001Thank you. Thank you. Obviously. remote okay we're going to call the meeting to order and just so the audience is aware jessica ramirez is on virtually and um yes we can get a uh roll call that would be great sure i'd like to welcome everybody to the coles neck township board of education meeting for april 10 2024 mr cameron present mrs denoya here mrs dylan here mrs dimes here mr arrico yeah mrs ramirez Thank you. Just announced that legal notice was given of this meeting as required and ask everyone to stand for a flex. 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. I should also just mention, even though I think it's
002posted on the doors, that these meetings are live streamed. So just that everybody's aware that it will be live streamed. And I'll mention now that that live streaming will end when the board goes into an executive or closed session at the end of the meeting. And even though there will be action taken when we come back out, live streaming will not continue. Once it's shut down, it's shut down. I thought I mentioned legal notice was given. The audience agrees. Thank you. So then next, if I can ask for a motion for the approval of the minutes from January 3rd and January 24th. Motion. Second. Any discussion or comments? Roll call. Mr. Cameron? Yes. Mrs. De Noia? Yes. Mrs. Dillon? Yes. Mrs. Dimes? Yes. Mr. Arrico? Yes. Mrs. Ramirez? Yes. Mr. Rugnetta? Yes. Mrs. Volpe? Yes.
003Mr. Walsh? Yes. Motion carried. Thank you very much. and don't like to put you on the spot but we're going to keep the student representation on the every agenda so that on anyone who's here if they would like to speak certainly can so I'm gonna start with Tyler if you want to but basically going down the line anybody like to address the board I know, I'm good. You're good? So there is a... Just pop up if you're going to speak. Oh, okay, sorry. So there's this thing for the... catching up the students from COVID. And I was wondering for that, if we had any funds that haven't been tapped into from like COVID, like the money that we might've gotten for that? Good question. I don't know that there is, but the superintendent or BA
004would tell me. Do you mean the afterschool programs? Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, they're catching us up from COVID that we lost. Yes. So we have what we refer to as ARP or ESSER funds. And we got federal funds that are funneled through the state to our district. So it goes from the federal government to the state government to us. And we use all of those funds to create programs that are academic-based at our different schools to help students get caught up in mathematics, reading, writing, all of those things. OK. And my second question are, if the after-school thing would be held for a program, would the teachers need to be paid for that? Okay, so would we have money to pay them or would we have to raise taxes? No, what appears
005on the agenda is money that we have. It goes on the agenda to be paid as an approval, which basically says that we have the money and we're going to pay them to do it. Okay, thank you. Thanks for watching out for that, though. Good. Jillian? Good evening, board members. I am very pleased to be in attendance tonight. I would like to share my thoughts on a recent event that occurred at Cedar Drive Middle School. The recent collaboration with the Jackson Alpha School was a great experience for students from both schools. Cedar Drive students had a terrific time participating in activities with the Alpha students and cheering them on. We enjoyed watching teamwork and kindness from our own students and theirs. This event made myself and many other students extremely joyful watching and participating. I
006look forward to seeing more events like these occur in the future at Cedar Drive. I would be more than happy to be involved with the middle school and Board of Ed to plan such events. Thank you very much. Good evening, Board members. I'm very excited to be back here to share some more ideas that I have. Since I am on the Committee for Sports, Arts, and Extracurricular Activities, one of my ideas is the Crazy Comic Club. It is where kids can make their own comics, then share them to the club. It will take place over nine weeks and it's a place where kids can express themselves free of judgment. Another one of my ideas is for policy. That for transportation, kids should not have a bus stop no more than half of a mile from
007their home. And if they have a more dangerous route, we can make it about one quarter of a mile from their house. I mentioned this at the previous meeting. Like for me, my house is almost three quarters from my bus stop. There is a humongous hill and a big turn where I cannot see any cars coming. If my stop was half of a mile, that cuts off the entire hill. I still have the turn, but it is safer. As for the turn... I can just walk on the curb. That is all I have for you today. I look forward to having so many more ideas with all of you and look forward to being mentored by Mrs. Mulvey. Thank you everyone for listening. Thank you. This is both me. I know you'll follow up with
008the other comments that have come and thank you very much Now the McCormick girls, I don't know who gets to go first if there's gonna be any squabbling tonight or now That makes it easy all right And I just gotta say this and it's a really nice aspect to our meetings having you guys here Communications we just acknowledge that the communications are on there as presented and then a very brief report from the president I just want to say I don't know if I put what day it is, but I think one day next week. I'm really excited to be participating at the middle school for the purple breakfast Monday at this coming Monday, so it's a great such as a great idea to recognize and honor the Military families that come here. So I
