CorpusRecord 96662

August Public Board of Education Meeting 08.18.25 Part 1

A searchable transcript preserved as part of the Discourse Corpus. Passage numbers provide stable references within this record; verify quotations against the original recording when available.

Source
YouTube / South River Social Media
Date
2025-08-19
Location
Middlesex County, NJ
Material
Transcript
Extent
1,906 words · about 11 min
Collected
2026-06-13

Transcript

Verbatim source text

001Pledge, please. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. you. Good evening and welcome to the South River Board of Education regular meeting of Monday, August 18th, 20125. In compliance with the open public meeting act, chapter 231, laws of 1975 of the state of New Jersey, adequate notice of this meeting of the South River Board of Education was provided in the following manner. On January 15, 2025, the notice was delivered to the office of the South River Burough Clerk and posted at the Board of Education Administration building. On January 15th, 2025, the notice was faxed, mailed to the following newspapers: Home News Tribune, The Star Ledger. And on January 15, 2025,

002the notice was posted at the South River Burough Clerk's office. Mr. Rosa, would you please call the role? >> Mr. Basak >> here. >> Mr. Budson >> here. >> Mrs. Bush >> here. >> Mrs. Lao >> here. >> Mr. Nielsen >> here. >> Mr. Anway >> here. >> Mrs. Saddowski >> here. >> Mrs. Young >> here. >> Mrs. Urbanic >> here. >> Have a qu. >> Thank you. Um, we are going to go into our meeting now. We do have a quorum and the first item of business on the agenda are the minutes. Mr. Rosa, what have we? >> We have the July 21st premeating minutes and the July 24th regular meeting minutes. >> Okay, thank you. Um, do we have a motion on the minutes? >> Move the reading of the minutes. >> We

003have a motion by Vice President Nielsen. Is there a second on that motion? >> Second. Second by Mrs. Saddowski. Are there any questions, comments, or edits on any of the minutes? Seeing none, all in favor? >> The minutes pass. Next item we have on the agenda is our use of facilities, which we have several. Mr. Rosa, >> we have an addition of number 785. You have 787, 835, 836, 837, number 839, 840, 849, and 857 as illustrated on the board agenda. >> Thank you. Board members, what is your pleasure on the use of facilities? >> Move the use of facilities in accordance with board policies. >> We have a motion by Vice President Nielsen. Is there a second on that? >> Second by Mrs. Saddowski. Do any board members have any comments or questions on

004this? >> I'd like to abstain from 8:49 and 857, please. Thank you. >> So noted. Okay, seeing no other questions or any that want to be read separately. All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you. The use of facilities passes. Next item on the agenda is our financial report. Mrs. Low, >> thank you. Be it resolved that the board of education hereby certifies that it is in receipt of the financial report which indicates that no major account has been overexpended and that sufficient funds are available to meet the district's financial obligations for the remainder of the fiscal year. The finance committee recommends that the reports of the board secretary and the treasur of school monies for June 2025 be approved and I so move. >> Thank you. We have a motion by Mrs. Lel. Is

005there a second? >> Mr. Bzac. Thank you. Are there any questions or comments on the financial report? Seeing none, all in favor? >> I. >> Thank you. Financial report passes. At this time, we're going to give the meeting to our superintendent for her report, Dr. Zer, please. >> Yes. Thank you, Mrs. Urbanic. Uh, several items on the report this evening. Um, we are just really getting ready for the start of school. uh and to welcome students back. Uh we're in very good shape in terms of getting our hallways cleared and our floors um done and um we really are making great great progress and will be ready to open um for students and staff. Uh we want parents to please stay up to date on the latest information regarding the first days of school. Uh

006please make sure you're checking our district website. We continue to put alerts on the website for very important information uh such as the dates for our orientations uh back uh backpack pickup um and so on. So please make sure you check for that. Check our eams and our social media pages as well. We just last week put out an eam informing parents that student schedules are available through the parent portal. parents can access that parent portal if they go ahead and um read and sign off on the required forms first. So, please make sure that you do that. Um if you are an incoming sixth grader, uh we have a few families still left, about 35 families or so that have not done their residency check paperwork. If you're one of those families, you will

