Monroe Twp Board of Education 09.22.21 Regular Meeting

001it is 7 o'clock uh I would like to thank everyone and say good evening and welcome everyone to the Monroe Township Public Board of Education meeting this Wednesday September 22nd 20121 the first day of autumn okay I acknowledge I'd like to just say a few words before we get started I acknowledge that this is a start um of the new school year and there remains a great deal of uncertainty uh with with high levels of anxiety and concerns like to acknowledge that for all concerned both sides of our issues we have almost split down the middle both sides concerns are valid and entitled to our opinions and what we have to say I would love to and I know everybody's very concerned with the quality of our democracy and I would love to conduct this

002meeting in the best and most Fair Democratic uh way we all want uh everyone's message to be heard and expressed and the members of the Board of Education would like not to be put in a position to postpone the business of this uh of the schools of this meeting or the instruction of our students so acknowledging everyone's um feelings everyone will be heard heard you will have four minutes we have the new uh policy in in order now where everyone would get un interrupted four minutes and then we would ask you to sit down I would also ask that no one leave the podium because we want to collect every word that you're going to say and we need you in front of the mic and we would like to be have this meeting conducted

003in a civil and respectful manner we would like to be good stewards of our democracy and respect everyone's position even if we disagree let them be heard I would also like to say that every effort and example we set is for the benefit of our children and our future um the governor got our letters and as well as letters from across the state and um the you know the speak what everyone's speaking about and what everyone's talking about we have sent and we have done our part however we are not the ones who made the rules and we are not in a position as a board to ignore them so I ask that we all join as a good Community express our views and we try to get through this trying time together okay I

004thank you very much and we'll begin our meeting uh we will call to order please Mr Gorski actually before we start in the spirit of everything you just said and I I don't want to call out Peter but the state and the governor's rule is if you're in school you wear a mask not unless there's a medical exemption so there's a medical exemption any six feet away or whatever the rule is I mean listen you you do you but the rule is the rule and we expect kids to follow the rules and I would expect board MERS we have we are foll the r have a written medical exception okay I just I wanted that for the public to know the public should know that Mr why he's not wearing a mask CU otherwise it

005stirs up questions that's all right thank you thank you Mr Gorski Madam president um the agenda item next is the Pledge of Allegiance would you like to ask the student board members to lead us not oh I called to order already jeez pledge allegiance please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all okay ready for again I am honored to be in this country and have been able to pledge allegiance to this wonderful flag let us respect ourselves become one as much as we can even with our differences and adhere to the the wonderful privilege it is to live in a democracy thank you I'm sorry to be emotional but like I said

006emotions are running High Mr Gorski please miss Belco here miss Beerman here Mr cherella participating remotely I'm here thank you and Mr cherella may I uh say that you are quarantined um yes so that is why you have the medical exception and for the sake of the community you have uh you stayed home you are you you do not have well we don't know yet but you are quarantined based on your work issues right thank you yes thank you okay Mr grisy Mr ninski here Mr POI I'm here Mr rutsky here miss seagull here miss scurby here Mr teeno here miss Armenia I am here Madame board president you have a quorum present this evening thank you very much and in accordance with the New Jersey open public meetings law the Monroe Township Board of

007Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published an electronic notice provided by having the date time and place thereof hosted September 17th 2021 at all schools on the district website at https back www. monroe. k12.us the home News Tribune the cranberry press and filed with the clerk of the municipality thank you madam yes the next item of of business is approval of the minutes we have draft minutes ready for approval um or vote uh the public Board of Education meeting on June 16th 2021 do I have a motion please motion mby who second it m Mr Tano okay speak up tonight guys um any additions Corrections detractions clarification are we talking 818 or 616 um I'm sorry did I say June 16 no I don't know which one we're starting with that's all

008I'm I'm going by the said Jun I did say June those those are the minutes that have been tabled the last two meetings okay that's that's what I thought I just want to I'm going from the top no from the top you're going from the bottom oh yeah I think I have the newer the newer agenda okay this is why I was confused yeah sorry okay so uh just so the public knows we get the agendas on Friday but they are subject to change until today so I just picked up the most recent agenda so my colleagues if they ask questions it's just because the agenda changes so often I'm sorry so the board the public Board of Education meeting June 16 2021 please and we've got a motion a second any questions now we

009have room for comments yes please okay so question SL comment so I was curious why this was tabled for a month and then two months and so I got uh the attachment I opened it up today and I see that only changes in red and it's pretty lengthy so I have a couple of questions as to and we've had this debate for years that I've sat here with you side by side about the structure of minutes the version of summary meaning meaning to be give everybody an idea what was said what was covered if you want to know the specifics you go back to the videotape and you watch it in its entirety but it seems like and again forgive me but everything is the same everything is a summary and then there's one member

010of the public where it's basically a transcript of every word he said so my argument is this a I don't find that um acceptable per the way we always do minutes B you know again we've talked about SP I'm not a fan of putting politics into the school board politics are across Pineville Road this is for the students of Monroe this is the school board so in here in the verbatim transcript is a lot of politics again I don't know why it's in here but that's my objective ction and I'd also say the word transparency was used by this uh gentleman many times obviously a big fan of transparency you've often talked about being a fan of transparency for years so let's talk about transparency why is this added in verbatim nobody else's and whose

011idea was that CU I know I didn't have a saying that okay I I will answer that question we have gone back and forth for months now since June since um July on these minutes and we have asked for different um Corrections different and and at just at one point I just felt the only way to get this settled was to put verbatim minutes um some of the board members and I have always been a fan of verba of minutes across the board and respectfully you have I have I would love to see that it was really to end the the controversy or the the difference between what was a correct ction and what was an edit sort of choosing to break the rules to acques a few board members and their and and their

012pet peeve as opposed to holding true to what is this Board of Ed and everything we've worked so hard for and what is in policy on how you're supposed to do minutes this is not what's in policy we don't talk about in policy about putting anything as a transcript verbatim that's not what the minutes are for and I I firmly object to this for whatever that's worth I will voting no that's fine um and I wanted my voice heard so thank you and I appreciate that and I don't disagree with you entirely however if we can't come to terms with minutes then the reality is this is what was said a Verbatim um construction is what was said I again think that uh if if we can get a comprehensive there's a there's a very

013subtle line between comprehensive minutes and what actually happened my position just personally but this there's a whole board and the board will be voting on it but if someone goes to these minutes in a year from now and I have had objections over the eight years that I've been here that the minutes are not necessarily comprehensible if someone wants to go back two years for minutes that we had a lot of times they won't understand the content or the context of the conversation and I have often voted no on minutes so this was an attempt to to just get the argument settled because this is what was actually said but only for this one person only for this one member of the public okay and and again I'll make my final argument is that again

014it it spews politics and everybody has the right to say what they want and have their opinion but we should squash that here on the board of ed because we are not a political um board we are a board of for the school see that's that's the issue that's another debate we've had for years I mean I don't believe in squashing anything or censoring anything and sometimes when the minutes come out they are editorialized which is also an objection that I've had in the past so the only thing I could see to be real is that this is what was actually said Miss Belco policy 0168 recording board meetings date created June 2003 date edited February 2019 scroll down to the section uh the board secretary shall make an audio tape recording a videotape recording

015of each board meeting as an administrative Aid in the preparation the recording shall be retained for 60 days must be at least 45 days or until either summary or verbatim transcripts have been approved as minutes whichever is longer after which time they may be erased only if permission is granted by the New Jersey Department of State Division of archives and Records management so our policy does state that verbatim verbatim minutes are permitted and we can use them Madam president um I'd like to hear from board members please m Mr POI Madame President um started the meeting very auspiciously and I saw your emotion I shared the same with you uh I heard both sides it may be in the policy to transcript what was uh said verbatim which we haven't been doing what I find

016really amazing is that there are actually Four speakers that spoke in that particular session and prior to that a half a dozen people spoke as well and if I may read this for everything else inquired about the next steps of the bg& committee meeting next next uh speaker spoke in support of the business administrator next speaker spoke spoke about the anticipated meeting with the legislators whereas for this one person there is a 34 page of verbatim with references to democratic party incorrectly I might add because I think that gentleman was referring to me as the Democrat atic organizational share which I'm not um this is purely done to discredit people to Showcase their presence at the board of education and to propagate unnecessary information that's really not needed in the Board of Education I completely

017agree with my colleague Paul Paul rotsky that this is nothing more than politics we should not be encouraging this type of transcripts going lot of people come here a lot of people speak speak their mind sometimes they attack personally we sit here and listen but this is the first time in the last 3 years and even before that ever since I've been coming to the board of ed meetings I have seen somebody fighting to have this in there I don't know which board member really pushed for this if it is going to be transcripted transcript for everybody and everything I don't pick and choose one because there's a Democratic party or a political party has been identified here this is absolutely wrong and I want people to know that this is the type of politics

018this town and sometimes this board is beginning to play thank you uh Mr uh polari if you uh would have asked for the verbatim of all of them I would certainly be in agreement with that as well Madam chair Madam President we had several discussions there is a a common guidelines for meeting minutes and transcripts in planning board where I serve there are meeting minutes written and there's a transcript of a specific application they completely do two different things meeting minutes are just the meeting minutes transcripts are just that you have a code transcriber sitting there and typ in away every single word that's said that is not what meeting minutes are in my honest opinion this is not in the corporate America this is not in nonprofit organizations this is not in any organization

019that the meeting minutes reflect verbatim of transcript of what people speak I mean clearly let's let's put let's be realistic like you said right this is clearly some somebody asking you to put this in so that they could propagate and and campaign against someone else well uh I I will take responsibility here that it was going back and forth so much and I kept getting information as to you know nothing was satisfying either party either the administration or the party concerned with it however it was my decision I thought it was in the best interest to just put exactly what was said again if you if we want the beta minutes from now on that that's fine with me because what is said and not necessarily in this particular instance but what is said by

020board members and Things by the administration and often sometimes by the public should we should be able to go back to that and see how things are being governed and see what's being said and see um how if if people have sort of fulfilled their the words that they said a year or so before I mean so I'm an advocate for total verba minutes no one had no one objected to the others so I at this point I take your point I take Mr ruty's point I don't entirely disagree motion on a motion on the floor may I may I suggest something at this point of time this will go down in a vot of 73 just like the way things are going for the last N9 months can we call the vote I my

021case yes we will we're discussing I mean this is a valid conern think we're going to be here until tomorrow I think definitely illegal which it is not I think we should just move on we're call if the attorney feels I'm conflicted from doing my job and keeping the minutes he may answer the question is are you conflicted from doing your job and keeping the minutes I I'm I I don't think that question is the question on the floor you prepared minutes one or more board members asked that they be amended the revised version of the minutes is going to be voted on I don't think it puts you in a conflict position at all Madam may I speak on what subject we have an call to vote please General conditions of minute keeping which

022I think I think we've had we've had that discussion you respectfully you've used words like edited and I heard the point of order the point of order I'm speaking to the the chair there's a point of order going on here 7 to three let's move on just call the RO please we have a we have something on and and I understand please call the sir I'm being censored we have two more uh things to vote on so yes for this for this particular one uh for the for the minutes there is no roll call it's all in favor type motion all in favor please absolutely not okay one two three and objections please I I didn't I didn't get that you have to hold your hand okay please hold your hand up all in favor

023we have five five votes and Ken's on the the phone if you want to Mr cherella yes okay so six uh all any objections we have three and I'm going to abstain since I made that decision okay the next one is public Board of Education meeting August 18th 2021 do I have a motion motion second who did who was that motion Karen and second Mr trano any corrections objections additions subtractions looks like a nice summary thank you okay um all in favor please we have uh I seven eight nine okay and I'm going to abstain again under the circumstances so that's passed next one is the Clos session minutes uh close session meeting August 18 2021 do I have a motion motion second Katie and Karen all in favor I okay so we have six

024any objection seven M I have to abstain I wasn't there you're abstaining okay and I'll abstain as well well you know what I think I need to Upstate I'm sorry I did not attend the meeting oh that's right you weren't there for that one y i obain okay um um so we have three exensions and the rest are in favor correct okay I believe the motion passes now we have our student board members so we have someone um well please first introduce yourselves to all of us and uh we'll have you speak hello everyone here my name is shanali I'm currently a junior attending to high school okay do you want to give us your report yep okay go right ahead you can fold the mic closer to you all right sounds good it's not

025going to go too much at Oak Tre Elementary School the school opening has gone very smoothly so far we have a new arrival and dismissal procedure for parents who choose to drive your children and it is going very well our cafeteria tables are decorated with bright colored full dots that show children where to sit so they can be safe our media center has beautiful new floating shelves constructed by high school students and eagle aliai our back to school night will be September 30th and parents will have the opportunity to attend both in person and virtually on September 17th a virtual expectation assembly took place in each classroom so students can understand why we have expectations in our building and how they make our Learning Community a safe and wonderful place to learn and grow things

026at mil Lake Elementary School as well are going very well our students have done a really wonderful job transitioning back into the building some items of no not through our SLO team at mil Lake we were able to offer a presentation and training offered to the entire faculty on different ways we can support our students Journey back into the school building students are enjoying their time back on the playground and having recess this school year on Friday September 10th 2021 we as a building did the Pledge of Allegiance outside as a school community and Sayang the national anthem as a testament of unity and to honor the LI lives lost on 9911 we are off to a great start at Brookside Elementary School welcoming all of our students back in person students are happy to

027be back in classrooms with their teachers and they're enjoying having lunch and recess again all our students have been great helpers to us in following our health and safety protocols our teachers and staff are working very hard with their students and they're also doing a great job with their safety protocols in the classrooms Barkley Brook School also has a wonderful start to 2021 2022 school year Year we're so happy to have all of the students back in for inperson instruction we are grateful for our students and families for the diligence in following all health and safety protocols students darly enjoy having lunch in the cafeteria and of course they love playing outside for recess we are grateful for all teachers staffs and families who have assisted in making the transition back to a full school

028day successful we're so proud of our Barkley Brook School community okay would you like in your own words just to say a few things about your own experience going back to school and some instructional and how you've been able to bridge from going uh saying home and and remote to now just in your own words if you'd like of course of course personally for me I went freshman year and then of course March 2020 as we all know the pandemic hit so for me personally the experience of going back to school it left me in mixed emotions I mean of course I was grateful to see all my friends I was a little nervous because I've been online and so comfortable online for a solid like year and a half but honestly Monro Township High

029School and assuming from this presentation all these elementary schools have done a really great job in transitioning putting really good safety protocols and measures having us all keep her masks on putting it over her nose not being involved in that many group activities of course there's a different experience compared to my normal prior years in school but I mean we have to do whatever we can to be safe and based on the Co count and how the school is progressing right now I think it's been really great well thank you very much and I'd like to encourage you on every meeting to give us you know your report but also let us know the temperature of the your the students you represent and and your own feelings and thank you for sharing your personal information

030go ahead J okay hi um it's really good to see you guys uh since last school year um Samar give us your name again uh my name is Samara Jane um I was here last June as a junior and this year I'm a senior at the high school so at Applegarth uh this month staff and students were extremely excited to get back into the building and so far things have been going extremely well um some events coming up at abalar is the Heavenly hats fundraiser for cancer survivors uh the week of respect from October 4th to October 9th the 911 recognition events uh book fair week of October 4th as well and the unified program is also having a sale to raise funds for their program um at Woodland Jamie newcom their guidance counselor started

031lunch bunches during recess uh with their new students and all of the new fourth graders in effort to meet our their new students and continue their seal initiative um the PTO at Woodland sponsored an ice cream social at Thomson Park which is great for getting the community together and their back to school night is on September 28th at the middle school back to school nights are Monday and Wednesday this week which have been going well and they're virtual um the middle school lunches have been shortened to 20 minutes so the kids have less time to eat um you know but they are spread out which is awesome and it's being definitely Co friendly um there is a problem with the timings of it so a lot of the teams the teams are separate and they're

032always called in the same order so some teams get a little bit less time to go get their lunch and then come sit down and eat um so maybe if we can create some kind of rotation for that or you know change the timings of how many people are in the pack and how many people are in the cafeteria something to help those kids and the times that they they actually have changed that since then it's it's been they it went back to the full Lunch Period okay awesome um the gym has also been incredibly hot for students to exercise in and keep their masks on which is a little dangerous um but other than that I mean I know for a fact that all of the middle schoolers are most of the middle schoolers

033I can't say all are really happy to be back and in person and um you know with your friends it's just a total different environment when you're back there um and learning especially for the middle schoolers um at the high school some awesome news the uh unified program was chosen to represent New Jersey in the Special Olympics in Florida which is absolutely amazing uh the girls tennis team made it to the finals at GMC's which is where I was before for this um the doubles team the first doubles team um won second place which has never happened before many of the clubs are hosting meetings as well as the honor societies all of which are in person and getting again people together which is fantastic uh back to school NS this week and is again

034virtual um there's been a bit of a busting issue for Sports in high school but I mean obviously you guys can't do anything about that it's it's people who are applying um to the jobs um I'm definitely grateful for the mask mandate because the cafeteria is pretty crowded even with the extra lunch you know there's just a lot of people at school but I'm very glad that the mask mandate is there to keep us safe especially in hallways and stairwells and would you like to add anything personal or any of your own observations personally I am very happy to be back I so happy my grades are so much better um just connecting with people is so much easier I didn't have that connection with my teachers last year as much as I tried you

035can go to the office hours but it's not the same as you know looking at them in person and the body language and all of that stuff just to kind of have that connection with them enough to be comfortable and ask questions and participate in class there's a lot more participation I think this year that's wonderful and again I thank you for your um what you said in your report and everything and I think I would like to let the public know and our staff know that I would like to have our students more engaged as they are and um and bring things that are maybe Troublesome to them or things that they'd like to see corrected or at least addressed to the board and to the public I think that's a that's a good

036start for the year and we would like to always try to help um you know not everything can be worked out uh in to everyone's satisfaction but we should know about it and we should have a dialogue about it so I thank you very much for your report okay does anyone have Madam president yes please after 35 years in professional world I still get very nervous to speak in public the way both of you conducted yourself today speaks volumes about your confidence keep it up and keep at every public speaking opportunity you get and the summary that I take away from what both of you said is that our staff and our Administration in this school district has done a fantastic job of opening the schools back so I want to thank each and every

037one of them for that thank you that's good thank you thank you all right anyone else okay um we have committee reports who would like to begin please uh I'd just like to let the public know I was out last week uh I was out of town for the week so I did not um I was not able to attend any of the uh meetings so I will be quiet yes Miss Belco I have the curriculum committee report please so first we have had um Miss Susan Gasco present the pre-calculus and pre-calculus honors classes both classes present an emphasis on collaboration the use of Technology such as Desmos graphic calculators and Con Academy they also um uh ensured that remote instruction and remote curriculum is embedded to Aid new teachers who are in remote learning

038should that have to happen um in the future um she talked about the various um learning styles and that this is a college prep series for both the pre-calculus and the pre-calculus honors the curriculum is um fairly similar for each lot more intensive for the pre-calculus honors class and this is um uh based off of you know the need for calculus and the students who are Advanced on an advanced level the second report we had was from uh Mr Zach morala um talked about the Omni Channel marketing class um it's a business education class um and talks about Advanced principles in marketing ation um formerly this used to be two halfe courses sports and entertainment and internet marketing um and they recommend that students take this class in the sophomore year this class also is

039going to incorporate digital business simulations from two different uh platforms one is knowledge matters which helps them um do simulations on business decisions particularly to improve um Sports and sports entertainment and then there is Stu Kent social media marketing in a simul ated situation so that they can um get a better um idea of of what the class is the uh next presentation was Dr uh Kelly Rosell uh made a presentation about at Lang um AT AP Language and Composition um the syllabus comes from the college board and uh this is engaging students to um to be uh increased skilled readers of Pros in a variety of periods and disciplines there's a lot of research writing and technical analysis with this this is the third year of the of a four-year State regulated um mandate

040for English language arts there are nine separate units in this class education language Community environment identity ethics pop culture economy and activism there's he a lot of heavy writing and a lot of heavy discussion in uh in this class the next presentation we received was from Dr Danielle drust and it had to do with social studies classes and we uh we had a presentation on sociology AP US History 1 and two and AP European History and um AP um the AP courses the curriculum is is dictated by the college boards and um history US History 1 covers the period from 1491 to 1898 there's a lot of discussion and a lot of um the students engage in a lot of um things about how did that culture you know how would things work now and

