001okay welcome everyone thank you for coming to our August work meeting and I'm going to ask Miss Anaya to read the open public meetings act statement please on Thursday January 14 2021 notice of this meeting was mailed to the press and the current of Egg Harbor Township notice was also delivered that day to the Egg Harbor Township Clerk and posted on the bulletin board and Township Hall advertised instructions for this hybrid meeting were posted on our website and on social media on Friday August 6 2021 thank you mate we have roll call please Florida here this bird is not on but will be virtual when she connects I'll let everybody know Mr de la barca here Mr Ireland Mr Price here Mr Price I see your emotion I'm sorry go ahead I saw you move
002you're here here thank you Mrs Sullivan here Mrs salagi Mrs Gilbert Floyd here and Mr castellan here all right okay can we all please stand for the flag salute foreign thank you again everyone for coming out to our August work meeting um we as we have been through this summer we have been very busy running our summer programs as well as preparing for our upcoming school year which will be here before you know it I'm very excited about that and I'm going to turn the platform over to Dr gruccio Who will have updates for us as we prepare for next year okay good evening everyone thank you Mr Castellano just quick update um this evening I always provide a covid-19 update and um in terms of cases in the district we are seeing one to
003two cases a day um here in our school district over the summer we with our Summer Staff in as well as some students and staff um on August 6th I think we're all aware of now that there's announcement made from Governor Murphy an assigned executive order executive order 251 starting August 9th the students at staff must wear masks inside school buildings We are following that order as per the New Jersey Department of Education and the Atlantic County superintendent's direction as in terms of Statute 1855 with which states that it's important that we adhere to executive orders in regard to the state funding that we are entitled to and that we that we are receiving so we're very happy with the amount of State funding that we're receiving this executive hoarder does have a penalty section
004as being charged with criminal action as well as ethic charges against anyone who holds administrative certifications or serve as Board of Education members so we have an obligation to follow that we have an obligation to file the code of ethics we have an obligation to follow the executive order number 251. so that is an update in terms of covid-19 and where we are we are having our pandemic team meetings on August 11th throughout the district each school will hold its pandemic team meeting which consists of teachers staff administrators and parents and some have students and then on Monday August 16th at 6 30 at the high school we will hold a town hall meeting where I will proudly share all that the Egg Harbor Township School District has done in the 2000 2021 school year
005and a little insight on what's up and coming for our new school year everyone is invited that is a public forum which will again be held at the high school 6 30 August 16th I will also share feedback from the pandemic team meetings that evening um that's all I have for an update in terms of covid-19 and where we are in the district um I will also let the board know that you know it's that time of the year which you've heard me say that the last couple times that we met that we're very very busy in central office um working on uh getting new hires in place new programs in place meeting student needs but also meeting compliance issues and compliancy that the county as well as the New Jersey Department of Education expects
006from us so Ward just so you know you'll see within the next week being placed on the agenda as our professional development plan our mentoring plan and a resolution um that will speak to or ask for these items to be approved and the resolution has to do with our evaluation tool of Danielson that you've you've heard before but again these are compliance issues compliance things that we have to touch upon and meet every year and central office is working rapidly to get all that in line and be shared with you for approval at our next board meeting that's what I have thank you okay so before we move on I just want to double check in on uh just one item at as we did before we opened last year we had our architect of
007record walk through our facilities to inspect all of our HVAC and our ventilation systems and I'm just hoping that we were planning to do that you know again before we open in September this year looking to in projects are centered around our HVAC systems but as far as we know right now based on the walkthrough that was done in October and early November last year with myself my staff and representatives from the ehtea we were confident in learning that our systems and our ventilation systems are are functioning well and we also have the blue lights in place so we are very fortunate to have that Miss Anaya you oversee the facilities department and see if I is there anything I missed or any important additions you'd like the public and the board to hear please
008speak now sure so we have as you know we hired an engineer of Records specifically to do an analysis of our HVAC systems they did send us a draft report we have in our hands we are scheduled to have a meeting with them Monday the 23rd to go over everything we asked them before that meeting if you can just confirm that everything is operational there are two being replaced actually last week and they did note that those were the two that needed some immediate attention and that was at Alder in high school so according to their record that they're actually going to be meeting with us on the 23rd as far as the order of events of replacement although they are Antiquated and although they need replacement and we should replace them proactively versus waiting
009for them to be inactive or be broken at this time the only two that they identified were at High School in Alder but I will reach out we were meeting with the architect actually on tomorrow and while we have him here we will let him know that that is if that's what the boards desire we can take care of that thanks yeah thanks very much I just think that was it was very well done last year I think it it was important for a lot of people to see that you know we we went the extra mile to be sure all of our systems were working as they should be so I just think we ought to repeat that as a best practice absolutely and Mrs bird is on um startup in September um okay
010so um with nothing else than from our uh superintendent and administration we're going to go right ahead on into finance and operations and I'll ask for our finance operations committee report please okay thank you Mr President I I think I have the microphone here hopefully we got the bugs worked out of them since the last meeting um okay the finance and operations meeting met on August 3rd at six o'clock P.M at the slave Wall primary executive office room um myself Mr Price Mr salaji Miss Byrd and miss and I were in attendance um committee updates we spoke about food service year-end recap break it we broke even for the year 2021. so I I I you know I think that was really good good news to hear and I'd repeat that we broke even for
011the year plans for September uh we're looking at all free meals a la carte sales and Catering diverse samplings to incorporate and we're looking at dividers on tables so this will be for the cafeteria and food service we spoke about transportation uh the year-end recap hybrid allowed less drives drivers so we had more runs as far as Transportation goes so that's something that we've discussed Pre-K and full day kindergarten the runs uh plans for September some contracts until we get more drivers uh we're going to do social media lawn signs incentives Etc 2019 20 2020 we had 10 Kinder and three preschool for 370 kids uh 2021 we have 700 full day kindergarten and preschool uh calling parents this week for parent contacts so that's been accomplished and we're working on it as well we're
012going to consider bringing in special ed runs and Contracting out two General Ed runs for every special ed run and this will be discussed with the full board as we're talking now facilities we spoke about the project list as discussed five Fields getting bit packets ready for improvements on the fields uh plans for September we're talking about the barriers for deaths and cafeteria tables as well PPE per classroom as it was in the spring personal protective equipment pandemic team meetings we're on we have one on um well we happen tomorrow actually August 11 12th and 16th um business office uh we we did some we did bids uh bus routes well meters and I had to question and I know a few of us did at the meeting and I'm sorry if I'm a little
013bit um muffled but this and a little fogged up but I'm making it through um well meters and this and they'll probably explain it a little bit better uh are meters that go on the wells throughout the district and they have to be replaced because if they're not accurate the state can't get a reading on how much water was coming out of the wells and so on and so forth and I'm sure she'll elaborate that a little bit further when we get to it but I found that interesting so we're getting the well meters serviced and updated Swift School Windows uh are being addressed Greenhouse at the high school and we're also doing um an RFP for counseling a pilot a program so we did a year-end recap there was seven billion dollars not spent
014uh three million towards uh year 2023 and the possibility of moving uh up to 5 million towards Capital so that that was good news uh audit prep for mid-september but extension past December will be allowed to do the report Student Activities part of fund 20 uh check registers to be included in the bills list we talked about that a little before you're probably familiar with that it's just another way that has to be done for record keeping purposes grants update the preschool expansion possibly expand in-house other schools pending strategic planning and more to follow in the fall so we might want to start doing some more preschool programs in our school buildings we spoke about the covet and the Essa related expenses uh October presentation with the approved amount in November the new idea I'm
015sorry the new idea ARP allocation was 432 000 with 9500 of that for non-public use we talked about the DCA Department of Community Affairs local Recreation grant for fields which is still pending approval you know we applied for that Grant so hopefully we'll have good news on it um action items tonight we have a few things that we're going to do as far as action items and I believe is today I'll cover that when we get to her comments what's going to go as far as action items tonight that we're going to vote on um there was requested discussion items the committee discussed attorney fees the committee discussed the total budget and the components of expenses and noted that insurance attorney related litigation or Patron premiums are not a budget line so we discussed district
016attorney fees which was good we spoke about the township pilot program payment in lieu of taxes um we talked about affordable housing and to the board members we have links to the things we've discussed that are in our Google Drive so you can follow along with what we're doing um we talked about tax abatements that's linked as well uh the township to provide updates and figures and Miss Anaya will report to the full board the update we can consider requesting money to be allocated towards the needs of the schools sidewalks were used as an example so there's a possibility that we can get some projects done out of that funding Mainland High School requested use of facilities for our pool and we had the gentleman agreement on file and there's no charge as they've helped
017us before in the past this concludes my report and if there are any questions we'd be happy to take them now or I'll turn it over to miss Anaya thank you I'll go to miss Samaya next thank you just some clarification points before the questions if we can so part of our committee was discussed the transportation runs um and I know it was a lot thank you Mr Price you actually captured our meeting very well it was only an hour and it was a lot discussed so part of the transportation conversation was if you think of conceptually we had half day Pre-K and half day kindergarten programs let's say there were 400 students involved in that the bus requirement was for 200 students because you were doing half and half that makes simple sense I'm
018going into September we have 700 students between Pre-K and K full day which means you need 700 seats on a bus so although you're gonna flip her camera you're so sweet okay Mr Price is taking care of you good job thank you um so going into September we're gonna have 700 students needing butts and seats so the good news that came out of transportation is with less drivers with restructuring their paid hourly versus per run and all the considerations Miss Fisher has done a great job assuring us for September with the short staff we have or we're still recruiting we are able to handle that load um the three to five year plan that that department has of bringing in more runs every year from the special ed contracted runs is still a goal it
019has not been changed however the absorption of the new demand we were not able to bring any more in this year but we also have not contracted anymore out which was a huge feat I will tell you again Miss Fisher credit thank you very much for taking care of that for us in the committee that I was discussed creative ways of um bringing if we bring in a contract run it just naturally takes more time for a special education run although we are being proactive and we are making parent contract phone calls now which is basically offering to parents who already come and drive their students or those who are stay at home because they may have a severe needs student you can drive your student in for a parent contract stipend so we are
020actively making calls to over 300 families this week we had a very good response today sent out some agreements hopefully that will come back completed but in the meantime the conversation the committee was look into bringing in a contracted around you even if it's just one or two and then with that knowing it'll take two tiers on a general Ed run we may have to Outsource some general general education runs the biggest conversation the committee was about number of students and when we decided forget take away Special Ed versus Janet take away but drivers and aides and the types of buses is truly just a service we're providing for our students at EHT and the impact that would have so although it was only committee was three of us and three board members in that
021room we did say we would bring it to the full board because it really is a full board discussion philosophically if you wanted the transportation department to pursue that and we would then look into what that would take and how we would go about that but we didn't want to do too much legwork if that was not the flavor of a full board so we'll come back to that I know this word has her hands up I probably on that on that note as well Mr Price mentioned meters we have wells we do irrigate with well water we don't use our city border and pay for it is something we just use to our for our Lawns the major had to be updated they have been Antiquated and the state does need us to update
