Marlboro Township Board of Education Meeting Live 10/26/21

001Good evening everyone and welcome to the regular board meeting of the Marlboro Township Board of Education being held at Marlboro Memorial Middle School October 26, 2021 7 p.m. Vin can you please call to order? Mrs. Amster? Mrs. Branch? Mr. Furland? Here. Dr. Heller? Here. Mr. Shifferson? Here. Mrs. Schramm? Here. Mrs. Solace? Here. Mrs. Trefasi? Here. And Mrs. Wolk? Here, thank you very much, Vin. Sunshine Law, please be advised that this meeting is being held in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act, Chapter 231, PL 1975, Sunshine Law. And that adequate notice of the date, time, and agenda has been sent to the Asbury Park Press and the news transcript, and has been posted and filed with the Marlborough Township Curb. Copies have also been sent to each district school and other area newspapers in accordance

002with the law. I'm not going to read in full, but I'll bring your attention to. Statement of videotaping a public portion of Board of Education meetings. Public comment statement, no smoking on school grounds. We're going to have a Pledge of Allegiance followed by a moment of silence. A moment of silence will be observed in memory of retired principal Thomas Ellsworth, who passed away on Wednesday, September 8th, 2021. Mr. Ellsworth began his tenure with the district as principal of the Robertsville Elementary School in 1968. He joined the Frank J. Dugan Elementary School staff as its first principal in 1987 and retired in early 1996. He served the district for 27 and a half years. Mr. Ellsworth will be remembered for his professionalism throughout his career here, along with his caring and nurturing ways for students and

003staff alike. In addition, a moment of silence will be observed in memory of former maintenance mechanic Thomas Mitre, who passed away on Thursday, September 30th, 2021. Toma began his employment in the Marlborough Township Public School District in 2017 until going out on sick leave last summer. His main focus was electrical repairs, but for those who knew him with a smile on his face, he happily did anything anyone asked without complaining. He will be missed. everyone could please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and remain standing for those moments of silence. 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 with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. On behalf of the Marlboro Township Board of Education we send our

004condolences to Mr. Ellsworth's families and Mr. Mitra's family and thank you for your years of service to the Marlboro community. announcements. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. So first I want to update everyone on where we are with staff testing. You may or may not know that executive order 253 mandates that all unvaccinated full time people or people that are here regular regularly have to submit to testing. So we were actually notified very early this morning that testing will begin this week on Friday. We have the communication that's going to go out tomorrow. And we have three testing sites, one of which will be the administrative building, and then the other two sites will be Marlboro Memorial and Marlboro Middle. So there'll be three places where staff can get tested. And it looks like the admin

005building, we didn't have any input into their hours, will be much longer, a 730 to a 4. And then the middle schools will be from about 145 to about 410. So initially we thought that there were going to be three full days. That doesn't seem to be something that the testing company that's assigned can cover. So we are going to have to make do with what we have for right now. So our first initial test will be on. on Friday. We do have to as a matter of accepting the option of having it paid for offer the concept to students at some point. The keyword there is offer. So it would have to be with parent consent if they ever wanted to utilize our services. There's been absolutely no discussion of forcing all Children to

006be tested. That's a question that sometimes you receive. So that's that is nowhere in the cards. What will happen after the election is anybody's guess. So uh that's staff testing i also want to want to point out uh separately uh for agenda item 26 tonight that really uh is all about copiers and vinnie saved uh saved the district about twenty eight thousand dollars over the course of four years by renegotiating the copier lease so i want to give a shout out to vin just for being good job thank you good job Last but not least, just so the board's aware, on this agenda there is a purchase of rapid tests. So initially the executive order stated that we had to have testing in motion by October 18th. And there was no leniency that was given

007despite numerous asks through our legislators, going to the governor to advocate and We took steps to make sure we were in compliance with the executive order and that involved purchasing the rapids and then at the 11th hour they actually came in and gave leniency to the school districts. So that's why we have the tests, but we will use them as needed. Great, thank you. The tests for about $6000 right? Yeah, for 300. Yep, thank you. Will be under locking key at the schools and used as necessary. Thank you. I felt that it was time to express my disappointment in some members of this community. Outright lies that are being spread on social media are for political reasons only. I find it interesting that community members who claim to want parents and not politicians on the

008board are doing nothing more than politicizing this upcoming election and spreading misinformation. This is incredibly unfortunate, particularly when those lies could irreparably harm a person's professional reputation or standing in the community. Please allow me to be more specific. We as a board approved the MTPS curriculum for comprehensive health and physical education. This curriculum was developed based on the standards that were approved by the New Jersey State Board of Education. M-T-P-S is not mandated to teach the standards word for word. The standards represent a foundation from which districts build coherent curriculum and instruction. What was neglected to be shared on social media was our classroom application of the standards. Let me clarify, someone simply drew attention to one word involving sexual activity that is not actually taught in our curriculum in order to further a political

009agenda. In order to clarify, I had asked Dr. Hibbs to put out the correct information about the standards to the community because I felt it was important that the truth be disseminated to our community instead of flagrant lies. As helpful as social media can be in certain circumstances, it is also a terrible hindrance because people not fully immersed in the issue see something posted and automatically believe it is true. In fact, people who post things about votes that are cast by our school board members should really educate themselves prior to sending out or posting political flyers or making other egregious claims. As a board, we vote to improve to approve the local Marlboro curriculum. not the New Jersey state standards. Recently, a flyer made by a community member was posted on social media. It stated

010that members of this Board of Education voted yes in favor of harmful, sexually graphic curriculum for our young children. That is a flat-out lie. In truth, what we voted on was a Marlboro curriculum, which states on standard 2.1.5.PGD.4 that we follow our family life curriculum. which was unanimously voted on August 20th, 2019 by all sitting board members at that time. Let me say that again. It was unanimously voted on August 20th, 2019 by all sitting board members. There is nothing sexually graphic in our family life curriculum. If you are upset with the state standards, you need to address the New Jersey Department of Education. As per the NJDOE website, there were 130 educators from public and non-public elementary, middle, and high schools. higher education, parents and representatives from nonprofit organizations, businesses, the military and health

011fields from across New Jersey who shared their time and expertise as members of the standards review teams in each of the seven content areas, as well as the members of the public that provided feedback during the public review period. I am proud of the work that this board has done and believe we have accomplished some great things over the last few years, including full-day kindergarten, science labs, nurses suites, approved and ESIP, beginning renovation of Morganville property with buildings and grounds, new sports teams at the middle school, renovation of middle school libraries, approved additional BCBAs, development of mindfulness programs, and numerous programs that address the well-being of children, instructional coaches, state-recognized RTI programs, numerous staff members with advanced degrees, and so much more. I want to thank this board. for being so supportive of the district

012and making the best decisions for our community. We continue to embrace district priorities while treasuring, protecting, and promoting our exemplary reputation. My final request is that if a board member, a parent, or community member sees something on social media or hears something that is false about this board, administration, or members, please immediately correct it and set the record straight. We owe this to each other. This applies even if you are running against a person in an election. Smear tactics and a win-at-all-cost attitude have absolutely no place in Marlboro. We teach our kids to be honorable and respectful human beings, and nothing is more important than our adults leading by example. Thank you. Ms. Branch had also reached out to me to read something. Just make sure your mic's on. Brian, I don't think her mic...

013Do you want to take Jen's? See if hers is working. Hello? Thank you, and thank you all for letting me make this statement. On October 16th, I came across a post on the Marlborough Community Facebook page. It was posted by a former school board member, and it was about a September vote that we had taken on the health curriculum for our third grade. The image on the post was a combination of a screen grab of controversial state standard language for grades three through five, placed above the board's voting record on our district written curriculum. in which our district written curriculum did not use or advocate teaching those concepts to our children. That image, presented as it was, was incorrect and a false representation of what we voted on. It was posted to imply that all

014but one of the board members was agreeing that we would be teaching sexual concepts to our third graders. We absolutely did not affirm that idea. or vote yes to that curriculum for our children. And I hope that after all of this discussion and clarification, that those that posted and advanced this false narrative will correct it. Now, I realize this will not happen during this week leading up to the election, but it really would be the right thing to do. I went back and I watched the last meeting in which we discussed this curriculum. Mr. Boulogne, at 50 minutes into the meeting, talks about our curriculum, which is different than the state standard language, and we reiterate that we are not teaching or discussing sexual acts to our elementary school children. At one hour and one

015minute into the meeting, I spoke about the questions we had in committee that were discussed again in the meeting just a few minutes earlier to help clarify questions on the curriculum on the agenda that evening. When I vote on curriculum guides, I am voting on curriculum that our teachers in the district create, not state standard language, which is something I had no part in creating. We ask many questions of our administration. We always do. And through that process, I understood that we were voting on health curriculum that was based upon classroom applications, which again, did not include any sexual explicit discussions for our elementary school students. To the people that posted or commented that we voted to teach sex to our elementary school students, you only had to attend the live meeting or review the

016meeting on the district website to know that is not true. To see this so wrongly represented in the community is incredibly distressing to me. This characterization of our curriculum is deceitful, deceptively false, and is a disservice to our community at large. Former board members who should have known or perhaps didn't know but chose to post something that was so misleading and inaccurate did so with the intent to create mistrust of most of the current board members. The current board member who was highlighted as a dissenting vote commented in the online conversation but did not clarify the actual curriculum in our classrooms, which I find unfortunate. It's also unfortunate that inaccurate information got promoted within the community, which caused anger and confusion. And this is why I encourage the administration to utilize all of the tools

017that we have available to us, like the email that was sent out to the district parents and guardians, to clear up the confusion as quickly as possible. Like Robin stated, whenever there is a question, I ask that concerned parties inform themselves. Use the website www.mtps.org. Click on the Board of Education tab. Then click to view the meetings or read the approved minutes from past meetings. And then if you still have additional questions or concerns, please reach back out to the appropriate person in the chain of command. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. Then 2022-23 school year budget calendar. Sure. So I shared with all of you the 22-23 budget calendar just to give you a brief overview of the months to come leading up to the budget approval. So November and December we will

018be just discussing with the departments exactly what is needed for the 22-23 budget, making cuts where needed and making additions where needed as well. By December will be our first public meeting about the budget. We'll make a presentation to the board. And we will also be doing that in January as well and February. February is usually when they release the state aid numbers, so we are still under the S2 reduction. So by March, we usually have to adopt our budget. And then by May, it'll be the final hearing, end of April, beginning of May. Great. Thank you. Can you announce our school bus driver and building maintenance? Sure. All abstracts are run and all have privileges and good standing. Great. Thank you. And also, while we're on bus drivers, so we wanted to just communicate

019with everyone that there is a nationwide shortage right now for drivers. We are experiencing difficulties along every other district. There's some states that have the National Guard driving buses. So we are working tirelessly to try to find drivers to fulfill the needs that we need, especially the open packages that we have that we have drivers currently covering more than their recommended amount. One of the delays is due to the CDLs being held up. There's a lot of new drivers that are trying to get their CDLs through the DMV, and they really have not been given a date or a time frame of when they're going to be able to get those. So as you'll see on tonight's agenda, we have more resignations coming, but we luckily did have two additions. that we were able to

020hire but again we're waiting on their their cdl to start i just wanted to thank nancy walker and deb tierney and the whole transportation staff for working tirelessly around the clock to ensure all of our students do get to school safely and on time because they are under extreme circumstances right now covering more than than what they need to great thank you very much and yes thank you to nancy and jeff yep randy does it involve like money where do we randy talking to the mic hello okay okay so what i'm asking is is if we would offer these individuals prospective drivers more money would that entice or wouldn't make a difference in the situation So it is very competitive right now. You have some private companies offering $5,000 to $10,000 sign-in bonuses. Our drivers

021currently are under their collective bargaining unit. So while we could raise the sub-rate, unfortunately you could not raise it more than what an entry-level driver makes in the contract. We are looking at all options. We try to avoid going out to contract with routes because they can be very costly, up to $50,000 to $60,000 per route. So we're trying to have more drivers in-house. Thank you. And this is happening everywhere across the nation. And two things that are happening, we have to cover runs, and then at some point, if things aren't covered well, we might have to combine runs. So when this happens, we typically... communicate right to the to the uh to the community that's there and saying listen we're running a little bit behind today um today that went at like 6 10

022when we realized that memorial's retention basin gave way at about six o'clock this morning flooding all of nolan road so that's what we're dealing with on a day-to-day basis and again nancy and deb are fabulous and are working tirelessly around the clock great thank you for that update and hopefully There will be a solution to this in the near time and the soon, you know Soon get that out. All right, Michael. I think you're going to do student impact Thank you As always we like to highlight great things that our students are doing here in the district and this month is no different So the start of the 21 22 academic year has been an exciting time for all of our students But especially for our elementary students As they began exploring their school's library

023for interesting and intriguing books, an important aspect of building a child's love for reading is to create a space where they can browse the library shelves and open the pages of various books to make a favorite selection. When the time comes for students to shop for books, their excitement becomes contagious, making the library space that much more special. It's a space for curiosity, wonder, critical thinking, communication, and most importantly, the shared love for reading. led by our elementary media specialists Jamie Allen at Asher Lauren Atwood at Dufino Jay Seibert at Dugan Deborah Lamut at Mar-El and Brenna Greer at Robertsville thank you to all of the elementary school students from these elementary schools who participated in this fine presentation so if you wouldn't mind Mr. Reiner playing a video for us just a short clip

024The start of the 21-22 academic year has been an exciting time for elementary school students as they began exploring their school's library for books. An important part of building a child's love for reading is to create a space where they can browse the library shelves, opening the pages of various books to make a favorite selection. When the time comes for students to shop for books, their excitement becomes contagious, making the library space that much more special. It is a space for curiosity, wonder, critical thinking, communication, and most importantly, the shared love for reading. Students obtain important library media skills, being able to define the purpose of a library, identify the library's organization of books and resources, differentiate between fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and biographies, utilize shelf markers to maintain an organized library, demonstrate care and respect

025for books and resources, apply understanding to make independent book selections, recognize how reading can promote learning, personal growth, and enjoyment, think critically during book talks, and provide or consider book recommendations. Before students can begin checking out books, they must first learn about the organization of the library and its procedures. For example, students will participate in a digital scavenger hunt using MackinVIA, which is where students are able to access digital collections of books, audiobooks, and resources. Students also engage in literature-based activities. After reading the book that Jake borrowed, they illustrate how they will take care of their library books. Following Know David, the students take part in an activity to determine what activities are appropriate while reading a book. The best one is this! Okay, so stand up here! Now, AJ, what are you going to

026ask your class about glue and library books? Don't answer yet! Should you? What are you going to ask about Doritos and your library book? Eroda, so everybody can hear you. We're going to listen to Eroda's question, right? Should you? Should you draw your book? No! Students also read Library Lion to review proper library etiquette. As a review, students play an interactive gaming tool, Lookit, to assess their understanding of procedures and book care. After learning about library procedures, students personalize their library shelf markers, which is a tool that students use to mark a book's place on the shelf as they browse. If they do not want to check out the book after evaluating its back and front cover as well as its illustrations and excerpts, the student uses the marker to place the book back in

027its original place on the shelf. Students draw and color on their bookmarker so it's easily identifiable. They are encouraged to include their favorite books, characters, or subjects, as well as any creative designs. Shelf markers also serve as a library card, scanning the barcode during the shelf book checkout. Marlboro Elementary also has a fifth grade mentor program, allowing students to volunteer to assist the media specialists and our youngest learners as they become acquainted with the school library. This is the first time our youngest learners have ever been book shopping in the library. Along with the guidance of the media specialists, fifth graders assist students one-on-one as they select their book. They show them how to use the shelf marker, how to select a book, and how to scan it for checkout. Students also learn how to

028carefully return their books. Finally, students find a comfortable space to enjoy a good book. Thank you to Mrs. Gross for putting that together and all of the elementary media specialists and students involved. Thank you. That was great. I remember my days, the card catalog, so it looks a lot more fun the way they do it. And the kids look so happy participating in the video and just happy in the library. So it's great. Thank you to the elementary school media specialists for putting that together. Ed camp donations. We would like to thank the following local establishments for their generous contributions to enhance the ed camp experience for all staff on Monday, October 11, 2021. Burger Bros, Stacks. Over Easy Kitchen, Everything Bagels and Cafe, and Smoothie King. Thank you to all those companies, those restaurants

029for helping make that Ed Camp day great and feeding our people. Discussion mandated policy 2425. Okay. Thank you, Mike. Great job on the introductions. Shout out to Morgan as well. For those of you who don't know Morgan, she is our supervisor of educational technology and does one of a million things. And that was just one of the great things that she does. So we appreciate you, Morgan. So on this agenda, on page 45, I put this on here as a discussion because I wanted to make sure it was just very clear about what this policy is and what it is not. So I'll actually start with what it is not. This policy is not here because in any way, shape, or form that I think that we will be remote this year or virtual. We

030are mandated to do this by the state of New Jersey, and what we have to do is they wrote a... what was just a normal policy and then in the appendix we actually had to go through and write in what we were going to do in certain instances i.e do we have enough broadband what technology do we use ipads and chromebooks how would we provide virtual or remote instruction synchronously through google meet this year it's google meet not zoom What would we do if our entire district, in referencing meals, what would we do if our entire district was remote? We would deliver lunches like we did, you know, the first year in pandemic, went way above and beyond and delivered lunches to homes. And what would we do if part of the district was remote?