009just want to say I'm excited and will be attending and speaking there I want to also just thank Angelique for bringing to my attention, I don't know why I missed it, but that DNJ SVA, New Jersey School Board Association, is having an event in Colts Neck, and I'm glad you brought that to my attention. It's a nice, easy one, and I certainly plan on attending. I mentioned to you about the legal executive session and how we'll be discussing it. That's why our attorney is here tonight, too. Chris Dasty is one of our attorneys. He's here primarily because we're going to have an executive session where we'll get some updates and advice. And sadly, I didn't ask you directly, but I don't believe student liaisons are going to come to the executive session, so we're going
010to have to cut you guys out of that one. Last thing I wanted to say is, as I think everybody's aware, we advertised for two meetings a month like we has been tradition. And for the first part of the year, we canceled one of those meetings each month so that we could try and get it done with one meeting a month. But for this month, I want to make sure everybody knows that we're going to stick to the schedule. This is actually April and May. So there will be another regular meeting on the 24th. And then there will be the May 7th. public hearing and adoption of the budget and that's at the primary school on May 7th and then there'll be the regular meeting on May 29th so just wanted to make you all
011aware of that and also let you know that I'm very excited to probably at the meeting on the 24th I know administration is working on putting together not only continuing to work on the budget, but putting together a synopsis of what we got for our RFPs. I think everybody's aware that we put out a request for proposals for professionals that would want to work for the board. So I'm hopeful that on April 24th, it'll be like a work session. We'll be able to work through some of that and maybe decide either before or after if we feel like we have to interview anybody. But once we see... At least a synopsis of what we got in and we can make those decisions. So that's it for me committee reports buildings and grounds safety and security
012anything I sent three dates. Mr. Morata will send them out to the committee and see which one works best for everybody. Good. And the seniors are quiet. Excuse me, John. Are other members allowed to take tours? Are we allowed to schedule? For sure. It's not. Yeah, we can schedule it, but it's not more than four. Oh, okay. But we're still allowed to. Oh, yeah. Okay. Thanks, Kevin. You're good? Communications committee? Vinny? I just got feedback from the live stream that it's kind of tough to hear. So maybe we can have a microphone on each of the tables, somehow set that up to connect to the live stream. That would be a lot helpful. Thank you. I've gotten similar feedback, but the good news is I've gotten a lot of feedback. So clearly people are watching.
013I've had people tell me they got to see it, they really appreciate it, they could be in their kitchen, they could be doing whatever and keep it on. But I want to again thank the administration because they put together something with equipment we had and at no cost. So we will get, I don't know if you've already started, but we'll look at what an enhanced audio portion would take. Thank you. Curriculum Committee, anything from our virtual vice president? right now but i am working with administration to hopefully get a meeting set up to discuss curriculum issues or not that there are issues but anything pending prior to us approving the curriculum in our main board meeting so stay tuned for a date for that and i'll be in touch with the full board to get
014any feedback that they might want to discuss and or if they want to attend Thank you. Finance and negotiations. Jason, I know you have had a lot of meetings and a lot going on. Anything to report? Yes, so we've had a few meetings. We're just collecting bids, and we are going over everything collectively. And hopefully by the time our May 7th meeting rolls around, everything will be ready to go. Between the budget and the RFPs being out there, there's a lot going on. Yes, a lot going on. Thank you. And back to Jessica, anything on policy? Yeah, so you'll see there's nothing on the agenda for this evening. But just to keep everyone updated, we are working right now with legal regarding a few policies and regulations that have come down as a recommendation from
015Strauss-Essme. So those should be on some of our upcoming meetings for us to be voting on. So that is coming down the pipeline. And then also... We're working with administration still to compare Strassel-Essamay versus New Jersey School Boards Association for our policy voting. So hopefully by the end of next week, we should have a more formal comparison for us to present to the board to move forward. Yeah, it seemed like a whole slew of new policies coming down. I mean, I guess they always are, but there was some legal review I saw, too, and I'm glad it's all being vetted before we act on it. So thank you. Advocacy and Government Relations Committee. Angelique, anything? Yes, I'll try to be brief. Down in Trenton, Governor Murphy has nominated a lady named Serena Rice. I strongly
016oppose her nomination to the State Board. I just wanted to read a couple of things. She has posted on social media and just so the town and our constituents know exactly where she stands on things. I'm disappointed that Governor Murphy hasn't appointed someone with a little bit more experience to be on the state board, even maybe just being on a local school board. As far as I know, she has no experience at all. But she's very politically motivated. That's one reason why I ran for this board, to keep this stuff out of our schools. So I'd like to read a couple things she posted publicly that deeply upset me. She stated, since some athletes have physical advantages over other athletes, protecting girls from physically competing against biological males is absurd and is not a problem.
