001I pledge algiance 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. Thank you. All right. Welcome to the South River Board of Education regular meeting of Monday, March 17, 2025. And 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 15, 2025, the notice was faxed, mailed to the following newspapers: Home News Tribune, The Star Ledger. On January 15, 2025, the notice was
002posted at the South River Burough Clerk's office. Mr. Rosa, would you please call the role? Mr. Basak. Mr. Basak has been excused. Mr. Budson here. Mrs. Bush. Mrs. Bush has been excused. Mrs. Burn here. Mrs. Laauo here. Mr. Nielsen here. Mrs. Sabowski here. Mrs. Yung Yao. Mrs. Yong Yao has been excused. Mrs. Zanic here. Calvin Samiri here. Have a call. Thank you. Uh going into our agenda, the first item that we have is the use of facilities. Do we have any additions, Mr. Rosa? We do not have any additions from our premeating. Okay. Uh 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? Second. Second by Mrs. Saddowski. Any questions or
003comments? Seeing none, all in favor? I. The motion passes. Thank you. Um Mr. Rosa, what minutes do we have? So, no addition from our uh premeating. Okay. So, we have the minutes uh board from February 24th and February 27th, 2025. What is your pleasure on the minutes? Move the reading of the minutes. We have a motion by Vice President Nielsen. Is there a second? Second. Second by Miss Lel. Any questions or comments on those minutes? Seeing none, all in favor? I Okay, thank you. Uh, our next item on the agenda is our financial report. Miss Well, 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
004district'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 January 2025 be approved and I so move. We have a motion by Mrs. L. Second and a second by Vice President Nielsen. Any question on the superintendence report? All in favor? I. Thank you. The motion passes. At this time, we're going to turn the meeting over to our uh superintendent of schools for her report, Dr. Zer. Thank you, Mrs. Urbanic. Um, this month the board will be approving a preliminary budget that we will be submitting to the county for approval. Um, the budget uh was really focused on addressing the academic and extracurricular needs of our students. Um, we've received reductions in state aid this year. Um, we
005also received some reductions in federal and our prek aid, but um, although this presented quite a challenge, we did balance the budget. Um, and we managed to do so without reducing staffing, without reducing any major programs and continuing to provide our students with um, supports such as mental health services um, and so on. We're able to uh, upgrade some of our classroom technology. We're able to upgrade some of our um instructional materials as well. We're able to maintain our facilities, our security resources, um and like I said, our mental health supports as well. So, the public hearing on this budget where we will be going over um this budget in detail will be on April 28th. on this uh superintendence report. I also cover the unused snow days and their allocation. So, as of right
006now in our calendar, we have three unused snow days. If we don't have any snow the rest of March, beginning of April, which I hope we do not, uh April 11th, our schools will be closed. uh May 23rd and May 27th. I wanted to mention um a bit on student attendance because our staff, our climate and culture specialists as well as our administration have really been putting a lot of time and effort into improving attendance and reducing chronic absenteeism. Um this is a measure in our school performance report which is going to be published shortly by the New Jersey Department of Ed. Um, and schools can be categorized in need of improvement if chronic absenteeism is more than 10%. So, it's essential that we work with parents to make sure our students do get to
007school, do get to school on time. Um, and we've been addressing concerns for getting to school um with parents through our guidance counselors um our social workers uh and so on. We are also working with our truency officer. Our truency officer does visit homes um when students are not in school on a continuous basis and we also do file um with municipal court um file a complaint when we need to in order to um really help parents address this issue of of truency and getting to school. Also in my superintendence report I put a little note um about cell phone usage in school. I know this has been a big topic in the media. Um I know that the governor's uh recent budget address also spoke to an initiative to reduce the use of cell
008phones in public schools. And um I did want to update the public in terms of what we do here in South River public schools. We do give our teachers the autonomy to manage this in the classrooms. Uh the majority of teachers do have students put away their phones during instructional time. Um middle school classrooms are equipped with uh some pocket holders where the students drop the phones. There are some some issues with that um with that process at the high school in terms of um things like we found students who have multiple phones um believe it or not. So they put one in the pocket um but then still have another in their pocket in their own pocket. Correct. Um also we we run the risk when we put those phones into those um pockets
009of students grabbing somebody else's phone and now the administration and teachers having to be responsible for now searching for phones, looking for phones, filing police reports, um and so on. So a little bit more challenging at the at the high school. Um, but teachers, like I said, do ask students to put the phones away during instructional time. And, um, we are looking out for the New Jersey Department of Ed's information about any potential grants for more advanced equipment, um, for uh, these types of cell phone um, mandates and and so on. So, we'll be on the lookout for that and apply for any available funding. Uh, in that regard, I also have a note in here about the warmer weather and and what's happening on our school campus. Um, we do notice a lot of
010activity on our campus when when the warm weather arrives. And there are just some things I wanted to ask the community to be mindful of. Our playgrounds are now locked after school hours. We have had several incidents on our playgrounds of vandalism. I've had to work with SRPD on these. We've had everything from um believe it or not over the weekend um birthday cake um and plates and and birthday cake found all over our ELC playground. We've had um our elementary school playground on multiple occasions have uh has been written on, spray painted um and so on. And then we also find um dog waste on our on our playgrounds occasionally. So now those areas are fenced and locked so that we know on Monday when we return to school that our playgrounds are available