007not be able to access that student schedule until you provide your proof of residency as that is the grade level that we're doing our random check for. So, please make sure that you uh look into that. >> Um we are continuing our 21st century program. We just got um notification that the program can move forward for the 2526 school year. So this is our program that provides afterchool um supervision as well as academic support and enrichment activities for students in grades 2 to 12. We have a special tab on our website for 21st century. So please take a look at that. And if you want to enroll your child that is how you would access information about enrolling your child in 21st century. So please check that out. Uh we spoke about the parent portal

008and assignments and schedules. There's a link in my superintendence report for parents to access that parent portal directly as well as instructions on how to get through that portal if they are new to it. And um in the new and upcoming year, uh we have a new roof and HVAC at the primary school done this summer. We've changed some flooring throughout the district. We've upgraded the PA system and audiovisisual equipment in our elementary schools, primary, um, middle and elementary as well. We have new technology for students and staff. We've been deep cleaning all of our schools, uh, and a lot more. I've included another link to our budget which shows an exact list of everything that we are doing for the 2526 school year. I really encourage our parents and community members to take a

009look at that. So you see the wonderful things that are progressing in the district. And so concludes my report. >> Thank you, Dr. Zer. Uh the superintendence report will be under our consent resolution. Do any board members have any comments or additions or questions about the superintendence report? Okay. At this time, we are going to open up the meeting to our visitors. And the first opening up to visitors is so that the public may address agenda items only. There will be an opportunity later on in the meeting to address other items of interest for the board of education. But at this time, it's for agenda items only. Uh if you do come up to the microphone, please state your name and address and please keep your comments to a 10-minute time limit. And this is

010on first call and on second call and on third call. Seeing none, we will close this public uh session and we are going to go on to our committee reports starting with athletics. Mr. Buzzen. >> Okay. Thank you. And buildings and grounds. Vice President Nielsen. >> Thank you, Madam President. The buildings grounds committee after review of all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of superintendent recommends approval of the items 7.1 through 7.2 with no additional items on the agenda as listed, including routine items. That's all I have tonight. Thank you. Finance, Mrs. Low. >> Thank you so much. I'd like to provide a brief summary. Um, the agenda covers approvals of several grants, including the New Jersey Youth Justice Commission grant, an idea grant, new opportunities such as RISE, Impact, Literacy Coaching, and

011this one's really cool, the Lemonson MIT Inventing Grant. Service contracts were authorized for occupational and music therapy, translation services, professional development, CPR, first aid training, and high school programs in credit recovery and physics. Educational travel contracts were also approved. Additional items include our usual finance uh financial requisitions, line item transfers, but also grant evaluator services, technology purchases like an interactive sandbox, and facility maintenance at Denny Stadium. The finance committee after review of all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of the items 8.1 through 8.14 with additional items 8.15 through 8.24 on the agenda as listed including routine items. And that is all I have for this evening. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Madam President. >> Yes. >> In um regards to that, I just want to know

012that um Mr. Rosa's uh posting tonight that that even though all those programs are still being that's with $80,000 over $80,000 removed from our grants. >> So, you know, it speaks volumes to what the finance committee and and the uh administration have done to make sure that all those programs are still there for our students even though um we're losing over $80,000 and I think they should all be commended for that. I just want to make that known. >> It's a very good point. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Nielsen. >> Okay. Our instruction committee, Mrs. Bush. >> Sure. The instruction committee, after reviewing all the items on this month's agenda, and upon the recommendation of the superintendent, recommends the approval of items 9.1 through 9.5 with no additional items on the agenda as listed, including

