Bridgewater BOE Meeting 2/24/2026

001case we've had a lot of um in cases some asbestous that was more than was anticipated that had to be abated following regular you know safety regulations. So that has cost a little bit more at times there are additional scope that's discovered during design or during construction that in order to do the project right and meet all you know requirements those have to be done the way they have to be done. Um and then unfortunately we did not plan when we were budgeting for recent tariffs which have increased uh cost material costs and even affected labor labor costs somehow. It's weird world. Um so we have that to contend with as well but so far doing pretty good. Uh if the project costs exceed available savings how will we ensure the projects are completed? So

002if everybody doesn't realize, we have to complete all the referendum projects. It's the way that the referendum law is in New Jersey. So all the projects have to get done and we cannot spend a penny more. So we will continue, especially now that we're halfway through, we'll continue to simplify elements, implement value engineering tactics, adjust scope as needed, and hopefully keep everything in line the way we've gotten to at this point. Um, and that's that's all we can do. Even if every project must get done even if it's done in a you know streamlined manner in a simple what factors have determined the sequencing of the referendum projects so far. So if you're wondering why we do things in a certain order obviously the grade realignment has driven a lot the kindergarten renovations the middle

003school renovations the additions just so that's all set for the 2026 realignment. So that has driven a lot of it. Um a lot of it is there's a lot of work. So, trying to coordinate what contractors are stepping on, what other contractors uh during the process. So, that has factored into the order of events. And then some of the big projects like windows and mechanical, we're just, you know, one school at a time until we get there. It's going to take the entire length of the referendum to get through all the mechanical. When do we anticipate completion? So we're looking at this time we believe 2030 is when we we should get done. Um and that final phase would be roofing and site improvements which we usually leave towards the very end so that the

004roofing doesn't get damaged by new mechanical equipment and the site doesn't get damaged by the current projects. So we try to push those a little bit to the end. Um and I think seven years is pretty amazing actually for this size of a referendum. I have worked through referendum that were referendum that were 40 million. It've been on six years. It's it's pretty amazing. Um with the help of Mr. Lo, it's a lot, but we we get through and that's it. So, yes, go take a look at that video once it's up on the website. It's great. Um and this will link back to the site. >> Question. >> Thank you, Alexis. I appreciate it. Now we can have questions from the board of education on this and then go from there. >> Any questions

005from the board? Muna, >> you said we're 50% through. Is it 50% like physically like timewise or moneywise? >> Exactly. And it's not physically because it's not 50% construction completion. It's it's all looking at all of the things. So construction design a lot of them like I said are bid just recently being awarded as you know and they have just started. So if you take all that into account it's about half >> I have a question Mr. Thank you for the presentation. Uh if you could go back to the slide where it talks about like the break even point for the budget. Um include that that includes the bids today and all the past work that we're doing everything work in progress and it includes everything that's completed. Does it include anything else in the

006future or >> no? The way we look at it is we predict ahead with the understanding that the assumption that everything in the future will come in on budget and then what we have overages and services right now. So, this con considers tonight's whatever's on the agenda for tonight. The project's on the agenda for tonight and the middle school HVAC that isn't awarded tonight as I understand it, but um when that does get awarded, that will complete we'll use up some of the surplus that we built up. >> But once we get once those are through, we're looking at a break. >> May May I ask a follow-up question if >> a followup? Sure. I'll see if anyone else has one, but I definitely want you to answer all ask all your questions. >> All

007right. Um, go ahead. >> And just out of curiosity, I'm sure you've worked with other school districts potentially, or at least Solutions does. When you look at some of the future projects that we have, um, have you seen a lot of schools districts check uh, struggling with being on budget for some of the future projects that we have going forward? If you're looking at precedents, >> no, in for the current referenda, we have several referenda that we're working through in our office. All of them are under budget. >> Got it. >> Um, only one that I've seen again it's it's the things that you can't predict for >> um one we worked through and it was through co and that we did um >> okay >> come in under like we had to figure out

008things at the end to make things work it was a bit tight but if you recall the amount of construction cost that increased after co was extreme so there was there was kind of no way that one was getting through in the planned budget but everything that we're currently working on is under budget And it is extremely common to have like the over under over under. Yeah. >> And then eventually work out. >> Um and we are through a lot of the big stuff like the additions and some of these things. So we should should be in good shape. I mean the mechanical is really the the ones that they've been coming over budget. So we just have to watch out for those and manage that. So, just so I understand, I guess for some

009of the future projects that we're not bidding on tonight, but are in upcoming that we're going to work on through the referendum, you're not usually seeing a lot of issues with those specific kinds of projects in other districts. Correct. >> Um, I haven't I I'm not, again, I'm looking at overall referendum, not necessarily those projects or over budget. I I couldn't say that off the top of my head. >> All right. No words. >> But just in general, >> those are my questions. Thank you. >> Anybody else? Thank you very much. I appreciate it. M Pierce, >> just thank you, Alexis, for for taking the time and presenting this to us tonight. And uh we appreciate all the efforts of you and your firm and and helping guide us through this massive process. Thank you

010again. >> You want to hang out? >> Sure. Okay. Good. Is this working? Yeah. Okay. Good evening everyone. I'm Dr. Jones and I'm actually here with Mr. Morello and Mrs. Madia and we are going to go through it's going to be quick a presentation on student enrichment programs and opportunities and this is for 2026 2027. Now I don't want anyone to confuse this with the fact that we do a parent night every year. So we'll still be doing that um probably mid-March and so we'll be sending out information on that soon. But um these are just important things we feel like people should understand about the programs as we're making these shifts and our fourth grade is moving up into what's now going to be the upper elementary school and our sixth grade moves into

011the middle school. Okay. So take it away Mrs. Madia just touch this one right here. Sorry I don't know how to work the Chromebook. I mean the laptop. Can you hear me? Okay, good evening everyone. Um, okay. So, this first slide um provides an overview of our um enrichment programs across our grades. Um, you can see grades kindergarten through grade six. That first column um SGI refers to our small group investigations. Currently, we have um SGI in grades K through four and we are going to be expanding this into grade five. You may recall that um small groupoup investigations is our once-weekly pull out enrichment program at our currently at our primary schools now extending to our intermediate schools. We also have currently math cluster groups in grades three and four and those will remain

012for next year. Math cluster groups are um the practice of clustering our students with similar um advanced math skills um into classes for um differentiation including enrichment and acceleration. Uh for grades five and six we are we currently have 5e math and 6E math and we are going to continue to have both programs um in those grades. And then in grade six, you can see we also offer our ecourses across the other content areas. Um, and that currently is the practice and will continue for next year. Jason, Mr. Mariela will tell you a little bit more. >> Thank you. Uh, so I want to talk a little bit more about the kind of the broader picture for enrichment and acceleration opportunities for next year. As we are shifting to different schools for different grade levels,

013the schedule is going to adjust and allow for some additional opportunities as well. So I will highlight some of the gifted and talented programs and services that Annie just spoke about. But before that, just talking about kind of K5 foundational enrichment. So opportunities that all students will um be able to have to dive deeper into uh different areas. Um so we'll start with kindergarten. Um so next year kindergarten will be full day across the entire district, all seven uh primary schools. So, that's exciting and that's opportunity for enrichment right there because that's just more time in school, more time learning in kindergarten. Um, and as part of that full day kindergarten schedule that we don't have right now as the half-day schedule, um, will be a daily opportunity for guided play and that will be

014when students can really collaborate with others, work on the problem solving skills, work on kind of overall skill development um, within that. So, that will be part of their um, daily uh, a daily period in their day that it will be currently piloting it for the full day kindergarten this year in two of our primary schools and that will be in effect for all of our primary schools next year. Moving on to grades one through five. Um part of uh what uh will be an opportunity for all students in one through five will be a period called extended learning and this will be an opportunity really for exploration that goes above and beyond the typical curriculum. This is also uh where any students who need any additional services such as ESL services, intervention services, lessons,

015you know, band lessons for grade five. Um so this is an opportunity where students can kind of be pulled from this period and not have to miss their content periods as well. And then for grades K through five. Um I know we've kind of been talking about this uh listening to the board meetings the last uh couple of meetings talking about science and STEM and the importance of that. Um for K through five, we will be increasing the amount of science and social studies that all students will be having. Currently and what we've had for years is that um all students kindergarten through fifth grade have science and social studies for three days a week for half of the school year. So that will be transforming next year into five days a week every day

016for the entire school year. So science and social studies, every student K through five will have science and social studies every day for the entire school year. So that's a significant increase in the amount of time um that students can kind of explore, dive deeper into those standards um and really kind of get that enrichment opportunity into those areas. um to highlight some of the uh gifted and talented opportunities um for students. Amry mentioned before the small group investigations, we currently have that in grades K through four. We will be expanding that to grades five uh since four or five will be that upper elementary school. So we have that consistent programming. Um math cluster groups, we currently have that in grades three through four. That will be continuing in grades three through four. And

017then in grade five, that's where our fivee math program begins. And that is the uh first course in kind of that two-year accelerated math pathway that leads to algebra 1 in seventh grade. And then once we get to grade six, um all of the same sixe programs that we currently have in sixth grade in the intermediate schools that will just be moving up to the middle school. So we'll be having those same content 6E programs in the middle school for grades six and beyond grade seven, grade eight. And then we have our honors and AP once we get to the high school. Thank you. So you may have also noticed that AI is not part of this pathway that was just shared. So I want to explain to you the rationale. When we started looking

018at shifts in fourth grade and sixth grade and new schedules, we knew that we wanted to create these additional opportunities for all students while also ensuring that our enrichment and acceleration pathways are clear and they make sense. So we we knew also that we wanted students to still have access to accelerated math which includes seventh grade algebra which is actually a double acceleration in math. So typically right now when our fourth grade AI students move into the intermediate schools, we often combine our AI and E classes and this depends on the enrollment in that year. So this year we're combining sections in both schools and in both math and English language arts. However, this practice is not new. This has been going on for many, many years. And that's because there typically are not enough

019AI students once you're dividing them between two schools for the program to be truly sustainable. So if you think about that in the context of next year when we consider the change, we're not just going to be moving our current fourth grade anymore, but we're going to be moving the current third grade class too. So this divide then between the school two schools would happen in both grade levels and that makes the program less sustainable. The other complication there is that we do not have E classes in fourth grade. So we would not be able to combine E and AI. If you look at this year's third grade AI class, it's actually a slightly larger group. Once divided, we would have only 11 students in one school and 15 in the other school. Now, the

020reality of the program is because this has been happening for many years and students have been combined historically in both math and English language arts once they're into these intermediate schools. That means that the AI and the Ecurricula are actually identical in fifth grade. And then in sixth grade, there is no AI. So, the program comes to this abrupt end and then we only have an e program. So currently if you look at our E programs in sixth grade, if you look at our 6E math and our 6E English language arts, twothirds of the group have never actually participated in AI. So the important thing to recognize is that regardless of the pathway, students wind up in the exact same place. So then another consideration is the value of looking at like sending kids to

021their neighborhood schools. So, as many of you probably remember, this was actually an important part of our discussion when we began providing ESL services across all the schools. We we have found in the past that sometimes parents will deny services because they don't want to send their kids, you know, across town. So, in this case, students will spend less time on buses traveling across town. They get to attend school with their siblings and their friends and their neighbors. And then over the last couple years as we've been developing out our gifted and talented services um with our small group investigations and the mass cluster groups, we've also had some parents who just didn't even accept a spot when their child was eligible for the AI program because they knew that their child would be able

022to receive services in their home school. Um, so mind you, I think the important part to recognize here is that ultimately students wind up in the same E program by sixth grade. And this is the pipeline for honors algebra 1 and seventh grade, which is the pipeline for AP classes in the high school. Um, and then the other part that I think is important for us just to recognize here is the program's financial impact. So Mr. Beers, if you could speak to that part. >> Okay. Thank you, Dr. Jones. So, just a point of clarification just so everyone has it straight. So, when we look at these statistics, right, because the cohort of of um uh kids who are in this math group, these are the kids who are taking algebra 2 honors as freshmen.

023Is that correct? So, out of that cohort, twothirds of the students who are in our current algebra 2 honors program, twothirds were not a part of the AI program. Thank you. Um, no. And thank and and I'll be happy to uh share the cost. Right. Right now, the cost of this program is $512,000. And when I look at the updated model that's been presented this evening, this model expands gifted and talented services rather than reducing them. The majority of identified gifted learners were already being served at their home schools. Twothirds of the students in the e-group receive gifted and talented services in their home schools. Yet, the district was spending an additional $512,000 or roughly $7,000 per pupil on top of standard per pupil costs to maintain a separate program for approximately 70 students. And

024I'll go back and say it, an additional $7,000 per pupil. This change redirects those resources more equitably, extends gifted services to all identified students with their homeschools, and aligns with research supporting less restrictive settings as best practice. More importantly, it reflects the district's core commitment to breaking down barriers and expanding opportunities for every student. So, thank you for presentation, everyone. I I appreciate it. And we'll open it up to the board of education. Bob, just a point of clarity, too. When you're talking about the $512,000, that's just for second through fourth grade. So, we didn't look at the cost for the intermediate schools, which was would change if we moved both the current third grade and the current fourth grade into the upper elementary schools next year because of the divide. Um, and the other

025thing that's just interesting to note is several years ago when we started expanding our gifted and talented services, our overall percentage of students in the second through fourth grade receiving gifted and talented service was 12% and we are at 18% and we were at 18% now for the last two years in a row. So, you know, that's been important for us too. >> Questions from the board. Miss Lan, >> uh, I just wanted to follow up on the extended learning. Um, does that apply to like music classes and and stuff like that or is that separate? Is it just services? >> Can you just >> Yeah. Can you clarify that question? >> Right. And I'm sorry if you if you said this. You you were talking about where kids would be pulled out, but they

026wouldn't miss class for services that they would normally be pulled out. Was that including music and and classes like that or was it services like for speech? >> Oh no, it would be for um additional services. So students um travel with their classroom um to those um related arts like music and art or HPE um as a class. That is not that's different than this extended period. This would be for students who need additional services um as Mr. Moriel said like intervention or ESL services or speech um services, a whole variety of different services. So good question. >> Dr. Lee, >> thank you for the presentation. Um, I heard the cost for the AI programs 512,000. Um, how was that calculated? What's the breakdown? What's the alternative if you were to educate the same cohort

027otherwise? >> Teachers salaries, benefits, plus transportation. But we're going to have to educate those cohort of kids anyways. What would be the alternative cost? >> Students will be able to be absorbed into their their home schools. So there's not additional cost. >> We will still have to provide the teachers, transportation, everything. It just distributed to different schools. So >> no, no, there's not specific transportation. there be transportation for their school on a bus route that is already in operation, >> but there's a spot on that bus that's going to be provided either going to their home school or going to Hamilton for now. >> Kevin, did you want to mention I mean there's there's different routes is the thing because they have to create additional routes for students who are not attending their home school

028because >> right there are about five bus routes currently that transport only the AI students. So they would just get absorbed onto their home school's regular bus routes. >> So we would be able to eliminate those bus routes. >> Right. Presumably there's a seat that's empty on a bus that's going to a school anyway. >> Yeah. None of the buses are maxed out. So >> Mr. Lee, thank you uh again as well for the presentation. I guess going back to sort of like the the small group investigations, those are not like called E programs or something different. Correct. How are those kind of different from the E programs which are different from like the math clusters which are different from like ex from from all these different things. I I'm trying to piece it all

029together if you like kind of want to explain it to me like maybe I'm a fourth grader. >> We you know what Jeremy, we'll we'll do the quick version. See how it goes from there. But just so you know too, and any of you are welcome to attend when we have the parent presentation. We do it online every year so I can let you know when it is. And that's where we really get into some of the more of the details, too. But did you did you want to take this one >> or Okay. >> Also, some of this information is um right on our website um under our gifted and talented um our page. So for anybody interested, you can find some of this information. So, small groupoup investigations is a um pullout program

030um for students who are identified um for this service. Um it builds in kindergarten through grade three where students um are involved in a variety of different problem solving activities um to begin with. As they move in, they start to um through the year they actually um dive a little bit deeper into many investigations and learning and how to do research. And um the last unit in grades um one through three they actually K through three um they are actually doing something together as a group collaboratively doing sustained research on a particular topic kind of taking different facets and putting things together. It's hands-on in addition to um being able to be able to collect that information. Grade four is slightly different um and that is um the students do more independent passion projects that

031run over the course of the year um where they can hold on to that information and have a little bit more sophisticated um they have more sophisticated skills in doing that research note-taking and presenting >> context I just want to add this for context Jeremy because I don't think you were here when we began these changes um the other thing too is at some point in the history of time we actually were not offering gifted and talented services in kindergarten and first grade, which you're required to do by statute. And so, um, that was part of this, too. We wanted to make sure that we were, um, you know, addressing gifted and talented service at all the grade levels, but also, um, you're supposed to really do it for kids who excel in any area.

