001all right everyone good evening welcome I like to quot to order the col Board of Education meeting tonight July 31st 2024 being held at 70 conov road at the administration building uh Vince may please have a roll call yes you may Mrs denya here Mrs Dylan pres Mrs dimes here Mr R here Mrs Ramirez Mr Retta here Mrs VY here Mr Walsh here have pursu to the open public meetings act chapter 231 this meeting has been duy advertised in the par press and a schedule of meetings dated January 11th 2024 notice of which has been filed with the deputy Clerk of Township and requirements of posting of notices have been please stand for the to the of the United States of America and to the republ it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and
002justice for all would you like to read the missing statement I would love to thank you the mission of the col Township Schools is to empower and Inspire students to be confident creative self-sufficient Learners who maximize their strengths and talents and contribute as responsible participants in their ever expanding world thank Youk can I have a motion to move minutes from May 7 any questions and comments about the minutes have a roll call minutes yes you may Mrs denoya yes Mrs dimes yes Mr R yes Mr R yes Mrs VY yes Mr Walsh yes thank you at this time I'm GNA read president Jessica's president's report good evening everyone I hope you are enjoying your summer and the wara tonight we continue the important task of filling the vacancy on our board I extend a warm
003welcome and heartfelt thanks to all the candidates for their willingness to serve following tonight's interviews the board president vice president will be communicating board president Jessica will be communicating with each board member individually we will notify the candidates of our decision by email with the official appointment to take place at our next board meeting on August 14th this will satisfy the byw we have been following outside of addressing this important vacancy it has been relatively quiet time as reflected in our agenda tonight rest assur as we move into August we have plenty of meetings scheduled and are diligently preparing for the 2024 2025 school year I hope everyone continues to have a safe and happy summer and that concludes the report building and grounds so we have a tour August 5th 6 to 8 the
004update up in person the update on theg infrastructure project um Dr gar was to extend invitation with our facility director so we going to get I'm going to get an update along with other board members and see the progress so I can word in the and that's it any questions or comments for that Kevin okay uh Communications Comm that's me um yesterday we had a pretty productive meeting with uh Dr G and there and and Phil and uh we're having going to do make sure updates to our website um specifically for hopefully next school year we'll have a nice update to the websites and uh our and our messaging system to everybody hopefully by next school year we'll be able to uh alert everybody through text messages uh anything important that happens to school inclosures
005and stuff like that any school emergencies and um as of right now I saw today that Phil um he updated our website to include on each of the um each of the schools website which was pretty much it was just on the our main School website but it's now on each school's website u a link to uh the for the curriculum so it be easier to find if you have any questions or concerns about curriculum and see what your child's going to be learning in the next school year you can now go to that easier on each of the school's website any questions or comments any have anything else to add I have a question have you solic feed they would like to see uh not yet um no I think the first step is
006we're going to start looking at differents companies five that other districts use so we going to at their some of them do have that inte with it and then messaging systems yes one of the companies was very good in having be able to do the website the messaging um system and the school app as well too I think we because it's not really until next school year yes it won't be until the next budget the only thing they add is we did talk about two the microphone system yes we did um also having some additional feed from different companies how we could so that the live is efficient terms of in different prices regarding see what's the most efficient what's the most cost effective at the same time have okay uh Finance Jason yes so
007I just wanted to nothing really to report except for the fact that I'm well aware that taxes have and I just want to make it very clear that as a board and the finance committee we're very proud that we were able to do a zero tax impact to the taxpayers as far as we're concerned yes yes so as far as we're concerned obviously I can't control the state of New Jersey and govern Murphy and I control obviously the high school the high school correct so we did have a zero tax impact this year for our schools our district any comments questions I add something so I know that yesterday as kind of like a touch and gase uh uh Mr R and Mrs rire met with Mr morasco for some of the review of the
008finances and I know that uh in the update you'll find the school boards understanding finances and so on that's like a refresher for everyone it's something that we all get so um I just wanted to mention that that happened as well too and you'll see a little review of that on is uh policy uh Jessica just wanted Mo to state that there will be meeting on August 12th at noon to discuss several policies and are working on having a legal present to answer any questions about these policies advy any questions or comments can't know if I could really answer that uh Embassy and govern and manyal issues Governor Murphy nominated to repace follow mph of and andar govern contract and terms for Elric schoes I can't see that being good alues bed am I don't