041and bringing everything together to where we are in our current state the 11th grade um AP US History 2 covers the years from 1877 and 1896 which is uh known as the Gilded Age and if you'll indulge me for one second just to get the right paper out here it's um it requires a lot of um thoughtful um critical thinking and information and a lot of writing for a lot of these classes for that um piece then we also were presented with AP European History um talked about the significant development um in European history from the year 1450 and and forward um it talks about the cultural economic political and social developments that shaped the current world which we live in um there was a lot of healthy discussion after this presentation with the board

042members uh Mr poori asked a very um poignant question about um studying other histories outside of the Europe the European area such as Asia India and other countries and cultures outside of Europe the supervisors reported that they can teach those classes and such as those if there is student interest or if there is an interest in the community in those classes being taught and they talked about possibly doing something called a um like they do a club Rush something called like an electives rush so that the students can um see if there's an interest in a class that that maybe there isn't there so we um it was some good discussion and I recommend everyone go and spend a few minutes to watch the um videotaped recording of the curriculum meeting so that you can

043see all the discussion that was had thank you very much thank you can I add something to the curriculum um Miss scurby yes uh and like Katie said we did have a very um healthy discussion it was it was wonderful um to discuss about possibilities and something that I thought about after the meeting um you know we we tend to in our district um offer classes here obviously in our district but there is a a whole host of opportunity for our students to take courses at County colleges so I I'd like to maybe ask Katie um if she would entertain putting uh something on the curriculum committee agenda maybe for next month that we can talk about really getting our district involved Mr Flor I know you're on the board at middlex County College and

044it's really important because when you talk to students and parents from other districts students are graduating high school in other districts and they're almost done with an associates degree and when you think about an AP class here in the district you have to take the AP class you have to you have to pass the class then you have to pay a fee to take the AP exam and if you don't score a certain amount on that AP exam colleges won't accept that credit however if you have credits from another college that generally always transferred to to another University so there's a benefit of students taking college courses even over some AP courses and and I think we really need to do um our due diligence of how we can get that opportunity out to our

045students because I don't think a lot of students or parents really understand that that's an opportunity for them when they're scheduling classes um so I I think if we can maybe discuss that in curriculum and and really try to get something together where we can offer more um help for students to do that that would be wonderful can I make a comment uh May Mr polari very quickly I completely agree with the report uh our chair gave and I agree with Miss Kirby as well uh there are the only problem that we have in Monroe is that we're located so far south in the county that the County College is is is quite a bit of a hike at least a half an hour but having said that there are a lot of school board

046uh school districts that are taken advantage of middle six College right now and I'll be more than happy to fac you know facilitate any kind of a discussion that's needed because we discussed this in the board meetings at the college on a regular basis on how we can get into the community so I'll be more than happy to facilitate that and people are finishing up their college degrees in two and a half years three years just by taking these courses so there's no reason why we can't do that yeah and I think they do offer a lot online which which could be helpful Dr Layman please sure we I'd be more than happy to work with Miss Belco at an agenda item it's something we've been working on actually since the summer Su it's one

047of our strategic goals strategic plan goals is to expand Partnerships and offer offerings outside of the traditional school day potentially so I have a connection with uh their High School liaison um we spent some time going back and forth clarifying some deadlines and um we actually renew every year we have a couple courses that we already do the Dual uh enrollment dual credit piece so we're looking to expand both the Dual credit piece but also look at what kind of courses because of Co they coming out of Co like you said they have a lot of online live online asynchronous synchronous as well as onsite courses and they will offer and I said we have students that say a senior early out what if they want to take a course how can we connect your

048program of studies to what their interests are so she said I said do we just work with them get them online your course cataloges online she said for a high school student they recommend personal consultations with their staff so she's sending send me the information um and that's something we'll prepare the counselors for moving into scheduling this this uh January with the hope of students really having access because now driving to Middle sex may not be the barrier that it used to be because of their array of offerings and they also if we hit a a threshold uh last year it was 20 students I'm expecting to be the same we can actually offer a course they'll send an instructor on site after hours and we can host the middle sex course on site um

049and we would Target that to different a different potential group you know maybe an avid class we could offer to that or something like that and they could engage in it but we are engaged in that process right now as a supervisory group and we can certainly update the community with that right yep thank you only thing that I want to add is that inad I'm sorry we've had other people with their hand let me let me U Miss Belco you you can take the lead on this with your committee I would imagine I'd like Miss Jane to speak go ahead to take away uh I just had one idea of like if you guys wanted to add more like Community College things where you could get the credit from the community college like I'm

050taking this class right now honors business organization and management where if I keep my grade above a certain average which I believe is a 70 or 75 I can actually get the credit from the community college it's not AP credit where it might not transfer to a college or I need to take a test but I do get it directly from the community college so if we could have more courses that allow you to do that you you don't need to go all the way but it's in school it's in your schedule and I get the credit and I'm taking class so why don't you email Miss Belco a little bit about what you're doing and who your teacher is and and she'll take a look at that and and move it through the committee

051mrar you got it you're good okay thank you that's see great information okay moving on anyone else from Miss belos committee report next Please Mr Nic atinsky in the Personnel committee um we discussed the coaching stiens which is on the agenda for tonight uh the vacancy report the exit survey survey the job description for director of Falcon care and ECE and we discussed the interm superintendent position which uh we will have uh interviews tonight in close session any questions from Mr nensy so Mr R rety with regards to the uh the coaches which it was really interesting to see how their times have sort of spread out so much more before earlier later um and the size of the of the teams that they're handling um I I guess I was I'm a little confused

052as to and again I I can't find it tier one tier two tier three or ABC however it is obviously there's certain criteria that you guys were looking at which allowed somebody to some sport I guess to move up a tier um or down a tier whatever but I think it's it's great to reward these coaches um for all their hard work and and the success stories that we've had for sure um at the school I guess I'm just curious as to are there defined criteria either TimeWise or participation wise yeah I think went to the next step right M Mr Nick atinsky is that did that was a request from the union correct I don't think the board did that I think and I think the last time they got a increase was 2008

053but and it was if you saw the Sor so it was based on the number of hours it takes and the expansion of the number of participants in the team was what was driving what what sport should lay on what tier okay and then also that concept of the club I think it's dance that they should qualify as a sport as opposed to a club based on the same kind of criteria okay sparman when you speak though get a little closer to the mic so we can get it are you getting that back there what Miss Beerman said yeah okay good I'm Sorry Miss yeah no I was just going to add that um you know we the Union uh Representatives came and did a presentation and it was very detailed of how the the

054um those particular Sports programs how they began and how they've grown extensively and it was more about um making them um comparable with their colleagues in other sports so you know the the time that's um the time for practices the amount of students um practices that they've had to you know increase um you know they made a point you know that we should recognize um it's important to recognize that when you see sporting events going on on the weekends you know that's all outside of school time right so so that's they're putting a lot of their time into this um and it was just really balancing um the sports that they felt that were not in the proper the proper team here so it was I think it was three and then dance that they

055were they were requesting to move anybody else in this yes and also the strength of the programs have become better and better over the years which have extended their Seasons so now they go weeks and many weeks longer yeah meaning they're wi winning more more games in tournaments so so the coaches are actually putting in more time okay Mr Tano I just want to add that what what they were asking for are requesting is in line with what the rest of the districts are receiving on on the at the same level so they weren't asking for anything above the normal uh in other districts and if I may mention that the the month prior when the uh when Dr alvic uh brought this to our attention and they just asked for uh these stip and

056raises the board the um was it Finance or Personnel it was personel actually said well that's all well and good but we have to have justification and we we need information so the board was very uh I mean the committee was very cautious and and concerned about what you know to to see the results and to see the data that would actually uh make support yeah support their presentation okay all right anyone else Madam president yes Mr POI um right right now if anybody hasn't seen our football team you should come out and take a look at them they're just awesome um in terms of the the report the last item that uh Mr ninski said about the conducting interviews today for the interim superintendent um given the importance I've been preaching this for the

057last couple of meetings about the importance of getting the right person in in place um without getting into the details of the close session you know we were looking at quite a few candidates and all of a sudden it appears that we're really limited to um I don't want to say even in the number in in in the spirit of being confidential and then all of we did not even vote on that as a board and here we are conducting interviews today that doesn't seem very transparent to me Madam president I think we should have unfortunately we we have our backs up against the wall I get that but I think we should have had at least some sort of a resolution before we conducted these interviews and I I actually agree with that Mr

058POI and uh we had a short window we have a short window um and the in the last two weeks the two weeks prior to this um the people were out of town people were on vacation people were not available I would have liked to have had um you know at least two uh meetings two special meetings for this um so I do agree with you and I think that that we have to we have 30 days to put in place to in order to move forward so I think we'll talk about that exactly in um in close session tonight and we'll come out with a little bit more of uh explanation do do you have the list of the full packet of I have everything okay awesome I brought it it's in my trunk

059so I'm going to have to go get the big box when when we're done we'll get it yep okay anyone else uh next committee report please I have my committee reports oh go ahead M scurby all right I'll start with uh the shorter one um Community engagement Communications committee we had an update on the sponsorship advertising initiative um uh Mr Layman shared that we have some pricing and some designs for templates for signs we had a discussion about um I guess the threshold being 44,000 um and and how we would would it be would we do it po per um project would you know one set of signs be one project and then if we offered bigger signs would that be another project because our line item in our our budget is $100,000 that we

060are trying to reach um so I think the next steps were to get clarification on that um and then to uh look at uh putting together an advertisement to solicit vendors or to solicit um I guess companies or or businesses that in that would want to purchase a sign um and our second item on the agenda was communication survey we had spoke about during uh the summer putting together communication survey to go out to the community um Dr alvic had put together um a survey in I guess it was Google Google forms um I think everybody has gotten a copy of that and um we had talked about possibly sending it out in October um sending it if we could I know we had talked in committee uh previously about maybe asking the township to

061reciprocate since we sent out the township survey um if they would be willing to send out this survey to the Greater Community too to gauge how we're doing um with communication Comm uh CommunityWide um so that is my report for that committee com oh I'm sorry I didn't I failed to call Dr Dr Layman I'm very sorry I just wanted to give you a heads up because we could follow up so Mr Gorski and I or I was in the room M Mr Gorski called the attorney to verif he was comfortable with separating projects as long as they were clearly separated project he actually used the example of um we had talked about a year-long piece for some of these Pro these advertisements there may be another area that could be a shorter term like

062maybe it was an indoor pce with less like for the basketball season he said you the date of the advertisement or the date of the service of renting the sign or leasing the sign that would in his perspective qualified as a separate project so then we would kind of divert to the other another potential threshold okay and then Mr uh dling provided extensive information he went around and counted recounted um and got a much Clear accurate picture of not only the stadium area the cage area as well and the inside and the outside fences and then he mentioned that uh our new athletic website will be coming on board shortly which will also have some Banner space on it so I can bring this information back to the committee and we can take an extensive

063look at it at the committee okay perfect thank you decide what kind of projects scope that kind of stuff okay Miss armeno if I may ask a um just a comment that I had regarding the signs um and the beautification I know our schools and our buildings have beautiful grounds so when we're putting those signs just to keep the beauty I know for years our PTO and ptas after flower sales we would plant plants and keep our garden so just keep in mind to not clutter too much and keep the beauty of our schools hope hopefully they'll be welld designed and you know approved we we will be approving them before they they get put on so I think we can have a control that Mr Layman had shared that Mr moraldo had done like

064a um a mockup of them and trying to keep um like a uniform kind of idea like you know a Monroe kind of feel to the sign but then having whatever advertisement that is worked into that so it would be it wouldn't just you know what I'm saying it would kind of keep a almost a theme together but it would be individual ads obviously but like a color scheme and you we would have some sort of a template or would be all uniform consistent theme guess right so it wouldn't look like a modge podge of different things it would be classy and it would represent us well yeah Y and we can bring some of those mockups but it was a core let's call it a yellow and purple or gold and purple piece then

065there was a gold one and a purple one and those are kind of the core backgrounds and then thread through the individual advertisement piece right we can ask the art Department to take a look and give suggestions you know the creative is is done inh housee so all the creative for the sign will be done in house that's great that'll give our students then an opportunity also we also have uh staff interns as well that will be there we go working with us that'll be great gives a lot of opportunities for different things yes U Miss scarby are you're done with that going to policy and I have policy yes so we did review a lot of policies um and I guess I'll start with policy 16481 it's the road forward coid-19 health and safety

066um so this is a policy that is replacing 1648 restart and Recovery plan which is on the agenda to be abolished um the only thing that I I have a question when I went back Dr alvik and I looked at it the road forward um has listed in there all appendixes that are supposed to be included and I know when we talked about it in policy we said that that's already in the restart and Recovery plan and we were just going to move that over no the the the append I didn't put appendices it's just incorporated into the plan so it's not the way that the way that stme had had suggested was to just do the introduction and then list the appendices the appendices are part of the plan so they don't need to

067be named appendices everything that that is required in the appendices is in the plan they don't need to be separate okay well I I opened the plan today and I didn't see maybe I'm looking at the wrong document but I did not see it all broken out by those exact append it may not be broken up by the ex exact pendes but it has everything in it that it needs to have in it okay so then I guess my question is for for the road forward there's there's a lot of discussion um amongst p parents we're getting a lot of emails there's a lot of discussion on social media so in the road forward this policy 1648 do11 does it can we discuss the travel policy that we've put in place and what that travel

068policy is how it differs from our surrounding um surrounding districts with us and and how we came up with that criteria that we are putting forward to the parents so the travel policy that's in our plan plan is basically following the recommendations from the New Jersey Department of Health which states to follow the recommendations of the CDC so that's where the information is coming from there are some districts that are not requiring anyone to quarantine after travel I I wouldn't make that recommendation I think that it's important for us to make sure we're keeping our our staff and our students safe when they get back um but the the New Jersey travel restriction travel advisory is is no longer in effect however they they what and I'm reading right from the State website um the

069CDC however has recommendations for both vaccinated and unvaccinated travelers um and that that's what's in the guide so the basically what it says is AC for domestic travel according to the CDC unvaccinated individuals who do travel should get tested 1 to 3 days before their trip 3 to 5 days after after travel and stay home and quar stay home and self quarantined for 7 days after domestic travel the difference on the CDC website also says that it's seven days if we're in yellow or green but it is 14 days in Orange but you can shorten it by getting a test three to five days and come back after SE after 10 um the international travel requires this again according to the CDC requires all air passengers arriving in the United States from a foreign country

070to get tested no more than 3 days before their flight departs and to present the negative result or documentation having returned from the flight so that is the information that was shared out with parents is following the CDC travel guidance if if the board chooses we can not have quarantine after travel that would be another that's another option there are some districts that are not requiring that it wouldn't be my recommendation okay so I guess my question question is where does that exist in a policy it's in the the roadback document I'm sorry the road forward document on letter I student and staff member travel and it stipulates exactly what you just said our policy I actually copy and pasted it from the State website into our plan so it's exactly what the what the

071State website says okay so now if a if a child does have to quarantine I guess you know going further into that plan if a child does have the quarantine what happens to them during that period of time for Education if they are traveling they do not get access to Virtual home instruction if they're traveling during the quarantine time because we're requiring them to quarantine we were offering the virtual home instruction again if the board chooses we can say that travel travel is not a necessity and we wouldn't have we don't have to offer the virtual home instruction for the quarantine time and what about for our staff our staff they they have to take sick days if they're quarantining they have to take sick days so our policy is that you have to quarantine

072yet we're not going to provide education to the students no we are providing education I said it's another option that the board has we are providing the virtual home instruction we do not provide instruction while people are traveling we don't do that we don't do that now we didn't do that before Co okay when they but during the quarantine time they would be provided because we're requiring them to quarantine okay as soon as Miss gery's done Mr Tano are you finished you have go ahead I have a question related to this quarantine that's why I wanted to ask you mind no no go ahead so in in this Township we have a a huge in this Township we have a huge uh wreck program with the cheerleaders and in December hopefully um over a hundred

073of them will be traveling to Disney for championships uh are we going to tell those 100 girls who work their tail off all year long that they're not going to be able to school when they come back and see their friends and celebrate their win um I understand we're going to give them virtual learning but um it's a big deal when they come back to see their other friends and say hey we we just won a championship in Disney um are we going to allow them to take rapid tests maybe when they get back and once they take a rapid test then they know they don't have Cod then they could return to school is that going to be an option rapid tests have not been accepted by the by the Department of Health so

074again the if the board chooses we can do away with the travel quarantine and then that would then when they get back they wouldn't have to quarantine they would be able to go back into the school so so just so I know and I'm sure the board would like to know why is it that other districts have chosen not to do that do you know I don't know okay like Dr alvik said if the board chooses as a whole to make a motion to change any of these things whether you know whatever the uh the superintendent or the chief officer of the of the school recommends and if the board chooses to not have that then that's up to the board and we would you know whatever those consequences or results of that that's what

075we would also have to accept um another another thought um we have a few months hopefully maybe things will settle down they could also increase I mean if our if if the uh variant increases problems in with the virus we might want to rethink that also so I think again this is an active situation it's not that one plan or one answer is going to you know let us proceed three months from now I think it it's again as frustrating as it is and even though we you know a lot of us think that it's not a big deal and I respect that but we I think we have to see how it goes down the road we have to see what the the progress of the virus or maybe the end of it hopefully

076I mean we don't want to put any of our children at risk either well that's why we have them wearing masks right well you know I I I don't I'm not going to debate that part no it's not a debate I'm just asking a question we have our children factors that we have in wearing a mask so we don't put them in danger but now we're saying if you're traveling and you come back the mask is not going to protect the other kids from when they come back from fla I I think we're going to have to wait and see on that Mr Tano Mr I'm sorry yes I just wanted to add on to uh what Mr tufano was saying and I understand how he's saying like the girls that are going at Disney

077they work their tail off like you were saying they're going to be gone for how long again was it a week or well some some parents it's only 3 days but some parents elect to take a few more days being that they're spending a lot of money in Disney yeah that makes sense and you're asking for them to come directly back to school and not do the online learning for that week when they're quarantining well I'm asking for them to be able to take a test and be able to come back to school if the test comes back negative there's no reason for the kids to stay out of school in my opinion well honestly if there's something that like Co all taught us here is that CO's like it's constantly changing so we don't

078know how it is today if it's going to be like that during December whenever they go so honestly like we can't make that decision as a board right now I think but the bigger thing is rather than like you know the girls enjoy or the girls take the test and they come back the more important concern is about actually like everyone's safety including the staff that work here the students that go here so that that's the reason why we have a mask mandate so everybody okay we we'll have we'll have that we continue that discussion uh in a few in a month or so okay thank you for your input okay and then just going with that same policy I guess the the the home the home instruction piece of that so that that goes

079hand inand with the travel if we're going to have 100 students out at the high school because they had to travel because they traveled for this competition what are our numbers are are we able to handle that I mean we' we've received some um emails from parents with uh concerns that their child's out of already a week and the home instruction has not begun um I thought we were our policy was that it was going to start within 48 Hours um could we what what is happening with that I guess because it's a that's a real concern and if we're going to have this strict travel policy we're going to have staff out we're going to have a large amount of students out especially around the holidays the November holidays December holidays um so how

080are we prepared to keep to implement this policy and continue to have school running Dr Al We are continuing to add staff members for V virtual home instruction so you'll you'll you see that on your agenda this evening that there's uh more staff members and even since the agenda's gone out we have more staff members that have signed up for that so we continue to do that um one of the challenges that we had um and it's again this is new for all of us this is something new this by doing the virtual home instruction we feel that this is the best way to provide more in-depth instruction for our students rather than just listening into a classroom over Zoom um because if one student is listening into a class they're not going to be

081getting the same instruction that they expected last year and that they got last year when it was the teacher was half the students in the class and half the students online um so we felt that this was the best way to do it there were some there are some challenges um to getting everything in place because teachers are just coming back remember this is only our our ninth day of school um since the beginning of the year uh we have one secretary that's been handling it she was out one day so we've looked at Staffing to try to put more staff in order to do that um there was some there's some delay in getting responses back from staff members and I think that was because they weren't recognizing the email that it was coming

