Bridgewater BOE Meeting 04/29/2025

001students reports ahead of our budget presentation. What do you think? Okay. Just so they don't Sure. I know it's AP season and all that. Hey, uh we're going to restart our meeting. Uh thank you for your patience. Uh we're going to go a little bit out of order if you guys are ready to go. this way you can uh do your report and head out because we know it's AP season as Mr. Beers just said and uh we want you to be able to get to study. Thank you. Okay, so some recent updates in like the high school. So this week the underassmen have NJSLA testing. They had it today actually and tomorrow. The ninth grade students are taking English, algebra 2, and geometry, and the 11th graders are taking science. And obviously, the sophomores

002are just having classes as normal, and the seniors enjoyed their delayed opening this morning. Um, also like um Mr. Beer said, AP exams are beginning soon on May 5th. So many juniors and seniors and a bunch of sophomores especially this year because um like a bunch of AP courses are available to sophomores now like AP seminar um they're all busy studying for those. So yeah. Um as for arts, our jazz band winter percussion and winter guard gave their final performances of the season on the 22nd as part of the spring extravaganza. And we're also really excited for their upcoming spring jazz camp, which we hope will build even more support for our music program. On the theater side, our drama department received an award from Montlair for Foot Loose, um, which was the fall play

003and Radium Girls. Um, they're now playing uh they're now planning to put on a one-act play for uh of Little Woman. So, that's very exciting. And our National Arts Honor Society students had an amazing trip to Disney World as well. As for sports, we celebrated girls lacrosse senior night on the 22nd. And we're looking forward to the track senior night soon. And huge congratulations to our girls track team for setting a new school record in the 4x100 at the pen relays. And lastly, shout out to Emma Shokan and Lucas Disco who are both recognized with the Skyland Conference Conference Athlete Award. Some more updates. We recently had bring your child to work days as you know and it was really cute to see all the little kids running around. For our clubs the debate season

004has come to an end. They're having their banquet soon and the there we sent me multiple students to the international DECA conference. So they're competing currently. Our Maldi UN team is about to also celebrate the end of their season and the Italian and national honor society had their culture night where they had live music and uh cahoot and food from Italy and it was a pretty successful event. And our Christian club also recently hosted a talent show that I heard was very successful. And so from our student advisory councils, some of them recommended we bring back the teacher websites for students of fresh in the ninth and tth grades to help them transition from middle school where they had access to such things before getting on campus and getting access to their Google classrooms. And

005so something the three of us have been working on in conjunction with the student advisory council is letting 16 and 17 year olds vote on board of ed elections. So, we have seen multiple demonstrated student interest in this and that we have many political clubs on campus. We've talked to a lot of students who said they'd be interested in possibly voting and we believe it's an important move to make so students can have a real impact and a say in what they and their education entails apart from their parents. And so, we'll send out an interest survey soon and then work on filing an official petition. And just a final update, the seniors have our commitment for college is day this Thursday, May 1st. Thank you. Thank you very both very much for your time.

006I won't put you on the spot, but if you want to give your commitments early, you could always do that. No. All right. Um I mean, I'm committed to NYU already, so yeah. Congratulations. I'm undecided. All right, Lucy. Yeah. Well, thank you both very much and best of luck to you as exams continue on. Thank you and up next is Mr. Beerus with our superintendent report. Thank you, Mr. Singer. So, this evening we are going to present to the the board and the public the uh the 202526 school budget and and we're going to have a public comment specifically on this um on this presentation following uh you know upon completion. Okay. So, our budget process really started at at the beginning of of this past year in September and October. And one of the

007things that we we always try to keep in in mind are our district goals, right? because as we budget, we want to make sure that we're able to fund our priorities, not just for this year, but to make it sustainable for for years to come. And these district goals came came right from the uh uh gosh, I'm losing my words. Strategic planning. Thank you. from our strategic planning which took place during 2023 2024. If we recall, we we had a list of ideas from the community and and we took those and put them into district goals for for this year and and uh they centered on student experience, climate and culture, finance, facilities and communications, community outreach and and engagement. And and when we look at these goals, we want to obviously maintain our focus

008on academic excellence and student equity. Again, we always define student equity by making sure that kids have the same opportunity no matter where they live in town. So if you go to Adamsville school, you go to Miltown School, or or you go to JFK school, that the same programs, same opportunities are there for any student who walks through our doors. We want to remain focused on student wellness and the overall experience here at Bridgewater Raritan. Uh obviously we want to both attract and retain the highest quality staff members. If if you drive around campus, you see the improvements in our facilities. A lot that's due to the referendum, but a lot that is not due to the referendum. We want to continue to to uh to improve the facilities and and especially the learning environments

009for our kids. We've made a commitment to school security for the last three to four years since I've been here and and really the the response has been overwhelming. Um so we want to make sure through our budget we can maintain our staff, we can maintain our camera system, swipe systems, all the technology that goes in with with maintaining a safe campus environment. And then finally, maintain fiscal discipline and provide the entire community with a budget that's sustainable and prepares us for the future. Now, I've got a a graphic for this later on, and I shared this with the board of education. When we look at tax levy increases, although ours is 2.49% and it's above the 2%, we are the fourth lowest in Somerset County. Right. tax increases have ranged from 0% Manville and

010a lot of that is that they were large S2 fund winners. Um so they they received quite a bit of state aid but it goes all all the way up to uh Warren Township which is close to 6%. And we're sitting at 2.49% 49 and uh and when we look at funding these district initiatives like we know that every district in the state of New Jersey is facing the same set of circumstances. I if you look at any publication you see every day during this season that there's another school district that's really having difficulty maintaining their staff and paying their bills. So, the district initiatives that we want to ensure uh continue and are sustainable, as we said, we we reviewed and we're going to expand the gifted and talented program, the honors program, AP

011and dual enrollment. We've got the uh full day kindergarten due to start in September of 2026, but we were able to move ahead and start a pilot program both at JFK and at Adamsville for September. So, we're actually delivering on that promise partially a year early, implementing our career concentrations. We're expanding and improving programs and and a few examples are there. Robotics, foundational liter literacy, core sequencing. We revamped the our ESL services throughout the district and and we want to make sure that we support those students. And and we've done quite a bit to to improve graduation rates throughout our district. We had a a pretty sizable leap um in the past year going from 92% to the mid 96 percentile on graduation rates and we've done this with alternative programs um in in the

012bright program where we really help those at risk students those who are at risk of not graduating and structured learning labs where if if a young person is is failing a class they have the opportunity where in lie of their study hall they can meet um with a tutor and someone who's going to help them get through their course, bring their grade up from from AU to a passing grade or hopefully better than a passing grade. But it's it's a an intervention that's really had quite a bit of success in the last two years that we've implemented it. And and lastly, we want to continue supporting student wellness and professional learning for all of our staff. And this is one of the ways to attract and maintain the most talented faculty we can. Thank you.

013Okay, this public hearing budget presentation is actually identical to the tentative one. So, I'll be going through the same slides that are up on our website. Uh, this is a district at a glance as of October 15th. That's what our state aid is based on, enrollment numbers from that date. Our enrollment is 7681 students, excuse me. We have 1,270 budgeted full-time employees. We have a little over 1.2 million square footage of buildings. And the amount of students we transport is 7,846. The difference between that and enrollment are that it includes out of district placement. And our current year budget is $183 million. website. This will all be posted on the website following u the meeting this evening. But one of the most useful tools if you have any questions about school funding and what your

014your local school district spends, it's right on the state on the Department of Education website. It's called the taxpayer guide to education spending. And every year they have a series of categories and it's pretty consistent. I I believe the data goes back nearly 20 years where you can see what your district is spending on certain items. And we picked a few out that that we felt were important um for the public to know because a lot of times when you when you go through and you say, "Look, we've got a budget shortfall." There's a lot of hyperbole. All right? This is going on. What about these folks? What about these folks? And people start steering you in different directions. But really, what you want to do is take a look at, all right, where are

015we potentially overstaffed? Where are we potentially understaffed? And where where are we um pretty much where we where we want to be. So, what the taxpayer guide to education spending does is is as follows. It groups school districts throughout the state into like districts. So for us, we're in a group of 96 like schools. And these like schools are school districts with an enrollment of 3500 students or more. And they're a K through2 district. So again, K through 12, 3,500 students plus. And when we look at those 96 schools, our per pupil spending is right in the middle. And I should tell you one would be the lowest, 96 is the highest. When you look at all these statistics, per pupil spending right in the middle, student to administrative ratio 25 out of 96, meaning

016we're in the lower court cortile for that. And our student faculty ratio is 80 out of 96. So we're a little higher in student faculty ratio. So what that the picture this paints I I believe is as follows. We're fiscally responsible where we're coming in right about the middle for uh education spending. We don't have a bloated administration and and yet through our operations and through the work the board of education and administrative administration have done, we've been able to put our resources into the classroom because I know if we took a poll of parents, we'd say, "What do you want?" Most likely top of the list is lower class sizes. So when we look at these statistics at least versus our peers, we're coming in where we want to be with the student faculty

017ratio. Now some may say let's make that smaller, but I believe that we're de we're delivering a an excellent product with smaller class sizes um for kids in this K to2 environment. Thank you. Next, I'm going to walk you through the process. I arrived here in November and immediately began work on the budget. The first thing I did is I took four of the biggest areas of expenses with fairly predictable increases. I looked at salaries for the current year and did the increase of the current BREA agreement just as a ballpark number. I looked at health benefits and the New Jersey state health plan had an increase of 12%. Our maintenance and operations utilities it was a known amount of about 4% between our custodial contract uh we outsource. So most of that is salaries