009know too much about this just just myal in of all the River proud of a lot going on even though it's summer yeah a lot going on any questions or comments for right um ad hoc committee for the Arts and sports and extra activities that's me to report right now but I do um want to say hi to Mr Brown can see it I don't know if I got the chance to tell you all the great things that you did this year especially with theth grade graduation very nice thank you so much hard work thank you board member Lea committe she's not here Emy Jes nothing to report today Co Township committee um we have pickle ball on Mondays and Tuesdays starting August 5th uh we do as we do have new police off chief
010police police chief in col officer doing well and serving and fine Night Out is August 6 5 to 8m at um bux Park it's a free event so all come out uh col nexts a summer concerts U Tomorrow there's a concerts and um August 8 August 15th and August 29th is the last state and County School boards SCH the first one will be oober at the next one will be decemberth I attended that last year as well and that will be at the middle school and the third one is February 4 and that will virtual I'll continue to report anything training for us so this I'm a m I'll be doing govern and I know a lot of us have to do any questions or comments Uh Kevin uh brings us to superintendent report yes
011um thank you Mr AGA uh I just want to give a a big shout out to the staff uh and students and parents for a really successful summer bridge program it ended last week we had one of our highest attendance rate consistently for the three weeks um and even in our last week with over a hundred kids attending uh in that last week so it was a a big success I think one of the highlights for me was you know just the excitement and stud coming back the consistency and then of course the performances of the last day which included instrumental performances that um had alumni like one of our student uh lisons who came back and helped assist with some of the younger uh musicians playing with them and then we also had a
012musical performance of Finding Nemo Jr which was also just adorable and spectacular so kudos to all the staff involved and all the parents who committed to getting everybody here and of course our students who came and had you know a really great program so it's the fourth year of the program and I think it just keeps continuing to get better and better every year so just want to thank the board for always supporting that and uh just a really great thing for our community um summer call next summer camp ends next week as you've noticed uh things are going on and that the facilities uh tour will take place Monday you'll see uh in Walking the buildings there's been a lot of removals a lot of movement equipment going and whatnot and then once campus
013is uh there uh longer there we'll be moving forward with our full-blown cleaning of our schools and ready for September which will be here before we know it so that's one of the things as well next week I'll be sending out probably a very a bridge short Just A Midsummer check-in to our families and parents uh to just say you know where are we how's the summer going and here are some important things you know on the website registrations making sure that if you if you're new to the district you know you're getting all the information that you're needing the orientation schedules tonight we're approving amended calendars that include back to school nights um as well as some orientations that are on there that'll be posted to the website that link will be there as
014well and then I just wanted to ree what Mr Retta said about our National Night Out uh our C police department and cols local PBA 3 333 uh sponsored by the cck alliance puts on a really really wonderful program on Tuesday so it's we've been promoting it um with the police department as well so we hope everyone's able to join us for that night where's that located B Park par um and that concludes my report please not information items one and two on the agenda at this time I'd like to open up the floor for attending constituents um you guys have anything You' like to bring for to the board tonight uh just remember to please state your name and address for the record okay I see none so at this time I will close
015the comments the right Mo on to action items motion for actions one to three any questions or comments by the action okay so can I get a roll call yes superintend 1 through three Mrs denoya yes Mrs dimes yes Mr Rico yes Mr Retta yes Mrs yes Mr yes motion Carri yes curriculum and instruction items 1 through four Mrs denya yes Mrs dimes yes Mr R yes Mr Rett yes Mrs VY yes Mr Walsh yes motion pass item second any questions or comments all right pleas yes Finance items1 Mrs Deno yes Mrs dimes yes Mr Oro yes Mr R yes Mr B yes Mr Walsh yes motion pass personel items through any questions or comments yes I'd like to say administratively there was an agenda a boldis agenda posted that was quickly revised that contained
016a an agenda item number eight that was administratively removed because it was not intended for this agenda so I just want to make that aware um so that's why if there the board received that that Revis as well so that's why it was reposted without it and then resent so that was an administrative this uh retract okay get yes personels through Mrs do yes Mrs dimes yes Mr AR yes Mr R yes Mrs VY Mr yes motion Carri at this time we're g to take a short recess before our interview process about five minutes thank you guys no way you can record it's all good you guys can stay exactly where you are all right put these three yeah I'm GNA move like well I okay me right at this time we're going to yes
017OPP um sure um my name is Phyllis camra um I'm a mother of four beautiful children who have been in this since preschool um my oldest now are in um High School um I'm a teacher I work for the manelin Englishtown Regional School District for over 20 years um as many of you know my husband was um John camer the Board of Education president and um part of why I'm here is to hopefully continue his legacy and his vision for this board and work with um my fellow board members um I also um um am a parent parental Advocate I've gone to Trenton I've gone to other board meetings I believe in parents uh rights and an advocate for our students and let see um I also work on various campaigns around the state so