082from because it was coming from a secretary's email um the request for home instruction uh so I sent that information out to staff so that they know that if you see an email from the person that's what this is about you need to respond um so we are getting it in place as soon as possible um with our students but the first thing that that the this staff me this secretary is doing is reaching out to the classroom teacher first when it's identified that the student needs home the virtual home instruction if we don't hear back from that teacher right away she reaches out she reaches out again to make sure that if that because that teacher's on the list make sure that the teacher is not interested in doing it if the teacher is

083not interested in doing it now she has to reach out to another group so it may take a couple of days to to put in it we're doing our best to get it in place in 48 hours um but there may be some delays in that because of the Staffing piece okay but but there's still going to get the time that they are that they've that they deserve so even if they have to go a couple of days even after the student returns they're going to get the hours that they that they've earned for for the home instruction to make sure that they're caught up okay well I I I just I just want to reiterate concerns that I had dating back from August to the restart meeting that myself and Mrs Beerman were there

084and we both echoed each other's concerns the students deserve to be educated while they are quarantining we got a we got emails we got emails from parents whose kids are on quarantine because they were close contacts that raises another question I have how are they at close contact if everybody is wearing a mask that's number one remember they're not wearing masks at lunch so how many how many students do we currently have districtwide on quarantine because of lunch I can't say it's only because how many are on how many students are on quarantine is we have a total of 73 students on quarantine and how many students have begun home instructions most of them I have the list from uh Miss Young most but not all no not all because but some of them just

085we were just notified of it well the emails that we saw as board members were from parents that students in the elementary school were out already a week and have not had anything set up for those students that is a long period of time for those students we were we were told Administration will have education for these students within 48 Hours see the the concern that myself and Miss Beerman brought up were other districts are allowing their students immediately to attend class remotely their class so that education does not stop we're failing these kids that are on quarantine and not and they're on quarantine a lot of them and they're not even sick it's because they were a contact and they're not allowed to come back to school and we're also failing to give them

086the remote instruction when you go back after 10 days you're far behind it should be being continuous so that when you go back to school you can step back in and you can continue with your class not catch up the last 10 days this is a disaster that I know we've spoken about we've we've cautioned about and you know we we were told to that it was going to it was well planned it was well thought out it would be within 48 hours every child would be starting home instruction and it's not and it's a it's not right for the children it's not catastrophe uh I let's and again I'd like to know where you know if we're talking about this policy I would like to see and maybe we could bring this back to

087policy I would like to see all of what's in the plan to be incorporated into the policy because that's what drives our district is policy and that's what we are supposed to hold firm to is our policy so everything that we are putting in that plan should be mirrored I believe in the policy the entire plan is in the policy not I opened up the policy today all of the appendices are not in are no appendices it's just it's include all of the information is incorporated into the plan they're not listed as separate appendices well the plan then should be into the policy it should not be a separate document it should be part of that policy it is part of the policy the entire plan was copy and pasted into that policy that's not

088what I see on our policy guide and maybe we could look at back at that next all right then the next does anybody have any question questions more on that policy now okay the next the next yes so I couldn't find anywhere in the policy that said about the implementation the launch of the home instruction within the 48 hours that seemed to be something that we just discussed is that specifically in here and I do recognize that I'm looking at the version that we had during committee and that something's changed because my travel was letter h and yours was letter I so I'm not quite sure I have the latest version with the microphone on page 14 of the plan under virtual instruction for quarantine students it's listed there virtual home instruction will commence as

089soon as possible but not sooner than 24 hours from notice of quarantine following the timetable below and it lists the amount of time the amount of minutes per day that the students would be um would be offered what letter the policy doesn't have page e it's under letter e all right of the plan of the plan not the policy in the policy that's I'm checking right now to make sure that the policy was incorporated correctly on the on board do but the policy that was presented at policy committee included the plan Miss felco share that with us we see it is in the policy um of course these aren't numbered so it is it is letter E in the policy one4 on so it's there okay can we move on if it's there yeah it's

0901648 do11 and it is um it's in the I guess guess this is this must be the regulation because the policy says it's only three pages so I'm a little confused this is where b c e yeah so again it doesn't say 48 hours though it says commence as soon as possible but not sooner than 24 hours that is not the same as starting within 48 Hours unless I'm missing something so looks like that it looks like the plan was not incorporated into the policy the way it was supposed to be exactly on in board docs okay so you want to hold off on that off on that one till next month y but let can we can we try to clarify for the sake of the parents and this and the district I mean

091we can't hold this off too long because people need to know what to we're already at 73 children we know this is going to grow it's not going to shrink Okay so how are we handling that okay let's work on that at what point do we at what point do we move move from home instruction to remote a remote option for them to attend class remote like other districts are doing well let's let's worry about our district and I understand other districts if the board chooses to make that change then do you do you want to make a motion we this is I mean that's that's the only way to change it at this point m scurby i mean well has to be disc I think it should be a discussion of the board if

092we're not educating over 70 children that are on quarantine and the number is going to keep growing what are we doing mam president I may I'm a little confused I I I see the committee chair saying that we're not educating 72 children and I'm hearing Dr alic saying that we are educating as many as possible other than people coming in what is the what's the truth how many kids are being educated how many PE kids are not being educated well I think it's a matter of timing I don't think that I understand if somebody comes in 24 hours you don't expect all of a sudden for this to happen but clearly there are parents sitting here they're looking for an answer to see when their kids can get instructed so if we can satisfy them

093then we can worry about the logistics and what's in policy what's in uh the plan is is is different uh but right now the kids need to be educated are they being educated or not to the extent we possibly that's the question really well I think the question is when when are they exposed to instruction let's you know if we just want to say it a little bit different when does the instruction begin is that what your question is M gby well we were told it was supposed to begin within 48 hours and we're hearing that it's not so what are we doing to rectify it and what are the options because the to have a child to have multiple emails being sent and and and shared with us that it's been over a week

094and they still do not have home instruction set up is a failure to those students so is it taking that long still to get instruction started there was on last week there were 30 students that were added to the list because of travel and close contact so yes with one person working on that it took some time for that staff member to be able to do that part of the issue too is getting the information you know we want we get the information from the school nurse the school nurse sends it to the send it to the PPS office PPS then sets up the home instruction so there has been there was a delay in that and that's why I mentioned earlier getting extra help into that office so that we can have more people

095working on this to get it happening quicker so so let me play devil's advocate here if if remote instruction was set up would that be more immediate than virtual okay okay okay okay but yes we could probably do it within again within 48 hours because the teachers right now are doing lesson plans and planning their lessons for the students that are physically in front of them if they're now going to set up a camera in their room so that a student who is home can now get access to the to whatever instruction whatever paperwork is needed and then the student would be able to log in the teacher needs time to plan to in order to give that information it will also so not be the same as last year because you now have a

096teacher who's standing in a classroom in front of 24 students and her primary her or his primary responsibility will be to teach those 24 students in front of them not the one student on the computer all day long right so so what happens if the district gets shut down tomorrow if the district gets shut down we go full remote are we prepared to to go full remote yes we are prepared to do that but there's no cameras in this in the classrooms the teachers don't the teachers have computers okay the teachers comp the difference why can't they just do a remote option for the kids that are quarantining because again if they're planning for the students who are physically in front of them now they have to transition for one student and prepare all of

097those lessons and those plan and and those plans and whatever classwork there is in order to get it to that student so may I Mr so let's let's take this from the perspective of a teacher as well okay it's not that easy to juggle that responsibility and I'm going to assume the teacher's contract is going to get have to be discussed in order to pull off a a two for one kind of a deal like that so it's not as easy as just turning on the camera let just the kid just sitting at home for the kid's going to get the students will all get their instruction I'm sure is what Dr alvik is saying but as a teacher it's just not that easy and if you have never been a teacher you just don't

098understand what it is to teach to a class room understand I have if I have a kid sitting at home for seven days not getting instructed let's be clear okay there's an issue all right let's keep it civil okay so clearly we we don't have a resolve on this uh we we would' have to have some kind of meeting I mean if if perhaps we need to it's not working to to call another it hasn't worked yet we don't perhaps we need to get some information on the data from other PE other schools that H are doing that I can tell you that most other schools are doing exactly what I just described having the having a camera in the room where the students can listen in the students are not part of the classroom

099they're not part of the the lesson okay when you'll have an opportunity to but it's temporary right it's only for seven days so what is the big issue all of this this is temporary right so okay do you want to make a motion to change things because we have a recommend i' love to make a motion goe I I I guess I'll make a motion to have a I guess remote instruction H like a hybrid plan as an option or for for kids that are quarantined for seven days and don't have can I can I add to your motion can I ask you to amend it and don't have the opportunity for home instruction there children sitting at home doing nothing all day long with no ex no plan okay for anything I got that

100so can I have a can I clarify the question because so are you saying now you want us to offer both you want us to offer the home instruction because you just said if Miss scurby did she said in if if the student can't do the home instruction so do we want we can't offer both I would just remove the home okay that's fine what which one just remove the home instruction I beg you pardon remove the home instruction just make it remote so just turn on the so have have the teachers turn on the computer and that's that would be the only that would be the only contact that the that the student that the student would have with the classes just he's not getting any contact right now do most of the students

101who are on home instruction are getting contact right now wait a minute wait a minute can I just add one thing um just adding on to what Mr rety said it is it it is challenging as a facilitator teacher to manage two classrooms because that's what you're ideally doing you're managing the room when you take elementary students you're you have to watch what's happening there you almost need to have another teacher another Aid someone because don't have which we don't have so I think you need to be cognizant of the teachers perspective of this also do you know what Mr um Gorski rightly pointed out is there a second on that motion I'll second it okay now there is any Mr I I missed a little bit of it but I think I understand the

102cirks of it uh the question is really to Dr alwick being the superent of schools can we accommodate it do we have the resources in place to even Implement it'll be irresponsible okay yes okay so I would go ahead Miss Beerman because I would like to I just want to clarify so the concept that we're proposing is a listening in not the quote unquote hybrid that we were familiar with from last year just so everybody is clear or even if I'm clear it's not hybrid from last year where the teacher was facilitating both classrooms and had extra preparation time during the day during the week to make sure that that happened what we see in man alapin or other districts is the almost like being able to just tune the radio in the child is

103not actually participating and being provided with the materials they but you know it's better than not having any access at all but now if we're saying we're going to replace home instruction with this listening in and just want to be cautious as to what we're offering and right and and so what we're saying is the child will not really be engaged in the classroom because all they're going to be doing is obser it's essentially an observation of the classroom not really a participation and the and the student will not be engaged with the teacher why can't they because the teacher has 24 students in front of them that they are that they're engaged with the teacher doesn't isn't sitting at their desk anymore last year they were student has a question they can't ask a

104question how would the teacher be able to monitor the 24 students in front of them and the student online at the same time remember we're not just talking six kids and six kids we're talking a larger group now in front of them I feel like the listening in needs to be an additional accessibility hang in there no I'm saying Karen go ahead I'm I'm going to let the students hold off on I feel like the listening in would have to be in addition to the resources we're allocating already for home instruction not instead of is my point here I guess Mr rutsky so I'd just like to pose this question to our two doctoral um administrators here do Dr alvic Dr layman in your opinion which is a better which is a better option for

105students outside of the school to listen in as a bystander or to have home instruction via a remote teacher so I I just want your professional opinion because I'm not a teacher and nobody else on this board is a teacher and before he answers that when we talk about virtual right that is the Stu teacher engaging with the student on vert on Virtual instruction home instruction the virtual home instruction okay now yeah so right so professionally speaking which which is a better alternative not home right well they will receive it it's been nine school days but anyway what do you think professional the point the point is they're not understand you got an email that we did not get so we're not privy to that but it came to the entire board uh no okay

106let's have the question I like the answer from our professionals that we that that we pay and we respect their opinion our the the reason that we chose to do the virtual home instruction is because we felt that it would be better for the students to get two hours of one-on-one instruction with with their teachers rather than just listen into a class where they're really not part of the class you would agree Dr lman or you have a different opinion I think there has to be some level of Engagement with the teachers and whether that's in real time or after the fact that's what it has that's where the the questions get answered um and if you think of this the other piece of what we're looking at is we're prek through 12 District so

107prek student on quarantine who's three four years old I don't know what they're going to get out of you know just looking and listening into a lesson they probably can't even sit in front of the computer for that long so the challenge is how do we fit and meet the needs of all the the varied levels of students and things so engagement is where it's at the back and forth with the teacher um you know it would be the seeing the interaction that the socialization piece that's shifting back way towards where we were last year and and I think it's a you know there's a balance we the recommendation was the the virtual home instruction for 2 and a half hours after school for the ele students and you know pro-rated per se for all

108the other levels and that is a is it a one for one minute exchange no but in a tutoring environment in a live environment like that um the quality and the and personalization of the interaction I think make definitely makes up for that um many of the high school teachers we've heard from students who are on home instruction historically actually do really well when they come back to school because it's who who gets 40 50 minutes of tutoring uh on exactly what you're getting in class from your home room teacher your classroom teacher so that was the the thought process behind this in the beginning um it's all about the execution making sure it happens uh getting it flowing and getting it going so I respect all of the opinions I I respect where all

109this is coming from and we certainly have challenges so you know it's it's up debate right now and obviously it is so that's the opinion it's all about the interactions with the the student between the student and teacher I I really appreciate did you want Dr M Mr oh uh Mr Chella I I forgot you were in The Ether uh can can Mr Tano speak and then and then you okay Mr Tan got his hand up okay I I I think this could be resolved very simple all we have to do do is if we're going to require kids to quarantine what should be done is we should give a guarantee to their parents that within 24 hours their home instruction will start it's a very simple solution well with within 24 hours one day

110the kid can be home relaxing because that they obviously need to see some symptoms and then after that within 24 hours I don't see why Administration can't within 24 hours get home instruction set up well I mean I I don't know that I'm I really can't answer that question the professional but it seems to me that Staffing is an issue across the board well let's let's do what Mr an hour certain and I I do agree with Mr natinsky that and and miss scurby that if they haven't done this yet in 48 hours you know what's the problem but it seems the problem is a problem of timing not in instruction if the instruction is there and the instruction uh helps the children it's a matter of timing and that has to be worked out

111now maybe it should have been worked out maybe we should have had you know but we don't know how many children but we'll have to assume however many children we have this week it's it's potentially double and we have to be staffed ready for that kind of thing I don't know my my question is Dr alvic if you have additional staff can we guarantee parents that Within 24 hours 24 hours no 48 that that's that is our goal right now is 48 Hours okay is getting it in place Mr Chella can you hear us then I can thank you uh so I'm just trying to figure out what this motion is because it sounds to me like we're going to get rid of home instruction completely and then Institute this remote option without any without

112any teaching capacity where where the kids then who are on quarantine are just going to basically put the computer on and watch the class that they can't be a part of do whatever they're doing but they're not going to be instructed at all um I is that what the motion is about well that yes that that's the motion at at this time okay I'm going to vote no on that unless you need to amend I actually wanted some interaction that's that's what I want I want interaction it's only temporary so so then you need to am mend the emot well that's what I said from the beginning but I don't know but that's the problem you have one teacher in a classroom with 25 students they're not going to be able to do one-on-one instruction

113with a student online with 25 with 24 students in front of them physically when would they do that that interaction with that student online I don't know that's that's that that's and that's what I'm telling you as an educator that's the difficulty Mr polari Madam president and then we're going to call the vote yeah um we're talking about the the students and the teachers and these two individuals represent the student board if there is a topic they should be participating this is the topic they should be participating maybe not the other ones so I you would like to hear from them I would like to hear from them very quickly so that we understand where the students are coming from well hi well and they're let's let's say they're two students and they are representative

114but they're just two voices okay this is a huge School District we cannot possibly speak for every single kid in the district if it's impossible there's been a lot of group work this year so it's it's hard for teachers to kind of figure out okay what is this one person going to do by themselves at home while four people in class have the same amount of work and they're working on it together in a short amount of time we only have 80 at the high school we only have 84 minutes and we're trying to maximize the amount that we're learning in those 84 minutes one person working by themselves is not going to learn the same amount of four people working together so as you guys make your plan please think about the fact that

115people need to collaborate they need to work together and if that means working oneon-one with someone at the end of the day where they can maximize the amount that they're learning in their short amount of time that might be the best option I would also suggest that you bring it to the teachers the ones who are actually teaching us the ones who know us best they are the ones who are going to work in our best interests okay thank you Miss I definitely agree I think that like first off before I can answer this I just want a little bit more information so you're saying that the students who are quarantined right now what type of instruction are they getting they're getting one-on-one virtual home instruction once it's set up once it's set up but

116as of right now what are they getting nothing not no that's not that's not true there are a couple couple of students that it has not been set up yet okay all right so I mean I understand this is like a huge struggle for all of us to solve because there's little like kids that are you know they need actual like engagement with the teacher to understand how to do ABCs but like you know kids in high school at least for us we've been doing online learning for the past like year or two and I think one thing that's like really helped me at least as an individual to learn or a student to learn is not just the engagement but like you know recorded lessons maybe the office hours after school maybe some sort

117of Zoom meeting but like it doesn't necessar the zoom meeting necessarily doesn't have to be during the school time like of course it's going to be hard for teachers to be like working extra and doing an extra 20 minutes for student but there's a that that's a whole other issue of again Staffing and no I think I think we appreciate your your time okay Mr ninski well if you can't guarantee 48 hours then it's got to be removed so I don't think guaranteeing I mean if we I mean can we 72 hours is it's that's that's 3 days already but it will be a they catch up with the they catch up with the lessons yes so the teacher is going to be required to bring the student up to the lesson by the time

118they return they will be on par with the rest of the CL may not be by the time they return but if they still owed hours the hours would continue even after they came back to school so that that's my concern Michelle so if you have a student that's been out for that extended period of time and their home instruction say starts on day nine and they return on day 11 okay what about the rest of the eight days that they have not received the home instruction for they go back into class what are they doing when they're back in class they're behind so is that then on that teacher is that then on that teacher to get that student then up to par or is that going to happen after school you see what

119I'm saying like no no and I and I think that it is absolutely unacceptable to start the student at day nine that's for sure if we can't get them between 48 and I don't know what 70 I don't know 72 yeah then then that's a pro then that's a problem do do can can we bring this program up to the 48 hours no or no more than we're doing the best that we can right now and we're like I said we are looking for we have additional Staffing trying to make sure that teachers know that we need an answer right away whether they're going to do it or not so that we can put it in place as soon as possible again this is new for all of us we're on only on day nine

120of school we will it will get better but we have to just get into the groove of doing it because we we're going to approve two people tonight for home instruction a lot of people there's a lot of people there more than two okay there's a lar and you said there's even more since the agenda and there's at least 20 more since the agenda went out on Friday the problem should be solved soon well or address but but okay but the concern of the parents and I think it's legitimate the concern of some board members what if it is not so what is our plan if it is not so that's the that's the the question because again it sounds like it's a question of timing Mr um natinsky and Miss scurby if these were

121happening within the four 48 hours would is that an acceptable program yes okay so it's a matter of timing it's not about the program okay can we agree with that yes yes okay cool all right so then how much time do we want to get we're going to have a special meeting probably next week sometime for superintendent search why don't we put that on the agenda give them till next week and see how it has worked out is that acceptable Miss scurby we have a motion and we're going to have to vote on it or we're going to have to resend it but miss gerby yes yes and I think I had I had emailed um you and the administration and asked for and and this would help us as board members understand what is

122going on if we could get a report maybe a weekly report in our you know confidentials that we get with how many students are quarantining how many are on home instruction and the date the home instruction began you know that will give us a clear picture of what's going on and I think that would be helpful to to for us to decide so that'll be the next motion let's deal with what we've got either we vote on this the way Mr ninski has proposed or he resends it and we give them another week to work it out or not so Mr ninski it's your motion vote on and Mr Gagliardi if I am if I am making any errors in this please speak up okay are we are we okay so far we're okay so

123far okay it's your call I don't know I say vote on it okay there's a vote on so Mr Gorski if you'll please call the RO but we have to know exactly what the resolution yeah I need a more clear resolution nensy what is exactly is your just uh have like a virtual option for the kids for an intera actions with the interactions with interaction with the teacher that that's going to be a challenge I'm just putting everything's a challenge so well I'm not going to have kids sitting at home for seven days and twirling their thumbs and this would be instead of the home instruction yes about until the home instruction is Implement yeah what about until home instruction can be implemented yeah we could amend that to that that so now we're back