018negotiated and also large utility increases that we have been experiencing. Next is transportation. We go by a CPI rate which allows us to renew transportation contracts at a fixed rate and that came in at 3.57%. So just looking at those four areas we could say there we can expect a 7.6 million increase in the budgeted expenditures. So with that 7.6 we're limited to a 2% tax levy limit which gives us 3.2 million. So right off the bat, it looks like we had a budget budgeted shortfall of 4.3 million. So right away we knew we had some work to to do. So one of the first things we did was look at enrollment. Over the past four years, enrollment has declined about 340 students. So this led us to look at our staffing to see if

019we're have we've been adjusting staff in that same area. So the next slide I will turn over to Dr. responder to go over our staffing. Thank you. Um for staffing, one of the staffing initiatives we have is for doing full day kindergarten at JFK and Adamsville school. Uh this is funded through our referendum questions, but it's an additional 4.5 positions in total at the the two schools. And uh then in addition to that, we looked at where there was less of a need for staff related to declining student enrollment. And so these are the staff reductions that are in the the budget. Uh seven full-time educator, full-time equivalent educator at the K6 level, uh five at the high school level, 20 total uh of district support services, and then one administrator. And so those are

020the staffing reductions that are mostly through attrition, a position that's currently vacant or where the person has already announced that they're not going to be returning for next year. and then figuring how we're going to deploy the uh other staff members to to cover those vacancies. In addition to the staffing adjustments this year, districts were allowed to go above 2% uh tax levy increase based on a health healthcare increase that the state has seen in their state health plan. The state health plan increased 14% for the 2025 year. Therefore, districts may raise taxes up to 12% on top of the 2% of the cost of prior year's health insurance. We So, with that, we qualified to go up to $2.3 million in additional tax levy increases. What we have in this budget is utilizing $800,000

021of that, which equates to uh just under a half a percent. So going back to the original budget gap, this is how we closed it. Through attrition, through salaries and benefits, we've saved $3 million and the various revenue increases of utilizing some fund balance and maintenance reserve 450,000. We saw a net state aid increase of about 185,000 and utilizing the healthcare adjustment of 800,000. So these are the projected um proposed revenues for the 2526 budget alongside the 2425 year. So you can see the tax levy increase of 2.49%. State aid increased 1%. Uh we are utilizing a little bit more fund balance to fund some maintenance projects using maintenance reserve and miscellaneous miscellaneous income which includes bank interest um facility rentals um other types of refunds. The the bulk of that is uh the increase

022in bank interest that we've been earning on our investments. So that brings us to a 2.64% increase in the overall budget from this current year. On the appropriation side, the expenditures, we can see that salaries are actually increasing only 1.31%. So in the original slide of where we were projecting of 3.3, it actually came in much more favorable. Uh benefits came in at 8.41. This is due to this category includes other types of benefits, not just health insurance. So pension uh tuition reimbursement things like that that haven't increased the 12 or 14%. uh maintenance and operation utilities that came in at 3 point 3% just on just over transportation came in right at the CPI number uh 3.56 and then other miscellaneous categories insurance software licenses pretty much came in flat a lot of um

023a lot of our providers had no increase and we did see some savings in a new copier lease that we did districtwide. So that netted um a very small decrease out of district tuition, we're projecting an increase of 12%. This is for any student sent out of district. We've seen a large increase this current year. So for next year, that along with the increase in the tuition costs, we're expecting a 12% increase. supplies and textbooks is a decrease due to declining enrollment. It's tied to the amount of enrollment we have. So, as students, as we have less and less students, we'll need less and less money for supplies. And the final item, equipment and projects, saw a 21% decrease. This is due to one-time equipment purchases that were budgeted in this current year that will

024no longer be needed in next year's budget. So, those came off. This next slide gives you a visual of where all the money is in the budget. Uh, as you can see, the bulk of it, salaries, benefits, transportation, that makes up over 80% of the district budget, and those are kind of hard numbers. You can't really, unless you're decreasing staff, those are fixed costs, more or less. So there's a very little wiggle room to decrease in the area of supplies and it won't make a dent in the large budget. In this budget, we still have facility projects going on across the district. Um, we have high school media center renovations, Miltown and the Wade building, paving, Eisenhower gym floors and courtyard renovations, ongoing painting throughout the district. And along with those items, we have the

025referendum work that is going on or will be going on. We are currently uh we're actually going to be opening bids for the window replacement phase two this Friday. Uh all the primary school HVAC upgrades are underway. Currently the intermediate school toilet renovations are going on and will continue this summer. Full day kindergarten will commence uh full day kindergarten classroom renovations will commence this summer as well. Bradley Gardens cafeteria edition will be going on this summer. and the high school turf, track resurfacing, and baseball field site work is also underway currently and will go on throughout the summer. Now, for the tax implications for the average household in Bridgewater, the average assessment is $576,000. This is unequalized. This is based off of data provided by the department of education as of October. The so the

026general fund school tax rate is 1.27% which in an increase per 100,000 of assessment of about $16. That's for the general operating budget. For the debt service portion of the tax bill, this is to pay the referendum bonds. It actually is a decrease per 100,000 of assessment of about $16. For the bureau of Raridan, the average assessment is $322,000 unequalized school tax rate of 1.79%. They can expect to see an increase per 100,000 of assessment of $46. And for the debt service portion, they can expect a decrease per 100,000 of assessment of $21. Are there any questions from the board? Sure. where we are as far as tax increase I know% specific Are there any board members with questions? Just quick question on on the debt service portion of the of the tax that covers

027all parts of the previous referendum that we underwent. And there might be older stuff in there as well. That's not just for one of the questions. That's This is for both question one and two that recently passed. I believe in 2023 it might pass. Um all the old debt that has fallen off is not part of that. That's not part of that anymore. Correct. Okay. Because I know at one point there had been like a one-off tax bill, but now they're now it's purely the new now it's purely everything together. Thanks. I have a question for information. Um I think before your slides uh of the projected appropriations you mentioned there's a bank interest that was used in his budget. Could you uh give us idea of how much that totals? I believe it was

028around a $100,000 increase. You you're talking about the miscellaneous revenue. Yeah. Yes. That's that's the increase. What's the total amount? Oh, the total for miscellaneous revenue was $1,81,000. That includes um also includes Panther PreK tuition as well in that number and facility rentals. So, the portion for bank interest, I will I will have to get back to you on the exact breakdown, but that lumps in all those items in miscellaneous. Got it. Thank you. um relates to bank interest. Uh as it relates to bank interest, could you just explain briefly what that is and also um how much total bank interest we might have currently if that makes sense? Uh bank interest is just money um interest that we're earning on money that's sitting in our bank accounts um our checking accounts. um the uh

029the bank currently gives us a 2% rate uh in our main checking account and other accounts we get more favorable. So we try to manage our cash by switching between checking and savings and maximizing that and through looking at how we've been performing I felt comfortable increasing the budget in bank interest. um to tell you how much it is. Um I just know the percentages offhand it's on at the high end we're earning a little over 4% interest. That's a good rate. All right. Thank you. Any other questions from the board members? If not, at this time I'm going to open uh the public comment up for budget items only. Individuals in their groups are invited to present their concerns, comments, and requests only on the 2526 budget proposal to the board of education at

030this time in accordance with board policy. Members of the public are allowed one opportunity to address the board for a maximum of five minutes during this period of the meeting. Please be advised that a video recording of this meeting will be posted on the district website. And we do ask that you state your name and residents for the record. JP11 491 Norwood Drive, Bridgewater. You're talking about just talking about the budget. Okay. Um, regarding transportation, I guess it's the third largest part of the the pie that was just shown. Um it said and before that in the in the in the presentation it said that the school district has 7,600 students. Meanwhile 7 7800 plus I think are put into the transportation model. I I don't know how to word that but their seniors if

031you just drive on the senior parking lot most of the seniors drive themselves. And since my senior drives herself, I don't see the inner loop anymore and how many or the outer loop of how many parents are actually dropping off, picking up all the time, but I remember a couple years ago, if not just last year, it was enormous. Um, is there any way that we can calculate that or having parents opt out of the transportation to maybe to get our transportation costs a little bit lower? Thank you, Mr. Is there any other public comment on the budget? Seeing none, I will close that portion of the public comment period. All right, we're up to item number nine, uh, the president's report, of which I have none. So, we're going to go quickly then to

032item number 10, the committee reports. Up first is the academic committee with Mr. Jooshi. Our next meeting is on May 5th. We'll follow that up with community relations with Mrs. Lman. Um the community relations committee uh met on April 21st at 3 pm to discuss the calendar committee meeting. In attendance was myself uh Miss Lee and um Miss Osuna although I unfortunately could not manage to stay connected to the call. uh but we had discussed um the upcoming 2026 27 preliminary calendar and it will be approved on May 13, 2026. Unfortunately, I don't know when we adjourned uh and I forget what else it Thank you. We're up next is U Mr. Walker with finance facilities and transportation. Thank you. We met here at the Wade building on April 15th at 5:30. Intenders M. Miss

033Laughron, Mr. Lee, Mr. Singer, myself, and Mr. Lumpsky. The first we discussed the business agenda, reviewed the draft business agenda act action items for this evening with the special attention special attention ch special attention to the budget adoption. It was consensus to consensus was to approve all action items. The second item on the agenda, any questions? The second item on the agenda was the referendum budget update. The business administrator reviewed the current status of the awarded referendum projects comparing the budget amounts with versus the actual amounts. Overall, the district is is well under the budget. However, it is known that the HVAC upgrades and the windows replacements have been overbudget and are and are expected to increase due to the economic environment and there's no recommendation at this time. There any questions? Um, third item

034on the agenda was the BR CARES fees. The business administrator shared the current 202425 fees and suggested not to increase the fees for the 25 2026 school year. Discussion also took place regarding the possible changes in prices beginning in the 2026 2027 school year when the start times and the grade configurations will take place. Um consensus was not to increase the the fees to 2526 school year. Any questions? District property. Uh discussion took place regarding district-owned property and researching the market values. Recommendation none at this time. Any questions? 2025 2026 budget. The business min business administrator shared that no changes were being recommended to the 25256 budget adoption which we saw this evening that is on the agenda. Further discussion took place regarding the status of other school districts and the tax levy increases in