017And we should focus on real problems. That's a big issue for me. I do not believe males should play in female sports. And I know if she's appointed on this board, she will be pushing these agendas, and they will trickle down to this district. And I want to make sure as long as I'm on this board, that will not happen. Another thing that she said that was very upsetting was... She shared and celebrated a post that claims mass shootings are not caused by mental health problems but by white males. That was deeply disturbing to me that she is criminalizing and villainizing our white youth claiming that they are the only ones that do active school shootings. Another one, she shared and endorsed a post that said, I celebrate drag queens, and I'm furious with those
018who don't. So I definitely could see down the line that she will definitely advocate for having drag queen reading programs in our schools, and I strongly oppose that. Another one here, she was deeply bothered. and I quote, she was deeply bothered by candidates like me who ran on parental rights issues and want to keep education at the forefront and not politically motivated agendas. So I take that personally. I'm personally offended that she feels she's deeply bothered by people like me that believe that education should come before all of these political agendas. So I'm very disappointed in Governor Murphy. I really, now that he's coming to the address, thank God that I was hoping that he was going to appoint someone that was definitely more suited to lead our education system in New Jersey. So with
019that being said, I was hoping that I could make a motion that John Cameron can maybe draft a letter, you know, in regards to this topic. Excuse me one sec. You know what? Why don't, just for protocol. I appreciate everything you said. I couldn't agree more. And I've got to tell you, having a son and daughter who both play basketball, and there's plenty of other very physical sports, it's insanity. Boys should not be competing with girls. And if you say they're not boys, they're transgender girls, I'm sorry, I disagree. Let me put it this way. Biological boys should not be playing with biological girls. That being said, though, if you want to make a motion to actually do something, let's do it during new business. Okay, that's fine. Protocol-wise, I'd like to take it then.