022them so that's going out for bid um bills list oh Student Activity spanking mystery maker so Mr Price also mentioned for Student Activities So currently the bills list runs um all the proposed payments um with Student Activities now being part of our general um bucket fund 20. those payments are made quickly with this if the students want to have a pretzel fundraiser to then be able to do something later that week as a reward the money goes in very quickly and out very quickly so at the end of the bills list will be actual check registers of the ins and outs for the Student Activities so it's going to look a little bit different there is no action tonight for finance everything recommended you guys have time to digest and review for until next week
023regarding the payment lower taxes with the township I did receive a spreadsheet from the CFO cmfo from the township for the 2021 what was paid in anticipation for 2022 I do have to do a little bit more work to get us to look at Apples to Apples of what we've done in the past on what the projected payments would have been if we got our proportionate share what that means is the township is accepting payments from either businesses or rental properties that are not a tax payment so we don't get it as part of our Levy but they get payments in lieu of taxes there was an agreement at one point by the prior mayor that said the school district will get the proportionate share so if our proportionate share of local taxes is 60
024percent from that local share of that payment in low of taxes we should have gotten in theory 60 percent we've never gotten that it's been a constant conversation back and forth with the township we're trying to build relationships we have keep this conversation going out of the committee was a great recommendation let's stop talking about swapping money maybe some of that can just be allocated towards School improvements and the example was given with sidewalks so not necessarily you know swapping money back and forth but hey if you're getting that revenue from that business we're not getting our proportionate share but maybe start adding sidewalks near our schools so it's just good ideas like that that we're going to try to collaborate with the township and now once I get the updated numbers we'll come out
025and report at the next committee meeting to the full board last but definitely not least board board members at the agenda the week before get a chance to look at our agenda and look at any questions they may have out of that was a question for finance regarding we are purchasing additional radios the question was um what how many what model where they go so it was total of 14 radios we have 10 going for the preschool expansion program at slave primary two for facilities as just additional radios needed with a extra batteries ordered as backup batteries and two for the Davenport complex and to add to their to add to their Fleet of radios if you will we will be getting a full report for I guess radios and locations ready for the next
026meeting for discussion and I believe I hit everything if you have any questions I know Mrs Ford did have her hands up I'm not sure where you want to go with Mr Castellano okay I don't see anything this way so I can't see Mrs bird so go ahead can you hear us go ahead if you can I can thank you can you hear me that sounds good go ahead okay thank you so much I ggyback on what we were discussing with buses in your craft to us and I that I did that was my question um I wanted to just uh speak to the other board members about uh bringing in the special education runs I know that as discussed they are more expensive runs they are more time consuming runs but I think one
027part that was missed in the report was that we discussed spring in these preschool special education runs and Outsourcing the runs that go to the private schools in the area this isn't to say that we don't want our students to go to private schools in the area to you know have to be inconvenienced but at the same time we have specialized kids we've had problems with our special education runs last year we heard a lot as a board about some of the problems we had from with students who are non-verbal and you know for various things I won't go into detail I think you all you know remember the phone calls that we've received and the reports will be received we have students who are the most neediest and while it is more expensive to
028you know service these students on our buses they are our students and to have students that go to other schools in EHT buses doesn't seem Equitable to me um when we have our own students who are sitting on outsourced buses for an hour hour and a half and um I just implore board members to consider while more expensive bringing in our students that come to our schools who are educated in our buildings onto our own runs we've had our own uh transportation coordinator she did a report out in her report that she gave us last year and said she wished she had her own bus drivers from EHT with these students and it would make things so much easier for her and for the students so I implore now that it has been brought to
029the finance committee that you seriously consider while more expensive it's the right thing to do to bring these runs in and while we have so much extra covid money right now to be utilizing in various ways I'm hopeful that we can do this for our students especially our media students right now so thank you anyone else or Miss and I have something and then let me see if it was there so it did come up in committee but it was not an administration's recommendation that I wanted to make it seem as if that's what happens it came out of a natural conversation one of the runs if we did this would be a private school run or a non-eht run but all the private school contracts we have are the same tier so we don't
030have two tiers back to back of just out of District runs so I just want to add those two points of clarification what does that mean that means so the conversation is if we wanted to bring in um she mentioned the from the preschool as an example that is a tier three run for the students to get picked up on time because the board-to-door services most times it takes the time of two tiers meaning you have to start much earlier so I would have to find a driver and an equipment that would have the time slot of two tiers I'd have to Outsource tier two and tier three which is two runs for every one run I bring in so the idea is if we had two runs back to back of let's say a
031non-pub that to me makes simple sense but it would be one non-profit one EHT Student Bus because well here's where I'm confused so would we be swapping EHT students going EHT schools for ADHD students going to non-ehd schools or you're saying it'd be some mixture of the two I'm confused as to what the proposal is if we stick with the preschool example the preschool example would be preschool disabled students on you know we bring one run back out that we were Contracting out let's say with special services drivers or Shepherd drivers that's one run one load of kids if you will in order to accomplish that I now have to Outsource two runs because the time frame it takes so the first run might be a non-pub what we can definitely make that happen but
032the second run will have to be an EHT run because we don't have non-pubs in different tiers they all go at the same time TimeWise so it would be a blend you would be bringing BHT students back in from contracts but then we'd have to do another EHD run out to contracts and then another non-pub out to contracts or Charter One of those go ahead Mrs Gilbert Floyd next sorry so I could only say it for every two runs we will bring one run back but I guess I thought that it was saying that every We're Not Gonna I guess my main goal that I would love to have is that we don't Outsource our special day friends is that is that in the fine print of this proposal that is ultimately the goal that
033was presented to this board for the last three years and last year we were able to bring five runs in this year we're not able to just the sheer volume of the demand of our own students like their own Pre-K and kindergarten students so we were not able to bring in another five like we were supposed to which is what the report was to the committee we were trying to do five a year to eventually bring all 30 plus in because that is the ultimate goal we do need more drivers and we're actively recruiting but until we get there it was you know we we basically worked it out where we were able to do the volume the additional volume for Pre-K and K so how many especially I guess in my mind I'm saying
034how many special ed runs do we have and how many of them are within our in our you know District drivers I can get for you Dex meeting the amount of special ed runs total how many we do versus how many we contract out and that would be a good statistic or a good piece of that okay you guys thank you no problem uh Mrs Sullivan uh question four you Chandra also it's my understanding that special ed no matter who what bus company whether it's ours or somebody else they stop at each house and pick up each child so it's it's the same but it's different drivers however if we Outsource regular students or the students that are going to a private school they all have to go to a central location to be picked
035up they're not picked up on their street corners is that correct foreign so that is a blended question so for non-pubs we do not have the requirements we have to we'll go within two miles of the home so we do a lot of group stops right so we'll have a number to if we were to do this we would bid to our vendors exactly how we would want the stops to go and it would be priced accordingly so right now I know there are some really long streets and some developments in Egg Harbor Township and you know if you're behind of us you will see them stop here and you will see them stop half a mile down um if we post the contract that way that's where the bus would be however most outsourced
036companies would just use one stop for that half mile grouping right and I couldn't I couldn't understand that for a private school that we're going to have we're going to displace busing for our own residents that they'll have to most likely take and pick up their children at one set a couple different set places it won't be on their street corner any longer most most likely so we need to take that into consideration you know it's not going to yes we won't have our own drivers picking up special ed but they'll still their services will not change they will still be picked up at each home whereas we're talking if you're talking two runs you're talking potentially 104 how many on there's how many on each bus 56 is it 54. okay so we're talking
037over a hundred fam potential families that are going to have to transport their child somewhere to be picked up it would be how we bid it so if we bid it to have a bus stop here and a bus stop half a mile it will be priced accordingly right so it would be how we put that bit out so we um for non-public students or we get a lot of black slack every year that there's a statutorial limit on how much you can spend so I can't do a bus stop here in a bus stop half a mile because the cost would reflect that right and again generally students don't have that limitation so if we did bid it that way the way we operate normally the response of the bid may be higher than
038a group stop right but we don't know that until we bid okay thank you who does anyone have anything else and go with Miss Gilbert Floyd then we'll go back to I just wanted to get clarity because I know that most buses the larger buses can fit up to 52 students on the bus but are all of I'm I'm not sure but all of our runs are all our buses mostly packed or do we have 52 families represented on each bus or is it usually depends on the area and the stop am I correct or are we full capacity so the tiers we've been we were speaking about in finance was basically the lower grades which is I say pre-k3 so in those grade levels the buses are about 50. as you get bigger into
039middle school and high school they're not as full because of the bigger bags equipment Sports and those sorts of things but the capacity is 54 passenger but we fill them usually between 45 and 50 at that age okay thank you Mrs bird um as you just as everyone has grown up yes those are considerations it would be a two to one swap in some cases also as Miss Sullivan said if depending on how we've been out it could be a matter in our our private school parents might have to go to a central location to drop off their children I think considering all of those things are absolutely important we also have to focus on the academic impact that special education students have when they have a disrupted uh morning routine for example when a
040special education services class does not come to their house on time for it's a different driver which we've heard so many times as a board how we've had drivers coming in and out and lack of consistency for our students and the impact that that has on that we hear in special education in special education classrooms constantly that behaviors are precipitated by a certain antecedent so a certain antecedent that some special education children have such as as a different bus driver disrupts the routine that's routine being constructed impacts their mourning which impacts their education which impacts the Paris which impacts the teacher all of those are academic and financial considerations that we have to make as a board and we have to understand completely so when we're discussing swapping out a bus and its Financial impacts
041and its time impacts if there's so many other things we also have to consider so we're talking about taking our most vulnerable population our special education students who we have heard many complaints yes I'm sure there's lots of general education complaints on the buses too that's just the nature of the beast but our special education population for example our preschool population they are a lot of those students are non-pherical a lot of those students are so young they're three years old they're four years old they don't know their address they don't know their last names and we're entrusting outsourced companies to take them to their birds and in some cases they've been dropped off to the to the wrong people and at the wrong locations so what I'm saying is here if we have an
042opportunity to do even swap out one or two or two runs despite it being more expensive and despite it maybe being inconvenient for some members of our community we might be helping some of our most vulnerable students how our normal day and have a setting them up for Success because I don't think that going to a parking lot to pick up a bus is hurting the academic nature of the general population whereas it really can disrupt having a alternate driver alternate Aid or A disruption a day can absolutely disrupt the academic education of a special education student so if we're going to talk about academic um Financial uh and all of the different burdens that may come from out bringing in some rods for our students to actually go to our schools we have to
043consider all of the problems including the academic ones that we're bringing okay okay so go back to Vince and I we didn't have order for a little while we we need just one person speaking at a time but we're gonna go back to miss and I so we we've we've made it clear we want to do the best we can we want to bring those special ed runs back in um I'm not sure what the recommendation of the committee is this evening so the committee would want to discuss this as a full board to make it to shed light on the fact that was discussed and kind of talk about that administratively my recommendation is to pursue what we have at this time we have the drivers to start September on time with the runs