035the surrounding areas. Um there is no recommendation at this time. Any questions? Meal prices. Um the business administrator shared suggested meal prices for the 25 202 26 school year by the district's food service management company. It was discussed that the further analysis be done to analyze the prices changing over the past several years and disc and it will be discussed at the next committee meeting and there is no recommendation at this time. Any questions? The last other matters uh one board members raised concern regarding the quality and functioning of the high school bathrooms as well as staff monitoring of the bathrooms. The business will work with the administration and building and grounds to address the concerns and there are no recommendations at this time. Any questions? Okay. On our next meeting is um May 6th

036at at um May 6, 2025. Kevin, it says 2024 in there. I just caught that at 5:30 and we assured it's 6:35. That's all. Thank you, Mr. Walker. 25. Yeah, it is 25 on the agenda. No worries. Um the uh now with Mrs. Kalistri with personnel work. Um we met virtually on April 22nd at 5:15 in attendance was myself, Mr. Jooshi, Miss Lee, Dr. Fonder, and Mr. Beers. We start out by discussing the personnel addendum. Um there were no action there were no items action items to be taken and we supported all of the items. Next, we talked about the 2025 2026 reappointment addendum. The committee discussed the reappointment addendum. The discussion included a review of the reappointment process as related to budget development as well as staff evaluation. The recommendation was that committee supported

037all those action items. Next, we reviewed policy 0168 recording of board meetings. It was a proposed revision. Um the committee discussed the amended revision proposed of policy 0168. the committee uh recommended supporting or bringing the proposed policy revisions to the full board for first reading which we will be doing tonight. It'll be on for first reading. Um any questions? Sure. Um just what what's the um the extra effort from the district for doing this? Like what's involved to have to keep all the recordings forever? Uh we discussed that but YouTube right you guys address that. Sure. We maintain a YouTube channel. So I mean even when things are taken are taken off so to speak or out of public view it it's still archived. We have to maintain those records for for a number of

038years. Um, and I don't know if this is when you want to discuss this as a board or we wait until the other part. I mean, I'm I'm happy to discuss it when we're actually have the policy uh up for a motion. That was my plan at least. Okay. So, we'll come back to that. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Uh, we adjourned at 6:14 p.m. and our next meeting is May 12th at 5:15 virtually. Thank you, Miss Glry. Are there any liaison or delegate reports? Mr. Suna, as a very final reminder, since I've been doing it since September, next Thursday is the Somers County School Board Association Awards Center, May 8th, 6 PM at the Votech School down the street. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Jooshi. Okay. Can I ask a question on that? What time

039is it? Because I know there's a meeting and then there's a dinner. Is six o'clock the What's the time on it? Six o'clock. Six o'clock. So that's probably starts. Thanks. Dinner at six. Dinner at six. And the regular meeting starts usually starts at 7. Okay. So the uh the education foundation of Bridgewater Rariton will have u their second annual golf event um on Thursday, July 10th. Uh it's a great event. starts at noon and uh it's the shotgun tea office at noon and then five o'clock uh thereafter is the uh the great dinner with prizes last year was a great turnout uh the first one so this is the second annual so and I hope uh everyone can attend I think Miss Kistri was there it was yeah Barry was there so it was a

040great event so I hope uh everyone can join Thank you, Mr. Joshi. Miss Lman, uh on May 6, the township is hosting Shades for Gratitude, which is for teachers appreciation day where they will the ch they're providing chalk so that the children can chalk up the municipal courtyard with fun art and inspiration for our educators. It's May. Sorry, it's May 6 from 3:30 to 5:00 pm. Sorry. Any other leazison of delegate reports? So, I'm not the liazison, but just cuz I I was never sure exactly when it went public, but for the uh or when it went live, the handbook uh Lucy and for everybody for the uh delegate assembly on May 10th is now on the NJSBA website. I'm not sure how long it's been there, but uh all the uh everything that they'll

041be discussing at that meeting is there. And if any if you need any help finding it, let me know. And thank you for filling that role. I was just about to uh give up bit on that. Oh, I apologize. No problem. I'll You saved my effort, so thank you for that. My bad. Um I think the meeting is on May 10th. There's a whole three resolutions, so it's a very light meeting, but anyone who wants to come to watch it, we're all welcome to. I think it's important process uh for us to advocate through NJSBA uh important things that uh school board can all advocate for for all school districts. So it's uh May 10th at the 9:00 at the Mercer County Community College. Thank you. Do we have any idea what the three proposals

042are or no? I can talk about that during new business if you want. Thank you. Any other layers on a dug reports? Seeing none, we are now up to the second public comment period for the day. Individuals in their groups are invited to present their concerns, comments, and requests to the board of education at this time for any matters. Uh, as we continue to have many members of the public in attendance tonight, we're going to continue to uh ensure that everyone has the opportunity to speak. So, as we did last meeting and the meeting before that, we're going to limit public comment to two minutes per person pursuant to policy 0167. Uh, please be advised that a video recording of this meeting will be posted on the district's website. And once again, we ask that

043you state your name and your municipality of residents for the record. And again, this is on any items. policy should never have been adopted. It was deceptively presented as being mandatory, but was never mandatory. Every student should be treated equally as our own constitution says, which means girls have the right to privacy. Boys enter bathrooms. At the last board meeting, the president said she's not on either side, but proceeded to defend the policy. She claimed there were only two at the high school transition and therefore no harm in keeping policy. This policy needs to appealed because of what it permits. Teachers also spoke at the last four years offended that parents would think they would do anything but teach check lunches. Do we have such short memories to forget that within the last four years

044we were shocked to learn that at the high school there was a football coach who had a sexual relationship with a 12th grader or the woman gym teacher having sexual relationships with a 15year-old boy. These teachers kept secrets with these students from their parents. What is to stop a teacher may wish to groom a student into this transgender lifestyle which is unnatural and keep secrets from the parents because this policy permit permits it. It's outrageous that we would have a policy that outright encourages staff to keep parents about their own children. I hope that this board will consider that you have no right to do this and protect all of our children. By the way, why suddenly is there such a surge in gender? Could it be all the discussions focused Hollywood, internet, and schools?

045May parents encourage their stu their children to listen to their creator in these youthful ways who wonderfully made each one of them. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Paul. My name is Dorothy Tur. I live at 1125 Columbia by res 59. Um, I'm 85. Really don't want to be home, but I am 57. have a lot of books on sex and idea that gender can be chosen. Uh what pronoun do you want to use? That's what they asked my grandson when he started. Kids can uh easily be persuaded and become confused by putting ideas in their heads that weren't there before. It is a biological reality that there are only two genders. It's the way God designed it. gender dysphoria is a is a mental health issue and that in 85% of the cases according to

046the statistics and the studies will dissipate after puberty. There have been radical changes in traditional society and we wonder well where did this whole transgender movement start and if we don't go along with it we're considered the crazy ones. Um Elizabeth Stone is is an author. She wrote um the Marxist roots of trans rights. I'd like to quote The push to allow children to identify as transgender and which may uh lead to medical interventions reflects a Marxist strategy to destabilize traditional family structures. By introducing radical ideas about gender to children, the left seeks to undermine the authority of parents and the stability of the nuclear family. This Marxist ideology represents a direct attack on objective truth and societal stability. By rejecting biology, biological reality and promoting subjective identity, activists seek to dismantle traditional structures and

047impose an unworkable vision of equality. This vision not only defies science but also endangers the well-being of vulnerable individuals, particularly children. Defending against this movement requires a commitment to objective truth and the courage to stand against ide ideological conformity. Board, will you will you have the courage to do what's right? We must all stand before the judgment seat of God and give account. Hi. Um, sorry I I don't do public speaking, so I'm very nervous. Uh, my name is Asia Dwarkin and I have been a resident of Bridgewater for 18 years. I went to speak today as a first generation immigrant who was born in the former Soviet Union, a place where being gay or transgender wasn't even allowed to exist. I love living in diverse community like Bridgewater where my kids get to meet

048people from all over the world and experience different cultures and backgrounds. But as an immigrant, I also know firsthand how hard it can be for parents to adjust to American culture. Many of us come from places where even saying the word sex out loud was taboo. I personally know people from my background would never accept a transgender child. Not because they're cruel, but because they simply don't understand. That's why I believe schools should never should not be forced to out transgender students. For some kids, coming out at home could mean rejection, emotional harm, and abandon abandonment. Let me offer an example. Imagine a teacher outs a Christian student to anti-religious parents. The student had begged the teacher not to, but the teacher said, "I'm just following the law." The parents then pulled the student out

049of school. I wonder how the people who insist schools should out transgend the students would feel about the same situation. Of course, we all want parents to have good open relationship with their children, their children. Ideally, every young person would feel safe sharing who they are at home. But research shows that when young people don't come out to their families, there's usually a reason, and it's often fear for their safety or well-being. The Trevor's Project national survey which included over 28,000 LGBTQ young people across the United States found that fewer than 40% said that their home was LGBTQ affirming. Only about half of transgender and non-binary young people said their school was gender affirming, but those who did reported much lower rates of suicide attempts. Nearly twoth3 said that they hearing said that hearing about

050laws trying to ban discussion of LGBTQ topics at school made their mental health significantly worse. I also asked my 16-year-old son who is a student at Bridgewater High School what he thought about this. His his answer was simple. It is this. Sorry. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Work. [Applause] Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Melissa Pazitech. I'm here this evening advocating for a third classroom for Bradley Gardens Elementary School's 2025 20226 third grade class. I'm here as a parent of a child in second grade who's currently not in an environment where he has access to thrive and accomplish his goals in his education. We need three third grade classrooms in Bradley Gardens next year. I recognize that there are guidelines and policies to ensure fairness in education which I understand means that Bradley