124both things again until home instruction is but you still have to have a time limit until what does that mean like after 40 after 48 hours if it's not implemented home instruction then it's Remote Full remote with interaction that I can until home instruction starts I think that's fair the istically it might be difficult but that's your motion um I second Madam Madam for for clarity and and uh accurate minute keeping I ask the gentleman to please uh slowly repeat his Motion in the form of a motion so that I can capture all of the components you make Okay I uh propose a motion for um virtual option wait after if if within 48 hours if home instruction is not hasn't started then it's full remote with interact interacted with this with the teacher until

125home instruction is implemented virtual home instruction virtual home instruction may I repeat that go ahead motion moved by Mr nensy for a virtual option within 48 hours if home instruction hasn't started and it will continue until home instruction can begin the the motion was if home instruction has not commenced within 48 hours right right if if home instruction has not commenced within 48 Hours the student should be offered a virtual uh option with the classroom teacher until such time as home instruction begins is that correct Mr Nick atinsky with interaction of The Home Room teacher is that it yes Madam may I try that again please U motion made by Mr Nick kinsky for a virtual option if home virtu option with interaction if home instruction hasn't begun within 48 hours and it will conclude

126until home instruction can begin it will continue until home instruction can begin and I think the motion needs to identify that this is for quarantine students that's how this began you didn't say who it's for quarantine students it's for students who are quaran that we're that the district is forcing to quarantine for period of time and this is the nature of the instruction they're going to be offered I didn't I didn't hear that as part of uh yeah yes it's for a quarantine students M Armenia this is May I yes please Mr chero you seem to be all over the place where we can't even come up with what we're what we're trying to do here I think we should take a little break on this let go to public forum let the let let

127the public speak and then come back to the next for T come back to later today when we could maybe I think better I agree but the motion is on the table I think we have to to v on it and it's been seconded we're going to try to do parliamentary procedure here on can we wait until after the so right so hang hang just hang on I'll I'll handle the Parliamentary aspect of it so there's a motion on the table if the motion is not seconded the board need not need not do anything if the motion is seconded then um whether it's Mr cherella or someone else can make a motion to table if there's no motion to table that the board is going to vote so Mr tiella you did you want to

128make a motion to table it until after the public portion or table it yes I'd like to I'd like to make a motion to table this until we can come up with a better not maybe not a better motion but codify it come up with some real meat and ideas about what we're trying to do here because kids are our our children are impacted so if we're getting rid of home instruction and we're going to put a virtual option in only and they're just going to watch or we're going to do a hybrid and we're really not nailing down exactly what we're going to do well tomorrow's going to come and these things are going to be implemented and if we make a mistake on this tonight or right now we're going to deal with

129it tomorrow and we're going to be impacting children we should not be you know on the Fly motions and things like that I I get they have a place and time for smaller budgetary items maybe and things like that but not when you're you're not when you're dealing with potentially sick children all right there's a table it's there's a table on the so we have to vote on the on whether we table this or not that's there's no discussion M we need a second I'll second table that please no hang on one second we need a second on the motion before we can consider the motion at table there's no Mr Tano did second it but I don't know if he seconded final Mr Tano okay so there's a motion on the floor there's been

130a motion to table and Mr rucky seconded Mr rusy seconded the motion to table is that correct sir correct okay so that means there's going to be a roll call and a motion to table no further discussion right table until when there's a motion to table till next meeting or until after public forum yeah that's what I was going to sayest wait for a week and do it Mr cherella table it until after the for the public for or just table it yes I I'd like to be honest I'd like some time to think about it I'd like to hear if there were people in the public who but that does just answer the question the table it for the meeting tonight or table it until after public portion after public form okay okay is

131that the motion you seconded sir um not exactly but I will second that motion okay I'll stick with that all right so now there's a motion to table until after public comment on the floor it's been seconded parliamentary procedure there's no discussion there's just a yes or no vote on the motion to take okay Miss scurby how do you vote Yes Mr rutsky yes Mr poori yes Miss seagull yes Mr Tano yes Miss Belo yes Miss Beerman yes Mr Chella yes Mr ninski yes Madam president yes motion passes to table until after public forum okay so uh do we have any other I do I have I I didn't finish though Michelle I'm sorry it's it was a long uh meeting um so then we also talked about policy number 16483 School employee vaccination requirement

132um that is a mandated policy and I know Dr alvik was working on um the I guess how we were going to implement that we didn't we haven't heard how that's going to happen do we have any update on that the update that I heard from the county superintendent on Friday is that we should be hearing from the state this week sometime about um a company that can come in and do the testing for us okay so that's going to be what we're going to put in our policy then will be that a company will be coming inh housee to do well right now the policy is just the general policy once we get the actual plan of what's going to happen hopefully that's what's going to happen that a company is going to come

133in from the state um then that would be the appendix a for that policy but okay but I think what was discussed at policy was that we were just going to vote on the the general policy that we have to put this this in place tonight and then appendix a would be voted on next month okay uh well that has to be put in place by October 18th yes what's mandatory by the state right but I don't have the information yet from the state well I okay other districts do have plans in place already for how they're going to be testing and and what they're going to be doing no district has been notified from the state yet of what the company they they're coming up with their own plans themselves based on there were

134two options this is what I discussed at policy also there were two options a district could say they wanted option one which is where a company the state would have a company come in and work with us to put it in place if a district already had a testing procedure in place they could choose option two which the state would then just give them funds to help them with their option two since we didn't have one in place I picked option one and that's what I was told last Friday by the county superintendent is that we would hear this week about the company in place in in addition to that that what I have done is I have already started Gathering the information about how many staff members are not vaccinated so I already have

135a list of exactly who so far need needs will need testing the week beginning October 18th okay and what is that number uh right now it's at 184 I'm still waiting on some staff members to respond there's a small number that we have that has not responded to yet I I if we don't get the final number by F their final answer by Friday they're going to be added to the list um because I I won't have any other way of knowing so they will be added to the list there because I'm waiting for the state to give us that information on uh uh the company to come in I have also reached out to three other companies that will come in and do testing for us once a week um but again the question

136is the cost because the district is now responsible for this cost so my hope is that we get the com the state to come in because otherwise we're going to have to do bid okay and we're going to have that all set the 18th it has to be okay all right the other policy that we discussed was policy and regulation um 52000 attendance that we had discussed about the Integrity pledge that was um put out for the high school students um and there was questions that had brought up about what was an excused absence and unexcused and in the policy it was um I had mentioned that in the policy it does say that a parent note for um a medical reason why you're not in school is an excused absence and I know that

137um previously uh there have been times at the high school where a parent note uh was not acceptable to excuse an absence that it was only a medical note so I know Dr alvik you said you were going to reach out to the administrators I did I already had a meeting with them and and that would be now accept that apparent apparent note can excuse a medical absence at the high school okay great thank you um and then there was on for a second reading tonight is regulation 7510 use of school facilities that's where we made the it was already a first reading we haven't changed anything so that's for a second reading for tonight tonight um and then there were a few other mandated policies from St Esme that were on here with um

138minor wording changes um the surrogate parent and Resource Family parents eligibility of Resident non-resident students education of homeless children um and then as I mentioned there is a list of policies to be abolished they can be abolished with one reading uh this evening okay that concludes my report any questions all right let's move on to the public for like I'm sorry Mr oh I'm sorry Mr T you're very quiet tonight go ahead you are buildings buildings grounds of Transportation was Wednesday September 14 September 14th we had three items on the agenda um I I opened the meeting and asked Mrs Chanley uh Middle School principal Mr Higgins and Mr Sidler the Middle School assistant principles to begin the discussion relative to adverse effects of removing the sixth grade from the Middle School Mrs Chanley advocated

139on behalf of her administrative team to keep the sixth grade in the Middle School configuration she presented that there were many positive considerations for such including the social and emotional benefits for students the close proximity to the high school for sharing of programs and services the Middle School current building configuration which mimics the high school the three years that the students attend the middle school provides for a smooth transition to high school and all six Academic Teams teams including area Specialists will be located in the same building Miss Chanley also mentions mentioned the detriments of pulling out sixth grade including consideration for the teaching staff indicating that you just can't move teachers within departing grade levels um because of C certifications and other uh reasons Miss chair disclaimed that although she is not an architect

140they would need to add additional cafeteria they would need to add an additional cafeteria to the back of the middle school and create at least eight additional classrooms or more to replace the trailers she mentioned that whatever the plan would be it would have to include enough classroom space and comply with the New Jersey Department of facilities requirements I also asked if there were any administrative questions from Dr alvic Mr Gorski or Mr Layman all presented that questions and concerns including the magnitude of students that would be project projected to be in the Middle School which could exceed 2100 Miss Chanley stated that numbers would be manageable and that the team uh that with a team approach to instruction and with the addition of an with the addition of an additional cafeteria additional classrooms as

141per deal requirements and applicable staff the second item on the agenda was the school opening Transportation update I introduced Miss Kathy McDonald director of transportation to provide a school opening Transportation update Miss McDonald highlighted for the committee all of the efforts to prepare the opening which began before June Miss McDonald uh informed the committee that her office updated all the current routing requirements uh for all the new enrollments and construction she also discussed how the six contracted routes with middle County Education Service Commission didn't receive any bids despite being put out to bid twice with the board's understanding Miss McDonald brought the routes back inhouse by deploying every bus and hiring six drivers miss m Miss McDonald indicated uh that despite customary challenges that are inherent with the first day of school the transportation office

142has ironed out many of the problems leading to many of the buses arriving on time to schools Miss McDonald also notified the committee of the extreme National driver shortage which she remedied by S sitting drivers from other districts to work in Monroe Miss McDonald indicated that this district is still challenged by culdesac which prohibit 54 passenger buses from entering because there isn't enough space to turn around and with a turning radius uh radius due to the new buses being 43 43 ft long a typical culdesac is 40 to 45 ft and when you consider obstacles such as Park cars Landscaping Vehicles garbage cans snow it reduces the turning radius even more the only the only alternative would be to call the police to assist them when backing up of the bus because of the danger

143and uh in invisibility involved the committee members expressed application appreciation for the update and her understanding for reason why the 54 bus passenger buses cannot uh enter a Colac safely um on the third item and the last item on the agenda was the flashing School traffic safety lights project at the middle school and the high school um Mr gski updated the committee that the four flashing safety lights posted uh have been installed the contract of Quality Electric is scheduled to final inspection with Monro Township building depart department for later this week once the inspections are improved the flashes will be energized and made operational Administration is now seeking for cost reimbursement from the township of approximately $110,000 that concludes the report thank you any questions any questions for Mr mam president I have a couple

144of questions Mr POI um Mr Gorski is is it three or four signs I I recall three Peter one on Schoolhouse Road and another one on pinville road coming from both sides is there a fourth one um far as I know it was two as well that's what we we had discussed two locations three did you say two I I think it was right there's three there's one on parentville and two on School House right doesn't matter but I'm glad to see that and people see when they're coming in uh they were installed and they they've been operational this week so you can actually see the speed right one question I have um I'm going to be on this for the next two months so bear with me please about the plans for building the

145new school in 2019 we had an ad hoc committee that made a recommendation and I'm not sure if that has been taken into consideration by the building grounds and transportation even with some of the modifications that have been discussed the time is running out on us to do something with that the second thing is I missed the last board meeting so I apologize for that but there was some communication in the electronic media about adding a upstairs or next floor on the middle school did the facilities manager Jerry T actually say that that's feasible because I recall in 2016 I don't know where you got that information from but we didn't speak about a second floor on the middle school at all okay good because I'm very concerned if somebody's is is proposing to add

146any additional capacity on the middle school no we actually didn't discuss anything at the middle school during that meeting and you know yeah say no more Peter that that's how the social media and Facebook is in these days in our town so I I anything else that's okay may I but I I just like to add to that we we had Miss Chanley here because uh like Paul had pointed out it's it's best to ask the experts so she runs her school in in my opinion excellent and she knows better than anyone what her school needs so that's why I decided to invite her here and she told us that she would like to uh add in a a second Cafeteria on the back of the of the school and eight classrooms uh would be

147what she needed so that's what we had discussed but with all due respect Peter uh she's not an architect she's not engineer she didn't say she didn't say how it could be done or if it could be done she just said what she would like to see happen I hear you and I read that she had mentioned that she is definitely not an architect but she does know what her school needs and how it could function best that's the architect's job to design how it could fit in there now I think again and like you said it's it's at a crisis Point we've been at a crisis point for 10 years uh we are constrained by finances but also we are trying to open all options I know we keep talking about different things but

148one of these you know it we're going to make it stick we've we've actually I think the the options or the discussions are pretty good okay go ahead Mr Tiano was there any discussion about Applegarth school there was just some discussion about uh some additions that may be needed at Apple guard school but nothing um decisive the price tag was pretty high on the Applegarth School design and we were a little taken aback by that I think um but you know things have changed in the marketplace Miss scurby go ahead yeah and just to clarify something that Mr poori had asked um I'm not exactly sure exactly which meeting what the date was the meeting but I know that you had specifically asked Mr tag if an addition could be put on the middle school

149and he answered yes or n the bg& meeting that was that was that was the last one he did say he did say that we could the August one not the September one we could expand the Middle School the night that S&P came and presented The Proposal yes so that's where where putting an addition on came from Michelle yes so that's my question like there was a special bg& meeting since the last board meeting and is the board going to get an update on that meeting like so this recap was from the last monthly committee meeting we haven't had any apprisen of the special meeting right I think again because it we were we had a little shell shock we were hoping that the design was going to help us reduce the price of the

150school um so we can get a a referendum done so I think that's you know we're it it it's very difficult I mean we can put a referendum out uh you know as soon as possible but we want the referendum to pass because we've had two failed ones so that's our reality and our reality and our wish list are not really um but to answer your question is another special meeting I I think there should be yeah because the whole Board needs to see what we're up against and I agree you know we've all agreed that it's it's way past time but we we've we've put out referendums and they have failed so we have to address the needs of the students but we also have to make sure that we put something out responsibly

151enough for it to pass this time okay anybody else so if I understand that correctly so that's basically the recap from two bt& meetings ago or the special meeting yes so Applegarth a new building in apple is now right now off the table well no it's not it's $82 million so it's off 84 well 84 million oh my okay yeah so I mean you know let's talk to the public they want to pass it we'll you know we'll get a new it's actually 115 million total that's what all the additions on there school that we need yeah but but the concern Madam president if I may but the concern I think Rupa asked the right question about what are we doing with apple go is that that building is getting to its critical age of

152how you guys want to put up an8 leg I can say this is that we we need to act on it at this point one the other yeah but we have that plan of the Town offered the senior center if it got to the point which no one has said it's at that point or that there's a date of the point where we would have to not educate students in that building and push them somewhere else um Madam president yes Mr Gorski do you recall um at one of our bg& meetings Jerry T had presented us with the cost analysis of everything that needed to be done in the district and I believe the Apple goth um boiler roof whatever renovation needed to be done there came to about $30 million Madam yes Mr Mr

153defano I do remember that meeting and I I could visualize very clearly the worksheet that he put together and it said with Applegarth to be determined he was if he was referencing those core facility items like the boiler it it's possible some of them came to that total right but but the whole point that Mr T made um was where do you draw the line in replacing systems in a school that is entirely Beyond its useful life and the other major component to that was the repairs that have to be done at abalar cannot be done while school is in session because the ground has to be ripped up in the school to run the pipes for the boiler the way the heating system is so they would have to be removed so the problem

154is do we spend estimated $30 million and close down that school for a year while we renovate it or do we spend $80 million to build a new school which will hold more students that is what what the discussion really should be so the last referendum was Mr Gorski do you remember about 75 million 76 million to 70 total referendum last the last referendum we had for both options was about 15 million right so now we have another referendum with the same kind of results in my opinion better than the last referendum for $15 million so that's my take on that we already reduced at $40 million from the first referendum with construction costs probably tripling from the last referendum so I think we are getting a lot more for our money we were told

155for years that if we delay the referendums they're going to be increased by far more money we actually got this referendum cheaper with construction costs tripling it's not a referendum yet but well I'm saying there a there a potential referendum we're getting it with construction with construction costs almost tripled material I should say tripling how many years later and we're still getting everything for $15 which is $40 million cheaper than the first money we asked for so as far as it being expensive everything's expensive you can't even buy a steak without spending $60 nowadays but these things have to be done the longer we wait more kids are coming into the district more expensive it's going to be so in my opinion I think of course there needs to be more discussion and the board

156needs to come to a conclusion and and we need to put out a referendum immediately because the longer we wait the more expensive it's going to become right that's what we've been told Mr G Mr I followed everything you said and I I agree with everything but just one uh comparative difference the last referendum for the high school piece was much more extensive than what is being proposed now this is basically to take some steam out of the top of the pot last time no I I I wasn't I I and I I'm sorry if the public uh or or you misconstrued what I said or misunderstood what I said I should say I understand that was a different project but here we are trying to like you said let the steam out of the

157pot and if we can get that steam out for $115 million and alleviate the stress of the students eating lunch for 20 minutes I think that's what we need to do and in my opinion I think a referendum for 115 in my opinion is reason in today's market and it it should be implemented Mr ruty so just to make sure I understand so Mr ninski said something and it was 115 million for everything so and then now I'm hearing that for the high school part it's not what was originally planned as far as an addition so can I what's what's the piece that is the high school is it trailers or the smaller addition or there there was a I believe a twostory structure going to be put on um on the side of the

158building where The Culinary Kitchen is now we're just going to do additions under the overhang there um where the columns are I don't I don't I believe it was a I'm sorry go ahead thousand student addition cor to the high school before right uh this is a few classrooms that we're talking about on the table now eight right eight but but still with the ability to build on that addition at at a future date again trying to reduce the cost to get a referendum passed and to eliminate as much overcrowding as possible without going for another failed refer because we you know we just can't H we just can't have these the the reality is the reality is we're not getting any relief from the state we're not getting any relief from the township with

159the building so we need to face that reality the kids are not going to stop coming we're going to have a lot of kids coming to this Township with all the construction going on we need to do something and we need to do something immediately right not this is going on way too long I've been on this board for three years and for three years I just keep seeing different people kick the can down the road and we need to do something about it I I I would just take exception to that we're we're not kicking the can down the road we are trying to establish a viable and and uh and I don't mean that would malice I don't mean you're kicking the can down the road with malice or or or or being

160mean or not paying attention to it but it's been delayed for far too long and it needs to be addressed it's a major major major problem in our school district right now can I just can I just extend my question that'll be the end I promise I promise but high school wise so obviously referendums take time to put together take times to get past take time to do the construction is there any discussion we had talked about doing a trailer or a few trailers on at the high school here before Co is there any talk about quickly putting a trailer on to release some of the Steam while you go ahead or that's not I think we were talking about more more permanent modul take longer but make it more permanent right Mr uh Mr

161yeah thank you uh very quickly I just don't want people to be Mis misled uh I'm one of those guys Peter that I said that with the time the cost goes up and it does go up I stand by that statement I don't think we're comparing same two projects here the project the scope has changed completely and I certainly hope it's 115 million for the sake of our kids that the school would be built but some that we need to look at to make sure that the the costs are correct one of the things that are happening right now is that we do put in a lot of contingencies which I question jry take right from the get-go those contingencies have to be reasonable so that you know we can pass a referendum so we're

162all on the same page but we need to compare apples to apples again um I'm starting to get an agenda for next special meeting so I already have three things so can we move on are we done here with this because nothing's going to get established tonight okay I am going to open up the Finance still what do we have Finance one more committee okay come on Mr Chella wake up wake up k Mr tiell are you there sir I am here may I ask you for your Finance report yes you may you give it will you give it yeah we go ahead what's that no go ahead I'm sorry we had three topics uh at the finance meeting on September 14th the not the first one was Kitty Coral we have to change that

163in the minutes or in the uh on the uh agenda on the committee meeting notes and on the agenda item because it says Kitty academy uh we had nonpublic school request from Kitty Corral for various goods and services um so the thing with this is that the way this works is that the the uh the uh public or non-public I'm sorry non-public schools are allowed to ask for funding or financing from the state uh if they're approved that funding or financing then goes to the school district the scho school district then is U mandated to do a couple of things um so once it's approved they have to hold a meeting with that non-public uh entity uh develop an agreement of the uh for the procurement of goods and services for the amount awarded by