018I do some writing and some campaign work as well first let me extend my sincere and heartful condolences my background is basically more for 25 years I was the chief of the head District Attorney's Office the chief of the governor's construction Strike Force and the chief Integrity monitor at Ground Zero after the attack at the World Trade Center uh in addition to my law enforcement background uh when once I retired I went into Private Industry and I worked with some of the biggest law firms in the city of New York uh working on projects uh on behalf of their clients and during that time period I've learned a lot with respect to the private side after 25 years you you think you know what's going on but you realize that the private side is so
019much more including working as part of a u a strike force once the uh us attorney's office had indicted members of the board of education for antitrust uh Elations and so my job was to oversee the food vendors that were part of this issue and to monitor their activities until they could find new vendors to supply food for the schools and the children in addition to that I I've worked and am working in higher education with uh president of a college and some of the issues that she's having with respect to board members and and how best to proceed going forward so it's a combination of private and and public experience and the reason that I am running is because I was also a member of the Knights of Columbus I was there a grand
020KN up until July of this year when my term expired my focus was children working with children special needs working with children Special Olympics I received an award from the state Council as respect to my work with that and you realize how important it is to make sure that the curriculum that is being offered by a particular School District whether it's a college school district is so important to the children and the tax payers and especially here in col and so I'll share a quick story with you and I apologize if I'm taking too much time so at one of the meetings with the special needs parents uh we were talking and said she was from the state of Virginia and I say what brought you to New Jersey and she said I have a
021special need son and a son that's challenged and the school districts in the state of Virginia were not giving me or my children what we needed and so she says I research different states on who what state would give her children the best education with respect to curriculum and I know I keep repeating that is the main focus of my Approach if if in fact I get on board and so what happened was she said to me I wasn't sure where I was going to go and then we picked New Jersey M County in particular and now two years later the the son who was nonverbal is now verbal because of the hard work of the teachers and the hard work of the board and the hard work of the school districts and that's why
022I want to make sure that we can extend that to every parent every child every taxpayer in this town thank you my name is Rich Wickford project manager at my family construction company with per Marine Contracting we're a small family-owned business we've been around for 50 years um I grew up in North Howell uh went to cols high school that's I met my wife my sophomore year um I played baseball there with Anthony deani major league pitcher um after that I went to Ruckers work for accounting degree um I'm a father of three girls two of them which are going into first and second grade here my third is going to be entering in the next couple years um I've participated in um a few volunteer organizations in the town someone special needs you um
023I've also uh helped out at Brandy wi assisted living for uh number of years and I'm also the girls wreck basketball coach here for first and second grade and um it's been uh one of the greatest things that I did was was the coach seen these young girls faces when you come in they don't really know you at first they're little hesitant throughout the season you watch them grow some of these girls really couldn't dribble too well couldn't shoot and then by the end of the season it's uh it's amazing to see how far they come and um to see when they you know they come up to you and they're just so excited to see you was just it was it was a really really great experience um I am I'm for Parental uh
024parental rights um I think every school district around here needs to have transparency uh 100% If U if a school can't tell you what they're teaching their kids it's it's really I think it's a big problem they should should be done what's going on um I think that umz NE is known for having a wonderful school um I moved here my parents are moving here my best friend since I was a child he just moved here his kids are in school my cousin just moved here um Everybody moves here because of the school system and my goal if I'm a did beond here is to keep col neck a a model of what what a school system should look like thank you yeah so I've uh I participated at the Brandy Wine assistant living for
025two years um helped organize crafts and play games um I did that um someone special needs you throughout the church at the death for for a couple years I did that one with with my wife um also basketball basket sorry um yeah I've done that that was last year was my first year doing it I'm do it next year like I said that was that was probably one of the greatest things I I ever did um I was fortunate enough as I indicated that I was the Grand Knight for the Knights of clubs and part of the activities that we were involved inic spearheaded was our ability to help women who are abused by their spouse and so there's a program called 180 turnaround our Focus was to collect clothing for the women new new