032So, sometimes when, like our former program only looked at students who were excelling across all areas, which isn't the statute as well. I mean certainly you have kids who do but you also have kids who just it's it's one area and we need to be able to provide them an appropriate challenge when they are so outperforming their chronological peers that we can't meet their needs in a classroom by differentiating >> and just for me to just briefly go over this sort of these SGIs or these are kind of interdisciplinary correct >> and you kind of pull them out of the classroom briefly just to help them really hone in those skills as part the challenging gifted and talented environment and then on the math side with the math cluster groups that's sort of like a

033leadin to the 5e and the 6E and then the other E programs and then as a part of that as well at least with the AI programs and the E those are they kind of converge the AI and the E programs eventually the sixth grade but it's still like in that challenging environment basically for any student that's in math E or you know ELA >> that's correct and even when you look at the elementary schools now like the science and social studies actually are grade level standards and it's the grade level curriculum that students are using and they just enrich where you can but as I think we've pointed out it's actually difficult to enrich when you're only teaching something three days a week and you're alternating between the two content areas you know every

034so many weeks. So this as I think it was Mr. Morello pointed out is going to really be able to provide enrichment for all students in science and social studies because it will be five days a week of both areas all year long. So, you know, we're excited about that. >> And then just one kind of question. And I know if we move forward to the last slide where we're at, I guess the purpose of kind of some of these changes as well is to sort of reduce those transportation costs and sort of uh have these gifted and talented programs within the schools themselves rather than consolidating them into one area and having those separate sort of transportation routes. Is that correct? >> It's it's partially correct because keep in mind like when we're talking

035we're like program people, curriculum and instruction people. So what we're looking at is how to create like a clear clearly articulated program that makes sense. And really the part of the problem that we were encountering again is that when you're moving the current third grade into the upper elementary school along with the fourth grade, you're now going to have two grade levels of students who are broken up across these two schools, which makes it more difficult to sustain. And it was, you know, it just wasn't a smooth transition. And because, you know, at the end of fifth grade, the program just abruptly stops, we thought we can provide everything that students are getting as far as both the enrichment pieces and the math acceleration um so that they'll still be able to be in these

036accelerated and enriched classes in sixth grade and access that algebra. Like we knew that that was an important, you know, consideration for the community and, you know, making sure students still had that. So that was what we were working to keep and we were trying to just do it in a very clear way that would make sense for kids while offering additional opportunities for all kids. So that was what we were trying to do. And then of course the money piece is you know also the driving factor. >> Right. And uh >> Jeremy can can I just ask you can I come back to you and just get some questions first? >> My apologies. Oh no problem. Thank you very much. Uh Mr. Locker you had a question. >> I'm sorry if you already covered

037this. uh how many students are in the Middletown the the um AI program currently and and I'm also curious like approximately I know you gave us a percentage but approximately how many kids were enrolled in the the pull out version of gifted and talented. I know that in second through fourth grade we have 68 students enrolled in AI. Do you know the >> We do not know the other answer off the top of our heads, but we can look into that for you. >> Any other questions, Miss Luna? >> In regard to the SGI programs, could it you you said it's in multi-disiplined? So, could students be pulled out for different programs throughout the week? Is it always the same kids or will some be pulled out for scientific kinds of things? Some be pulled

038out for if they're accelerating their step over here. Sorry. Um the students once they're identified, the program itself is actually interdisciplinary and so they have exposure to the variety of different content areas. But no, at this point it's not a rotating um program. Once they're identified, they're in that program um for for the duration. But we try to um plan and give them opportunities across disciplines so we can identify their strengths because we know that you know we have a a profile of information based on their strengths and so we try to tailor um our those activities to meet the needs of those students and their interests and motivations. So >> thank you. um from this when is the last year that you are still going to identify second grade AI students meaning that was

039is this going to be end of second grade AI program >> last year >> is it >> yeah yeah we're not doing that anymore >> so no more AI >> no >> starting 26 >> starting in September >> September 26 >> September remember, >> right? >> Yeah. >> Um I feel like this is a decision that we should probably look and discuss a little more uh on the whole profile of our gift and talented um education because the AI program has been a program that's been in our district for a long time served many students and we have uh seen good results from that. We should also compare that with how the SGI small small group cluster how that outcome is and see whether the same level of performance has been achieved before we make

040this decision to end this program. My suggestion >> yeah I'll just say you're you're assuming that that hasn't been uh studied and analyzed and uh as we pointed out twothirds of the kids that are in our highest level classes were never in AI. twothirds. Um, so that's a part and and we we would welcome I mean I welcome conversations on any academic topics, but um remember this is an administrative prerogative and and this is the pathway we're taking and we're sharing it with the board. It's not a it's not a resolution item or anything like that. It's it's how our program is going to be carried out in the future. Uh, is is AI like replicated in other school district? I know we don't compare ourselves to other school districts, but is this a program

041like are we um aligning ourselves with how other school districts run their um gifted and talented versus like where our AI program sort of sits? >> That's a great question. I I do believe and and then I'll turn it over to uh Dr. Jones. the these moves that we have where where we have schoolwide enrichment and and things of this nature. Um you know a lot of it is from the researcher James Renulli from University of Connecticut who's really designed a lot of the processes for um uh that a lot of schools follow for uh gifted and talented. you'll see that it does for fall fall more in line with some of the elite schools throughout the state of New Jersey, specifically West Windsor, Plainsboro, Montgomery, uh we can add to the list. Uh Basking

042Ridge at Bernard's Township, but um the program as it exists now, I'm not aware of another school district in the state of New Jersey that had anything uh like we had. >> Thank you. I'm sorry, Dr. Jones. Is there anything? >> No, I mean that that was correct. And even I think people's honestly um Dr. Lee I don't say that because I was going to say Lucy um I think also people I do think people have a slight misunderstanding of the program and and I understand why because you know um sometimes it's a like something like in a community that people value something because they think it means something that perhaps it doesn't. Like for us, I think, you know, and you could argue this either way, but we kept it was the idea that

043math really when you think about how people learn math. It is very linear and you build on skills. And you know, everybody knows you don't take algebra 2 until you've taken algebra 1. You don't learn how to do multiplication until you add, right? I was an English teacher, by the way, so I'm explaining math. But um >> thank thank you, Michael Pepe. But um so you know for us that was important to keep and we know it's actually really unusual to have people double accelerate in math across the state. So many districts went to a model where they do not start doing algebra to 8th grade. We were unwilling to do that because we know we have a subset of students who are very successful in algebra in seventh grade. So for us when we

044looked at this pathway we had to ensure that we would still be able to get students there which we can. When you look at the other subjects like science and social studies when you're young, they're very content driven. And so really what teachers are teaching in the AI classes are still at grade level because you have to cover the content of that grade level. Now again, the idea is that you're going to enrich things and part of enriching things is just how you teach because you know that you're trying to promote intellectual curiosity from a very young age. we're going to be able to do that and we hope with all students because of how we're going to look at science and social studies in the earlier grades because we have rigorous standards but we

045don't have a lot of time to teach them. So this is going to help us to get there. And then English language arts is interesting because when they're very young it's it is a little linear when you're learning the foundational skills of literacy. But then what we know about kids who are really strong in reading is what they're able to do is just read more complex text and they read at a higher level and they can access like Lexile levels they're called that are much higher. They produce information in a different way. They're more sophisticated in how they talk about ideas or how they write ideas. And you can do that in an English classroom. And the interesting thing in English, which is different than math, is we sometimes have students all the way through

046high school, like you could be in your sophomore year of high school and you could be in an academic level class and you get that A minus in that academic level class. Guess what? You can go into honors in 11th grade and we find students do that and are still successful based on their interest, how they're willing to work. That's different than math because it's, you know, you'd have to skip multiple levels of math to to be able to do that, which is why it was important for us to kind of have that accelerated piece still. So, I don't know that everybody understands that it doesn't all it's not just like, oh, we're in second grade, but we're really in third grade. That's not accurate. And even if you look at the standards for curriculum

047in English language arts, it's like in second and third grade, they're written with the year above. And then you get to fourth grade and they have fourth grade standards. So in AI, both third and fourth grade are working with fourth grade standards because there's always a point in the program where it stops abruptly because it doesn't continue on. So somebody created this program without kind of thinking about like how the pathway continues. That might be too much information, but you get the idea. >> Mr. >> Thank you. Um, so just so I'm aware, what was just presented about sort of the small group instructions? This is sort of a Can I think of this as like a replacement for the AI program in terms of an E or is that the wrong way to think?

048>> I don't Well, I'm going to let Amory talk, but I don't think it's a replacement. I think it's a comparable program. So the idea like for gifted and talented when you're small, like if we take out the accelerated piece and we know, okay, we still have that. The rest of it is really that we're providing challenges for students that are appropriate to them because again it's the the laws that these are students who are so outperforming their chronological peers that it's hard to meet their needs in a classroom. So that's when you have to set up other services. So our goal in creating that program isn't to replace AI. It's to make sure we're appropriately challenging kids so they're not bored. you know, foster that intellectual curiosity. Do you want to add? >> One

049other thing is that, you know, when we rolled out the small group investigations, um, we had our some of our AI teachers actually saying, you know, this program is actually really would be designed really well for our students, right? But they they were not they did not participate in small group investigations because their service was academically independent program, right? And so it was a different program, but it really is meant to um be able to be able to enrich and be able to help all those students and really deepen their thinking skills. >> Got it. And so is there um anything in the future possibly about like you know maybe a science or like a social studies focused E programs in the future? Is that something guys would consider? Is that kind of incorporated as

050well into the SGIs? >> You said E >> into E programs or the SGI sort of programs? If we went back to the first slide, we actually have E um programs in science and social studies beginning in sixth grade. So um prior to that, we um we don't um offer E for the content areas, but um as the students are be able to develop the skills um to be successful in those content areas. Um we do offer in sixth grade um like Dr. Jones said, we have um um really complex and rigorous standards in uh social studies and science. um and we are now going to have the opportunity to be able to differentiate and enrich within those um because we have more time to do so. >> All right. So I guess the focus

051would be sort of interdisciplinary and then you sort of get into the e programs which are sort of more for those individual sort of subject areas but the idea is to build that sort of interdisciplinary base of knowledge especially early on for kids. I would say for social studies, if I could interject, sorry to interrupt anybody, but those small groupoup investigations. I mean, the social studies standards for elementary school are very broad and cover a large number of areas from history to geography to the world around you. So, I would think almost anything you're doing in small group investigations at a higher level would touch on at least some of those in a given it's almost impossible to avoid them. There are so many. >> Yes, I think so. Yes. Um, and just do you

052mind? I think I think Lucy had a question. I'll come back to you and give everyone a chance. Thank you. >> Uh, Dr. Lee, go ahead. >> Thank you. >> I want to follow on uh Mr. Beers, this question is for you. >> Uh, you mentioned the high performing kids have never been in a AI program. Um, how about the reverse of it? You said most of them. Can you say >> what he said? >> That's not what he said. >> Let me ask Mr. Beers. What did you say? And I want to follow along on that question. No, first ask me your question and then I'll do my best to answer it. >> Sure. Thank you. That works more effectively. >> So the high performing kids the argument I heard was that uh they

053they're never in AI program to discredit the performance of AI program. What I would like to ask is what's the rate of the AI students performing at a high level. >> Okay. So to gauge the success of AI program, >> let me just clarify because I think the language we use is incredibly important. >> Okay. at not one point in anything I said that I disparage or minimize the accomplishments of students in the AI program. >> Do you agree with that? >> Because you're accusing >> you just said I >> you're accusing me of something else which I think is unethical. >> Can you make your own statement about let's try I'd like to say this without interruption >> please. The statistic we have is that when you look at this cohort of students who

054go into the double accelerated math, twothirds of that cohort are not a part of the AI program. That is what we stated. >> Okay. Now, can I ask my follow-up question then? >> I thought that was the the question, but the question was Dr. Lee, I'm going to interrupt you just for a moment. Please listen carefully as best you can to comments from the administration because Mr. Beers did not >> say that. He he he he said that may have been what you heard, but he basically said that exact same statistic, which is not the same thing. >> No, my question is still the same though. >> What about the AI program graduated kids? Have they all been in the high performing double accelerated program? >> I don't have individual student statistics at my fingertips,

055but the assumption is that the vast majority would be, if not all. Yes. >> So, the AI program has been successful. >> I I I I never said it wasn't successful, but there's a better way to deliver the same outcomes for students. I I believe that was the gist of the uh presentation. >> Okay. Mr. Singer, your question or your comments? >> We're going to disagree on this. Lucy and I recognize Mr. >> Let me finish my question. >> No, I'm sorry, Dr. Lee. You asked her the qu you asked the question a couple different ways a couple times. There will could be more discussion, but right now, Mr. Singer has not asked a question yet. I'm gonna give the floor to him. Thank you. >> I would just like if you could move to

056the slide where it shows that twothirds of the kids are from the next one right there. Right in the corner right there. And I believe that's exactly what Mr. Beerus said. So if you don't believe the words that actually came out of his mouth, perhaps you'll believe the the written words that are right there instead of saying words that he didn't actually say. >> I think transparency is crucial. >> Absolutely. Can I continue asking my question? >> I I I just want to be I'll answer them, but it's not an interrogation here. >> If you have a question, I'll answer, but it's not an interrogation. >> All right, Dr. Lee, go ahead with your question and you or comments, you can put it out there and the administration wants to respond, they can. >> Thank

057you. I suppose um the double accelerated program is bigger than AI program itself, right? What's the size difference, >> Dr. if you could ask your your whole question. So it's not as >> I can provide you with the exact statistics, but 2third of that cohort is not from the AI program. So if we're just I I'm just spitballing information here. It if we were to look at if onethird of the kids are approximately 20 students, >> I would gather that what would 2/3 what would the other two/3 equal? >> Okay, I'm glad. No, I'm asking you a question. >> I'm glad with her a >> so we're looking probably about 60 total and then we would have about 20 of those students would be AI and approximately 40. Now like I said those are not

058exact numbers but I I think they're generally speaking a a ballpark number where that ratio is correct. U but the exact statistics again I could get that for you. >> I understand and thank you for providing that information from that. I understand that we're able to provide double acceleration to more students than our AI program was able to accommodate which is a great thing which also says that the AI program outcome has been outstanding and we're while we're able to provide double acceleration to more students the success of AI program is still there. Um, what I'll I'll question you on that is all of these kids and if you listen to what Dr. Jones said, they end up in the same place. >> They they end so they end up in the same place in

059the same class in sixth grade. That's the point. That's the whole gist of this. All right? And no one's saying the AI students are this, the other kids are that. And I think just the very conversation really illuminates the problem because again we know our theory is that no one ever lost rights. No one ever lost uh student achievement does not go down when other students with the same ability are invited to sit at the table. >> Okay. Is there anyone who has not asked a question yet or brought up a topic that has or wants to bring up a topic that hasn't been discussed yet? >> Right. Would anyone like a final question or a final opportunity to speak? >> I do have Well, do you have anything else? >> I do. Yes. >>

060Go ahead. >> Okay. I'm going to call on on doc on on Mr. Lee because I asked I was about to call on you. So, and we can go back to to Dr. Lee from there. >> Thank you. uh just for the SGI program is that is that would can is that like a separate part of the day or is that kind of a whole comprehensive program where there's like a a literal small group of students in a room just for me to sort of better understand it like do they get like a separate time of the day where they're in SGI or how does that work? >> It's a once weekly pullout program. So, it is a small group that um students are in a small group in another space in the building where

061they're doing this work. Um >> for one day a week >> that's going to be I'm so sorry. Say it again. >> For like one time a week, correct? >> Yes, it's one time a week. Um that's that's the um that's the program. And dur next year during that extended learning period that we said this would be something that students would likely be a time we we pull them out once a week for that. Is it for like the whole day of that once a week or is it like for a couple of hours of that once a day? >> We have a schedule that we could share. I I I mean this has gone over I >> I just hate where these >> have to ask my questions. >> No, but I'm going to

062say there's an appropriate way where these are professionals and it's not an interrogation. >> No, this isn't an interrogation. I agree with you. And this is not it's just end up wanting a better understanding of the program. >> Okay. And what we could do is get you that information. >> Yeah. And we're also having the parent presentation um which will we go a lot more into more detail about the programs and the um offerings um during that prep parent presentation which will be um sometime in mid-March. Um so again that that's there as well. You can like I said you can find additional information on on the program. Um small group investigations is a different program than academically independent. >> And then if you go back to where there's the different programs when you go

063into sort of like the individual subjects and the AI and all that. Um the other one with like the Yeah, that one like do you also kind of like some students might be in 6 math but they're in the regular program and or like science like is there sort of that mix and match as well? Does that happen? >> Yeah, once we get to the e-classes that is uh subject specific. So the identification criteria is specific to the individual subject area. So students can be in uh especially when we get to grade six where you have the four different subject areas. Students can be in any combination of four um zero, one, two, three, four e classes and then grade level for the others. >> Thank you. And I I'll just clarify, you know, I'm

064not trying to interrogate. I don't think anyone here is trying to interrogate. I think just the board and there are members of this board that just want to better understand what's going on in our district. What are the academic changes happening? No one's interrogating. We're all being respectful here. I just want to put that on the record. Thank you. >> Thank you. And Dr. Dr. Lee, any last uh thoughts? >> Thank you. I have a question regarding the SGI and I have an anecdotal story to share. Um I'm curious what is the retention rate for the SGI program and do we have longitudinal study for the success of this program measured either in retention rate or the outcome of the student? Um I had I have asked this I believe a couple months earlier if

065not a year earlier when we talked about SGI last time. I wanted to ask a longitudinal cohort uh follow-up study for the kids. Um I don't know when I will get that. I look forward to get that when you have that available. >> I'm not sure that was something that we said that we were going to get for you. Um but I will say that the program >> I'm sorry to cut you off here, Mary. >> Okay. Um if if it's something that we need to do to look at the efficacy of the program, that would be something driven by the administration, but board members don't make a request for a study or something that they want because there are a lot of parameters we we'd have to to set up to see actually what

066is it that we're actually looking at. So just remember it's it's stepping out of your bounds a little bit by saying I want to see this and and go create that document for me. >> That's not how it works. >> I can go back to some other meetings and give you the exact date when I ask for this data. I think was said to me but back then it will be provided at a later time. I can pull that date out for you. But in any case, what is the success rate for us to evaluate the SGI program or the small group cluster? Now for us to move our track or add that track to be our main gift and talented programs. How do we measure success? >> I if I could just intervene is