164the state and then have it approved by the board by resolution uh and that's going to we're going to approve that later today or tomorrow at this point uh by the and then that has to be done by the end of October and complete the final report uh in the state the New Jersey state home room so the thing to to know about this because I think there was some confusion because we were told that this was actually District funds and it was reducing our a that turned out not to be the case what was actually the case is that once they are approved that money comes to the district then the district uh does the procurement comes up with the solution with with the agreement with the entity and then gets the goods and

165services so in this case uh for security Aid they were awarded $2,625 textbook Aid $900 nursing service Aid $1,680 and Technology Aid was $6 $30 from what I understand when um if if if that Aid is not used by the nonpublic school uh entity then that money goes back to the state so it doesn't it doesn't reside in our budget uh the other the other two things that we discussed was uh action of the District transportation equipment through gub deals so we're going to uh liquidate um or auction off eight buses ranging from 2005 to 2008 they've been taken out of service for a while uh they're beyond their useful life and um oh you know the process is that our mechanics first cannibalize those and then we we put those up for auction in

166the past we' went been able to get some decent amount of money for you know old rusted out hols and things like that buses without seats those kind of things so that resolution will be forthcoming also and then uh the last thing that we discussed was preim Min AR excess Surplus calculation and uh unassigned fund balance so Mr borski handed out the excess fund Surplus calculation schedule in in a draft form and this has been audited by homman brenia and Allison PC uh Mr Gorski presented that excess Surplus calculation for the year ending ending 63021 uh and that is 5, 40,127 uh which is right right now on par with last year which was 5,177 $774 and M Mr Gorski advised the committee that the 2021 ex excess Surplus figure will recycle his Revenue through

167the budget that's it any questions Mr tiell I just have one question so the money that uh the state is essentially awarding to their non-public school entity is not and was never in our budget to begin with it we are just a facilitator for that is that correct that's the way I read it um you know Mr Gorski might may see things in another way but uh from what we were told it was it's actually not it is technically it's our money once it's given to us we can't just write a check to that nonpublic entity and say Here's you know here's $5,000 for example uh we have to go through that procurement process and come up with how they would use it and put all of that together but that's money allocated from the

168state to our budget to then be allocated to that non public entity and then that money if it's not used if we can't come to an agreement or we don't use all of it then that then those dollars uh have to go back to the state for what when you say we don't use all of it you mean our school district or the nonpublic school entity the nonpublic yeah the non-public school they appeal to the state for use of funds essentially and they appealed to the state and the state has some strict criteria so the only one that we that I know of that the finance committee knows of was this was Kitty caral that who who had applied for it and then was um approved Mr Gorski do you want to speak to that

169very briefly Madam the only thing I would say is there's there's two op topics at hand here there's non-public transportation a that the district does receive an award every year we pick it up through an adjustment to the budget the district does keep that money if we don't spend it on nonpublic schools transportation we have over time this is a new Endeavor now where we have a registered nonpublic School in Monroe Township that is requesting four different car categories of goods and services through Aid that we are the recipient of and we have to spend on their behalf and Mr shirel is correct if we do not come to an accord on how to spend the money on their behalf or they don't need it it does go back to the state and the resolution

170tonight is to accept the revenue portion of it as uh I have not come to a complete agreement on the four different types of spending plans yet with Kitty Carell but they are the ones requesting the funds and the amounts of funds as we're as from the state yes okay we're not providing a lumpsum fund they're asking for certain things okay yes all right anyone else Miss scur yeah Michelle so there was some very um negative things put out on social media after the finance committee meeting um so I did I I just very quickly yes I after um this non-public school funding was presented and it sounded like it was coming out of our Aid I did reach out to the Department of Education the gentleman who's in charge of this and if I

171could just read what he wrote um non-public school funding is based on the registered non-public Schools Enrollment account for the previous year so for the year fiscal year 23 the funds are based on the nonpublic schools October 15th 2020 K through2 enrollment nonpublic schools must complete the non-public school enrollment report each year to be eligible for funds all non-public funds go to the school district where the non-public school is located the school district in turn must provide the services to the eligible non-public school students no funds actually go to the non-public schools so you are correct that technically the funds are the districts but it can only be spent on the non-public Services any remaining State funds must be returned to the state after the end of that fiscal year only school districts that have

172non-public schools located within their boundaries receive these funds and only if the non-public school requests These funds through the non-public school enrollment report so I just want to be clear that this is not funding that we were receiving from the state we are not voting to give away our funding that we can spend on our students this is something that they pursued with the state of New Jersey Department of Education this is specifically money that can only be spent on non-public schools and if it's not spent it needs to be returned we cannot spend it okay thank you Mr par very quickly I just want to bring to the to Ken's committee as well as to to our business administrator that the $1.3 trillion jobs act or the family act whatever you want to call

173it already passed the Congress it's it's going to the Senate bill there's quite a substantial amount of money that's going to be allocated for the schools as well whatever we need to do to position ourselves to get as much Pop That Pie as possible please make sure that uh you know we're positioned to do that it may come out in a month most likely by October 30th we can talk about that under new business okay anyone else all right seeing none for sure anybody no other committees let us open to the public forum let me just remind the public that as of um August uh 18th of 2021 our new policy again I will reiterate that we have four minutes uh for the public to speak and again I would like you to remain at

174the podium uh during your uninterrupted for minutes and that is our new policy and please if you have any questions you'll address me as the the presiding officer as the chair and president of the board and then I will um have whoever needs to answer that question answered so please address me and if there you know let's try that we again we want to have a civil discussion and everybody uh to be able to express themselves so what agenda yes and on this occasion of the public forum it is agenda items only yes um good evening Betty saberito to Barrymore Drive I just wanted to ask some questions and um hope that you consider some of the commentary with regard to home instruction versus logging in remotely um I guess my first question is the

175home instruction piece are Subs so to speak that would go in and provide this instruction to the students or it's their actual teacher uh Dr Ali could I ask how are we doing this do you want to stop are we stopping the clock we going to stop the clock y okay um no these are these are actual teachers in our district that have signed up to do the virtual home instruction so we would like it to be The Home Room teacher but it may not be if The Home Room teacher is not interested in doing it okay so that that's a concern I think especially for the elementary school students and most especially our special education students because it was hard to engage them um last year remotely and I understand that home instructions will

176be virtual it will not be in person so that's the piece that I think is concerning that it it'll be a different teaching style these children especially again the little ones and special education will have to pair with this teacher so I'm not sure how efficient that would be and that's what as on a personal note I would prefer the logging into the classroom which I understand is going to be very challenging for the teachers they've had quite a year and you know all our Educators deserve a lot of Kudos um for the year that they've had but I think we also have to keep in mind that we were doing um students logging into their classrooms and towards the end of last school year some schools had half and half students some had most

177remote and some in person some vice versa so we do have the capacity to do this and I personally believe that if we could do this right away because these children have had so much learning loss already as opposed to waiting the 24 or 48 hours so if you guys could just consider that commentary um again for the high school and middle school as well but especially Elementary and special education to work with a teacher remotely that they don't know I'm not sure how effective that instruction would be for them that's all thank you thank you very much next yes please uh say your name and address for our records and would you like us to stop the clock and answer the questions or would you like to get all your questions done and then

178we'll answer them uh all my questions done in fact I want statements yes yes go ahead uh my name is Mary L I'm from 91 Morgan way in Monroe Township um I want to say that we have excellent and uh really good policies and plans for their school reopening on paper but my concern is how many of them are being implemented and uh my major uh concern is with the most important um uh plan which is to that St and it states in your on the website in the reopening plan that all students will be required to wash their hands with soap and water periodically especially before lunch and after using the bathroom and after sneezing and Etc but where is it being applied my first grade daughter went to school she this is the

179first time she stepped into the school this year after remote learning in Kinder Garden she was not told where to go what to do and she and her classmates Go For Recess they use the playground equipment and they come directly for lunch there is no opportunity for them to wash their hands with soap and water which we know is much better than using a sanitizer there is a sanitizer available but there was nobody to guide her there was none on her table so she spent three days eating her lunch with unsanitized hands as a result of which she came back and on and from since last Friday she's not gone to school because she had cold severe cold and watery ice and everything and according to the co checklist which we have to sign every

180morning it says if your child has any of these things please don't send them to school so my daughter has not attended school not because she's quarantined but because she's having cold because of the policies not being implemented and she again is just sitting there for the pass 6 days just just sitting she's just got a cold that's it but she cannot even go to school because with all her mask and all she's so small she cannot blow her nose or do proper sanitization so that's one point the second one is you're again the plan say that wherever possible if children will be made to sit separately and if it's not possible there will be barricades or Plexi card oh sorry Plexi uh the glass and um my son who's in the trailer he sits

181so close close to a desk that when he has to open his binder his hands and arms touch the student beside him the Plexi uh glass is available in the rooms but they are not put on why except in the cafeteria when the Plexi gu uh glass is available why don't you use it why is it not being enforced that is my second the third is as much as I am for masking I I I really am for masking I I I I I like the idea that you should mask but this masking is not working for my kids or even for me when I put my mask on I'm not able to you know relate properly I have to wear my glasses so does my son and he's a very good student but he

182cannot function properly in the daily uh classroom so that is a big problem for us because he's not able to function properly with the mask with the glasses the glasses fogging up not being and there is no yesterday he went to the cafeteria um uh the bathroom there was no no soap even for him there was no soap so this is the condition and after listening to all your discussions I have come to the conclusion that there is you're really we are not prepared we are not prepared and and for you you might take children as percentages and say only oh 1% .1% or only two children are infected but for me and for parents there are children each child is precious so we cannot just throw our children like this and go through this

183stress and I'm speaking on behalf of many parents who have not been able to come here today we are stressed every day when we send our the day my daughter came and she was having the cold none of you were there none of you are going to help me it was only the grace of God and my prayers and really whatever it is really God's grace that she is fine so all and and when some parents have written to you saying that our child has been quarantined we just get had a letter saying oh we are very sorry to know that your child is quarantined that is not acceptable okay thank you and your time is up we're going to try to address those I I don't I which school is your daughter in you

184didn't mention Oak Tre okay I I'll take your concerns back have you reached out to the building Administration no I did not because because a couple of those things could be I wrote to the teacher saying that can you please tell me how the children are supposed to wash their hands after lunch because they go to the resar and use a playground she said no they they're supposed to use a sanitizer okay so what you're saying that there's a discrepancy between what's there is no there is it's not a matter of dis discrepancy there's a matter of not the things not being implemented okay and there is no preparation as we can see because everything is challenging nothing is prepared and I'm talking about every child for me my child is important for you your

185child is important and I'm talking on behalf of every child and we all know that every child reacts and behaves in a different way okay all and for some people so that's what my my request is no I just want to tell you my you're you're repeating it and I just have one request go ahead very my request is since each child is different and Al there are many parents please give us the virtual option who want it okay or think out of the box and do something else but let us not go through this stress every day okay thank you so what is my answer now well your answer is I have to take it back to the schools because I'm that is only one point what about the others what about the masing

186and the virtual option are not something that the district can change that those are executive orders that we have to follow so what about the safety of the children that's why we have the mass in place and that's why we're doing but still things are happening ma'am we have to give the next person a CH we we have taken but I didn't get my answer we won't we may not be able to answer to your satisfaction what we're going about my satisfaction I'm sorry to say that but can you can you ask can you tell me that you'll think about some options we are please well I'm going to have to ask you to take your seat you all took your time to talk all this time till 9:30 and and the rest of the

187public is going to speak as well we we have taken uh notes on and we're going to try to resolve it I get I get it but your time is up so we're going to try to stay strictly to our four minutes and we' given you time you supposed to represent us we are thank you hi Katie Fabiano 19 Patricia place um I have to say that I'm I'm sad for our children I'm sad for our students um the virtual home instruction option clearly is not working the fact that there are students that have gone at least 7 days without any type of instruction is completely unacceptable for an email that I just uh conversation that I had had with Dr Alvi earlier in the week as of Monday I was under the impression that

188we had enough home instructors to cover our needs however it seems that if students are 7 days into what's is their quarantine period and we don't have home instructors for them then do we not have enough and that number is only going to increase if I if I may I am a teacher in a neighboring District so I would like to share what our plan is for students who are in quarantine if that's allowed you have your four minutes so for me we are targeting instruction for students who have to quarantine so they will not be on the computer for the entire school day so if I want to meet with a student during math for that particular math lesson I would ask them to come on to the computer during our math period so

189that I could work with them in a small group setting to Target their math if I want them to log on for reading I would ask them to log on for reading instruction so that I could work with them in a small group or even oneon-one for independent reading time um we're not looking to have them on the computer all day that doesn't help anybody it doesn't help the teacher it doesn't help the student but what we're doing is targeting instruction and still having that child be a part of the classroom so I don't know if that's an option if that's something that you can consider um I I know that like you said teachers don't want to have two jobs I certainly do not want to repeat hybrid instruction again but I have to

190do what's best for my students first and foremost and it's working for them and we're able to transition from in school instruction to home instruction in less than 24 hours we're not waiting 7 days thank [Applause] you hi Kate Ratner to King's Court um my first question and I would like if I can ask the question and then receive the answer with the time stopped if that's okay just to make things easier um is there is there a a reason why teachers are unable to just stream the classes right now just streaming no interaction is there I guess a teachers's union issue with that or something of those sorts because um to me it seems like while things are at least getting set up that's at least something that the student can view in the

191meantime is there a privacy issue Dr Ali with Dr Layman about streaming no there's not and because it wasn't the it wasn't the direction we were going in we were going in the direction of virtual home instruction so rather than do both we were we were moving in the direction of the direction of virtual okay yeah I just figured that's that's an easy thing to do if you're not requiring the teachers to you know interact with that student and you know obviously hopefully the home instruction will get um to where it needs to be soon but at least in that point teachers can teach and student can watch um I think that there were a number of home instructors that were or will be approved today but um if there is you know a lack

192of home instructors available has there been um anyone looking into maybe outside agencies that can do home instruction if we're underst staffed for that there's not a lack of of teachers it was the timing of getting it in place okay we have right even right now we have 74 students around home instruction we have over that I don't even know what the number is of the the teachers that were approved last month and this month okay um moving on to something kind of separate um with the mask wearing you know I think we all want kids safe I I really don't think anybody does not want children safe I I mean I really hope not um you know I do think it's crazy that if I take my child to Hershey Park that's fine and

193they can come back to school the next day but if I go to visit you know a relative's home in Maryland she has to stay home for a week even if we don't go anywhere but I realized that is where we are right now um I guess my question um in regards to maske wearing is if a child um is not wearing a mask due to medical concerns are they being allowed in school or are they home um they have to go through the nurse's office and if it's a documented medical need that's approved by the the coming from a physician going through our physician then they are allowed to come to school okay um if that's the case are those students being socially distanced further than those students wearing masks I guess my concern

194is from what I've been told the mask protects the people around you and not necessarily you know yourself so if my daughter let's say is sitting next to a student who's not wearing a mask due toal concern then my daughter's at risk because that child's not wearing a mask and then it kind of puts the whole reason for wearing the mask to you know to the side so is there anything that's being done to help keep you know those children safe as well social distancing okay um and uh I guess just my um my last thing was kind of just in terms of building and grounds um I know that there was the uh moving the sixth grade down to the elementary school potential um when I was teaching for 10 years 5 years we

195had K to five and then in the sixth year they had to move the sixth grade down to the elementary school um kind of for the same reasons facing concerns um they um there were a lot of issues that came with that um curricular co-curricular issues but also a lot of behavior management issues so there were additional resources that were needed to take care of those I don't even have a a teenager yet or a tween yet she's getting there but um I taught several of them and you know there's obviously a lot more behavior management issues that can come along with that um so that's just something I wanted to say um and then I also just wanted to know if there have been like Community Based schools looked into like K to five

196schools instead um I know that a lot of districts do K to 5 or k to six my mom teaches in Elizabeth they K to8 and I just feel like there's less transition so the kids get used to the teachers the staff the administration and it's also less strain on busing because the kids live closer to the school um and it just creates more of a a family environment I'm not really sure how much it would help in terms of you know space but I was just wondering if that's something that has been considered it's been considered it's been discussed at multiple ad hoc committee meetings I mean I've been in the district for 18 years and I've heard it at a lot of ad hoc committee meetings in the past I know the community

197has wanted the the the um the sister schools and we've done that um it would require some changes to some of our schools because there are different requirements for kindergarten classrooms versus upper grade classrooms right so but it's something if the board could consider that but it has been discussed in the past okay I just also know busting sometimes is a concern so that might take the strain off there just a bit um I think that's all for me thank you very much thank you very much hi U my name is Krishna from 92 morganway your last name sir uh Krishna ramaswami do you need you so first of all okay yeah I want to talk about the motion that's know about to come up so I I feel the same way as the previous

198person we should have uh the streaming for quarantined uh students as well as the instructions because streaming they could watch until they know get to the instructions I just wanted to express my view on it uh secondly know you mentioned about some executive order but I hear um you know some School District nearby U Robinsville looks like they went hybrid or know they did some virtual so I don't know based on what the execu order they went so I would like to hear about it like you know why it's possible for one Township and not for montro to go into hybrid is your question who's the district yeah hybrid or virtual I heard Robinsville is not hybrid Robinsville I actually live in Robinsville the elementary school in Robinsville is still in person the high school

199had three SE I think it was three separate outbreaks so they've gone to Virtual School for a week all students are virtual it is not a hybrid option and it is only a short term because of the outbreaks okay uh thanks on that uh how about like you know what if this major outbreak in our Township like what's the plan how will that be addressed we would have to do the exact same thing that Robinsville is doing I'll be prepared because I see that know we don't seem to be prepared for even the U quarantine students so you know how are we like you know do we have have a plan in place are we prepared or is that going to take 48 hours or 7 to as whatever you know are we prepared to

200do it right away or it would move it would just move directly the teachers would be teaching virtually instead of in their classroom okay thank you that's follow the same schedules as as what we're following now okay thank you thank you good evening my name is Sarah shama 15 you get a little closer sure can you hear me yeah okay Sarah trama 15 Edward Avenue um I have a son in Woodland and a son in the middle school at sixth grade uh they've had a fantastic experience coming back to school they're thrilled and they're thriving and they're doing great um my concerns have to do with the um quarantining so we have a neighbor unfortunately Tuesday of last week four days into school she gets the call that her kid was exposed at lunch and

201there's been no instruction ever since so I followed up with her before I came to the meeting because she can't be here to represent herself um to find out has she had any instruction unfortunately up until this point she has not had any virtual instruction um at home it's been all assignments over Google classroom and there has been no teacher contact so this is my concern and I think that the motion that was brought to the table was a really good one that you should be considering something to let the children go live right away so I'm sorry you get the call you're you know and it's going to happen to all of us at some point your kid has been exposed they need to stay home okay but by the next morning they should

202be able to log into their classroom and stay a breast of what's happening and I think that if you can do that up until the first you know 72 48 Hours whatever it is until you can get the home instruction in place would be a good service to our children you know it's one thing that you know and I do agree with you the one-on-one contact is definitely a better option for the two hours and them sitting in front of the screen for six without the contact but they have to have something up until that point so if you can really reconsider that motion of you can go remote and listen in until your home instruction is set up hopefully within the 48h hour window and if that could be the motion I think that

203that would be a successful one um my other you know issue that I wanted to bring to the table was also the travel that Miss scurby brought up earlier um I'll be honest with you we intend to go to Mexico the week the first week of November um now I'm reconsidering it because I don't know about what's going to happen when my kids come back so you know international travel you know forces you to um take a test 3 days before you come back into the United States so as long as my test is negative I'm allowed to board the plane and come home so what is the concern if I'm traveling internationally and I'm allowed to get on that plane and come home is it are you worried that I'm going to pick something

204up in nework by the time I get my luggage and come back to my house that they can't come to school on Monday um so that is definitely something that I am concerned about and would like a better resolution to I know you said some towns are not quarantining at all post travel I'll be honest also we were away right before school started I didn't know anything about the travel quarantine you know but my kids started school the first day they were home one week later um thankfully we were fine we were traveling in the South but it wasn't a big deal and we were fine we masked the whole time and there was no issue so I I think that's stuff that needs to be considered so that you're not getting this large group

205of children who are going to be quarantined because a lot of us do vacation that week of November when you have the teacher days off um so I do think that that should be readdressed and thought of some other way that may be satisfactory to all the parents and the students to make sure that they are continuing their education and that we're not getting that regress that we had that's it thank you next please hi uh Jeremy Marcus 27 mcfaden so thank you for allowing me to speak again for the third time in four months my simple wish of turning the clock back to 2019 not you use your microphone a little bit go a little slower so just some background on me I'm a buyer for my business I employ 15 people it's my