044we have as explained to Mrs bird we are currently working on parent contracts to try to alleviate the burden so that so many students aren't impacted along with every new hire from this point forward is the goal to bringing the special ed runs back because at this point the last agenda hired those elastics drivers Ms Fisher has the drivers to start September we need more drivers the more drivers we get that is the goal and it may be an October 1st start or November first start but I think disrupting runs right now the second week of August I would have to actually bid it out and go through this whole process to try to do the swap versus just let's get more drivers we've done really great the past few months I'm hoping that this
045unemployment stuff stops and we can actually get people back to work and we will be able to get the drivers we need to be able to still accomplish this school it just may not be by September 1st and that's really where we were going with it um and that way because we everything she said a thousand percent agreed the board agrees we made it a philosophy bring more bring at least five runs in a year we heard it loud and clear on Transportation but the burden has increased for the department and we're able to meet the burden without Outsourcing anything more which is a huge feat I really want to keep acknowledging Miss Fisher for that because we're starting on time absorbing all of that without having to push any more vulnerable students out as
046she said so we're not disagreeing with any of it it's just if we can stay on track keep hiring and definitely keep bringing more runs in and also offering these parent contracts to decrease the burden that's the goal care I saw Mrs Miss Alberta I don't want to keep on repeating what uh Ms Bert said but I do agree we need to get these runs back in District our and I I agree we have to be ready September 1st for these students but are we able to do like a price analysis of what it would be to bring the special ed students back into district and put the other students on the other buses so timeline if tomorrow I submit to the county office my bid template they would have to approve it which of
047the pace they're working has been about a week to approve me to go to bid I would then advertised go to bid get responses within 10 days that puts us at the end of the month to pray do a price analysis cutting it very close to then put everybody on notice just do the switch it's not impossible but it definitely is very very tight and all the stars have to line in order just to get pricing let alone to implement and then make the changes for transportation bus passes which go out the third week of August so if we can just stay the course and hire people and not have to swap a room we will definitely try to bring more runs in and that's the whole that's been the whole goal this whole time
048Mrs Sullivan I have to agree with Miss Anaya we have been working on getting as many special ed runs back in and every year we have brought more in and our ultimate goal is to bring 100 in but to disrupt it right now um would be it would just be a big disruption for uh not only Transportation but for each individual school so it's not that I'm object objecting to bring me special and uh Roots back in we are doing that and we're doing it every year more and more until hopefully we will be a hundred percent but like Miss Anaya said we um we just have to get bus riders you know we've been working on that to get more we've done given incentives we're paying for their licenses so we just need more
049people to be more bus drivers to be employed and that's where our goal should be right now okay anyone else got Mrs salahi you said that it would cost more to have a bus instead of going to a group bus stop to go and do the stops individually so Not only would it be a disruption to the the department it would also be a disruption to the parents that have to be at work but also have to get their student to a group bus stop is that what um is that what I'm hearing for the non-public schools you're most likely going to have group stops because Lena Christian and St Joe's are right they already they already have they already do but those parents are already planning for that but if we're going to take
050Egg Harbor Township regular Ed and have them go to a group bus stop nobody's planning for that right now but the special ed students would be picked up at their home as they are now correct so even if you go out to bid it's not going to be really a savings it would still cost more money because you're going to have them stop at more stops so fiscally even taking the bus stops out because honestly we can bid it how we want the stops to be but taking the bus stops out fiscally two pieces of equipment running versus one piece of equipment running is going to cost more with a vendor and that isn't whether like regardless of the stops that's going to be the fundamental Baseline is their equipment costs and then it'll be
051mileage on top of that so I can say the two to one exchange as far as just fiscals looking at that piece only it would be more expensive to contract two pieces of equipment versus one specifically I think we should work hard just to bring the specialized students back into our transportation system we hear that message loud and clear and honestly to start the school year we're on pins and needles if we could even make the September happen with everybody coming back and we're able to that was a huge relief so we'll read that the next priority is now we forward with the plan okay so I sense that there's not a a unified recommendation from the committee or or is there um but we all want to bring those roots back in there's no
052question that it's a matter of how how we do it and and when I mean can can we look to to revisit in in one month's time and see what we can bring in by October we'll have it on the finance agenda every month with an update I'm just you know I'm trying to figure how we get from here to there um because we all seem to want to do the same thing but in in just a little different way so would everyone be okay with we're going to proceed as planned but we we want to do everything possible to bring these runs in and we're going to ask for a report monthly starting with October to see if we can't get them all in by October can we really work on that okay yes
053I'm seeing looking like okay good yes yes we will work on that thank you an excellent suggestions tonight I mean I know a lot of things were kicked around but we'll have something in place to report back to you something more firm there was a lot of things that were discussed at the committee where we still needed more information from transportation and so on and so forth so but we're on we're on top of it good okay do we have uh any other I guess questions or comments under the finance and operations area I mean good discussion very important we know what we all want to do here there's no question okay so seeing none then we're gonna go ahead into curriculum and I'll ask for the curriculum committee report 2021 at five o'clock via
054Google meet in attendance was Mr de la barca Ms Gilbert Floyd Miss Moss as well as myself agenda items discussed for curriculum for the 21-22 school year including the work that will continue to occur throughout the school year to ensure meeting the needs of all students staff evaluation rubrics and annual approval for animal approval excuse me and the upcoming professional development and field trips including a Disney trip for the high school band board approval will follow will allow fundraising to begin to assist students in the course of the trip discussion items include a topics that will be covered in the administrative Equity training August 18th and 19th and also the beginning stages of bringing Unified sports to the district Unified sports is dedicated to promoting social inclusion throughout shared Sports training and competition experiences Unified
055sports joins people with and without intellectual disabilities on the same team we are excited to continue to have collaborative work with the administration to bring this program into our district if you have anything else to add are there any questions or comments on curriculum from board members okay seeing none will go ahead into personnel and I'll ask Dr Charlton if he has anything for public session I do not Mr President but Dr gruccio is going to introduce our new appointees okay as soon as we appoint them but yes absolutely that's good you remind me ahead of time but that is good um all right so we are going to take action on those then so I'm going to ask for a motion on 7.2 through 7.7 8 second is there any discussion on those items
056seeing none roll call please is that sorry Miss Alabama thank you Mrs Burr yes Mr delabarca yes Mr Ireland yes Mr Price yes Mr Sullivan yes Mrs salagi yes Mrs Gilbert Floyd yes and Mr Castellano yes thank you and now the moment you've been waiting for yes of course to announce for the first time I get to introduce new family members the Egg Harbor Township faculty and staff for the first time in public I introduce to you Hannah McLean a teacher at Fernwood Avenue Middle School welcome half congratulations Andrew baumgardle teacher at Alder Middle School welcome back our district database manager in our its department is Caroline Pryor and 12-month secretary at older Avenue Middle School Emily montecinos congratulations and welcome aboard thank you congratulations from us as well welcome uh we are going to
057go forward with our business meeting so those of you who are here uh to be introduced if if you'd like to move on to other things you won't hurt our feelings but you're certainly welcome to stay as we continue our business meeting okay as we transition here we're going to move into policy and I'll ask for a our policy committee report please are we going to do that over the thing or the our name sorry I have limited Wi-Fi where I am so I'm in my car in a parking lot we hear you oh good I'm so glad all right uh on Tuesday August 3rd Mr Castellano Mr Ireland Mrs galagi Mr Santilli and the Sanaya in the South Elko and myself meant to Med to discuss our report on the following policies policy 7510
058use of facilities has been debated over the last three months during committee meetings public use of District property is in both contested and supported by committee members mandated changes which are supported by the committee as a whole include the requirements that school districts ensure all persons to supervise youth programs that are not sponsored by the school district and operate a program in a school district building C4 or after hours are provided with information and training on school districts practices and procedures on School Safety and Security including non-concidental information School security material evacuation procedures and emergency response Protocols are supported by the committee and committee proposed for mining policy 7513 used to recreational playgrounds within the use of school facilities policy the reasoning behind this combination is that District playground is a part of our facilities
059such as fall into the state policies and conditions as all our other District facilities additionally use of padlocks on our district fences surrounding playgrounds recreational courts or as discussed in the policy committee recommends the removal additionally revisions for policy 7650 for district-owned vehicles was reviewed and discussed a specific revision to this policy stipulates that majority Board of approval will be required for any superintendent to provide an employee with use of attack s a strict vehicle for employee use and prohibits the use of vehicles solely for commuting purposes sorry give me one second all right in addition um at the request of a board member policy 5430 for class right course reviews there's one minor revision to discretionary language in the current policy there will be uh also recommended for board approval on August 17th the
060policy committee charge Administration to update data on current use of this policy in surrounding districts current they presented data that was used when this District was first changed from 2018 and the committee asked that be updated to reflect more current uses uh new business consists of both mandated and recommended stress estimate updates with following policy Board of Education approved regulations requiring revisions as policies following policy 3142 and policy 4146 both in regards to non-renewal of non-ten-year teaching and non-ten-year sports staff or revisions are currently on um on our list to be updated and recommended or visit revisions based on Strong's estimate meditated policy and Board of Education regulation updates related to achieve New Jersey and require mandated interventions that impact evaluation procedures school districts are required to implement or viewed with the following policy regulations
061to be recommended for mandatory revisions policy 3221 and rank 3221 evaluation of teachers policy 322 and red 322 evaluation of teaching staff members excluding teachers at admin policy 3223 at Red 3223 evaluation of Administrators excluding principles Vice principals and assistant principals policy 3224 and reg 32-24 evaluation of principles Vice principals and assistant principles and that completes my report okay I'm gonna thank you I'm gonna first see if Mr santilly has anything to add no additional comments but thank you and uh any questions or comments from board members on policy Mrs salagi I want to thank the committee for letting me sit in on that meeting but the policy still hasn't changed for class Rank and therefore next week I will not be supporting it if it's going to stay the way it is okay any
062other questions or Mrs Sullivan agree with Mrs salahi I won't be supporting the class rank policy as it is written again I will state that all we were asking for was that the class rank would be available to any student or parent when they requested it and second of all that we continue with the salutarian and valedictorian being honored at graduation if those things are completed then we would be fine with that policy okay thank you I see Mrs bird wants to the school right policy is not up for a board vote to vote on this policy we brought the uh policy back for discussion purposes because the saliva asked for that so we brought it to the committee for discussion purposes in that we found one sentence in the policy had uh ambiguous language
063so that language was changed I think it said something that uh to the effects of at the discretion of the counselor and it just seemed very ambiguous so we discussed that the change was made um as far as further discussions for this policy uh the committee charged Administration to gather more information to see if uh the same standards that were set back in 2018 when the board at the time voted this policy into place if the same uh same standards our part today same standards as far as other high schools in the area same standards as far as College standards for admittance and if it could still still conserve best practices so so it's no current vote as far as this board uh approving the class ranked policy in any way this policy was just
064discussed at the um request of a board member and because of that we reviewed it and found some odd language but at the same time with respect that to the board members requests we're asking for more information to make sure that this is still a best practice so um I just wanted to clarify that that is what the committee that was what the committee decided last week and that's what I was reporting out on yeah the the vote next week will simply be on some technical language we're not voting to you know keep or change the basic policy go ahead Mrs Slack we're not voting to keep it or well we're not voting to to change the policy other than to make a few technical changes because we found some some language uh that that
