ABOE Board Meeting 06-08-2022

001in accordance with the provisions of the new jersey open public meeting act of 1975 the popular education transmitted notice at this museum meeting scheduled at 6 30 pm in the audubon junior senior high school auditoriums of the retrospect newspaper and the vero clerk invite postings on the audubon public school district website and at the mee and pine street entrance of the junior senior high school this is ron case roll call please this is davis thank you mr ryan no mr here mrs cox this is robinson here mr mr miller whereas the open public meetings act requires all meetings of the audubon board of education to be held in public there are certain types of matters that may lawfully be discussed in executive session which means without the public being permitted to attack we have reason

002to go into executive session we will be back at approximately seven pm and called meeting back to order ocean to go to executive session all those in favor any opposed i pledge allegiance [Music] okay we'll begin tonight's meeting with the student council reports and council representatives we had a very successful interview process and we're happy to announce the new executive board for the next school year president leanne perry vice president mary kate evans social chairs person joseph gasmari secretary vivian don and treasurer lauren costello we also had a very successful luncheon with all of the new members and although we're really sad to leave we're really happy with the new members and we know they'll have a great year next year great thanks for coming and representing the student body this year we appreciate it

003it's my understanding that this upcoming school year or at least the following school year will have a student representative that will be elected by the student body to sit as a member of the board a non-voting member so maybe over the summer dr davis you can gather some more information on that and reach out to the student council and find a way to start to facilitate that so you guys will miss that vote but let's get on to the next group thank you any questions for student council okay next we will turn the meeting over to dr davis for our student of the month after the student of the month we will recognize some retirees and some other celebrate some other things that are going on in the school district in recent weeks dr davis

004all right good evening everyone so if you haven't been here before and uh your student of the month what we'll do is we'll go through your picture will be up and the nomination will be uh we'll ask the student to come up um depends on where parents are sometimes we stand over here over there parents who are invited to come up and get that kid shot at the end i'll pull all the students of the month spotlight for a called once again parents please get there and get your shot i will do the shot two we'll put it on twitter and facebook um if you have a little one and they need some help coming up that's fine i've only had one or two people that have picked me up on that but you're welcome

005and yet so with no further ado we're going to do a freaking garden first our pre-kindergarten student of the month is the least bird [Applause] she was the student of the month for may her teacher says she displays our school wide rules of safety respect and responsibility every day she is an amazing friend and always is willing to include everyone when her friend is looking for someone to play with she's the first to take action and he might then join her she looks out for her classmates otherwise making sure they are safe and happy our unique ability is making others feel included special and welcoming is such an amazing trait we are so happy that she is part of our orban preschool classroom community congratulations the kindergarten he is nominated as the kindergarten student of

006the month his teacher says he comes to school every day with a smile he is kind and caring to his classmates and willing to lend a hand to help a classmate or the teacher he is a superstar reader and his very unique writer this month he published a animal report a biography of a friend in our class and his own autobiography he works hard at school and is a good friend and follows our school rules we're so lucky to have him as part of our school family and wish him the best as he moves on to the first grade congratulations [Applause] paul hartstein is nominated for the first grade student of the month paul is a true friend to all in the classroom he works very hard to always be respectful and kind to everyone

007he encounters his teacher says he always puts his best effort into all his work and it has been a joy seeing him grow leaps and bounds academically this year he is bound to be a star second grader last year congratulations paul [Applause] kieran kelly is nominated as the second main student of the month [Applause] thank you his teacher says kieran is an amazing person he consistently works hard and does his best karen is a role model to his classmates and always being prepared on task and treating others with respect he never gives up and works through any difficulty that arises he does this with a smile on his face and is always polite i'm inspired by his perseverance and motivation to succeed his teacher continues kieran is going to do great things in life he

008is an inspiration to all of us congratulations [Music] adson sylvester is the third grade student of the month [Applause] her teacher says addison has demonstrated raw behaviors and qualities in every way addison is respectful to teachers and peers she takes ownership for her own learning by participating and asking questions during lessons if she does not understand something she's not afraid to ask for help she is in constant competition with herself and is always striving to get 100 on her assignments addison shows achievement by always doing her best and taking pride in her work she shows responsibility by handling or sorry handing in assignments on time and thoroughly looking over her work before handing it in addison is a hard-working student who takes school very seriously and has a positive attitude while doing it she has

009been a true pleasure to have you class congratulations [Applause] julia deciano is the fourth grade student of the month [Applause] her teacher states it is with overwhelming excitement that i nominate julia with the school year winding down julia has shown how much she has learned and grown since september she is constantly stepping up with her responsibility for making of any work that she has that has been missed julia is never shy in owning her learning by reaching out to a teacher if she has a question caring for her friends and respecting her classmates julia is always participating in classroom discussions providing great insight and sharing wonderful opinions julia has come a long way since beginning the beginning of the school year and both i and miss brian are blown away by what she has been

010able to do and achieve this year congratulations to him [Applause] ayson battle is the fifth grade student of the month her teacher says ace in battle is our fifth grade student of the month because of her consistent demonstration of raw characteristics she is respectful in both her word and action takes ownership of her individual responsibilities and in the role she plays within the classroom she strives to do her academic best she is responsible for herself and sees it as her responsibility to help others ayson is a very hard worker she will put in extra effort to make sure a job gets done whether it be her academic assignments or to make sure the classroom is organized and inviting as a learning environment she is kind and helpful to others above and beyond what is expected

011and we are proud to honor her as the student of the month it's a busy time of the year the sixth grade student of the month is lucasart [Applause] lucas lamacusa is nominated as a sixth grade student of the month his teacher says lucas is a student who constantly shares respect for his classmates and his teachers he is motivated hardworking and kind lucas shows ownership of his learning by using his time wisely completing all his work on time and asking questions when needed he is an excellent role model for his classmates and we know that he will continue to be exactly that next year in seventh grade keep up the amazing work [Applause] the seventh grade student of the month is morgan wilson [Applause] morgan wellesley is nominated as a seventh grade student of the