026clothing with tags on it and to also collect toys especially during the Christmas season for the children that are the victims as well in addition to that we the nights Community activist worked with as I indicated before special needs and special apping as well okay um so when my children are very young my daughters we started here when they were in preschool I've been here for a while um I was fortunate enough to be their Girl Scout leader for a few years while they were involved that and um as a teacher I have done a lot with intervention especially with um mostly the tutoring on the side and math intervention um for Target for students who are struggling um two of my children when they were younger had IEPs one still does the other one
027um no longer does so I'm very involved with special education needs um I've attended um the Lions Club the pancake breakfast and um I just love that organization my mother is partially blind and that organization um creates rail trails and works for people who are um promote um visual like they come to schools they give free eye testing so they do a lot of just wonderful things for our community and and other communities as well um and like I said I have gone to other school districts I've advocated for students in this District I've advocated mostly for for our third through fifth graders to have the entire math program um there are Math workbooks that they do not have that I have come to meetings and I've spoken about and it was told to me
028that the parents can just print out copies so that something I'd really like to make sure that our third through fifth grade students have the Pearson resources um but I've attended different meetings throughout the state and Trenton mostly again for parental rights and advocating for our students thank you can you repeat that challeng the biggest challenge I see is parental rights my my granddaughter I have three granddaughters and they go to school in homeown and a teacher approached my oldest grandaughter who was who is 10 years old and because she had a short haircut she wanted to know if she was a boy or a girl and so my grandaughter I'm a girl the teacher didn't stop at that she approached my granddaughter a second time are you sure you're a boy or a girl
029so I said to my daughter you need to go up and speak to the superintendent because somebody is trying to pressure my granddaughter and to maybe making a statement that you'll regret later and that the school might not notify you that there's an issue here with the teacher what they're trying to accomplish and because the state has now taken this position with kind of voiding parental rights uh she went up to the superintendent and put them on notice that if that teacher approaches my granddaughter another time that there would be some type of so I'm concerned about that and I'm sure that that's an issue here in colck as well completely agree parental rights um I believe that it's it's vital for every parent to have complete transparency when it comes to every aspect of
030child educ education um the town board has done an excellent job of making sure that that that's happening um I would also say that a concern of mine would be bulling because I know when my kids um they come home on the bus they're they tell you that from an early age the kids kids are sponges um somebody says the wrong thing then they they take it to heart and you they seem come off the bus a couple times it's a challenge something we got to look into um so the most important issue to me is really going back to that focus on fundamentals and academics um really getting our schools to a blue ribbon status which is showing academic Excellence um it's the collaboration of hard work between Educators families communities um making sure
031our schools are safe and welcoming um that our students are challenged and yet engaged and of course balancing you know tradition teaching with the Chromebook usage and making sure that we are not too reliant on technology um in terms of some challenges it's it's very similar it's really the social agenda that's coming from the state and what we can do to make sure again that our conservative values stay in our schools um we have the NGA that promotes drag queen Story Hour and we have as you mentioned um um the we were able to abolish I don't know if you know in this town um policy 5756 which is what you were talking about with keeping secrets against parents so we want to just I want to I think that's the biggest challenge is is
032the balance and making sure that we are able to stay unified and um be able to react to what's happening in Trenton in a way that is best for our district and our students and our values okay um well first is getting involved and thank you again to Angelique who is really always letting us know what's happening in Trenton um I have written letters before I have made phone calls I have spoken with senators and um that's the first step I have promoted I've come here during um when our children were mastering covid and at that point we and many parents were begging the former Bo board to just write Governor Murphy a letter saying we want local control so obviously advocating for local control will um help these these challenging issues that are coming
033from the state and um in terms of what I feel is really important with the academics is making sure that we are funded for before care programs after care programs um in terms of tutoring and small group instruction making sure we have a very strong tier program tier one tier two tier tier three in terms of giving students what they need um and possibly more and more support starting with the classroom teacher and then pull out teachers Etc so that kind of goes with the importance of that focusing on fundamentals and I understand the fundamentals as well I am licensed as a substitute teacher and I taught classroom and I understand pH is saying it's important that the teachers have the necessary tools to educate our children because as they move forward they are the