065wasn't quite right we asked Administration to to just update us on the underlying data but the policy committee is not recommending any wholesale change to the policy okay then I'm still not supporting it because it says in 2023 we will not have a valedictorian or a salitorian and I understand that we are going to honor more students but I don't understand why those two positions have to be eliminated because we're honoring more students um it's great you honor more students but there's students that strive and make that a goal to be the class valedictorian and I don't want to see it done away with well I think several things first of all this will take effect not for the coming school year but for the for the year after that um so that's the first
066thing and so we're awaiting uh implementing regulations from our Administration uh which which may may well include the recognition recognition of valedictorian and salutatory and we're not sure exactly what what they're going to recommend um what you're speaking about I you didn't raise in in the committee so you know this is this is kind of what I'm not sure of I mean we heard some of it at the last public meeting but you didn't raise any of this at a committee level but nonetheless that I mean that's where we are um Miss how would you like to just yeah I think at this time um the revision to the policy is not anything substantive it's really just removing one sentence that appeared to be ambiguous it was just not clear and not clarifying so it's
067only up for a single reading next month it's also my understanding that the committee charged Administration with getting further information and to report back to the committee on that further information so more information could be shared about that policy okay everybody good Mr Price I have a question Mr President okay and then I got so this just this is just going to resolve this issue that what was striked out essentially so it's not over the discussion it's what you're saying and I mean it could still be brought up and things could be considered sure this is just to entertain this particular uh adjustment yes okay that's all we're doing for next week okay no listen Mrs Gilbert Floyd did you have something or are you uh okay Mr Ireland then miss Alberta so I just
068wanted to say thank you to Administration and fellow policy members for coming to the table and uh drafting 75 10 use of facilities we've spent many many hours on that we had public input on it and we came to an agreement of allowing use of recreational use for playgrounds for our citizens because people came out to meetings and addressed their concerns on that so now we are going to bring that up for vote in the next couple meetings um I just wanted to say thank you for that and coming to the table it says it in the policy yeah I'm not sure that's what we agreed to it's in the policy the board requires that the playground of school schools afford residents with a recreational area when the school is not in session okay um
069I think there's a little more to it than that but that's fine any other comment Mrs Byrd I just want to reiterate [Music] for sure it's a current policy that we have but it's not a policy that has gone into effect it as Mr Castellano said I think the fact that we are seeking more information so that because we have board members that are currently serving that we're not part of the decision-making for this policy and with any policy it's always good to have updated information to make sure that our our policies are uh you know the best practices so um while we are voting on it in the sense that Ms glad you thought we were um it's not something that we're not seeking more information we want to have best practices for our
070students at all times and not just rely on things that happened in the past or use reasons that happen in the past as far as use of facilities I um I'm not sure I recall exactly why Mr Eileen was saying but again uh the nature of policy is that we we go back and we review and we take what the public wants and we make sure that our district is operating in ways that reflects the goals of our our of our community and our district so um it's definitely something that I think we can still keep on the table and still seek the advice of the administration and follow us you know what they think is best and what our community wants so um again thank you uh you know for allowing me another opportunity
071to put my two sets in okay can we can we just read from that sure Mr uh castellan asked me to look at that policy and uh what Mr Ireland said was correct that the board does require that the playground and schools afford residents with a recreational area when school's not in session it does also reserve the right to determine in the interest of safety of District residents and the Integrity of the school facility the uses to which the playground may be put and the hours when it may be used so at the committee I believe we discussed that through the superintendents she would evaluate that look at any locks or anything like that and then determine how that would be explored with the community that's my understanding good miss miss alaborna I just also
072want to bring up um on the school rank policy that there was a different administration at the high school at the time so it is important to go back and look and speak to the administration now to make sure that they um support it too like that it's something that they still want absolutely anyone else uh Mrs Sullivan still don't understand why we make policies and years in advance when there may be an entirely different board by the time it's going to be enacted so this class run policy if it's not taking place until 2023 why are we working on it now there was a reason we did that go ahead and I'll let Miss help run through that the reason at the time that the committee discussed doing it that way so was that
073no one currently in the high school would be affected and that you would be starting with a fresh class of individual students so they could pick their classes and schedules moving into the high school for eighth grade and be clearly aware that they could pick schedules and not feel what at the time the administration was indicating was pressure to take extra courses AP courses other courses that they needed for their class rank so that's where the date came from and that's why so it was giving everyone a clear opportunity and a fresh start so everyone the students who would be operating under the new would have plenty of notice and would be picking their courses they'd be starting under the new system that's why we did it you know years out so we wouldn't say
074to someone who'd gone through freshman sophomore junior year under one system and say hey guess what it's going to change for next year when they'd pick their courses based on one set of assumptions and then we you know just pulled the rug out and changed it we did this gradually in a way such that those picking their courses for their freshman year knew going in that things would change for them any any further discussion on policy seeing none okay um we have a number of items that will be coming in on new business we have to talk about a couple items between new business old business um we have to set a parameter of top a time frame parameter to do our next strategic plan so whether we want to start that process in September
075uh run meetings September October November or or if we want to let the school year lock in and start in October um we do have a a date already that the final Tuesday in September that could at least theoretically be used as our first strategic planning meeting um and then we had the possibility of a speaker but I'm not sure what the speaker would be speaking on so we were going to get an update on that too the Strategic plan as Board of Education knows our current strategic plan has expired we had we're proud to say that we've met the goals and um initiatives that were outlined in that plan so we're very very proud of that and kudos to the faculty and staff and the board of education for your support of those Endeavors
076Endeavors the Strategic plan process involves Community input involves stakeholder input and Board of Education participation when I first became a superintendent we the board hired New Jersey school boards a representative two Representatives came down from New Jersey school boards and facilitated the Strategic plan process that is an option for the board another option is to let your superintendent facilitate that strategic plan process which would involve three meanings just as we did in the past one each month we held those meetings at three different schools to be able to accommodate stakeholders we discussed the needs and input from the stakeholders and then we broke out into workstations and into groups and we came up with Pros cons and proposals and then ultimately agreed upon a strategic plan that was presented to the Board of Education approved
077and then put in writing and to be implemented strategic plans can be anywhere from one three five years and that's something else the board and the committee with the decide on but I think where we are now the board has to decide when they want to gauge that process if I do have September 28th available to begin I had we have October 26 November 23rd and 30th if we decide to go if the board decides to go into December we can look at a date for December but I Mr Castellano I would look at available dates where there were no board meetings or conflicts with Board of Education convention so looking at September 28th October 26th or November 23rd or the 30th of November but again Mr Castellano um I think the voyage business would
078be in in their choice uh whether you're going to go with New Jersey school boards which there is a fee involved um or to um allow me the superintendent to facilitate the Strategic plan okay I see Mrs Sullivan I would be perfectly happy with uh turning this over to the administrator and and using the dates that she has available which did a great job last time with bringing the community together we took all the communities ideas compounded them and we came up with a great plan and as Dr Garcia stated we completed our entire plan which was quite ambitious I thought so I would be more than pleased to have her do that again any other thought Mrs Gilbert Floyd um I just was going to I guess the question would be is there a
079preference for the administration is there to do it independently or were you did you feel as though the bring it in New Jersey school boards help support your vision that you had and help and assisted you with laying it out and since we were so successful with um the goals that we set I just didn't know if there was a preference one way or the other you went you know I appreciate your question um I am confident and I would be it would be my pleasure to facilitate strategic planning process okay thank you any other thoughts okay so um I guess I'm looking uh for a little bit of a sort of a strong vote that we would would stay in-house rather than bringing school boards because we can do this everyone okay and then
080the second thing I'm looking for is do we want to go ahead and and start with the September date is that all right with everyone get going what's the September 28th is the first date okay that's a take and then we'll uh from there we'll solidify the October and then November I know there was a choice of two in November we'll see which is the best of the two and we'll try to get that done uh in in the three meetings if if possible okay okay that's great that gives us an idea it gives us a locked in date an idea of when we're going to start rolling out the advertising process and speak to that on Monday night when I share up and coming activities and events uh through the school district But to
081answer your other question Mr Castellano we did discuss bringing in uh their next work session a guest speaker to work with the with the board to let the board know there were two two options one was Mr Phil Boyd who will be in the district that day who has his focus is on team building and climate and culture and then another speaker would be from the peer um Association of organization from Rowan University where we as Administration and staff in the district would be receiving Equity training that does not mean that these speakers cannot come to the board of education at any point in time okay so we've decided on the 28th to begin the strategic planning process um and and you know I'm all years and open to the board in terms of um
082if they still want those trainings one of those trainings both of those trainings and that would be up to me my staff to see and communicate with those speakers to see when they would have the time um to come maybe perhaps another work session of the Board of Education to spend maybe a half hour with you an hour with you and that's your pleasure okay thoughts I miss I think I think it went right in order Miss Alabama got it just a little ahead of time it's like the Olympics you know the photo finish okay I got gold okay so Phil Boyd was the absolute best PD I've ever had in my entire life and I've gone through a lot of PD as I'm a teacher um so I would Def and I I want
083to hear about our new programs coming in so I would like both of them to present to us Mr Ireland I concur definitely want both trainings if we can I would like to sit in on all the thank you Mrs so anything Mr delbart I want to keep it keep it rolling anyone down this end good okay so good yes on what occasions during work of future work meetings when available so I mean I I don't see uh yes work meeting because there's not much time in a regular meeting well that we're right and and I don't want to ask anyone at this point at least to commit to an extra night so as opposed to a work meeting unless that's what the board wants to do start start with the work meetings and go
084from there Mrs Sullivan I don't think there's enough time during a work meeting our work meetings go on until you know nine o'clock 9 30 as it is and that's why I'm asking and I think it's going to take a lot more time than a 15-minute presentation what's the normal presentation Dr virtio an hour and a half it could be whatever you you like these speakers are trained to dig deep they are trained to give you a summary so I you know I think it'll probably have to be an extra night if we really want to get you know a good flavor for the training that that's good well then we're gonna have to get the availability um and and find some some other nights Mr Iowa no I was just agreeing that maybe we
085do uh have an extra night just because we uh previous work sessions went into very very um many hours we went many hours for uh board goals and Norms so the training I think is necessary for us to go for uh a couple hours or however long the um the presentations got okay I'll just go before so I'm all for training I'm all for being fine with having an additional night but my thought is I would just thinking of Mr Boyd if he's going to appreciate he's going to be in District that day it so it's his availability so I'm I'm just saying out loud if Mr Boyd can come in the day that he's here in the district we need to lock him in he's from what I see on his Facebook he's he's
086a very busy man he has a lot of uh he's a well sought after person so but the one for the equity training is that one that maybe it could be an additional night if we if he's a if that person's available yeah it could be what what since that person's local I'm just thinking Rowan right a little bit more local and Mr boy is North Carolina North Carolina okay okay all right so let me understand what we're saying here um the 25th will still be strategic planning let me get that the question was when is Mr boy um coming he is it's scheduled to be in the district on the 28th I can contact Mr wood again and see if he's willing to change that date uh to accommodate the board perhaps you know