067it I mean it's providing student it's it's providing services to students who need them. Is that an accurate statement? That's correct. We've identified students >> we've identified students um for this program and um part of we're meeting the needs of those students during um during this year. Um and again you asked the question how do we measure success? Success is merit measured in a lot of different ways. Um one success measure is the fact that our program has continued to grow. Um but this program is actually a different cohort of students every year. Every year we look at students um and we identify students year-over-year. So it's not an automatic roll up into um the program and that's because students academic needs vary and change especially at the primary level year over year >> and

068a number of districts in our in our area in New Jersey use a model similar to this where they have targeted services for students who need them. And I think the success is looked at at a case-by case basis, >> right? And then just the other interesting thing that you can't see in this chart is that we also have students who do not participate in either small group investigations or math cluster groups and they're still identified when we get to, you know, 5e math or 6E other classes. So we also have a cohort of kids who because we are looking and and you know making sure that we're not missing students who were identified without participating in the programs they wind up in the same place as well >> oh all right awesome >> and

069I I do have one one last question >> uh real quick Mr. So, I know it's once a week. Um, and I guess my my question is, so during most of the child's uh academic week is in the general education program with all the other students in their local schools and then for a portion of the week they go into these SGI programs. What does the general ed program do and do they cover like new materials? how do you know the kids in the SGI you know I guess they're not in the general ed class during that point of time. So I was just wondering about the logistics and how that works if that makes sense. >> Yeah sure no problem. Um so when students leave the classroom um they may leave um in varying

070um subjects. It depends on the schedule and the grade level. Um the students are not required to um make up any missed work for that time. Um the expectation is if there's major content, you know, the teacher would cover that with those students when they were out of the room, but it wouldn't be that they're being penalized to have to make up work um you know that they've missed during that time. >> And I know there's so many people coming and going from a typical elementary school classroom. Teachers are well adept at >> catching students up and filling in the gaps. >> I'd like to just say one other thing that I think we didn't actually talk about. Jason talked about our K to5 foundational programs. But one thing that happens daily when you walk

071into any of our classrooms, especially at the primary level, is that there they are being differentiated to meet the needs of the students in front of them, right? With any class, we know that there's a continuum of students and like day in and day out that is like a regular part of our instruction. Um that they are making on the spot decisions and they're planning for those students. They're doing all those things. So I don't want us to think that for a moment that SGI is the only opportunity for enrichment or for more support or for additional this is just one additional service that we're offering. So >> okay >> yeah I want to follow up I I as you were talking I went to the website which is great. So I just want to

072say there's a lot of information there. The small group investigation part I was like okay I knew about it. My mother you was eons ago was a gifted town educator and she did the enrichment program. So it's a very wellproven track record of what's going on. Um I think it's been a prog we've constantly look at our programs are constantly transforming them to the needs of our students and in this changing time we're relaying the district. It's a good opportunity to to look at this and doing it in a manner we're doing it. I feel it's an appropriate program. I think it's going to reach more kids. I mean, we have actually extended some of the practices we've had in the previously made it more equitable as well as compliant with the state, which we

073weren't previously. So, I I compliment the work that's done the staff. I know that you're moving the me needle every day and putting our best for kids forward and getting make them achieve. So, thank you. I that's all I was going to say. >> All right. Thank you very much. I think we've had plenty of questions on that. Um Mr. Beers, is there anything else for uh tonight? If there's anything else um obviously let administration uh know >> n just thank you for the presentation. I appreciate the questions. >> Thank you all very much. Appreciate your time. >> Um just one one final uh nugget under the superintendence report. Everybody has the uh the board of education has the uh student safety data report. Uh period one. There's a comparison between the period one of

074um this current year and last year. And um again, it it's for you to uh take a look at. We'd like to believe in most areas we're trending in a positive direction. Um you know, a few areas obviously we we need to improve on, but uh I'm pleased in in the ways that the uh all of our schools are progressing in this area. Thank you. >> Anything else? Right. Thank you very much, Mr. Beers, and everyone who is part of those presentations. All right, we're up to the president's report. I'll be real brief. I just wanted to uh acknowledge and and mention that at a January meeting of the Bridgewater Township Council Council, they issued a proclamation in honor of school boards month and recognizing the the pride that everyone shares and in our schools

075and our students and thanking uh board members and everyone here at this table for their service. I thought it was a very thoughtful gesture and while I'm sorry that I could not be there uh it was tremendous to see so many members of our board uh current and past uh come out to attend the meeting including uh many who spoke and addressed everyone there particularly Mr. Singer thank you you spoke very wonderfully uh not just words of thanks but also about all the district initiatives that are being led every day by our teachers staff and administration and uh and benefiting our students. So, thank you very much for doing that and to the Bridgewater Town Council for their time and recognition there. Uh, just one more note of thanks. Um, it's hard to believe that

076our last regular meeting there was not, you know, feet of snow on the ground and it hadn't, I think, dipped to like two degrees yet. So, I just wanted to thank everyone in our district, uh, all the facilities and and grounds people working to clear snow, not just from one storm, but from two. Uh, we have a lot of acorage. We have a lot of sidewalks. There's just a lot of stuff that needs to be done. So, thank you for their hard work. I'm sure that started very early in the morning a lot of times and went very late at night. Weekends the the these were weekend storms, so I'm sure that our resources were >> absolutely and uh No, and thank you. And I'm I'm sorry to interrupt you here uh Mr. Pepe. And

077uh for those who don't know, right, when a storm like this hits, our buildings and grounds crew comes in the the night before, works through the night plowing, especially in a heavy storm like this just to keep up with it. Then we have a a different team come on during the day and and they really work continuously. I I mean, in this case, for really a 36-hour period to make sure that we could be open today with a a delayed opening. and um and uh the job they did was amazing. I've never seen the the walkways look better at the high school and and that's after this storm. I mean it they did an amazing job. And look, I I also want to thank um Bridgewater Township and Raritin Burrow for for the communications protocols

078that that were set up. Um our people were in communication the whole way. Um if anyone wants to ask how do I determine uh whether we open close what have you it's really a conversation with the chief of police uh you know the chiefs of police in both towns and and then um you know our buildings and grounds guy Steve Santoro speaks to to the folks from from each township. we kind of figure out how things look and and and we uh get feedback from the people with the boots on the ground, so to speak, on how we are. So, we were happy that last night we heard that we were good to go with the delayed opening and um again, we just appreciate um you know, working with both uh both municipalities and and

079kudos to all of our people who really busted their humps >> and certainly the people in uh the men and women of DPWs of Bridgewater and Raridan who are out there in the wider community making uh the buses can't get through. We're we're we're out of luck is my understanding. >> You're Yes, sir. And thank you to all them. Yes, Mr. Walker. >> You've always when you make that call, you have to consider that we have staff communing in from all over the place, too. So, yeah, you got seven inches in Hunter County, but I don't know who comes from Ocean and Mammoth in that area. They got like 14 and 20 24. So, you have to consider all that. Not always is it is the services the same. So, I I've learned that over

080the years. So, if people call me, I'm like, "Thank you. I don't make the call. That's the superintendent's job. I'm going to sleep." and and we do have a group te a group chat with all the uh Somerset County superintendent. So, >> just who first buy the next coffee at the next meeting or how does that >> this this call was easy but anyhow, thank you. Thank you. Um and just so thank you to everyone who who who's helped out with that and done done the work to keep our schools open. Uh just lastly, just one note, I believe that our disclosure forms uh our financial disclosure forms are due on April 30th. It occurred to me that I hadn't done mine as I was driving over, so I thought I'd send out a reminder

081to everyone. Mr. Maloney, yours might have been due already. Has it been done? Shocking, I know. And I hope you enjoyed your um your uh training uh at NJSBA this >> Yeah. >> this weekend, even if it was cut short. But thank you for attending that um and getting yourself and getting educated. Yeah. And being dedicated to that. >> It was a good weekend. Um like I said, it was cut short because of the storm. So, uh they they ended things Saturday night. Uh, so we miss our our Sunday sessions, but it was still still a good weekend and and covered a lot of ground and still a lot to absorb. >> Certainly, you still and and you got your t-shirt. >> Yes, I did. >> Good. Excellent. >> Seriously, >> I I got a

082t-shirt. You have to go >> and Stevie Digger's online. That's why. >> Yeah. All right, that's it for my uh report. Thank you all very much. >> All right, that done. That brings us up to section nine of our agenda, which is committee reports. Uh Mr. Joshi is not here today. So uh Dr. Jones, are you uh reading those minutes or is another member? Mr. Assuna, thank you very much. >> Excuse me. This is my first time giving one of these. Um and we had two meetings, so I'm going to just quickly go over the minutes of the first because they really lead into the second and we'll hold questions for the second. So on January 27th at 5:00 pm, we met with Mr. Jooshi, myself, Mr. Walker, Mr. Pepe, Dr. Jones, and Mr. Beers.

083We discussed our meetings for the rest of the year. We discussed the science stem resolution and we discussed um the change for the J1 and F1 visa students um and the policy and we believe we met for about two hours discussing all of this. >> I'm reading the minutes. >> Oh yeah, I have it. But I wanted to leave because we we both kind of lay over each other. >> So then on February 9th, we met at 5:15 with Mr. Jooshi, myself, Mr. Walker, Mr. Pepe, Dr. Jones, Mr. Beers, Mrs. Madia, and Mr. Morello. Um, first we reviewed the high school program of studies and the changes. Dr. Jones reviewed changes to the high school program of studies. The 2627 program of studies introduces several new courses which was very exciting to hear about um

084including AP cyber security, AP business with personal finance, advanced journalism, 3D prototyping, PLTW principles of engineering and AP Spanish literature and culture. Multiple courses across departments have been renamed or restructured to better reflect content, including updates in English, industrial arts, family and consumer science, math, and visual and performing arts, along with the transition of some academic courses to honors designation. New career concentrations in 3D design and production and media and content creation are also being offered. I believe all of this was also rolled out to all the eighth grade parents at the meeting that was at the high school which I from what I heard had great feedback. Are there any questions about the program studies? Okay. Second, we talked about the referendum updates with programmatic shifts. Dr. Morel and Dr. Jones, sorry, Mr. Memorial

085reviewed programs and sequencing that align with the new K through three and four five schedules and grade bands which will be presented as we just saw to the full board. I'm going to we had all the questions about that. Um second are inservice plans which was last Monday. Mrs. Madia provided an overview of the professional development sessions planned for the district inservice day on February 17th. Teachers attended the sessions that correspond with their assignments for 2627. The goal is to help prepare teachers for the transition to new roles, new schedules, and new opportunities for learning. And I happened to be at the middle school that day. Um, and the feedback that I got from the teachers I spoke to was very good. Any questions about that? Okay. Third, we talked about the intercolastic athletic schedule,

086spring sports. We reviewed the schedule and there were really no questions. Any questions? >> Just need the snow to melt. Go Panthers. Uh we discussed the policy 5111 for the first reading which is on tonight's agenda. The committee recommends adding language to policy 511 clarifying that the district is not required to but may permit up to three J1 visa students per school per year provided the host family is doiciled in the district and submits a request with supporting documentation to the superintendent by a specified deadline. Final approval would rest with the board of education and continued attendance would be contingent upon the student maintaining satisfactory attendance and discipline. Um, I want to thank Dr. Jones because I know we have been discussing this since October. So, I'm very glad that we're coming to a conclusion

087with this and I look forward to the vote tonight or actually the first reading. Any questions about that? >> I have a few questions. >> If I could just ask, is this about the policy specifically or about the >> No, it's about the committee minutes. Okay. It's about the committee meeting. >> Thank you. >> As part of the the redesation of I guess some of the courses from academic to honors, has there been an adjustment to make them harder or anything like that or was there kind of a realization that these academic courses were already very difficult and so that's why you made them honors? >> A combination of thinking it was more appropriate because they were advanced courses, but what happens is we'll do summer curriculum writing again over the summer and we'll make

088revisions as well. And then that's something that's usually presented to the board in August and voted on prior to the start of the school year. >> Okay, got it. So I guess it's still you guys are still working through that, but the idea is taking those academic making them honors and I guess making sure that the the rigor is up to the honors level. >> Correct. And even some of the other courses, Jeremy, that show like the changes, they're not all revised or written yet because, you know, we offer them through the program of studies. We check that kids actually register for the courses and then we do the writing over the summer. >> Got it. >> Okay. >> Um and then I guess for some of the new courses that are going to be

089taught, I know there's it's good to see that there's more AP courses being taught. Um will I guess most of these courses be taught by existing staff? Do we need to hire more people to teach those new courses? >> They'll be by existing staff. And typically what we do is when someone is new to teaching an AP class, we do usually send them for the AP training. Not all classes actually require that, but we prefer to do that. I think probably teachers prefer it as well. >> Yeah. All right. So, they they kind of do a seminar and or whatever it is, but they get trained basically prior to actually teaching that course. >> Yes. And in that particular course, you have to >> have training. Yeah. >> Yes. Yeah. Those are very interesting subjects.

090Um, and then I guess with some of these new courses, I'm assuming that the incremental operating costs are pretty negligible just because it's existing staff. Obviously, you're paying for the training, but in general, it's sort of not too many recurring operational costs associated with these new classes. >> That's correct. >> Awesome. Um, and then I guess for the policy specifically, I just want to understand what specifically the committee talked about relating to this policy like I guess just a brief overview of like what the rationale was behind that decision that the committee made >> of only accepting three >> to accept visa students, the J1 visa. Well, the just three of them. Yeah. Like that specific. >> Oh, okay. Did you want to speak to it or I mean I can? >> Sure. I mean

091>> Dr. Mr. Beers. >> Well, whenever you have a new program, you you have to set some type of limit on the students that you may accept and and uh we're starting this program out and we'll see where it goes and we'll evaluate it in time. >> There were some other districts that had limits on their programs, too. So we kind of copy saw that in discussion also. >> Absolutely. You you can't have it unlimited because then it can lead to uh problems. >> I thought this would be a good pilot. >> All right. Um and I guess is there I mean it's three students so I'm assuming also like the incremental costs with this would be quite small as well relating to just accepting these three J1 visor. >> Got it. Um >> yeah.

092Yeah. >> And then >> that's why it's >> And wait one minute. Let me ask some questions. Uh and then I guess did you think of other numbers besides only admitting three? You thought about five or >> what? What numbers on your mind, Jeremy? Like if you don't like three, tell us what you want and we'll debate it. Um I could think of a lot of numbers. Um we >> This is not This is not a question about numbers. Excuse me. Let me >> It's exactly about numbers. How did I come up with it? We decided to start we decided to start small and and build this isn't a I I don't understand why why this is a difficult concept. We start small then we build. It's exactly about numbers and um I mean and

093with the policy you you can read the edits. So I mean it we believe that it did follow the will of the board of education at least what we received as far as feedback from board members. Uh so that's what we came up with. But >> has I know we've had one individual uh advocating for this and proposing possibly hosting a student. Has the administration received any since this discussion's happened if more people come forward? We may not even hit three. >> It's correct. We we >> All right. And then I guess I know there's a first come first serve basis for this. what was I guess the thinking of making it first come first serve versus like taking in the applications and you know looking through them. >> So so Mr. Lee I think

094we're getting into some of the policy specific things that are better debated once we get to the actual policy in case we want to make any changes or discuss them. Um so you've had the policy to look at. So I'm going to ask that you hold off on that until we get to the the policy section of the debate because then we'll be able to have a full discussion. >> Very well. >> Thank you. >> Great. Any other questions for Miss Asuna about the academic committee? >> I have one more session. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, go ahead. >> Because I thought it carried over, but it didn't. Um, and thank you. >> U, we had the discussion of the proposed science stem resolution. The committee reviewed the draft resolution, associated feedback, and supporting materials

095from the NJSBA, including the stated rationale and background. After careful consideration, the committee determined that the resolution's purpose lacks clarity and does not align with the district's current goals and priorities. As a result, the committee does not recommend moving forward with the resolution. Specifically, when the New Jersey Department of Education adopts new standards, the district must align its curriculum accordingly. The district is already increasing instructional time for science in grades K through 5, beginning with the 2627 school year. The district plans for and provides professional development across all content areas. The district's current focus is on preparing for the instructional and operational shifts required for the 2627 school year, including NJ DOE mandated literacy screening and professional development. The STEM resolution does not reflect a problem in the district. Therefore, the premise is unclear. The

096committee felt that the aim of this resolution is aligned with the state DOE standards and that it does not accomplish the intended purpose. Any questions about that? >> Dr. Lee, >> what is the committee's perceived um intended purpose of the of the resolution? Because I feel like while I tried to reach out many times, try to invite collaboration, I was shut down. I was not included and I didn't really get any get any reciprocation for my invitation for collaboration. So in here while it's stated to be um not aligned with the intended purpose. What is the perceived intended purpose? I >> believe the the intended purpose that the committee discussed was changing state standards regarding science. >> So that was the the committee's perceived purpose. essentially. And if I could could just jump in. I

097think >> at least for my part, I don't want to speak for the entire committee. >> It's look, we have a lot going on in our district right now. We're improving science. We're improving We're increasing science. We have a lot of things going on. You've heard it all all tonight. Do we really want I'm I'm not sure I want the administration I wouldn't like the administration be focused on I want the administration to be focused on improving our district and enhancing STEM and science and really everything for our students. So I I think this is a bit of a side quest to be perfectly honest. I know this that that the state is looking at these standards and we'll probably come out with more and we'll probably come out with more rigorous standards because they