031The exact same thing, because we really always go above and beyond. We had to talk a little bit about also to the length of the virtual day. That was very important because I guess some districts. varied. So we are required to do at least a four hour day and that does not include lunch or recess. So we're mandated to have this policy so that if you know if something did occur, which again I do not foresee, especially because our numbers are trending downward, we would be in a spot where if we needed to use virtual instruction we would be allowed to use it as opposed to not. So that was just the requirement from the state of New Jersey. Great, thank you for that explanation. You got it. Then we're going to move on to

032celebrating success and sharing information. Dr. Hobson? Yeah. Mr. Ballone? Ms. Allen-Fried? Yes. Okay, welcome everyone again. What we'd like to do is share initially some success stories and also share information, right, to our district fundamentals. And we'll start. One more, sorry Brian. We're going to start with each of our schools. We just saw a great student impact experience at the elementary level in the libraries. If we can just shed a little bit of light on each one of our schools. At the Abbott Early Learning Center, thank you so much to the PTO there and all PTOs. They held a pumpkin patch and fun fest for our students. So those pictures are on the left. Might be a little difficult to see out there in the crowd. but students had a great time. On the right

033at Asher Holmes Elementary School, Mrs. Allen from the media center there held story walks outside so students could almost have like a little gallery walk and talk about stories and books that they were reading. One thing that we are really lucky to have are technology coaches at the elementary level. Mrs. Weinshank is pictured there to the right. really teaching our students about something that is super important that we hold near and dear here and we really try to teach our students good digital citizenship have a good digital footprint what it means what the implications are for having a negative digital footprint and impact on our world because they are growing up with that this is something that's just in their lives and they need to know what the ramifications are of having a negative digital

034footprint. Next slide please. At Defino, again, Mrs. Atwood in the media center bringing steam into the library. Reading a book, Humber Witch, then have some secret ingredients, making a magic potion, including magic dust. And then in the end, Mrs. Atwood then explains how the ingredients, when they're mixed together, they cause a reaction, creating gas. So she's really incorporating a lot of different subjects within her media center and enriching experiences for our students. Also at Dufino, if you can go to the next slide, please. At Dufino on the bottom left we see Mrs. Bayer, one of our incredible staff members, utilizing our outdoor tents. for learning spaces. And then on the upper right, those of you who don't know Mr. DiMaria, he is a very talented art teacher at Dufino. He actually, if you've been in

035Dufino's cafeteria, he's the one who did all of the paintings there. Just some incredible work. And here, what he's doing is kind of stepping outside his comfort zone a little bit. They had some absentees for their Dufino Daily News, which they called the DDN, and he did a little improv and did the Dufino Daily News for the day. So he stepped in as the art teacher, and we really appreciate him doing things that go above and beyond the scope of his regular job. You can see a kindergarten fire truck visit at Dugan on the left. They have some flexible seating, snack, and math, so our students are learning, they're eating, they're relaxing, kind of having a great time at Dugan. They had a Halloween fun night just recently, last week I believe it was. Again,

036a big shout out to the PTA, thank you for your support and making that such a great event. Moving on to Mar-El. This one blew me away. My son is into Minecraft and what you see on the bottom left is a rendition of what the Mar-El library could look like in the Minecraft world. So we had a student create that. Pretty incredible. On the right side, it's a little tough to see that the top right at Robertsville, there's some artwork. We have, it's called a collaborative project. So each one of those, if you were to actually zoom in, I have the original, so I was able to really appreciate it. But each one of the squares that you see up there. There are basically four squares within a big square and each student created one

037of the little squares and then they put them together to create a collaborative artwork piece. We're also lucky enough to have the fifth grade student ambassadors. They visited classrooms to discuss respect with the younger students, so a lot of peer leadership there, which is great. We also have a WellCheck app to check in with students' well-being, mental health, to be sure that we are Doing the best we can for our students and making them feel comfortable. Then we have moving on to the middle schools This is Marlboro Middle School. We have peer-to-peer and conflict managers. They kind of work in unison. They do classroom visits Random acts of kindness with gotcha cards and PTO sponsored gift cards again. Thank you to our great PTO and PTAs They also do outreach presentations to the sixth and

038seventh graders on promoting tolerance and understanding someone else's point of view. And we do have a video here. Mr. Reiner, are you able to click on that and play the video? Hello. My name is Samantha Burns, and I'm a conflict manager. My name is Hudson Schneider, and I'm a member of Peer-to-Peer. In Marlborough Township Public Schools, the month of October is acknowledged as the month of respect, so MMS students participate in various activities to demonstrate this theme, beginning with the Random Act of Kindness campaign. At MMS, members of peer-to-peer and conflict managers join staff members in giving out gotcha cards to students who are copying kind. The names of these students who receive gotcha cards will be displayed on a wall of respect outside the MMS Student Services office. entered into a raffle to win

039small gift cards sponsored by the PTO. Furthermore, within the month of respect, the week of October 18th to 22nd was New Jersey School Violence Prevention Week. In recognition of this statewide initiative, the conflict managers and peer-to-peer led MMS in signing a pledge to create a more bully-free school. Additionally, 8th grade peer-to-peer and conflict manager members are currently preparing outreach presentations to be facilitated in all 6th and 7th grade classrooms. The title of the conflict manager presentation in 6th grade classrooms is Promoting Tolerance, during which 8th graders will be exploring the concepts of tolerance and blind judgment, as well as helping 6th graders create visuals that display ways in which students can show acceptance for others. The title of the peer-to-peer presentation in 7th grade classrooms is The Other Point of View. during which 8th graders

040will explore the importance of understanding each other's perspectives on important issues. Finally, we will wrap up October's Month of Respect activities and partner with Student Council by sponsoring a respected themed Spirit Week. I was very impressed, especially this early on in the year. Great ELA skills as well, writing their speeches. Great job, Marlboro Middle students. Finally, at Memorial, something similar, they have similar groups, peer to peer and conflict manager, classroom visits, morning announcements related to respect and kindness. You can see the pillars on your left over there. Teachers facilitated activities and lessons on respect. They did a make a difference contest using power to promote kindness and respect and random acts of kindness. Catch students being kind, very similar to Marlboro Middle School. Here's our last video here created here at Memorial. Bucci is a

041Star Wars fan so you'll understand. Give respect to the school violence awareness. Awesome. Very quick snippet on having fun, engaging in the design thinking process, playing games while learning, socializing. It's just so great to see us getting back to the things that we love to do and love to provide for our students. Finally, our special services department, I'll call up Dr. Blair. They have some great things to share as well. So, Dr. Blair. Yep, right there. Thank you so much. So good evening everyone. So I have two slides for you. The first one is our social skills incorporation that we have been doing across the district in various programs. So I actually observed this lesson where teachers, child study team members, and our behaviorists pushed into one of our classes to teach a social skills

042lesson on listening to the teacher and interacting. in social skills groups and it was really fun because they ended up creating little binoculars where they learned how to listen to stop to hear to talk to each other and how to interact so this is just one example of how our child study team and our behaviorists push into the classroom to create social skills group across the district next slide please And on this slide, we have various highlights that special services has been doing the past couple months. So the first is our incorporating functional academics into some of our self-contained classes. So this is in one of our classes where... We were incorporating cooking skills and functional academic life skills for our students and it's so fun. Also shout out to Vinny who helps us provide

043some of the awesome food that we're able to cook up and actually in this program as well this classroom has a full kitchen which is really really awesome. And the next one is our instructional assistants receiving CPI, nonviolent crisis prevention training from our supervisor of special services, Ms. Allie Mortar. And this training includes de-escalation strategies and various ways to help our students when they're stressed or when they're experiencing challenges throughout the school day. And lastly, as a picture of our child study team celebrating all differences. Each month when it's different awareness we celebrate by showing our pride for all students with disabilities and wearing our shirts. This one was actually for Be Kind so we were really excited about it. So it's just some activities that special services does. I want to take a moment

044and just really draw attention to nine staff members. We have Brittany, Kristen, Jackie, Nicole, Ben, Matthew, Eileen, Deandra, and Maureen, who all just recently attained their master's degree. So how about a round of applause for that? And Jenna and Eilish both went up on guide as well. So every year we have numerous staff members that attain different levels in our guide, all of which focuses on learning, which is really why we're here. Okay, moving on to our curriculum. We're going to start with definitions. Thank you, Mrs. Branch, for noting that at 50 minutes last month that I talked about this, but then I'll essentially rehash. Ironically, it's almost 50 minutes right now, Mike. Oh, wow. Okay. So let's start with definitions first, just so everyone understands. We can kind of level set. Because I know

045this is there's some domain specific language here that unless you're an educator you really think they kind of everything meshes together and Sometimes it is difficult to understand so state standards if we start there state standards are statements Developed in our case by the New Jersey Department of Education to define a thorough and efficient education They do not dictate how to teach So that's very important to understand. Developed, I think Mrs. Wolf mentioned, developed at the state level, and it runs through somewhat of a similar process that we do here. Standards are presented to the community and various stakeholders, and then ultimately approved by the Board of Education, which I believe, the State Board of Education, which I believe is a 13-member board. Those state standards are pushed out to every single public school district.

046I'll just speak for New Jersey, here in New Jersey. And we are mandated to teach to those standards. We are not mandated to teach the standards verbatim, every word, punctuation, parenthetical. It is meant to meet the spirit of the standard. The standards cannot be eliminated. We then create curriculum, the second definition up here. And the curriculum is essentially, in our case, a document, roadmap. It's created by us, by our teachers, with supervision by supervisors that then roll into my department in curriculum and instruction. And the curriculum determines how the standards are taught. In other words, the curriculum... is what does it actually look like? Okay, so you can see a state standard and you can see those statements that are written and approved at the state level. What do we make that look like in

047our classrooms? That's what we do here. That's what this Board of Education, before you, approves. Moving on to the health curriculum that was approved last month. New Jersey State Board of Education voted to approve the most recent standards and you just need to understand I know it says 2020 up there that those are the most recent standards the Department of Ed is typically a little behind right so even though it's 2021 the most recent standards right now are the 2020 New Jersey State New Jersey State learning standards student We then develop our local curriculum based on the 2020 standards. We did that this summer and we do it every summer. So at a local level, curriculum is reviewed. I have a calendar and I have a five-year cycle with all of my curriculum guides, all

048of our curriculum guides. There are really two times that we, or really probably three times that we change curriculum. If it's up on the five-year cycle and we're due to rewrite, even if the state does not approve, we re-approve. We re-look at resources and teaching methods and links and assessments, all kinds of things. So we don't let anything go beyond five years. If the state comes down and approves new standards and then they give us a timeline, we then create new curriculum guides to align to those standards based on the state's mandated implementation schedule. The third time we would update our curriculum is by use of our standards-based common assessments. Anything that we find throughout the year through our district data specialists, our literacy coaches, our math coaches, or teachers, supervisors, if we find a

049systemic issue in a particular standard or cluster, we will get to the root cause and fix that issue. And the infamous example we always use is is 5.MBT.A.1 when our students did not realize that .6 and .60 had the same value. So our students thought .60 was larger. When we uncovered that, when we looked at our data for our common assessments, we actually dug even deeper to figure out why do they have this misconception? We looked back into our Envision math resource book and realized that In fourth grade, the way Envision was presenting the material, they said when you add a zero to a number, you increase it by a power of ten. And that's true for whole numbers. Our students took that knowledge and applied it to decimals. So we went into our curriculum

050guides and we fixed that for our teachers, for our students moving forward. So that's just one very small example, and that would be essentially the third way. that we address and change curriculum. Now, there was, Mrs. Branch, I think, mentioned it earlier that there was apparently a post on social media that had circled this word in the third bullet point, the first word. And it was circled out of context, I agree. This word. is present in the state standard approved language, which is something we do not approve. We simply, in our curriculum guide, we figure out how we're going to teach that standard without mentioning that word and without teaching that. And that's what we did. And that's what we will continue to do. Let's just reemphasize that. Not in any grade, in any way.

051So the next slide, it's important to know, this is directly from the New Jersey Department of Education. I know it's difficult to see out there again. The left column is your, all of this language on this slide is state language. We did not create it. The left side is the core idea, and then the right side is the performance expectations. In the second box on the right side, you can see a blue highlight. There's our word again state language, and if you look even further It's not even It's not part of the standard language per se it's actually provided as an eg an example of Ways you could meet this standard so even the state is saying look for example You could talk about this or talk about that or all of the other things

052that are up in that example parenthetical again The next slide will really show you what our curriculum guides look like. Now, what was posted on social media is, see that blue section, basically the second box in the middle? That, you can't see it? So I'll go point to it. Eric, give him your microphone. There's a circle right here. You can't see what the word says. Do not say the word. Shh. Hey, we're not going to go back and forth in the audience. It's not going to happen. Place of business. So if anyone would like to reach out to me to figure out what that word is, I think we all know what it is. But if you would like me to email it to you, I certainly will. You can reach out to me, mballone

053at mtps.org. So that blue word was circled, taken out of context. And the right section. The right column is called classroom applications. That is what it looks like at MTPS. That was failed to be shared on social media. And if you just stop there for a second. This is sometimes, you know, we always want to treasure and protect and promote our reputation because we work very hard for a good reputation. As everyone in this room does. We all have families in some way, shape, or form. We all want people to think highly of our families and of us. So in our lives, when misinformation is put out, regardless of why, it doesn't even matter why, there's an importance to ensure that people understand the truth of what's put out. Period. It's important. So when you

054look at this, What was neglected to be discussed in any way shape or form and this was part of my communication is that This standard right here is referenced by grade 3 family life Now had you have dug into that or if you if you would like to and I encourage you to They are unchanged since 2019 2019 and nowhere is that concept present in any of those guides. And those guides were unanimously approved by every board member. And that's the struggle. And there have been some questions on, Dr. Hibbs, why do you put out information? Why do you seek to clarify things? It's really simple. This is a district that I lead. So if misinformation is going to be put out about that district, it's my responsibility to correct that misinformation for whatever reason

055why it was put out. So clear as day it's not taught. Okay, next slide please. So again nowhere in the grade three family life curriculum is the word or concept even mentioned. So moving on. Dr. Hibbs actually just covered this slide so we can go to the next slide. What's next? So I convened the curriculum committee for an impromptu meeting yesterday. Thank you to those members who joined. Mrs. Branch, Mrs. Szilagyi, Mrs. Strafasi, and Mrs. Wolfe. I also spoke with board members individually. Mr. Furlan, thank you for reaching out to me and having your conversation with me, taking time out of your workday, not only yesterday, but also back in September before we approved the health curriculum guidance. But despite the fact that this concept is not in any way, shape, or form taught, we

056decided as a committee to remove the language that contains the word that we are, really has brought some concern from some of our community. Truth be told, it was a healthy discussion. One thing that's really important to understand, we followed our typical process in utilizing state standards, which we always do and always will do, to be included in our curriculum guides. So that process did not change, will not change, and we will continue to do that. What we decided as a team, as a curriculum committee, was to simply remove the example, and it's a little larger for you to see now, where you have the strike through. So the highlighted section is the actual standard language. And then after that, it says eg, right, example, and then it gives several examples. What we decided as