087at a later time so I know we're in contract with him um I'm not sure if how far we are in that process but um I'm willing to have discussion with Mr Boyd in terms of that training all right I'm you know and I'm trying to lock this in I mean for me I I realize Mr Boyd may give valuable PD but as a board member um you know I I think we have other things more important Mr President we haven't looked up from one of the members okay all right yeah I'm sorry I can't I can't see it yeah have you actually raised because I can't see it go ahead thank you I'm just not sure I'm following correctly uh here um are we discussing if he's going to come the evening of the
08828th are we discussing if he's coming another day or I'm just confused yes if we have to he's already coming the 28th for the benefit of our staff for him to present to us would wouldn't that incur another cost I wouldn't want to incur another fee and what is it as a board that will benefit from what what is it that he will present to us I I'm not familiar but I love PD so I'm all in I don't care if it's an extra night or that night doesn't matter to me um but I just I feel like I'm missing part of the discussion a little bit no no you're not missing I'm trying to get clarity to it on exactly what Mr boy would be speaking to us about climate and culture within your
089organization within your your your school district and also team building um with um with each other as as a team as a board with each other with Administration um he's also a motivational speaker I know we've had them here before and he did a great job and there was team building that occurred now this might be something that we look for in January when there's a new board sitting up here so again strategic planning is is a topic seem to decide that September 28th we're going to go with that let's stick with that for now and then I will reach out to Mr Boyd and see if I can move it to January if that's if that works better I see Mr delbar I was just going to agree with Dr krichio that possibly in
090January if we have a retreat even it can be part of our retreating thing because we'll have a reorganization time in January and we have all the things the items to look forward to I don't know if it's too much time I have no idea about that but possibly in my tie-in with a retreat okay so miss bird has your hand up again so January go ahead Mrs bird I will be very beneficial for some team building uh you know experiences uh I I know for myself as a board member and if we utilize work session time for a presentation I would much prefer to have a presentation on literacy or a math or on stem something that I think our parents could also benefit from understanding the process of learning how to read in
091their children and how their children's being taught to read in our schools so from my perspective as a board member and as a parent I would rather have a presentation during work session on our literacy uh procedures at school and also research best research processes on literacy okay very good so I think we have some agreement here we're going to go ahead with those strategic planning dates that we discussed we're going to look at one or possibly two of these speakers for a retreat in January possibly work sessions as well Mr President maybe we can't fit in at least the one that Miss bird specifically measured into a work session they don't have to all be in a work session but right you know I think that would be a you know a big problem
092because everybody could participate so I think we could be able to maybe fit that in okay all right so one other thing before we move into uh we're almost to public comment um we have we have board goals to renew as well now I'm going to make a suggestion we just had a lengthy process updating our Norms we spent quite a bit of time updating our board goals last year so I'm going to make a suggestion that we carry those goals over and use a the relevant dates because we'll still we'll we'll be doing strategic planning we'll still be adapting for covet the goals won't change but the dates will change and miss and I and I will just go in and just change dates so we won't do a language change but just dates
093and let everyone take a look at that next month at our work meeting so maybe that can consolidate and keep that moving for us everyone okay with that yes just dates okay very good we've got a lot done there good so we're going to move Communications we have a new board calendar and there were two versions so obviously the one with the 28th strategic planning would be the one that we have and then I'll ask Mr delvark if he has anything from the New Jersey school boards Association oh you know I do Mr President yeah Mr Arlen and I uh participated last night in the hybrid nutrition School Board Association County Association leadership meeting which is a Statewide meeting there were two guests presenters on the topic of dealing with difficult and controversial issues as
094a board of education uh I'm going to share some of the items that came up but it would be too extensive to share everything but as Pete knows I will share this with you anyway Pete because I share it all the information with all the local presidents in Atlanta County so I will make sure everybody gets this but uh some of the topics the items that came up that there were two presenters one was an attorney and the other presenter was a Communications coordinator for one of the north Jersey uh high schools um I think some of the points that they made were the superintendent board president and members all should be talking a Common Language we should be communicating throughout the whole entire year which we do here um uh we should stick to
095the facts uh we should establish boundaries for our public comments which we which we do with the three-minute timeline but we also should probably have a 30-minute period established for public comments and then we can deal with that depending on the members of people at our meetings um some other points were the attorney's points where the reason we're having were controversies is social media and the media Outlet to so many more media outlets now and we have so many more things happening that there's a lot of topics that we discuss another point was politics politics are creating more controversy instead of fixing the problems so we have that concern uh one of the suggestions was to have parent advisory committees possibly at every school building so that the parents can tell Administration with a different
096cut in topics of the interest in the community is what's going on in the community it's a direct way of getting information back to Administration and to the board um we need to educate the community more uh to the role of a superintendent in the Board of Education that should be reminded every once in a while these these meetings are Board of Education meetings with community in attendance so sometimes I get misinterpreted we should be consistent when speaking to the public during public comment the president is this these meetings are the president's show is the terminology that they used uh he or she is in charge of the meeting and we should respect and support the board president's role and if there's a some rudeness happening at the meeting or interruptions or disorderly conduct the
097president has the right to call a recess and they should do that they should use their gavel to control the meeting so I know Pete and I have had this experience so it's kind of interesting to hear from other people we should continue live streaming of meetings and I understand that there's going to be something in the legislation and that man possibly mandated the Board of Education meeting should be live streamed and that's Pro that's in the process for what was stated last night interesting point was we do not need to have the emails or the colons during our meeting if we are live streaming and people know when our meetings are held if they're that concerned they should come to the meeting and question us so I thought that was an interesting point that
098was paid um I believe that's most of the idea ideas that came up and it's a interesting topic I thought they were good presenters and Mr oil if you want to share anything because he and I both took notes last night and shared the notes with each other no pretty much the same stuff but um I do want to add though any board member can recommend a recess not just a board president so yeah at any time can you observe something that's going on a board member can pass a note down to the president maybe we should have a recess or they can make a motion make them to have a recess so it's fortunately that hasn't happened too often around here but it may in the future so but that's basically the report and
099I'll share this with the board president and superintendent and possibly with all the board members because I thought it was one of the better meetings out there that they had and uh it was pretty well intended these are hybrid meetings and what the state is doing New Jersey school boards is doing they're had they're having three meetings this summer in this process and they're trying to iron out things that technicalities so that when we have our County meeting in October we're going to have a hybrid meeting at Atlanta County level and all the technicalities of how that meeting is run hopefully will be resolved so we have successful meetings so that's my report thank you very good thank you Mr and uh we uh we we had a difficult year last year with covet and
100I did have to use the gavel on a couple of occasions but hopefully that's that'll be far uh far and far between few and far between um we do plan to continue live streaming streaming as we are as well as rebroadcasting uh but we will um as we've all agreed to in September we will go back to a fully in-person meeting so the uh the call-in will continue through August but as of September we'll return to the meetings as they were but with the addition of live streaming as well as Broadcasting so with that now we're at the point for public comment and I'm just going to give guidelines we ask that you give your name and address for the record and limit your comment to three minutes we cannot talk about Personnel or litigation
101and if it's the case that you have a very complicated question someone may need to get back to you with a full answer so we'll start here in the room first and then we'll go if there are any phone calls or or emails next so we'll start right here in the room first to walk up to the center yes please please come forward we'll make sure that microphone's working and if you give your name and address the button right in front of you before all right my name is stardo Santiago I live at three golden Court Egg Harbor Township I am a parent of two students in District I'm here to discuss the mass requirements vaccine pushing and resisting or restricting our ability to make Health decisions as parents it is an infringement upon our
102rights to our children and it is our duty to protect our children it's health safety and well-being covid information through research clinical studies and medical and science communities have provided us with enough information to make informed choices about our risks personal health hygiene disease spread precautions and vaccine information has been the Forefront for the last 18 months my by masking our children it takes away their ability to speak up about situations that affect our personal safety and right to choose there's not enough research to support or convince me to mask my children when they're not the at-risk group in fact they are the lowest risk group and con to contract or at transmit covid in social situations alone educationally speaking when introducing background noise other students in the learning environment and distractions further complicate learning
103coupled with the muffles teachers voices presents the inability to teach effectively masks present students prevent students from picking up facial cues and tone fluctuations used to learn and attribute to learning challenges in all student population health risks who are children wearing masks could increase Suffocation between the ages of 2 to 14 as well as hypoxia hyperventilating due to mass anxiety situational anxiety while in school to which there is not enough information or research to deny that there might be long-term health effects to our children the research reported from science and medical communities does not prove a significance to the health of our children and the statistics show that flu car accidents and suicide death rates are higher than Cova death rates less than two percent among school age children as a parent I'm exercising my
104right to make medical decisions in the best interests of my children and the exclusions provided in the executive order from the New Jersey governor states that children with document in medical conditions IEPs 504s or Title IX inclusions prohibits the school from excluding my children from public school education based on the above measuring reasons masks induce medical related issues that increased by physical activity while in school lastly executing tasks such as educational instruction or compromise because teachers are not able to effectively teach their students when they are not clearly heard while interfering with our students ability to learn through dialogue when masked if we are permitted to be on mass while sitting in restaurants the same choices should be extended to the students while sitting in their assigned desks since the teachers are the ones who
105are transitioning between classrooms teachers unions are protecting the Educators it is at her Duty as parents to protect our children and that is what I intend to do from this point on I do have some links and some paperwork that I would like to give to miss garuccio if possible I will be emailing my statement as well to you after today's meeting make it [Applause] thank you very much we appreciate your comments um I'll just say a few brief remarks I'll turn over to Dr gruccio as I think many people know you're um not in the right form because the governor has made this decision we are we are obligated to follow that decision or risk loss of not only state aid as well as put ourselves at risk of being an Ethics violation for
106not following state law rule regulation and guideline so it's it's going to be our intent to follow the state's Direction on this and I'm going to turn this over to Dr guccio if there's anything she wants to add hi Mr Cashland I I think you you covered most of it as I opened up with my covid-19 earlier this evening in the end of the day it is an executive order it is law um as school officials and folks who work in the school district we are to follow the law if we do not follow the law we subject ourselves to be charged criminally disorderly persons and it's an unlawful act we can turn the attorney for for more law jargon however I do know in fact that um you know I I sit here and
107I represent everyone and every everything when it comes to the school district and I appreciate your concerns I appreciate the medical concerns and I get it I wish I had a different answer the answer I have is that it is a Governor's order it is a law and we have to follow the law no we you anyone can come back up for for three minutes but we're not going to go back and forth I'm going to see if anyone else wants to speak first after everyone has had their turn if you'd like another term uh Mrs halcalco next this was so we're still answering this one are you still answer I'll be I'll be back up so just to Echo what Dr Grigio said and Mr Castellano said right now the we do have an
108executive order that we've been mandated by the Department of Education and the governor's office to follow one of the things that they both mentioned was under New Jersey statute one of the things that can happen if we don't follow an executive order is we could possibly lose state aid in addition as individual board members you have an obligation and board members have an obligation to follow the orders that come down from the state regarding school districts one of the other things that I think Dr brugio and the administration is prepared to talk about is there are certain exceptions and those exceptions were mentioned tonight so that's something that if you individually feel like you meet one of those exceptions you can certainly contact your building principal to discuss options there is that the correct person