011and safe and clean for our students. Um so we do lock those in the evenings and the um and the weekends. Our turf field, our turf field um has been getting a lot of use after hours, but that turf field does have to be used by our teams prim uh primarily. We are not allowing any persons on that field when our teams are using it, whether it's for games, for practices. And we understand that it's a large field and people have asked us if we are in, for example, the softball side of the field if they could be on the farther end. Um, we are not allowing that at this time. We've had electric bikes being ridden on that field. The um baseball and softball mounds are being used for bicycle tricks. We found trash
012on the field. um benches taken and thrown in the middle of the field. I received a video just this weekend of bikes um all over that field. Um so we really have to remind the community that the priority for those fields is for our athletic teams, our um middle school and elementary school PE classes. They use it for instruction and then also our uh elementary students use it for their recess period. um that's what we built that field for. So, we need some cooperation and some some collaboration from our community on that. There are garbage cans located throughout our campus. We do ask assistance in keeping our grounds clean. We ask people to please dispose of trash in those appropriate garbage bins that are found. Um and those electric bikes that I mentioned, we ask
013that they not be ridden through our parking lots. Um because we do have a lot of traffic in and out. We have our sports teams getting on buses. We have um our teachers that might be working late and working through walking through that parking lot. Um so we are allowing of course the electric bikes to be used to ride to and from school but not throughout the campus um at other times and through the parking lots. So we're hoping, like I said, that the community can work together with us and help us keep our school campus safe and clean. Um, also in my superintendence report, you have several confirmed PIP investigations um for your review and approval as well. And that concludes my report for this evening. Thank you for that comprehensive report, Dr. Zer.
014We'll be handling that under the consent resolution, but I wanted to ask if any of the board members had any comments on her report. Yes, I I do. It's a shame that um she has to bring up, you know, about the people littering littering and and just the disrespect that they're showing to this field that we just put in there. You know, we we listen to the people. We spend millions of dollars to upgrade our system, you know, nice places for the students to come and and people just treat it like it's a trash dump. So, they're going to force our hand in the future to not just lock it up, but to fence it off and restrict everybody all the time. and then they'll complain about that. So if you if when it comes
015to that because it's going to have to come to that Sunday because people for some reason just don't want to listen. Don't to us. It's your fault. You're the people who were, you know, it can't come up here and respect the facilities that we allow you to use. So when you destroy them and we lock them up, the onus is on you. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Any other board members? Okay. At this time, we are going to open up the meeting for the reception of visitors. And this is so that the public may address agenda items only. There will be a session, a public session later on in the meeting to address any items that any public has for the board of education. If you do come up, please come to
016the podium, state your name and address, and please keep your comments to a 10-minute time limit. So, now it is open to the public on first call. On second call, on third call, we're going to close this public portion. And at this time, we're going to go to an item under the president of the board. Uh, this will also be done under consent resolution, but I wanted to point it out here. Uh, we have a board member who is resigning this evening. This is Lisa Burn. Uh, she's been on the board for four years, three years, four years, four, four years. and we um have her resignation effective March 31st. I'm going to turn the meeting over to you, Mrs. Burn, and ask if you'd like to give us any parting words. Um just that
017I really enjoyed my time. You know, we're a great group of people. We work well together. Hopefully, we'll find another person to replace me as soon as possible. I know it delays losing my uh delay process sometimes depending on who's here and who's not um going on to bigger and better things personally. All right. Thank you very much. Good luck to you, Lisa. Your board members, good luck. Good luck. Yeah. Best of everything. Best wishes. They'll see me now. I'll just be out in the public. Okay. Good. Then we'll have more than one person in the audience. Okay then. Thank you. Uh at this time, Mr. Rosa, would you please go over the consent resolution? So, the South River Board of Education by means of a consent resolution adopt various resolution of a routine and
018non-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 under the superintendent of schools 3.1 through 3.2 under the president of the board 5.1 under uh finance 8.1 through 8.27 under instruction 9.1 through 9.4 4 under policy and legislation 11.1 under human resources 12.1 through 12.7. Okay, those are your items for the consent resolution. Board members, what is your pleasure? Move the consent resolution. There's a motion by Vice President Nielsen. Second. There is a second by Mrs. Saddowski. Any questions or comments? Mr. Rosa, would you please call the role? Mr. Budson. Yes, Mrs. Burn. Yes. Sorry. Uh, Mrs. Laauo. Yes. Mr. Nielsen. Yes. Mr. Saddowski. Yes. Mrs. Urbanic. Yes. Motion pass. Thank
019you. Okay. We're going to review our committee reports. First, the athletics committee. Mr. Budson. There's nothing on the agenda but to say that the high schools uh future business leaders had a conference in Iowa City and some students did very well but I unfortunately I lost the name so it's a shout out to them. That's all I have. Okay. Thank you madam president if I may. Yes. Under athletics um last week or so ago was the um Mr. South River. And towards the end, um the five gentlemen who were uh picked to move on, they were all asked the same question about why they felt like they should um be Mr. South River. Julius Rosado got up and um spoke that he felt that one of the reasons why he would really enjoy being Mr.