012month morgan is an exemplary student she is a role model not only academically but also as an individual she is involved in many clubs and sports teams here at the school including soccer track basketball student council and peer to peer she leads with a mind and heart of kindness respect and willingness to help morgan has enjoyed her first year at audubon high school and loves spending time with friends and appreciates the support from her teachers and coaches we know that morgan's future is bright congratulations [Applause] [Music] lauren siebel is nominated as the 8th grade student of the month [Applause] her teacher says lauren is a kind and respectful student she stands out from the other students due to her positive attitude about the world around her she's an excellent student and seeks to improve her

013writing skills voluntarily she has been a pleasure in class lauren is described as an excellent role model for her fellow 8th grade students she is friendly and positively consistent she goes above and beyond in all aspects lauren enjoys being involved in the national junior honor society french club track and cross country student council and band congratulations lauren [Applause] angela oliver is nominated as the 9th grade student of the month [Applause] so angel is always prepared for class and completes all of her assignments to the best of her ability she is respectful to teachers and her peers she makes sure that she completes any assignment that she may have missed she has the desire to do well which is much appreciated angel loves spending time with her friends at school and enjoys all of her teachers

014she enjoys music and writing songs and hopes to be a musician when she grows up congratulations the soul four student of the month is kiera collins [Applause] kier collins is nominated as 10th grade student of the month kiera showed great potential all year and demonstrated her dedication as a student she was always willing to try the work and ask questions to better understand whenever she is struggling she also works well with those in her class participates each day and shows respect to those around her she always has a smile on her face and a positive attitude karen enjoys being a member of student council and is finding much success on the track team care aspires to be a pediatrician in the future congratulations [Applause] and we have a second nomination for the sophomore class student

015of the month nadia cruz [Applause] nadia's teacher says nadia brady needs positivity she is fully engaged in her classes and shows true interests in the topics being covered she helps others and participates in class on a normal basis nadia is dedicated to her studies and is a joy to have in class nadia is highly involved in extracurricular activities she is a member of the spanish club volleyball club student council and the ensemble choir nadia has a passion for culinary arts and has dreams of opening her own restaurant one day he built the good work carolyn hauser is nominated as the 11th grade student of the month [Applause] caroline's teacher writes that she is a wonderful young lady she is very respectful of others and is dedicated to doing an excellent job on everything that comes

016her way caroline is described as a very motivated student and a pleasure to have in class caroline is a friendly face in the halls and an asset to our school community she is involved in cheerleading track spanish club and cheers competitively outside of school caroline's future is bright and we look forward to seeing her shine katie brook is nominated as the 12th grade student of the month katie has shown dedication respect and diligence all year she is always respectful of staff and her classmates goes above and beyond to assist those around her and tries her best at all she does katie participates each day and has been a wonderful addition to her math class katie has shown true leadership and her activities here at audubon high school specifically on the cross-country and softball teams after

017graduation she plans on attending broadway university to study early childhood and special education congratulations if all the students could come up to the front for a picture we would appreciate thank you uh is [Applause] so um well next we'll be recognizing this year's retirees so lucky i have a couple people to make comments and statements so now all of our retirees could be here some of them are enjoying that time in their next stage but what i will do each of the entire reasons you see the formal board agenda you'll notice in the back there is a acknowledgement so i'll read the first one for mr john books he's not here but you get a flavor for what the resolution is that's in the agenda so this is acknowledgment of john books principal of the

018audubon junior senior high school whereas he had served 35 years not all 35 years were in principle but 35 years in the autobahn public school district and during that time has performed his duties in a manner which has been beneficial to the children of audubon the audubon board of education and to the community of audubon and whereas he is constantly striving for professional growth for enrichment of students and staff and the betterment of the school system since 1987 and whereas has given of his time and talents and has worked effectively with hundreds of students during his tenure and has manifested his spirit of cooperation with parents administrators and colleagues therefore being resolved that on the occasion of his retirement of october 1st 2021 the board of education of the bureau of audubon hereby expresses to

019john books thanks and appreciation for his many years of dedicated service to the youth of audubon and searley sincerely wishes him many happy and healthy years of retirement and be it further resolved that this resolution can be read into the minutes of the board of education and the bureau of audubon and a copy of the resolution be delivered to mr john books so uh to say a few words we have kelly rising he's going to say a few words in regards to mr books good evening unfortunately roblox is not able to be with us tonight as he had a prior commitment but when i spoke with him earlier this week he was just peachy in the unlikely event rob was not your teacher coach administrator colleague or supervisor peachy was rob's common refrain refrain when

020you asked how he was or how the day was going and more often than not with little emotion to indicate what peachy meant but as a former student said when i inquired about favorite memories of him or lessons from his classroom can't judge a book by his cover rob served 35 years in the district as a german teacher health teacher soccer coach wrestling coach vice principal of grades 10 through 12 and eventually the principal of audubon junior senior high school to his students he was hair books and unequivocally the most passionate teacher he loved germany and taught us all to respect the complexities of its culture and history his enthusiasm for all things german was contagious and while no one misses translating the german travel videos or the short stories we do lovingly miss the

021thrown at us when as one student as we put it we were being insufferable we're placing gum on our noses during speaking quizzes when caught made even worse if you were chewing big bread that day we also missed the candy sales to fund the many german trips he ran where he was our tour guide providing us with a delicate balance of cultural fun and historical significance in speaking with some of this of those he supervised they recall how he would be quick to say no the first time you asked something but it really wasn't a no it was a test rob wanted to make sure you were passionate about what you wanted and had explored all possibilities so if you came back a second time with the same request you might just be given the

022book space not even i know that time but the third time you had his approval the three musketeers in the penthouse recall how he brought a sense of normalcy to a year that was anything but normal with his daily visits and comical anecdotes of his grandson while others recall his many impersonations at the most random of times to bring levity to any situation however what so many staff students and athletes remember the most was his big heart under that tough german exterior and the sage advice he offered as we all stumbled through this thing called life thank you hair books for your dedication to the green wave [Applause] it's kissinger yep good evening it is my honor to speak on behalf of patty coyle who has devoted 23 years of service to audubon public schools