109to contact okay so that would be the correct person to contact if you feel like you meet some of those exceptions thank you okay yes and uh before we move on you know I I just feel obligated to say that I believe that what the governor has put forward is in the best interest of the safety of the students and that's what we're here for we're here for students whatever he says is what we got to do as far as that goes I wasn't even touching that one with a 10 foot pole but um name and address please Debbie rockelman189 Alder Avenue EHT quickly do the preschool children need to be potty trained in order to attend school anybody got an answer is there a requirement for potty training so why are we having our
110staff changing the children of preschool touching their children who are not theirs their genitals while they're being cared for in school I mean really you got kids who are coming here who are not potty trained and our staff is having to change them I have a problem with that a big problem with that that says lawsuit to me written all over the place I mean you think what you want but that's my opinion I just found out about that and I'm horrified no child should be in this District that has to okay there are special needs children that are different but normal kids who are in there should be potty trained no staff that works for the township for this school district should be changing diapers because a kid is not potty trained it's a
111lawsuit I'm done with that now Christy are you there still anyway I'm happy that somebody's looking into some information on the class ranking I want data this was a decision and a policy that was put into place with no data whatsoever best practices were just based on what other school districts were doing we were big big data people I need data for this I need data to get rid of the American reading company I need this and I need that and so forth and so on we need data I haven't found any alls I have found is opinions of people well it's our opinion that this works and this is going to work okay you mentioned the photo finish so the photo finish horse loses the raise doesn't get the metal doesn't win the money
112because the guy next to him was like a second off how about in swimming how about all the Athletics in the world you want Equity is that what you're pushing for so I mean data let's come up with some data and then when we revisit it we have something reasonable logical and Equitable to look at that's all I want I want somebody to tell me here this is what the data shows this is why not emotionally not because we don't want a kid crying in the corner this is the real world okay when you make everybody the same what what is there a bunch of people walking in a group oh good he's checking the time to make sure I don't go over here bring the buzzer okay thank you very much I appreciate all
113your hard work thank you very much for your comments on preschool there was much data presented when we implemented the class rank policy best practice means you look at data and you look at research that's what best practice it no we're not going to go back and forth but I mean I mean you we're not going to go back and forth I apologize Pete yes we're not going to go back and forth we're going to have water because you're still talking out of order you're out of order okay so what we're going to look at um you look at data and you look at research to come up with best practice that that's what it is and there was much data and much thought put into it by our high school administration and we're going
114to continually update that to ensure that that the information the research the data continues to support what we're doing okay [Music] my name is Jamie Ruggiero three Whitewater Lane Egg Harbor Township I wanted to start my statement by saying thank you for getting these special ed students back in school last year as a special ed parent I appreciate that I know you guys worked hard to do that it did not go unnoticed we do appreciate it um that said as far as masks I understand that you're in a position to follow follow dictator Murphy um however according to the executive order it does State when a student's documented medical condition or disability as reflected in an individualized education program IEP or educational plan pursuant to Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 precludes use
115of a face covering so when I sent my son back I wanted him to not wear a mask at all because he he hates going to school now he cries he tries to pretend that he's sick and dying so he does not have to go to school he has a tongue thrust his mask is soaking wet at the end of the day he's breaking out in rashes it's a nightmare for him he's he's not learning he's not enjoying the experience so I had asked because of that executive order and that was in place last time can he as a special ed student not wear a mask I was blocked and was told that you know in order to send them back you have to follow the state guidelines now no special ed parent ever anticipated
116to have to include in their IEP for their child to cover their face I never thought that that would be something that I would have to make sure would not happen so what I'm asking is when a special ed parent tries to do what's best for their special needs child do not block us allow us to change their IEP allow us to do what we need to do to take care of them and otherwise I cannot send my son to school to be suffocated all day because he can't handle it so thank you but I do appreciate what you guys did thank you for your comment anyone else may I may have contact information because I would like to get clarity on we do have a favorite you have it okay thank you someone will
117be in touch with you tomorrow hello so my name is Priscilla Rodriguez 220 shires way and I have a couple of comments from from hearing you guys so number one um what Mr Barca was saying um sounds a lot like censorship and I understand that this is the boards meeting but we pay your you know you work for us right because we're the parents we're the ones saying this the children to the schools so there should be I understand and and I completely agree with parent advisory committees I think that is a great idea um and I hope that you guys continue with the public comments because you know when you said that if it's really that important you will make every special accommodation to be here it I understand that but when you're for
118example like me I'm a special ed Mom it's really hard you get off of work at five you cook you try to get everything to come here the babysitter doesn't come like it's really really hard so um I understand you're just saying the recommendations that they were saying but I hope that you guys do continue with um public comment and listening to us and I see that there are some you know Advocates on the board and it's refreshing to see and hear with that I also wanted to see like during the curriculum time I actually wanted something a little bit more specific to know what the curriculum is going to entail we see across the country they're you know they're they're teaching critical race Theory they're teaching gender identity they're teaching a lot of things
119and I thought that that was going to be part of the curriculum that you guys were going to speak on that so if you guys can kind of let us know a little bit more in detail about the curriculum because I thought that you know that was just flown by um and I think that's it thank you very much we appreciate that um we will still certainly listen to uh public comment um you you may or may not know we are volunteers so we we are not paid uh we volunteer our time and I work till five o'clock as well and come over here and volunteer my time been doing it for 20 years I'm going to let Dr ruchio um if if there's anything you'd like to get into just to just to clarify
120where our curriculum information can be found yes um just to explain at work sessions the reports that you hear are based on the curriculum committees that are held uh Chris curriculum Penny meetings that are held once per month so the report outs that you hear are the topics that were discussed at that meeting with the board committee being transparent sharing with the public and sharing with their fellow board members what was discussed in those meetings those meetings are attended by three board members sometimes four but no more than five because once there's five then it's a form and they they cannot function in that capacity so that's why there's different board members that attend different committees and then when they come together at this work session they share their information regarding the curriculum if we
121were to sit here and share out information about our curriculum we would be here 24 7 probably for a whole month or so I think I'm safe in saying that however you can find out more about our curriculum if you go to our website and read about our curriculum in which our curriculum is in line in New Jersey learning standards and each one of our content areas are supervised by an individual administrator so if you have any information that view of interest that you have questions you can reach out to their supervisors or to our director of curriculum Miss Lily Moss I think I covered everything in terms of perspective I mean you said you wanted information on a particulars um you know critical race here I think was one may I ask you exactly
122what you mean by that so I think what you could do is you could reach out and give us a call tomorrow or we could call you get your information and call you and we'd be glad to have a more in-depth conversation with you to address your questions are there any more comments here in the room before we'll go to the phones I want to see if there's anyone who hasn't spoken first I need to do that according to Robert's Rules can you hear me okay Regina Bongiorno 405 starfish Lane um I guess to bounce off of that it's a little segue um with the curriculum and changes um there are a lot of you know communication kind of like uh Del Barco said that the in one of the advisory things that you know
123social media is you know blooming and that's why parents are more informed we're you know on social media we're trying to communicate with each other to get a sense of what is going on um I think in order to squash all of the concern is more transparency and you have you know addressed that before that you are transparent and I do appreciate you what you guys do because you are volunteers and you come here and you tell us you know what we need to hear from what's going on from the standpoint but to have um you know Dr groccio did say that there is a way that we can find out what the curriculum is but I guess the concern is what changes are coming and how do we you know opt out of them
124if they don't meet our either religious beliefs or are moral or core values um I did have a question for Chandra um the last playground or last meeting there was a comment about Playgrounds um Davenport project was put on hold for some time and then it was kind of mentioned I don't know if I have the exact information correct but slay ball is or Swift is getting another playground I just wanted to kind of see what the estimated project date for Davenport would be if that is still going to be completed in the same amount of time as slayable or Swift um Mr Price did mention that the dividers for the tables at lunch that was mentioned tonight so that kind of segues into how is lunch going to be handled going back um because
125last year we did the bass distribution and we're told in high school and middle school level that we could not have lunch in school because of complications so if we could figure out you know what the dividers are going to look like how we're going to handle the lunch and if we're going to continue to mass distribution because you did mention free lunch for all this year as well and I think that might be oh um one last thing I'm sorry um on regards to following Murphy's Law which is an executive order not a law but um a lot of boards and superintendents have wrote letters objecting to this mask mandate because of all the medical and complications that is causing our children so I'm asking if the board or the superintendent is willing to
126send an email or letter to Mr Murphy and object to this whole Mass mandate and make it optional not a mandate and that's it thank you wow where to start okay so first for everyone Mr Lou de la barca just that's his name is Mr Del Marco we understand a lot of folks are on Facebook but there's not necessarily a lot of accurate information going around on Facebook we have a Facebook page we have a website if you want to know what's going on in the district that's the best place to go there are a number of Facebook pages and people who post on Facebook and say a lot of things but they're not necessarily accurate um let me see so curriculum I think we touched on that I'll see if there's any more that
127Dr guccio wants to talk about uh anything you want to touch on on the playgrounds absolutely so the playground's at Swiss label complex are actually have been approved by the board and the design everything has been looked at by the architect got the fencing the walkway for ADA compliance the playground is set it's been ordered the 12-week delivery time so we're looking at the fall for that that's already been in the works probably October the Davenport complex there's more stakeholders involved and they've presented beautiful playgrounds we had to go back and get some different designs I'll just give an example of Swift's label complex has three clusters of playground areas with a walkway in between Davenport proposed beautifully this beautiful um design but it's all one huge chunk unit and thinking of the student age
128group as well as accommodating for Disabilities it was going to be like hard to reach certain children and we just they're all clustered together so we shared the design of a swift slay ball complex with Davenport's Administration they are now meeting with a vendor again and going to do smaller clusters where it's a bigger area of ground but different setups so that you can kind of spread the classrooms out and have maybe more than one out there at the same time or maybe different children in different areas not have to have them all on the same bigger unit so timeline wise once that decision is made I'm hoping to get a proposal by the end of this week worst worst case next week but then again delivery time is about 12 weeks out so it's
129definitely in the works it's definitely happening it's just a matter of design and making those final decisions lunches I don't know if Dr ruchio wants me to take them yeah you'll do it okay guess it's my turn regarding Facebook I don't like Facebook as Mr Castellano said we function on facts facts are found on our website facts are found by having conversation with school district Personnel conversation that goes on Facebook goes down the wrong path and the facts are lost so I don't read it um the information there I don't waste my energy on in terms of getting upset or supporting something that's not factual regarding opening up in September we look to open up as normal as possible um I stated before Mass mandate is in place however we look to open as normal