020South River was because of the friendships that he built playing baseball here with the the young men that were standing behind him and the coaches that he's had from Little League all the way up to South River that he was recruited by other schools to come and play in their programs. But the the the bonds of the the the coaches that we have here at South, Mr. Leapour and his crew and the young men that Mr. Rosado has played with from little league all the way up through his high school years is the reason why he stayed here. And I think that speaks volumes for the fact that, you know, he has been recruited by other schools, but the coaching that he has received through all those years from the the men that have coached
021him from little league and continue to coach him in his high school league says a lot about our program and I think um our coaches should get a nod and that's all I have for them. Thank you. It certainly does say a lot. Uh why don't you continue with the buildings and grounds? Um nothing to report tonight on uh buildings and grounds, Madam President. Thank you. Finance, Mrs. Lel, thank you so much. I'd like to bring attention to 8.1 um specifically first in terms of a statement and then I will do a general um uh finance committee uh information. So the finance committee which includes Mr. Sowski, Mr. Basek and myself um agreed that Dr. Zer, Mr. Rosa and the SR administration, ranging from our assistant BA to the building principles and athletic director have
022proposed the best possible budget given the loss of state aid and rising health insurance costs. Prioritizing both student education and the retention of our dedicated staff remains central to the process. So, I just wanted to make sure we put that out there first as information. And then having said that um in terms of all of the finance items uh a brief summary um close this let it um the board approved various budgetary grant and contract items for the 2425 school years including the tentative budget submission and multiple service agreements for nursing, physical therapy, transportation and internet upgrades. Key approvals also included tuition contracts, security and tech grant purchases for non-public schools, and capital reserve fund transfers. Additionally, new contracts were added for preschool expansion grant, a school food pantry donation, which was beautiful, uh chatbot
023software, and storage containers. So 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 8.20 with additional items 8.21 through 8.27 on the agenda as listed including routine items. And that is all I have for this evening. Thank you. The instruction committee Mrs. L. Okay, here we go. So, for instruction, um, from Dr. Travisano's report, the South River High School juniors recently took the New Jersey GPA while teachers in grades three through nine are preparing students for the upcoming New Jersey student learning assessments in May. Teacher leaders have been analyzing student achievement data, discussing instructional strategies like small groupoup instruction, and reviewing teacher created assessments to enhance learning. Professional development efforts have focused on supporting multilingual learners and integrating social
024emotional learning while preparations uh continue for key annual events including the South River Day of Service, the curriculum fair, district art show, and the wellness fair. Having said that, the instruction committee after review of all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of the items 9.1 through 9.4 for with no additional items on the agenda as listed including routine items and I have concluded. Thank you. There are no items under negotiation uh for policy and legislation. Mrs. Burr. Thank you. 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 agenda as listed including routine items. Okay. Thank you. Our next committee is human resources. Vice President Nielson.