023through her position within the child study team anyone who knows patty knows how intensely dedicated and committed she has been to our office and supporting her colleagues i've known patti since i was a school psychologist intern over a decade ago i learned very quickly that she could run the office herself patty has been a faithful anchor and leader from her position she has endured a journey through multiple directors and case managers while maintaining the highest of standards and helping everyone along the way anyone who knows child study teams knows that there are more than just a few details to keep track of procedures special education code and staffing across four buildings doesn't make an administrative assistance job easy patty can handle all of it with her eyes closed patty has been my right hand and

024my left hand and really the brain for everyone in our office at any given time when i first became supervisor i hope that i wouldn't let her down i soon realized that she would always have my back now i know that i am simply forever grateful for those earlier years i don't know how i would have survived without her i will miss hearing her distinct footsteps from her desk back to mine to pop in to solve problems together we are all fortunate to have worked with patty she has made us all better at what we do and that is not only the type of person you want to work with but it's the type of person you should value and cherish we all certainly do thank you for your service to the child study team

025the special education department and our school community will be greatly missed congratulations [Applause] so miss cross you can come up mr myth michael will speak with her behind come on good evening it is my pleasure to speak on behalf of mrs louanne crooks my first day working at audubon was january 15th of this year mrs cross retirement was approved by the board at their meeting seven days later um so mrs cross have been dying to ask because it's something i think or maybe i need to check my uh situation here all right mrs cross is the first day student to see when they come to the counseling office she greets every student that comes through the door usually by name and always with a smile and she always asks them how she can help her

026phone rings constantly and the emails are seemingly endless but mrs cross responds to each and every one in a timely and professional manner as the registrar mrs cross is the point of contact for students that transfer into audubon along with their parents or guardians she is responsible for the important tests of receiving students records from their previous school as well as entering new students into our student information system known as genesis mrs cross is also the point of contact for the thousands of autobot alumni that need a copy of their records so mrs cross literally brings new students into the audubon family and she continues to be a resource to graduates for decades after they leave as a former track coach i can tell you mrs cross is not being replaced she is simply going

027to pass the katana mrs cross i congratulate you on your 22 years of service to the audubon junior senior high school i thank you on behalf of the county students and families you have helped over the years and of course i'm especially grateful for everything you have done for us in the office it will not be the same without you only the best wishes for a long and happy retirement congratulations [Applause] so call miss bissinger again evan crosby come on down it is my honor to speak on behalf of beth evans crosby our district is so fortunate to have had beth who has shared her gift it truly is a gift of teaching special education for 27 years before i really got to know beth i'd heard a lot about her and how wonderful she

028was but it wasn't until i saw her working with students that i had a full understanding without hesitation i can say that beth is one of the most selfless people i know she never stops thinking about how to do what is best for her students that's love for her job shines through everything she does you can tell she has loved her career because one she'll tell you [Music] two she can't seem to stay away from school working keys esi and extracurricular activities and three she's already been talking about the position she will apply for as soon as she can return see you can find beth in her classroom which is filled with kindness compassion and success for our most needy students you can also find her on the playground laughing and playing games like squish

029the melon or singing and dancing with her class everyone who has worked with beth will agree that she inspires all to do better she is one of a kind a leader in advocacy and amongst her colleagues beth reminds us that all children have special gifts to offer the world she has reminded me that people who are bold enough to believe they can change the world are the ones that do beth is a special education hero she is able to see the complicated and scary world through the eyes of a child and make it a safe place for them to shine best thank you for making a difference in the lives of so many children congratulations [Applause] [Music] many of us are familiar with that phrase it takes a village to raise a child well it

030took a village to raise me to be the teacher i've become um and i couldn't have done it and i am so blessed to have been able to come to autumn i don't know if many of you know this but 27 years ago i applied for a maternity leave position i was seven months pregnant myself i knew that i had to return back to work um six weeks after my baby was born and barbara williams gave me that chance and i had not a clue what i was doing because i had worked at st john and god and i had worked with severe profoundly disabled children so i really had never worked with learning disabled children so all of them took the chance for me and i am forever grateful for that and it has

031changed my life for the better in so many ways um so i have to thank the board and ottoman for doing that i have to thank you no else because you work so tirelessly and endlessly for our special kids without you we will have the things that we need and the support and services um that are needed for our specialist population i have to thank some other people thank you sue selby because again i had not a clue what i was doing and i remember barbara williams said to me just find a and observe and that teacher would do so so she's taught me everything i i know and she still continues to teach me and she's become one of my dearest and dearest friends so thank you i have to thank um diana because

032you always make me look so good she's really the mastermind behind most of my antics um she's behaving to my eye she's the calm to my school because a little hyper um she keeps me grounded and organized and like i said she's the mastermind between all the activities that have gone on in my classrooms the last 13 years and again she's become one of my dearest friends and i have to thank you my other co-workers and my dear friends harry and leslie and nancy and i could go on and on you support me in school and at a school and i will always always cherish the friendships that we have developed over the years and they're not going away because i'll be back just to let you know that yeah so i just thought all

033right so but i also want to know i'll sub as a cafeteria worker all i right want to thank everyone so much it's been a pleasure and an honor and all the one will always be my home away from home [Applause] lester wasn't able to be here tonight mr bud or other it's going to come up say a few words i thought i was coming up for our planet lester jones the unknown custodian if i had people who was lester jones i'd probably get a handful a few handfuls of uh hands uh raised lester jones came to what about 18 years ago he was my first four-hour part-time custodian and ended up being one of the best employees that i ever hired lester started out in medford schools for two years he went to cherry