013routine items. That is all I have. >> Thank you. There are no items under negotiation. Our policy and legislation committee, Mr. Amudo, >> the policy and legislation committee after review of all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of the item 11.1 with no additional items on the agendas listed including routine items. That is all. >> Thank you. Under human resources committee, Mr. Basak. >> Thank you, Mr. Banick. The human resources committee after review of all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of the items 12.1 through 12.17 with additional item 12.18 on the agenda as listed including routine items. Thank you. >> Thank you. Under our safety and risk management committee, Mrs. Saddowski. Thank you. The safety and risk management committee after

014review of all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of item 13.1 through item 13.2 but no additional items on the agenda as listed, including routine items. Thank you. >> Okay, thank you. Uh we're going to go back to our consent resolution. Uh, but I'd just like to give a final opportunity if any board members have any comments or questions on any of the committee reports or items. Seeing none, Mr. Rose, our consent resolution, please. >> The South River Board of Education by means of a consent resolution adopt various resolutions of a routine and non-controversial nature at one time. And whereas the below listed resolutions are hereby adopted by the said board of education in whole as if the same were individually acted upon and those are on the

015superintendent of schools 3.1 the building and grounds 7.1 through 7.2 under finance 8.1 through 8.24 24 under instruction 9.1 through 9.5 the policy and legislation 11.1 the human resources 12.1 to 12.18 and under safety and risk management 13.1 through 13.2 >> thank you is there a motion on the consent resolution >> move the consent resolution >> we have a motion by Vice President Nielsen is there a second >> second by Mrs. Low. >> Would you please call the role? >> Mr. Bzac? >> Yes. >> Mr. Budson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Bush? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lao? >> Yes. >> Mr. Nielsson? >> Yes. >> Mr. Anway? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Saddowski? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Youngo? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Herbat? >> Yes. >> Motion pass. >> Thank you. Uh, at this time we have

016a few other committee reports. The next one is our school board council liaison committee. Mr. Uh, Vice President Nielsen, >> I have nothing to report, but uh, last month we did speak about uh, reaching out to the councilman for a meeting, but I was told that he would be unavailable. He would be away for an extended period for vacations and stuff. So, I'll uh, try to reach out early September when everybody's back in to uh, work in school. We can set something up to talk about what we had last month. That's all I have, Madam President. >> Sounds good. Thank you. And our PTA liaison, Mrs. Saddowski. Thank you. Um, all the PTAs are busy preparing for the upcoming school year and I know membership information will be sent out in the next couple of

017weeks and that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Youngo, our residency committee. >> There are no items on the agenda for this evening. >> Thank you. And Mr. Budsen, our south river public library is on. >> For adults continues Monday at 4 p.m. Zip is tomorrow. 6 and the summer party Monday August 25th at 11 p.m. is August 26 at 2 p.m. That's all I have. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Uh is there any old or new business to come before the board? And do we have a report from our attorney >> for executive session? >> Okay. Thank you. And now we're going to move on to the payment of the bills. Miss L. >> Got it. >> Or Mr. Bezac. >> I got it. >> Finance committee recommends that all

018bills presented having been certified by the school business administrator board secretary be paid as listed. And I so move. >> Okay. Thank you. We have a motion by Mrs. LS. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Bzac. All in favor? >> I. Thank you. The bills will be paid. >> At this time, we are now once again going to open up the meeting to the reception of visitors. And this is so that the public may address any concern or comment that they have for the board. Uh again, please state your name and address when you come to the microphone. And please keep your comments to a 10-minute time limit. And this will be on first call, on second call, and on third call. Seeing no one, we will close this public portion and the

019reception of visitors, the board is going to go into an executive session. So, be it resolved that pursuant to sections seven and eight of the open public meetings act, the following subjects be discussed at a session of the board of education closed to the public and those subjects are attorney client privilege. It is presently anticipated that the items to be discussed in close session can be disclosed to the public when resolved. Is there a motion to close the meeting? >> Neielen. >> By Vice President Nielsen. Is there a second? Second >> by Miss Yang Yao. All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you. We are now in close session.

This transcript may contain errors introduced by automated or source-provided captioning. Bracketed descriptions such as [Music] are retained from the source. Passage divisions are editorial aids and do not alter the wording.