057a committee, as a, you know, knowing that there was some consternation throughout the community. And misinformation. And misinformation. We came to the conclusion that if the misinformation is out there, and we don't teach it, why could we not remove it? So we came to consensus and decided that we would remove it despite it actually being approved last month. So it is on for tonight as an addendum with the strike through eliminated. And keep in mind, grades three, four, and five family life are not on this agenda. So if they had been changed, they would be on this agenda too. So the only thing that is being changed is the elimination of the sample language or the example language that is not necessarily part of the standard that we were not teaching. Thank you. So next

058slide. So. You know, we really want to, as Dr. Hibbs said, we, looking at our fundamentals up here, treasuring, protecting, promoting our reputation, we take this very seriously. And if people have questions, we have no problem answering questions. As I said, I've dealt with board members. weeks and months and years that as long as I've been in this position board members have called me Community members have reached out to me. We've had personal meetings phone meetings We're here. We're here to support one another We bring our best every day We walk in the shoes of others So we do we put ourselves in your shoes In speaking straight we always try to treasure protect and promote our reputation So my respectful ask is that, A, let's be respectful, and then B, for public comment, what

059I would really appreciate, if you have a criticism, which it's totally okay to do, because we seek to continuously improve all things, please provide specific examples, and we'll be happy to respond to those specific examples. Thank you, sir. Okay, thank you. Mike Mike I just wanted to ask you a question can you go back to the slide with the classroom application that we were talking about before Brian's that okay okay so got it thank you thank you so where it says elements of this topic can be referenced in the family life curriculum okay I'm not an educator I don't really know what that means. I think I know what you're saying about it, but I don't, that side of this, and you and I have talked about this eight billion times now, but that side

060of this says classroom application, and it says, so you're saying, okay, that's how we're going to teach it in the class. Then it says elements of this can be referenced in the family of hearing. What does that mean to a person who has no idea about this? What does that mean? Like me, what does that mean? I got it. Let me get it. It's easier to... Oh, then I'll wait. I got it. So what we have right here on this side is state language. That's all this is, is state language. This is not what's taught. This is the language that we then build the house. So think of it this way. You're building a house, and they put a whole bunch of lumber in your front yard. This is the lumber. You can then take

061that lumber and build a rancher or a duplex or whatever it is that you want. It could be a shed. This is what we build from those standards. So when it says elements of this topic can be referenced in the family life curriculum, what it means is that all of these standards, is it 2, 3, 4, and 5? It's blurry and I have progressive lenses, right? 2, 3, 4, 5 are all located right here in the family life curriculum, which does not mention the wording question. which I think precipitated, I don't want to speak for the two board members that spoke, precipitated the need to speak about the disingenuine post that was put out about our district, hence the misinformation. Mr. Furlan, so just for clarity purposes, there is a separate curriculum for family life.

062So you may say, well, what does that even mean? So this is the health curriculum. Help dovetails into family life, which is actually a separate document on our website. So if you then know it's basically Like a like a breadcrumb trail. So now it's saying okay this standard go look at the other document Family life open up that document and you can actually see how it's taught at MTPs. So it's actually not even in this one right because it's not here it's in the other one go look at the other one and it's not there right and i i know like you like i said you and i have talked about this a million times so i i totally understand what it is but i do think that when you read it it's not exactly

063clear what that means so that's why i wanted to explain it further i totally understand what it is now and i understood before the uh before the last meeting and you know that's why you assured me at that time that that was not being taught in the district so But I just thought it needed clarification. Thank you, Mike. Sure. Thank you. Good. Thank you very much for that, for clarifying. And first of all, thank you for showing everything that's going on in the classroom. It's great to see that so many great things and kids are happy and teachers are happy and they're using outdoor spaces. And those middle schoolers, their presentation was phenomenal. Just great to see everything going on in all of our classrooms. And thank you for celebrating our successes. Appreciate that. And

064I think that's why we're all up here, because we love seeing what the kids are doing, love to see great things going on and the success of our students. Good? Okay, we're going to move to our first public comments. Those who wish to speak should state their name and address. Comments will be limited to three minutes. The business administrator will let you know when you have one minute remaining. Just please be mindful that there are some young children in the audience this evening. Mr. Caravello, I think you have the list. i'm sorry in advance if i mispronounce your name um so the first person up to speak is uh mrs anita n good evening i am anita nixon i reside at 120 sandy cove in tintin falls i am a retired teacher i retired from

065the marlborough township school district in 2003. in september i was saddened to learn of the death of my former principal thomas ellsworth Mr. Ellsworth had the wonderful distinction of opening two schools in Malboro, the Robertsville School in 1968 and the Frank J. Bruggen School in the mid-'80s. In both instances, Mr. Ellsworth was not only instrumental in preparing the schools for occupancy, but he had the task of forming a cohesive faculty. Since both schools in different years were not ready for the usual September opening, each grade level was assigned to a different location in Marlborough so that the children would be engaged in uninterrupted learning when they were brought to their respective school. I remember in 1968, one of those locations was the Robertsville Firehouse, and that housed second grade. A similar situation occurred with the

066opening of the Dugan School. Each grade level was assigned to another school building. In both situations, Mr. Ellsworth visited each location every day. He made sure that the children were settled in and active learning was taking place. He also made sure that all the necessary teaching materials were available for the teachers. and for the children's use. We retired teachers, and some of us are here tonight, would like to make you aware of our respect and admiration for Mr. Ellsworth's dedication to not only the Marlboro Township children, but to the staff also. I understand there is a precedence in naming schools for specific individuals. We have the Defino Central School. We have the Frank Jack Dugan School. One minute. The Abbott Learning Center and the Asher Homeschool named for a Mulvore patriot who fought in the

067American Revolutionary War. We are asking that you, our members of the Board of Education, recognize and pay tribute to Mr. Ellsworth by recognizing and acknowledging his professionalism and dedication to the children of Mulvore by renaming the Robertsville School. to the Ellsworth Robertsville School. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you also for your years of service. And somebody will be reaching out to you because we may want to get some of the history also of the schools, and it sounds like you have a lot of it. And we will be discussing it as I have written emails back at the buildings and grounds meetings, which we briefly touched on tonight, which will come up later in our committee. Thank you very much. Okay, next up is Mrs. Eileen Wozniak. 2533 Little Hill Road, Point Pleasant Borough. Good

068evening, Robin and Board of Education. I had the pleasure of teaching in Marble Township for 25 years. Five of those years were spent at Dubin Elementary School, and Mr. Ellsworth was my principal. Mr. Ellsworth personified to me what it meant to be a role model principal. There are a few reasons that I'd like to elaborate for this reason. One, Mr. Ellsworth's first and always first allegiance was to all his students. Anytime I would go into his office to ask about a student or my concerns, he wanted to know all the details about the student, family, how he was doing in school before making any decision. He was always thinking about what would be the best for that particular student. He cared about each and every one. Mr. Ellsworth expected much from his staff also, but

069he also appreciated our efforts. There was mutual respect on both sides between teachers and Mr. Ellsworth. And he was called Mr. Ellsworth because that was just how he was addressed. He was just that kind of man. He was professional at all times, to the parents, to the students, to the staff, everyone he treated with respect. And lastly, I always found that Mr. Ellsworth was very approachable. To ask questions or to give a suggestion or a new activity, he always listened. In conclusion, Mr. Thomas Ellsworth was a man that loved what he did, was committed to his job, and was consistently devoted to his role as principal. I would very much like to see Robertsville School be renamed to Ellsworth Robertsville School in his honor. Thank you very much. Thank you, and thank you also for

070your 25 years of service to the Marlboro community. Greatly appreciated. Next up is Mr. Sean McCauley. okay i'll move on i'll go back to that one next up is mr james trefasi hello uh james trefasi 25 canadian woods road in marlborough so hello members of the board administration uh first just want to thank you for all your work especially board members for all the volunteer hours essentially and the administration for doing you know a good job in trying to keep our kids safe and educated So I actually just have a question that I was curious about that applies really to the administration as well as the board and I guess staff as well. So in my job, I have to take mandatory training on various things throughout the year. And one of those things is

071sort of training on unconscious bias and how that sort of plays a role in different interactions, you know, throughout the course of doing business. interacting with clients etc so i was curious if the district had any any kind of training like that and if it was optional or mandatory and if they didn't have it if that was something that might be considered to you know put into the into the program and you know because I saw the videos on the kids, which was awesome. And we try to teach our kids to be tolerant, to be aware of different things. So I was just curious to see if there was a program for even the board members, the administration, the staff, the educators, to have that kind of training. So that's really it. Thank you, James.

072Mike, is there explicit training on unconscious bias? Actually, we have several modules in Global Compliance Network. So I can, Mr. Strafati, I can look into every single one of them and then determine if we do have that. Otherwise, we'd be happy to look into trainings for our staff. Yeah, second part of that question. We're always looking to continuously improve all things. Thank you. Next up is Mrs. Bonnie Gavison. Bonnie Gavison to Harvest Court. Good evening. It's been a while since I've spoken at a Board of Ed meeting, but I came to speak tonight for a pretty important reason, because I can. It is my right, as it is the right of every parent and community member in this room. Undoubtedly, we are here to speak for many reasons on many different topics and to relate

073our individual questions, concerns, and experiences to this board. We may express ourselves differently and you may not like what some or many have to say. But the fact remains that it is each our right to address this board and hold them accountable on matters that concern our children. Their physical, social, and emotional well-being and their education when they are in school. I've been to countless board meetings in Marlborough, listened to many parent testimony, and learned a lot from my neighbors. It must be stated that never, ever have I witnessed any parent make anything that by any stretch of the imagination resembled a verbal or physical threat ever. I came here tonight because I am appalled by the National School Board Association and the Department of Justice's attempt to portray committed parents as violent or domestic

074terrorists. It's ridiculous and it's a danger to our most basic rights and it will not go unchallenged. Thanks to parents across the country pushing back, the NSBA has since apologized for their unconscionable letter in which they made erroneous claims of an uptick in violence. And thanks to parents, I expect the Department of Justice will back away from this nonsense as well. I am here tonight to encourage parents in Marlborough who value their parental rights and their First Amendment rights to continue to show up, continue to speak on matters of curriculum, on standards, on mandates, on anything and everything that you have to say about the manner in which your children are taught. I leave you with a quote by Margaret Mead. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed citizens can change the

075world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Bonnie. Next up is Mrs. Christina Rosado. Christina Rosado, 133 Mickey Drive. Good evening, Dr. Hibbs, board members, and fellow community members. I had some questions that I was hoping in regards to curriculum that you could provide some insight and clarity on. I am an educator for 15 years so I am aware of how to read state standards as well as standards put forth by Marlboro. Just to give you some background history. You stated a board creates curriculum which determines how standards are taught in classrooms. My first question is, does the current board have the ability to determine which content they can omit and or include from the state standards when developing curriculum? My second question is, does the state

076offer additional grants or funding for school districts that cover a specific amount of the standards, specifically in family, life, and health curriculums? A third question I had in regards to special education, so I don't know if that would be for you, Dr. Blair. But I was wondering, is there a percentage of the budget that is typically appropriated to fund resources for our students every year with special needs? I noticed that there were some cuts in the area in the past and was wondering why we would cut from our most needy. And then I had to just address some of the comments in the beginning of this meeting. as I feel like it's the elephant in the room. This new curriculum, as it was addressed and explained ad nauseum just now, was very confusing for community

077members to read. As a parent myself, as an educator, when I read it and I saw the words without stating them for the children in the room, It was concerning and I'm glad that we are offering clarity and transparency right now as to what we're not covering as that is helpful for parents in understanding what their children are being taught in school as they have the right to do. You stated vehemently that those words, thank you, were not part of the curriculum and your goal was to address the spirit of the standards. And last month specifically, Mr. Boulogne, you mentioned that MTPs would check the box by incorporating, for example, let's say, an author from a specific community, a member of the LGBTQIA community, as a way of addressing the spirit of the standards in

078a reading allowed in an ELA classroom. But can we be sure that when students are being introduced to the author in this community, that they're not going to question the acronym, what it stands for, and then would cause a conversation to be had addressing sexual content that parents may not want their children being privy to in, let's say, a third-grade classroom. Thank you very much. Thank you. Can we start? Where do you want to start? I can start. I just got it, sir. I do want to clarify. While my explanation may have been described as ad nauseum, I apologize if that's how it came across to you. But I still need to clarify something that was stated. And it's okay. The state does not tell us how the standards are taught. So that was just

079mentioned. So I think we need to wrap our heads around that first piece. Dr. Hibbs, do you want to address... Or maybe even Mr. Caravello in terms of the grants or funding. Before you go to the grants, does the current board have the ability to choose the content? So no board, just as a matter of just clarity, no board of education ever sits in to actually write curriculum. Board of Education does not administer the district. That's just an administrative function. What happens in the end is, as Michael stated, and we take curriculum writing very seriously, and if you want to see how seriously, Mike, what agenda, is it usually June? So that we approve for the summer? Yeah, for the curriculum writing. It's June, right? So you can go back on our website and you

080can check out, you know, I think agendas that go back to 2013, I think roughly, or maybe that's board member videos. You could probably see both. And you'll see that we spend hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars over that time frame to rewrite curriculum because we take it seriously. But what happens is we post for people to write, which would be usually content specific. people in district they work under the direction of a supervisor and then what happens is is that it's all brought back to mr ballone's office so he puts his stamp on it to make sure that we're in the right position and then it comes to the board so to answer your question they really don't have anything to do with choosing content content is not developed by the board of

081education correct mark yes that oh you guys hear that loud that is correct Does the state offer additional funding for any coverage? Not that I'm aware of, but if they offered funding for coverage of standards, we'd be killing it. So it wouldn't be a problem for us, but no grants that I know of. then I think we can go to VIN and the percent of the budget so I think the specific wording I think I got it was percent of budget to fund resources for special needs I don't know that you can actually go into the resources but maybe take a second talk about just how much of our total operating budget is about 98 million about 27% is allocated to special education so that's a little over 26 million 26 million dollars sorry can't

082go No, no, we're still in public session. We're responding to the questions from the last speaker. We're not done this one, though. We're going, everyone. So the next concept in that question was, you know, there were cuts in the past for special education. This one comes back to me every so often. I think we kind of just clarified that we spend. It was 27 million, is that what it was? 27 million dollars on. 26 million. 26 million, thanks Ben. So the only time in the past that I recall that we really had the elimination of any staff that would have been related to special education, and Dana, that would have been the one-on-one assistance, correct? For the, microphone? Coming to you. Yeah, so that's correct. So in terms of special education, so just so you

083understand the process, every year we meet with the child study team, we meet with principals, we meet with administration, and we go over every single child and their needs, including out-of-district students, and then we determine what those needs are. So those needs change from year to year depending on when our eighth graders graduate, for example, if our out of districts go to freehold regional, if students need to one-to-one, they don't need a one-to-one. So every year those needs change. So for example, in 2018... we did significantly lower the amount of instructional assistance and that was due to the fact that a large number of instructional assistants were for our eighth grade students or out of district students and they graduated and then we didn't need that number of staff but since that Cut. We have

084from 2019 to 2020, 2020 to 21, and 21 to 22, kept the number of instructional assistants the same. And from 2018 all the way to 2022, the number of teachers have not decreased in special education. Now, we have reallocated some of our special education staff. For example, if we did not rehire a speech teacher after somebody has retired because of caseloads, we went from one BCBA to five BCBAs. We added a learning disabilities consultant in my time here and a dyslexia specialist. So while we may have gone down in some areas of special education, we have then added in others. So there has not been a significant cut except for that one time in instructional assistance. And just one last thing as I walk back to my place. It's really important to understand the concept

085of an out-of-district placement. So out-of-district placements, they are what they are, and the students are in the grade level that they're in. But once they leave eighth grade, they actually aren't our responsibility anymore. So that amount of money could be very significant or it could be less significant, but that's not coming out of the special ed budget. That's the need of that child. in that moment based upon the IEP that he or she has. Mike, you got the last one? Sure. Mrs. Rosado, you mentioned the acronym. I can only imagine you're alluding to LGBTQIA. Okay, so those aren't standards. Okay, so there was an enactment effective for the 2020-21 school year. which applies only to grades 6 through 12, so starting in middle school up to 12th grade. Being that we're a pre-K through 8,

086we can just look at it as 6 through 8. Not only is it that the way we've handled it is to focus on the accomplishments of individuals who may fall into one of those categories, but not only is it about that group, it's about those individuals with disabilities. And the way, again, we have the autonomy to figure out what that actually looks like. So when the legislature comes down and mandates that we need to use your term, which was my term, to check the box, I actually made it even more broad, and I called it equity across the curriculum. So we're looking at not only LGBTQ, individuals with disabilities, individuals of various... races, ethnicities. Mr. Strafasi, I'm sure you'll appreciate that piece because we're demonstrating equity across the curriculum. We're not just focusing on one

087or two groups. And then the way we address it really is simply focusing on the accomplishments of individuals in those groups. So just to be clear again, it's not a standard. It was just a legislature push down to us that we need to include it and you can make it look like however you want to make it look like. And that's the approach we took as an equity across the curriculum. I got you. I know your question. You asked a great question, which is, and it's not just about that concept. It could be about any concept. Let's call it controversial. Let's call it a conversation that you may want to have with your own children. Yeah, which is really important, right? As a parent, we always want to have certain conversations with our kids, right?