051Gardens is currently scheduled for two classroom classrooms next year. to know that Joe, my son, his classmates and his teachers will be working in another smothering classroom where the needs cannot all be met nor even addressed. The gifts of the children collaborating in a positive setting will not be shared and the education the teachers are working so hard to impress upon our children will not be absorbed by all is completely disheartening. I don't know if there's any fine print that allows for a smaller class if there are many special needs, but I appeal to you to find that small print. If there's a way that we can shift our thinking from a number on paper to how many need for classide size, I think there would be overwhelming evidence that warrants three classrooms. My plea

052to you is to please understand that these kids didn't get to choose the challenges they face nor the developmental disabilities that some have been genetically endowed with. if a smaller classroom can help them grow to understand their own strengths and weaknesses and also teach them how to adapt and develop those differences to access the general I'm sorry the general curriculum and make educational progress together as well as help them support each other in understanding that all people are different and that no matter the challenge we all benefit from working together then we should be able to provide that to them. If the teachers must instruct a smaller group to ensure that their classes access their public education, adapting to fit every child's unique needs, as well as safeguarding the provisions of their students individualized education

053program and section 504 plans, then I hope we can grant them the ability to do so. Please show these kids that they are that there are people out there that will do as much as they can to help someone they don't know just because it was the right choice to be made in a difficult situation. All children should be in an environment where they can thrive and accomplish their goals. and right now only you can help next year's Bradley Gardens third grade class achieve. Thank you for your time and consideration on this matter. Um I have uh letters from other parents. Do I have the opportunity? Okay. Um uh good evening members of the board. My name is Caroline Gity at 142 Brahma A Bridgewwater and our family is thrilled to build our village here.

054I'm here as a parent advocating for smaller class sizes because for some students it's not just about academic success. It's about equitable access to education itself. Our son Orion is exceptionally bright, consistently scoring in higher percentiles and in supplemental programs such as the SGI. And he also needs support with emotional regulation, executive functioning, spatial awareness, and social cues. Like many twice exceptional children in his classroom, in a large, overstimulating classroom, his strengths can go unnoticed as his needs become the focus. And these and these effects are undeniable. Orion's experience since last year has been deeply challenging and traumatic. His behavior has escalated. His test scores dropped significantly and beca and he became telling he began telling us things that no sevenyear-old should have to express. Mommy, my class is overstimulating and distracting. I don't feel

055safe for asking for help because I get in trouble for being myself. We are fortunate enough to be able to invest in outside therapy and resources to help him cope and begin to heal. But not every family has the same access. And that is the heart of this conversation. Every child deserves an environment where they feel safe, supported, and seen. Smaller class sizes just aren't a benefit. They are foundation for equitable education. We don't believe any teacher failed Orion or his classmates. We believe his teachers are doing the best what they could in an overcrowded uh classroom with an expanse of needs. With more time, more capacity, smaller ratios, they could have responded earlier and been more effective. The kind of support Orion needed didn't come until the trauma had already began to hold. This

056is why we're asking the board to seriously consider what it takes to create conditions where every child, not just the ones who thrive in oversee, can learn, but where they can all belong. So, thank you for your commitment to our children. Thank you, Miss Guard. My name is Laura Crest. I'm the misqued president of the Bridgewater Raritan Association because I'm pretty sure I did not say what I what was repeated here that I did say. However, um I would like to actually change the subject this evening because um I think that this policy is currently not an issue that is causing problems at this moment, but there are other things that are and I no I'm gonna so I'm changing the topic some things that are more relevant to our everyday educational process and I

057would like you all to kind of listen to what's happening in our buildings because I tried to say this last time and it was just too important to talk about things that weren't happening. So big issue we have in our buildings is student behavior. It's a very real concern for your staff, your teachers, your TAs, even your secretaries, your guidance counselors, and your child study team. And if you want people to start sending emails about that, like everybody's sending emails about other things, I will have the teachers do that or they'll show up. At times, we're dealing with issues and concerns that we have not dealt with before. And I've been here 25 years or a drastic increase in the regular um behavior issues that, you know, we've seen in the past at one um

058sorry. Okay. So in the last month um not going to give too much detail because I don't want to identify anybody. Three staff members were injured breaking up fights. A parent was verbally threatened uh was verbally threatening a team of teachers in a meeting and emails based on the fact they were women. Two rooms in one office being ripped apart at our primary schools because students were having a moment. At least one TA is scheduled for surgery from attack last year. A child study team person is trying to get their workman's comp case reopened from last year because they're having they were attacked by a student and concussed and the symptoms are coming back. I'm going to email you the rest of this because it's not even okay to use the bathrooms the new ones

059in the middle school. They're out of many of them are out of um shut due to vandalism and it's disruptive. So I will forward all of you this. Thank you Miss Press. Um JP 11491 Nwood Drive. Um, regarding what um, Laura Crest just said about things happening in the school, I I mean to be honest with you, it's something that should never have happened. Uh, in this instance, we have to be you guys have to be a little bit um, reactive with this and hopefully it comes sooner rather than later. But regarding for living in the moment um with 5756 a lot of times what I've heard in the last several meetings was about in the moment of what we're dealing with and when it comes to writing up policies and discussing policies we have

060to also start thinking about what's in the future. what implications what future possible liabilities might what might happen with with in with this policy in particular. Um so in consideration when you do view this policy and I think it's coming up May 7th I mean May 5th in in review is think about everything and think about the future as well. Um, regarding um, counselors, uh, last month I suggested a counselor dedicated to NCAA rules and court uh, core curriculums and so forth academically. I would also recommend a counselor um, either being designated for uh, trade schools or maybe possibly school uh, kids that don't want to even uh, want to attend schools. Um, and the last couple things that I want to say is today is national uh fentanyl awareness month and I would appreciate

061if if the school can do something about that, just spreading the awareness about fentanyl and the implications that it's having on on our teens. Um, 45% of kids don't even know that fentanyl is an issue and fentanyl is in prescription drugs and making uh or fake drugs or RX drugs. And then also I just want to do a last shout out on May 10th is the girls lacrosse team is having their annual car wash at the John Baselon field. Thank you so much. Uh good evening. Uh my name is Alyssa Mueller. I have two kids in the district. I live in Martinsville. Um, oh, thank you. Um, I kind of want to talk a little bit about policy 5756 only because this discussion has gone on now for at least the last three or four

062meetings. Um, in support of this policy, we've heard from students, teachers, parents, mental health professionals, and other individuals both from Bridgewater, Raritin, and other communities in New Jersey. and they are all talking directly about how the students are helped by the the policy and what happens when students do not have those supports. There has been direct evidence of that. Um there has been zero public comment on how this policy has harmed an actual member of our school community. We have heard warnings. We have heard predictions. We have heard fabulations. And all of it is conjecture that is rooted in homophobia. Policy 5756 has been in effect in its current form for nearly six years and it meets our compliance with state law. And uh to echo what Miss Crest was saying, why are we continuing

063to rehash this? This should have been settled long ago by the evidence brought to you by your own members of the school communities. Um, I feel like we're wasting our time and our resources to continue bringing it up and I really hope that board members consider that. Thank you very much. [Applause] Hello, I'm John Martinez and we are a student representatives of the BR robotics team. Uh last meeting we made a statement in regard to our team's community outreach and our focus on inclusivity in regard to policy 5756. And while we do personally maintain our original position that discussion of policy 5756 is a misuse of board time when there are more pressing matters as we've seen tonight, budget, elementary school class sizes, pretty much anything else. Um despite this, do we do we do

064not feel as if any of the statements that have been made have writed objective fact about the opinions of the student body. As such, we conducted a schoolwide survey on the policy to properly assess the opinions of the student body. With the objective of this survey being to find an interval for the true proportion of student support for items of contention regarding policy 5756, we work to ensure the policy was available to all students. And using the sample uh we have obtained, we calculated a 99% confidence interval for various points of contention. Further information on sampling methodology and survey content will be available in a physical conclusion available for the public to read available by request after our comments or a digital version alongside the survey and a digital version alongside the survey results have

065been sent to the board for review. Access to the digital version for the public can um be requested by sending an email to the BR robotics team [email protected]. The following statements will be read from our executive summary. Item number one, 64.5% to 90.7% of the BRS student body does not support the repeal of policy 5756. It is recommended that policy 5756 is not repealed. 58.6 to 86.3% of the BR student body, 85.3% to 100% of the uh BRHS LGBTQ plus student body does not support BRHS informing the parents of transgender students of change in ident identifying information regardless of student opinion. It is recommended that the policy of no affirmative duty to inform parents of change in identity of a transgender student is upheld. Item number three, the survey data did not indicate an association

066between students believing school should be an inclusive environment and that BHS is an inclusive environment. It is recommended that BRHS continues to work to uphold policies related to ensuring inclusivity at BHS. Um my the next person will finish up the executive summary. Hi everyone, my name is Shiovani Swarnar. I'll be sharing additional findings from our executive summary. Item four, 69.6% to 94% of the BRHS student body and 100% of LGBTQ plus respondents believe that transgender students are more susceptible to bullying. It is recommended that policies made to pro protect transgender students from harassment are upheld. Item five, 68.6 6 to 93.2% of the BRHS student body believes that transgender students do not receive special treatment. Item six, 52.4 to 81.9% of the BRHS student body believe that teachers do not discuss topics of sexuality or

067gender or gender identity and unrelated classes. Item seven, 56 to 87.2% 2% of the BR student body believes that the BRHS environment does not advocate for gender affirming surgeries for transgender students. Item eight, 47.7 to 78.5% of the BR student body believes that the discussion of policy 5756 is a worthwhile use of the board's time. It is recommended that the discussion of policy 5756 continues to a natural conclusion. Item nine, self-identified LGBTQ plus respondents were more likely to indicate support of upholding policy 5756 and its individual contended points. It is recommended that the board considers the opinions of LGBTQ plus students more strongly than non-LGBTQ plus students. Thank you for your time. Hi, my name is Jessica Levit. I live in Bridgewater and I have two students that have gone through the district. I didn't