020Okay, that's fine. And I just want to let you know that this hearing will be this Monday, the 15th, at the Statehouse. I will be attending, and hopefully we'll be able to speak against her appointment, and I'll come back with an update next meeting. Thank you. our ad hoc committee for the arts, sports, and extracurricular activities. Anything, Ben? Yeah, we have a meeting right now scheduled for the 25th, Thursday, with stakeholders. and others and we have to get their feedback and hopefully next school year we can get some new competitions and new assemblies and I'm looking forward to hearing their input as well too and what they think we should bring for next year as well too. Thank you. I'm sorry, John. Can we go back to Angelique for a second? Mrs. Bowlby, I have
021a question. If you are speaking on Monday at the state will you be representing yourself? Of course, okay Board member liaisons Brenna anything from the parent advisory committee for extracurricular, I was so excited to see that a meeting was scheduled. And I'm not saying it's your fault, but typically protocol is, at least in the two and a half or so years that I've been on, that all the committee members are consulted before scheduling a meeting. And so I was disappointed to see that the meeting was already scheduled with administrators and staff members, and that I just can't make it because it's after school hours and I have to pick up my girls from the bus. So maybe going forward we can try to loop everybody in because all the committee members are equally as important
022in my opinion and I would have loved to have been there. Hopefully next time we can loop us all in. But so, Parent Advisory Committee, we had an amazing meeting with the admin team. It was really productive. The administrators were so receptive to hearing everything that came from the Parent Advisory Committee. I would say that, I mean, I have received some feedback, too, from parents that they're noticing some changes day to day that they had already kind of brought up in the Parent Advisory Committee, so I think that... that shows that their voices are being heard and that's kind of what the whole point of that committee really was so that was exciting but next step is we sent out the survey to all the parents that were involved the final survey and we're just
023collecting that feedback we had summarized all of the to the best of our ability, summarized all of their feedback and all of their requests, and we tried to kind of group them together in a way that made sense and tried to hit on everything that they brought up. And we're collecting that feedback from them, and then they will hopefully be present for, we haven't decided which meeting we're gonna. But hopefully it'll be one of these next two. Yeah, between now and the end of the month. Yeah, between now and the end of the month. And we will present those final requests from the parent advisory committee then. And I still love it. I think it's been really great. And I'm just grateful that we got that many parents' perspectives throughout the year. Thank you. Very
024good. And Amy, I'm sure something on the PPL. So we had our gala after our last meeting. We had 320 women in attendance. A lot of staff was there. We had a ton of staff tables, which was really exciting. So seeing more and more come out was very appreciated. Before, we don't have the final numbers, so we're still working everything up. But rough numbers, pre-sale raffle tickets was just over $28,000 with galas and sponsorships. I totaled in with that, it was about 52,000 that we collected beforehand. And the total value of the baskets that we collected was over $78,000. So just waiting on the final numbers. But it was great. 320 people from the community in there was wonderful. Just getting ready, the PTO for a lot of the end of year activities. So we'll
025be here before you know it. Flower sale is coming up. And just get to see all those emails out there. Thank you very much nothing new from me on the township committee And Kevin did you say you had anything on seniors? Good Angelique anything on state and county school boards Association It will be held at the County College of Morris and Randolph. All board members are welcome to attend. In October, they have October 21st through the 24th is that big and the New Jersey School Board's Workshop 2024. It will be held in Atlantic City. It's the largest professional learning event for public school officers. It includes networking opportunities and professional development. and all board members are obviously encouraged to attend. I will not be attending, and I had enough for the three-day weekend last month.
026Also, as John touched earlier, the Monmouth County School Board's county meeting is May 7th, and luckily for us, it's at the Colts Neck Inn, like he said. And it will be at 7 p.m., and John and I will be attending, and we will be voting on who will be the next delegate for the three-year term. Thank you very much. And that brings us to our superintendent. Thank you. Welcome back, everyone. I hope everyone had a nice spring recess. And I'm sorry it was so soggy. I have no control over that. But at least we had a couple of sunshine days. So welcome back to everyone. Before I get started with my superintendent's report, I want to administratively just ask the board, administratively, I'm removing personnel item number seven on the agenda. Administratively, so that when
027we vote. Ms. Moretzka, please vote this gap, the gap in personnel with regards to the vote, okay? Only number seven. Only number seven, thank you. Yes. Okay? And I'll call it out again when we're ready. All right, student activities are in full swing. I can't believe we're in April already. I want to congratulate the Kultnike PTO on a wonderful spring gala. It was just so beautifully done and so just amazing. So thank you, thank you, thank you to the Kultnike PTO. It was always so amazing with putting this together. It takes a team, and it was just wonderful. So thank you so much for that. Music in our schools was in March and on Tuesday, March 26th, the Crest Beginners Band and the Vans Band, fourth and fifth grade band musicians, as well as the