088And we know that it's a melting pot of people who have a different variety of opinions. Some people are more liberal in discussions, some people aren't, and there's no judgment there. We recognize that. This concept has existed in education forever. This is my 24th year in education. I started teaching fourth grade. When I was in fourth grade, Columbine literally just happened, and one of my young ladies looked me in the eye and said, could Columbine happen here? So I was 22. That's a hard conversation. for me now to have with a child, right? So this is what happens in the classrooms. This happens maybe not daily, but all the time, especially when teachers form relationships with kids, which in this district happens everywhere because we're relationship-centered. So kids will ask questions if it's a question

089that's appropriate for the time it gets addressed if it's not appropriate for the time It gets tabled and we figure out the right way to have that conversation that might be a school counselor Right? That might be the nurse. That might be, we are very lucky to have two gen ed psychologists and a general education social worker that really focus on the mental well-being of all of our kids. That might be that place. Or it might be a conversation home to mom saying, hey, you know what? Today in school, this came up. We want you to be aware and how would you like us to handle it? So anytime that comes up, we're not just going to go into deep conversations about things. So the concept we were discussing before, if that was brought up,

090we would figure out the best way in that moment to make the kid feel safe, back out of it, figure out how to have a conversation in a respectful way. And then thank you for the... I'm happy to talk off-grid about that. I'm available anytime. thank you for your comment on clarity and transparency and thank you for your questions great questions sure so next is Howard Avin that's good he said next is Mr. Leo Davellman that's a good idea evening everybody So I completely state your name and address, please. Sorry. Yes. Leo Dave woman, 51 Buttonwood drive. Good evening, everybody. I completely dumped all the prepared remarks for today, just sort of in light of what's happening here and what I'm seeing around me. So it seems like forever ago now, and maybe a year.

091I don't remember whether it was Mr. Fauci or this Kalachi, but you made a comment about how nice it would be to finally see some. people in these meetings. Well, we have a lot of people today, like a lot of people. I wish it was under slightly less controversial circumstances, but there's a lot of people taking interest. And there's certainly something to be said for that, right? But the truth is, I also understand that... Just like the parents are upset you guys are upset quite upset and on a human level I totally understand it. I probably would be upset too. There are things that probably are very upsetting I want to say that it is very unfortunate that you guys as administrators specifically board members today are mistaking concerns for accusations and are getting very,

092very defensive. It is not a good look. It is not particularly constructive. As parents, and I think Bonnie spoke to this very eloquently, we come up here to bring forth a concern, not proof, right? There is no legal standard of proof here. Not a scientific truth. a concern. It's essentially a question. And if those concerns are left unaddressed, there is a problem that arises. Now, the parents here in this room today are fairly past the point of you explaining away their concerns. And that's me speaking to you, Mr. Belov. You need to acknowledge the concern and put forth a remedy. In better days, the remedy may have been, trust us, we won't teach it like that. Alas, trust is given, mistrust is earned, and you guys have earned a small fortune. That's just unfortunately where

093we are. So what I would like to ask you guys to ask yourselves, now speaking to the board members, now the administration, is how the heck did we get here? Now, this sexual education curriculum thing, this is not my issue. This is very far from my issue. I don't spend a minute thinking about this stuff. But I came here last month and I heard parent after parent come up and raise a concern. What did the board do? The board turns to Mr. Ballone and says, Mr. Ballone, is that a concern? Mr. Ballone says, nope, nothing to see here. And you immediately vote 8-1. I'm not sure what was the rush. There was a previous controversial vote where there was a million dollars of funding on the line and the document just had to be passed

094by the deadline. What happened? You wouldn't have had to backtrack it today if you just took a little extra care. Thank you, Mr. Davelman. And I believe that Dr. Hibbs addressed a lot of those things in his emails that are constantly going out to the parents. Thank you. Just very quickly. It's very constantly. Concerns are totally fine. Please, I don't want you to think that you can't raise a concern in any way, shape, or form, Mr. Davelman. You always can do that. And I think you said it's unfortunate that, you know, we're mistaking concerns for accusations and it's not a good look. Listen, this is the beauty of, I guess, living in America where you can have an opinion. I think there are a lot of empty accusations. And listen, we're not going to do

095that. So empty accusations can harm people. They can harm the reputation. Any concern that you have, I would be happy to sit down with you. We've had great conversations or anybody in this room about legitimate concerns you have. Always happy to sit down. And I've sat down with numerous people in this district over the last nine years. Sadly, some people don't want to do that. They just don't, they want to just complain about things and not provide us real examples and then don't want to sit down to have a conversation. So it's actually impossible to get to the root cause of something if both sides aren't willing to sit down and really look and talk. We just showed you a great example today of how we are totally willing to look at things a little

096differently, and we did. So we're more than willing to do that. Thank you. Just to address that. Thank you. Mrs. Dara Enney. Dara Enney, 90 Watts and Port, Alvin, Jersey. I was going to hold off to the end, but I can't right now. All I'm going to say is you missed the point. Trust is given. Mistrust is earned. Thank you. Thank you. If that's directed towards us, I actually don't understand what you're talking about. Excuse me, there's no back and forth. Mrs. Carrie Jankowski. Hi, I'm Carrie Jankowski, 25 Whitman Road. I actually came here tonight to just speak joy. The reason I feel a call, a calling on my heart to do so, is because every morning when my kids leave for school, for many years now I've gotten into the habit, just like every

097parent, of kissing them goodbye, telling them you love them, but I have added, and just try to make somebody smile today. Now my daughter is four, she's in preschool, and I've started the same thing with her. Goodbye, I love you, do me a favor, try to make somebody smile today. And sometimes when they come home, I ask them, did you make somebody smile today? Tell me about it. And they'll recollect on their day and reflect and tell me their story. And recently I thought, shame on me, because there are so many staff members in the Marlboro Township School District that make me smile. And I have told them directly. A lot of times when I send thank you emails, I try to remember to copy their principal. I think I've even copied Dr. Hibbs and

098a couple when teachers have really touched my heart. But why not use this big forum to use three minutes to talk about how somebody has changed the life of myself and my children. So I first want to mention Mrs. Talley, who is a sixth grade literacy teacher at Marlboro Memorial. Mrs. Talley got my attention when she, during the time of parent-teacher conferences, requested a conference. Now it was told to me that conferences would be a parent choice, and when I got the request, I immediately turned to my son and said, what did you do? I questioned him as if he was on the 10 most wanted list. I said, she's requesting it. Tell me what you did before I get there. And he was like, I don't know. So I went to this conference with

099butterflies in my stomach, not knowing what I was going to hear. And she went on and on very positively. And at the end said, so, you know, what can I help you with? Do you have any questions? And my first question was, that's it? That's all you're, that's the reason this conference? And she said something that really moved me. She said, well, back to school night, you filled out the form. and you just wrote in the extra note that you like to be kept informed and want open communication and i was like oh my god you read that and you remembered it it's in november and it really meant a lot to me that she cared enough to do that and then covet hit and i thought that she was exceptional i listened to her

100as i was at home and the way she engaged her students was phenomenal The second teacher I want to mention is Mrs. Botsford, 7th grade literacy teacher for my son, who at 5.30 at night called me because she knew I was a teacher and knew that I couldn't pick up the phone during the day, and she used her time to call me to not only talk about my son and say positive things, but talked about her ideas to work outside the box with him. She dropped off a book to my home. my mailbox went out of her way because she thought that he would love it and then she started to have side conversations and my son just developed an interest in literacy from these two women so if you ever get a chance to

101tour the school stop by their classrooms they're phenomenal at what they do and as the administrators who are in charge of them I just wanted you to know because Mrs. Talley and Mrs. Botford have not only made me smile, but they've made my son smile, and that means a lot. Thank you. Thank you so much, Kerry. It's great to hear great things about our educators. Thank you very much for sharing your two stories. Thank you for your joy. I will be sure to pass that along. Thank you. Okay, next up is Ophelia. Was that Ophelia? Next up is Jane, Mrs. Jane Baricelli. I just, if you could just state your name and your address if you don't mind. Thank you. Jane Baricelli, Edgewood Drive, Freehold. However, I was a Marlboro resident for many years. My

102children went through all the schools in Marlboro. And I worked for Tom Ellsworth from the time he opened Robertsville School in 1968. and when he opened Dugan School until he retired. So I want to add my words to Anita and the other teacher who spoke about Thomas Ellsworth, and we would certainly like to see Robertsville named for him, or at least hyphenated. it can honor him. I mean, if you have a principal who opened two schools and got them running smoothly without a hitch, I think he deserves that honor. And there are teachers here, several of us, who worked for him for many, many years. He has always supported his teachers, encouraged us, and... That is all you can ask for your principal. He not only addressed the students, but us as well. And we

103want to... see that acknowledged and we certainly appreciate it so thank you very much I also want to add that I'm really impressed with this when our board members met when I first started working in Marlboro was like a little tiny group in school and this is very impressive so thank you thank you and thank you to all of you for coming out to speak on behalf of mr. Ellsworth he definitely sounds like a special man thank you Okay, so next up I just have a first name, Abraham. Next up, Mr. Anthony Jankowski. Next up is Mrs. DePasquale. Kathleen DePasquale, I reside in the Marble Township. I just have a couple questions about your policies. Back in August, I had asked specifically about the hiring of Strauss' SMA to write your policies. My first question

104is, do you actually know how many policies that Strauss' SMA has written at this point in time as board members? And when you go through them, do you read them in their entirety? Because some of them are quite lengthy. In July, on the 27th, you guys had a BOE meeting that proposed abolishing 11 policies, of which some were very appropriate because it was COVID related and we're no longer in that status. But on that abolished list was policy 2415.01, which is called academic standards, academic assessments, and accountability. In addition to that, policy 2415.03, highly qualified teachers, was also abolished in addition to policy 7430, which is school safety. Is there a policies that have replaced those that were abolished? Where can we find the abolished policies? And for the highly qualified teachers being abolished, is

105that due to the lowering of the state standards for teaching and substitute certificates? In addition to that, there was an amended civility policy, which is actually one of the 31 amended policies that I think were officially passed in August, the last meeting. But policy 9202 is your civility policy, which is actually one of the policies you handed out at the door. And I've noticed that it was amended in August, but you have not distributed the amended. civility policy which is missing about five new amendments that were on that policy so i'm just curious to know why you didn't distribute an active policy that's now in place with missing information the other thing i had was talking about The opt out policy for the health and family life curriculums. Now, along with teaching students about STDs,

106pregnancy, drug use, the district is also supposed to be teaching and promoting abstinence. So I'm just curious to know where is abstinence mentioned in the health and for family life curriculums. And I know by law you can't teach consensual sex until the sixth grade. So I know Mr. Blown has stated in the previous meeting that the word sexual wouldn't be used. and that it would just be listed in the standards. However, you may not be using the word sexual, but you are redefining what it means to be sexual when you include in the family life curriculum gender roles, gender identity, gender characteristics, and family structures and characteristics, as you have described in the family life curriculum. So in the Parents Conscious Act, it states that sex education can be taught in school, but it cannot

107violate or the protection rights of religious acts for families. So if the materials go against the parents' conscious or religious beliefs, you're supposed to have a policy in place to give the parents an opt-out option from the family life and health curriculums. So my question is, did you provide any opt-out option form? And on that form, it's my understanding that if you are to do that, you're supposed to be stating specifically what topics will be taught. on which specific days and what a child could be expected to do on the days that there is that opt-out option so i'm just curious to know if there is that policy and have you notified uh parents in addition to there was there was an addition to a survey thank you have you notified the parents about opting

108out of surveys so we'll attempt to answer what we can um that which requires some research we'll be happy to get back to you It's really hard at times, so we do our very best. We know why you're asking so many questions, but it's really hard to write them all down and then actually form coherent answers. So if you want to make sure that we get all that, would you mind giving us a copy of it so we can make sure we check it off? That'd be A. Strauss asked me, I can answer, how many policies have they written? All of them, every single one in the policy guide. We're not going back and forth. That's a question that we could certainly tally up all the policies, but that would be like asking how many

109words are in the family life grade three curriculum. It's just a question that we're not going to know. So we're happy to get that for you. So Mike, write that down for me, please. The policies are on our website. They are. Mark, go ahead. We okay, guys? There we go. Good now? We got it. I was going to say the policies are on the website, so if you want to count them, you're certainly welcome to. The policies are broken down by series. I think they go up from the zeros to the 9,000s, depending on the topics. Bylaws, pupil matters, student matters, support staff matters, property and so forth. I would say we've got one through 9,000 or zero through 9,000. If I had to guess, ballpark, we probably have about 1,000 policies, if I had

110to guess, give or take. Plus, we have regulations that implement the policies as well. Thanks, Mark. What you referenced when we did abolish some that were for COVID, others were embedded into a different policy. So what will happen at times is Strauss will give you an overarching policy that will include then those other policies. And that's what you were referencing. About the highly qualified, no standards were lowered for highly qualified, Michael, that I know of. Correct? No. Okay. Your question on why we don't have the most updated civility policy, that's a great one. Tom, can you check into that and make sure that we have the most updated civility policy? Thank you so much for bringing that to our attention. Mike, I'm sure there's some things you want to address. Yeah, the concept of abstinence

111is included in the standards, so if you would like, I can reach out to you and tell you exactly all of the standards that it's listed in. And family life you mentioned that that that was unchanged from 2019 and Mark I the act that was mentioned, you know, it was in referencing I believe the opt-out policy We've had a policy and I don't have it in my head. It's been on the books for years about opting out. So It's you are certainly allowed to opt out of those family life discussions anybody has any issues or would like to opt out just please you cannot you can take a look at our policy manual and look at that and then and then if you have any questions you can reach out to your building administrator and

112they'll be happy to help you we have a second public comment section at the end thank you great thank you thank you for your questions next up is mrs. Angela Colby hi good evening First, I want to give a shout out and thank the principal of Dugan, Mr. Pagliaria. At the PTA meeting this month, I asked whether or not the general ed and the special ed classes were normalized for pizza parties during school competitions. Mr. Pagliaria stepped up and immediately addressed my concern regarding unfair competitions between the grades. He said he would work with the PTA to figure out a strategy similarly to his previous position so that the general ed classes of 22 and a special ed class of 8 could fairly compete and be rewarded for pizza parties. I also would like to

113thank the PTA for allowing the Halloween party last week to be more inclusive with a special sensory station for everyone to enjoy. A special thank you to Mrs. Kersman for giving us some ideas for that station. I look forward to working together and bringing more inclusive ideas to these different parties so everybody can enjoy throughout the district. I would like to address again today regarding Dr. Hibbs' goals. I had asked in an earlier meeting that you make Dr. Hibbs' goals more smart. That way the BOA can actually exactly understand what he needs to do and how he needs to accomplish them to be successful. Would you ask a flight attendant to make sure seatbelts are fastened? Or would you ask everyone on that flight to make sure that they're secured before the plane takes off?