068plan to speak tonight again, but I don't want to leave some of these con comments unanswered. I want to reiterate what I said last week that rep repealing policy 5756 does nothing to change the laws on which it is based. As Mr. Beers has stated, repealing it would not change how the schools are run. Every single comment against the policy has an issue with the laws specifically. People keep saying they don't like this or that. And it has been pointed out repeatedly that repealing this policy doesn't change those laws. And they keep ignoring this fact. Repealing the policy only serves to hurt a vulnerable population by telling them these protections aren't important enough to specify in policy. I'm very much in favor of keeping this policy and I'm grateful for all the administration does to

069protect our vulnerable populations and make our schools safe for every single student. I hope the board can focus on other important issues like those that Laura Crest mentioned and more. Thank you. [Applause] My name is Anza Zayn. I'm currently a senior at BR. I'm here to speak up about policy 5756. I have a test tomorrow, three AP exams next week, and my year-long research paper due. But I'm here. I'm here because I care about the students within this district and the students that will follow me. This isn't a matter of identity. It's a matter of respect. respect for the students within this district and their own experiences. If the board repeals policy 5756, it sends a message to students. What does it say? It says that the board does not respect them, that the board

070does not recognize their experiences, that the board is using students as a pawn in a larger political statement. Trust is what our education system is built on. The trust and relationship between a student and a teacher. It's a beautiful thing to be in a classroom and learn from a teacher whose students truly admire them when observing these classrooms. What can you see? You can see students engaged, happy, paying attention, looking forward to class. This trust is the basis of productivity within a classroom. Repealing policy 5756 crumbles the entire foundation of this trust. I love school. I love studying. I love doing my homework. I love learning. I love talking to my teachers. But where would I be if I wasn't able to learn in an environment that was inclusive to me and my peers? Why

071would a student be in a productive in an environment that does not make them feel included? Not to mention forcing a student to expose their gender identity before they're ready can unknowingly put them in dangerous situations at home and within other environments. To the parents believing this policy encourages encourages lying, maybe instead of questioning the inclusive environments of school, you can question the atmosphere you're creating for your children at home that makes them feel uncomfortable in discussing their identity. I implore you guys to ask yourself, what message are you sending to students? Think deeply about the experience you want students to have. Do you want them to feel accepted? Do you want them to feel included? Do you want them to feel embraced? Thank you. [Applause] Hi, my name is Chloe Principio and I am

072a student at BRHS. I've been in this district since kindergarten and will be graduating in June. And one thing I know about BR is that our schools are all about inclusion. This is exactly why I believe that there is no value in revoking policy 5756. Our schools make sure that every student knows they're not alone and with that comes prioritizing communication. In the last meeting, I noticed that many parents believe that this policy encourages kids to hide things from their parents or teaches kids that their parents will be abusive if they come out to them. But this is not the case. In actuality, this policy creates a safe environment for students and does nothing but encourages kids to be open. Even if a student's parents aren't abusive, they may not feel completely comfortable telling them

073about this part of their life yet. by allowing them to come out to a teacher without the concern of their that their parents will find out is the first step in embracing who they are and coming out to their loved ones. For the past year, I have utilized BR's counseling as I meet with my guidance counselor once a week. Being able to talk to someone about all my anxieties has gotten me through the hardships of junior and senior year. But if it wasn't for that confidentiality, I can't imagine how much more I would have struggled. My parents are the most caring, loving people I know. But there are just some things that take time and courage to speak to them about. And I think many students feel the same way. By talking to my counselor,

074I don't feel compelled to keep my feelings like a secret from my parents. In fact, I actually feel more compelled to open up to them. So to me and many of my peers, the discussion of policy 5756 is just a distraction from what our schools are failing on. I have two younger siblings in seventh grade and babysit many kids in the district, and the stories they've told me have left me horrified. Kids don't know how to read, are constantly physically fighting each other, and are are becoming highly dependent on chat GBT. Ever since COVID, the literacy crisis has just gotten worse and worse. Yet, the school seems to have no concern for it. The discussion of policy 5756 is a huge misuse of time, and we should be directing our energy to educating our students

075and keeping BR a safe and welcoming place for all children. [Applause] Hello. Um, my name is Melania Woke. I live on at 213 Short Hills Drive, Bridgewwater. And I have lived here my entire life. I've gone to school here my entire life. I was a I was part of the class of 2020. So granted, I'm not a current student, but we've heard from several several current students expressing their op expressing what they believe and I agree with is that we can't repeal policy 5756. Both it is against the law because there are laws behind this and people have said that before me, but also students spend the majority of their time at schools. Students spend the majority of their childhood at schools. So why would we want to make this an environment that they don't

076feel safe in? Especially if there are children that go home and they don't feel safe at the environment that that in their homes. Maybe they just can't be honest about who they are, how they feel with their parents. Why would we want to take away an environment that they spend so much time in, and why would we want to make that a place where they don't feel safe to be themselves? Um, I remember my years at Bridgewwater very fondly. Um, I had many friends that were transgender. I had many friends that were LGBT. And I remember just the community of everybody being able to feel that they can be who they want to, who they are, and that they can express who they are. Um, and I think it's really important that this is something

077that is upheld. I think many people I'm going to echo what others have said and there are way bigger issues to really focus on. Um I think this is pretty mean menial in the grand scheme of things. I think this is also it's a very hot topic in the media at the moment and I think that's probably something that's contributing to why people think that this should now be the the topic of interest. Um but yes, thank you Hi, I'm Mary Robbins, 26 Ash Street, Bridgewater, and um I am in um disagreement with the policy 5756. One of the main real goals of this policy 5756 is to stop parents, loving or not, from preventing and stopping their children and making very very dangerous decision to transition. Over the last two months, I did hear

078almost all parents say that they want to know if their son or daughter is transitioning, calling themselves by another name or pronoun, whether they are for the policy or not for the policy. But don't take that knowledge away and keep it secret from any parent. To all the kids out there who want to transition, are thinking about transitioning, are being encouraged to transition by their friends, teachers, family, a book, a video, whatever. What they don't tell you, but I will is you are perfect the way you are, the way you were born. And that's a big deal. It's very important. Let's not forget that we were all innocent at one time. Think about it. Where did your thoughts or our thoughts come from that we aren't good enough? We all have them. you still do.

079I'm here to tell you, don't listen to those thoughts, and it's hard to do. You are good enough the way you are. You may need more positivity, encouragement, or maybe even a kick in your pants to fight this urge, but fight it. Do not mislead or deceive the kids, especially adults who know that feelings come and go. Don't encourage kids to take hormones or hormone blockers unless there is a serious medical reason to get rid of a body part to say if you don't like yourself become someone else or something else. This may not be what's happening today in the school but it's it's a setup for it because it's happening in other places around the country. It's um Tom's River is the fourth largest district in the state. They got rid of the policy.

080So can Bridgewater Raritin. There is a harassment, intimidation, bullying policy 5512, but Bridgewater Raritin still has a bullying problem. Guess I'll never go away. Thank you. My name is Michael theer and I'm a resident of Bridgewwater for the last 15 years with a student who graduated from BRHS. I'm here to again state my support for district policy 5756. I'm also here to offer my sympathy to the board members who must be really weary of this discussion. It is being instigated by outside right-wing politicians and radio hosts. who have neither any stake in the actual running of our district nor any moral standing to offer their opinions on what is best for students. It is appalling to me that a policy designed to protect vulnerable students is up for debate. Protection of students should be a

081given and removing a policy designed for protection in order to satisfy a mega talking point hardly reflects well on board members or members of the public advocating such a change. I would urge all to consider that. Thank you. The teachers in Bridgewater do not do not in any way, shape, or form talk about children transgendering, changing. We don't talk about hormone blockers. We don't talk about any of that. We don't even want to talk about like regular straight up whatever with your kids because that's your job. We're we're not doing that. So when people come up here All right, I'll stop. We cannot have audience members getting into a back and forth. Hi, I'm Christine Brown, 153 Sycamore A. Um, my second grader is in Bradley Gardens this year and he's had a difficult year

082to say the least. He does not have an IEP or a 504, but he does need significant modifications just to get through the day. He's anxious to go to school and he's angry when he gets home. Um, there are 25 kids in his class. There were 26 at the start of the year. 19 of them are boys. I know the max size is 30. Uh, but the policy states 18 to 23 is a desired amount. And when the class is roughly 70% boys, I think it would benefit everyone to be on the lower side. It's allowed and disorderly. The teacher cannot connect in the same way she would be able to if the class size was smaller. and the conditions within the classroom mean that he is not receiving equitable access to education. It's not

083fair to his mental health nor that of the teachers. Um, a third class next year would allow the children a calmer, less stressful environment in which they could learn with fewer distractions. And if the goal of student wellness, the overall experience, and keeping staff, as you stated earlier, I don't think we're hitting the mark in Bradley Gardens. So for the sake of the current second graders, uh it would be a disservice to their education to not have smaller class sizes next year. Thank you. Any other public comment? Seeing none, I'm going to close that portion of public comment. Thank you all for your comments. And if you do, if you were cut off and did not have a full opportunity, please do email the board. We've received a number of emails over the past few

084weeks and we do read them. Thank you all. Up next is the approval of minutes item number 12. So moved. Any changes or comments? I I just had a quick question on the uh on the confidential minutes. Kevin, the document that was uploaded, I think today also has the the minutes from the February 25th close session. Were there any changes to that or is that just they're tied together for some reason? That was a mistake on my part. Okay, that's I didn't think it was a mistake. I thought it just want to make sure there wasn't a revision. Thank you. Do we need to change that or that's just going to be changed? We could just change it. With that comment, are there any other questions or comments? Seeing none, Mr. Lumsky. Mr. Lee, yes.