206job to see and identify Trends in products and capitalize on them I did it for years before prior to my current business in financial world so if I'm really good you know I see things and we do really well so paradigm shift that I saw happening last June I told whoever would listen that the njaa was going to collapse the government schools in New Jersey and it's happening quicker there are pods and co-ops opening up everywhere all over the state there are active fund the student not the system pieces of legislation in close to 30 States today Congressman Dan Bishop introduced two bills allowing families to take their federal education dollars somewhere else if their government School advances critical race Theory or mandates masks so you see the UFT was dictating CDC School masking policy

207last in February and just this past month it was reported that the Nea which is the parent of the njaa has been doing the same so I can guarantee you a million percent that every executive order that's come out of Trenton has been run by the njaa according to a recent poll on nj.com 67% of parents support masking yet only 43% support the mandated Jabs so how do you think this ends every parent has their line right for some it's the mask and they've pulled and they homeschool and they're doing their thing for some it's the 10 or 14 day quarantine and we've heard plenty about that tonight um and for most of us it's the jab so you can spend all this time talking about you know IAD rental fees and referendums doesn't matter

208because if 43% of parents only 43% support the Jabs they're going to pull their kids and they're going to eat the tax dollars they're going to do homeschooling there's so much curriculum online it's everywhere and then they're going to move to Florida they're going to move to South Carolina move to Georgia or Texas or Tennessee so you mentioned earlier that there's 84 um I guess Monroe employees or or teachers or whatever it is who are unvaccinated at this point is that was that the right number so I looked on Wikipedia there's about 530 uh total full-time employees there might be more you know more or less but that's from a couple of years ago that's a big number so what if 5% call out on October 18 there's actually 1500 employees in our district that

209this executive order effects okay so you're looking at I mean about 15% okay it's a big number mhm right so with 5% call out like the NYPD has the blue flu right they they all call out if they're you know new negotiating tactics um you know what if they call out on October 18th Monday morning the districts you know have to go remote instantly right what if they don't want to be tested what if they don't want their unvaccinated colleagues to be forced into something knowing that they may be forced into something in the future right it's a very very slippery sloper going down here so according to reason magazine article I read year-over-year government School enrollment is down 3% Nationwide prek and kindergarten enrollment in schools was down 13% the Catholic schools were shutting

210their doors 2 years ago now they're turning kids away right 133% is a big number so once these parents find that these pods and co-ops and homeschooling not as challenging at they may have anticipated this the funding that we get it just goes away it gets less and less every year so there's Paradigm shifts they happen slowly and they happen all at once so years ago they used to be sold these department stores and now everything is on Amazon and you can't even go to a mall cuz they're all closed and had it to happen nobody really remembers it just happened so the time for voting and petitions and letters and begging for freedom for our kids is done so the only way to get out of this uh because they're going to continue to

211push the masks and the vaccines and the endless boosters and the swab testing um they're going to push for this forever this is never going to end so just you know some background um 1930 Mahatma Gandhi LED 78 people on a 240m March to the Arabian Sea of klex salt British made it illegal and very expensive for Indians to own he was joined along the way by 30,000 people so this peaceful and nonviolent Act of Civil Disobedience started the collapse of the British Empire 17 years later India was independent 1955 a Montgomery school girl refused to give up her seat on a on a city bus to a white woman she was arrested and thrown in an adult jail Rosa Parks was a much bigger deal but it happened N9 months later so that all

212led to the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and overturning all the Jim Crow laws so our teachers have taught and celebrated these people Mr Marcus your time is up can you just finish your statement right how not another not another page just the end of that page that you have no problem so if your kid is uncomfortable wearing the mask right it's just one kid they can stop you they can stop 10 they cannot stop 100 and they certainly cannot stop 1,000 the only way out of this is a critical mass of non-compliance Civil Disobedience has always been the only way out the masks do nothing we know this thank you very much the Jabs do nothing they know this also thank you thank you next was any right well I wasn't going to say

213anything but you guys took so long with all that other business I jotted a few things down address please sir it's coming it's coming okay we're waiting we're waiting okay I'll keep you waiting no longer Tom motard 668 spots with English Town Road Monroe obviously go ahead I'll be right with you okay okay so I'm sorry last month's meeting I might have slipped and said the s word here or there please understand I'm passionate about this as everyone should be with our children so much so that unlike as as as I expressed last time I don't study this topic on CNN or any propaganda Network on the T Live Vision they're called programs for a reason but rather I watch interviews and read data from actual scientists biologists veristo Prize winners I might add not

214to mention whistleblowers from Big Pharma uh from Big Pharma and hospitals too raised by a pharmacist and a pharmacy owner I grasp what I take in rather naturally people are awake when will we be asymptomatic spread is untrue thus no symptoms no spreading this like touches on the whole quarantine stuff I don't want to use that s word again the PCR test which built the scary fear cases uh that have created this circus we're living in uh the inventor himself as well as the CDC now gets that they can be easily manipulated and uh to the to to the point that they're discontinuing them in January if you didn't know that yet they like I say quietly admit stuff they are so manipulated you know that to the point where 94 to 97% of all

215cases were false positives meaning you're you're going to start tracking and tracing kids let's look down the the road real quick like like someone just said here their kid had to leave because they were around someone bogus lockdowns are for criminal inmates quarantines are for sick people masks are for Halloween by the way has anyone here looked into how covid even affects children even young adults I'll give you a hint it barely does if we can't handle this and see it for what it is the masks and all this crap how are we going to deal with next month or whenever politics and government have us debating the mnna shot notice I didn't say vaccine because by definition it is not unless you go by the new definition they made up for this very roll

216out kind of like they did with her immunity now literally they say it only occurs when the masses take the experiment with that I'm going to wish you a good night I didn't eat dinner tonight I wanted to see what was going on it looks like same old same old here wepes I can no would you like the mic white since people are taking off their masks I'm I'm fine you're fine with it yes my name is Jif for Edelman I live at 48 cherry blossom I just have a question first with the quarantine for travel are children that quarantined due to travel also allowed to get the home instruction right now yes yes okay my concerned with that is from hearing everything that was said tonight like a lot of people spoke about that

217first week in November I hundreds of children are going to be out that week in November for travel if we're already having issues with being able to get the home instruction implemented right now with you know just a few days into school without really a travel becoming an issue into that how is that you know is the district going to be able to handle the amount of children that are going to come back that second and third week in November or in December when there's hundreds of students out you know for travel if we're already having issues with it now being able to get these children instruction when we start getting inated with the travel students as well as the covid students out for quarantine I really don't you know I would like to just

218know that there is a plan in place and that these children are going to get home instruction or some type of instruction I really think it's going to become overwhelming thank you um I I just have a a question then perhaps um we we no not for but thank you thank you um perhaps and I don't know that we've ever done this before because it's a private issue but if if the public is saying that we think that there's going to be a lot of travel maybe we should ask the parents to uh register with us that there will be traveling out and so we can have an idea because it really is they do they do yeah that is part of it we do ask for them to let us know because they're going

219to be absent okay so oh the children will be absent but but we don't know we don't know if they're traveling out of state they usually report that to the to the school okay so then we would have some idea of how many children will be quarantined when they when they come back okay thank you for that information gazala Bora one mik drive um I want to start by addressing the virtual instruction issue because there's a table motion right now and I'm not asking questions I don't need answers I just wanted to say that um I'm grateful my kids are back all three of them are back in school and they're having a normal experience um but we are all sitting ducks we need knew going in that there was a possibility of five kids

220getting exposed there was a possibility of hundreds of kids getting exposed we did not plan right we did not plan right because I and I'm saying that because I personally know of three children who've been quarantined either due to exposure in school or exposure out of school who've not had any virtual instruction but worse than that and any virtual instruction for over 5 days some have not had anything for 7 Days these are both elementary and middle school children and that's not the worst part of it worst part of it is that the staff and the school administration are all giving mixed signals so we don't have a protocol in place where once that exposure has happened and the child has been sent back to school or the school has called and informed within 24

221hours there should be a detail letter to the parents telling them what to expect why are parents chasing after teachers and AD administrators to find out what is going to happen when our Administration has said we have enough virtual instructors at this time there is an email from Dr alvish from September 20th that to a parent saying that they have enough virtual instructors yet there are kids whove not had instruction for seven days I understand that every grade level leads a different kind of an instructor but we had enough time over summer to prepare for this and we did not and that's my comment as a public that because we didn't do the due diligence and there is a chance a possibility still very real that a lot of kids could be out due to

222exposure I think it's only fair that we make the remote option available to the parents as soon as the kids are um sent out due to exposure uh my second comment again I'm not looking for answers and this comment is because we have selective memories and I have stood at this forum plenty of times and I've sat as student growth advisory committees ad hoc committees where I've been lied to plenty of times I want to say something very sadly as a taxpayer four years ago I said our high schools are overcrowded 5 years ago and we're not being able to offer our children the classes they need I was told I'm lying today not today sorry last week a curriculum supervisor said that when Mr Puli asked her about a class that we should be

223taking a very you know it was a very good suggestion and at that the discussion started and she said we could offer a lot more classes if we had the room but that's not even about offering additional classes my freshman was was not able and not just him there was a huge chunk of freshman children that were not offered AP Computer Science principle which believe me in today's world we should be able to offer that to every student who wants that class but a majority of freshman class was not offered that why because we don't have the space for it we don't have the teachers for it for whatever reason we whatever I was saying four years ago my child is now facing that and I wasn't at that time talking for my child I

224was talking for children who were in high school at that time at also in September 2016 we should have been discussing whether the middle school can be extended whether we can put those eight classrooms in the cafeteria and whether we can put a cafeteria in the back but in September 2016 we were told very adamantly Mr Gorski did that Mr take did that Middle School cannot be extended so we're going to put a $68 million referendum out there because this just cannot be extended we can I know of so many people who stood here and gave creative ideas about expanding the Middle School who were told sorry it is not possible we were lied to and I want people to remember that that now when we plan this we have to do the due diligence

225as a board and I thank the board for asking these tough questions in the last meeting so that we actually heard here in this room that yes middle school can be expanded okay thank thank you thank you Brian Fabiano 19 Patricia please the administration of this District honestly should thank God that they don't work in public in a public company because the security here would be walking you out and your admins would be packing up your box and send it them in the mail I think the one the one person here in the public who said spoke and said it perfectly is you have a plan on paper and you failed to execute our kids are sitting at home not being educated because they're being forced to quarantine because this District refuses to follow the

226New Jersey Department of Health guidelines like most other districts around us are following why are we following the CDC guidelines when we should be following the Department of Health guidelines just like our neighboring districts I'll stop there pause the time and I'd like an answer Dr Al as I read earlier the New Jersey Department of Education the the Department of Health New Jersey Department of Health guidelines New Jersey restrictions says to follow the CD recommendations okay so the start the clock so the model School District that the governor came out and did his reopening speech in East Brunswick who is following the department of Health's guidelines they're wrong stop the clock I don't know I'm I'm I told you that that's that the reason we're following the CDC guidelines is because that's what's on the

227State website and says we should follow start the clock are we allowed to follow the department of Health's guidelines stop the clock the Department of Health guidelines are saying to are are recommending to follow the CDC guidelines start the clock the department of Health's guidelines clearly don't have any quarantine guidelines for travel for instance so our neighboring districts I'll use East Brunswick again as an example kids can travel domestically they can travel internationally they can come back to school as soon as they come back so are they wrong I'm not going to speak about another District got it so what I would employ the the board to do here is to bring a motion to the table to follow the Department of Health guidelines not the CDC guidelines and clearly many other districts around us

228are doing it many who are way farther ahead of us not only in our reopening plans but have much older buildings than ours that aren't falling down that have been able to be maintained that have education and scores that are surpassing ours but we magically have all of the answers always and I guess we can't confer even though we hear it here time after time that meet with the superintendent the county superintendent and we talk to other districts but time and time again we go off on our own path which honestly seems to be failing when it comes to the motion brought to the table tonight I think it makes sense we need to have kids immediately if they're going to be forced to quarantine immediately be able to view their classes the sad reality

229is I don't think we can go any any further than that in terms of having any interactions because the the simple fact fact is we failed to deliver a simple plan to have kids have remote instruction in 48 hours so if you're looking to go anything more complex than that it would be a miracle a miracle that would probably Lift us all out of our seats here when I tap this desk to be able to make that happen so if you think that's going to happen I would not bring any motion any complex motion to the table because this Administration does not have the ability to deliver it time and time again we sit here and the administration is is surprised by what the parents bring and what the community members bring they don't understand

230what's going on so I like the motion the kids should be able to go in immediately uh when they're quarantined to be able to see the class but I think if you get too complex kids are not going to get an education at all uh finally my last comment uh is about the building of of the school I think it's more and I'll stop here it's more than just $15 million price tag honestly I think if you put another $15 million referendum out it'll fail so it's it's not just about comparing prices it's comparing what we need as a district if we're doing it fiscally responsibly and if it's addressing the needs moving sixth graders out of the Middle School creates more downward pressures that I don't think we're evaluating so I think it's much

231more than just to say if we have a cheaper plan let's rush it out and it's going to pass okay thank you hello I'm Sarah aiz three laon slot drive I have some concerns about our facilities issues in 2020 the board paid around $100,000 to Architects engineers and other Professionals for a design study to come up with a cost estimate of three options to deal with our overcrowding problem and the majority of the board appeared to support a plan to replace Applegarth School build additions onto Barkley Brook and Brookside and move sixth grade to the Upper Elementary School however this plan was tabled due to the pandemic and the state of the economy when the new board took office it paid Architects Engineers or another over $100,000 for updated costs in these additions and the

232replacement of appleg Guard School using the same Architects as the Claremont School in Franklin Park the architect said that the earliest that we can have a referendum on the table is September 2022 but to do that we would need to hire a demographer right away um when these Architects came up with a price tag of $84 million for the replacement of Applegarth School the board appeared to lose interest in this plan and support a plan to expand the Middle School while it is possible to expand the middle school this plan has been rejected by three different superintendents because of safety issues specifically they said that building behind the school would affect uh uh safety when when it comes to the bus lanes um it could lead to overcrowding the hallways and uh create a dangerous

233evacuation situation in case of an emergency but to further explore this idea of expanding the Middle School the board would probably have to pay for another design study paying Architects and Engineers another at least $50,000 to uh explore this plan this means that the board will have spent over $250,000 over two years paying Architects Engineers for various design studies with nothing to show for it so far it is now late September no demographer has been hired and the departure of Dr alvic will make it nearly impossible to have a new referendum ready by September 22 in the meantime the Administration has said that the 1936 roof on Applegarth needs to be replaced but that roofers are so afraid to make repairs onto the roof for fear of damaging it further mechanics have also said that

234we need to replace appleg guard's 84 year-old boiler be or it won't pass inspection next year Applegarth is heated by oil and not natural gas and our insurance carrier said they might not want to insure our underground storage tank next year due to due to its age and without insurance the state will not let us operate the school furthermore experts have said that we cannot renovate Apple Guard School when it is in use so it will have to be done in in the summer if it can be done at all there's a very real chance that Applegarth school will not pass inspection next year or face catastrophe of the roof or boiler fail the board had has not ordered repair estimates on the Apple guard school and has not hired a demographer that we would

235need if we were to replace the school in a referendum um you know uh the board really needs to get his act together to make important decisions to avert a catastrophe at Applegarth School school and the demographer needs to be hired right away the overcrowding problem is our most serious problem and we can't assess the scope of the problem without a demographers report our latest figures are from 2019 and if for 2022 referendum we would need updated numbers finally at the last uh bg& uh at a recent bg& meeting we heard a len lengthy explanation as to why sixth grade should remain in the middle school and when asked Dr alvik and Dr Layman said said that there was research to support both keeping sixth grade in the middle school and keep and moving it

236to the upper elementary school but we never really heard the argument for moving it to the upper elementary school so when I researched it I discovered that from an extracurricular perspective it is beneficial for sixth graders to be in the middle school with seventh and eighth graders but from an academic perspective it's better for them to remain in the upper elementary school and that students who stay in the Upper Elementary School for sixth grade tend to do better on standard standardized tests um academically so um but I'm not an expert in this in this area and I wanted Dr alvic and Dr Layman to lay out the argument um the argument for moving the sixth grade to the upper elementary school to alleviate the overcrowding at the middle school okay thank you very much Dr

237El um can you address the seemingly very succinct information about Applegarth school and the uh insurance carrier do we have a report I'm not aware of any report from an insurance carrier about Applegarth school I know that Mr tag does share regularly with the board the concerns about Applegarth but I'm not aware of any insurance issue okay and how about the oil tank are we at risk of the oil tank being a problem at this time have we had no the oil tank the the underground storage tank was at the board office and that was several years ago um and that years at two years ago and at the time we were told that it was not going to pass inspection but we were also in the process of replacing it that project is complete

238that project has been completed and that was at a in a different building all together that was at the board office so there were some no students present in that building okay no and I think there was a third thing that should been addressed six grade well that's a different issue this the roof the roof same thing have not heard anything we have right okay all right if you'd like to address I I don't have research with me to to address that but I can say that we successfully educated our sixth grade students when they were in the ele school and I remember even at that time I was a building principal at the time with sixth grade in my building there was a lot of concern about moving the sixth grade to the middle

239school so there's arguments on both sides the sixth grade could can definitely be successful in Elementary School the sixth grade can definitely be successful in the middle school so it's up to the community what they want to do okay so I think what what again uh we might we might need to do going forward is to have both uh studies and both arguments laid out together so the community can can address it and we have our building principles I think we're going to try to start a new we we talked about with some people but I want to tell the whole board I think we should start having um some reports done by building princi principles I mean and and we also saw uh something that was a little disturbing tonight about uh about some

240of the reports about how things are not being enforced and implemented so I think the board might talk about having uh occasional uh meetings with building principles and getting updates from them and any problems that either need to be resolved or um talk about enrollment so so those are things I'd like the board to consider and we'll we'll have to talk to um each other and then the administration on how to implement that but I think it's time that we get you know each building principle that's their building that's their responsibility and in order to be responsible to the parents the Board needs to know how these facilities are being managed so I think we're going to try to formulate something as a plan going forward and apparently there's enough issues from the public that

241um I think that that would give us some reason to do so all right um anyone else sir good evening Adam Elias 93 Old Church Road um first question I'd like to respectfully request that I ask a question and that we stop the clock for the answers first question I'd ask is U Miss Aziz had referred to some studies that were done or recommendations made by the insurance companies regarding the uh construction of new schools I'd like to ask is this information available to the public is this something that we can access on any of the Monroe Township websites I'm not aware of anything I'm not aware of any insurance thank you so it's so so to answer your question you're saying is there is there any official documentation of these things I'm asking I'd

242like to I'd like to get my hands on the same information and the same question the same data that she has do you have that information do you are you aware of any information like that is the clock running I'd like to stop the clock no it's the only the only uh recollection I have of this issue is m Mr T's report at the bgt committee meetings where he may have given an update on the U the state of the building which we are fully aware but there's no and and he he he gives like cautionary updates about the core facilities of the buildings over time but you don't have anything in writing as far as you know nothing from the insurance compan I have nothing from an insurance company go ahead thank you uh

243my next question I I believe on the agenda tonight we I heard something about the Kitty Corral uh receiving some funds from the state and that funds are not exhausted that it would be refunded to the state is that correct yes that that is Mr gorsy you want to address I big a pardon um there's there's four categories of of uh new entitlement that this non-public school has and um specifically because there's no confusion with the transportation Aid which is separate these are new and they're called non-public security Aid entitlement that's 2,625 $ 5 like you said if it's not spent that has to go back to the state the next one is non-public textbook Aid entitlement $900 if it not spent that it has to go back to the state third one is non-public

244nursing service Aid entitlement 1,680 not spent it has to go back to the state and nonpublic Technology Aid $630 if not spent has to go back to the state and it's only available for that particular nonpublic school right that very specific school is entitled to this money only so as a followup to that last question are there any other non-public schools that have requested funding in Monroe Township not that we've been contacted from the Department of Education okay now this last weekend I took my three-year-old to her first soccer game I spoke to a parent who asked me what I was going to do about kindergarten I'm sorry I should add that my two children are at the Kitty Corral and she asked what I was going to do when my kids get to kindergarten