114Would you put together a goal for an ER physician to use proper instruments during surgery? Or would you ask them to make sure that they're sterilized before he uses them? Would you ask a racing pit crew to check their tires? Or would you ask them to make sure all of the lug nuts are secured? Even Girl Scouts have smart goals, so they know how many boxes of cookies they need to sell before they receive a prize. Dr. Hibbs' two goals combined give him $12,000, which is four... 14% of his $207,000 base salary. One kindergarten basic instruction assistant makes $13,000. A school aide makes $9,500. An instructional assistant makes $23,000. And a part-time certified special education staff makes $33,000. Did we rehire the reading specialist which is needed? Can we use money to hire a company

115to administer workshops to parents and BOE members regarding the curriculum? 14% is probably 13% more than the average person. I asked the BOE two things tonight. To motion to open to revise the goals of Dr. Hibbs to make them smart. And to motion to reopen to have both in-person and virtual meetings. so that we can have more public involvement, more understanding, and more discussions because you are listening to our community voice. Thank you. Thank you. I'm happy to hear that you can, Mr. Pagliaro, and that the Halloween party had some things for the different populations. And the sensory, special sensory area sounds fantastic. Good. Thank you. And our meetings are online so anyone can watch them. Thank you. And we are offering this in person as well. Thank you. Yes, thank you. There was one

116question that seems appropriate to answer now. This is Colby. With respect to the reading specialist, we are actively searching for a reading specialist. They are not easy to come by, especially once the year gets up and running. So to answer that question, yes, we are. It is posted and we are actively looking. Okay, thank you, Mr. Belong. Thank you, all the parents and everyone for coming out tonight and asking all your questions. We're going to take a 10-minute break so that for if anyone needs to use the ladies or men's room. Thank you. Can I have a motion to go into take a 10-minute break? Randy, thank you. Second? Trish, all in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed? Thank you. Thank you, everyone. We'll be back in 10 minutes. Which is 9-10. Okay, we're going to... Get

117started if board members can come up. Thank you Brian are you good? One second. Okay. Just give me a thumbs up when we're ready. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for the break And Vin, can you please take roll call? It is, what time is it? 9.10. 9.10, thank you. Sure. Mrs. Branch? Here. Mr. Ferland? Here. Dr. Heller? Here. Mr. Shifferson? Here. Mrs. Schramm? Here. Mrs. Szilagyi? Here. Mrs. Trefasi? Here. And Mrs. Wolfe? Here, thank you very much. Okay, we're going to move on in our agenda. We are on page three. Communications, do we have any? No, ma'am. Superintendent's Hib report. 0 incidents. From September 16th to October 20th, 2021. Great. Our next meeting is Tuesday, November 16th, 2021. Approval of minutes. Be it resolved that the minutes of the following meetings be approved as submitted.

118August 24th, 2021, regular and executive. September 21st, 2021, regular. I so move. Does anyone, could I have a second? Jen, thank you. Do we have any discussion on those minutes? VIN? Mrs. Strafasi? Yes. Mrs. Branch? Yes. Mr. Ferland? Yes. Dr. Heller? Yes. Mr. Shifferson? Mrs. Schrem? Yes. Mrs. Szilagyi? Yes. And Mrs. Wolff? Yes, thank you. We're going to move to our committee reports, Buildings and Grounds Committee. Susie, Susie, I think you're. Yep. So we just had a meeting right before and we talked about AC, which is something that makes me very happy, something that we want. And let's see. So it's going to cost us just a little over $6 million. It's going to take a couple of years. Our aim, our goal is in the first year to try to get one to two

119buildings. That's our goal and our hope. And then after that, one building per year after that. We're looking to go out to bid in the new year, so sometime January, February, sometime in the new year. And, yeah, that's about it. And we touched briefly on Mr. Ellsworth, which we'll have more conversation. Yes, we touched briefly on Mr. Ellsworth. Great suggestion and just something that we'll continue discussing. hey that should be like a mini cheer AC and building yeah thank you and thank you being for all that work on that yeah and for the buildings and grounds committee for being so yeah really exciting active in that role thank you um yeah Michael we met on October 21st and the D.A.C. is the District Evaluation Advisory Committee. Essentially, we meet a few times a year to

120look at our evaluation practices in the district, namely for staff members, how they're evaluated. Some of the things we touched on was observing in a nonverbal pre-K and alternate types of communication, observing those teachers. So thank you. to the Special Services Department for attending that meeting, all three of you, and your insight and input. We also talked about developmentally appropriate mindset when observing at the Abbott Center and our younger population of students. Specifically, we also looked at the special education classrooms and helping them apply the Danielson, which is the model that we use to observe our staff, helping them apply... the rubric and set them up for success for highly effective teaching. We ended with just discussing the components on which staff members are observed, which we actually reverted back to our pre-pandemic observation components.

121So during the pandemic, we removed a few because they didn't really apply while we were. either not physically in the classroom or kind of in and out like we were. But now that we are back, we have reverted back to our usual observation components. And that does it for Diak. Great. Thank you. And thank you to that committee for going on to the call. Policy committee. So we just received a new alert. We're going to process, go through the usual policy chain, and then take it to the policy committee. Great, thank you. We're going to move on to our presentation of access for ELL's testing performance for our ELL students. Mr. White? Just to quickly introduce this, Mrs. Kimberly Georges is our supervisor of ESL. For those of you out there, just to help you

122understand. ESL is the program, English as a second language. ELL are the actual students, English language learners. So sometimes you may feel like those are synonymous and interchangeable. They're really not. ESL is the program, ELLs are the individuals. So Mrs. George's has provided a... quick video for us just to talk about the program in general and then report out on the access for ELLs scores which is essentially a standardized assessment that all of our ELLs take on an annual basis. Good evening. My name is Kimberly Georges and I am the district supervisor of ESL. Tonight I would like to present to you the Access for ELLs annual report. However, before I review the results, I would like to take a moment and talk about our process for identifying students that are limited English proficient. Our

123limited English students are identified through a variety of ways. Upon registration, a language survey is given to the parent to complete. Any language other than English that is reported is noted and the registrar fills out an online form that goes to me and I arrange to have that student screened. When a student transfers from another district, the registrar will alert me if the parent noted ESL was provided and I or the ESL teacher will contact the previous school to gather more information. If a student was in the ESL program, we automatically enroll the student in our program. For the new students that need to be screened, the parents are notified as to the results and they do have the option to opt out of the program. Our district ESL program is aligned to the New

124Jersey Student Learning Standards, the WIDA English Language Development Standard, and are also aligned to our district curriculum guides. In grades K-5, the students receive 30 minutes of ESL instruction each day, and the students in grades 6-8 this year are receiving a full period of ESL and for the students that have newly arrived to the country, they are getting an additional push-in period in their support classes by the ESL teacher. Each year, all ELLs, including those that have declined services, are tested using the Access for ELLs test. The four-part test measures the student's ability in the areas of reading, speaking, listening, and writing. For the 2020-21 school year, 113 students were identified as in need of English language services. 84 were enrolled in an ESL program, 29 declined services, and all testing this past year was

125done in person, 16 of which refused testing. The results. Students remain in the ESL program until they receive a score of 4.5 or higher on all domains. This year's results were mailed to us in early September, and as shown of the students tested, 54 will continue to receive services, 30 have attained proficiency, 4 moved on to grade 9 and are still eligible and attending Colts Neck High School receiving ESL. Of the declined students, 21 are still eligible for services, of which 2 have opted back in the program, and of the declined, 8 have attained proficiency. Our testing results. As this slide shows, the students are scored on a six-point scale. The levels are entering, emerging, developing, expanding, bridging, and reaching. An overall score of 4.5, which falls between expanding and bridging, is considered proficient. Last

126year, of the 84 students tested, 3 fell into the lowest category of entering, 10 were in the emerging category, and our highest number of 35 fell into the developing category. 28 scored in the expanding category, and 8 fell into the bridging category. We did not have any students in the highest proficiency category of reaching. Typically, ELL students will spend three academic years enrolled in the program, which is consistent with the ELL program goals. At present, we have 10 students that are in the program for more than three years, and of our declined students, nine are still eligible after three school years. Our ESL across the district. This chart shows the breakdown of ESL as of October 1st. As you can see, the majority of our ESL students are in kindergarten, grade 1, and in grade

1273, with an overall number of 94. Dugan has the largest number of ESL students, with 25. In terms of the languages spoken among our ESL students, our demographic is changing. Currently, 57% of the ESL students speak Russian, and our next highest percentage is Spanish with 10%, and then Chinese at 8%. As the pie shows, we have a lot of other languages being spoken among our ESL students. In breaking down the ESL population, note that only 6% also fall among the economically disadvantaged. In terms of ethnicity, white is the most reported, followed by 26% reporting Asian. Lastly, 15% of our ESL students are also identified as students with disabilities. I would like to thank you for your time today and please reach out if you have any other questions or comments and I would be happy

128to discuss the program with you further. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Ms. Georges. Thank you, Ms. Georges. Okay, we're going to move on. Does anyone have any questions regarding EOL population? Thank you for all that information. I know every year we report on this. presentation of DLM testing performance special ed students. Allison. Hi everybody, my name is Allie Morder. I'm one of the supervisors for special services. Tonight I wanted to speak to you about the DLM test. So the DLM test is a dynamic learning map. It's an alternate assessment test that corresponds with the NJSLA assessment. This is primarily for our students in special education and it's really our 1% of our special education population that is really impacted the most with their disability and they're unable to take the NJSLA regardless of the accommodations

129that we might be able to provide them. So what is the DLM? The dynamic learning maps assessment is a collection of short test lists that's released to the students and it's a tiered test. It measures the academic achievement of the students with the most significant cognitive disabilities in grades three through eight. All of our students that qualify for the DLM tests are assessed in ELA and math and then additionally Grades 5 and 8 are assessed in science just as they would be for NJSLA. These assessments are based on essential elements. These elements correspond with grade level specific expectations related to the standards for students in general education. It's a tiered assessment driven by individual student responses and accuracy. How we roll this test out, our teachers are provided with information. And you can go to

130the next slide, please. Once they are provided with the criteria to meet that our students have met this criteria in order to qualify to take the DLM, our case managers work with our teachers in order to ensure that the tests are ready to roll out in the same testing window as NJSLA. These criteria, you can find them on the DLM website. It is a state criteria that is rolled out throughout and we follow it to the T. Our case managers work as a team to review every individual that has an IEP and then that information is brought to our office where we also weigh in and make sure that this assessment is going to be the best option for our students. You can go on to the next one. How is it administered? The students,

131classroom teachers, and content teachers are responsible for administering the test to each of the students who meet the criteria. The DLM is a tiered assessment dependent on student performance based on the essential elements. Each digital testlet is released individually for ELA, math, and science through a testing portal. So similar to NJSLA, the students will have an individual login. However, these testlets are very short. So there are about five to seven questions in each content. And it's tiered. So based on the results that are coming in, how they do on the first testlet, it's either going to stay at level. It might tier below if they didn't get enough answers correct. Or if they got them all correct, it might tier them up closer to the state standard. The students are assessed over a period of

132time that is appropriate for each learner. So if your child is taking the DLM test, you might hear that they're being tested over a couple of days. And that's because we don't really want to overwhelm them with their testing. But also we need to make sure that the testlets are being released appropriately and that we give time for them to be tiered so that we're really getting the knowledge and the understanding that they can demonstrate. Understanding the test results. So when we get our test results of our students, they're not given a specific grade score. We hear that they're either emerging for that essential element, they're approaching their target, they're at their target, or they're advanced. Now, when we hear that a student is advanced in the DLM, that's when in the next school year

133we talk to our CST members and we talk to our teachers and we really see, okay, they came out advanced in this content. Are they ready to try the NJSLA with certain accommodations? Or do we need to give them one more round with the DLM to make sure that we're giving them the best assessment at their ability? The performance level descriptors are an overview of the knowledge, skills, and understanding that students typically demonstrate at a specific performance level and a DLM test. Not every student will demonstrate the skills described in each level. And each tiered assessment is very individualized. So we might have individuals that are in the same grade level, but their ELA testlets look very, very different. And it's really how they're performing at each and every step of their way of their

134assessment. When we interpret their results, there are guides that we follow from the state test and it is available for all parents, teachers, and administrators to access throughout the year if we're unsure or really when we're trying to consider this criteria and we're having the discussions with our families during our IEP meetings, we might reference these results to help. Okay, so moving to see how Marlboro did last year. A little bit of background knowledge. I'm not sure if you are all aware that our students that take the NJSLA were not assessed in the spring window, but our students that take the DLM were. They were brought in in person, and they took their spring assessment as if COVID really didn't impact them. So they were able to come in and show their understanding and to

135really demonstrate that they were meeting some of these essential elements at grade level. In district, we have 27 students that took the test last year. Five were in LLD classes, 17 were in our MD classes, and five were in the autism classes. In district, we had four also that had a hybrid model of their testing. So some took the DLM and ELA, but then they were assessed in NJSLA and math. This comes down to meeting certain criteria, and when we're talking in an IEP meeting, we have a really honest and open conversation with the families to see what we can try based off of previous test scores or how they're performing in their classrooms. At our district students, we had 12 students take this assessment. Five were in MD classes and seven were in autism

136classes. This is just a demographic breakdown of the individuals that were assessed. Really, we considered our ethnicity as the race and also the student income data. If you would like to get some specifics, you are more than welcome to email me and I'm happy to share my PowerPoint with you. Marlboro students performed really well and I realize it's hard to see this graph and to kind of map out how they performed. So in the next slide I really broke it down for you so that you can see across the board in our district on how we performed in each of our content. In ELA we had one student in the emerging level so that is our basic level our tiered level. In the approaching the target we had three students. At Target we had 17

137students and that's pretty incredible. That's showing that our students were able to demonstrate their understanding and find success in their assessment and that it was really appropriate for them, especially in ELA. We also had two students in the advanced stage. For math, we had four emerging students. We had six approaching their target, six at target, and then three advanced students. Our numbers are different in math because some of our students took the NJSLA. So that's why the math is not the same as the ELA test. And then for science, our numbers are considerably smaller considering that it's only grades five and eight. We had three students in the emerging level, two students that are approaching the target, one student at target, and we didn't have any advanced students as of last year, and we're hoping

138to see those numbers grow this year. If you have any questions about the DLM assessment, how we meet the criteria, how we consider students to be either a hybrid test or how we can utilize the accommodations in the IEP for the SLA versus the DLM, we'd be happy to answer any questions. You can always reach out to your case managers with specific questions for your children. Thank you very much, Allie. That was great, great information. Dr. Hibbs, can we see if we can maybe put those on the website, both of the ELL and the DLM presentation? Good? Done. Okay, great. Thank you. Review of curriculum guides. Mr. Ballone, busy man tonight. Thank you again. So we have several guides up for this evening. Conflict managers, 6-8, developmental school counseling, those are all updates to the...