034hill schools still in cherry hill he's retiring from cherry hill also been in cherry hill for 20 years full-time day custodian and comes to work for audubon four hours every night five days a week lester has been a team player a hard worker a gentleman he took maybe last summer he had a hip surgery uh i think he took two weeks off other night probably no more than that many days that he has taken off in 18 years he's just a great employee as you can see his file this is his files probably the thinnest file i have on any employee there's nothing negative in it there's no absence of slips in it and i will miss him it was an honor to have him he called me the day after he received his letter

035to be here and he said bud i can't stand in front of people he says i i can't do it and if you say anything about me keep it short but promise me when my probation is up i can come back and work for you so uh and and he's worried because he thinks he's the only one i can wax for and this summer the floors are not terrible or a mansion we have to work on our floors and make that happen just one more thing when when i hired lester 18 years ago of course i called his references and here's what the three people said very dependable works hard 100 million one of the best workers good job goes better than most paid custodians attendance great very nice job he is a problem solver

036works with him in charity though he does extremely good job gets along well with him let me tell you if somebody called me today for him applying for a job i'd say the exact same things that these people said 18 years ago that's how good that man is so i will present him with his black he'll probably ask me to hang in my office but you know i'm going to miss him but hopefully i can hire him back in the future so thank you for listening to me and maybe one day i'll be getting my back thank you [Applause] all right here's a special kind of presentation so this verizon is going to speak on behalf of miss mcnulty [Applause] in 1990 audubon public schools began a preschool program known at the time as the

037shade program in 1991 my mom barbara mcnulty joined jackie shade in sparking a love of learning in our youngest community members over the years the program has transformed new curriculum demands several different locations and numerous teachers however the one mainstage has always been this bar taking on more responsibility as necessary and helping to ease transitions between teachers at this point in her career miss barb is now working with the children as some of her former students it is a rare occasion when we are out and she does not see one of her former or current students or their parents who lovingly provide an update literally this happened two weeks ago these small moments are some of her biggest joys as is evidenced by her enthusiasm for halloween when she sees them all miss barb is

038the stop in town for a piece of candy and to show off your costume she threats for days leading up to halloween about whether or not she'll have enough candy and doesn't leave the front porch until the sun goes down miss barr doesn't want to miss a single student and i can guarantee she'll be on that porch next year waiting to see her how her students have grown while in college i was a substitute for autumn on schools and would sometimes have the honor and the distinct pleasure of working side by side with my mom at one point i suggested she attend college with me as i pursued my degree in education because i could see how much talent she had possessed she simply laughed and blew me off suggesting it was not for her

039you know the nervous laughter for those of you who have worked with her what she really meant was that she was okay playing a smaller role in the classroom so that myself and my other five siblings could pursue our own goals and find success mom thank you for allowing the six of us to pursue our own dreams at the expense of your own and for dedicating 31 years to encouraging your students to dream big always have fun and develop critical life skills thank you [Applause] um this is ledger the principal table for the present two and this is normal so thank you for having us um for this special moment to celebrate our retirees i've never cried so much for board meeting so um mrs joe nolan began her career in audubon in 1983. as

040the secretary of housing avenue school she supported countless students parents teachers staff and administrators over the past 38 years growing up under her guidance students became parents and grandparents and the audubon community has been nurtured by her sharp sense of humor her love of her children and her no-nonsense routine for running a tight show i would venture to say that we've all been impacted by mrs noland during her tenure in some way and she put her own special touch on the community with audubon for that we will be forever grateful anyone who knows anything about education knows that it's the secretary who runs the show and makes all the decisions and i want to thank mrs nolan because if coming in from my interview i hadn't made it past her i wouldn't be standing here

041today and in trump this is an old fashioned post post-retirement i have reached out to her on several occasions for questions information and input to help guide decisions that are best for students and families in the community and in true mrs noland fashion she knows everybody she knows everything and she has helped me to help them just as she did when she was here for automatic for that we will be forever grateful mrs nolan congratulations on your retirement thank you for your service to our school and our community your love for having and for audubon will forever be a part of our school [Applause] i just want to say a few words um it's been my pleasure to be here for all these years i have loved just about every minute of it but i

042really have loved it i love the kids the parents the staff everybody i've worked with such wonderful people and i didn't want to leave but you know it's time so i i had to go but anyway i really um was so lucky to work here when ron chang hired me way back then i never thought i'd still be here i was and it's been wonderful thank you for everything and maybe i'll send too so we have uh mrs spelser is coming up critical invention for mrs avanado our teacher [Applause] so good evening i'm really honored to spend just a minute talking to judy and thanking her so much for 38 years 38 years for the children and dude you're you're you're our daphne you're you're our ninja turtle you're you're our dorothy you're our jesse

043you are the art superhero you would have been not going to give away next year's theme sorry but you thank you so much for everything that you've done for all the love and care for countless numbers of students that have gone through manchester avenue school you have been a one-person show cultivating the love of the fine arts at mansion avenue school helping kids understand and believe they too can create and the language that art speaks that kids can understand and with their level of talent that you have taken and grown you have been the ultimate ultimate elementary school art teacher we love you much at manchester avenue school we will miss you much we hope you'll come back and sub for us [Music] thank you from the bottom of my heart from the bottom of

044your colleagues hearts from the children that you've served thank you so much for all that you've done [Applause] i just want to say a couple of things here thank you um i would like to see at least thank everyone for their kind words and wishing me congratulations on my retirement i've loved working as an rtg for the past 41 years i served 38 of those at havilland and manchin avenue schools combined i thoroughly appreciate my time spent here in audubon and i am honored to have had the opportunity to touch lives of so many wonderful students please know that i have enjoyed every moment here in audubon doing something i truly love thank you move on on behalf of the board of education i'd like to thank all the retirees for their service listening to

045all of those testaments up here to to the hard work and commitment that they've made to our community i think speaking for many of us is the reason that a lot of us have bought homes and wanted to raise our families at audubon it's because of you so thank you very much and good luck to the future moving on dr davis um we have a recognition for our monster masho yeah we have uh i'll make comments in regards to the there's two that misled you once that was recognized it's the monster mash-up and then the interact experiences i'm really excited that this led you collected to recognize the work of mrs long and mrs mueller i had the pleasure to spend the morning it's been going on for a little while but i'll let her