034backbone of this country and if we don't give them all the tools and the curriculum is not a strong commity we do a diservice to our children and to the township and that's why my main focus is going to be again I know I keep repeating myself is ccul we must make sure that the children have everything they need with respect to moving forward in a very competitive World once they graduate high school and Beyond i' say vote holds kids first uh much pretty much nailed on all their issues um other than that just being a strong parent to try to raise your kids as to be as as tough and um openminded as they as they can be to not take things so seriously you know my my one daughter she's uh a perfectionist
035she's very smart but if a teacher tells her something that she know might have Miss a question it's tough we got to raise our kids to uh as mentally tough as possible it's tough out there it's challenging the most important thing for a board member to remember is that we are not asyo we must act as a team our Authority comes from the board and not from an individual who wants to promote maybe his or her agend first it is the board's responsibility and the power comes from the board and we as board a premature when I say we uh board members must act as one in order to get approval for what we need whether it's curriculum whether it's changes uh at the level in Trenton whether it's local authority to to move forward
036with particular programs and to basically say to the state when the board feels that it's wrong no we're not going to move forward on this we might up in litigation but sometimes you need to take a Firm Stance with respect to issues when you disagree with them um yes I agree um the board um power lies within everybody here it's not just it's not just one person as as you said I work with the Department of Transportation I work with the EPA I work with other government municipalities um one thing I've learned with working with all those um those organizations is that you know it's not just one person making a decision there's there's not and there's not just a second person that person has a board that they have to answer to um and
037it's a chain you're not gonna you're not going to make everybody happy so not everybody's going to agree with you and um so I agree with the collaboration and the teamwork in working as a whole um I think as a board member um the principles of transparency are are so important which is why I'm so proud that this particular board was able to get our meetings live streamed that that's something new um we have a fiscal responsibility to the taxpayers it is very common for um all Administration to just want to grow the budget and new positions and it you need a board that is willing to also consider you know that families are are being hit very hard right now financially and how do we balance providing the best education also with fiscal responsibility
038um again our our job is to advocate for parental rights it is to listen to our voters our constituents and what their needs are and what they want and you know balancing that with what's best for our children what's recommended by our superintendent no no I do not um I work sometimes far away I as when I was a basketball coach I had a commute from Kate May to hear to uh come back home to meet those practices and two hour ride home after a 10 hour day not a problem I'm very well aware of the commitment as my husband was doing this for quite a while um I'm fortunate that um I have two older stepchildren who are willing to come on Wednesdays I've already given them all the dates as um as just
039a TR to be positive as well as just if I want to attend the meetings so I'm very well aware of the commitment not only for the the meetings but actually for all the um committee meetings as well that go on on the side and um um so I'm aware of the commitment and I believe I can I can do it and as I indicated before I'm I'm doing work at the higher education level working with the president of the college and also the board those meetings sometimes don't start till 7:30 8 o' so I understand the time commitment and I understand uh that it's important that a board member makes that time available if they're not willing to give 100% then I question why they want to begin are are you familiar absolutely I
040mean during my my 25 years of law enforcement on the private side there were many times where uh Integrity first was the most important thing because you were dealing with c idual whether they were organized crime individuals people that were willing to try to corrupt you in some way and so yes it's very important that you make that commitment and that you follow through it yeah I agree uh you plan on coming here to uh be part of this you got to give it 100% if you're not if you're not in this for 100% why B yes as well um my reasons echo my um competition um but absolutely um I'm aware of the ethical um implications I believe in Integrity as well um I have a understanding of right and wrong as a teacher
041in a classroom for again over 20 years um ethics are very important and I intend to follow them okay um well first and foremost are our teachers um again having four students who went through the district um I was very impressed overall and um I really think the relationships that these teachers have built with my children is most important thing and from relationships comes a wanting to learn and a love of learning and so if it really starts with the relationships that these teachers um have gone above and beyond they know your they know they know their names the principles come out and greet the children every day um it is just such a warm and welcoming District um the teachers are excited when they come out of the cars they're smiling they're greeting everyone