028Spring Singers from Conner Road Primary School did a wonderful job. The evening was just amazing. Going to our ad hoc advocacy, you know, our ad hoc, excuse me, arts. Program I just thought it was that I just a great night and I want to thank this channel. Miss Hubbard. Mr Willis and For all their hard work with that. I also want to echo what what Julian talked about with regards to the fans in the stand I had the pleasure of being there and it was just truly a special moment I continue to be so proud of all of my Cedar Drive students and all of our students And it was just such a great experience and just allowing others welcoming others into our home territory into our homes and showing them just the grace and
029the pleasure that you know it is to be part of our cultic family so thank you to um mrs grenada grenada and mr um witts dr rigby mr mercer everybody who put so much time and effort into doing that our ambassadors uh who were there and helped put everything together you were all just wonderful and it was a great day and just there is a small picture that you just have to imagine our visitors from the Alpha School, which is a school for disabled students as I described in my report, and the entire school outlined on the floor, rooting on students from the schools. They engage with our students in different games designed just to make them feel as though they're a part of a larger community. So it was a really special moment. So
030thank you for all that all of you did, and Dr. Abiy and staff to make it come to fruition. It makes me super proud overwhelmingly. April is month of the military child. Monday, April 15th, as Mr. Kamra stated, is the district's Purple Up Day, where we will celebrate and recognize our military students and their families. April is also Autism Awareness Month, and we also are going along the same lines of just making people feel accepted and welcomed in our hometown. Monmouth County School Partnership for Wellness is hosting a symposium on mental health and wellness this Monday, April 15th, at 6 p.m. in Brookdale Community College. keynote speaker is Carly Bushoven of the Madison Holleran Foundation and it is designed to bring awareness to mental health and teen suicide prevention. Then also tomorrow night, along those
031lines, is our final parent academy for the school year. This presentation is at Cedar Drive Middle School at 7 o'clock p.m. The title of the presentation is Raising Resilient Youth in Challenging Times. The presentation is being facilitated by representatives from the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide, and I want to give much thanks and appreciation to Coltenec PTO and the CNTA for sponsoring this parent academy. I know that it will be a very informative and meaningful night. registration is still open. Our preschool and pre-kindergarten parent open house is Thursday, tomorrow. both two times at 10 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. for all of our new young potential students that are coming through our schools. And then our first ever pickleball tournament on our brand new pickleball courts is going to be Saturday with rain date
032on Sunday, 9 a.m. $50 per team. A team is two people. From what I understand, because I'm not a pickleball player, but I'm going to be a big fan of it. And then all proceeds this year, we know that we all celebrate our Stokes. trip it's a great experience for our students it is costly you know so all the funds that we raise through our teams are going towards offsetting off setting some of the costs for our students to go on that trip so come out and support and it should be a great day um i also want to point out on the agenda finance number six six Mr. Morasco said something to the board. We're appropriating some of that stabilization aid. And that's exactly what we're supposed to be doing. We're paying for some
033things. To Chris Jost's question with regards to taxpayers, this is money we received from the government. And you can see it's a big number on that table for number six. And it talks about some of the things that we're able to do in the budget that we would have had to remove from the budget, but now that we're putting forward in stabilization aid. That total number of stabilization aid was $800,000, which was great, and kudos to everyone who was involved in that application in getting it done. So there will be future allocations as well that will come forth. And then finally tonight I have a retirement. On tonight's agenda, item number one of the personnel is Mrs. Lori Garrido, who is a CDMS Master Teacher of Mathematics. has announced her retirement. She'll be with us
034for a little bit longer and a little tease into the first month of this first school year. But she's been here in 20 years and many mathematicians have graced her classroom and they have been better people when they've come out of it. So on behalf of the entire district and the board, I want to wish Mrs. Garrido the best of health, happiness, and good, well-deserved retirement. So there's three information items on the agenda no action to take just everyone's awareness and that brings us to comments from attending constituents on Everything and anything that anybody wants to I was just wondering what Mr. Rugnetta said about the meeting for sports arts and extracurricular activities. Do people on that committee from the student liaisons have to be at that meeting? They don't have to, but I don't
035think you ever, you guys can be invited to it. I would love to be with all you guys who are assigned to that meeting. Great. Thank you. I think that's important. And I'll just say real quick again, we have mentioned it a couple times, and it's a new board, and we're getting in the swing of things, but yes, any time we're scheduling meetings to include everybody on the committee and make their awareness, I think this is a good idea. Thank you for that. Was there anybody else? I went right to the first hand raised, but maybe it was Mallory. I don't know. This is the time to talk about this, but I noticed that we had like, I think it was a bomb threat drill right before spring break, and nobody knew what to do.