098always seem to add more standards rather than um scaling them back. So, I think that there's going to be more on on the plate of the administration and our teachers one way or another. Um I respect that you would that you would want to see some changes for science uh on a statewide level. I just don't think it's the board's position to do that. So, that's why I am not supporting it at this time. you have more questions. >> All right. >> So I think that uh the assumption is not entirely the purpose of the S resolution. I'm perfectly willing to discuss this more. I think science and education education uh science and technology education is very important. It's important for the future of our students as well as students across the state. Uh I

099will continue to advocate for enhanced STEM education going forward. With that uh I also would like to ask a question about the statement uh in this uh committee report. It says it does not reflect the problem in the district. Um I would like to ask what is the what is our district's science education proficiency level that you would say that this is not a problem that also relate to our districts. >> I think that's a bit of a rhetorical question so I'll go any wants to take that on they're welcome to go ahead. >> But uh Mr. singer. >> I actually I I don't know that it is a rhetorical question. When this resolution was brought up in the first place, uh the person that proposed the resolution said very clearly that this was not

100meant to impact the bridge order in Meridan. So when we're talking about the impact of this resolution, it's not meant to that's the exact words were that was not the purpose of this resolution. So I mean if you want to tell us what the purpose of the resolution is, you're welcome to. It is very clear that our district is working on science and when you made this proposal you said the purpose wasn't for change here. So >> anyone else want to respond? >> I can continue. All right. >> Dr. Lee, >> thank you. The purpose of this resolution is to enhance science education everywhere in New Jersey. that includes our district which is currently located in New Jersey. Um it is the whole the the the state level average of proficiency level of in science

101education is 27%. Bridgewater on average is 43%. We greatly outperform our state. However, I hope that we don't accept 43% as a good number. We should have a higher standard for ourselves for our students and when there's a way um to improve that we should pursue that. And this resolution paves a way clears it it clearly draws a direction for us to potentially do that. I'm open for further discussion and collaboration to bring a better and more thoughtful uh approach for our students and have better science education for our students and across the state. Right now we have our opportunity. Um like the first conclusion that was in the the committee report when the New Jersey Department of Education adopts new standard the district must align its curriculum accordingly. Um did you know that the

102state is currently accepting public comment? We as a district, our teachers, our our administrators, our supervisors, your input has a voice right now. I would like like us to actually bring that actual practical experience to the state level so that their review reflects what happens on the ground level. So you have a voice that's why I hope this resolution brings that awareness to you. >> Thank you. >> Do you mind if I just respond quickly? >> Sure. >> So I can I think I can explain what's been confusing at least from my own perspective which might be helpful. So when the resolution came out, it did seem as though the focus was on showing like as a board going to the state and showing that we value science in the district and we wanted to

103promote I don't know if it was really rigorous science or if it was more that we're we're we're investing time in science especially when kids are young, right? That there's the same emphasis on science that you would see in math or English language arts. I understood that. Then what happened was in academic committee we had we had a couple different board members who sent us feedback. You were one of those people. So on the day of academic committee you sent some feedback but your feedback was all about the state standards. Now we've looked at them. In fact the science supervisor in our district looked at them. We we like the standards. We think they are rigorous standards and we don't think they're significantly changing. Now, you keep referencing and I know at some point I

104think somebody else referenced this the NJSLA science test which I want to just remind people is only one measurement, right? Because there's other test scores. There's AP test scores. Um there are the colleges that our students get into. There's lots of different data points that we could look at to measure our success in science. And unfortunately even at the state level they talk about this science test because like you pointed out like if the state level is 24%. I mean is the problem science across the state or perhaps the problem is the test right and that's why we want to make sure that we're looking at all different tests. Anyway, as a third thing so we kind of shifted from the original resolution into talking about the science standards. And I understand what you're saying

105that there's a point at which they vet them and people can provide feedback and that's kind of where you shifted. And then there was like an email request that was really, you know, can you tell us the current status and curriculum in sequence in Bridgewater from a practical results experience? How does state standards work? And then how can Bridgewater work within or exceed the frame of the state standards to enhance BR student experience? I feel at this point I want to be responsive to what you're asking and I'm unsure what you're asking. It's just it keeps kind of changing the target. So it would be helpful to me if we could just kind of like maybe think about that and just come up with a clear like what is it that you want us to

106look at specifically because that would be helpful. >> I think the the resolution itself says it clearly introduce uh the science courses at early >> and remove some of the limitations that we currently have. So, I don't think this is before us. This is not before us tonight. Clearly, there needs to be more um there could potentially be more discussion about this in the future. So, I'm going to suggest that we move on to uh the finance, facilities, and transportation committee with Mr. Singer. Thank you all for your thoughts on everything from academic. Uh Mr. Singer, >> the FFT committee met on February 18th at 5:30 p.m. In attendance was myself, Mr. Maloney, Mr. Pepe, Mr. Lumsky, and Mr. Beers. Up first was the business agenda review for tonight's meeting. Business administrator reviewed the draft

107business action items for tonight with special attention to the purchases and bid awards as they relate to the referendum and broad grant projects. The consensus of the committee was to approve the action items. Are there any questions regarding tonight's business agenda? Seeing none. Up next was BR Cares 2627 proposed fees. Mr. Lumsky shared with the committee that the BR carers fees for the 2627 school year will be prrated based on the length of care time. Overall, there will be a slight decrease for families signing up for both AM and PM care, while others that opt for only one AM or PM care may see an increase in comparison to the current 2526 rates. The consensus of the committee was to approve the fee schedule. Are there any questions? Up next was the 2627 budget update.

108Mr. Lumsky shared a tent a draft tentative budget for the 2627 school year which began with an initial analysis from the ear from earlier in the year which showed a potential budget gap of 4.7 million. This was due to inflationary increases and a large anticipated increase in >> question this was due to inflationary increases and a large anticipated increase in healthcare costs. Information was also shared with the committee that stated that the New Jersey education health plans are seeing an average increase of over 30%. But that due to the district entering into a self-insured plan, we are better suited to manage the rise in healthcare costs. The business administrator shared with the committee that overall headcount will be lower due to declining enrollment and other areas of the budget that will see reductions. And we

109were planning on discussing it more at the retreat on Monday, which I'm assuming will be rescheduled at some point. Yes, we'll talk about that in uh new old business. >> Great. Business administrator also shared the administration's intent to utilize 1.5 million of bank cap allowing the district to raise the tax levy slightly under 3% and that there will be still be a budget gap of around $500,000 which the district can decide to make more cuts or increase the tax levy by utilizing the allowable healthcare adjustment. Next FFT meeting date was set to coincide with the receipt of state aid information. Are there any questions? I'm sorry. The recommendation of the committee was to discuss the uh options at the retreat to be scheduled. Up next, the board business administrator shared that the administration was approached

110by a neighboring district to participate in a regionalization study with them. This would be forformational purposes only to see if there were any potential benefits to regionalize. This was also going to be discussed at the retreat. So we will have a discussion at that point. Other matters, a board member requested that as part of the board's goals, the committee begin reviewing and update updating policy later in the year. Also discussed was the township's request to meet with the committee and township leaison to discuss traffic traffic safety around district schools. There was no recommendation at this time. We adjourned at 6:55 and the next meeting is on March 12th at 5:30 which again coincides with the release of state aid information. >> Thank you Mr. Singer. We are up to >> I have a few questions

111if I may. >> Are they about the business agenda or the other uh >> they're about the it's about the FFT committee meeting. Is that about anything on the agenda? >> Mr. Singer, would you like to open it up to questions as part of your report? >> I asked multiple times if there were any questions. So >> yeah. Right. Is there anything on that that that last item, Mr. Lee? >> Um, well, I I want to just ask a little bit briefly. I know the regionalization study is something very basic, but which district would we be participating in this study with? >> That's something that they don't want uh released right now. So, that's why we will discuss. >> So, it's confidential. they would like to keep it confidential as they're in currently a send

112receive relationship and don't want to risk uh jeopardizing that in any way. >> All right. And then I know that there was coverage about BR care fees. I didn't see anything about that specifically on the agenda. Um is a change in BRA care fees. Um is that something that has to be approved by the board or is that uh an administrative decision? >> I'm informed that it has not been board approved in the past. >> Okay. All right, we are up to Can I let me just ask >> Mr. Mr. Singer makes a good point. There were opportunities to ask questions as we go along. So, uh >> well, I'd like to hear the whole report so that I'm aware of whether my questions would be answered, but some of them were not. So, I'd

113like to ask some questions. >> Okay. But it is broken down item by item on the agenda. >> I understand in front of us. So, for this So, for this point, I think we're going to move on. I'm going to see if anyone else Well, no. Um, we are going to move on to the personnel report uh committee with Mr. Walker. Mr. Walker, go ahead. >> Thank you, Mike. Um, we met on February 7th, 17th at 5:30 p.m. virtually. In attendance was Mr. Von, Dr. Vonder, myself, Miss Susanna, Mr. Lee, and Mr. Pepe. Uh, the first item in the agenda was we talked about the personal addendum. The committee discussed the personal addendum items. Dr. Fonder reviewed the sections of the addendum and answered committee questions about it. that the committee supported the all the

114action medation was our recommendation. Are there any questions on that? Seeing none. Next up was policy 0142.1 nepotism. There was a discussion the committee discussed the re the recommendation visions the policy and discussed the specific specific language and the committee recommended that we support it and put in the action names tonight for first reading. There any questions on that? Um, number three on the agenda was the contractual non-athletic stipens. Um, Mr. Walker, Mr. Zuna, Mr. Lee, and Mr. Fonder discussed the continued work with the BA regarding non-athletic statements and a proposed sidebar agreement being drafted for the board meeting. The committee support this action and I think it's on the agenda for this evening. Correct. Are there any questions? That have to be done close session. process for evaluation of certification staff um was the

115next item on the agenda. Dr. Font provided an overview of the process for evaluating certified staff knowing that both state requirements and district procedures um that being it was just discussion there was no action taken. Any questions? Technology department. Mr. Fonda provided a staffing update for the technology department. The committee supported the direction that was brought and moving forward we'll discuss it some more. Any questions on that? Substitute teacher rates of pay. Dr. Fonder shared the information with the personal committee regarding substitute teacher pay rates. This included discussion of the areas where staffing is adequate as well as those areas that remain in need. Um there is no action being recommended at this time. Any questions on that? Lastly, um we discussed some other matters of some confidential personnel updates. We adjourned at 7:15. Our

116next meeting day is March 10th at 5:30 p.m. >> Uh, Mr. President. >> Yes, Mr. >> I do have a point of information. I >> I I find it quite rude that I was trying to just ask some common sense questions. I I want I would like to know why I was silenced because, you know, I had these questions I wanted to ask related to the FFT meeting. Um, but the committee refused to answer them and I'd like to know why. >> Well, no, the committee didn't refuse to answer them, Mr. Singer Mr. Singer did I'd like to know why >> Mr. Singer as he noted paused as we have been doing at meetings forever uh for for a long time after each section and asked if there were any questions and there weren't any.

117So in order to conduct an efficient meeting we need to kind of keep keep moving and not get to the end of the report and get um have questions and discussion for a very long time like we did for academic. So um in the future you have the items here you have the minutes try to be prepared with any questions or comments for that spot. There are we will be we haven't taken any action yet and before the board takes action on anything uh to do with FFT in the business agenda. You have uh every opportunity to ask questions um and give your thoughts. >> Mr. President, I just wanted respectfully to be on the record that my questions were not answered because they were avoided. Point of clarification since it was >> if you

118don't mind since it was said that Mr. Singer refused to answer questions that is uh false. I never refuse to answer any questions. >> Uh I would also like to clarify that the uh committee meeting committee meeting minutes are available to all of the board members uh in advance and at no point did the committee chair for FFT ever receive any questions in advance. >> Ask answer these question ask these questions in person. >> Yes. All right, we are up to community relations with Miss Lan. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Uh, we had two meetings. Uh, I'm sorry, I have two pages here. One on February 3rd and one on February 24th, and I will be reporting on both. Uh, first on the in the February 3rd meeting, we discussed meeting norms and contact protocols.

119Uh we also talked about the committee objectives and the delegate assembly items that um we might want to bring forth to the delegates assembly. And as most of us know, March 5th is the deadline to submit, making this the last meeting that we can approve a resolution as a full board. And also we discussed BOE correspondents and newsletter highlights. I'm I'm going to touch on this in the more current meeting, but uh this is a a new effort um on behalf of administration to include uh board of education as part of their newsletter releases. Uh so in our last meeting which was yesterday um and I forgot to mention that in attendance was myself uh Ms. Lee um Mr. Singer and Mr. Pepe. Um, we discussed the 2728 calendar. Uh, we set up a date

120for the community meeting to review the goals for the calendar, which is, uh, Mar March 9th at 5:30 p.m. Um, we reviewed the district goals for the calendar, which was to include, um, BOE, teachers, and administration in that conversation. Any questions? I would like to get questions out of the way just in case that I miss any. Do >> you have any questions on that on any topics that have been addressed so far by by this locker? >> Yes, I do. Um, I had the time to go through the committee minutes uh for both meetings. Um, and I would just like to I guess ask obviously you're trying to determine what sort of objectives the committee has. Did you establish any? And what are those objectives? >> Objectives for what? But if I could intervene

121just because I don't understand the question. >> The objectives referenced in the committee report that Miss Lchran just provided >> the for for the calendar specifically. >> Yeah. The objectives >> we talked about ways that we could communicate with >> Oh, I see. >> the community and one of them was the newsletter and the other ones are coming up in my report. >> And uh are you talking more about the newsletter later on in your report or should I ask that question now? That's >> what you just said. >> Okay. So, >> I think it'd be helpful just if we have questions, we're happy to answer them, but I think we're already what we're going to ask next >> before actually listening to the answer that people are trying to provide. >> Um, so that's

122it. Just as a matter of respect for each other, I think it's very important to actually hear what people are saying because I'll say in this case, Mrs. Lockchran clearly answered your question, but I don't think you heard it because you're jumping to okay, what am I going to say next? So, why don't we why don't we try this? And I know I'm just this guy who's sitting here at the deis. Why don't we try civility? And and that's really, I think, what's lacking here. Let's try some civility. And and this is it also, Jeremy. And and I mean there are a lot of people here who are volunteering their time and they take time to to have meetings, create minutes, and there's opportunities to ask questions before the meeting. So now we're going on

123over an hour just to go through minutes. And and I think it's absurd. If I could just add to that, members of the public who are here to share their thoughts, it is absurd. So what I mean, >> we we we've got to somehow develop a a protocol of just mutual respect for each other's time because here it is, it's almost 9:00. We're we're not even through committee reports. That's all I ask. And it's not going to be back and forth, Lucy. I made a statement. It's not a back and forth. >> Okay. >> I I would I should I'm sorry. I'm gonna have Miss Locker once again another example of silencing. >> Yeah. The last thing that you've been is silence or silent >> since any Okay. Um this is my report. Thank you.

124Um so I forgot where I left off. Can Oh, we Okay. So >> you talked about the calendar. >> Got it. Uh the committee reviewed the BOE planning calendar and the planning calendar is on our folder this evening. In past years, the calendar was reported to the board by leadership. I believe that this is a work in progress. I don't know if you have anything to add to that, but >> thanks to the administration for getting that started. Great. >> Great. Uh, and were there any questions on that topic? Okay. So, next we discussed the BOE activities calendar, which is also in our folder, and um, it's in a beautiful color-coded format. So, I have to share my appreciation for that. And I think this is something that we have always wanted. So, so thank

125you to administration. I can only imagine how hard it is to consolidate 11 calendars into one document so that the board is um informed and feels invited to these community events and seeing it all in one place is great. There are a lot of uh activities coming up that that we can participate in. Orchestra, band, Broadway nights, uh jazz festival, festival of the arts. It it's really a lot. and and alongside athletics, it reflects a real ongoing commitment this district has to the arts. Um, so and and honestly, I'm going to add this on a personal note. None of this happens without educators and and the involvement of parents volunteering their time. So, thank you to them. Um, any questions? Just wanted to note something that wasn't on there was the read across America at

126Crim School I believe but I think there's three board members who have signed up to read and I know it's something everybody likes to do. So just a reminder because I know it's been crazy. If you haven't yet you can sign up. >> Do do you remember the date? >> It's Monday. I'll think it's a range. >> Oh it's through. Yeah it's next week. Starting the week. Yeah. Okay. >> But I can Thank you. in your >> uh so BOE invites and expectations. The committee discussed the legality of using students names, images, and likenesses. It is recommended by the committee that board members respect this privilege of being able to attend these events that is granted to us and refrain from exhibiting images of students that is meant to self-promote on social media. Are there

127any questions about that >> question? What what do you mean exactly by self-promote? >> Um I mean like to take a picture with students to promote oneself publicly. >> What do you mean promote oneself publicly? >> I I'm pretty sure >> talk about students. I think we best hold off on this. >> No, I'm talking about I'm talking about obviously myself. Uh this is obviously a reference this is a reference to my this is a reference to me. I I'm I'm going to I'm going to ask my question and I'm not going to get silenced again. >> Oh my god. This is my referral when you're ready. And I said that since this involves students, >> getting into the specifics could potentially be a closed session topic >> and it's something that unless it's something

128that's brought to us by the administration directly. So, we are going to move on from that point. Um, that's what the committee's recommendation is. Board members are welcome to take it for what it's worth and u just be wary of any potential consequences. Thank you. Um, >> and and if I could just add add to that, it's it's imperative and we should we should know just with something like this, whenever we use the image of a student on a website or what have you, um, parents sign a waiver uh, that allows their child to be utilized in district publications. It's imperative that when we're dealing with minors, all right, that we don't post identifiable photos of kids without their permission. I hear a lot about parental rights. I'll tell you, as a parent, that would