139As mentioned before, the 2020 most recent New Jersey student learning standards. We updated resources to make sure we not only complied with those standards, but also make sure all the resources were appropriate and relevant. Educational technology in K-5, we applied the new standards, standard nine, career readiness, life literacies, and key skills. The committee revised also the units of study to include appropriate grade level projects to hone skills utilizing technology through cross curricular projects. Then you'll see the applied technology grade six through eight, digital design six through eight, and engineering and design. And you witnessed some of that in the beginning of this meeting when you saw students creating those projects, hands on projects in those sorts of classes. Again, applying standard nine for the 2020 standards. The committee's revised curriculum guides and units of study

140to ensure students were encouraging in hands on learning activities. Thank you. Library Media K-5, again, the new standards. Career Readiness, Standard 9 kind of threads throughout a lot of these. Life Literacies and Key Skills, Revised Units of Study to Include Appropriate Grade Level Projects. Same with Library Media 6 through 8. Obviously then we have an addendum, which was explained before. Thank you, Mr. Balloon, and thank you to everyone who worked on these curriculum guides. Thank you. Okay, we're going to move on to financial and business operations matters. Jen, can you please read? Just make sure your mic, yeah. Yes. The superintendent of schools submits the following resolutions for approval. One, transfers. Two, list of bills. Three, secretary monthly reconciliation reports. Four, harassment, intimidation, bullying report. Travel, I mean five travel. Six, comprehensive maintenance plan and

141form. And one, seven, authorization to accept financing fee. Eight, approval of agreement for sign language interpretation services. Nine, approval of agreement for sign language interpretation services. Ten, amended resolution school physician. Eleven, school physician. 12, approval of transportation agreement, case 937. 13, approval of transportation joint with Shore Regional High School District. 14, donation. 15, approval of site access agreement between the Marlborough Township Board of Education and Marlborough Township for environmental remediation activities. 16, resolution of the Marlborough Township Board of Education in the County of Marlborough, New Jersey, authorizing the submission of other capital project documents to the New Jersey Department of Education. 17, health and safety evaluation of school buildings checklist statement of assurance. 18, acceptance of child assault prevention grant for the 2021-2022 school year. 19, settlement agreement. 20, approval of emergency virtual or remote

142instruction program. 21, award of merit pay, 2021-2022 school year employment contract for superintendent of schools. 22, award of merit pay, 2021-2022 school year employment contract for superintendent of schools. 23, uniform state 2021-2022 memorandum of agreement. 24, approval of sidebar agreement with Marlboro In-Service Employees Association. 25 home instruction 26 lease of Toshiba copiers per Omnia partner contract 27 donation 28 donation 29 donation 30 amended resolution out of district placement for 2021-2022 school year 31 amended resolution of district placement for the 2021-2022 school year 32 Non-public school requests for technology purchases under the New Jersey non-public technology aid program for the 2021-2022 school year. 33, non-public school requests for security purchases under the non-public security aid program for the 2021-2022 school year. 34, New Jersey State School Safety and Security Plan annual review statement of assurance. 35,

143approval of 2021-2022 school year board of education goals. uh 36 state contract purchases hi so much thank you jen do we have a second do you have a second i second thank you jill do you have any discussion um i would like to just kind of address because one of the other parents spoke earlier about i can't hear you i'm so sorry that's okay can you hear me yeah no take take jenny's No, just because it was stated earlier in the public comments that some parents make statements and then we don't seem to hear the statement or react to it. So I just felt like hearing that someone asked about the merit pay and the awarding of the merit pay. That's negotiated and he has achieved what we agreed to. And so we're voting to

144just make the payment. So I just wanted to address that. Obviously, people disagree with that. Hear it. But he had a contract that stated what we expected him to do. He delivered upon those expectations. And we are voting to do what we were supposed to do, which is pay you for what we asked you to do. So I just wanted that to be said. Thanks, Trish. And I just wanted to thank the donation of six picnic tables and two benches from the Marlborough Elementary School student activity. and we had some a bunch of donations Marlboro Middle School PTO donation of $250 for the classroom seating Frank Tofino 3914 for the purchase of a projector for the Frank Tofino Central Elementary School and thank you to Red Tomato Urban Pizzeria for seven donation of seven ten

145dollar gift cards for recognition of recognition of teachers responsible for the student impact presentation at each month that's very nice thank you Anyone have anything else? There are two corrections for number five, travel. Okay. The first being the attendance of the ASCD leadership summit in Orlando that is actually being pulled, so that will not be voted on. That's being removed. Okay. And the third to the future of education technology conference that is actually January 24th through the 28th, not June. Okay. Thank you for those corrections. Seeing no more discussion, Vin? Sure. Roll call. Mrs. Branch? Yes, but I abstain on five because it's related to my travel. Mr. Furler? Abstain from 21 and 22. Otherwise, yes. Dr. Heller? Yes. Mr. Shifferson? Yes. Mrs. Schrimm? Yes. Mrs. Trefasi? Yes. Mrs. Solace? Yes. And Mrs. Wolfe? Yes,

146thank you. Curriculum matters. Trish, can you please read and don't we have an addendum as well? I think it was left on your... The superintendent of schools submits the following resolution for approval. One approval of curriculum guides and the... Wait, is that an addendum? Number two? Approval of health curriculum... I'm sorry. One approval of health curriculum guides. I submit. Great, thank you. Do I have a second? Jill, thank you. Any discussion? Thank you for making that change and for everyone listening to the community and feelings on that. Thank you. Ben. Roll call vote. Mr. Furling? Yes. Dr. Heller? Yes. Mr. Shiffrenson? Yes. Mrs. Schrimm? Yes. Mrs. Szilagyi? Yes. Mrs. Trefasi? Yes. Mrs. Branch? Yes. And Mrs. Wolfe? Yes, thank you. Jill, do you have your glasses for personnel? Oh, sorry. Yes. Okay. You're so good

147at reminding me. Thank you. All right. Personnel matters. Superintendent Schools submits the following resolutions for approval. One, retirements. Two, resignations. Three, employment certificate. Sorry, staff. 4. Employment instructional assistant. 5. Employment school aid. 6. Employment bus driver. 7. Employment maintenance mechanic. 8. Employment additional teaching time. 9. Movement on guide. 10 re-employment school 8 11 amended salaries certificated staff 12 amended hours and salaries non-certificated i'm never do i am saying right sorry i'm very tired i apologize i'm this is up past my bedtime 13. amended salaries non-certificated staff you're so mean robin picking up 14 stipend maintenance worker 15 assistance after school activities 16 amended start date, 17 staff paid with IDEA funds. 18, transfer certificated staff. 19, transfers non-certificated staff. 20, nurse substitute caller stipend. 21, curriculum, power coaches. 22, curriculum, ESL family facilitator curriculum writing.

14823, curriculum, ESL family literacy program facilitator. 24, amended curriculum writing, special ed level literacy interventions, grade 1 through 8. 25, amended summer nurse work, documentation protocols. 26, stipend mentor teachers. 27, extracurricular activities advisor. 28, amended extracurricular activities advisor. 29, substitute teachers. 30, substitute secretaries. 31, substitute school aid. 32, substitute school monitor. 33, substitute couriers. 34, substitute transportation secretaries. 35 student practicum 36 paid medical disability leaves 37 unpaid leaves of absence 38 amended resolution leave dates yep is that it yep oh I so move wait do I have a second Susie thank you do we have any discussion first congratulations to the teachers who are moving on the guide and second I'm very sad to see dr. a retiring from our middle school big loss to the district an amazing amazing person advocate for the students

149just a phenomenal phenomenal person and can I just add not as a final person how considerate was it that she's retiring in June and she's so thoughtful of our students knowing it's going to take time to find a good one especially with everyone being so short staffed it was very kind of her very thoughtful that's Dr. A and that's one of our gen ed psychologists that we spoke of before I know we have retirement comments, so let's just take roll call. Just to make a correction, Dr. A should read 28 years experience, not 27. Thanks, man. 28 instead of 27. Do you want to take roll call? Yep. Mrs. Solace? Yes. Mrs. Branch? Yes. Mr. Furlan? Yes. Dr. Heller? Yes. Mr. Shifferson? Yes. Mrs. Schramm? Yes. mrs. Trefasi yes and mrs. wolf yes thank you

150and I believe we have some retirement comments mr. Ballone I remember this time yes we do we have two so the first one is retirement comments for dr. Nancy Asher Schultz 28 years ago the Board of Education recognized the need for a school psychologist to work in the capacity of people assistance and crisis intervention Dr. Nancy Asher Schultz was selected as the first professional to fill this position. She brought years of experience in the field of mental health and a wealth of knowledge to Marlboro. Back in the 90s, Nancy created PACS, pupil assistance committees, initiated student support groups, and provided intervention strategies for students dealing with a myriad of adolescent issues. She was responsible for facilitating the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act grant, created support groups for parents and staff in dealing with adolescent issues.

151and served the middle school as a consultant and interventionist to the school counselors, the child study team, administration, and staff. Still today, Nancy regards each report and student or adult concern with understanding, importance, and compassion. She spends many hours with at-risk students, assisting them in adjusting and adapting to the middle school environment and program. She is an excellent counselor, working closely with students who demonstrate social, behavioral, or academic problems. Dr. A, as many of us refer to her, has proven to be an integral member of the staff, particularly in her role as the 504 coordinator. Nancy assists in the creation of the 504 plans and monitors their implementation. She is the INRS coordinator, RTI team member, HIV anti-bullying specialist, school climate committee coordinator, and the coordinator for the REBEL II, RAD, and peer-to-peer student leadership

152programs. The Hawks leadership team, another creation of Dr. A's, has evolved into another student leadership group that adds to the overall positive school environment. She views her role as one who teaches, supports, and empowers others. She leads the monthly parents group meetings through coffee and conversation that stemmed from a PDP plan years ago. She's created a place for parents of middle schoolers to openly discuss any topics brought to the table. There is no greater compliment to Dr. A than being asked to supervise and train interns and in pursuing similar school positions. Dr. A has served in this mentorship role to many candidates who were fortunate to learn from the best. Added to her many commendations are letters from grateful parents, recognition from Rutgers University, for training and speaking with graduate students, recognition from the Marlboro

153Alliance for her consistent work in drug and alcohol prevention. and a letter recognizing her as a 2015 Marlboro Middle School nominee for the Governor's Educator of the Year program. Sadly, we have experienced tragedies and crises over the years that have affected our school district and community. Nancy is always called upon to provide guidance, expertise, and support. She is known to be knowledgeable and resourceful in recommendations and in providing her leadership. Nancy serves on the Marlboro District Crisis Committee and is a member of the Monmouth County Traumatic Loss Coalition. as part of the team called to support other districts in the event of a crisis. These notes provide a small glimpse into Nancy's many contributions during her professional career here in Marlboro. We will all miss Nancy's daily interactions, her welcoming ways as she greets students,

154quote unquote good morning, and her message to all, my door is always open. We wish Nancy a well-deserved retirement to pursue new adventures. She's looking forward to spending time with her husband, Dave, their children, Jess, Michael, Allie, and her husband, Mike, and grandchild, Liam. Knowing Nancy, she will be devoting her time to family, supporting organizations close to her heart, and travel. We congratulate Nancy. And secondly, we have retirement comments for Joanne Orr. For 17 years, Joanne Orr has served as an IA in the Marlboro Township Public Schools. During her time in the district, Joanne spent most of her years at Robertsville Elementary School, which she fondly refers to as her second family. Over her years in the district, Joanne worked with a diverse student population and across all grade levels. Both staff and families admire

155her calm demeanor and dedication to her students. She has touched countless lives over the past 17 years and we are grateful for having the privilege of working with her. In retirement, Mrs. Orr plans on spending time with her new granddaughter and traveling. Congratulations, Mrs. Orr. Thank you to Dr. Asher Schultz and Joanne Orr on their combined 44 years of service to the Marlboro community. Thank you very much and good luck in your retirement. policy development and community relations matters randy page 45. okay policy development and community relations matter the superintendent of schools submits the following resolution for approval number one first and second read i so move great do i have a second susie thank you any discussion on that policy that's what we discussed earlier yes then roll roll call vote mrs salachi yes

156Mrs. Trefasi? Yes. Mrs. Branch? Yes. Mr. Furlan? Yes. Mr. Shiffrenson? Yes. Mrs. Schrem? Yes. Dr. Heller? Yes. And Mrs. Wolfe? Yes, thank you. We're going to move on to our liaison reports. Monmouth County School Boards Association liaison. So we have our meeting September 28th, and it was hybrid. we talked about the Monmouth County Teacher of the Year and our next meeting is November 16th which is the same as ours so I can't be there. Thank you, thank you for attending that last one. New Jersey School Boards Association. So right now we have our workshop going on today, tomorrow and Thursday. And great, there's great offerings so if anyone... All virtual. Yep, all virtual this year. Freehold Regional High School. Freehold Regional High School had their last meeting on October 14th. They had a big band

157festival like within Freehold Regional at Howell High School that was a great success. If you've ever driven in the borough at this time of year, you'll see that all the high schools paint all the windows in the stores. If you never go into the borough, please do because it's really cool and you get to see all the artwork of the students. And last but not least, in case you haven't noticed, there's an election on Tuesday. And one of the things on the ballot is the referendum. And so it'll all be infrastructure and paving. And if you need proof of the infrastructure needs, I have pictures from my daughter on the phone of horrific leaks in the school where they were trying to get towels and paper towels. And it was it was pretty rough. So

158and that's that. Thank you. And they also posted on there. They sent out an email today with pictures. Oh, did they? Okay, yeah. I just know my daughter sent me hers. Marlboro Township Alliance, Steve? I don't think they met. There's been no meeting. No meeting yet. They're still waiting to figure out the alliance. Marlboro Township Liaison COVID testing truck is back open. The new location is a swim club parking lot. Tuesdays and Saturdays, information was sent via email from town and posted on the website homepage. And don't forget to go out and vote on Tuesday. PTA PTO liaison we had our meeting it was maybe last week or the week before a lot of good conversation we were talking about book fairs we were talking about just fundraisers and I'm trying to think if anything

159active came of it I don't recall. I don't think so. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Marlboro Educational Foundation, the MEF. Our first fundraiser of the year was a huge success. Many thanks to all of our amazing teachers who love wearing jeans on Mondays. A donation to the MEF allows teachers and staff to wear their comfortable jeans every Monday for the school year. The MEF will be dedicating a grant to the much beloved late Dugan teacher, Mrs. Luciano. Thanks to the many donations in her memory. the teachers on 2021 2022 grant deadline is November 8th we are hoping to receive some amazing and creative grant applications thank you old business actually I do have something almost two years ago we introduced a measure or asked about recognizing teachers for plus 25 years Then COVID hit and we

160haven't brought that up since then. And I'm hoping that we can go back to that. that start I actually had spoken to Elizabeth yeah yeah yeah yeah at a meeting I had spoken to Liz about it why do you have as well yep okay right okay I'm just and that's a great idea it was great to have them and we recognize them thanks Randy for bringing that back email then about the 25-year communal meeting please thank you new business go ahead you go first i was going to do new business okay AC. Can we just take a moment? I'll tell you something. That's always bothered me as a parent. One of the reasons why I got on the board was my frustration with the fact that we didn't have AC in our elementary schools. And

161thank you, Vinny. Yes. Thank you, Vinny. have it right now but we finally have a plan a plan and i just i think like i know that there's a lot going on right now but can we just take a moment that's really exciting yeah thank you trish and thank you the bng committee and this board for supporting him okay new business oh steve yes I know three teachers, three retired teachers spoke on behalf of renaming Robertsville for Tom Elveroth, who was the first Robertsville principal and the first Dugan principal. And I just wanted to add my support, my endorsement. Anybody who worked for him, worked with him, or happens to be lucky enough to have him as their principal, we're always deeply impressed by his knowledge, his concern, and his depth of caring. And over

162his career in Baltimore, he profoundly affected the lives of thousands of kids and thousands of parents. So I completely support renaming Robertsville to Tom. And if we can do this in an expedient way, that would be great. So thank you. Thanks, Steve. Jill, I think it's new business, not old business, but I was just thinking about how everyone's been talking about, you know, how the misinformation kind of festers. And I know in years past, we used to have more workshop meetings. And I don't know if we need to meet twice a month. But what if we alternated where it's like once a month, twice a month? So that way we can discuss things more actively and clarify things so that it doesn't build an entire month. I don't know, just a thought. No, it's great.