046talk a little bit about the monster mashup i've missed it before but was able to participate this year it was wonderful miss ledger is also going to after she does the monster match up she's going to do a little piece in regards to the interact with lorraine drinkhouse and eileen willis and the preschool team some more fun things that were happening throughout the year we're really looking forward to continue this kind of theme at our board meetings where we can recognize some of the great work that's going on so just let your come on down one of the special things that has stood out to me since coming to audubon is how this community comes out for the schools and the children and time and again people come here to stay as mr blumenstein indicated

047people want to have homes and families here and send their children to school here and that is a truly special gift and it's what makes audubon so special in my heart and this presentation for both of these student groups is an example of that not only from our teachers but from your children and from the work that they're doing in our community and i appreciate so i just wanted to share that with you um in january of uh this school year the second graders in mrs williams art club designed and drew their own monsters complete with special powers as one of their very first art club projects and there is excuse me an example there um on my right of an illustration they spend some time thinking about and developing qualities and then illustrating coloring

048textures all of these artistic elements into the design little did they know the students in mrs mueller's class and what it's art about at the high school were busy doing their own art project bringing those monsters to life four months later on april 27 pattern students were called to the cafeteria for a surprise visit from the high school during the meet and greet second graders got to meet their monsters and made new friends with the artists who had made them and on um excuse me on the left is the drawing obviously on the right um is an example of that monster come to life and so each student that illustrated a monster had that opportunity so in doing so high school students shared how much fun they had making them they sat spending time talking

049with students about their designs their art and their personal interests second graders smiled they held their monsters they chatted away excitedly about the special surprise all the time making friends with older students who are mentoring them special thanks to the students in mrs mueller's what is art about class and the art club witnesses long at heaven at your school not only for your interest in the arts but for sharing a special day with us the impression that you've made will truly last a lifetime this collaboration between mrs mueller mrs long has made a significant contribution to our school community and by acting as mentors and doing service for our school the students at ottawa high school set a positive example spread kindness made new friends all while learning about the impact that art has in

050the real world thank you both mrs miller mrs islam and thank you students for your dedication to the arts and to the students of iowa my 14 year old helped me polish this she said i needed help she did a good job um the preschool has been one of my special joys i went home early in the year told my husband i'm in love again i've now smitten preschool has brought a special place to my heart under the expansion and i have the very fortunate opportunity this year um to work with mrs drake house and mrs willis through the interact club to do a special activity they reached out to me and said hey we thought it would be really fun if we did something with the kids what do you think and i said

051i love it and so that's where the magic started during this collaboration with audubon preschool the interact club planned scheduled and provided an enriching activity for all preschool children at harvard avenue and auburn park during the special event preschool students were together as a group for the first time and if that weren't enough the ottawa park students even got to ride the bus to atlanta where interact students spent the morning reading to students doing arts and crafts playing games building legos and blocks going on an egg hunt and even having snacks we had a special visit from our school mascot buzz and his special bunny friend and because of the time generosity and service of these young people the advisors that support them our first preschool spring festival was a huge success and we are

052already looking forward to doing it again next year we even had a visit with a big brother which was a super exciting hallway meeting that we had and i would be remiss if i did not mention mrs milowski's contribution in the money suit and the student who wore the buzz costume they were not only a huge head but really made the day special so thank you to both of them thank you mrs drinkhouse and mrs willis for your vision and your service to our students big and small and to the audubon schools this collaboration wouldn't have been possible without the support of mississippi maxwell's our master teacher and preschool teachers who support our students every day special thanks to the students of the interact club for serving your community you made 43 three and four

053year olds one administrator and their teachers extremely happy we appreciate you more than you now and hope that you come back again to see us very soon thank you and then so in one of these i don't know if it's up there so one of those live presentations one of the crafts that was done some genius at the high school i don't know who it is but thank you um took this graphic tree and blew it up and made posters for us and the quote at the bottom reads that life's true happiness is found in the friendships that we make along the way and it's labeled our french and so as the course of the craft i'm going to ask the students to kind of explain what they did and how this is going to

054create a lasting memory showcase in our classroom hi so um we had everybody they all um took different color fingerprints with the ink and they just put it on each tray and it was really cool because they're all from different schools so they could kind of like see everybody's names so yeah thank you so much [Applause] all right [Applause] i appreciate the efforts of our tech team because what you don't see is all the different presentations that they're flipping on the screen so thank you okay so you the the board community members that are present anyone who's watching you know you get to see some educators yet recognize educators that are now working some that are retiring some that have retired and as educators we don't typically look for accolades or awards or formal recognition

055since my first day stepping foot in manchin avenue school i've been encouraging mrs smeltzer to share her good work it was easy to see hear and feel the special things happening at mansion with a little propping the first little reluctant maybe not sure ms meltzer and her team uh spent some time looking at their positive behavior supports and the interventions that were happening in the school and began the formal process of reviewing and looking at reflecting upon their work then they began the process of applying for recognition of their identified promising practice which is the roar rallies so i know the community members i sent out a blast last week in regards to that in regards to character.org character.org saw the same things at mansion that i saw manchin avenue is one of 152 schools

056and communities across the nation and internationally that have been certified this year for their creative approaches to help children understand care about and consistently practice the core values that will help them to flourish in school in relationships in the workplace and as citizens ms smeltzer and the pbis team are going to roar and share a little bit about the rallies we may extend this presentation as we go through but she did not want to wait and celebrate and i know it's a great thing and although we don't look for out at plates it's nice to be recognized so come on down mrs smells sure i know you have a few things that you want to share come on up how about a round of applause as they're making their way to the front i'll be