129anger me if someone took my kid's photo and put it on a political website without my permission. So, if you're asking what we're talking about, that's what we're talking about. and and I respectfully ask you to please stop that practice because it puts you and the board in legal liability. Thank you. >> Okay. Is there anything else? >> I I have to address this. >> Excuse me. No, it's still my report. >> It is. We're moving on. >> That's an accusation that I'm not allowed to address. >> And I would like to add that attending these events is a privilege. It's a privilege that is granted to us by administration. Um the last topic that we discussed was the NJ delegate assembly resolution uh put forth by myself uh and the committee discussed this resolution

130and we decided to take no action at this time but of course you know the resolution may come up in the future at a time when and I'll use Mike's words when a side quest might be uh a little bit easier to digest and we're not you know here until late in the evening. And that's it. Uh, our next meeting is scheduled for me. Um, um, I didn't ask if there was any questions. Any questions? Our next meeting is scheduled for March 9th at 5:30 p.m. Thank you. We have to liazison and delegate reports. Uh, just really briefly from the bureau of RAND at their last meeting. There was a really good presentation from Anthony Dado who is the uh, town the the burough's tax assessor, also the tax assessor for Bridgewater. uh he gave

131a presentation on what the on how the um reassessment of homes which is happening for the first time in a long time in Ritan means for individuals. Um so if anyone wants to go and watch that it's on the bureau of Ritan's YouTube page. I think it's just good a good if you live in Ritan could tell you what's about what's going on and it's a really good justformational uh presentation about how that that works. My major takeaway is if your house assessment goes up 50% does not mean that your taxes are going up 50%. So that's that was uh gratifying to hear. Uh that's it for Meridan. Any other leazison or delegate reports all right that we are up to section 10 which is open to the public. Individuals and/or groups are invited to

132present their concerns, comments, and requests to the board of education at this time for any matters. In accordance with board policy, members of the public are allotted one opportunity to address the board for a maximum of five minutes during this period of the meeting. And just please be advised that a video recording of this meeting will be posted on the district's website. If you could just uh give us your name and municipality of residents and sign in, please. Thank you. Hello. Uh, my name is Kelly Cocotilo. I am the second VP of the BRA, but today I'm talking to you as a second grade teacher at Van Holton. Um, just wanted to put out there Van Holton has some really great events coming up. Hopefully, it's on the calendar. On Monday, we have our ReadAcross

133America assembly, which about six to eight Van Holton staff members have been coming in early for the past month and a half to put uh record a skit that incorporates Dr. Seuss. It's really funny. We think this is the best one yet. We have costumes and everything. Um, on March 19th, we have the invention convention of Annne Holton, which is an amazing event. You can come anytime during the day or at night. And then my personal favorite, and if anyone's been to it, is on May 5th on Cinco de Mayo, we're having our annual cultural fest where it will put a tear to your eye because a group of second graders singing about being one and accepting everyone's differences. It's just amazing. So, I wanted to start off with that. Um, I'm just speaking because

134as a primary teacher, SGI is a wonderful program. The children involved love going. They come back to the classroom excited to share what they've learned. And I for the last three years have have nothing but great things to say about the program. However, I just want you to know that primary teachers constantly challenge their students daily, not just in SGI. between asking inquisitive questions, problems, problem solving and everyday scenarios, math challenges through the current program and outside sources. My second graders are researching famous Americans, learning about Olympic sports, bob sledding and crowing were their top favorites. Um, looking into various cultures and also looking into their own culture. They are listening to and discussing novels. They are constantly sharing interesting words and expanding their vocabulary in both reading and writing. I started if they write

135a sentence that gives Mrs. Coco goosebumps, I place it on the wall and they're you should see some of these uh sentences. Um the in-depth questions and creative problem solving of some of my students, my students that are academically advanced really sparks curiosity in the other students. It encourages and motivates those who may struggle to think about solving things in other ways. And I see that daily having those kids together in one room, they really like work with one another. Um, and I just wanted to make it clear that we are enriching and there's enrichment opportunities happening daily outside of the programs you saw today. So that's it. Good evening. Um, my name is Elizabeth Kawuchcci. First, um, I'm sorry I'm so agitated right now that I'm a little shaky, but um, I first wanted

136to congratulate the board. I'm glad that you mentioned how you guys were recognized at the council meeting for what you got for what you do and how hard you work. Um, I certainly appreciate the time >> that you all put into to our schools. Um, and it's obviously become much more difficult as of late. So, I do appreciate it. I think I'd be running for the hills if I were you. But, um, um, I'm here tonight as a retired BRSD educator who spent 22 years of my 40-year career teaching career at Bridge Ron Middle School. My children also both went through the system and actually my grandson is at Adamsville. Um I have been to plenty of board of ed meetings during my tenure. But I must admit that over the past two years there's

137been quite a change in the personality of the board. In my opinion, this has resulted in negative attention that has damaged our reputation as a district. I have always been proud of our commitment to excellence and I find it concerning that there is an attempt to present our board of ed as something that it is not. I don't expect all members to agree all of the time. But I do expect them to respect one another and work together to serve the students of the community. I expected nothing less than that type of productive behavior from my own students when I was in the classroom. I am concerned that some members of this board misunderstand their purpose as a board member. They waste the board's time with unfounded accusations and appear to be promoting their own

138personal interest. Politics have no place in our schools, period. And that includes on our board of education. What has disturbed me most recently is one of the members social media presence, in particular, their creation of a newsletter that promises to provide transparency and expose hidden agendas of the board of education. I'm sorry, but this just looks like a blatant attempt to advance their own agenda, and I believe it is damaging to the district. There should only be one side on this board, the student side. If some have future aspirations, maybe they should leave the board and get on with it. My past colleagues, like that young woman there, this is what we should be talking about. this is what we should be listening to all of the time, not the nonsense that goes on over

139and over and over again. It all none of that shows what's really happening in our schools that teachers come in hours before the school day to to write a skit and they're excited about it and they put their kids sentences on the board. That's what we should be celebrating at these meetings. So again, if you if some of these people have future aspirations, maybe they should leave the board and get on with it. My past colleagues and the students of this district and you as well deserve better. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Kuchi. Hi, I'm Margarita Yosfakis from Bridgewater. I've come to almost every single board meeting since September uh 2025 and I've spoken at each of these and I came today to this meeting to obtain some feedback regarding the school district allowing

140exchange students in the 2627 school year. And I'm so pleased to hear that this the academic committee has brought this up for discussion. So, I just want to say thank you so much. And as I say at every meeting, my husband and I can only see the merits and benefits for the district to allow exchange students. So, I really hope that happens and that there are benefits and you can see this for the forgoing future. Um, but my main goal tonight was just to obtain some feedback and a status update on changing the policy just like our neighboring districts. And I sat through two hours of the meeting just to say thank you. So, thank you. And I I hope it does come to fruition and I hope it is good. So, thank you. Thank

141you, Miss Yo Zbecas. Laura Crest, president of the Bridgewater Raritin Education Association. And you know, there's plenty of times I have questions about what goes on around here and I actually ask the people that are making the decisions in an email and I think it would benefit and I I'm just going to say this. It's ridiculous what goes on here. I feel like I'm following up with Beth. I don't have anything written and I wasn't going to say anything tonight, but it's true. It seems like what's happening here is somebody is asking questions constantly to either to try to make up that there is conspiracy going on here because there isn't. And I would say when you point your finger at other people, there's three pointing back at you. So maybe we need to look

142at what other people's motivations are in these this constant barrage of harassing these people that volunteer their time to make this a better place. And I'm sure you're taking all this to put on the new newsletter which will you Okay, that's all that's all I have to say. Hi, my name is Lou. Um, and I live in Bridgewood. I just want to focus on the AI change. Um, I just learned tonight. So, I read something. So, I'm going to read from my phone because I did not know that until I came here. So, I have two children who have participating SGI AI and E programs. Um, from what I heard tonight, this is not a replacement of AI. is simply a removal of AI program. In other words, it's reduce the support for other students.

143In my opinion, SGI SGI is not comparable to the AI program. SGI is one class per week while AI is full-time program integrated into all all classes every day. The level of depth pace are completely different. Um, SGI is not academically advanced beyond grade level. So my daughter did not qualify for AI at all. Yet SGI was not sufficient for her. Before entering EMAS, she frequently complained about math was not was too easy for her. So if SGI was not challenging enough for her, it was certainly not meet the needs for students who qualify for AI. Regarding the financial concerns, um the district has stayed that SGI does not add cost. um that may be true in its current form and that may also explain why it's not compare comparable to AI um currently a

144once per week enrichment model delivered within homeschool is fundamentally different from a full-time advanced program. It's also important to remember why AI was created in the first place. The proper was to the purpose was to make advanced programming financially sustainable by gathering qualified students from across the district into one or two classes at the same school. The alternative would have been and should have been offering food level classes within each ele elementary school. So simply removing AI without stressing the e programming across all schools does not resolve the structural issue. In addition, some AI students would attend Huntington School regardless. So eliminating the AI does not necessarily generate meaningful savings. Uh unless class size are increase, which is already a concern. It's unclear how many classes could release like really actually be reduced. The actual

145financial impact deserve um career expansion. uh regarding statement that twothirds of grade 6E students were not previous in AI. Again, my daughter is a good example. She was never in AI um but has been EMAS and ELA um since grade five. So, in fact, I I think she should have been placed in advanced math early if we had EMAs before grade five. So, the fact that many students did not receive um any E or AI before grade five is something we should be concerned of, not be proud of. Um and also it's very concerning that the district decided to eliminate AI without community discussion or approval. Um so like many family including me just learned about this today. Um and a decision of this magnitude should involve transparency and stakehold input. Um I have already

146shared this news in you know to my some of my friends and neighbors when I was hearing about this and some of them are were discussing about moving out of Bridgewater. So um this could have broader consequence um for the district reputation and long-term enrollment. Um yeah, I think that's what I have and um thanks for all the volunteers here for your time. Yeah, thank you. Uh good evening. Uh my name is Shingley. I'm resident for uh at the Bridgewater for 23 years. Uh we love our district and we love our town and know many of you guys uh for years. So I have a three points here regarding the uh AI and the AP programs. I know maybe not all topic for tonight but I just want to say since I'm here I want

147to um hear it let you guys hear it. So first one is the AI impact by the real element for the district like the grade change because I know you have a chart that the fourth grade may be split to different schools. My question is since two three four already in Hamilton can you keep the fourth for some years in Hamilton so the kids can share the school bus like three grade shares compared to two grade share and then split to two different road. I'm just thinking because my kids they're two grades apart they share the same bus every day when they both in AI programs. So I'm just saying if you're thinking about split the fourth grade to two different intermediate schools maybe you want to keep them one more year to save some

148money. I'm just saying. So second one is that the AI data AI program data what my personal collection for my son's grades. He graduated from our high school two years ago 2022 and uh I look at the programs we have a one page program every parents has it the top five% we have a triangle on the program I believe it's triangle so this mark the t top five students your name you have a actual mark that we handily counted so top five means close to 35 students top five and top around 30 students students are AI related. So that's a high correlation from my point of view. So around 80% of the top five students graduate from our high school district are AI kids. So I know you have the data showing the one-third of

149the AI kids go to the E program for sixth grade. That doesn't give me a a full picture about the high perform when they graduate from high school with the highest GPA 5%. Okay, that's my second opinion. So my question is that if possible can you generate more data related to the AI program kids that graduate from high school each year top five students we know who is who and then can you generate a table or report showing the statistics that how many of them are related to the AI or in the future it could be a study that SGI program later on you can use that data as comparison since we don't have AI programs the SGI program does it perform better or not? So that's my suggestion and also if you have the

150report I'd like to have a sneak peek on it and then share it. Um I just want to say I'm curious because my son's data I have my daughter's data I have to count it again but if you have a report I love to see as well. So third is that regarding the AP class, I know two years ago we had some change regarding the AP class. Then the kids can now take more options option two and then they can now do different science um AP class. My personal experience from my my kids are they both are benefit from our option program. They got choose more of the E-class or um AP class. But I think it's a it's good very very good opportunity for uh explore desire the subject for them in more depth

151if they take more AP class and then build up on uh build up the strong foundation without if without the challenge classes some students may get feel bored they don't know what to do and then they the knowledge is not that deep if we have the resource right now allow the kids to choose what class they can benefit and then it's good for their future to develop ment. So that's my third opinion. So thank you for your time and attention. And um uh I think I also want to sh thank you all the BOE members because your volunteer hours are very very good for us and we love the district. Thank you. >> Thank you Miss Le from 14 Henry Street. So I want to thank you all first of all for your time for

152staying up so late for this whole opportunity and uh I came here originally trying to discuss AP policy with you but as I sit here and especially when Mr. years announced that AI program is no more. I have to admit I was shocked and then I was sitting there for a long time. I realized there's always been the elephant in the room that I just didn't really quite get and that is we have a real problem in communication and to be quite frankly I don't think any discussion on AP or AI will have any result if we don't get that out of the way. So to begin with trust me when I say I really truly appreciate everyone here. I know you guys all generally try your best to do what you think to be

153the best for the district. I know that and I deeply appreciate that. I am doing that too. And Mr. Funders, we work long time ago. So, you know, I'm also the one for community. I teach lots of kids here as well. I'm a teacher as well. So, I really really get what you're trying to do. Unfortunately, I think the problem is never about what you believe to be best for the district. It's not even about what actually is best for the district. is about what us the whole community together agree to be the best for the district. Now I left China a long time ago, decades ago to here because I believe we have a better system here. Like we can actually have real discussion, truly meaningful discussion that together we reach consensus no matter

154how hard it is. We try to understand our neighbors, right? That's the beauty of it. That's what I've been trying to do. That is what I believe the committee is doing. And unfortunately, I don't think that's here because lots of times and try uh you know to be blunt. I feel sometimes I cannot help but sense a condescending tone. Sometimes impatient or even arrogance from the members of the committee to us. It's like we know what's best for you. Just just trust us and let us do our job. With all due respect, I don't think that's what we're signing up for. Right. And uh like one of the members earlier mentioned exactly right like you guys are well entrusted by the or um administration which is entrusted by the people of Bridgewwater. So I hope

155we can all together really have real conversation. Lots of times I feel like it's like we have made this decision. You are informed. Thank you very much. you have your five minutes under all these civilized conversation the basic message is we've done this already we know it's best for the district and it might well be I have to add but then thank you for your input have a good day I don't think as a community that's a right or healthy way we're going to help them all right that message I'm honored to be one of member who came up with it years ago with the B and during that meeting the actual concern was communication, the lack of communication between the community and the school and the BOE. And I'm really sorry to say I

156still think it's a big issue today. And I think a real suggestion for me, a real discussion should start when we stop talking about AI or AP or anything, but try to establish like Mr. beer said just now a real protocol with mutual respect to try to listen to each other and try to solve all these differences amongst us. I'm sure there's a way we can do it other than just having a meeting, having five minutes and say goodbye to each other. So that's all I have to say. Thank you again for all your hard work. Thank you. Uh hello everybody. Uh my name is Jawan Kong. Uh you can call me Jack. Uh I'm a father of three kids. Um so I don't know uh many of you sitting here. Um Mr. founders. Some

157might know, but I guess uh I've been listening for quite some time and I'm still trying to learn what's going on here. Um, frankly speaking, I'm a little bit confused. Um, but again, thank since we're here and um I would like to thank you for listening and um so I hear about the the dynamics and the intense arguments here. Um as as I'm trying to understand that you know we are all playing different roles here and um our BOE members um apparently has their responsibilities um and you all have a responsibility to do um since we are all swearing to to the god and to the flag in the beginning. So I would like to quote a verse from the Bible. It's Matthew 33. So it says that you are the salt. Um so I

158guess for anyone who knows the Bible verses, you know what happens if the salt loses taste. So um the reason why we are all here is because um is a huge responsibility that's happening here because we are discussing the future of hundreds and thousands of children in our district. So I guess regardless of the intense argument I I think that is common for everybody here. So we should work together for our children. So I mean in intense argument is unavoidable in order to clarify things and you know figure things out there has to be there we have to face the conflicts. We got to have to face conflicts but at the same time with respect and community. Um that being said, um so so I would like not to think you guys as you know

159you know big person who's helping or disregard something. I would like to see you guys as friends. Okay. So because I'm a father I believe all of you guys sitting here are either a father or a mother. So you all children. So we most likely have been through all all of that. So I would like to talk to you guys as a father to father father here. Um um so with uh with that understanding so I think our um my point is we should you know spend less time in arguing on meaningless stuff and focus on on things that really matters and things that can actually make an impact. Um so I cannot say for all the students because We have so many students in our school district. So I can only speak for from

160my um so my kids um they they study in Bridgewater and my kids they're enjoying it and they love it and um the founder one of one of our kids and they love you. Um so um they perceive him as a a very big friend. So, um they're having a great time. Um my I have different kids. I have three kids. The biggest kids is like is is a relatively smarter one. I would put it that way. Um trying not to be a little bit biased toward making. Um but she uh like to spend more time studying. So, she's a little bit in herade. >> Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt you. Just so you know, you have about 40 about 30 seconds left. >> Okay. >> Thank you very much. >> I'll try to make

161it quick. So, she she's a little bit faster and thanks to the uh school district's exelerating program, her exeleration if it's 10, so in year one is 10 and next year is 20 and then 30. So, when she gets to the seven years of uh se seventh grade, her math is developing fast and she's already studying um calculus and pre-calculus on her own. Um, and our school district's current math curriculum cannot meet her needs. Um, so the only course she can choose. Okay. Okay. So, she um she's got stuck in her uh math um because she constantly complained to me that she feels bored. >> Got it. All right. Thank you, sir. If you have any further comments, you're welcome to email the board or administration, but thank you very much for calling out tonight.