036Like we weren't sure. I know like even teachers were going out of the classroom like asking other teachers. We take it as an evacuation drill or a fire drill so I think it might be good to like go over some of the less used drills and figure out what to do because nobody really knew. That's good because the drills are to keep you prepared to be good to know what they're supposed to do. Which school was that? The middle school. Anybody else? Mallory? Mallory Reardon, 165 Laird Road. Going back to what Ms. Folpe spoke about at the beginning, or closer to the beginning of the meeting, I found it kind of puzzling that she thinks that someone's social media posts can bear an impact on whether they should be elected or appointed to a position.
037You know what you've posted online. You have several times... defamed and mocked the LGBTQ community. I can't even read some of your posts in here because of the children. It would be offensive. I mean, one of them is a rainbow posted during Pride Month. Don't forget to thank a straight person this month for your existence. A Dr. Seuss mock-up book. If you're born with a, and I'm redacting this word, if you're born with a, you are not a chick. I'm letting everyone know I'm heterosexual, so feel free to praise me for my courage and incredible bravery. Another one where there is an image meant to represent someone from the LGBTQ community being kicked. Kicking them. Promoting physical violence against someone in the LGBTQ plus community. This state has LGBTQ plus... students in it. Whether you
038like their existence or not, they are here. You're on a school board, you're supposed to represent them. Stop pointing fingers at what other people are doing and look at yourself. Again, so much division. You talk about wanting to take the politics out of this board, but the first thing out of your mouth tonight is bringing more politics in. Focus on our school district and what you can do to make it better. Stop bashing LGBTQ members of this state. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? All right. I think we're closed, and therefore we can get to our action items. So would somebody like to offer a motion on action items one through five? Motion. Second. Any discussion or comments on those items? In that case, we'll take a roll call, please. Yes. Thank you. Under buildings
039and ground safety and security, just the one item. Could I get a motion and a second? Second. Any discussion or comments? Happy to see the bridge program, Bob. Great program. Great. Then let's go right to the roll call. Yes. B&G item. Mr. Cameron. Yes. Mrs. DeNoia. Yes. Mrs. Dillon. Yes. Mrs. Dimes. Yes. Mr. Arrico. Yes. Mrs. Ramirez. Yes. Thank you. Mr. Rugnano? Yes. Mrs. Volpe? Yes. Mr. Walsh? Yes. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. And under curriculum, even though it goes on for a couple pages, it's just one through three, I believe. So if I could get a motion and a second on curriculum. Motion second. Any comments or questions? Yeah, I just want to say I'm happy to see that there are some staff members that are taking advantage of some virtual and online continuing
040education. I think this is great. You know, as we saw during COVID, a lot of continuing education transitioned to online. I know it certainly did in my field as well in health care. And so it's great to see that our staff members are taking advantage of that. Thank you very much. under finance we have items number one through seven yes curriculum and instruction items one through three mr. Cameron yes this is Mr. Rugnetta? Yes. Mrs. Volpe? Yes. Mr. Walsh? Yes. Motion carries. Thank you very much. And now on to the items 1 through 7 under finance. Can I get a motion and a second, please? Motion. Second. Any comments or questions? Hearing none if I can get a roll call on the items one through seven under finance, please Yes Any discussion comments questions In
041that case, could I have a roll call on items 1 through 10, excluding number 7 under personnel, please? Yes. Mr. Cameron? Yes. Mrs. DeNoyer? Yes. Mrs. Dillon? Yes. Mrs. Dines? Yes. Mr. Arrico? Yes. Mrs. Ramirez? Yes. Mr. Rugnetta? Yes to all except for number 2, Riquis. abstaining member to it yes thank you uh mrs. Volpe yes and mr. Walsh yes And that brings us to our new business session. I'm going to start before I ask for other comments just by saying three of the board members, I think, are wearing their shirts. I thought it was very nice. The board members not only got shirts for themselves but for their liaisons, and we're happy. And I know I intend to wear mine at the next meeting because it's the whole month of April, right? I didn't
042want to change when the shirts came in this afternoon. But tomorrow, I'm going to wear mine. If any of you kids feel inclined, that could be nice. And same with any board members, if you want to all look alike. Anyway, that being said, that's all I have. Anybody else for new business? Yes. Myself and Amy have been working on introducing some programs, more specifically a field trip we're looking at for the special need community, our students. We're looking at Lair Village, a historic village. It's like Little House on the Prairie if you ever watched it. Not sure of time. Anyway, it's like village life in the 1830s. They have tour of the grounds, tour of the buildings, and they also have time for playing games they played in the 1830s. We think it would be