085Miss Asuna, yes. Mr. Jooshi, yes. Miss Lockan, yes. Miss Lee, yes. Mr. Pepe, yes. Mr. Walker, yes. Miss Kistri, yes. Mr. Singer, yes. The motion passes. We're up to personal 2521 through personal 2522. So moved. Second. Are there any questions or comments? Seeing none, Mr. Lumsky. Mr. Lee, yes. Mrs. Sunna, yes. Mr. Jooshi, yes. Miss Lan, yes. Miss Lee, yes. Mr. Pepe, yes. Mr. Walker, yes. Miss Kistri, yes. Mr. Singer, yes. The motion passes. We're up to curriculum 2559 through curriculum 2561. I'll make a motion. Second. Second. Um, Mr. Lumsky and I talked about uh the change to 2559 and that there's no charge for the SCSBA meeting. So that Mr. Lee's charge on top would not be necessary. That there's no cost to it. So correct. So other than with that change, are there

086any other comments or questions? Seeing none, Mr. Lumpsky. Mr. Lee, yes. Missa, yes. Mr. Jooshi, yes. Miss Lockan, yes. Miss Lee, yes. Mr. Pepe, yes. Mr. Walker, yes. Miss Kalistri, yes. Mr. Singer, yes. The motion passes. We're up to business 25137 through business 25149. Thank you. Second. Are there any questions or comments? Just want to thank the Panther Athletic Club for donating the signage for the uh baseball championship. The Eisenhower PTO for providing landscaping and beautifification projects. And Mr. Mrs. Scales for the adjustable height gymnastics training monkey bars at Miltown. If there are no other questions or comments, Mr. Lumpy, could you please call the role? Mr. Lee, no. On business 25142, yes on the rest. Missa, yes. Mr. Jooshi, yes. Miss Lan, yes. Miss Lee abstain on 25142. Yes to the rest. Mr. Pepe.

087Yes. Mr. Walker. Yes. Miss Khalry. Yes. Mr. Singer. Yes. The motion passes. There is no special services up for tonight. So we're up to other 2530 and other 2531. So moved. Second. Are there any questions that would require us to go into close session? Seeing none, Mr. Lumsky. Mr. Lee, yes. Missa, yes. Mr. Jooshi, yes. Miss Lan, yes. Miss Lee, yes. Mr. Pepe, abstain. Mr. Walker, yes. Miss Kalistri, yes. Mr. Singer, yes. on other 2530. No on other 2531. The motion passes and we are up to policy 2517. So moved. Second. Okay. So we're up to policy 0167 68 168. Sorry. No, you're right. I do have a couple of remarks if I may. Go ahead. Uh, I appreciate the committee taking the time to review some of the policy proposals that I proposed. Um,

088I know this is a change for how our current YouTube site looks, but obviously we want to have an environment in a district where we're encouraging more public sorry uh where we're um encouraging more people to be able to actually see the work that we're doing as a district. I think there's a big benefit that comes to having more transparency. Uh, and for new board members like me, being able to see old videos and being able to say, well, this is how we kind of did things before. I think that's really, really helpful. And I think at the end of the day, the transparency that we gain, uh, is substantial. And as a result, I'm glad to see the committee allow this to come to first reading. Uh, and that's all I have to say.

089So, thank you. I'll just say I'm I'm not so new and I still go back and you know when it comes to budget time or once you're on the board for a little bit things come around it's useful to hear discussions from past years or presentations that the administration makes to compare from year to year. So I I agree that's helpful. One question I had is I know that it hasn't been our practice I don't think ever whether by audio or video to record uh like a retreat style meeting or a meeting where there's not going to be action taken. Um, was is that something the committee discussed? Because I and I know that could be something that that was a revision that I had in mind. All public meeting all public meeting recordings at

090meetings in which action is expected to be taken. Um, that would be my one suggestion. But before I made a motion, I'm curious to see if that topic came up in in committee or otherwise. Um, yeah, you could go ahead to it. the that specific question didn't come up but uh I think primarily the spirit of it was any meeting that was already being recorded like this one right now um that that would be the what the policy would mainly pertain to not recording anything that wasn't otherwise recorded so I think from the language the idea is anything that's been archived anything that might be even an audio recording should be accessible to the public so if you ever have recordings somewhere. I don't know where, but maybe the public cannot access them if it's

091audio or if it's video. Um, this policy should obviously, I think, hopefully allow those to be accessible to the public. Um, I correct me if I'm wrong, but I did go through the Google Drive. There are some uh audio recordings. I'm not sure if all of them are available. Some of them might have been blocked. So this policy would allow those to be accessible if they're public meetings, of course. Yeah, I know there's some where we had like one for for example, one meeting there was an internet outage and we didn't have access to anything at all. So that obviously wouldn't be there. I I agree with you on maintaining things that existed and normally existed. My question is it says all public meeting recordings. So yeah, I guess I could see how that could

092go both ways as long as the intent isn't to compel the board to record something that is open to the public but is a little more informal and like a retreat session. I I just want to make sure we don't find ourselves like locked into something. That was my only point. But I agree with the spirit of this and and look the the way I understand this is once there's a second read on this policy things are posted as of that date. We're not going to go through and I don't see anything in here where all archived uh information in the past is put up on the website as well. My understanding is when the policy if the policy is passed by the board from that point on then then things will be in line

093with the policy. Uh just a little piece of clarification um as it relates all public meetings including anything that has been archived um which means that this policy should take past meetings but also future meetings, present meetings and make sure that they're accessible for public viewership online. So, I'm not sure that this uh language that you've put in here is is viable um for a few reasons. I don't think that anything suggesting permanence is ever viable. Uh because formats change, costs change, circumstances change. Um, you know, it might be that minister recorded in a fashion years ago that is simply no longer available for viewing online uh whether it be audio or video. So, I don't think that the idea of permanence is really one that we can uh enforce uh within this. I'm not

094suggesting that we shouldn't put those meetings that we have available back online. I'm just simply saying that I disagree with the language of permanence. Uh the second part is that um the language doesn't actually change the current processes as there's no definition of what it means to be retained. Um you know as Mr. Beers has said the the records have been archived so they are they're retained they're maintained. Um so I'm not sure that this language actually serves to accomplish what you're trying to accomplish with that. Uh and I would suggest that other language might need to be looked at by the committee in order to achieve that intent. Um and lastly because because I don't think that permanence is really a viable option and I don't know if YouTube is going to be free

095in 5 years or if Google is going to start actually charging us for the volumes and volumes of data that we use on a daily basis. Um I would rather have something along the lines of retaining uh video online video of meetings online for a period of no less than say five years subject to board review. Um, I think that that's a more viable option than some amorphous permanence. If you know that I I'm sorry, Jerry, the the state law for these types of of records, it's it's 10 years. I and and there are series of records, something like a a student record, that's a 100year record. Um, so I I look, I'm not going to tell people what to do, but um I I would hesitate to go beyond right that 10-year window, which

096is really the state law for maintaining records because then you could go down a slippery slope, which um as Mr. Singer had said, just management, you go from one platform to the other, etc. Um drive 10 years ago. So Uh if I may, uh as it relates to permanency, obviously nothing is forever. Eventually YouTube probably will go bankrupt. Eventually, you know, there might be a server, whatever, lock crisis or something like that. As it relates to permanency, I think that's something that we can review in the future. Should any crisises that would threaten viability of posting videos on YouTube come up, we can obviously address that. But the general idea is that once we have a public meeting, it should be allowed to be posted online and people should be able to view it um

097not just 10 years from now, but 20 years from now and even 30 years from now for however long it is. Um as long as we're alive and as long as YouTube or some sort of uh platform of that nature exists, we should people should be able to view the work that we do here as a board. Did did this policy in the form you've reviewed it as now get run by the legal our attorney? I would recommend before we move forward that we run it by the our attorney. And in doing that, is it better to take the sentence back to committee to be reviewed one more time and have the attorney do it? I'm just suggesting because I think looking there are a lot of areas that you might take some legal precedence

098to help us here. So, um, if it' be a friendly motion to make a motion to move this back to committee to be reviewed again because I don't think in this current form is it is acceptable or will be probably interpreted appropriately or used appropriately. So, I would like to make a motion to send this back to committee. Okay. So, now we have discussion on that motion. Uh, can I be recognized to speak only on that discussion on that motion? I understand. Go ahead. Can you repeat the motion because it's a motion to send it back to committee, but this is first reading when it go Okay. So, it's a it's a superseding motion to send it back to committee. Go ahead, Lucy. Uh, I'd like to speak on this motion to send to committee.

099Um I think uh the reason that we have policy reading and first reading and second reading is to allow any fine-tuning to happen between the first reading and second reading. I think that the spirit looks like that we should uh keep the record accessible and retained. That should be the spirit of this policy by allowing it to proceed to a reading pass through first reading. we can continue to have that uh legal review, have that committee to look at it. Um by the time it comes back for the second reading, we should have been in a form that's acceptable to uh to consider all the concerns. So I think that we shouldn't need this motion to uh move it back to the committee rather we should move it to vote on the first reading. Thank

100you. Can I just add one thing as well? Of course. Of course. um you know as it relates to that I think I have to concur with my colleague here that the idea is yes there's maybe maybe it's not exact with you know the legal guidelines and all and you know maybe that's why we should refer to the attorney but I don't think it's illegal to keep videos beyond 10 years or even 20 years um I don't I don't think there's a rule that says we have to destroy them after a certain period of time. I that would be kind of weird, but we could it's worth potentially asking the board attorney, but I don't think it's that big of a deal if you ask me. Any other comments on the motion as you to

101send it back to committee? What would the first motion the first vote would be on to sending it back to committee? If that passes, then there is no second vote on the first reading. And what would the pro obviously you would um that be you who would reach out to the board attorney or the administration for review like when is the next committee meeting? I I just don't want this to drag out indefinitely. That's my only concern. So Dr. Fonder would reach out to Mr. Sylvestro about the proposed language uh hopefully with also some of my proposed suggestions in there as well. That's what I was going to say. So, if we're sending it back to committee, that's fine. But can someone send us what they the changes that you would want so that the