130as possible that includes in-person instruction full day and where we are serving lunch the only difference is that lunch is free for all difference in terms of normalcy so lunch is free for all we have met with administrators of each building and they have been running around their buildings probably somewhere in there this evening in fact counting not only deaths but spaces and cafeterias as to where students can receive that launch in a safe situation where three feet of social distancing is in place with that we have Pandemic teams meetings that are scheduled this week August 11th and at those pandemic teams where the stakeholders come together they will share their their input regarding um you know the needs that they that they you know want or need um with the stakeholders in those meetings
131that information will be shared um with us right now I know that there's the the need and I'll let the board know um and that's why we have extra money for the situation like this a need for more tables for chairs and possibly tents um in our schools but we're not there yet because again the administrators were put to that task and we are waiting for that information so that we could proceed and accommodate our students in a safe and healthy environment on August 16th I will be holding a town hall meeting and I will have more information that I will share from those pandemic team meetings and more information as we move forward to open our schools but to sum it all up we plan to open um in September as normal as possible
132full day schedules thank you Dr greccio anyone else here in me audience good evening Liz butcher 327 Sea Pine Drive I originally wasn't going to say anything tonight but thank you all so much again for your time as volunteers I think it's important to make that distinction when I think about the professional development that's going to be upcoming on Equity Mr de la barca and Mr Ireland I implore you to ask whoever the PD instructor will be if they think it's Equitable and they think it's a good idea to shut off public comments come September okay I'll just give you a quick example this is just not even as a special needs mom as a mom of four kids on a good night I can get my partner to help me with football for one
133child fall ball for another child dance for the other child and now the youngest wants to do karate so tonight I was able to come in person because we only had football because football hasn't started yet another has karate another has dance but in a couple weeks we can only multiply ourselves so much right so maybe I want to sit in a parking lot and I want to listen in live streaming that's wonderful but if I have a public comment then what I have to come in person now that's just my situation think about the single parents think about the parents who are working there's so many different variables I implore you to think about equity and what that means to the parents and caregivers in this district and being able to participate in this
134public forum okay so that's just my comment just for tonight my questions are do we have any updates from the curriculum committee on reading are the bus aides provided by the contracted bus provider Shepard or are the bus aides provided by the district what does the training look like for those bus aides I'll also leave this last comment as a mother of two children in the district with special needs I have never and will never put them on a special needs bus because I have heard too many horror stories as you all have heard this year I don't want my kids on a bus riding around the entire County for an hour and a half before they get to school at the beginning we are giving preference to non-public students over our special education students
135in District how is that equitable you guys have had the summer to think about this and now we're going to put it off till October but again when we think about Equity let's put our own students first thank you [Applause] okay thank you we appreciate that um I'm gonna just put another um another Avenue to contact us is literally to go on the website and click contact us that's there 24 7. in addition to everything we have a comment was made about us being transparent well there's the camera when I first came on the board we weren't televised we're now simulcast live rebroadcast everything we do is recorded and televised and show the business of the board is being done right here in front of a camera you know I don't I don't know how
136you can be more transparent um other items from there Dr Grigio we might want to pick up on reading us as far as an update with reading I mean Miss Moss I know you just recently provided one was it June May June okay and the curriculum committee I know you give them updates which we report out was there anything you'd like to add to that foreign basically our plan is moving forward with the training and the science of reading beginning in September for our teachers they had a kickoff in June we had a training for administrators in June and that training will occur um on one of the first opening professional development days to get started with that work we also have the plan in place for special education to bring in interventions and working
137on the professional development and bring those programs in in this school year as well yeah so our bus aides on our buses or our bus aides bus Aids on a contract and run of their bus aides last year was the first year we were able to use our special one of our specialized supervisors to train the bus aides we contract with and we'll be doing the same process this August I'm training the aides that serve our students with our special ed services supervisor of our expectations so that's that means okay anyone else good evening Elizabeth McBain 115 stillmanville Road um I just had a couple things I wanted to address I'm a little discomboved here now that everybody's asked a few of the things I already did anyway um regarding the curriculum and potential changes
138to the curriculum I think several people here as well as people at home were thinking that we were going to hear what the actual changes to the curriculum were going to be I think there is some concern and anxiety about what may be added to the curriculum that some parents may not be in favor of occurring um as other people have mentioned the the critical race Theory the lbjtq um curriculum things that maybe parents would like to teach their children themselves from their own background their own religious standpoint um so my question would be is I think Dr gutierre mentioned that we can review the curriculum so could you perhaps share where that's found I did try to look on the website earlier I didn't see where it was specifically laid out um and can
139parents actually see by grade what their child will be learning that year in each of their core subjects so that we can see actually so if we wanted to opt out I believe that's a choice if we want our child to opt out of a certain category how would we know when that's being taught during the school year to be able to pull our child out of the classroom for that particular lesson um I know that they say like for health Ed or sex ed classes that we can do that in all the years I've been in this Township I've never been notified once that my child was going to learn about any of those topics so how will I know that now I guess is my main question regarding curriculum um my other topics
140were just something regarding the buses just a suggestion I know it's been beaten down before about upperclassmen being able to drive to school but perhaps that's something if we can create more parking might be a cheaper option than putting more buses and bus drivers out there we have a lot of Juniors that could drive that are not able to we do limit our seniors driving it's an earned uh option for them I understand that but if it would alleviate I mean I know growing up everyone could drive to high school if you had your license why is that not an option here we have land space it seems as though maybe a little bit increased parking could help alleviate some of the bus runs just a thought um and then just quickly a last comment
141on the class rank I am in favor of keeping it just from personal experience my daughter just graduated and I can tell you out of the seven colleges she applied to every one of them asked for her class rank so I do think it's still an important request from universities that we need to consider keeping it until we until universities change their policies thank you very much I'm going to uh let me see about you know I we have um we haven't yet discussed the seniors parking uh we did have that last year to some extent and I think that's something that we need to talk about again um so I'm gonna we'll put it we'll put put a bookmark in that one and then I'm gonna turn to Dr guccio for the curricular questions
142yeah well I'm a little confused because people are coming up this tonight and talking about changes to the curriculum I don't have any changes to the curriculum for you but again I've also been told that's on Facebook but I will assist you with letting you know that the curriculum can be found on their Community Resources there's a curriculum link and when you check that you will see that every content area is there and when you click on the content area you can see our progress indicators and all the information that is outlined in our understanding by Design outline um Miss Moss is there anything you you want to add regarding curriculum that you have set up in that you're over scene here the content specialist sure so um as Dr ruchio mentioned before if you
143do have specific questions about when topics are taught certainly reach out to the content supervisors most of them are broken into either three units for trimesters or four units for the marking period which is what we use to follow also any major changes that are made to the curriculum do present to the board I did present in the spring about mandates that are being passed down but there were no major changes to the curriculum or implementation for this school year and with that being said also throughout our budget process in the fall each content supervisor does come and present on any major changes that will happen to the curriculum any major changes to resources and that's also full board presentation in the public so you will have notice on that when those changes are being
144made throughout that process but again reach out and we will gladly be able to sit down and take you through the curriculum and you know hook you up with a meeting with any of our content area supervisors thank you okay anyone else sure I The Rock Goldman 189 Alder Avenue I think what the concern with the curriculum is um I I did look on the website today and saw what Dr gruccio just mentioned I re you know there was pages and pages from you know Pre-K to 12th grade describing their correct describing the goals and what is to be taught and so forth and so on I think what the concern here is more what what books are being used there's no way for us to know what books are being used we'd like I'd
145like to know what book you're using for science for third grade and fourth grade or what book do you know what I mean so I can look at it and say well um okay this is the book we're looking at this is what we're using but there's this in here or that in here I think that's what is not being said but that's what that's that was my question I called your office today to find that out and I went and did my research and found out all and I was impressed by what I saw that all of the it's all there you know I just want to know where is the instruction coming from you know are you using the book that another Township is using that shows for fourth grade that this is
146from Facebook but okay but it it appears to be legitimate I did a little research into it but you know were there pictures of different genders of couples being together fourth grade book okay now that's what we're looking for we want to see that yeah but you know what if you don't ask and you don't see you don't know what comes out do you know what I mean you have to question I have to question I have to say I'd like to see it you know do we even use books anymore when I sub I don't see a lot of books there's a lot of usage on computers which is you know okay but I'd like to know Lillian can is that something that's possible just direct the question I'm sorry people okay is that
147something that that's available can I can we get like a list of the books that are used in first grade or second grade or you know I want to look at them I want to see them for myself you know that's you know and to Pete to you again I apologize but when I apologized it would have been nice if you had simply just acknowledged that because it was a zero and sincere apology I don't mean to do that but so out in public all right so let's let's be adults okay thank you very much I know you guys don't I wouldn't take this job if you paid me a million freaking dollars a year okay seriously so thank you very much for everything that you do [Applause] um the resources that we use for
148instruction are located in those curriculum documents and each year the board approves a textbook list and we do have a textbook committee that comes in the curriculum committee does come in and review any new textbooks that we have so every any resource that's used in the classroom is board approved but if you look a little deeper in there you'll see the resources okay all right thank you okay do we have any other comments here before we see if there's any on the phones I I just wanted to clarify when I said you you know you you work for us or with us that's what I meant I understand that you guys are all volunteers and I I am deeply grateful to every single one of you I know it's stressful because there's special ed and
149General Ed and the parents and this and there are a lot of moving parts that need to be considered um but you know I I didn't want it to come off as you know I'm being patronizing or anything like that um I I sincerely am grateful and understand that you are are volunteers but I would just you know when when I heard that it was just oh my God they're trying to take our our comment and our voice away so that's why I kind of felt that I needed to speak up and maybe it came up the wrong way but um thank you that's what I all I wanted to clarify thank you is there anyone else okay will at this time see if anyone's on the phone then we'll go to the phones there
150are no emails that were received by yesterday 4 pm okay so we will just wait for phone calls to call stick thank you okay uh Miss Anaya anything else okay are we are we done no calls okay all right at this time we'll go to uh board member comments Mr delabarca Mr Della Barca Mr Della Barker my last name that I've had for so many years uh just want to make a point to the uh two speakers who are commenting about my report uh I don't know if you all know this but I have a role as County president of the school boards Association for Atlantic County Mr Ireland happens to be a vice president for the county and a lot these State meetings are are people have presenters on different topics all I was
151trying to do is report what was presented not Advocate any of those positions so I'm sorry that she left maybe she'll watch me on TV later but I'm certainly was uh you know I was president of this board at one time I certainly listen to everybody I give everybody the opportunity we follow the rules we'd have to have some kind of guidelines for a Public Presentation if we don't have guidelines we certainly might be here and we have it here to channel 11 o'clock at night but I don't want anybody to think that I'm against uh public speaking of people coming to our meeting so I apologize if that came over wrong but I was strictly trying to report what some other people were saying so that uh you and all the board members would