057honest with you this this is not accolades for me this team has taken an idea and they have run with it this is a teacher-driven teacher counselor reading specialist a little of everybody driven committee that really works well beyond the school day [Music] a lot of times free to make sure that we're creating programs that encourage our kids to roar respect ownership achievement responsibility so i'm going to invite them to share some with you now thanks mrs meltzer and dr davis everyone really wanted to read this but i arm wrestled them and i won so hi i'm lisa mcgilliway if anybody doesn't know who i am and i am one of the staff members at manchester school and as dr davis said we are really pleased to have the opportunity to continue to recognize celebrations

058on this night by recognizing our recent recognition by character.org as a school with a promising practice character.org just really briefly is a nonpartisan organization whose mission is to provide leadership voice and resources for developing character in families schools and organizations manchester every school as dr davis said was one of 152 schools across the nation but also worldwide that was recently recognized for their promising practice a promising practice is an initiative that demonstrates a positive impact on developing a culture of character in school and as dr davis said the practice that we were recognized for was arbor valleys if you have not been to manchester schools rural rally we would love for you to come they are an integral practice of our pbis program the rallies are skits in which we model for students the principles

059of respect ownership achievement and responsibility that you have all been hearing over and over again that are the core values of our school over the past five years the students have been treated to these skits monthly and have enjoyed themes like toy stories you've got a friend at mansion and this year's team we are all superheroes despite the many challenges these past years have gone our way our war rallies have remained a promising practice that we were even able to do via zoom which was very cool to say we'd like to thank our talented specials teachers like judy antiano who is retiring and that's what mrs smelter was referring to if you heard her called all those other names like jessie she was one of our specials teachers who was part of our skits our

060pbis committee who work to continually improve our program our principal who continually encourages and supports us our staff who have implemented the program with enthusiasm and integrity and most of all our students who every single day show us one of our past themes there's no place like mansion avenue we hope to move forward in the fall with expanding our pbis program by applying to be recognized as a school of character and we look forward to the opportunity to share good more good news with the board and the community of audubon thank you all for your support on behalf of manchester so it really should be recognized for that work it takes a lot to go through the application process and i know they're beginning to work for the formal school of character um pretty each

061where they're going to go through and there's so many great things that are happening so through all our inventions faculty and staff and students one another round of applause [Applause] we have one more presentation tonight but before we move on to that we're going to take a very short recess the last presentation is more of a nuts and bolts presentation then we'll be moving into the normal business of our meeting so if you don't intend to stay for the whole evening now would be a time to step out and if anyone needs to use a pressure we'll convene in about five minutes we received them early last week and as soon as you receive them you have to present them at the next board meeting so a little history we have board members that are

062new when i came on board in the fall of 2018 the district was under consec review with the interim superintendent mr goldberg he had assigned the initial review to the work duties of mr burke the director of curricular construction when you go through cusack so every three years school districts have to go through the cusack monitoring typically it happens on-site um this round some of it was on site and then a lot of it was remote or digital so they go through some fairly comprehensive review of policies practices and procedures that are occurring within the school district the areas are instruction and program fiscal management governance operations and personnel when we went through this review we provided lots of different information to the state in regards to our practices and instruction in program we came

063in at an 85 so you know and i know i've shared this with you before before in order to be proficient or found position you have to be 80 or above and there are a lot of different categories construction and programs a unique area because it takes into account for not only our curriculum but also our scores on the state assessments so the state assessments over the last three three years have been interesting because we had moved out of park and went to nj sls testing we ended up being in a pandemic and they we didn't have to do the testing when we were in most districts in new jersey were remote then we came back and they did a fall assessment and then we had to do the normal spring but then it was

064abbreviated so those scores come directly from the state so the having 85 of the structuring program is actually pretty strong and not uncommon when the assessments results come in if you're a high performing district you also have to show growth in order to get higher scores within that so the b85 is is a good place to be and not uncommon across the state fiscal management goes through the business office and our practices and procedures there there's multiple indicators in fiscal management if there is one grant that you miss one submission you lose two or three points so i will be sharing and digesting that report and sharing it in more detail with the board and also bless you with the administrative team to make sure that everybody has an understanding of where we were and

065where we need to improve governance is uh just what it says it talks about policies and procedures if everybody remembers in the last slide is going to speak to where we were where we are we actually dealt within 100 um within policies and regulations and then also some of the policies and procedures that we follow on not only the board but as a district as a whole operations are facilities management how we go through and work different pieces you got the meat bud sometimes you don't see the people behind the scene um there's a lot that happens uh like this weekend we'll be doing uh lead testing of our water uh it's one of those things you don't necessarily think about or see but there's lots within operations so the score 95 once again it's

066a very strong score personnel there's a lot that goes into the personnel's office whether coming from the business office my office the director quick rooms office even within the principal's office when we're doing hiring procedures going through whether it be medical examinations and just the processes they've changed a lot i know we can't really talk about retirees and i haven't had any formal conversations with retirees about coming back that whole procedure and process has changed um there's been some leeway within the state there's been changes in in in the area of certification um sub-search we had to have 60 credits and then they needed 30 credits if you're still in school enrolled they've made some caveats in regards to how you go through some of them make it easier some of them make it harder

067some of them are more poor some really in my office and then the curriculum office so the score at 97 here is really strong as well this is a little history um so i came in and started to see the the reds when i came in with instruction in programs and you can see where we were hopefully you can see a better premiere [Music] 2018 with the scores we were going through the process and as we identified some areas that we were deficient some of the offices were able to make changes prior to the formal review so even that july 2019 the initial placement um is a little bit higher than where we would have if you weren't making moves right from the get-go and then we had we were on an interim review because

068our stores were below 80 so we had to go through and work um within our offices and departments and across the district to go through both instructional programs and personnel one of the things you'll notice like fiscal management it stays 86 across and you govern 82 across and then personnel 85 until you get to this round part of that is because once you're over 80 the state says well you don't have to review again you don't have to resubmit even if we were to they're like well we know you did that you know you fix this and you fix that and you have evidence of this and you have evidence of that they don't change the scores so they were really only looking at instruction and program and then personnel are stupid as well personnel