102committee can discuss that because we discussed what we were given from Mr. Lee? That's what we discussed. If we could get proposed changes in email, then we can discuss that our next personnel meeting. But but yeah, but also you wouldn't need Sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. But you wouldn't need to go back to first reading to do that, correct? like you could have that discussion on the second reading in committee so we wouldn't have to say well when lawyers get involved sometimes the language changes quite a bit and a lawyer is going to have a different viewpoint than I think the committee may have and then board members may have and the latigious side of this is about recording it's a public document and what we put up there and the time frame

103I would like to make sure that we are applicable to what the current practice is what the law requires and that the language gives the flexibility and the opportunity so that we do it right and that's where I recommend going to the attorney just it's a quick review and I think that getting more of the board on having a split first re reading vote I'm not sure how that would effectively would be going forward if we can get everyone on the same page and have something that everyone could agree with I think that might be better so yeah I think and we did kind of a little bit um discuss the uh the viability of keeping it on, you know, Google and all of that, right? I mean, YouTube storage, right? So, I think it

104would be better to get some legal um language and advice and see what the statute of limitation is for keeping such a thing. Maybe taking some of the language out, adding it, refining it, so we're protected basically. Go ahead. I think the current form of the change of the policy is one sentence. Okay. But we're talking about the motion to go back to I understand. So we're not talking about the policy itself and the policy change. I am saying that there's no need to send it to the committee and you've already mentioned that because the l the language change is one sentence. I do not see there's much of a legal problem that needs to be sent to the committee again without the first reading. And I've already expressed reasons why I personally disagree with

105that. So other any other if there no no other comments on whether or not on the motion to go back to committee. Mr. Ly, could you please call the role on that specific motion? Mr. Lee, no. Mrs. Sunna, yes. Mr. Jooshi, yes. Miss Locker, yes. Miss Lee, no. Mr. Pepe, yes. Mr. Walker, yes. Miss Fistry, yes. Mr. Singer, yes. So, this will go back to committee and my understand that the motion for first reading is no longer correct at issue. Okay. I mean, again, they're just my suggestions. So, with that, we're up to item number 14, old business. Is there any old business? Yes. Um, if I may, I just want to say I appreciate the FFT committee taking some time to obviously discuss some of the bathroom situations. I know it's been mentioned multiple

106times um by some folks in the public. It's been mentioned by staff. Um, and so making sure that we obviously have, you know, good bathrooms, not just the bathrooms that are being renovated in the district, but also ones that may not be part of the referendum, making sure that they're also appropriate, I think is important. So, I do I mean, after bringing it up, I do appreciate you guys taking the effort to go through that situation and see what we can do to obviously improve the bathroom situation, make sure there's more monitoring. Um, ultimately we don't want our bathrooms to become breeding grounds for bad behavior or vandalism, which unfortunately has become a problem and I think there needs to be more enforcement. We need to be thinking about all the bathrooms. Um, so I

107do appreciate any efforts from the administration on that end. Uh, I know some parents also brought up um the classroom situations in Bradley Gardens. I was just wondering how Oh, so let's do Okay, never mind. We'll discuss it later. Can I just ask, can you repeat those things you said about the bathroom? They're breeding grounds for what? Well, I think there's been some bad behavior. At least I've personally experienced it and you know, it's been mentioned before that there's been bad behavior. So this is based on when you were in the school or I mean like what data are we basing these these allegations? I like has it it's not an is it worse? Is it that's where I'm confused? It's not an allegation. I just said we don't want our bathrooms to be a

108breeding ground for bad behavior or vandalism. We don't want our bathrooms to be a breeding ground for bad behavior and vandalism. I agree. So hopefully, you know, reviewing the bathroom situation, uh, seeing if we can improve monitoring there and enforcement, uh, I think is a good move on everyone's part. I mean, and just so we're aware, the these are monitored on a continual basis, both with our security personnel and this and the situation has gotten a lot better over the past few years um, versus when I started and before we had our security personnel So, I'm just concerned about painting a picture that may not necessarily be true. It sounds like a lot of I've heard and I mean, and we just have to be so careful when we make statements about safety and security

109of our buildings that's not based on fact. No, no, I'm I'm not suggesting that anything's happening right now. Um, I'm sorry. Now I'm confused. So, there is something happening or there's not something happening because I've got to go and take action on this. So, now I'm totally confused because I heard that something is happening. All I said is we don't want bathrooms to be a breeding ground for bad behavior and vandalism. Perfect. I agree. Thank you, Mr. Lee. business. I have some new business. Um, just a couple questions about the Bradley Gardens situation. Um, I know there's been some referendum work that's being done there. Um, is there are there going to be more class classrooms in the Bradley Gardens expansion or is it mostly related to the cafeteria and some other things there? There's

110no other renovation in terms of classroom number classroom number. And uh how many like what's the average kind of ratio of students to teachers within the Bradley Garden School right now? If you have that data. I don't have that. All right. I' I'd like that data if you have any just for me to understand kind of the classroom environment there. Um what are we talking about? Class numbers or classroom environment? What? Sorry. my sorry let me let me clarify uh the the ratio of students to teachers ratio to students or teachers or class size those are two different things. Oh both would be helpful. Okay thank you. And then I wanted to bring the board as well to uh couple things. Um I mentioned and this is a rough draft obviously um but policy 6820

111um potentially offering more opportunities for the board to get some more information on some of our pro proprietary fund activities. Um, this is something I think is worth discussing in committee. Um, I think a lot of parents obviously enroll their kids in our before and after school care programs. I think they would appreciate knowing where the money is going, how much money the district is making off of this program and where that money is going. um general idea of some of these policy proposals um are that it's going to increase transparency, communication, hopefully some more public scrutiny comes, some more oversight. Um I think it overall supports trust in our public schools. So, um I know I shared some language on some policy changes there and I was wondering if this was something that the

112FFT committee would want to You're in the FFT committee. Yeah, that's why just bring it up in committee. All right. Yeah, it's something I wanted. You you made a suggested policy change that you could have made at our committee meeting two weeks ago. So, I'm curious what was the impetus for making it now versus at our actual meeting. The the idea didn't come up to me until after the meeting. The the proper form for policy changes dealing with a actual committee would be to send it to the committee along with the committee chair and then it would be discussed at committee. Okay. Got it. Um, and then finally before we wrap up for new business, I know I mentioned policy 0164.6 um, some revisions there that would allow for more members of the public and

113board and other people to be able to attend meetings um, through Google Meets or any other teleconferencing opportunities. I know there's been some apprehension about offering this. However, I think that the benefits of offering this are that there's more opportunities for the board to participate should they happen to not be in town one night or two nights. Um, it gives members of the public, especially new parents, for example, kids with uh parents with newborns, more opportunities to engage in public participation. Um, hopefully I think we can see some more changes where we could see pe more people participating. um we already get a lot of participation participation as is but I think the general idea is that hopefully us at least this is a step in the right direction in terms of making our meetings

114more accessible. Um, and so I kind of proposed a draft. If anyone anyone has any uh ideas or has any sort of questions about it, you know, I appreciate it and I think hopefully the personnel committee can consider it as well um and see what they can do about uh implementing something along these lines or at least um bringing it to first reading. So comment on that. Yeah, just I know I can only speak for myself, but joining the board, this is my priority and I make it my business to be here and speak with my fellow board members if I can't be here to make sure that my voice is heard. But I mean, we have so few meetings now. I feel like we don't meet very often at all that this is the

115priority and you make your plans around this. And I appreciate that we have the video. I know for me, I watched these meetings for about seven years online, which was great when I had younger kids. Um, but I also came to as many meetings as I could in person when I felt the need. Um, but I know how difficult it is to just go about broadcasting the meeting and how this room was basically built so that we could do that and to try to bring about all these new possibilities so that people can participate. people can participate. I mean, if they want to come, they can come. If they can't, you can send an email. I know I read every single email that comes out. Um, I don't think we need to make any changes

116to what we're doing. It's and I'm wondering what what is the uh motivation? What's the impetus for this? I mean, this came out a couple hours before the meeting. So, is there something going on that we like because I honestly I haven't, as Rebecca I haven't had a single email or correspondence from the community asking for this. So now, you know, late afternoon before a meeting, we get this and and I just want to say the title of the the policy is remote hybrid public meetings during a declared emergency. Okay. I'm sorry. Remote. Thank you. During a declared emergency. So I like it declared emergencies like Hurricane Sandy or the pandemic. Um I I'm just wondering what the emergency is and and and Jeremy is there is there something is there reason for this because

117there's always a reason. I think I made my arguments and that's not the title. Title title would just be hybrid public board meetings. Right. And so here's my problem with this is I'm not sure that you took a look at the I I don't agree with changing the policy because uh the policy is actually remote public board meetings during a declared emergency. There's a New Jersey statute that you've you've revised um the language of that forms the basis of this whole policy. The whole policy is purpose is to allow us to have meetings in remotely if we have to because it's a matter of declared state emergency not because we just want to be able to attend a meeting hybrid wise. Uh this not only changes actual legal language within policy which we can't change

118because it's NJAC 539-1.1 but it makes other changes that I don't think actually speak to the spirit of the actual policy and the actual law. So I think that's the first problem with this. Uh I also have problems with you know if you are unable to attend meeting we we have multiple meetings. If you're unable to attend meetings, you you you don't come to a meeting. Um if circumstances changes and you can't attend meetings, circumstances change and you can't attend. Uh I I don't want to be personally the arbiter of what is uh an excusable absence or not. Uh I don't want the board to have to vote every time we decide on whether or not someone uh is allowed to be excused from a meeting. Um, and I don't want the distraction of of