163We could all think about that. Yep, great idea. Thank you for bringing that. Is it my turn? Okay, Jen. Sorry. So just real quick. I'm sorry. That's okay. Mr. Strafossi brought up the unconscious bias, and actually in my master's class that I'm taking now, we just learned about that. And I think it's a great idea to try to bring it into our district as well. I was going to be talking about it a little bit. He brought it up. Thank you. Thank you for seconding that, and thank you, Mr. Strafossi, for bringing that up. Okay, we're going. Anyone else? Thank you, everyone. We're going to move to our second public comment. Same rules will apply. You'll have three minutes, and Mr. Caravella will let you know when there's one minute remaining. Do you have any

164names? Is there anyone that would like to come up? Please just come up and state your name and address. My name is Annette Seward. I live at 18 Nashua Drive in Monroe. I'm just going to quickly jump on the shout-out bandwagon and recognize the 10U Marlboro Mustang football team who made it to the second round of the playoffs. Marlboro Township was also recognized as very gracious hosts for the playoffs, and I just want to thank the football parents for pulling that off. I want to thank the board tonight for your in-depth presentation and explanation of this month's hot topic, the curriculum. I would also like to take a moment to recognize if such measures were taken before the vote, so parents could be better informed of your more filtered and appropriate standards, maybe Facebookgate never

165would have happened. You stated yourself just tonight that you'll see what happens after the election. You've asked for specific examples, and these are mine. When concerned parents came to the board with our anti-mask mandate, you made it very clear that you, Dr. Hibbs, can and won't go against the governor's mandate. That your hands were tied and you would revisit this decision as the science changes. Here we are, almost November. The tents are coming down. Marble Township infection rate today is 0.3%, with a 90% resident vaccination rate. And the transmission rate in Monmouth County altogether is less than 1%. And yet, we still have no option when it comes to what's best for our children regarding masks. Hypothetically speaking, Dr. Hibbs. When a more aggressive suggested curriculum rolls out for New Jersey State after said election,

166can we count on you to dismiss and omit any lessons deemed inappropriate as the word that caught so many people's attention? Or are you going to continually comply and tell us that your hands are tied and there's nothing you can do? While I respect your stance on not allowing such verbiage to make its way into our classrooms, this kind of transparency that we saw tonight is what is now expected of you and the board. Thank you. You got it? You can cut, thanks. Well, as far as the mask goes, you're totally right. And, you know, I'll even go on record as saying this, and some of you may not even realize this, so I'll bring it to your attention. On election day, there's an administrative order that was signed that states that six out of

167eight of our buildings are voting places, that people don't have to wear masks in schools. And I'll go on record as saying right now that that is just baffling to me because miraculously on one side of the door, someone can get COVID or on the other side, our kids and our staff have to wear masks. So I'll say that publicly that I am disappointed. by that entirely because I feel that is just disingenuous across the board. If we're supposed to wear masks and that's the rule, then that should be the rule. You are totally right, Annette, that we are seeing it come down this way, which makes me super, super happy and super comfortable. You know, the question came up before about, you know, my stance in the summer. My stance in the summer was

168the variant wasn't here, and I really didn't have that concern. But as soon as we hit, we went skyrocketed. We really did. We had about 300, I think it's... If you look at September 27th on our dashboard, we had 324 kids in quarantine. We went sprinting out of the gate. And since then, we've taken a nosedive. We actually took a nosedive, I think, down into the 50s and now back up into about the 100. We've definitely had some cases recently. If we continue on this downward trajectory, I will be happy to advocate for choice, 100%. I'll say that publicly. That was my same stance that I said in the summer. Why I changed that stance, which... Why I changed is very simple. We went straight up. And like I said before, I have a responsibility

169for each and every child, all 4,000 plus and staff members. So that's that. As far as will I stand against things that I feel as if... are not appropriate. If something comes out in a standard language that I feel is not appropriate, I will always stand. Just like, and I get called out on this for disseminating information when I feel as if there's inaccurate information being put out about our district affecting our reputation, I will always stand for what I think is right. We may not always agree on where that line is, and that's okay, and that's the way it should be. Because no one ever agrees on anything. But yes, we have good, healthy debates on what is appropriate and what is not. And when we sat down to look at the consternation that

170was happening, right or wrong, we took everything else out of it and we asked ourselves a few simple questions. Are we teaching it? The answer was no. So at that point... Why does it need to be in there? It doesn't. It was a real simple answer for me in that moment because we were not teaching it. Nothing had to change. The family life units that depended on that standard in the right-hand column were unaffected and unchanged. So, yes. If there's things that I feel are inappropriate, I speak up. I spoke up at roundtable with all the superintendents in the room just on Friday about how ridiculous it was with the concept of masks on election day in front of the executive county superintendent and about 70-ish superintendents. I spoke up about the ridiculousness, in my

171opinion, of the Start Strong assessment to check a box and put our kids through more testing when our assessment system is 17 times as strong as what was done. But yet no one will listen to us and say, hey, can we talk about how individual districts can demonstrate what they're doing for the individual child? If you ask us, you know, a standard in a kid, we can tell you how they all do on a specific math or ELA standard. Start Strong doesn't give us that. So can I answer your question? Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Next. Mrs. Colby. At this time, you guys don't even have to. Have me state my name. Sorry. It's Angela Colby, 18. You could take it out so you don't have to. I have a couple additional questions for you.

172You had mentioned today about opting out of the family life curriculum and the health guides. However, at the PTA meeting that you went to Dugan, you had said that those lessons are taught throughout the day. So I just want to know how we can opt out, where we need to go, if you could give us a little bit more information. And also, I had asked at the Dugan PTA about the child COVID testing, and your response was that there was no discussion about kids getting vaccines. And recently in the news, again, they're talking about mandating vaccines for kids five years old. I just want to know what kind of conversations are happening at Monmouth County, state, with the nurses, what kind of information is going around regarding the vaccines, the mandates, and parental choice. And

173then I just want to be an advocate for anybody that has a child with special education to go and talk to your case managers and request them to get some testing related to how the general education students are tested because regression is real and they need to revise the IEPs and their 504s because kids in special needs especially are behind with... their general ed classmates, and I think the parents really need to stand up and start advocating more for them. Thank you. Okay. At the PTA meeting, I think the question was more about, and Mike, help me here, health is, you can opt out of health, but when it's integrated across the curriculum, that's when you cannot, and I think that's what the genesis of that conversation was. So as far as health goes, if

174you have a specific concern, we have a policy on that. Is it 5250? Yes. 5250, Mrs. Colby, you can just go right to that policy and then reach out to your building level principal and they will be happy to assist you in that endeavor. As far as testing and vaccines go, two very different things. So with all the testing that had to happen through Executive Order 253, it broke it. That mentioned only staff testing. Somewhere along the way, the state of New Jersey then lumped in kid testing into that. What you won't see as well is that we are very much against a mandate on testing children. I am personally. I think that should be a parental decision on when and how you get your child tested, 100%. So with that being said, there was

175two options that went through on how we could test. There was option one where we had to get assigned a vendor by the state of New Jersey, and then there was option two where we could actually pick our vendor. We went with option one, to be honest with you, because option two lacked any real direction on how we could get reimbursed. And then I think that's really why we said no to that one, correct? Correct. And we would have had to go out through a separate procurement process for a vendor. Yeah. So we were assigned Rover Labs. Initially. out of the gate, it was said that we didn't have to, or that we should test kids. We all put up a big roadblock in saying we're not okay with that. And then it miraculously changed

176to it's optional. Now, Rover Labs is assigned to a lot of districts. They were, in my opinion, overwhelmed by the breadth of schools that they had to deal with. So they were very happy to just discuss staff testing. So as far as child testing. She was asking about mandating vaccinations too. I got it. I want to make sure you got that one. I got it. Got it all. Because she mentioned testing first. As far as testing goes, it will always be your choice. As far as vaccine goes, the questions about whether or not there's any form of discussion about mandating that for kids, not around me. Not in any meeting that I've ever been a part of. However. I, like probably everybody in this room, have been thrown many curveballs over the course of the

177last three years. but not in my presence has there ever been a discussion about a mandate of anything now I do know that I believe it's November 3rd there is a vote about the vaccines for kids I think that's the date don't quote me I'm sure you can google it and then you know the 5 through 12 age group what happens after that I learn on Twitter just like you do sadly thank you Robin Bornstein sorry Hi, good evening. Robin Bornstein, 24 Barnswallow Boulevard. I just wanted to get up here to sort of echo the sentiments that the teachers and Mr. Shiffrenson had mentioned about Mr. Ellsworth. I was fortunate enough to be one of the students that had him as a principal. And I can tell you this is not going ahead and saying

178anything negative or whatnot about any other principal that I had, but I could not tell you any of the other principals that I've had. But when I looked at the agenda and I saw his name on there, I cried because I never forgot him. I can still tell you now what he looked like. Don't ask me about any of my other principals though. I couldn't tell you because I don't remember. He was always in the halls. He was always wonderful with all the students. There were plenty of times that I was in his in the office many times for positive reasons sometimes not. We won't tell my mother about those. But I loved having him as a principal. i also love mr pagliero but every time i walk into that office it's still mr ellsworth's

179office um so and i mean i'm on the pta so i'm in the office a lot um and it is still mr ellsworth's office so he was absolutely a wonderful person and anyone who had the opportunity to have him was so fortunate and he definitely can't ever be forgotten so it's unfortunate on his passing but he was definitely a wonderful asset to Marlborough and one that I still will never ever forget all these years later I still remember him thanks Robin Victoria Dean Victoria Dean 28 Pheasant Drive can I say a question is there a separate list that would have been signed up out there because I signed up for the public session is my name I don't know on that I didn't plan on waiting until 10 15 to talk no I mean Is

180that so it looked like it from 28 Pleasant Drive it was but it's 28 Pleasant Drive. That's me. I thought it said Ophelia. Sorry. That's my mistake. How do you get Ophelia from Victoria Dean? Anyway, there's really not a V on there, but it's okay. So the post that was on Facebook that was referenced, is it fair to say that it's a state standard and that When you vote on a state standard as a board member and the examples of that that you are voting yes that you agree with it That's my first question number two. I'm glad you brought up Jill workshop meetings because I sat through plenty of them you were at a lot of those that's when the questions are asked That's when the deep dives go in on a 90 plus

181million dollar budget the parents are able to hear questions concerns of the community you can bring forth those questions um i'm not sure why they went away i don't understand i i watch the meetings i still am involved i don't have kids in the district but i see that you come in and you're saying that you ask these questions through email That's a courtesy to do it through an email. You know, you can do it publicly. So the public that voted you in as an elected official to represent the township, the kids in the district, the seniors in the district, this entire Marble Township, know that you are asking the questions on a budget that's affecting their taxes and affecting their school district. So I encourage that to go back to the workshop meetings. To

182the board members. The next Board of Ed president, I encourage you to protect your board members and let them feel that they can ask these questions in public so that people can hear them. And I don't know, really taken back by the entire conversation and how it started, the idea of attack. I felt it was an attack. If it's a fact that's posted on Facebook, it's not a misrepresentation. It's a fact of a standard. And the way a person voted on it is a fact. So that's my opinion, and I'm entitled to it. And I respect all of you. I thank you for sitting on the board, putting your time in. I know what it is. I've sat seven years there. For six years of those seven years, I had a board president that represented

183us. And that board knew. that the administration answered to Dr. Hibbs, and Dr. Hibbs answered to the board, not the other way around, and that Mark comes and drives here, and he's the lawyer, and he's here to answer questions. Ask those questions in public so we can hear the lawyer give us the answers, and I don't think that anything should be just emailed. Be transparent. Restore the board. Thank you. Okay, Mrs. Dean, I think being on the board for seven years, you know that we don't vote on state standards, or you should know. I won't address the concept of the workshop. I will address the concept of emails. I think you're under a little misimpression. We've put a lot of things through committees as well, that it's not just a random email. People at any

184time could email. The lack of a workshop or not lack of a workshop doesn't mean that there's any lack in transparency. I love that word, quite frankly. It's something that you throw when you really want to make something look bad, but you really have no evidence. So I'm not quite sure what to say to that. I will say that I very much enjoyed my time on the board with Mr. Olanski. I believe he's listening right now. So hi, Mike. Thank you for years of service. And I will say that my time with Mike Olanski is mirrored by my time. with Mrs. Wolf, who are actually both huge child advocates. Never, ever, ever, and this is a great example of what we were talking about before, about people putting out information that is just simply meant

185to smear. Let that sit there for a sec. At the end of the day, Mrs. Wolf doesn't stop anyone from asking any question, and shame on that comment. Excuse me. There's no back and forth. That is terrible. In future, I hope you have a board president that, let me read it, that protects people so they can ask questions. Every person up here has the ability of asking any question at every time. We respect your right to an opinion. And my opinion on that post was that it was disingenuous. Had you just put up the whole slide like we did and said, listen. It's a state standard, but it's not being taught, then that would have been fine. Now, of course, you have the right to an opinion. You do. You know, we're not doing that.

186We're not doing that. It's not a back and forth. So at the end of the day, as well, I am very aware of who I report to. Again, that's like throwing the rock for transparency. I work for this entire board of education. I actually spend time with each and every one of them. in in discussions you know this week I talked to many many members about a variety of things so I'm very aware of who we of who we who I work for uh and you know lastly I'm sorry you're taking it back but I disagree with almost everything you said thank you Dr. Hibson yes Jill quick thing um victoria i want to see your face where are you i like talking to people um just so you know we did have a workshop

187meeting for the budget i asked for it so and i know it was a long time ago but i just for the record we did have a workshop meeting for for this budget and we all thought it was a pretty good thing right i remember everybody seemed to like it so just for the record thanks and in addition we get a lot of information in our green notes that have become much more um wealthy with information every week so that we have a lot of information to vote on and discuss and I have never stopped anyone on this board from asking a question so and if anyone ever felt I did no one has ever reached out so thank you Kathleen DePasqua live in the Marlborough Township I actually am deviating off of what I

188was planning on speaking of based on the response Mr. Hips has just given here. There's a policy called the harassment intimidation and bullying policy 5512. And some of the things that you have written behind you as district characteristics are listen with care. honor commitments, own your responsibility, and speak straight. And quite honestly, I've told you several times over the past many meetings, outright call members of the community and past BOE members liars by name, parents that are liars. And just a quote from your own policy, harassment, intimidation, or bullying is unwanted aggressive behavior that may involve a real or perceived power imbalance. It goes on to say that harassment, intimidation, and bullying means a gesture, any written, verbal, or physical act, or any have the effect of insulting or demeaning any student or group of

189students. Tonight is at least the third, possibly the fourth, maybe even the fifth time I've heard with my own ears point you, Mr. Hibbs. Dr. Hibbs. This is wolf that you're calling the community liars and you know in your role as sitting here in charge of our school district You know that's an abuse of power as far as I'm concerned so my question to the board is You know the community has a whole bunch of policies that they have to sign their rights away with when they have to get access to the student pure pupil portal with the approximately 1,000 policies that are very detailed and actually quite strip a lot of parental rights out of them. So does the superintendent have any, does he have to abide by harassment, intimidation, or bullying, or a

190civility policy, which quite interesting that civility policy that you haven't provided us with a complete update, goes on to say that if parents ask too many questions, you can actually. say that they're not abiding by the civility policy which is recently added in and you know you've said that you're going to get back to me but to speak straight again as your one of your district characteristics you've told me several times that you would get back to me on other questions um in august i've asked very specifically about the dress code the dressing and grooming policy 5511 on how the letter is supposed to go to a doctor's physician and i have not been followed up with that i've actually received quite a few um written email communications with you for the three times my

191three years that my children were in district and you're always telling me I'm asking too many questions so you know you don't really get back to anybody about any of the answers of the questions so I'm quite taken back that as your responsibility of taking responsibility again one of your district characteristics that you don't actually own up to those yourself and I'm quite appalled that the The BOE here, including the board president, is sitting here and intimidating and harassing and demeaning the members of this community. Thank you. Thank you. I disagree with everything that you said. Literally, I didn't think it would be possible to disagree with every word. Stop, please, stop. Sir, you don't have a right to disrupt this meeting. Or you can leave. That's it. So at the end of the day,

192ma'am, I'm not even quite sure where to start with that. I don't think I used... did i use the word liars tonight i mean i think i said misrepresentations i think i said mistruths so at the end at the end at the end of the day you know i i did say a host of lies before um but you know if you are entitled to an opinion so am i about about in my opinion behavior towards our district period so you want to the question of the of the dress code please email it to me and i'll be happy to to be very honest you you you put a whole lot into three minutes so it's really hard for anyone to follow along and to actually figure out what that question is so i'm happy

193happy to address that concept there's not anything else i i'm not quite sure what you're looking for specifically with the doctor so okay okay okay thank you we'll make sure to check that yes miss any dara any 90 watts in court how um thank you thank you for what you said comments are supposed to be directed to the chair then let me just start with ditto aside from that as a past board member I am telling you that we used to have workshop meetings all the time so that the public could hear what was going on so to dismiss that It's just completely wrong. It wasn't dismissed at all. To say that we're not encouraged to send emails instead of bringing things up at the meeting is not the truth. And it just needs to

194stop. It's enough already. I don't even know where to start. What I will tell you is. Bullying, harassing, intimidation is a common thing. You continue to do it to other board members. It needs to stop. And the bottom line is that you're right. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Absolutely. You're not entitled to your own facts. And have a good night. Thank you. Just, Mark, for the record, is there anything that you've seen that I've done that falls under harassment and bullying? Excuse me. No. And the bullying policy, it's certainly a wonderful policy, but it really, by law, it applies to students. That's what the policy is all about. And I don't remember, Dr. Hibbs, you calling anybody a liar tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Sir, if you'd like to get up

195to the microphone and speak like everybody else, you're welcome to do so. But yelling stuff from the audience is totally inappropriate, and it's disruptive. So you're welcome to the microphone. You have Samuel 12, you're corroborating my role. First of all, you're taking everything personal, which you should. But when you take it personal, you should act on it, not neglect it. Okay, in a different everybody's opinion you're refusing everybody's opinion. Okay, all The points pointing at you now and you still refusing you still opposing is still denying It's still not understanding. Okay, you ask everybody that this is doctor Okay, but when somebody asks many question in three minutes too much the digest doctor Right? What's doctor? So now, back to the curriculum and the health issue and the word that we could not pronounce. All

196what you're saying, this is what's coming from the state, with the ugly picture. We painted the ugly picture into a beautiful picture. We're still teaching the kids same curriculum, same concept. He can name it whatever he want to name it. It's still wrong. Kids should not be receiving this material period. Whatever you want to name it, name it. Whatever you want to call it. You want to believe it or not. We are the parents entitled for our kids. We cannot put our kids to be subjective to these curriculums. If it's coming from the state, or if it's coming from your slide. You should listen to the parents. You should listen to the community. Otherwise, you shouldn't be sitting here. Thank you. So I'll just address, I don't understand the doctor comment, but as far as

197kids not, sir, it's not a back and forth. It's not a back and forth. Because I said doctor. Let him respond, please. Sir, thank you. As far as the kids should not be receiving this material, with all due respect, I don't think you've grasped that we were never teaching it. It was never being taught. You're not listening. It was never. Sir, I'm happy to go off grid with you, but we're not going to argue back and forth. Sir, you're not allowed to disrupt the meeting. Please sit down, let Dr. Hibbs answer the questions, and stop interrupting. Thank you. I honestly don't know how we could have made that portion of the meeting any any clearer It was not taught. So sir if you'd like to have a sit-down conversation about it Yeah Sir, all right.