245because kind uh Kitty coralin does half day school funding uh I'm sorry half day school schedule that's funded by the township of Monro the district uh from the funds that are received by the state um I wanted to know are there any other towns of md6 County that are funding uh full day kindergarten to the best of your knowledge Dr Alvin um I would assume a district like New Brunswick but other than that I'm not sure I I'm aware that the it may be time for another referendum but we had a referendum for full day kindergarten and it did and it failed so and that was quite a few years ago so it might be time to reconsider that pburg does have that and again as a parent of two children in Kitty Corral without

246a second half day of kindergarten option I would hope that the the board is not considering uh you know minimizing any of those funding especially since those funds are going just get returned back to the state I hope we can utilize those funds for the Kitty Corral it's a fantastic institution it's doing a great job for my kids uh moving on I have to ask the question that I've been asking for the last three or four months has Linda Greenstein or any other member of the New Jersey legislature that represents our district been invited to this board to speak to the issue of school funding I guess I'll have to answer that we have uh through our committee um Chrissy skur's committee had discussed it and we were we were going to put that out

247and but the answer is uh sadly no we have not done that yet can I respectfully ask why it's it's really been a matter of timing and which may not be a very good excuse but that's the reason and it's we've had so many things on our plate since June that it it's just been a difficult thing to do understood so um I I was about four years old when James corvell came out during the Clinton campaign and said coin in the phrase it's it's the economy stupid right that was how the clintons arguably got into the uh the white house because they put the uh economy as a front and center issue back in 1992 and I I don't say this to disparage anybody on the board but to me in what it comes

248to Monroe Township it's the funding stupid and I'm not calling anybody here stupid but the funding is obviously the biggest issue that we have here as a district um it's disturbing to me that we don't have anybody from the state that can come and answer as to why we don't have any funding I I believe from my most latest research we have about $140 million give or take State uh budget I'm sorry District budget for school funding $7.8 million in state aid $0 coming in Equalization funding Jamesburg our neighbor gets about $7 million in state aid and about $7 million in Equalization funding and Jamesburg if I'm not mistaken shares the high school facilities with our students so it's deeply disturbing to me that we don't have enough funding to comport with Monroe Township's growth

249according to the wisdom of Wikipedia from the years of 2010 and 2014 uh Monro Township was the third fast growing municipality in New Jersey after both Elizabeth and Jersey City that makes Monro Township effectively the fastest growing suburb in the state of New Jersey I'm very proud to live in the fastest growing suburb of the state of New Jersey it's only growing it's only growing harder and faster and I want to know when are we going to get somebody from the state to come in and answer as to why mono Township is being neglected on the state funding level uh I guess it's me again uh I I actually don't have the answer to that but but I would also say and it has always been something that I've been saying for years and years

250even before I got on the board it's not simply the funding because it is the enormous growth and you've said it yourself many times it's it's the fastest growing community and we are tasked with exercising our resources to put children in in classrooms and and and get new buildings and it's a double-edged sword because we have no control control over how fast this community is growing and when we put things out yes absolute State funding is critical to helping us but that is not going to solve the problem to me the problem is the over the if we talk about not really planning the overbuilding of Monroe Township we don't have any breathing room and so while I agree with you the funding and I agree with you of it but that is not our

251real issue our real issue is the rapid development and this and and the board cannot keep up and and quite frankly the taxpayers can't keep up with it I mean the benefit goes to the developers and the and the cost comes to the taxpayers and the people in this community so while I agree with you I don't think just bringing the and and that's a that's a different issue but I don't think just bringing those people we need impact fees we need impact fees based on um the uh municipality in my personal opinion and we need impact fees based on the state but the state legislators are not inclined to consider that at this time and it may be something we should ask but every every citizen in Monroe should be asking that of our

252legislators not just having them come here so I'm I'm not skirting the issue what I'm saying it's it's a multifaceted issue I think the biggest issue is the type of development that we're going through so that would be my answer to that and I thank you very much for that answer because I agree with a lot of the points that you made and I think it's distorted I don't I'm not I want to make it clear I'm not saying that the board of education is not fighting for more funding I'm not implying that by any means I know you're working with the means that you have and you're doing a tremendous job of what you have in front of you but what I am saying is that we need to do a better job of

253you know I I was the only point I disagree with is that the legislators are not in an ability to uh contribute to that because having had conversations with many legislator over the last four months I know that they are very much in a position to fight for their districts and I don't say that they're not they don't have the ability I'm saying they don't have the willingness understood and that is why I believe that this District the 14th legislative district of New Jersey needs a representative that is going to fight to get that kind of funding in Monroe Township the 14th District needs a representative that lives and is a stakeholder in mon Township the 14th legislative district needs to elect a new state senator in November and that new state senator is Adam

254thank you have a good night good luck Adam paid endorsement um if I could just everybody got extra time so no no no that's not that whatever what I was just going to clarify the Jamesburg numbers it's more like the total budget is in the $14 million range and total a is 7 million in that range but this is public for Mr it's not 7 million and 7 million okay thank you yes please thank you hi I'm Monica kapan the 396 Morning Glory Drive um I'm not here to ask questions or anything I'm just uh have some suggestions yes um yeah the uh we heard many uh parents asking about the children being on one-on-one person with the teachers uh my my younger daughter is in first grade o okri now and last year she

255being at home I had the opportunity of seeing how the teachers take classes I was very very thankful to the teacher uh who took her class and uh the teacher literally has to be there for those younger kids and she also happened to go into classroom towards the end of the year where I saw only three or four kids come into the classroom and I saw the jump of the teacher from uh she had to literally focus on the kids who were online rather than in person because more number of kids were online in the class so my opinion is like teachers have to I I I could see that teachers have to give more uh concentration to the students who are actually there and parents asked for um to go virtual and just um

256uh the kids can just see what is happening but I feel it will not help the kid um because they'll not having an inter interaction uh my suggestion for that is a com um a third graded for example they they're a third grader and if there are such number of third graders going into quarantine I feel all the third grade teachers to be given a zoom link which the teachers can release to only those kids who are going into quarantine the immediate next day or the same day mailing to the parent and all the third grade I I also feel all The Home Room teachers would would be following a common uh syllabus so all the third grade kids be taught by one particular third grade in a virtual teacher that way the kid when

257goes into virtual because of a quarantine problem they are still in touch with the syllabus and they don't lose anything and then they come back to the classroom they are still in track with what is going on in the class and if it is going to be oneon-one like this on zoom and if all the third graders are together they are still as a class classroom and we don't have to worry about the number of kids going into qu quarantine if it is one one child or uh number of child that is going to be because I feel there are eight or nine three uh third third grade classrooms but I I don't believe all uh know all the kids are going to go into quarantine at the same time if that happens you have

258plans so that is one thing I had I wanted to say and uh um second thing about the referendum um I volunteered to go home to home uh teaching people not teaching exactly telling them what will happen if the referendum passes or does not pass and what is at stake and everything these were the things that I was told before we went into that volunteering thing uh the middle school has containers I I'm not not sure how many number but each container costs about a million per year per container that's what is uh is is it right no so you're talking about the uh trailers yeah okay the trailers I think uh there was it 500,000 a yearim for rent we rent the trailers it's per rent yeah so that is a rental 5,000 for

259the trailers a year yes and are there are some costs there cost to put them in and then there are costs to remove them when the time comes it's not a million okay okay so uh until we are going to extend the school or come up with a plan I believe the trailers are going to be rented and that is going to cost us anyway because the rent is not going to come back and uh during the volunteering program I I got a sneak peek into the uh result of the um ref referendum wherein it said um so I'm sorry to say this but wherein it said the part where the M Woodland School area is majority of people voted no from that that region I believe it's because they are not going to gain

260anything from a new school uh replacing Apple guard I'm I'm okay I'm sorry I mean like it's just my you're a little over your time but I'm not sure that those statistics are I don't know if no I I received a statistical paper I'm not sure of the numbers I'm not from the from the Board of Education not from the board of educ someone in the public someone in the public somebody might assumtion that I would be very careful about yeah sorry you could you could always get the voting records the past voting records and actually do that yourself I I I would I would be um cautious about casting you know aspersion I'm sorry that's what I said I'm not sure about it that's why I said I'm not sure about it and uh

261if and also uh there's a school referendum which is but your your time is up Madam I'm sorry and I did give you extra time I'm sorry it's a little small no please we've let everybody and I have given you extra time we're finished it's 10:30 very late yeah uh my question please you'll have to sit down sorry I'm really sorry my question is no I'm very sorry as as well we gave everybody extra time as well okay I'll be back in the next next meeting thank you so much yes thank you good night okay anyone else all right seeing none we will close the public portion do I have an agreement with the board all in favor yes M can you speak into the microphone please I haven't been able to hear like probably

262half the things you've been saying tonight who me wow yeah if I can't hear you I'm sure the people at home aren't able to hear you say you're the one Ken okay uh we are finished with the public uh Forum on the agenda items and we will move towards I believe it would be Dr Layman's uh assistant superintendence report thank you I will keep it brief um I just want to thank the teachers Administration support staff Tech Team everyone involved in getting us off to a solid start this year um there's always bumps but we we uh are back in person it's been a while since everybody's been here and it's awesome to see the energy from the students in the buildings and the staff in the buildings uh as our student board members updated

263us I just wanted to share that we already have some awesome news out of the high school so we were notified that our monach high school unified basketball team was selected and will be representing New Jersey this coming June at the national Special Olympics in Florida that's outstanding yep it rep they represent an amazing unified program uh the program is a K12 program involved in all the schools um and this is just another Accolade to add on to the list of amazing things they've done uh there's staff in every building involved with the program the students are amazing uh Miss Dylan runs the overseas the program she does an amazing job so thank you and congratulations and then just a point of information for us all so as we move forward we're going to start

264implementing ing the start strong assessment um this assessment is a result of the state of New Jersey's waiver from testing last spring will satisfy the federal Statewide assessment requirement to administer General Assessments in ela math and science so the assessment is intentionally brief it's based on a set of prioritized prior year standards the assessment serve for grades 4-1 in English language arts math grades 4 to8 Algebra 1 geometry Algebra 2 science grade 6 9 and 12 the assessments are 45 minutes to 60 Minutes uh we have not administered this prior this is a new assessment um the platform for the assessment is similar to it it's the exact same platform we use for njsla so it's a familiar piece for our teachers it's a familiar environment for our students um you'll be hearing from the

265buildings with dis uh specific test testing dates the window is really it's open now um we've been uploading data typically when we get ready for the spring testing which we will also be doing uh it takes us several months to upload data create class list make sure modifications and adaptations are uh appropriately input so when we do the upload there's minimal changes a lot of our 10-month staff are involved in that so we got as much as we could done over the summer once we got the testing parameters the 10- Monon staff that's involved in that has been full force getting everything squared away so now we're ready to start rolling things out the buildings will announce their dates it's really end of September it's the first few weeks in October and like I said

266it's a hopefully minimal impact 45 minutes 60 Minutes uh at most and uh we will still continue doing our other standardized assessments the state made it very clear that we should not use the start strong assessment to replace anything else we typically do um the point of this test test Administration is so they they got permission to not test Us in the spring they still have to test so they said we're just going to do a small test in the fall so this combined with everything else we do will just give us some more information on our students and that's it thank you you have a question yeah on the test is is that um does that count toward the graduation requirement is that one of the tests that is used to this one won't

267no yeah so the 2022 students they're already in play for graduation we're already figuring out who based on previous year's assessments needs to be squared away with that uh PSAT all the extra menu piece um just will not be the ones coming up in the spring begin to get back in that cycle but they did release updated graduation requirements for the 23 24 and 25 and in the policy committee or one of our committee meetings I I brought an update they're going to implement a new state assess assessment so in uh grade 11 every student will take this news data assessment and that will be the the start of their graduation requirement and then they can they'll always be able to funnel back to those menu of PSAT zat uh options but everyone will have

268to start with starting 2023 that Statewide test okay is that does that start this year or starts 2023 okay yep and it's an 11th grade assessment okay thank you anyone else may we move on Dr Alvi okay um I I just want to Echo what Dr Layman said and just thank the staff for uh the successful opening everyone did a great job uh our custodians with uh making sure that our buildings were ready to be open to our teachers our par professionals our bus drivers um our administrative team our secretarial staff everyone did a great job our nursing staff so thank you to all of them um moving on to our agenda this evening I have three retirements on the agenda uh Miss Kathy varacallo my confidential secretary to the superintendent of schools she has

269worked in our district for 21 and A2 years and she will be retiring effective December 1st Miss Sue Maser the secretary in the facilities Department after 20 and a half years working in the district will be retiring January 1st and Miss Suzanne G par professional um she actually retired as of September 6th after working seven years in our district so I thank them all for their service and everything that they've done for our students in the district and with that it's recommended that the board approve the attached Personnel items a through A S as in Sam I have a motion motion motion Karen and then Mr Tano second Mr Tano is that a second yes thank you any questions or comments before we take the vote Mr Gorski please call the role Mr poori yes

270Mr Beerman yes Mr Tano yes Mr ninski yes M Belco yes Mr rutsky yes yes Miss seagull yes Miss scurby yes Mr tiella yes Mr armeno yes madame board president Personnel items a through as is passed okay Dr Al okay so for board action items I'm going to remove from letter N uh policy 1648 point11 since you didn't have the entire policy on the agenda so I it's recommended that the board approved board action items a through o with the exception of policy 164 8.11 under letter N so move Mr POI second second second uh Mr rutsky raised his hand thank you okay shall we any questions any con no so we have a roll Mr poori yes Mr rutsky yes Miss seagull yes Mr Tano yes Mr Chella yes Miss Belco yes Miss Beerman

271yes Miss scurby yes Mr natinsky yes Mrs armeno yes on board president presid board action items a through o uh with the removal of n6481 has passed okay thank you and that concludes my report thank you I just have one question uh you mentioned before that there were 1,500 employees or is it is this the 1192 okay so with this executive order we're required to include all full and part-time employees oh okay all substitute teachers all student teachers all facil and anyone else who comes to our building on a regular basis to to work in our building such as our food facilities our student teachers okay so that so adding all of that up it's almost 1500 staff members excellent thank you that's a lesson learned who knew okay um moving on Madam president um

272that takes us to the ba report there's a couple noteworthy items I just want to highlight here um first of all we appreciate the donation under letter H um where it states it is recommended that the members of the mono Township Board of Education acknowledge and accept the donation of a Tama imper Imperial Imperial set drum set from via tangella to be used at the mono Township Middle School the drum set has an approximate value of $500 thank you very much for that generous donation yes thank you uh the second item on there is you probably recognize letter G um we're we're resubmitting the contract for Ellis Tech because when it went through attorney review uh one point had to be changed they vendor asked for a deposit which we're not allowed to do instead

273it's been modified to a 50% Milestone payment which we can do so once they complete 50% of the work we can pay them 50% that is the security audit of our uh it infrastructure uh as a whole and uh the duvail on Dr Layman and Dr alvix compliments to miss Kathy Dylan U item J is is the recommendation of Grant acceptance for the unified program where Miss Dylan was instrumental in uh soliciting grants for the high school in amount of $25,000 the Middle School $10,000 Barkley Brook $5,000 Applegarth $4,000 Woodland Elementary 3,000 Brookside 5,000 oak tree 4,000 and M Lake Elementary 5,000 that's over $60,000 of Grants to support the unified program her enthusiast with this program is incredible and uh want to thank her very much the money will go to good use so

274I think we should applaud that thank you very much good good job Madam president I have a I have a question on ask well let let I'll move the motion Madame board president and members of the mon Township Board of Education is recommended that board action items a through J be approved by consent R Cole me first and second mov Mr Tano then miss and you had a question Mr Tano uh yeah just on on f um that uh govdeals.com do they take a percentage of the sales of the Surplus items is that how they get fund Madam funds yes please yes they they do take a small percentage in administrative fee from I believe it's the uh the bidder and the district gets um uh the you know the uh the high auction amount

275and have you um research other sites that may sell that stuff or is it just yes we we did our due diligence with this in the past we're trading in these vehicles it got to the point where they're so cannibalized that the vendors are charging us to turn them in so uh this way uh we're getting a decent amount of money I think what's committed to memory last time was like $20,000 $30,000 for buses that really had to be towed out of here pretty much all right and I just like to ask the question I think I asked it every every time we see this but I believe gov deals is a pro for-profit organization I don't believe it's a government organization is that correct Mr that is correct with the important addition that we

276are allowed to use them as a public school district they comply with the public contracts La yes but I don't want anybody to think that it's a government entity it's not it's a for-profit organization independent organization okay thank you anyone else a roll call please sir Mr Tano yes Miss seagull yes Mr Chella yes Mr ninski yes Mr poori yes Mr rutsky yes M Belo yes Miss Beerman yes Miss scurby yes Miss armino yes and board president board action items a through J has passed that concludes my report thank you okay uh once again uh I have the privilege of giving a board president's report however I think we've exhausted just about every conversation um that I could possibly have this evening um just to let you know our uh auditor is working we are

277moving a ve we are going to be moving very quickly to uh meet uh and and get our super our permanent superintendent in place and uh we want as smooth a transaction uh smooth a transition as possible and um I I I will make a comment that I'm a little bothered by some of the comments from the public about uh the functioning and I'm very happy and pleased that and the the opening went well but um enforcement of our rules and regulations really has to be adhered to and I would like to uh ask the administration toess Upon Our uh board I mean our um building uh staff that we really need to have a consistent and u a proper uh enforcement of what we say is our plan um so uh I didn't plan

278to say that so I'm sorry if that sounded a a little bit a garble but but we need to have consistency as much as possible in this chaotic time with the pandemic and um I'm very concerned that uh some of the the buildings uh are not functioning and uh enforcing uh our s you know the safety protocol that we have set forth okay thank you that'll that'll do that any other board of education business Michelle yes Karen thank you two quick items the first is um our public forum policy that we adopted part of that was to have the timer be visible yes so that we could see that so I was wondering when the followup would be for providing such a timer during public forum I think that would be helpful for I think

279what we'll do is we will we will test the administration going forward to buying a more visible just hasn't haven't gotten to it yep thank you and the second item on Tuesday today which was yesterday I guess September 21st the US Secretary of Education recognized 325 schools across the country as National Blue Ribbon Schools nine of them were from New Jersey and one of them is the John F Kennedy Elementary School in Jamesburg and I would like to extend our congratulations on that congratulations I will take that and I will I appreciate that I'll take that back to the Jamesburg board and appreciate you recognizing that it's it's a great deal for our our congratulations James education thank you Karen uh Rupa uh thank you Miss armeno uh just two items one being we normally

280do board goals in August and September is that going to be done shortly I I thought about that also I was going to contact the administration and ask when that's going to when their recommendation is going to be I know we uh August we stopped doing it in August because we didn't have the financial information so as soon as as we get that we will recall that again we may be adding to our special meeting okay I just put that on our agenda yes I thought about that in the last week okay great um and then the other item uh just a few comments that I wanted to make regarding the process of hiring the interim and permanent superintendent um I've always believed in a strong educational system which we have been very fortunate to

281have in Monroe we are a large school district and we owe it to our students staff and Community to make sure we're hiring the most qualified person whether it's in an acting interim or permanent position as a professional and human resources for many years certain positions always have a minimum required such as an MBA for an executive position um so I just wanted to reiterate we should have a minimum requirement of a doctorate for this position the hiring process may take some time so I just want to make sure that we are finding the person that will be the best fit for our District um we owe it to our students and it is very important to our district and parents should be demanding this of our Board of Education so I just want to

282share those comments thank you thank you anyone else Mr yes Mr cherella would you like to speak yeah I would I think that uh I think our teachers took a bit of a beating tonight um both from the board and from the public and I just want to uh speak on their behalf when I say that I'm very um Happy with all the work that they put into our reopening and everything that they do every day these are trying circumstances in a very very trying year and a half and um I think that they deserve you know our our respect so that's all I have to say thank you um Mr Nic atinsky you were next yeah we had a a motion that was tabled yes we should probably have a a vote on that

