Board approves multiple consent items, finalizes power purchase agreement; hears student concerns about speed bumps and textbooks
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Summary
At its public meeting the West Windsor-Plainsboro Board approved grouped administration, curriculum, finance and personnel motions including a finalized power purchase agreement. Student public comment raised safety concerns about recently installed speed bumps and requested new Spanish textbooks; district leaders said they would follow up.
The West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District Board of Education approved a series of consent motions on administration, curriculum, finance and personnel at its public meeting and heard public comment from a student about traffic and instructional materials.
Votes and main outcomes The board approved grouped motions covering: administration items 1'6 (with a correction to a date on the agenda and the purple addendum), one curriculum travel/field trip item, finance items 1'9 including the blue addendum (the finalized power purchase agreement with Green Skies), and personnel items 1'3 with the green addendum. The motions were moved and seconded as announced from the dais (examples: Dana and Liz moved administration items; Loy and Puja moved the curriculum item; Luisa and Ajanta moved finance items; Shweta and Liz moved personnel items). Each grouped motion passed on roll-call votes recorded in the transcript.
Votes at a glance - Administration items 1'6 (including first readings of policies and calendar recommendation): approved by roll-call vote (recorded yes votes in transcript). Motion as presented; mover/second: Dana and Liz. - Curriculum item 1 (travel/field trips and a teacher presentation): approved by roll-call vote. Mover/second: Loy and Puja. - Finance items 1'9 and blue addendum (includes approval of auditing services, transportation contracts, and a finalized Power Purchase Agreement with Green Skies/ESCO work): approved by roll-call vote. Mover/second: Luisa and Ajanta. The transcript notes the finalized power purchase agreement (PPA) with Green Skies was the blue addendum and attorney approval was in place. - Personnel items 1'3 and green addendum (staffing and retirements among other personnel motions): approved by roll-call vote. Mover/second: Shweta and Liz. - Minutes of the Feb. 11 meeting: approved by roll call; one board member recorded an abstention (the person who said "I abstain" was not named in the transcript excerpt).
Student public comment and district response During the general public comment period, High School North senior class president Hamsla Ahmed spoke to the board about two issues. She described newly installed speed bumps at High School North as being bolted-on, narrower and higher than previous speed-control devices and said they had damaged low-riding student vehicles and raised safety concerns if drivers needed to brake quickly. "They run a little higher up, and they're smaller width wise. So they're quite dangerous for low riding cars," Ahmed told the board, adding the district's custodial or grounds crew should review the installation.
Ahmed also described deteriorating copies of an AP Spanish literature text used in the district's Advanced Placement Spanish Literature and Composition class and said the teacher had reported the district was not allowing purchase of replacement textbooks. She told the board classroom copies were falling apart and some works were difficult to access online because of copyright restrictions.
Dr. Aderhold responded that she and Dr. Russo would follow up with the building and grounds department about the speed bumps and that Dr. Gould (chief academic officer) and Dr. Warren (world language supervisor) would investigate the textbook situation and the district's textbook replacement cycle. "All of our books are on a replacement cycle, and so when they hit being out of print, there's a textbook review process," Dr. Aderhold said; she added administrators would look into the specific classroom concerns.
Other business and announcements The finance committee reported progress on the district's ESCO work with Schneider Electric and said the final PPA with Green Skies had been added as the blue addendum. The board also approved several overnight field trips and a professional travel request for a science teacher to present at a national conference.
The meeting adjourned to executive session for an attorney-client matter; the board said it did not plan to return to public session to take further action that night.