069and governance so once we got to that 85 they stopped once we got to being two they stopped and then when you look at february 21st on our interim review so is after all the corrections from 2008 where we were 85 um and still remaining 85 i think it helped steady in regards to the the um formal curriculum instruction and state assessment because we don't really have strong data so we have to kind of look back um fiscal management you know from an 86 and then making some improvements to get the 92 and then governance the board remembers that if you go back to 2018-19 and 1920 there were lots of policies and regulations and then just some protocols and procedures that were getting updated to get us to that 100 uh and then operations

070um some minor adjustments from that first fix to 93 to 95 uh and then personnel to 85 well the initial below he getting us to 97. there are some things that have been noted in regards to refining within uh the qsac review there are some things that we identified during the formula review where we want to make some improvements some things that really need to be addressed one of the things that come to my mind is like professional learning communities we did share specifically what we do it's not as robust as i would like it to be we still have to make some considerations of how to do that professional learning communities give and afford teachers time to work together whether it be a grade level or content area there are comments but in some

071areas you can see we we have things that we've identified that we know that we want to improve but from the state their assessment was 85 92 195 97 i know when i came on board i made that statement that i'm used to hundreds we're going to get there and we're getting closer so i don't know if any board members have questions in regards to cusack okay session thank you so may i please have a motion to approve the board minutes maybe hold on one second may 4th 11th republican executive may 25th republican executive promotion from joe second mrs rodgey scroll call please is shiva this is cassidy yes this is cox yeah this is davis yes mr miller yes mr prick yes this is robinson yes mr ryan mr bloom is that yes thank

072you the board of education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest in order to permit the fair excuse me in order to permit the fair and orderly expression of such comment the board has sent suddenly two portions of this board meeting for public comment on any school or school district issue that a member of the public fields may be of interest of the to the residents of the school district for the first portion this portion public comments are invited on all matters pertaining only to the agenda for tonight's meeting for the second portion which will take place at the end of the meeting public comments are invited on all matters pertaining to the school district

073participants should announce their name address and any group they may represent if applicable the board reserves the right to limit public discussion a topic will be limited to 15 minutes and individual speakers will be limited to three no participant may speak more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard the board uses the public comment period as an opportunity to listen to citizens not all issues brought to a board meeting will be resolved at that particular board meeting complaints stated or actions requested by the public may be taken under advisement by the board for investigation discussion actions or disposition at a later date or time the public comment sessions are an opportunity for citizens to share their opinions and remarks with the board it

074is not a question and answer session the board may or may not respond to public comments at the time they are made and is under no obligation to do so the board does not endorse public comments nor will the board be held liable for comments made by members of the public any individuals who may be the subject of public comments including district employees and board members shall retain all rights against defamation and slander according to the laws of new jersey would anyone like to make a public comment on an agenda item for tonight's agenda if you could uh mention the uh the committee and the agenda item that you're referring to so steve ireland uh executive vice president of urban education association uh i am referencing an agenda item that is absent from the agenda

075that should be on the agenda at the april board of education meeting dr scott oswald was approved as a substitute administrator at a rate of per day for several days a week in the extended absence of another administrator his employment was approved by the board of education through may 13th the administrator was only returned several weeks ago yet dr davis is still working here several days a week at a per day rate of 550 the association is perplexed because dr davis has not appeared on any agenda extending his employment in the audubon public schools beyond may 13th for those that may not know dr oswalt has been tasked with creating the master schedule for next year their master schedule is a list of assigned classes for students and duties for every teacher at the high

076school we find it incongruous that we have expressed to the board that we need more support at the high school with the current administrative structure but is ignored over and over again it should be noted that at no time in the past did we hire an additional administrator at the cost of border at the board of education to complete routine tasks that are part of the board of education approved job prescriptions why is this courtesy being provided to the current administrative team when it is not provided to the previous when it was not provided to previous administrators responsible for the master schedule including casey boho kelly rising or bonnie schmelzer all of whom created the master's schedule while tackling their own administrative duties it is apparent the caring structure is not working additionally the high

077school staff was not informed of the decision to extend the employment of dr oswalt and only know of it because we continue to see him in office in his on his computer throughout the hallways and conducting meetings members of the high school field that continued employment of dr oswald is being hidden from the public the association has been very clear and vocal this year that we believe the current administrative structure at the high school does not work and essentially we we are a building that is operating on a daily basis in a chaotic state the continued lack of communication leads the staff to perceive dr oswalt was kept in a secretive fashion and does not help facilitate facilitate trust and confidence with the staff and community and any other public comments on agenda items only

078okay the word will not be making any comments will not discuss personnel in public dr davis do you wish to respond to anything that was stated tonight specific to the employment the the human resource community meets um we don't mean typically the night of the board meetings but we've been meeting the day before that was discussed at human resources and unfortunately from yesterday to today that motion was not put on we had conversation and it will be retroactive so okay thank you close public participation for the first session moving on to governance the only emotion on tonight's agenda for governance is the cusack presentation from dr davis does anybody have any questions or comments from the governance committee in general okay please have a motion to approve item one okay mrs ron case will call

079this is davis yes mr miller mr prue yes this is robinson yes mr ryan yes this is shadow mr blumenstein yes thank you next i'd like to recognize mrs cox for operations thank you mr blumenstein uh we did have our meeting uh or an evening june 1st and we discussed i'm going to go with what we discussed and tell you the correlating agenda item the tax schedule levy that's uh you'll see for approval item number eight from audubon borough and audubon we discussed items number 11 and 12. it transfers to reserves this can only be done in june and that's why you see up to 500 no amount has been disclosed as to what we'll be putting in there but we've made the provision with the resolutions that are on the agenda we talked about

080item number 13. we have to allow those water coolers to sit for 48 hours in order to have the blood tested so and they're the bottle fills only the old ones are going to be turned off and when they're replaced with new bottle fills they will be um tested at a separate time not not in this time and it was brought up what about the preschool so the preschool is being done as well so all four schools will be tested and hopefully are you okay um the uh baseball backstop is not on the agenda but the repairs will proceed this summer so what we know is going to happen through the new backstab that will occur um nutraserve is up for any uh discussion so see dr davis if we if we have any concerns