162I appreciate it. Okay, just one one one moment. >> No, no, sir. Unfortunately, that's the five minutes. So, to keep to keep it fair for everyone, we have to keep it to that. But I appreciate your feedback and you're welcome to send us a message or an email or write the administration with any questions. But thank you for coming out tonight. >> My name is Wah. Um so uh this is my first time um attending a meeting. One thing I observed is that different um there are different perspective among among the board members. I see that as a positive because it suggests the board is not an echo chamber um but a that the different sessions and de um I actually encourage that kind of open dialogue because the the healthy disagreement can lead to

163stronger decisions. Um coming back to the uh AI program, this is the first time I heard that AI is going to be changed, removed or changed. Um but uh a change of this magnitude. I think uh transparency and accountability are essential. Uh I'm a data scientist. So uh my first question is that is this decision data driven? And I think many people already uh touch upon this. Um if this is a datadriven um decision, where is the data and uh what specific metrics for anyone? Will the full report be made available to the public? Uh second, for the if you want to replace with a new program, how do we evaluate success? What are the benchmarks? And um are there going to be annual public reporting so the community can evaluate those outcomes? If the

164new model does not meet expectation, is there going to be a plan to roll back or adjust? Third, um I heard that uh the gift program cost money which is 500 uh 512,000 per year. But um strong academic academic offerings actually attract families and it will strengthen our property values and uh it will contribute to the long-term economic health of our community. If our change if the purpose of a change is to reduce cost was that broader impact part of our analysis. So these are the three main questions I'm I'm asking and I believe many people may share the same uh questions that I have and actually uh Mrs. Lee she was asking some of those questions and I think many people share the same um passion. So um I actually welcome positive change and

165all I'm asking for is uh all I'm asking is the clarity, transparency and measurable accountability accountability. I believe our students and our community deserve decisions that are clearly supported by evidence and openly communicated. Thank you. Anyone else looking to make a public comment this evening? Coming once, twice. Thank you everyone for your comments. All right, that brings us up to Section 11 of the agenda, uh, which is the approval of the minutes. Do I have a motion for the approval of the January 20 minutes? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion in a second. Any discussion or uh changes that need to be made. Right. Mr. LSK, could you please call the role on the minutes? >> Mr. Singer? >> Yes. >> Miss Lan? >> Yes. >> Dr. Lee? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lee? >>

166Yes. >> Mr. Maloney? >> Yes. >> Mr. Jooshi. Mr. Walker, >> yes. >> Mr. Sunna, >> yes. >> Mr. Pepe, >> yes. The motion passes. Right. We are up to personnel uh personnel 26 22 through personnel 2624. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> A motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Mr. Lky, could you please call the role of personnel? >> Mr. Singer, >> stand on personnel 26-24. Yes. Everything else? >> Miss Lockan? >> Yes. >> Dr. Lee? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lee? >> Yes. >> Mr. Maloney? >> Yes. >> Mr. Walker? >> Yes. >> Mr. Sunna? >> Yes. >> Mr. Pepe? >> Abstain on personnel 2624? Yes. On everything else? >> The motion carries. >> Right. We're up to curriculum 2639 through curriculum 2642. Do I hear a motion?

167>> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Seeing none, uh, Mr. Lowski, could you please call the role? >> Mr. Singer? >> Yes. >> Miss Lan? >> Yes. >> Dr. Lee? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lee? >> Yes. >> Mr. Maloney? >> Yes. >> Mr. Walker? >> Yes. >> Mr. Sunna? Yes, >> Mr. Pepe. >> Yes. Motion carries. >> Up to You're up to business 2690 through business 26100. Do I hear a motion? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Motion and a second. Any discussion on the business agenda? >> Yes. >> On the business items? Dr. Lee? Uh as usual, can I uh get uh for public information and uh elaboration on the change orders? Okay. For the first change order, the middle school edition, this is

168to install an ADA compliant wheelchair lift for the auditorium stage as we have uh the need for it. Uh the next change order is for the electrical upgrades. That is to increase the size of the wire feeding into the new electrical panel. Uh the original specs were not sufficient. So this is the additional cost to upgrade the wire size. The next two for the toilet renovations at the intermediate schools. These are actually um project closeout credits. So in each project there was an allowance built in. So, this is the unused portion of it that is being returned to the district. Essentially, we're not paying that out. >> Does that go back into the referendum? >> Correct. >> Um, the next three are all related. Um, they're all for boiler replacements. Uh, Adamsville, Crim, and Bradley

169Gardens. This was because we explored the direct install program through PSENG and the cost of it was actually more than these prices. So, boiler replacements were originally part of the referendum and so we were kind of waiting on the prices from direct install and this actually is um less to have the contractor directly install it themselves. Thank you. Is there any further discussion? Mr. Lomsky, could you please call the role? >> Mr. Singer, >> yes. >> Miss Lockan, >> yes. >> Dr. Lee, >> yes. >> Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Mr. Maloney, >> yes. >> Mr. Walker, >> yes. >> Mr. Sunna, >> yes. >> Mr. Pepe, >> yes. The motion carries. Right, we are up to special services. Special services 2620 through 2625. Do I have a motion? >> Motion. >> Second. Motion in

170a second. Any discussion on special services. Thank you. Uh seeing none, uh Mr. Lomsky, could you please call the role for special services? >> Mr. Singer? >> Yes. >> Miss Lock? >> Yes. >> Dr. Lee? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lee? >> Yes. >> Mr. Maloney? >> Yes. >> Mr. Walker? >> Yes. >> Mr. Sunna? >> Yes. >> Mr. Pepe? >> Yes. >> The motion carries. If if I could just for a moment back in the business agenda, we did have a number of gifts this uh gifts this meeting uh this month. So, thank you to everyone for their generosity. Uh Mr. Pongchox Amin, a number of our school PTOs, Panther Athletic Club, and probably one of the few times I've been able to thank them in the past decade, the New York Jets for uh

171passing along for their donation towards the uh unified flag football. So that's just especially a good thing to get a donation for. So thank you to all of our donors um and everyone who's given a gift. So that's for the business agenda. Thank you everyone for letting me do that. And we are up to other 2615. Other 2616. Do I have a motion? >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion and a second. Any discussion would need to take place in close session. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, Mr. LSKI, could you please call the role? >> Mr. Mr. Singers, Miss Lockan. >> Uh, yes to 2615 and I will recuse myself on 2616. >> Dr. Lee, >> recuse on 2616. Yes. >> Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Mr. Maloney, >> yes. >> Mr.

172Walker, >> yes. >> Mr. Sunna, >> yes. >> Mr. Pepe, >> yes. The motion carries. All right, we're up to policy. Uh if anyone saw I just sent out a email to the board letting you know of a small change to the policy format instead of doing everything at once. I think I thought it might be good to try going uh committee by committee just so we keep the uh discussion a little bit more focused. This is perhaps not the best uh agenda to illustrate it for since there are only two policies and one regulation but for days where we have a whole lot it might um keep things a little bit more on on on topic without jumping around. So with that we are up to policy 2616 which is the uh personnel the

173academic committee policies. Do I have a motion for those for that policy and regulation >> motion? Second >> motion and a second. Any discussion? >> I would like to ask a few questions if I may. >> Sure thing. >> Thank you Mr. Lee. >> Um I guess going back to what I was asking about in the committee meeting. What was the rationale behind making the selection process a first come first serve basis versus one that could be based off of merit and the quality of the applications of the students applying to be a student here with J1 visas. I I guess if I could just give my thoughts on that. Again, not to speak for for the committee. It's based on feedback from the board attorney just so the board is not picking and choosing

174from different students. Uh the state department runs that application process and there are qualifications that that need to be met and I don't think we want to be in a situation where we're looking at two kids and trying to decide which one can come if we can avoid it. um if they meet the qualifications for that for that visa. So that's the answer I have. >> Have we uh spoken as well with other districts about how they run their visa programs? How many on average students they receive? >> We have not. And you know my another I think this is the most important question. Obviously, you know, almost every there there are countless other districts that have pretty standard language from Straw's EMA. Why are we deviating from Straw's EMA policy? I know that uh

175you know, there are multiple members of this board that have indicated that we should be following Straw's EMA policy pretty much exactly according to statute. And I'd like to know why we're deviating from that. I think that was the policy there. I think we looked at another district's policy and liked it. That gives us um some flexibility into whether or not to do this forever. It says that we may do that we may accept students but we do not have to. So I think that gives our administration the flexibility they need to um roll out the program, roll out the pilot, but also put the brakes on things if something unforeseen comes up. I don't know. I don't I don't want to speak for the administration, but that was sort of my sense of the

176merits of that language. >> And and as you said before, it's following consultation with our attorney. I I would like to say you mentioned a key word here, flexibility as it relates to policy language. I think this is something that really applies to really any policy including mandatory policies like the one we're discussing here relating to the acceptance of resident and non-resident students. So I'd like to set that precedent that it is flexible as you just mentioned. >> Thank you. Any further discussion on uh the academic policies? I I would just like to comment that that we've strayed from Strauss SMA, not strayed, but we've added our own context to Strauss SMA policy since I started on this board. So, we're not married to just what they put out, but >> Dr. Lee, I know

177you had a comment. >> Yes, I have a comment about this policy. Uh this is a this is a answer to a community uh outcry to review policy. I want to commend the administration and the board committee in reviewing it and come up with a with a a policy uh review. Um any further um I would like to see if uh anyone wants to direct their uh changes to the committee for a second reading but I want to first thank the board for reviewing it policy as a response to our community uh request. Thank you very much. >> Yeah, I think this is a good good thing for our district. >> Yes. Um, >> I do have a few last words, >> Mr. Julie. Go ahead. >> And I I appreciate you admitting the flexibility

178part. My hope is that this won't be a double standard for the other policy changes recommended for this board. Um, I hope that we adhere to and follow these same standards effectively for every policy, for every change. We recognize that there's flexibility and as long as we're following statute, that's what matters. Um, but I just want to just clearly put out there that I don't think that this is a policy change that we've thought through clearly enough that I believe has been articulated clearly enough. It's a vast departure from a lot of other districts like Somerville and Manville. And I think that more work needs to be done to make sure that the decisions we make are based off a very clear rationale that's clearly communicated to both the public and is evidence-based. And I

179and and it's not just based off of a feeling and pulling a number out of thin air. And I I think this board needs more information on this. So that's why I'm abstaining. >> Mr. Lamsky, could you please call the role? >> Mr. Singer, >> yes. >> Miss Locker, >> yes. >> Dr. Lee, >> yes. >> Mr. Lee, >> abstain. >> Mr. Maloney? >> Yes. >> Mr. Walker? >> Yes. Mr. Sunna. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pepe. >> Yes. The motion carries. All right. We're up. We're up to policy 2617. This is the approval of personnel committee policies and regulations. There's one. Uh do I have a motion? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Mr. President? >> Yes, Mr. Lee. >> I have a motion. >> A motion? Yes. Go

180ahead. >> I'd like to make a motion to amend nepotism policy with the recommendations that I put together in my policy proposal. Thank you. >> A second. >> There's a motion and a second. Um before I I move on, does everyone did everyone get that? Everyone has that electronically. Okay. >> All right. Uh I I'll just say for for I don't believe that the business >> I don't have one for the record. Um >> I will send it. You send it to everyone. >> I will I will send it to Mr. Lomsky. um for the record and for the meeting minutes. My apologies for not sending it earlier. If I may, I would like to start. >> Oh, well, I just wanted to say something first and then I'll then I'll I'll go to you.

181I'm just saying I I haven't had a chance to look at this at all. I got this as I got a phone call that we got something as I was driving home from work. >> I had to go home and do some stuff and then run over here. So, I don't want to make any It might be the best policy in the world. It might be one that I don't support, but I I don't think I'm really in a position to even discuss it because I haven't had a chance to consider it. So, so that's that that's my piece. You're welcome to make a motion. I wish that this had gone to a committee to hash out. I know a committee's already discussed it already. Um, of course you're welcome to make the motion, but

182I I don't have anything to discuss and I'm not I mean maybe everyone's kind of dived into it and and considered it, but for my part I I I don't have any discussion on it. I just wanted to say that from the start. Uh doc, I'm sorry, Mr. Lee, go ahead. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Uh I'd like to point out that you know comparing what we have online on strame to what we have as proposed changes uh relative to what we reviewed in committee there were a couple of very key and substantial changes in the policy that were made I believe without notice explicitly to the committee or to this board and I think most concerningly to the public. One of these clauses prevents all staff members from supervising relatives with one exception. Um,

183I think this is a pretty common sense measure that helps prevent any favoritism and nepotism in our district. Not sure why that was taken out. Another clause required administrators to disclose new family relationships to employees that report to them. It seems like another pretty common sense measure to keep in to ensure that uh nepotism does not just get swept under the rug here in our district. Um, and I think relative to the original policy that we have, the closed door committee, with the exception of myself, also chose to take advantage of a loophole to allow the hiring of relatives with approval from the county superintendent with no specifics on what an appropriate hiring process looks like. Uh, this was included relative to the online straws estimate policy, and I think it's a dangerous loophole that

184presents itself as a Pandora's box to nepotism in our district. Uh these policy changes I believe also set a dangerous precedent for our district that I refuse to accept or support. And I believe that a vote against this amendment is a vote to affirm loopholes to nepotism in our district through our policy. And that represents this board prioritizing its self-interests over those of our children and our families. And beyond keeping this existing policy in place as is from the online straws estimate version, my amendments will make sure that nepatism never reaches our community's front door. Every job applicant is reviewed before the first interviews begin. This ensures that conflicted relationships are scrutinized from the start of the hiring process. No conflicted administrator sits on a hiring committee for a position their relative applied for. Full

185recusal documented in writing, no exceptions. Supervisory conflicts require board approval, not a quiet workaround. And I believe that a written plan that is reviewed, analyzed, and approved by this board on the record is what we need to ensure that supervisory conflicts are addressed in a clear manner. I also believe that conflicted negotiators should stay out of the room entirely. no physical presence in close session, no matter what role they claim. And if they have the necessary information that the negotiations committee requires, they should submit it in writing. And board members with family in the same statewide union should recuse themselves from the entire negotiations process, not just until a deal framework is signed, but from start to finish. And every year the superintendent reports publicly on every conflict, every disclosure, and every recusal, accountable to

186this board, and accountable to this community. And I've heard the arguments that these rules do go further than what the state requires. And they do. They absolutely do. And that's exactly the point. We spoke about flexibility here. This is a policy amendment that respects what the state statute has and allows us to go even further than that because reality is that the state sets a floor but we get to set where our standards are as a board and this board has always had the ability to hold itself to a higher standard. And tonight I'm asking us to do exactly that. And so tonight, I'm asking each of my colleagues to vote yes tonight on these proposed anti-nebotism amendments because this board has the power right now to close loopholes that should never have existed, to

187a demand accountability that was never required, and to send a clear message that Bridgewater Riden holds itself to a higher standard than the minimum. I hope you'll vote yes because our community expects it. Vote yes because our staff deserves it. and vote yes. Because when we took these seats, we made a promise to vote to appoint the best qualified personnel under the School Ethics Act, not our friends and never our family. And tonight, I believe this is our moment to affirm that with this policy amendment. Thank you. >> Any further discussion on Mr. Lee's amendment? >> Sure, >> Mr. Singer. >> So, first of all, there was a second. So, um, despite what Mr. Lee said, I'm going to vote no, not because it's in my self-interest, but because the changes that he suggested could

188have been submitted in advance to the to the academic committee and I'm sorry, the personnel committee and they weren't. Uh, they could have been submitted to the personnel committee so that they could have been passed by our district attorney to see if they comply with law and they weren't. Um he continues to refuse to follow common sense boardsmanship and ignores the law as exemplified by a statement that board members who are members or who are teachers can't vote on uh on on contracts. It's simply not the law as established by the state of New Jersey, which I do believe goes above our heads. Um moreover, the the document that he has sent, I don't know what his changes are. I don't know what Strauss Esme's changes are. Frankly, I don't even know how to read

189it at this point. Um, so I feel like we have attorneys, we hired attorneys to to review this. These aren't changes that were made by Straesme because they want more uh nepotism in schools. I'm pretty sure that there is a statutory base in these changes, but uh you know, I I leave it to those attorneys and our board attorney to determine whether or not uh these changes are in line with state law. So that's why I'll be voting no to the change to the recommended uh amendment. >> Mr. Lee, >> I would like to respond. Thank you. Uh I believe that we should be doing things here as a board in public, on the record, in the minutes, and online. Our our closed door committee meetings are not an appropriate place to conduct board business.