119having a board member attend virtually um while other members are making the time to to come and attend in person. Those are just a few of my concerns about this. Um, but I'll let other people speak. See, a few. Yeah. So, that was one of the things I was going to ask you. This is based on statute. So I wasn't sure if uh we were allowed to change the legal language. And secondly, what Miss Asuna said, you know, I've been I left my house this morning at 6:50 to go to work. Came straight here at 5:00 for a meeting and it's nine o'clock and I'm still here. The meetings are on my calendar and like Mr. Soon I said, you know, my schedule revolves around my obligation here. Um, and third thing is this is

120during an emergency. It's there for a reason. Um, so I'm not in support of changing this. I think there's too much u legal ease here to change it. Thank you. I just want to acknowledge what everyone said. Uh, you know, we're not voting on this obviously. This is just an idea. It's just a general casual proposal of what I think we could do or move in terms of direction to at least make some of our board meetings a little more accessible to the public, especially for those who may not be able to but feel they want to participate anyway. As it relates to this being a responsibility, obviously this is a big responsibility. Uh but the idea is this will facilitate more board participation if a situation does arise but we still want to participate

121and I think ultimately it's up to the voters to decide whether or not this this privilege has been abused or not by an individual. Um it it it it should I I think it should be an option but it it should be something that we can we should at least take into consideration. It does. It can be a new policy or an old policy or a revision, but I think this is just a casual mentioning of an idea and seeing if we can move around this somehow through committee. Um, speak, so I'm going to let her speak. Thank you. Um, first, if if you haven't run it by anybody prior to coming to the meeting, I don't know why we're talking about it right now, but I never want to go back to a model

122like this ever again, unless the world is ending because some of us were living through that and and parents were living through that and and having uncertainty of you know what. Anyway, no, I don't I actually had a question. Um, in regards to uh classroom size, when when is it determined like the sizes of classrooms, like at what point in time during the year? We start the staffing projections for the next year in January. And so the the way it works at the primary level and and really this is something that's done through all the levels, but because the primary schools are the smallest and there's the uh the students are most separated out as opposed to the high school and middle school, we look at the current year. We roll up all the students

123and then we look at where the enrollment is. And so for kindergarten, um we're basing it on the current number of kindergarten students. Then eventually in the spring we switch to how many students we have registered for kindergarten. For first grade we use the kindergarten rollups plus whatever new students have registered. And for the other grade levels we look at the rollup of students and there are sometimes changes um students who test into special programs or who are classified and move into special programs. So there are some changes there. There are some changes for students who move in or out of school districts or sorry in or out of the the uh the the sending districts. a lot of people move not only outside of Bridgewater Raridan but within the the community as well. um

124for this particular situation uh in second grade at Bradley Gardens, there's a group of students and there's two classes there. And so in looking at next year, there's the as the the public comment kind of presented that there could be two classes or there could be three classes. um the number of students divided by three classes would make three very small classes and the two classes are not in violation of policy but are on the large side of the elementary school classes districtwide. So I think the public comment kind of like shared the challenge of an elementary school teacher with young children. and I was one of them uh having a large number of students. Um in Bridgewater Riden the class sizes are not as large as in other places. Uh so I mean our

125large class sizes are in the low to mid20s. In some places that's considered a small class. Um and the other side of it is when you only have a cohort of students that's the size of Bradley Gardens. If you break it into three sections, they are smaller sections, but it is something that we look at each year. We certainly look at if there's any new students joining the cohort or if there's students who are leaving the cohort. So the and the final decision is made in the summer uh when we have the most up-to-date information about how many students there are. 11 years. I think there was a couple times. Yeah. Right. Because that comes with other complications. So generally it would be determined by the August 15. At what point do we add an

126aid or a second teacher to a classroom? What makes that determination? Generally, a second teacher would be if there's a it's driven by a student need. The most common one would be if there's special education students in the class and part of their IEP is that there's a special educator. So, that's the most common reason why we would have two teachers in a class and that's all the way from uh K through high school. Um, and then for a teacher assistant, um, sometimes a teacher assistant would be related to a student's special education program. Um, there are times where we've added a teacher assistant that is for enrollment. That's generally at the uh lower primary level and would be if the class size is uh 25 or greater in the in the class. Um, and

127if there wasn't already an aid in the class, I would like to uh thank the public to come to speak uh regarding the Bradley Garden situation. I wonder if we can have a followup because I think that there's some issues that some of our uh our school staff can probably offer some guidance on what help that might might be able to help some of the families that's um that they may or may not know some resource that they can they can use. I wonder if we can have a follow-up action on that on that end. This is I'm sorry just if I may. We we've had every year someone comes in and talks about class sizes for their particular class. And I think that as board members, we just make sure that the administration is

128properly giving giving them the flexibility to deal with what they need to do in terms of class sizes and class proportions. Uh and I mean we've dealt with this on a number of different occasions, right? I mean, and and every year this, you know, someone has has a request. And I think, you know, I can't speak for what's going to happen next year, but I'm sure that Dr. Fonder and and and Dr. Jones have already and Mr. Beers have already looked into class sizes there and and how to address those situations. And I think that that's a situation that we need to let the administration handle. And and as mentioned before, you know, I think everything um settles through, I guess, through the summer. it shifts through and you figure it out over the summer.

129Absolutely. Classroom sizes in in any grade in any elementary school. It's a moving target until you really get to August, September. So, people move both into the district, out of the district. So, it it's mov and and I mean I I hear what people are saying, but I also trust the people who are at this table and in the buildings and we're always here to make modifications, what have you as needed. Um my my but you have to know we just can't in May pull a teacher out of thin air and right because we had just gone over our budget which which I mean these are the ramifications and it was it didn't pass unanimously here. So we're asking for more resources and voting no against the budget. So I I mean it's it's I'm

130confused. Um so that's I'll explain. You don't have to be confused. I mean that's that's it. And and at a certain time of the year you have budgeted positions. You move things around and and I think we do a a a pretty good job at that. Not that everything's perfect, but certainly um we can. And and look, the the bad part about this fiscal cliff that every district in the state of New Jersey is facing is as follows. Class sizes are going to get larger. Not just here, but everywhere. If if the trends continue in this direction, um it's going to be harder and harder to accommodate. and and I can say just generally uh speaking we have protocols when when uh classes get to a certain size and I I trust the administration to

131handle it. Thank you. Can I finish what I'm trying to say? I think that class size is one of the ways that that some of the concerns can be addressed and I think I I trust the administration to make the best decision decision for that that relates to all the students there. What I'm here today is that there might be some special needs that's not met, some guidance that might be able to be provided to serve certain students that's beyond just the class size. Maybe maybe there's some resources that can be provided to support the class size that we have to come by with. However, for example, child study team or stuff like that, if the parents are not aware yet, well, parents when they have a concern, want to advocate for their child, I

132just want to say that we respect that and we channel that advocacy to the proper channel that they may not know of. That's all I'm saying. So, let's support the families. Is there any other new business? So, I have a little bit of housekeeping just really quickly. Um, our evaluation time, our superintendent evaluation timeline is coming up and I just want to go over a couple meetings in the future. Um, on May 27th, we're going to have a close session to review the evaluation rubric and discuss how to evaluate. Um, we had had discussions about that. uh as to what the evaluation pro process should look like and I want to make sure that we have time to go over that. Um on June 10th we'll have a close session to complete the actual board

133evaluation and on the week of the week following that the board leadership will meet with Mr. Beers to discuss that evaluation and then on June 24th we'll have a close session with Mr. Beers to discuss the evaluation in total. Sure. I've got May 27th for the discussion of the evaluation materials itself, like not your materials, but how we actually conduct the evaluation. Are there questions that we should get rid of because they've just never felt right, that kind of thing. June 10th would be the actual So, and then well, as soon as as soon as it's available, I'll make it available. Right. I I I didn't because we don't have that information yet. Yeah. I I need to find out if it what kind of session it'll be, but yes. No, May 27th to discuss

134the actual evaluation process. June 10th is a closed session to discuss evaluation because we can never discuss personnel in Copen. And then on June 24th, we have another close session with Mr. Beers to discuss the evaluation itself. 27th correct along that there are items needed to support the superintendent evaluation one to we those areas how does that because that's the the superintendent would need to okay I was just asking I don't want to leave anything you know we don't I don't want I don't want the board yeah I don't want to surprise the superintendent because we're talking the 27th And then, you know, if we're changing questions, then he's got to change his supporting documents potentially. You know, that's all. It it doesn't change the the his supporting documents. It changes the rubric changes, which

135is not part of what is Okay. Thank you. I was just want I was just, you know, that's Thank you. Right. And and I just want to make sure everyone has time to review it and make sure that they understand. June 10th, we have uh a regular board meeting too, right? Uh no, June 10th is just closed for this purpose. June 24th is a regular board meeting. So, uh, I'll have all the evidence for the board and I'll share it with the board um immediately following the May 13th meeting because we're going to have a final presentation just on district goals, updates, student achievement, all those things that we can report out to the board and the community. Which what what meeting will will that will that be? May 13th. May 13th because that's a

136great meeting. So, thank you. So, that that'll be the uh Y questions on that process, please email me and let me know. I just wanted to get this ahead of people so that they could think about it going into it and not be confused by it any more than I've already confused people by it. Is there any other business to discuss? Just a a quick announcement that I think I may have mentioned in in our correspondence, but we are going to be honoring the girls swim team and the wrestling team at the next board meeting. So, we may start off and meet down in the uh other room because we'll have a pretty sizable practice. Both teams won sectional titles. We'll present them with their awards. Awesome. Yes, Miss Lee. So I think earlier we

137talked about the delegate assembly. I think due to the time of this meeting I'm going to email the whole board what the three topics are. Thank you. I appreciate want to close that loop. Um about the policy about the remote board meeting or hybrid board meeting. Uh I want to know like the understanding of this should the policy be sent to the committee then from the board member who who wants to propose to get it looked at. the committee. Okay. All right. Okay. Sure. Just want to have some clarification on that. So, you're sending it to the committee. We're doing that. Thank you very much. Motion to adjurnn. Second. I