198You're way hostile and it's not okay. We can have a respectful sir Okay, sir, I'm sorry you're going we're going to have to ask you to leave if this is how your behavior continues Do we have anyone else that would like to have a public comment? okay wait we have to just see who else needs to come up we're going to have to end this meeting if this can I just go into executive I'm a parent yeah I'm instant yeah just get just we won't be able to hear you look at him with the camera sir what's his name We'd like to continue with the meeting in a professional, peaceful way. So, Ms. Wolfe, is there anybody else who wanted an opportunity to speak? Yes, I have this. Okay. We'll try to listen to you

199over some of the disruption in the back. There's background noise. Thank you. Appreciative to the officers who are trying to help us conduct the meeting. Phoebe, Three Wing Crest Road, Malbrook. Hi, Dr. Hensley. Hi, Phoebe. How are you? You've seen me before, but how are you? I know. How are you? I don't know, could be better I guess. But first of all, I understand all your position, but you have to understand these are parents, and if you put yourself in their shoes and these are your kids, you'd be looking at things a little bit differently. Anyhow, I was planning to skip this for next time, but since he brought it up, so there's a section in health, 2.15, says differentiate between sexual orientation and gender identity. And the way to apply that, as you said,

200because I did compare this and I actually did explain this to a lot of people and I've been following this from 2019 and we spoke in January 2020, if you remember. Which I like the answer you gave me and I'm getting a little bit conflicted with what I hear. But to apply this, it says... at teacher's discretion the class will discuss. So I want to understand what is teacher's discretion because one teacher's discretion could be different than another teacher's discretion, could be different than my values that I teach my kids, could go, could infringe upon my religious belief and this is something that the school has no position crossing. So how do you control that? Because... I think, I don't know, somebody said they heard earlier that you don't necessarily control the curriculum or what

201goes on the classrooms. You give them a just general broad way of, I guess, administering the material, but you leave it to their discretion. I didn't personally hear that part, but I don't know if you would please clarify that part and tell us how you would handle just making sure that the teachers... don't say anything more than what they should or then do not convey the wrong message to students. Sure. Thank you. Yeah, happy to address both of those. Mike, you can jump in as well whenever. Just make sure she's done. Oh, were you done? I'm sorry. Yes, I'm done. Okay. Thank you. So as far as teacher's discretion goes, you know, teachers do have discretion on staying within the range of that topic. What I would encourage you to do is if there's a

202specific topic that you are concerned about, why don't you reach out to your child's teacher and where that says teacher discretion, why don't you just have a conversation with that teacher and then let them know your feelings. And then they can talk you through what that would look like in the classroom. And then there's a difference between... you know, where they go and maybe where they don't go. But they do have a level of discretion in having conversations with children. As far as the second piece is, you know, we do control what's in the curriculum. all the way and that was the right hand column. Well that was fifth grade and I understand teachers will have this pressure to tell them teach exactly this way. They're going to put in their two cents whatever but

203if you leave it completely open for them that doesn't control things and again as a parent some parents worry about retaliation from the teachers. I mean I don't but it's out there. I mean not everybody has the same courage to speak. So a lot of parents are concerned about that. And what are you doing to remediate that, make sure that they don't cross the lines, they don't teach? I mean, I don't know why, first of all, the repetition of sexual orientation, sexual identity. I mean, too many, like... Choices here that we're really there is just a male and a female like and really like in this is what we're not going to get But yes conversation you like to enumerate everything that could possibly enumerated under the Sun and it goes on so we don't

204want to be the next California here either and Thank you for again not pushing this agenda. Sure Thank you. We charge it could be but I think the answer should be you need to Control what's being taught and not just leave it to the discretion of the teacher Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Thank you. And your passion on this. And I believe we're all parents up here. And we've all been in your shoes. And many of us are still in your shoes. So we do understand, including every single person up here. Has anybody who hasn't spoken? We're just going to have people who haven't spoken in the second comment section. As long as we have other people that want to speak. And you have spoken more than once, by the way. Oh, I

205know more than twice. Right. Okay. So we still have an executive session. Of course, it's up to the board president whether we're going to allow additional public comments after everybody who's wanted to speak speaks. Is there anybody else out there who hasn't spoken? I have. Oh, there you go. My name is Eli Alam. I live on 31 Eli Circle in Morgantown. I just have one quick question. If the state standard says that you need to teach third graders multiplication, can you say no, I'm not teaching them? That's it. So those were examples. That was your question, right? Thank you. If the state standard says that we need to teach multiplication, we teach multiplication. Yeah. Those were examples. I think he's saying because it was on the state standard. It was on the state standard. No.

206Let him finish and then. Leo Daveyman, 51 Buttonwood Drive. So to continue what I've started with in the first public comment and to piggyback onto some of the things that Victoria Dean has brought forward, I'd love to finally at some point get past all of this. And to do that, I keep thinking about what interaction model could actually be effective to move us as a community past some of these issues. So there's kind of two extremes on the spectrum that are clear. One, and huge credit to Dr. Hibbs, it actually takes the time to respond to every email, take every phone call, hold every coffee meeting, whatever it is, any amount of time, which is hugely inefficient and mildly effective, but really ultimately not useful to resolve in anything because there's that enormous power. imbalance,

207right? You don't answer to any of the parents you speak to as you've described, right? You kind of indulge them. You take the time to speak to them, but ultimately in the end of the day it's just whatever it is you were going to say to them regardless of what they say to you. And that's okay. I mean you couldn't possibly have actual in-depth decision-making conversations with individual parents. That wouldn't work. On the other side of the spectrum is what we've observed some really awful examples of here today and, frankly, in the last month, even worse examples of where you, Dr. Hibbs, you, Ms. Wolf, and several other people on occasion pretend to be the Ministry of Truth. Far from it, right? It is an awful look. It does the exact opposite of what you

208want it to do, right? When you declare something to be truth and sort of put the mic down and say, thus it shall be truth. That just derails credibility and people tune out and don't even listen to what it is you were saying and what positives there might have been contained therein. So to my mind, the only possible alternative, and in fact the one that's provided in the design here, is that there is a board that is not a PsyQuiz, that actually provides that link where the board members could speak to the community. could listen to the community, could have those private conversations with the community, and could bring those conversations in the workshop setting or executive meeting setting or God knows what other setting that would actually get the in-depth answers that the community

209is looking for. That's why we're so fired up. That's why we're so involved in this election. But it's far past this election. Whatever changes on November 2nd, is not going to be the end of it the only way past this is to have you guys who are still going to be here on november 3rd take this job in a different light you have to be able to ask the tough questions on our behalf so we can stop and maybe move on to celebrating the cool stuff our kids do thank you thank you victoria dean not ophelia i do like that name though 28 pheasant drive marlboro new jersey really i was joking um thanks for twisting my words dr hibbs i did not mention robin's name i didn't even mention mike's name i said to

210the future boe president i encourage you to to take care of your board presidents to watch over them i didn't mention her name i didn't sit under her as a board president so i don't know how she treated her board members other than i said there was no more workshop meetings and i know you don't vote on state standards You vote on the, I understood that. What I'm telling you is what was posted was a factual part of an example that the teachers could, you know, how do we know they're not going to teach that? And if there had been workshops and discussions, maybe that would have been. taken out before instead of having to backpedal and do it tonight because there was conversation that night about that word and about the concerns people talked

211about it and they referred to Mr. Ballone and he said nope it's not going to be taught it's okay and it was dropped but it could have been pushed and it could have been maybe talked about that set that night and set aside and it could have been voted today that's all I was saying so don't twist my words okay And it's not a question, and I'm not, you know, kind of felt intimidated, but not really, because you and I go back a long way. I sat next to you for a long time. I don't dislike you, and I don't think you dislike me, my, you know, difference of opinion. You know, we talked at Marble all day, said hello. You know, I appreciated your words of encouragement for my family. Listen, I've got to

212get to work tomorrow. I've been here many a night, and I like that we're all here this late because we did it many a night. 12, 1, I think it was the latest we went, it was like 2 in the morning. So, you know, thank you again for serving. Don't twist my words. Again, talk about it, and then maybe you don't have to backpedal and do it after the community goes on Facebook and puts hundreds and hundreds of comments of how unhappy they are. And I feel for the poor guy because I understand. he was a little upset but he has young kids and they sat here until 10 o'clock one minute so listen to the public that's who you represent board members good night thank you i miss dean good luck with your families

213and last comment we're going to close the comments we're good okay we're going to close the public comments can i have a motion oh i said i was waiting i didn't think you were coming this will be our last comment thank you Okay, so this is what I wanted to talk about before Kathleen deepest while Marlboro Township Recently you've approved a new organizational chart And I'm just looking for clarity because it looks identical to the one that was previously there except for visually it makes it look like the school physician the attorney and the auditor Are equivalent to the Board of Ed so I'm looking for a clarification of who sits on the top of the chain of command In addition to that, someone had brought up Title I funding last meeting and Dr. Hibbs,

214you actually stated very quickly that it's an excellent endeavor that Mr. Belone will be in charge of and then you quickly moved right into another topic without actually explaining it. So my understanding of Title I funds is that it's that you have a large percentage of your population below the poverty level. And I've looked back into the Marlboro Township. districts, not districts, townships information on numbers and we are nowhere meeting qualifications for Title I funding. So my question to you is why are you playing around with Title I waivers and is there any reason as to why, let me backtrack. Why are we applying for Title I waivers? What's the clarification on that? Why are we messing around when we do not have that amount of children below the poverty level? And is this tied

215to why we have free lunch for over two years? And if it's not, where is the free lunch money coming from? Is it coming from a federal grant or are there other things that you applied for? And I'm hoping that you're going to speak straight on it. Before I also mention the abolishment of the highly qualified teachers and the academic standards, academic assessments and accountability. And I just wanted to know why were they abolished and where have those standards now been put into place into new policy? because it just doesn't make sense why we would get rid of a policy that says that we're going to hire highly qualified teachers and things along those lines. In regards to the Parents Conscious Act, have you provided all the parents and guardians of the district's children with

216opt out forms as required by law for the family life and health? curriculums or student surveys or any materials that a pupil or a parent may find morally, conscientiously, or religiously expensive as stated in district policy 5250, the excusal for a class or program. And in the newly created policy 2415.05 for the student surveys and analysis and our evaluations, it says that The district requires written consent from parents before students are actually given these student surveys, which touch a number of sensitive topics which would go against parents' morals. So have you provided, according to law, these opt-out options to your students? And when you get the data from this survey, who do you report it to? Because I know part of this has to do with the federal government. So how much information is being

217reported to the federal government as opposed to the state? And will you notice parents, will you notify the parents that you need written consent? And what is a reasonable time frame that I should expect to hear back from you as has been promised to me before and I've never heard back from you? Thank you. Do you want to just get back to him? No. How about now? All right. So as far as the orb chart, those three people report directly to the board. The board sits at the top. As far as why are we. And I think your exact words were playing around with Title I waivers. You really have no idea about how Title I works. Every school district gets some form of Title I funding. It is not just tied to the districts

218that have a... Please stop. You asked a whole lot of questions. I'm trying to address them respectfully. It's not just tied to people below the poverty line, although we do get funding for that. Mike, you want to take a step and just clarify that? Sure. There's a... pretty complicated algorithm that takes place at the at the federal level and state level so the initial sift is looking at our free and reduced lunch but then we are able to apply for the grant which we do every year and we receive funds to also help closing the achievement gap in ela and math so we receive title one funding for two of our elementary schools and the other three elementary schools who do not qualify. We have an in-house program called the LEAP program that is essentially

219a mirrored image of the power program, which is our Title I program. Again, closing achievement gap in math and ELA, grades two through five, and it's a very large program. We have coaches who meet before and or after school with students. the stipulations based on the Every Student Succeeds Act, which is where this falls out, where this comes from. There is a stipulation that any work done through these federal funds has to be done outside of school hours. So you'll notice all of the interventions that we have for our students take place either before or after school via power coaches or online programs. We have a phased approach, so phase one and phase two. So it's a big lift in terms of identifying students who have the need. We hire coaches, as you saw on

220this agenda and the September agenda, power coaches in both Defino and Robertsville. And then we do parent. parent evening event in the springtime so it is quite a large program and our parents really appreciate it the parents who have participated and we've also brought it on a local level to our middle schools with the rise program so we've we really mirrored what the federal the federal government has provided to us as additional funds that do not impact your taxes per se. They don't come out of the local budget. And then we've mirrored that program to cater to our students in the middle school and the elementary schools that do not qualify. Mike, opt-out letter? For 5250? Yep. Talk about that. How do we disseminate that? Yeah, so the opt-out letter for 5250 for the health

221curriculum dissection or anything related to sexual education, there is an opt-out policy, 5250, and really the only thing the policy mentions is a communication to your child school principal. However, we do have a letter that gets sent from our health teachers. when those topics are being covered. If you feel as if you either don't know when those topics are being covered or you're curious as to maybe the teacher doesn't realize that one of the topics being covered is something that you don't approve of, the best line of defense is to directly contact the teacher and say, look, I notice that these topics are being covered. I'm uncomfortable with it. I would like to opt my child out of that instruction. Very simple. They'll accommodate you. Perfect. Thank you. Mike, surveys? And then the federal and

222state, I'm not aware of. Okay, what was the survey? It was survey related. Are we doing a survey in regards to this whole topic? Student surveys, Mike? I'll count option for student. Maybe we can connect offline. I would need a little more information. Okay. Here. what was the surface why don't you i have an email going to you regarding the abstinence issue so why don't you just respond to that email and then we can We can address your concern. Paul, can you please connect tonight? And that way we can figure out exactly the policy number that Ms. Deepa Squally would need for the, it was the dissolvement of some and the incorporation of the others. So that way you can just correspond right back to her. Appreciate that. Federal government and state, that would come

223from Mr. Ballone, data from the surveys, Mr. Ballone, and everything else that I wrote down. Thank you. Thank you. We can't get into a back and forth. You'll have a conversation with Mr. Ballone. Thank you. I think that's what Mr. Ballone said, that you can email to him, and we'll be happy to respond back to you. Thank you very much. executive session resolution be it resolved in accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings act the Marlborough Township Board of Education shall conduct a closed executive session pursuant to the exception prescribed by NJSA 10 colon 4-12 for the purpose of discussing matter of attorney client privilege and a student matter it is anticipated at the length of time this executive session will be 20 minutes and action will not be taken in public after

224the executive session be it further resolved that the minutes of the executive session will be released when the need for confidentiality in accordance with NJSA 10 colon 4-12 no longer applies. Do I have a motion to go into executive? Jill, thank you. Do I have a second? Jen, thank you. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Thank you very much for coming out, everyone. Have a great evening.