190We should be conducting it here in public view as board members, not as personal individuals whom we are when we meet as a committee because we're only board members when we sit here as a quorum. Um I would also like to acknowledge the fact that there have been multiple times when surprise things come up. We get things last minute added all the time um to our agendas. But not just that, but there have been people here on this board that have last minute introduced things and moved on them too. And I've given the board enough time to read through these amendments and it's simply not an excuse not to read them in advance because we get our updates on the agenda around the same time almost exactly maybe within 10 minutes or so. Um I'd

191also like to say that the law sets the floor. We can set our own standards and we should be going above and beyond what the law states and we should be doing more than that because I think that as a district we can do better and we should always do better. >> Any further discussion? >> Yeah, I got a couple. >> Mr. Sanger, go ahead. >> Um, we are always board members and people on this board would do well to remember that that no matter if we're in this room or out at a school event, we are always board members. Now, we don't have power as board members unless we're in this room. And in this room is when we vote on policy, but we have committed to a structure in which committees vet our

192policies for a reason. And we've had this structure for many, many years. Not only do we have have we had thisruct structure for many years, but of the 590 boards across the state, pretty sure a majority of them do that as well. So, we're not things in the dark. We are doing things in accordance with how boards good board good boards work. >> Okay. Any other comments on the amendment because that's what that's what's before us right now. >> Right. >> Well, I would like to say that remark was not based off of amendment. That was based off of >> governance. But to be fair, it led from your remark which was also not based on that. So, I'm talking about moving forward. Let's stick to the uh amendment again. Uh, I don't have anything

193to say because I haven't had a chance to look at it. Are there any other comments on the amendment before we vote? Miss Lan, >> we just received this at 4 PM. So, and the meeting was and meeting started at 6:30 >> and regardless of precedent of whether or not things have been sent last minute in the past, this is uh a policy that was reviewed by the committee and the committee didn't have these changes on hand and without some sort of legal guidance by our attorney, I wouldn't feel comfortable voting to affirm this. I would just like to say I'm >> sorry I'm gonna call on Dr. Lee. Mr. Lee will get Dr. Lee has not spoken yet. Dr. Lee, go ahead. >> Thank you. Uh I agree that the receiving it later in

194the afternoon right before the meeting uh is a short notice. Um but uh it is possible to look at it. I have and I like the language. That's why I intend to uh vote to support it. I do agree that the committee should look at it. Lawyers should look at it afterwards. But we have opportunity to do that after today's voting which is a first reading. If the if we as a board uh agree to the higher to to the higher higher standard here that I believe is beneficial for school district for everyone we can vote yes to support it and then let the between now and second reading let whoever uh legal process uh needs to take to to look at it and ensure that it's uh it's all good. So I intend to

195vote yes to support the uh amendment. Thank you. >> Any further discussion on the amendment? >> Yes, I do. >> Mr. Well, you're you're acting as if we're I'm trying to propose something illegal here, and I think that's a that's a pretty uh serious accusation. I I I would like to just say that there is nothing illegal about prohibiting family member conflicts in the hiring process, in the interview process. There's nothing illegal about making sure that people that are in conflict and represent special interests are left out of the negotiations room. I'd like to mention as well that closing loopholes, there's nothing wrong or illegal about closing that. As we discussed in committee, the second exception that was included here relative to the online straw estimate version uh opens up a brand new loophole that

196allows a county superintendent to approve every potential nepotism higher and that's >> no there's no point of order can interrupt speaker Mr. Walker. Go ahead. >> It the statute says that >> point of order what it can say. So I would say he's out of order saying that the law doesn't say that. >> Okay. He might be incorrect. You can take that into account when you vote on the amendment. Thank you for this. Please >> uh the the the the law does not require that we have that exception two, but we shouldn't have it because we shouldn't be opening up loopholes and there's nothing in the policy. There's nothing in or there's nothing in the statute that says that we need to have exception two which allows for us to hire families members with county

197uh superintendent approval. And I I believe it's a it's it's it's something that we can take out and as Mr. Fonder suggested even during our own committee meeting that we would be perfectly fine without it. And I believe that's the case. >> Further discussion? Seeing none, uh, Mr. LSK, you please call the role on the amendment. >> Mr. Singer, >> Miss Lan, >> no. >> Dr. Lee, >> yes. >> Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. Maloney, >> no. >> Mr. Walker, >> no. >> Mr. Sunna, >> no. >> Mr. Pepe, >> no. The motion does not pass. Right. Any further discussion on policy 2617, personnel committee? >> Seeing none, Mr. Lansky, could you please call the role? >> Mr. Singer, >> yes. >> Miss Locker, >> yes. >> Dr. Lee, >> no. >> Mr.

198Lee, >> no. >> Mr. Maloney? >> Yes. >> Mr. Walker? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Sunna? >> Yes. >> Mr. Yes, the motion carries. Right, we are up to section 13 of the agenda, which is old business. If you don't mind, I'm going to go first. And that is the retreat that was canceled um need that needed to be moved due to snow on Monday. Uh the date and time that we're looking at is Thursday, March 5th. if you have any um I don't expect everyone to look at it right now, but if I I'll send out an email to the effect to everyone and if that's a conflict for too many people, we can uh talk about it other times. But uh that's definitely an important retreat. We appreciate the administration walking us through the

199uh budget process and we have a few other things that we can discuss as as well and take care of uh that evening. So u that's that. Is there any other old business? >> I do have some old business. >> Mr. Lee, go ahead. >> Thank you. Uh, I just want to address some of the public comment remarks. Uh, and you know, I just want to say I'm obviously one who asks questions. I ask a lot of questions and I get it that sometimes people don't like to ask answer questions. Um, but to those who are offended by my questions, um, I just want to say that questions just don't care about anyone's feelings. Um, and if you have nothing to hide, you can either respectfully answer it or just be an adult and say,

200"No, I would not like to answer it." Um, and to to members of the public, I just I would encourage you to actually listen. I would encourage you I need to insist that you address the board. This is the board discussion. So, >> all right. My apologies, Mr. President. Mr. President, I wanted to be on the record that I encourage >> members of the public to listen during these meetings to listen to my questions because I think you'll learn that a lot of the questions I ask are not about uh prosecution and they're not about uh aha moments. They're not about uh anything remotely political. They're not related to anything remotely uh stupendous like the rest of this board and member uh some folks have mentioned. U it's actually just about due diligence. It's about

201better understanding this district. It's about learning. It's about learning. You know, we teach our kids, we teach our children to ask questions, whether dumb questions, smart questions, uh questions about clarification. you know, I hope that the board leadership here and I hope that there are uh folks here, including the administration, that uh you know, can just be a little bit more receptive to just listening to the question and answering it rather than being uh you know, not answering it. uh and then specifically to some members here of this board uh including some committee chairs. I think we can set a better example uh for our kids uh and learn uh to start answering questions rather than just finding convenient excuses not to answer them. So >> is there any other old business? Dr. Lee, >>

202I have old business about the STEM resolution. Um I hear uh the committee's comments and I particularly uh want to respond to one of them saying that this is a site um project that doesn't have time sensitivity. Uh it actually does. Uh there's two reasons this matter is urgent. Reason number one is that the state learning standard is reviewed on a cycle five to seven years. Right now we're in cycle. Right now our educators voices can be heard. Right now uh the state learning standards being considered to take into account of how things are happening in districts, how things are happening to serve our students, how things are happening to support our teachers. I think this is opportunity that we should take not lightly but rather uh to use this uh once for a long

203time opportunity to enhance science education. So that's why there's urgency to that. Number two is that uh the NJSBA do have the two meetings annually. I brought this up last September. Um that's in anticipation of the upcoming November meeting for NJBA as well as the upcoming state learning standard review which hasn't happened yet at that point but I know it's going to happen. Um so for the both reasons uh the NGSBs next meeting is happening in May. The submission deadline for the resolution is uh March the 5th which this meeting would be the last one before that meeting. So for two reasons this is not a sidetrack this is actually a timely matter that if we take this opportunity we can have opportunity to enhance science education broadly and us we know we do align

204with the state standard. So improving state standard improves us. So in our um we all agree in our September meeting I brought it up. We voted to approve it. We all agree that the science STEM and science and technology drives our society's future and we need to take advantage se this opportunity of the learning standard review to look at how ours is and how the state standard can align with what is actually needed. So with that uh I would like to move this for our board to consider. Um so I make a motion to introduce uh the STEM resolution as introduced uh in September and as introduced in January um when when we talk about this again with the change of date. So I would like I would like your support to consider looking at

205this resolution support enhancing science education overall. Thank you. on the motion. She said that she wants it as introduced in in September and as introduced in January and I believe those were different motions, different resolutions >> and we don't have anything in front of us. So at the moment I don't have anything to consider. >> I'll clarify that the I would like to introduce this motion that this resolution that was emailed to you on January 20th. >> I object to making that motion. >> Yeah, I don't think that's sufficient for a motion. It's not before the board. It's an email that went to some people >> point of parliamentary inquiry. Um the objection was made. Uh would we have to vote on that? >> If I'm sorry, can you can you repeat that? >> Uh

206obje objection to the consideration of a question was made. Do we have to vote on that? >> We have to vote on that. I believe there's no debate on that. >> Well, it requires a two-thirds vote. >> So objection. I believe you're correct on on that. But as far as I can tell, there's nothing before us. I don't have anything in front of me right now for us to vote on. I don't think we could say something from, you know, that there's an email out there somewhere. I think we need something that we can vote on. You you've certainly done that, Mr. Lee, in in sending us um >> you know, revised policies. So, I I I know you know how that that works. We might disagree about what the timing is and everything, but

207at least we have something to consider. Something that went out in an email to some people maybe a month ago. I don't think it's before us. >> The committee has reviewed it. the committee reported on the review process. That resolution itself is in the committee folder. It is not it's not like it's never came before you. It's in the committee. It's being reviewed. >> It's not before us. It may have been at some point, but it's not before us now. So, I'm going to I'm not going to I'm going to respectfully um suggest that we don't that there's nothing in front of me here to vote on and there's no motion to be made. >> Uh Mr. President, if I may, uh Dr. Would you mind emailing us the specific resolution and once we have

208it in our inboxes we you can then move on it? >> I will email it and I'll read it now. >> Okay. In the meantime, is there any other old business? >> All right. So, there was an objection to the consideration of the question. My my my ruling for the moment is it's not before us, so we have nothing to to vote on. So I sustain your objection if I'm going to be a judge for a second. So right is there any other old business? >> I wanted to make a comment as someone who sat on that committee in those discussions. Um and the reason I objected to this resolution >> well do do you want to interrupt for a second since we're not it's not before us. I don't want to talk about the

209resolution because there's not a motion on the floor for it and it might be something that is motion. >> Does it does that make sense? >> Okay. Any further old business? We have old business. So, I had mentioned during um my committee report that um the committee found that we weren't going to um uh suggest any action on the resolution that I had brought forth about safeguarding board of ed elections. And my purpose for um advocating for that avenue was because I believe that our agenda like as you can see we're we're hitting on 10:00 that our agenda was pretty full and that we had a lot of discussion. But I do think that the topic of uh nonpartisan boards of ed has come up almost every year since I've been on the board of

210ed. And my hope is that we can discuss it during a time when maybe school is not in session and our agenda is a little bit lighter. >> Any further old business? Dr. Lee, >> I have just um forwarded email to our whole board. Now you should have a copy right in front of you. If you like me to read it, I can. Otherwise, you can look at your screen. Uh would I I can read it if you Well, my >> Yeah, I look I don't think we need to read the entire thing. >> Uhhuh. >> Are you making a Is there a motion? >> I'm making a motion to introduce this resolution. >> Point of inquiry. Uh you're referring to the old business >> email you sent. >> Yes. In uh this resolution has

211a name. Resolution NB-26-04. >> Uh, can you just may you introduce the the the question before the board uh using the specific resolution number? >> Yes. I would like to introduce uh the motion uh to I'd like to make a motion to introduce resolution NB-2604. >> Introduce or pass >> as in emailed um to you. I would like to recommend. Do you want to change the word introduce to pass that way? >> Okay. >> Uh, >> so there's a motion to introduce. Okay. So, we have it. I mean, that just means looking at it. That's not a term we usually use. Um, >> Dr. Lee, if I may. >> Would you like to make a motion? I'll second. You >> I would like to make a motion. Okay. >> Excuse me. One minute. I have

212the floor. Just please please wait. Excuse me. I Please give me a second. I am going >> Hold on. Hold on a second. >> The motion. >> Let's be adults here. And let's have the floor one at a time. >> Pardon me. One second. Mr. Lake. >> Lucy had the floor. Dr. Lee, you have the floor. >> Let me let me let me Is there anything you'd like to say? >> Okay. So, >> it's part of old business. >> There is a there is resolution that I have emailed you all. The this resolution has a number. It has been introduced to you before. It has been reviewed by our committee before. So I think there's no ambiguity which resolution it is and there's no ambiguity that I would like to have our board to support

213this motion uh to support this resolution. So I would like to make a motion to introduce uh this resolution for our board to pass and uh uh send uh as this resolution states to the NGSBA uh delegate assembly. So just one last clarification. This is to introdu to put this resolution before the floor so that it may pass to the NJSBA delegate assembly. Is that correct, Dr. Lee? >> The resolution speaks for itself. >> All right, I'll second that. >> Okay, there's Does everyone have the resolution that has been moved and seconded? Right. It's resolution NB6404. there are amendments within it that were that that uh so there are some red lines and some words above it um we'll interpret those as being part of the motion is there any discussion on that motion >>

214the reason that I voted against this and why I will vote no on this tonight is the language that's included is not clear enough and I feel like we are already doing above and beyond on what the requirements are by the state. And I think if we move forward with what we're doing and we find that it is incredibly successful, then we should be in a position as a board and as a district to create a resolution recommending our program to the entire state because we have something to say this. I don't know what this is saying. It's just saying more. It's saying equitable. I don't know what equitable means. Equitable time to gym class, equitable time to ELA, equitable time to lunch. I don't know what that means and I don't think it encompasses

215everything that's a part of the program. So, I'm going to vote no on this because I want to move forward with everything that the district has planned and see how it goes because I think it sounds like it will be very successful. >> Miss Lan, >> also there's been so so much confusion around this resolution. It started off as a STEM resolution. STEM does not equate to science. STEM obviously stands for more than just science and and repeatedly and endlessly frankly um the words science standards and science science science is being used while not acknowledging the rest of STEM. I supported the idea of putting something before this the delegates assembly that revolved around STEM and then it changed to just science which is why I withdrew my support and then now it's so confusing

216because you call it STEM but then every other sentence it's science and science standards. So I I just feel like this this is not the resolution that I agree to and I will not be supporting it because it doesn't meet that STEM initial title of the resolution. Thank you. Just for my piece, I don't think it's the role of this board to improve science education. I mean I I have some thoughts as an educator. I'm not an expert in science education. And there are science teachers at the high school who might who I'm sure could have much better u could could give much better feedback. And Dr. Lee, you mentioned that while this is a great time for teachers and educators to step up, but that's not what this board is. This isn't a board.

217We're not elected to be teachers or or educators. Um this board has done a lot to increase science and STEM. We've approved programs that are covered for in the budget that not every uh member of this board has voted for. We had a we had a presentation on the referendum earlier this evening that has science classrooms and science in kinder I mean kindergarten is going to be full day now that automatically means there's more time for science from the earliest of years. Um and that and that referendum which is improving our schools in general but also has effects on science weren't improved weren't supported by everyone at this table and on the board at the time. So, I'm looking at what can this board do to make science the best it can can be in

218our district. And we see we see AP courses. I don't even know what most of them are, but our students are succeeding at them and we're giving them opportunities. So, that's where I come down on this. I I think that your own advocacy is is is noble and important and and I'm glad you're making it. I think that you have more um expertise than than than I do possibly uh when it comes to science specifically, but as a board member, I I don't think this is what I was elected to to to do. Um so I'm not going to be supporting it either, but thank you for the motion. >> Any other discussion? >> May I say something, >> Mr. Lee? So you you know we're we're all elected as as board members to uh

219do what's right for the students and I will always do that and I will always always do what's right especially being a former student myself. Um if I'm being cordial about this it's because we just have a diff difference of opinion on how we get there. But I think that a resolution focused on student outcomes, focused on student achievement, focused on science education seems like a pretty common sense thing to support. And I know there's a lot of different workarounds and all that can be used, word smithing that can be used around this issue. Um, but the reality is that a failure to vote for this resolution is a failure in a board member's ability to actually show that they support STEM. >> Any further discussion? Mr. Maloney, >> I just want to say we're

220not voting on whether or not to support STEM. we're voting on supporting a specific resolution that's intended maybe to promote STEM. So, I think classifying it as, you know, we're voting to support STEM is not correct. And that's all I want to say about that. >> Any further discuss? >> Yeah, I've got >> I've got I've got a bit um to follow up on what Miss Lman said u in terms of whether it's clear that this is a science resolution or a STEM resolution. Uh what was sent to us has the stem in the title. Uh the title of the resolution is basic science education. The it then goes on to talk about advancing STEM education, STEM education, science standards, STEM organizations. I'm not sure that this is a science resolution or STEM resolution. Seems

221to me that to not know what it is either, but I'd like to go in in terms of what the resolution actually accomplishes because there's been a lot of discuss a a a suggestion that without this resolution, >> oh yeah, >> the educators have no voice. >> Um I mean educators can go to the state just like Dr. Lee went to the state. I mean anyone can go and be heard on the NJSLS standards. So this resolution isn't necessary to to promote that. Um I see no way actually in which this resolution enhances science education. Uh the first part here says that uh we should review and update curricula uh to in consideration of the updated NJSLS standards. Yeah, I I'm I'm pretty sure our our staff does that because that's what we hire them

222for and that's what they spend a lot of hours of their summer doing is ensuring that our curricula go hand inand with the NJSLS standards if not above and beyond that. Um our polic actually says the curriculara shall be consistent with the educational goals and objectives of the district and state learning standards. So this portion of the resolution is therefore redundant. Second part of the resolution increasing weekly instructional time dedicated to science education in elementary and middle middle schools. Well, we just increased it. Do we need to increase it every every year? And I mean at what point do we stop increasing it? Because it doesn't tell me how much is necessary. doesn't tell me if we have enough now. Doesn't tell me if you know we need to double the amount of science education.