043a great time and experience for our kids to attend. It's $10 per student. Amy's been kind enough through the PTO to fund that and I guess we would coordinate that with Dr. Garibay. Sure, send it my way and we'll help bring it to the administration. So that makes that happen for trips for next school year for the kids. That's great. I remember going to Alera as a kid. We're also looking at following up on pet therapy, dog visits to the school. find somebody, a good program to bring into our schools. So that's forthcoming as well. Thank you very much. Anybody else? If I may, I would probably, if you'd like, I can coordinate a meeting with Dr. Beck because he has, or his director of special services, who has, you know, some contacts in that
044area and things like that, and maybe have a collaborative meeting through curriculum and through that office there with Jessica and an educational program as well. Appreciate that. Thank you. And Dr. Grabauer, if I could just say quickly, piggybacking on that, I know a lot of colleges have the therapy dogs that come in during midterms and final exam time. So maybe there's, and you certainly would probably know best, if there's certain testing, whether it's... standardized testing or if there is another time during the school year that perhaps students are a little bit more stressed because those therapy dogs can alleviate that stress that might be a good time to kind of move it in. Very good. Anybody else? I'm sorry if I missed you. pushed into other areas and it could divert funds from public schools.
045And I think as opposed to focusing our energies on singular issues that affect a minority of people or that people feel affected by a minority of it, I think we should focus on the bigger picture and what tax dollars and state dollars would do for us or not if they are removed from our districts. they go to either charter schools or private schools, which is what is currently being discussed both in the Assembly and in the Senate. So I would like to make that recommendation that we start looking into that as opposed to other things. Sure. Well, certainly I would like to look into that. You said it's called the New Jersey Student Support Act? Yes. You're familiar with it already? Yeah, I'll send it to you in my Friday afternoon. Thank you. Yep. If
046you couldn't hear it, the superintendent said she's going to put it out in the Friday update so we can follow up on that. Good. Yes, I just wanted to make that proposal to draft a letter to the state board in opposition to Selina Rice's appointment. Like I said, I'll be there on Monday, but I'd like to maybe see if we could make a vote to pass the board that we do submit a letter in opposition to it. Sure. would not be able to go on Monday and actually planned on writing something myself as an individual or as the board president or from the entire board. So are you making a motion to do a letter from the board? Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to do a letter from the board. Opposing the appointment
047of Serena Rice? Yeah. Basically just that and the... I was going to say the letter goes to the senators who will be voting. It's the position she's looking for is on the New Jersey School Board. Yes, that's what I thought. So, yeah, and to the point of what affects whom and how many people it affects, I think the members of the New Jersey School Board certainly affect all of us and what's coming down the line for policies and protocols and everything that we get. yeah i uh certainly consider that but so there's a motion on the floor to um have me draft a letter on behalf of the board opposing the appointment of serena rice to the new york school board association um is there a second i'll second it i'm sorry i'll second it
048you got kevin first okay any discussion or questions I don't know anything about her, and I appreciate what you've said and what you brought, but generally as a board, especially now as a board as a whole, we have always tried to operate in a kind of no surprises. So it would have been helpful if you could have sent some information beforehand. I actually, not to interrupt you, I actually did send this out to the advocacy committee about, I don't know, maybe a week ago, two weeks, I don't know, time is going so fast, and I said that I would keep it posted. Then I found out that... you know, she was taken off of the agenda and then I found out she was being put on on Monday. So I recently found out too, so
049I didn't have the chance. Just in the future, because I can't make an informed decision, you know, just based upon the few things that you read. I don't know anything about her. I don't know about the appointment. It's not something that was on my radar, so it's certainly not something I'm comfortable with. perhaps if I had known that you were going to make this motion beforehand, I could have looked into it myself other than just going off a few statements. So just for the future, something like that, even if you drafted a letter yourself or something of that sort so that we could make an informed decision instead of going off of just a couple lines that you read. And I understand and I appreciate what you're saying and what you want to do, but
