we're using it I think it's a huge factor in the district that honestly I would just like to dig in and know a little bit more about it as a board member um first can I just point out that Mr is is blowing right now very excited we don't mean like you're full-blown like 2 hour we just need like a couple slids the Ross experience just a little bit a little bit I apologize apolog I actually did mention that in our our meeting govern
069meeting and I completely forgot to put it in my notes so I did bring that up with Dr Freeman already for you I just think I I mean I don't know who else on the board would would you know feel that's helpful but for me it would it would be really really helpful yeah and I think having data being a part of our goals for the last two years you're not really far off base we all agree with you um the two things that I would point out and then I'll defer to Dr freem because I know he wants to get a word in as well um the first one is I would suggest attending an education committee meeting to start I'm pretty sure from the ones that I've been to and I think I've
070been to most of them over the last six months that discussion about data is prevalent in everything that's presented to us so definitely if you can make it to the next education committee meeting do that the other note is actually for you we go back to Glend and come through with a list of um training that we might think about taking up this year put that on the agenda as well it won't be as specific to the district but it'll be more you know building that level of aw of what data is available but then how it's it's generally used so Dr at this point to you yes we can we can definitely do something like that I think Mr President said was U pretty accurate if you come to the education committee but besides
071that we can we can do some in other informal training we just arranging time uh to to kind of make it to break it down in the easily digestible yeah uh pieces where you could understand it so when we get to the point where we're talking about this these large reports you would be able to break it down yourself but that's a very valid point and we'll we'll make it happen thank you guys thank you for that [Music] Mrs any other new business from the members all right we are now open to the public for discussion this is open to the public all items um I will refrain from rereading the passage but the same notes apply here expectation is that people will sign in uh State their name address and group affiliation speak for
0723 to five minutes and we will make sure that everybody has a chance to be heard before we hear from the same people on the same issues anything from the room awesome anything nothing online thank you sir with that we are up to item number 13 which is to move to go into executive session he resolved that the B Board of Education inter executive session is allowed by njsa 104-1 [Music] under4 and S it's always4 and S yes 14 and S can I have a motion moot thank you Mr Dawson a second second thank you Mr B all in favor I'm ready if you're ready everybody ready yes yes at least the welcome back everybody we're up to item 14.1 resolved that the bber Board of Education approves the resolutions as outlined in Hib cases
073under high school this is 14.2 and 14.3 can I have a motion motion thank you Mr B second second thank you Mr Dawson roll call please Mr Bell yes Mr Dawson yes Mr cazino yes Mr zco yes Mr Minos yes M Hy yes Mr bulmer yes Mr J yes motion passes thank you item 15.1 be it resolved that the bound Board of Education approves the resolution says outlined in HIV cases under middle and elementary schools this is 15.2 and 15.3 have motion motion thank you Mr B second second thank you Mr Min house roll call Mr B yes Mr Dawson yes Mr gazino yes Mr suco yes Mr Minos yes M yes Mr yes Mr jzi yes motion passes thank you item 16.1 I will entertain a motion toour motion thank you Mr B second
074second thank you Mr Zer all in favor I yes happy holiday