042and even if the morning was rough like what a wonderful way to start the day someone in at you saying hey Jonas I'm so excited you're here come on in and um so our teachers are our greatest strength without them um honestly what what would a school be um moving on from that um another great strength of ours is um actually I I like err curriculum I'm very happy with the curriculum I think many of the teachers have spend hours overall writing the curriculum rewriting the curriculum um we have the most upto-date math program right now terms of savis um I know that we went from a district that did not have a strong phonics program when my my daughters were there and that was something that I had also um talked about to a
043much stronger phonics program we were more like whole language at that time and now so I was happy to see some changes so so the fact that I guess another strength would be just that we we our curriculum is always growing and building as as more information and research is coming out um so those are some of our strengths um and then you ask for areas of okay so where where I think the weakness is is our students who are struggling and how how do we catch them up so we have some of the learning loss that happened during covid um less and less now we've we we've done a pretty decent job closing the Gap but how do we bring those students and this is just a challenge for educators in general what what
044do we provide those students with is it is it more um small class sizes is it is it I love um where we teach we do a lot of before and after school program so kids aren't pulled out during the day because obviously some children don't like that so is it extending the day is it before the day in terms of giving them more tutoring more um one-on-one support more small group support so it's really just closing those achievement gaps which I think is is a big um area of um what what we're working on I'm where you're working on it um I think our safety because of Kevin I I'm just so happy um that you are sort of taking over that responsibility I feel I feel our children are very safe going to
045school years um so just going back to another area of um importance so in terms of making improvements I would definitely just say with with our students who are struggling and um my other big thing is Cedar Drive Middle School the infrastructure there the gym there um we do need to look into some true um improvements for our students it really is um a little embarrassing when you go to the other school middle schools and you see the facilities they have and the opportunities and I know we want to we want to just make sure our facilities are up to where the other districts are as well the strength is really with the superintendent because message starts at the top and it works its way down and it works its way down to the teachers
046it works its way down to the students and that message has to be a strong message from the superintendent whether you like her whether you hate her that's not the important thing the most important thing is that she sends a positive message to the school to the teachers to the parents of what the school district is doing we talk about transparency that is a key issue what is done on behalf of their children and so to me that is a key strength a weakness I I agree with you with respect to certain programs that need some improvement as I indicated I I've been in the classroom not as extensive as you uh and and I do see where sometimes children are not receiving all the attention they need for whatever reason whether there's a lack
047of resources or whether the parents and I've seen this firsthand whether the parents really are not committed to their children and especially with special needs I've seen some parents that whatever the township does whatever the school does that's enough they're not putting them in an after school program they're not taking advantage of maybe some programs that the state might Avail to fors to bail themselves up and and so that's an important piece of communication again from the top down to those parents that they need to take a little bit more active role sometimes that's going to be insulting parents are not going to appreciate it but the issue is the children the children must come first um I'd say definely streng teachers um my kids are always in love with their teachers uh it's a
048they're they're they're amazing um coaches throughout the throughout the team the sports programs are amazing they were amazing when I was in in in the high school um some of the things I think we should approve on um there some of the infrastructure at the schools I know uh at the basketball games and we played the uh Middle School here um I can't tell you how many times that roof is leaking when we're trying to play um we walking around paper tow trying to wipe up all the water on the floor so just nobody play Nobody slipped and fell there's buckets out on the floor it's uh it's it's embarrassing um also the uh the turf field soccer field um think been to many games over there my daughter plays on the Travel team um
049how many games we sat there next to parents from other towns that are complaining about eight foot high fence that's for some reasons there um and the dirt path that gets back to the to the soccer field that kicks the allall the dust gets gets pretty wild um you got all kids that are playing on the playground playing in games the fields right there and just getting blast with dust in the summertime something needs Improvement team okay well first and foremost um your family unit is a team right working together getting lunches made getting um everyone to their different activities especially if you have um children who are involved both in music as well as Sports so then I have my closest Fifth Grade team um where it's all based on collaboration working together um
050we do our lesson plans together we do our slideshows together we take you know turns do doing um leading different lessons then I have my school family team which is really the whole um and again just working together where I guess I would be more insubordinate there because again the leader would be the principal and I'm just one of the team members um you know listening and doing what's expected um and then the beauty of having children who are on teams um is as all those teams become families for you and so I have Jaden because of Jaden I have I have relationships on a basketball team and that that team becomes part of my family and with um Jocelyn at at cheer the cheer team becomes part of our family and so um you