050I can't make an informed decision because I only have the limited information that you presented. That's understandable. Now, when I do an email, like I said, since I'm new, and I do it to the advocacy committee, can I then write an email on the same topic to the other members of the board if they're not on the committee? So typically, because we're still going back and forth between committees and a board of the whole, so typically... what would happen in a committee structure is if you did something in a committee, then after your meeting or after a discussion, then there would be a report that was sent out to the whole board that basically said, here's what we talked about, here's the highlights of it, here's our agenda and what we had talked about. And
051that's the way that we would communicate previously with the board. So obviously with the change from committees to board of the whole, we're missing some steps there. So that typically would have been what... You would have done. Okay. All right. In the future, I'll make sure anything like this comes up. I'll make sure that I... Just because I would appreciate it, so then that way I can make an informed decision. Okay. Just on that point, I'll defer to counsel if I get it wrong, but to answer your question, because for any subject, my understanding is if you're discussing something with the personnel committee or any committee, if you're discussing something with your committee, whether it's in person or virtually exchanging emails... and you're discussing the subject, then you can't, should not also have another one
052with another four members discussing the same thing. Right, but by the same token, I believe it would be fine if four members of a committee are discussing something virtually or in person, and then... That committee chair the superintendent anybody puts out an awareness to other people that hey the council the this particular committee is discussing this particular thing for awareness not for discussion and comment Right in fact past presidents have done that I think it's a good idea to just close out if you're giving an awareness only email to the whole board then you just close out and say uh please do not reply all right john you might want to for context sake for the new board members to explain that it's because it creates a quorum and that's so that's why we don't
053do it Very good. Where are we at? Oh, no, we've got a motion and a second on the floor, so discussion on that. Yeah, and I just wanted to say, and I did receive an email, so I do have a little bit more context, obviously, but just personal preference, I would rather see the actual letter before I vote on it. I understand we're voting on the idea of writing the letter, but I don't feel comfortable voting. on the letter until I read it. So I'm gonna, I know that we can't comment when we vote, so I'm just letting you know that my no is because I would rather wait until I have some language in front of me. Anything else? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No, good. I snuck in there on you. In the
054occasion that this does pass, would you be able to provide the full board with a copy of the letter for us all to read prior to Monday? For sure. And like I said, nobody can change the vote then, but certainly. But you know what? Well, it could be maybe just from the advocacy committee. Is that who was working on this? Whatever committee was working on it, if I drafted a letter and because of timing, I could certainly show it to the whole board, but the advocacy committee could give me input. And if they said, you know, gave me input on the letter, then I can. And deal with that. Yep, that's what I'll do. Did you hear that, Jess? Yes. Okay, great. Thanks. All right, so there are no other comments. We'll take a roll
055call vote on the motion. Okay, motion on the floor from Angelique and seconded by Mr. Walsh. Mr. Cameron. Yes. Mrs. Benoia. No. Mrs. Dillon. No. Mrs. Dimes. No. Mr. Yes Yes, so then I'm just gonna make the announcement as I said Now we are going to go into an executive session, close to the public, the doors will be closed, and the live stream will be cut off, as I said. Nobody can guarantee. I don't anticipate it to be more than 20 minutes or so, and then the board will come out and open the doors again, and I do anticipate that there will be action taken afterwards. I know it's difficult, but we do it at the end rather than the beginning. It could take longer than 20 minutes. It could be even shorter So if
056anybody wants to wait around till we open up again, you're more than welcome But if anybody just wants to leave then no offense taken Sure, you're not prohibited from knowing what was discussed in the closed session, but you cannot be in virtual. Right. Great. So I need a motion to go into executive session. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Aye. Motion carried. All right, so goodbye to Jessica and to all the audience. Thank you for coming out.