152understand that sometimes that's the kind of talk that's going on around the state but that doesn't mean I advocate it thank you I just I want to support Mr Del bark and his efforts I spent four years as County president as well and what you do is you hear all sorts of different thoughts and ideas from presenters and speakers um from all uh in and outside of the state with many ideas and and you you take it all and some of it you use and some of it you don't use but you process it um and we you know again we certainly do um accommodate our public comment um and we're always we're always generous people during some of the times during covid everyone went over three minutes you know so and we do the
153best we can and as Mr Del Barca said that there needs to be there needs to be order at a meeting and sometimes you're not always the most popular person in the room but there does so in other words we can't have you know a shouting match back and forth from from the seats I'm just not going to allow it I mean because that's where we're gonna it it's gonna turn into a three-ring circus we have to you know have a we operate under Robert's Rules of Order we recognize a speaker one one at a time that goes for folks up here as well and that's how we have an orderly and you know hopefully a polite and intelligent discourse as opposed to you know some sort of you know mob or shouting match type
154of an atmosphere which no one wants to have because it doesn't really help help anyone it doesn't help students we're here we're here for students at the end of the day we're nine volunteers plus all our administrators we're here to do the best we can for students and sorry I spoke to any other board members all right let me see if I get the order I um Mr Sullivan then Miss Alabama I'd like to speak curriculum and I do understand exactly where you're coming from there's been a lot of states that have outlawed the uh critical race Theory and I know you know that is publicized on TV and on Facebook and wherever I understand when your concerns are coming from the best we can do is to review um the curriculum as we can
155having it online hopefully you know you'll go in and you'll read your students for us to read a thousand books is a lot more than for you to read 10 books or look at 10 books so I understand where the concerns are coming and I have those concerns also and I've challenged Lily to miss Moss to actually inform us when big changes are coming and I really request that you go through the chain of command first if you don't find it online and if you still if you go through the chain of command and you're still not happy you can always reach out to the superintendent she really is uh very proactive in any parental concerns so I do understand where you're coming from because transgender studies has been mandated I'm not sure when that's
156coming in the critical race is another concern having bringing in sex education to younger ages is a concern so I hear your concerns and I think that they can be addressed but you have to do your homework too so because we can't be everywhere and read every curriculum so go through the chain of command and if you're not happy with that then I ask you to reach out to any of the administrators thank you Miss Alberta next so I want to start with I love being a board member and um I don't need a million dollars to do this job I'm happy to do it for free I really enjoy it uh because you know I'm a teacher myself and after listening to the parents and between being here at home everything I've heard since
157Governor Murphy made his announcement um I was wondering if we can put in a resolution for making Mass optional based on counties because every County doesn't have the same spread rate right now and just because maybe up near New York it's spreading fast or you know down here we're still okay I'm an ESL teacher and it's going to be a very difficult job for me to teach my students in September because first of all they read my lips I read their lips so I'm going to look to get special masks made and I'm also asthmatic so like I understand and I all the teachers understand I mean teachers I know understand too so I just wonder if that is a possibility or something we can do well I don't know are you asking me or
158do we want to I want to finish with if there are any other board members that have comment well I had a comment but it wasn't in regards to the mass let me do that first or okay we had a we had a late public comment let's do that um and then then we'll come back to Murphy 43 Marsh Road um good evening I'm calling as a parent of one of the preschoolers in the multiple disability classroom at slabaugh um if she has some seating difficulties that she's had since birth and Her speech therapist through the district had mentioned that a few of the professionals were getting ready to be approved through the district and the board to get specialized feeding therapy training because they have a huge need not just with my daughter but
159across the district and I was curious if there were any update uh whether or not that training um was on anyone's radar because I know that my daughter in addition to other kids could really use um feeding therapy and thank you that that sounds to me like a very uh legitimate individual concern uh and so I'll ask our Administration to get in touch with with that parent I have her contact information okay very good okay so then let's let's resume now with board member comment and see if I get the order right where were you next Miss Burgess I'm not sure where she is right Miss bird do you have your hand up I do thank you um I can't wait if Mr price was first okay I just have a brief question um if
160I may Mr President um in regards to the curriculum it's probably a question more for Miss Moss um I did see uh in the media that the governor signed law requiring Civics to be put into the curriculum when will that take effect here in Egg Harbor Township that's a law now that we're going to have to teach Civics can you elaborate on that a little bit further if you would sure so all the changes in social studies are for the 22 school year um so as I spoke with our curriculum committee this um well throughout this whole process we'll be working on that throughout this school year and um Miss Hannigan is working with student representatives and she's very devoted to making sure that all those curricular changes are done with all the stakeholders voices
161in there so we will be presenting pieces of that as those changes happen with all the new social studies standards for the 22-23 school year throughout next year okay thank you and as a board member that served on the curriculum committee in the past I enjoyed serving on the curriculum among finance and operations now um but I learned that there's only so many hours in a day and there's a lot of curriculum and we can only teach state approved curriculum so you have to weigh everything in to what it is that you're going to do and have to prioritize what what you're going to teach I've always been good for the technology when I was on curriculum make room for technology because that's the way of the future but some people went back and discussed
162cursive writing and I mean that's great too but you don't have the time and there's there's more pressing issues I think that need to be um taught during the course of the day so but anyway thank you Miss Moss that clarifies that question for me okay I think Mrs bird next Mrs Google Floyd did you have something or no all right she's gonna say Mrs Burke okay thank you um I just want to thank you all the uh commenters that came to the meeting tonight and eloquently discuss their concerns and ask their questions it's uh so refreshing when we have Community feedback that comes in whether it's in agreement or District agreement with policies that we have but when it's done in such a respectful factual way it's it's awesome and um so thank you
163to our community for coming uh so well prepared and so eloquently with your views um as far as I I really liked the suggestion that one a Community member made and what Miss alvarta had suggested as well if if we did approach um the governor asking for any kind of relief from using masks do we have any information from Egg Harbor Township as to our vaccination rates here in the township as well as do we have any idea of how many of our staff and students are vaccinated because if we have a high enough vaccination rate in the peony and a low rate of spread that maybe that is considerations we can make in drafting a resolution to present to the governor because I agree with um that masks are definitely necessary in us trying
164to stop covid however Mass do impedes some things that happen in a classroom as an educator teaches literacy I know that teaching my students sounds in learning how to read is really difficult with a mask on and so a lot of what the one parent said really um is accurate it can be difficult teaching and listening and and for students hearing so those all have you know those are real things and um so it's something to be said to know what our our rates are and use that information to make educated decisions so that was my comment and I hope everyone has a great evening tonight Mrs goober Floyd next Mrs Sullivan after that excuse me I just want to say I do agree with Mrs bird in a reference to um having community members
165come out and express their opinions thoughts concerns and bringing them to the board of education and also um tonight is a night that I didn't think I would feel this way but tonight because usually there's other nights that I feel like you know what I definitely know I'm definitely know I'm so glad that I'm a part of this board of education to be a part of always say to be at the decision making process of being at the table um I just heard a lot of interesting um comments that were made tonight um that really uh kind of made me feel as if we you know that our issue is you know it's not just mask versus masks mask or not wearing a mask um what's being taught in the curriculum or what's being included
166or what's not being included I think one of the things that um Dr Gucci I talked about um some of the trainings that are going to be given to the district and it's also I think open to the community as well Dr crucio talking about the climate and culture of our district discussing the equity training for our district and our community and I think the word equity is a huge word that I hope that Egg Harbor Township that I know that the district is pushing it and embracing equity and that can make people feel uncomfortable that can make people and I wrote this down and said you know um um in reference to the meetings when Mr delabarca talked about the meetings and how they should be ran and how they should be conducted I
167said that you know a orderly meeting is not does not equal censorship orderly we're all adults and we have to follow rules and regulations whether it's at our job or whether we're a part of organization so someone you know requiring certain things at a meeting that they invite you to I don't I hope that people didn't feel offended I know some people did feel offended but we do have to try to run our meetings in an orderly fashion so it's not censorship but back to what I was saying I think our big issue is beyond masks it's beyond the mandates it's really about Egg Harbor Township and embracing equity whether it's whether it's in a curriculum whether it's in the books that we read I know when I was in school I've had some some
168books that were a part of the curriculum that made me feel very uncomfortable with some of the versions and language that was in the books and it took a long time for them those books to be whether they were removed or whether they were modified or what have you so I'm just I'm just really um excited that we're going to have the the culture and climate training and the equity training because I still say in the midst of the pandemic in the midst of us having Pre-K full-time Pre-K kindergarten all the great things that we've done I still say that one of the biggest issues I see in Egg Harbor Township is the issue of embracing Equity within our community and within our school system whether it's special ed students whether it's issues of race
169and inclusivity we have a bigger bigger thing that's on the table because the pandemic at one point will be over but we'll still be left with the issues that are on the table and that's just my opinion that's what I that's what I felt and Saul tonight agree or disagree but I think that's that's the that's the overshadowing issue Mrs Sullivan did you have something else any other were there any other board any other board members Mrs sloppy yes um I believe that the vaccine rate for Egg Harbor Township is on the New Jersey Dash um also I hear that 97 of over 65 years and older in Egg Harbor Township I've been given their first shots so I'd say that we're pretty close to being covered and um if there's more data that we
170need to look at then maybe we can do that resolution that was talked about not having the masks or making the mess optional any other board members we have one more meeting left in August and I guess I'm going to piggyback off of Mrs Gilbert Floyd I I felt there was a good bit of politics in this boardroom tonight where it doesn't belong on a number of topics but you know my concern is that um you know we're bringing politics into a question of Public Health our goal here is to return our students safely to in-person learning five days a week we have a situation now where we have the uh I'm sorry there's a car alarm going off in the parking lot it's a Mustang GT looking vehicle kind of blue in the dark
171you may have hit your button thank you okay all right we have we have a new Delta variant spreading rapidly some call it a third wave some call it a fourth wave we have students in our school buildings under 12. that are not able to get a vaccine the only way to protect those under 12 is with the mask now there are exceptions available that are carved out and we would of course honor those what uh and I'd also be interested in the data that Mrs bird asked for with regard to our students 12 and over what is their vaccination rate and that of our staff and beyond that of our community but um as far as just um you know a political reaction to uh what what the governor has put forth to try
172to keep students staff and their family and loved ones safe I wouldn't be in favor of that thank you is there anything from Administration oh Mr Ireland I apologize I just wanted to see you so are we gonna get data on all that stuff that um board member Mrs bird said and then do a straw poll for Mrs Alberta what she mentioned or are we are we looking at that for next week possibly as a discussion point or or get a trouble or something I was just trying to see where we gauge as a as a board well what I can share is that we are um going to be discussing a vaccination survey in fact tomorrow with some stakeholders important stakeholders in the district after that we intend to release a taxation survey to
173our staff that's my intent um when is the due date so I'm what I'm trying to to measure here is if I'm going to have that data for next Tuesday night I would probably say that it would be hard to get all that data in less than a week after our conversation tomorrow so Dr guccio will report as much data as she has between now and and next Tuesday and you know majority majority rules as always is there is there anything else anything from Administration it's 9 45. okay understood on that one okay so thank you uh everyone for coming out and very productive meeting I understand there's a lot of very difficult issues floating around uh a lot of very hard decisions to work through we've made it this far through this pandemic and
174I'm very confident that we will successfully make it all the way through to the end our students will start school in September safely and we'll go from there so with that I want to thank you all again for coming out we'll see you next Tuesday May I have a motion please motion second by acclimation we are adjourned thank you