025Thank you, Madam President. The Human Resources Committee after review of all items on this month's agenda and upon recommendation of the superintendent recommends approval of items 12.1 through 12.6 with additional item 12.7 on the agenda as listed, including routine items. And that's all I have tonight, Madam President. Thank you. Uh Mrs. Saddowski, do you have anything for safety and risk management? Uh no, I do not. There's no items on the agenda for this month. Thank you. And our school board burrow council lea is on committee. Vice President Nielsen. Uh, nothing to report, but Mr. G's in the audience tonight. I see uh filling in for the uh festivities. Nice to see you, sir. He's got He keeps an open dialogue, which is nice. He calls me before prior to every council meeting and ask me
026if there's anything we'd like to, you know, put out there. And, uh, we greatly appreciate that. So, thank you for being here to take his place tonight. I was going to have a public comment that it's really impressive that you guys got cuts from the feds and the state and most of your programs as I've heard from other towns all around the state drastic. Well, Dr. Zers brought up at uh Thursday night's meeting that we're still millions of dollars in the holes from all the years that they wouldn't give us money. So, you know, we they're we have a great staff that makes do with what we can give them. That's great. And improvements along the way, too. Thank you, sir. And that's all I have tonight, Madam President. Thank you, Mrs. Saddowski. Anything from
027the PTAs? I do have a couple items for the ELC primary PTAs. Um, yearbooks are on sale and they're also looking for photos to include include in the yearbook. Um over the last couple of weeks there have been several events including um ReadAcross America week was celebrated. They had a Red Robin fundraiser. Um Gertard Hawk fundraiser and just this last week on Friday, I'm sure everybody saw the pictures of the Pie Your Teacher Day for Pi Day. Um that was um a fundraiser that they had um for elementary. Uh yearbooks are also on sale. They're looking for fifth grade baby photos for the yearbook. Uh they're hosting a book fair um March 31st through April 4th and the elementary PTA is also looking for parent volunteers to help with the fifth grade um end of
028the school year activities including fifth grade fun night. Um they have a general meeting to discuss um themes and fundraising on Thursday, March 27th. And as we all know, we are almost headed into funday which is probably the funnest day of the year. and um there's a lot of planning that is going on behind the scenes and I encourage all parents to get involved. Thank you. Thank you. Uh how about our residency committee, Vice President Nielsen? Anything? Nothing to report tonight, Madam President. Thank you. Our next committee would be the South River Public Library liaison. Mr. Budson. Well, last week the founders of Weird New Jersey had a presentation at the library and was very informative and my uh opthalmologist was list mentioned. Tomorrow they're having their the 18th adult craft night. Mondays are still
029yoga for adults. March 24th is health healthy living. Uh, Thursday, April 6 is a meditation class and April 14th to the 17th you have in there book sale. That's all I have. Thank you. And from our student board representative, Miss Kelvin Sidi. Thank you. Um, a mic. The FBLA club went to the state leadership conference in Atlantic City last week where we had four students place top 10. Uh the freshman class had a fundraiser on in Chipotle on March 3rd. Ram Runway is hosting a prom dress drive throughout March. The Rampacked Community Service Club is having a fundraiser with cones and crepes. On the first week of March, two assemblies were held, one about mental health and another about Women's History Month. Mr. Southover was a success. Snacks and beverages were provided by the FBLA
030club. And on Tuesday, March 4th, there was a parade hosted by the languages language courses where everyone got to decorate and wear masks for Fat Tuesday. Yes. Thank you. Is there any old or new business to come before the board at this time? Madame President, I would like to acknowledge um athletic trainers month is the month of March. So, for Miss B and the student athletic trainers, I just wanted to make sure that um we we sent a message uh acknowledging their efforts and how they help our teams um and students in general uh as needed. So, that that's all I'd like to say. They certainly do provide a uh valuable element. Uh I just wanted to ask, do we have a date for the curriculum fair yet or We do. If the calendar stays
031the same, it is the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend. Okay, I could find that. Thank you. May 22nd. And do we have anything from our attorney, Mr. Parton? Only for executive session. Okay. I think we got to pay some bills, Mrs. Well, we should. Uh the finance committee recommends that all bills presented having been certified by the school business administrator board secretary be paid as listed and I so move. We have a motion by Mrs. L. Second and a second by vice president Nielsen is there any questions or comments on the bill list? Seeing none. All in favor? I. Thank you. The motion carries. At this time, we are now going to open up the meeting again to visitors and the public so that they may address any concern or comment that they have for
032the board. Please state your name and address if you come to the podium. And please keep your comments to a 10-minute time limit. This is on first call, on second call, and on third call. Okay, this closes the public portion and the board is going to go into a closed executive session at this time. So, be it resolved that pursuant to sections seven and 8 of the open public meetings act, the following subjects be discussed at a session of the board of education closed to the public and that subject is personnel. 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? Neielson. There's a motion by Vice President Nielsen. Second by Mrs. Burn. All in favor? I. Motion carries. We
033are in close session. Mr. Gianopoulos. Thank you for your attendance. That's it.