051know you are working you are collaborating you are constantly helping each other pick up your children drop them off it it's communication and working together to get relying on people trusting people with your children being trusted with other people's children driving other people's children in the car um there's just there's so many aspects and um and I did just want to point out that um when you're talking about the the turf that's that's the um like sports foundation so that is something also we want to just the school should be involved and work together with the sports foundation and and all those improvements and the um Town Council because all those all those suggestions are really important and so um and and that's just part of you know being being on a team collaborating working
052together and communicating ideas um yeah she said um you know uh I got three young kids um my wife she she's the uh captain of that ship she runs that show I listen do what I'm told sort you're Shuffle kids around one person's going here the other person's going there it's difficult at work um you know I I'm in control of about 10 guys at most times and it's you know it's not it's not about me it's it's you gota you got to take care of everybody everybody's got everybody has their part everybody has their Ro everybody knows what they're doing and every just has to understand that at Ground Zero I had 88 people that reported to me the and our function was too one was to make sure that there was no organized
053crime members on site two that there was proper cleanup but more important we talk about integrity is to make sure that the workers also got paid for availing wage that was a key Focus to make sure that all the workers received the proper payment for what they did my focus was to make sure that the federal government got dollars worth of for every dollar he spent and almost 25 years later not one claim against the against the federal government has been filed by a contractor worker vendor because they receive the proper payments and we worked as a team all 88 people worked as a team working with the federal government state government and the city government to make sure one no corruption on the site and two again as I that people received their proper
054wages with respect to being a subordinate um when when I moved over to the the private side and you get assignments from from a law firm or working for state government whether it was the court Authority with the New Jersey Department of Transportation you are the subordinate they tell you what they want done whether you like it or not it's your job to do it so I understand both sides of Defense being a supervisor and people report to me and respond to me and also the flip side being a subordinate where I'm being told by the state or federal government this is what you're going to do this is how you're going to do it even if you disagree with it you make your opinion known that you think there might be a better way
055but the bottom line is they called the shots finally I would just like to ask um I think I think I would be a good candidate for this Ro I like I said I got I got three two already two already in the the school year um my third's going to be starting in a couple years um I would love the opportunity to be able to strengthen their Foundation going into school um this typically isn't my my cup of tea I'll be honest with you but I I would just love to be able to help them in any way I can um same for the the girls I coached uh it was it was it was really a fantastic opportunity and if I could help them on the court I would love to help them
056in their classrooms too um so I believe I can make meaningful contributions to our community's educational landscape um looking B at my my letter that I had written um I've been a teacher in the neighboring town I've gained extensive experience and knowledge in curriculum development and implementation um I have hands-on experience in the classroom which has given me a deep understanding of challenges and opportunities that Educators face daily as well as parents because I am a mom first um I'm committed to fostering an environment that we already have of transparency and open a within the board and the community um I believe that parents should have a voice in their children's education and I'm dedicated to advocating for the rights and involvement um to the rights of all children and their involvement um I said
057it before but fiscal responsibility is also a priority for me um I understand the importance of managing resources wisely to maximize the benefits of PR our students uh I want to be accountable to the taxpayers and I believe in the principles of transparency um fiscal responsibility and again advocating for parental rights as I indicated tonight I have a diverse background and I think that diverse background gives me the strengths that I need not only to be a member of the board but to work in conjunction with the board to make sure that we as a board operating as a single entity can accomplish what needs to be accomplished for the taxpayers of students of this Township uh that's an important function to be able to work with other people some people can do it some
058people can't some people strong mindedly they think only their opinion is the most important opinion you can't operate that way if you want to get something done you must be able to sit down hear all the parties what they say how they say it and how best to implement and finding a way to compromise to make sure that the board does what to students of this [Applause] thank you thank you so much thank you for being here Kevin favor oppose no meeting adjourned for