283shouldn't we okay would you read that motion Mr yes Mr Gagliardi please um uh stop me if you want to make any corrections to this all right sir um it was recommended by Mr Nick atinsky to provide a virtual interactive option for quarantine quarantined students if home instruction has not begun within 48 hours and continue until home instruction um Can Begin does that fairly summarize what you yes okay sir and we have a motion on the table now and it it's been seconded there could be discussion so one of the items we heard from the public and I don't know if you're open to amending or not is that as opposed to what we're saying which is if we cannot execute the home instruction option Within 48 hours that at that 48 hour mark we

284would click into this virtual instruction one of the things we've heard at the podium is the opportunity for immediate listening in Access on top of what we've already put in there so I'm asking if you would be open to amending it to include that that that's confus I'm confused as to so that it would be immediately upon quarantine you'd have the ability to listen in which would not be interactive it would just be the listening in portion then at the 48 hour mark If home instruction had not been enacted you would have access to True virtual with interaction until home instruction is clicked in Madam president if I may I think Ken said it in the very beginning of it and I kind of agree with him you know we approved a couple of uh

285teachers today and uh Dr alvik said that there more are going to be coming as well maybe if we're going to have a meeting next week uh give the board the the administration a chance to kind of fine-tune this and come back and make sure that they can Implement I don't you know we don't want to pass a resolution here that they cannot Implement and then come back here and start I process over we asked Mr nicens to consider that and he said no so we have a motion on the table and it needs to be voted on okay Michelle in the interest of doing what's right uh I I think uh a question to Dr alvic would be if we pass this motion is that something that you can Implement right I don't have

286an answer to that right now I I think that'll be very difficult to implement I would have to I've had conversations with the administrative team I've had conversations with the mte and there there will be challenges to this motion okay that's an answer R and then we're going to take a vote sorry we discussed want to piggy back to what Andy and Ken had said I think we really need to give the administration some time to work with the building principles and figure out the plan and I think it's it's different for elementary versus Middle School to high school maybe they can do a listenin option but I think we really have to give the school district a chance to look at this and V this out and see how they can work this out

287because it it is an impact on the teachers when you have to manage you're managing two classrooms and you know I think you also have to take into effect that you're going to have parents with Elementary level schools that are now are going to have to supervise if their students if you do go into a virtual option or listening in or whatever they're going to have to watch the students at home while they're working also so I think there's a lot of different issues that may need to be looked into and it we really should give the school district the opportunity to look at it well can I just one more thing I would also expect because this would be an additional workload on the teacher remember last year when they were doing it we

288gave them time on Wednesdays for planning and collaboration with their team plus they had more time in the middle of the day when students were were going home they had more time in the middle of the day to plan for this so they were compensated with time last year I would fully expect the the union to demand to bargain we talked we talked about that in Personnel what that term means it's not a demand it's just the legal term that they would come to me because this would be a change in their working requirements so I would fully expect that okay I'm I'm a little confused is is turning on a laptop with a camera on it more work I'm confused can you explain how it's more work to me well it would be more

289planning because they would have to make sure that they were sharing the information virtually with the student instead of just with students that are in person in front of them and then if you're also talking about that virtual interaction where now you have the teacher having to teach the the students in front of them and a student online so I I would expected a man to bargain from the union because it is an increased workload for staff okay I think we should call one more that's it yeah I I think that you know we we're just missing the point here is about how to educate the children continuously and you know I I'm apt to support this motion because what it's saying is when we fail to do what we said we were going to

290do which is give them home instruction within 48 hours that they then have the option to be a part of their class remotely okay and you I I think that's important you can't just we we only saw two names on the home instruction list so if there's a huge that's not true that was the that was the students that are receiving home instruction from last month you you don't where's the list of the number of teachers is later on in the p in the Personnel agenda you do not have the list of students that are on the home instruction you get that the following month next month you will have September's list those those are two students that are specifically home instruction okay so I think we should call the vote because if they if

291the administration gets the instruction within the 48 hours it's a move point exactly correct unless yes abs are we amending are we instituting Karen's Amendment that's not on the table that's not on the table so it's more like if we can't do what we've promised to do that we're going let them okay so shall we their class yes Mr natinsky you don't wish to revise your motion okay Miss Kirby yes Miss Beerman yes Mr cherella no no thank you Mr ninski yes Mr plor no Mr rutzky no Miss seagull no Mr Tano yes Miss Belco yes and misss z armeno yeah I'm I'm changing my vote to yes after public form yes with that change motion passes hopefully that will be incentive to get this taken care of um well Madam president is it possible

292for us to get some kind of a status if we do happen to have a meeting in a week or so so that we can evaluate I'm sure the administration will be happy to give that to us okay um we have aard we have another public forum before we go into Clos session this is on anything would anyone like to speak and I'm going to strictly adhere to the four minutes on this forum I do apologize but we must um get the rest it's it's almost 11 o'clock so I ask you after the four minutes please sit [Music] down go ahead all right hi I promise I'll try to keep it as brief as I can can uh Kate Ratner to King's Court um so first thing I me I think um Miss be had

293mentioned it congratulations to Jamesburg for their blue ribbon um status um I think it's wonderful I also do know that you know Jamesburg I believe and you can correct me wrong not only has full day kindergarten but also full day preschool for three-year-old and four-year-olds is that is that correct so half day oh for you half please direct your questions to the I'm sorry okay um so you know I think one of the the issues we really struggle with in our town is this full day kindergarten issue and I know it had come up years ago um however there's been a lot of changes in the state um I had done some research and from what I've seen and this obviously can change um 12 districts in the whole state now really only no longer

294have full day kindergarten which Monroe is one of them out of 599 districts in our state and to me that's really sad because I think we have a wonderful Community we have a fairly young community and I think the kids need to be going to kindergarten kindergarten as many can tell you is a great stepping stool to you know a really valuable education um and then just a couple of questions um I had heard Mr gorsy mention the donation of an instrument um I was wondering if we ever reach out to anybody in the community in regards to whether or not they have any whether it's musical instruments or sporting equipment or things they're no longer needing because I do know a lot of people will have those that they no longer use that they

295can donate to the district get a small tax deduction and then we have additional resources so I was wondering if that's ever something that we've tried to do Madam um I'm just going to say that we frequently uh say that in public so people are aware that if they choose to I don't think we have a formal but Mr Gorski can speak to that no I I was just going to say that it would be difficult to Target those solicitations to the public um you know where we where we see a larger Corporation or something we have targeted them in the past but nothing recent okay okay yeah I just thought if you can put on like the um the Monro pulse or something like that just like a standard if you have things you're

296no longer using rather than just throwing them away because they can go good use to someone who needs them um my other major concern is the um what the potential current uh counselor to student ratio is and also just the really high turnover of counselors in our district um I noticed by looking just at the last few months of the uh agendas that I think it's in the last three months we've had four counselors resign uh out of 24 total counselors in our district and you know that's practically approximately 20% just in you know a few months um you know especially at the high school counselors are with these kids for four years um and I also just wanted to know I don't know if anyone knows what the uh do you know what the

297current counselor to student ratio is at the high school approximately no we don't have that information we'll try to get that to you okay sounds great um I just you know part of me wonderers what might be causing such a high turnover rate with our counselors um and then I also wanted to know if we do an exit survey when whether it's counselors teachers staff leaves to know what might be causing them to leave um the Board of Education I think legally is not uh is not privy to exit surveys although the administration does do that but we do not uh we are not involved in exit surveys Dr Albert no the but the Personnel Committee of the board gets a report each month of any of the reserve survey results we've gotten um and

298perhaps you can email the Personnel uh chair who is Mr Nick atinsky and and put that on ask about the councils maybe we can have that discuss discussion in Personnel thank you okay um last thing real quick um I had been doing you know a fair amount of research and one of the things I noticed was that there are a lot of senior option they're actually Junior and senior opt option programs um and I wanted to know if these are um really publicized well in the district I my oldest daughter's in fifth grade so I'm not at the high school but it honestly seems like not only a great opportunity for the kids but also potentially a way to deal with some of the overcrowding at least temporar um you know I saw that there's

299middle SE County College Programs community service programs uh internships both in and out of the district work study um and so I was just curious if this is something that is utilized by a lot of the students that are there Dr Layman I think should answer that do not it's definitely some I I can handle it yeah it's definitely something we uh we engage students in conversation as they go through their course planning at the high school um as you saw on our conversations we certainly are looking to expand and even simplify their availability to get to say middle sex College um and engage in those classes and almost give them an incentive to explore something and a lot of students still do internships or things like that but it's definitely it it could be

300utilized more it's it's a it's a goal that we always we strive to increase access to that um you know and it's an interesting approach in terms of addressing overcrowding um it's clearly an afternoon piece you know so an early out kind of piece maybe lightens the load in the building we certainly leverage that in our scheduling and things as well right yeah my thought was like if you have part of that in the morning whether it's the the community college classes and in the afternoon is more of the internships then you don't have as many students necessarily in the building certainly not going to account for 3,000 students but you know can certainly make a little bit of a difference um I hope I I had 10 more seconds there was one thing I

301forgot it's really simple we're having a uh pretty large discussion among parents in my grades about the I guess discrepancy and homework regulations um some teachers are giving almost no homework and some teachers are giving over an hour of homework each day um I know that probably comes down to school administration um but I want to know if there's anything being done to oversee that all students are getting equal homework okay um thank you I don't know if you to address that um there there was a homework committee several years ago where there are um uh some guidance to to staff about homework but it's not a minute for- minute thing and the other thing you have to remember too is students are different so you know even two students in the same class may

302be taking a different time on homework also so the the the recommendation would be for any parent who has any concerns about that would be to reach out to the building Administration very great thank you thank you yes I'm sorry thank you cherro Patel 25 ji Road I'm sorry cherro Patel 25 jowy Road Yes actually I have a I have a question we had a lot of debate open form about making sure the kids get back into class quickly even if they're quarantined or get some lessons what happens if the kids fully vaccinated and if they travel out of state CDC guideline does not require any kind of quarantine if you like I can show you right on my phone so what is the uh board's guideline for that one well Dr alv is coming

303I'm sorry I didn't hear the question okay the CDC guideline does not address uh vaccinated students who have been out of state correction does it does not require any quarantine correct so any any any student or staff who's quar who is vaccinated is not required to quarantine um after travel correct so all they have to do is just present the card that they vaccinated yes all right thank you domestic and international I I'm pretty sure it's both cdc's does not require for international or domestic so yeah you would just let the um the school nurse know okay thank you you're welcome our policy I don't feel it's clear on that it is clear for domestic but not for international I I can't highlight okay wait a minute it's public forum there there you go Brian

304Fabiano 19 Patricia please so I'll ask the question again why will this board not consider making a motion tonight to follow the do's guidelines rather than the CDC pause my time please well if you're asking me directly since I'm board president okay I I would have to see both guidelines but I also would have to defer to Dr alvic and and we of our attorney and our attorney and just make sure that we are we would we would do that and it's up to the board I mean it's a full board uh that can make that decision has the board or the administration done any research to see if it would be a better option considering most other districts around us are utilizing the do's guidelines uh we have't we haven't done a research as

305a full board now I haven't certainly and i' I have relied on Administration to regulate the school facilities I'm not an expert on on on this so we have relied on now as you so failure to do your research and have kids quarantine and you know have a bigger issue when after you know November comes and holidays come is an acceptable excuse to not look at what other you know districts are embracing they're not putting you know extensive burdens on the students in regards to quarantining maybe something just to take back and and think of after this meeting because I don't certainly see anything coming out of it tonight but uh that that's the first piece second piece um there was a comment tonight or uh a previous speaker asking about comments about um you

306know Insurance in you know our insurers talking about the roof at Applegarth and you know a number of things over there and I appreciate them bringing that up because there's been a lot of fear mongering in our community particularly on Facebook and I think parents that send their kids to Applegarth now some may be afraid that the roof is about to collapse on their children um because we've been told maybe it only has three months left or you know the insure you know we can't even get a roofer to walk on the the roof now because it's so unsafe so I'd like to hear now is Applegarth School safe for students to be in and is there any any imminent threat that the roof is going to collapse please pause my time um I will

307I will have Mr gski answered that but I had requested that Mr T uh join the meeting this evening and for uh and I'm not sure what the reasons are why he was not able to attend but I think he would be best to answer that but in instead I'll ask Mr Gorski just to address that certainly nobody's going to put their administrative certificate at risk by having a child enter any school with the safety issue so Applegarth is safe with the disclaimer that the entire building and its systems all of them the plumbing the heating the roof the windows the boiler are are well beyond their expected life and those systems are subject to failure and if it fails as it was mentioned earlier we do have a fail safe with the municipality to

308temporarily use the senior center but it it's certainly not a long-term option option so the advice that Mr T has given this board um repeatedly is that Applegarth needs immediate replacement is the school safe for students to be in it yes have roof have we had roofers on the roof to look at the roof yes and what was the report from the roofers in regards to the roof I can't comment on that because we've had numerous roof repairs it seems like every big snow we have a roofer up on the roof at appar but the roof is safe enough for a roofer to look at it it it's safe with that disclaimer I made before got it the same disclaimer when you buy a house you can't ask a seller for seller's concession when the

309furnace looks old because it's still working it may go another 30 years it may go 30 seconds you know these are just assumptions based on what we think the life of of units are the the last thing I'll speak about um there was a someone that came to the the podium here talking about the qualifications for a superintendent and I would be very disappointed in this board and I think a lot of people would be in this town if you just looked at the qualifications of Education I'm not discounting what you know someone that goes through education and gets a doctorate versus someone who doesn't but experience and I think in life outside of even you know a school district you know there's very very little uh compensation given to someone that has a lot

310of experience maybe in their field and how they've progressed in the field and again I don't know the the candidates that you'll be looking at tonight I hope they are good um I certainly believe we need to get someone in very quickly even if it's interim to oversee the challenges that we face right now because it clearly you know we clearly can't handle the plans that we put in place so to stay here and and say that it has to be a do or actually I I I take it back I think it was one of your board members not not someone at the podium um that said you know a a successful superintendent must have a doctor I think that's baloney I mean there's nothing that shows that you can go down to Rumson

311Fair Haven you can go to other districts around they these superintendents don't all have doctorates and they're good at their jobs so to Discount someone because they don't have that level of education is is is is a political hack so um I'll leave it there but I I do hope that you do find good people that have applied and we can get someone into to not only write the ship but we have a very short period of time before Dr alvic leaves and we don't want to be left with nothing thank you anyone else in the public uh Sarah aiz three lawn slot Drive um first I want to congratulate the people of of Jamesburg for um the award earned by John F K Kennedy Elementary School I am an alumni of of John F

312Kennedy Elementary School and it's great to see the changes that have happened over the past 30 years so congratulations to Jamesburg um I was surprised by the comment that um you hadn't heard of the insurance issue so I checked my notes and my recordings and I have a recording of the October 2020 bg& meeting and I actually transcribed what uh facilities director Mr T actually said at that meeting and this is what he said and I quote Applegarth school is the biggest challenge we are at a dire State at that building in terms of the roof boiler HVAC electrical infrastructure and the underground storage tank we have an underground storage tank at Applegarth school because Applegarth is heated through oil not natural gas the insurance carrier sent us notification that they were going to cease

313insuring that tank because of the age that it has reached that that is a situation we will Approach at Applegarth very soon with where the insurers are not going to want to ensure that underground storage tank because of its age and maintaining insurance on the Underground storage is a mandatory requirement of the njde without the insurance in place you're not allowed to operate you're looking at a big price tag for handling the infrastructure of Applegarth School the board has a difficult decision determining where they want to head with Applegarth the clock has been ticking the infrastructure of that building is in dire shape I am very very concerned about the viability of the boiler holding up uh every year we lose a lot of sleep on whether or not the boiler would last longer we

314have two boilers at Applegarth in the 1936 building and the 1983 building part of the safety process the licensing process the insurance process they are regulated by the state a state inspector comes in and eventually issues an approval for the boilers to be used the mechanics has said Point Blank you need to get these replaced you may get another season out of these once these go you are in a bad situation boilers are a major issue there the roof is a major issue the roof needs to be taken care of the piping that runs throughout the building we have pipes that just corrode and deteriorate this is a big undertaking to address that school now of course the school has pass inspection if it hadn't uh passed inspection there would not be students there we'd

315not be allowed to operate but just because it passed inspection now doesn't mean that it will in the future and my question is this this uh this quote that transcribing that I transcribed that is from October 2020 and since then has the underground storage tank been replaced at Applegarth because it's possible that this was true then but not true now and has the boiler been addressed I don't think the roof has been addressed so um I mean I can send you the recording you can hear him for yourself but um I just want some clarification about the underground storage tank at Applegarth school I think the question earlier was the roof and the boiler no it wasn't it was also the underground yeah I'm not I'm not familiar with that yeah the specific question I

316asked I answered for Mr Fabiano was um regarding you know did I hear did I receive anything on the insurance company regarding the underground tank I believe the answer to that is no um if Mr T commented on that in in October he commented on it so that this could be an old issue yeah it's it's possible uh I think every cautionary uh advisement that uh Mr T made in that quotation uh should be taken seriously um the building is old and it's subject to failure at any one of those systems that were mentioned the boiler and the uh that's certainly the older boiler the the oil boiler is is is very uh you can't get parts for it anymore and uh it does keep us up at night in the winter uh and the

317underground storage tank with oil is any underground storage tank is a problem and that's why we replac so that has not been replaced it's still the same to my knowledge it has not been replaced and Applegarth has not had any Capital Improvements other than cosmetic when we closed the school for asbestos remediation okay um Mrs was that a buildings and grounds or was that an it was a buildings and grounds transportation meeting October 2020 I can send you the recording if you if you would like we'll we'll find it thank you okay that's good anything else no thank you very much anyone else okay seeing none um I would just like uh a voice to close the public portion all in favor I I okay so we are next going into close session close session

318resolution reads as such be it resolved that the Board of Education of the township of Monroe hereby moves to go into closed session in accordance with the Sunshine Law chapter 2 31 of the public laws of 1975 njsa 10 col 4-6 through 10 col 4-21 to discuss the following subject interview for interim position the following close session a following the close session action may be taken the discussion um conducted in close session can be disclosed to the public at such time as the need for confidentiality no longer exists before we pass that as part of that resolution you want to incorporate the temp board secretary yes okay so we will also need a temporary board secretary for the closed session resolution um generally it's Mr ninski shall we uh so moved so moved second okay

319all in favor I don't think we need a roll call do we miss uh Beerman no Miss Belco Belco second no oh I'm sorry Bel made the motion I say hi so we will probably be back in an hour yeah okay just as a way of explanation while Mr poori is joining us I'd like the public to know that we spent a an ordinate amount of time we interviewed two candidates for acting uh superintendent acting interim we were going to uh qualify that that um designation as acting in or interim um when when we decide so uh if anyone would like to make a motion I entertain a motion I'd like to make a motion Miss Beerman I would like to propose the following motion be it resolved that Mrs Sher Chanley serve as our

320Acting Superintendent of Schools from the date of do Dr Ali's departure until a permanent superintendent is named compensation will be determined and negotiated by the board attorney and board president this is subject to preparation of an appropriate contract by board counsel and the approval of Same by the executive County Superintendent of Schools as required by law so move so Mr ninski that was Miss Beerman made a motion got it Mr Tano um is there any comment before we take a vote Mr I guess my only comment would be um it was it was unfortunate that we were pressed for time and and couldn't thoroughly go through the list of candidates and interview anybody from the outside um with that said we had two good interviews and um I am prepared to vote tonight but we

321we will be proactive in searching for a permanent well that that is the determination we will begin very quickly to look for um permanent we have approximately 30 applicants for permanent superintendent um and we will uh move forward very quickly uh for the sake of the the uh community and the district um anyone else care to make no okay um Mr nicens you'll call the vote Miss Belo yes Miss Beerman yes Mr Chella yes I'm a yes Mr poori no Miss seagull no Miss gerby yes Mr Tano yes Mr rutsky yes okay Miss uh Madam president um I I'll I will vote Yes tonight thank you thank you let's hope we can move forward very quickly um congratulations Miss Chanley um we hope that you will bring us to a transitional period with the uh

322honor and dignity that is uh the people of Monroe deserve and uh I will now open it to the public specifically for um this action so the only discussion for public uh if anyone would like to speak would be on this ction seeing none okay we will close the public forum all an agreement and the next schedule Board of Education meeting uh will be in October 20th 2021 and uh most likely we will have a a special meeting sooner I just want the public to be aware of that again we will get started with a few uh things that we need to to discuss and I uh ask for a motion to adjourn motion second we are adjourned