223So it doesn't actually say anything in in that regard. Providing professional development for teachers to effectively develop engaging and rigorous science instruction. I will say again I believe we do that um in fact we have PD day coming up soon. We just had the PD day. pretty sure that there was uh PD about science instruction during that. Um policy I'll go back again. Policy 3240 states to meet the professional development requirements each teacher shall be guided by an individual professional development plan which shall be shall include at least 20 hours per year of qualifying activities. Our science teachers regularly receive PD opportunities, particularly when there are changes to curricula, and this falls under the scope of our science supervisor who is employed by our district to do that. I'm sure that when the new NJSLS

224standards come out, we will have PD regarding that. Moreover, there's already state legislation that addresses this. NJAC6A 9C-4.3 states, "The purpose of this chapter is to set forth the requirements for a system of high quality professional development that continuously serves educators professional learning and practice in support of positive learning outcomes for all New Jersey students and to support improve student and achievement of the New Jersey student learning standards. So once again, number three, professional development already done both by our policy and state law. I'm not sure what this resolution puts forward that is actually enhancing science education. Moreover, while we're being told now that this is for the benefit of Bridgewater and Meridan, that's not my understanding of what this is for because that's not what was said. We're already doing great things in our

225science classes. We're improving our science at the lower levels right now and we are going to next year it's going to be a whole different schedule for for the intermediate school and maybe for some of the elementary schools particularly at the kindergarten. So they're already going to be looking at all of these issues. I don't feel that this is necessary and that's why I voted against it initially. Thank you. >> All right. First of all, I want to thank everyone's input, right? I think this is this is a great conversation to have. This resolution was meant to be a collaboration to begin with. I have invited collaboration openly publicly at our last meeting. I have wanted to have conversation with each and every one of you. I have invited your input to email me. I

226have also tried to have meeting with our administration with our uh curriculum uh team. This is meant to be a process that we look at how we do our science education and do better. If we look at the data, our state has a average uh preferences level 27%. And our district is doing better. We're at 43. If we look at our neighbor district um burners um they are at 50%. None of those numbers are really showing a a proficiency level that this learning standard is intending to. This learning standard is actually aligned with the testing. The testing is designed specifically to test the outcome of the l of the standard. NLSA was the new test that's matching the uh NGSS. No, >> it doesn't actually um it's designed to match up be before uh we

227have the NJSS, it was a different standard that was tested by um by NJ ask the test is to match the standard. With that said, I'm glad we're having this conversation. I liked to hear your comments. I I can address them each one of them. Um but the bottom line is that we can do better. I'm happy to hear that we have more science teaching time at our elementary level K to5. How about middle school? What are we doing in middle school? Middle school is formative years for kids to explore and learn about their career tracks. For kids who are not properly prepared, they would have not had the opportunity to learn about potential cr career technical training tracks and physics. physical science which is now one of the weaker links in basic science research

228is going to become one of the things that the kids will have to learn much later in their high school career due to the current setup uh of the state learning standard and our aligned curriculum by the way let that be a topic of our discussion so that we can prepare our kids better so that we can help our kids learn science better so that as one of The letter in STEM, STEM, the S in STEM is science. When we enhance science, we enhance STEM. That's how that's how enhance science is part of enhancing STEM. >> Thank you. Let's come together and see how we can help our kids learn better. Our kids are right now thinking science too hard. Science is not for them. Some kids are having advanced math but they have no

229place to apply it and to to see the use of of math advanced math in science. Let's look at our curriculum, our science teaching our sequence and see how do we support the kids? How do we teach that so that they can develop their interest in earlier of their academic career so they can concentrate in their career development later? For example, right now the kids are learning physics. What? 11th grade and they need to learn biology first, they need to learn chemistry first. There is no reason we have to limit our students to not be able to take those classes before. And why do we have those sequence? >> So you mentioned that to me once after a board meeting and I can't help but feel like all of this is actually about that. the

230STEM resolution, the um confusing things about feedback regarding the standards, the more recent thing with questions that don't align with either the standards or the initial resolution. I'm happy to have that discussion. If that's what this is actually about, I'm I'm glad to to know um because I have to tell you at the high school we have a wide range of courses. We have AP biology, chemistry, Environmental science, physics one, physics 2, physics C. We have multiple electives, astronomy, exercise, physiology, forensic science, general anatomy and physiology, etc., etc. We created high school concentrations. More recently, that's more STEM than science. So, robotics and engineering courses, which we're continuing develop, we did the same with computer science. Next year, we're adding design and production. The following year, we're looking at med um biomed concentration. We are

231creating dual opportunity enrollment. So like human anatomy and physiology, organic and biochemistry honors. These are now dual enrollment. Um AP cyber security. In the middle school, we actually did the entire um cycle program over because we also have to align everything that we do. This is again more STEM than science with computer science and design thinking standards which starts in kindergarten. I mean, we're piloting in kindergarten actually um those courses for kids and then they continue on. We have engineering, design and STEM, intro to computer science, computer programming and coding all at the middle school. And then in the primary school in addition to the kindergarten STEM classes that we're piloting, um which I just said are aligned with our engineering standards. Um you know, we're as we've said completely changing things next year. So

232that we're not alternating between science and social studies, but we're doing it every day all year long. >> That's elementary school, right? >> So yeah, I actually just named all the schools, elementary, middle school, and high school to show you that we are in constant um mode of trying to improve things and improve opportunities. So if you have specific questions, >> so let's have a meeting to talk about that. >> That's fine. I would rather it just be clear and direct and not feel like wait a minute how come we're talking about this state resolution and wait what happened with standards because as I think I communicated back at some point I I was genuinely confused with the point so I feel like I'm now clear on the point because the point is what grade

233kids have access to physics correct >> that's one of them >> okay thank you >> that's one of them but not all of them But I would be happy to solve one at a time. >> Right. If there's further discussion, the hour is getting late. We've talked about >> one last remark. We we we've talked about this at a number of meetings. Is there anyone who has any last comments? >> I have one last comment. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Uh you know, Dr. Lee definitely puts it very eloquently, but I'm I'm a pretty blunt guy. Uh you can try and word smith and plate your way around why you voted a certain way. Uh you know, using fancy legal ease. Um, but the record will show that you voted against uh improving STEM science

234outcomes. >> Right. Dr. Lee, you were to go around. Dr. Lee, any last >> I want to call make a motion to call the question. >> I'm sorry. I It's I make I made if there's a second. >> There's a motion to call the question. Is there a second? >> Okay. Seeing seeing none to go around the table. >> Thank you. I think we are able to identify one specific action we can discuss. This resolution is meant to be addressing systematic concept addressing systematic emphasize on enhancing science education. This con this resolution is about enhancing science as part of a STEM to enhance STEM. This resolution is about at a level that districts and our administrators, our educators can take this concept and roll with what works specifically for them for their protocol. So there

235are specific actions that we can take. There's also the general broadstroke direction that this resolution is trying to establish and it's also trying to establish this emphasize in science education at the state level. That's not just our district. So there's more but absolutely in incorporating specific actions that we can take. So I would like to invite you to all support this resolution into in its vision in its direction and in its effect at the broader and higher level so that we can bring a better science education and better STEM education for everyone across the state. >> Thank you for your support. Uh first I want to commend administration for all of the efforts uh on this topic but also I wanted to comment to the board that on December 5th uh 2025 an article came

236out in NJ.com and the headline is New Jersey students are finally beating prepandemic test scores in one surprising subject. The first sentence is New Jersey students are testing at and above prepandemic levels in one subject science. >> And that's 27. >> Nope. We're going everyone. You've had your chance. >> Mr. Singer, do you have anything? >> My vote against this is not a vote against science. Anything suggesting that is just sheer rhetoric and silliness. Mr. Sunna, do you have anything? >> My vote against this is not against science whatsoever and I haven't words missed a thing and I appreciate everyone and Lucy specifically for the conversation that we're having and the attention to the answers that everyone is giving so that we can actually have a dialogue back and forth as opposed to taking notes

237so that we're prepared for whatever we need to get across. We're having a conversation and that's what we need to do as adults at this table. >> Point of point of information. Point of information. >> Point of information. >> The point of information. What's your point of information, please? >> My point of information is I think Miss Lan's remarks need some clarification. >> No, we're going around right now. It's It's >> What was that rate? What was that rate? >> Mr. Lee, >> you don't Mr. Lee and Miss Lran, I have the floor. >> Right. Uh just my thoughts on this are look, we've heard the amazing courses and course selection that our students have. Those programs wouldn't be thriving. We wouldn't have all these AP classes. We would not have this robust science program

238and STEM program and the robotics team and robotics classes and all the great programs that are happening if our students couldn't do science. And I don't think that the fifth grade test with which is the scores may not be what we want, but I don't think that test is indicative of that. Um, so that's all I want to say. Um, Mr. Walker, do you have anything? >> Yeah. No way am I not supporting science. I'm a physicist. So for those who didn't know that, um, also I mean I look at this and I when you look at increasing science, if you're saying the scores are low, what's the problem? Let's first address the problem and then fix it. So what is the problem? I haven't heard the problem. What's causing the problem here? Is it

239more instruction? Is it this and that? Is it more time? And I know that the administration teachers there's only two areas that we are required are physical education 150 minutes a week and and other we must have 40-minute classes at the high school. Those are the two time requirements I think in the law. I'm like just HP and then I know the high school classes need to be at least 40 minutes long. those are the two areas that time is required in the law and I I I feel that the next generation science standards which are out there the New Jersey student learning standards I want to see what the problem is that's not working and that's going to be district to district may be local this resolution does not solve that I support science

240in every manner and voting no on this resolution is not supporting science >> Mr. Maloney anything >> yeah I think same Same thing I said before that, you know, voting on on this is not voting for science or STEM or whatever. It's whether or not we feel this specific resolution is the way to promote science in STEM. >> Thank you. Mr. Lomsky, can you please call the role? It's new business 2604. >> Mr. Singer, >> no. >> Miss Lawren, >> no. >> Dr. Lee, >> yes. >> Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. Maloney. >> No. >> Mr. Walker. >> No. >> Mr. Sunno. >> No. >> Mr. Pepe. >> No. The motion does not pass. >> That was old business. >> Sorry. Any other old business? >> Any new business? Mr. Lee. >> Thank

241you, Mr. President. I would like to make a motion. I'd like to make a motion to amend policy uh 2464 as it relates to the gifted and talented program with proposed amendments that I have provided with to the board via email >> second. Did does everyone have that in front of them? I know it did come through on my email. Again, from an administration point of view, we haven't had time to to go through and vet this. I think the best thing we could do is send it to academic committee. We'll have time to take a look at it and either the academic committee can take it up or not um on its face value, but um right now we're not prepared to comment one way or the other on this because we we did

242receive it. I think it came at 4:00, but again, a lot of us, we we have jobs and we're doing a bunch of things and we can't quite uh down and break this down. So, we we don't have a stance on this as administrators, but as a board of committees, I I do believe it should be referred to the academic committee. And look, the academic committee has the the ability to take it up or not take it up at all. That's how we operate. Thank Thank you, Mr. beers. Is there any other comments? >> Uh, I would >> Mr. Just wait to be recognized. I see that that you would like to speak. >> Mr. Singer, do you have anything you'd like to say? >> I'm I'm the author of this amendment. I'd be the

243first to speak on it. Correct. >> I don't think that's a a rule automatically. Um, Mr. Singer, would you like to >> I'll be happy to defer to Mr. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Lee. Go ahead. >> Thank you. I I just want to say that, you know, we talk about sending it to committee, sending it to committee, sending it to committee, but sending this to committee is not about due diligence. This is not about deliberations. It's a tactic that's used to avoid public discussions about the things that matter to our community that we've heard about tonight. Um, but I'd like to just go into my speech. Uh, thank you. Uh, I excuse me. I want to I want I have a simple question. Exc uh point of order. >> Thank you. I try to

244keep it brief. It is almost >> I just have a a simple question like when did we decide that student ambition was something that needed to be limited by some arbitrary decision? I believe that this was a status this is what the status quo did. It managed ambition. It capped potential. It put administrators between a student and an opportunity. And when families pushed back, it gave no clear path, no timeline, and no guarantee of a fair answer. But tonight, this board can change that. I'm moving to adopt revised policy 2464, and I want every family to know here in Bridgewater exactly what that means for your child. It means no one can cap how many AP courses your student takes. Not a teacher, not a counselor, not a department head. You decide. It means students

245who are prepared will be offered the opportunity to be academically challenged. We are done telling prepared students to simply wait because of equity. It means any student can self-study for an AP exam in our district. Let me say that again because I want it to land. If your child has a drive to pick up a textbook, study independently, and sit for a college exam, college level exam, this policy protects their right to do exactly that. No enrollment required, no permission slips, no gatekeeping. A student who teaches themselves AP bio or a push or AP calc and is ready to prove it can walk into that exam room. That is what self-directed learning looks like. And this policy enshrines it as a student right. It means a real appeals process with deadlines, decisions in writing and

246a path straight to this board if you are not satisfied with the decision handed to you by the administration. And it means annual public accountability. Every year, this board publishes data on who is getting access and who's isn't. No more hiding behind informal decisions. And I've heard some push back that we want to look out for the well-being of our students. And we don't want kids to be overextended or stressed out. And I absolutely respect that instinct. I'd like to remind members of this board that I I was a stressed out student at one point in my life as well. Um, and I was stressed out students specifically here in Bridgewwater. Uh, but the truth is that the counselors uh in this policy are encouraged to have conversations with parents uh students and families and

247families should weigh the options. The difference is that under this policy, the family makes the final call, not big government. This is about who we trust. Excuse me. I'm not I'm not going to like I'm not going to allow people to laugh. >> This is about who we trust. >> It was a good line. >> Excuse me. Oh, not allow me. >> That's incredibly rude. >> I would like the record and the public to know that this is a board that jeers at good ideas and I am being interrupted >> and that there are some people here that can't be >> respectful. >> Excuse me. I have the floor. >> Okay. >> This this is about who we trust. Do we trust families to support their children or do we trust the bureaucracy to set

248limits on student potential all in the name of equity? I trust our families. I trust our students whose side I will always advocate for as a former student myself who cares deeply about this district and our children. On the other hand, I doubt that's the case when you look at the voting records of some of my colleagues. This isn't a radical idea. It's a foundational belief that every child in Bridgewater Riden deserves an education that keeps pace with their ability and their drive, not one that slows them down simply because it's more convenient for the institution. And I ask each of my colleagues to vote yes tonight. Vote yes for the young child who is ready but was told to wait. Vote yes for the student who spent their summer self-studying for an exam that

249they weren't allowed to take. to vote yes for every family that pushed back but was given a runaround or no answer at all. This board has the power tonight to open doors that have never should have been closed and I ask you to open the doors to unlimited student achievement and to promote student outcomes. Thank you. >> Okay. Um I I I just have to say this because again right somewhere in all this are some nuggets of truth or real I I don't even know be but look no one's given a runaround no one's denied access in the name of equity. I know that's the dirty word that everyone throws around, but basically you're spewing a bunch of falsehoods about what happened here and and and what goes on in our school district. And and

250quite frankly, I'm getting tired of it because also one of one of the oaths I believe I I know you're writing down your response to me, Jeremy. Guess what? This is an administrative prerogative. Your job as a board member is not to run the schools, >> but to make sure they are wellrun. >> I agree. >> And the these aren't the rules according to Jeremy. >> Now, I'll I'll take the time and look at it and the last time I checked, a board of committees means exactly that. That is where people discuss these issues. I know everyone likes not everyone. I I'll stop there. It's a board of committees. We need to respect our committee structure. This should be referred to the academic committee and we could take it up because with what I've heard

251from from you, Jeremy, and I haven't read this, I I think this is a non-starter. >> I would like to >> Is there a motion to refer this to the academic committee? >> I'll make a motion. >> There's a motion and a second. >> I would like to make a motion. >> No, I would like >> There is a Hold on. There's a motion on the table. Mr. Lee, what do you have to say? I would like to make a motion to amend the motion. I'd like to make a motion to amend the motion to refer to a public committee of the whole. >> So So that's a different that that >> that's a that's an amendment to the motion. Instead of referring to the academic committee, we're not going to be referring to public

252committ. >> That that's the opposite. That's what we're doing now essentially. So you vote no. >> Okay. I will do this. I will I will a I will change my amendment. I will change my amendment uh by adding in the following instructions. And that the committee is ordered to provide a written public report on its final recommendation and reasonings behind its recommendation back to the full board at our very next regular meeting. >> I'd like to make that motion. >> I object to the making of that motion. >> Well, you can't object to it. You cannot object to a subsidiary motion. >> Okay. There's a main motion on the floor. There's been a motion to amend it. >> Right now, I do not hear a second for that. >> Is there a second? If I

253if I may, I would like to repeat the language. >> No, you said it once. Everyone needs to listen. I don't hear a second, so that motion dies. Mr. Lamsky, can you please call the role on the motion to refer to academic committee? >> Thank you, >> Mr. Singer. >> Yes. >> Miss Lan, >> yes. >> Dr. Lee, >> yes. >> Mr. Abstain. >> Mr. Maloney. >> Yes. >> Mr. Walker. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sunna. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pepe. >> Yes. The motion carries. Right. The uh academic committee will take it up and they can discuss it if they um Yes. So they'll take it up for consideration. Thank you. Um any further new business? The hour is getting late. Seeing none. Motion to >> There's a motion to adjurnn. There's a second. All

254those in favor? I. >> Anyone opposed? All right, we are adjourned. Our next meeting is right back here on March 17th, 2026. But, uh, for members of the board and the public, just look out, um, we will, uh, just look out for a date for a possible board retreat next week. Right now, we're looking at March 5th, but we'll go from there.