081with what's being presented for the kids for you know for the students upcoming september helpful options and items um that they are up for any kind of input um the bond construction item number 18 uh what what's going to happen this summer is the tennis courts the basketball courts you know we said we're going to put things in pods drainage improvements and minor sidewalk repairs at the high school to try to wick away all of that flash flooding waters that come down chestnut and chestnut and pine to get them away from those wells in the uh on the downstairs in the basement area the lower level to get that water away from the building and pulled and then um calming and not flooding the school um we're also going to work on the we're going

082to have the asphalt work done at haveland and we're not going to bring the asphalt all the way to the sidewalk we're going to keep it at the fence and then make a green space in between the fencing and the sidewalk for natural drainage as well as beauty and that kind of thing so that'll be a nice addition rather than an asphalt all the way how it is now also and some planters or something there's there's some talk about that the auxiliary gym will be worked on in the end of june roof at the high school june 20th we were slated for and the kitchen items in july cross your fingers let's see what else mansion avenue we've got to really look at that there's some questions with regards to what's underneath that asphalt so

083we really need to uh we need to step back and really take a look on what's going on underneath the surface on lotion 19 this is just a recommendation from our insurance company to have that revived revised form approved at this meeting we did discuss potentially adding some additional support for special ed just trying to get the feel for monies on that one of course the cusack update for um dr davis presented and let's see what is this we talked about support programs that we're approving that is are on the agenda for education um with the camden county transitions to college and the walsh llc there are costs incurred and also transportation costs so that's why it came up at operations and um does anybody have any aside from all the agenda items that you

084do see that are pretty standard the drills and all of them and all of our the reconciliation reports and the pay anybody have any questions or yes i have one uh mr pruitt i have been exchanging some emails that i'll forward to dr davis and i'll copy the operations he made regarding the lunches there was an article in one of the most recent new jersey school board notifications and also it was reported on new jersey.com and maybe some others about local schools in campbell county and that are you know reinventing their cafeteria rethinking how they deliver food to students utilizing local food and people who grow food locally and bring that experience into the school so um we'll pass that along and hopefully keep that conversation going and see if there's a way we could

085look into that awesome dr davis did you have anything you wanted to add a very thorough job so i'm going to comment on one little piece so one of the referendum updates that will happen this summer too is our school kitchens um there's some different equipment that's going to be within the high school kitchen it's really our starting point and sending point for the food out to both autobahn all three automotive uh barcode school we have a lot having an avenue school and then mansion after school but one of the things we're doing is a lot of the high school students really enjoy the salad bar it's quite robust and there's lots of things that they can get so one of the things that future surf wanted to do was get a larger salad bar

086station just because of the number of students and also to help facilitate uh some of the speed because they're able to pick out exactly what they want in their salad and as we are getting that larger one here we're going to be able to bring over the salad bar that is at the high school over to manchin avenue school they do have salad options several times a week but this would be a little bit of a different experience for the kids where they'd actually have a salad bar not unlike what they have over at the high school and if they're able to facilitate it could potentially increase the number of days so it's interesting that you make the comment in regards to that i haven't seen that article so i look forward to reading that

087i know that if you go past manchin avenue they have lots of things that are growing on that back fence so as we talk about these new spaces and what we're doing you know maybe we'll be eating some of our own produce soon thank thank you any other questions all right thank you doctor thank you mr minister you're welcome um before i forget could i just suggest that we look into five days a week um okay may i please have a motion to approve items one through twenty in operations any questions on items 1 through 20. this is ron case roll call please this is mrs robinson yeah mr ryan yes mrs this is cassidy thank you next i would like to recognize miss shivo for education the committee has not met since last board

088meeting the education committee is currently scheduled to meet august 15th on tonight's agenda we have the regular motions to approve the superintendent's determination in regards to incidents reported at the may 11 meeting with the board of education and that involved in versus non-him approval of attendance and conferences and workshops or some district employees a motion to approve some facilities also we have motion to approve filing staff members for their children to attend school in the audubon school district for the 20-22-23 school year in accordance with the audubon board of education policy number 511 on non-residence that list includes nine staff members with a total of 17 students also a motion to approve membership to the new jersey state athletic association for the 2022-23 school year at the annual cost of dues of 2 500 a

089motion to approve agreement with walsh legacy llc to provide home-made instruction to our students at a rate of 65 per hour effective may 11 2022 through june 30th 2023 and this is in the event the district has not had enough teachers that can handle the number of homebound instruction that is needed so kind of just a backup also a motion to improve agreement with camden county college for the transition to college program effective june 8th 2022 through june 30 2024 also a motion to approve six students for option 2 for the 2022-23 school year and the different options are listed under number nine and that's it for education remember 70 [Music] well i just want to point out you point out uh item five seven to eight i just want to state you know item

0905 is really a testament to our schools we have 17 students um 17 children of our students our children of employees that will be students that just let you know how our own faculty and staff feel about our educational program and what's happening item seven where we talk about the lost legacy i'd like to formally recognize mr michael our assistant principal for student personnel services mr nicholson our 1012 principal and then ms bissinger our supervisor of special education services throughout the year we have students that need support from home and we can't always secure subs so they've been looking and we're not subs but instructors and we're looking at different services and support so if we and as miss tribal shared it we can't secure someone in-house we have a service uh to back it

091up and it happens not frequently but there's enough that sometimes there's different unique cases where where a child will need homebound instruction so it's great that they were very persistent in that and talking about persistent number eight goes that way too where we'll talk about this relationship and agreement with camden county college for their tradition to college program program is slated for general ed students that just aren't really doing well in the the general ed school setting in the public school where they may be for behavioral reasons uh maybe social emotional uh pieces um it could be drug and alcohol related uh it's a program where those students can go we don't have anyone really slated for it but sometimes there's unique cases and with all the supports we offer here they still need a

092a different placement for them to succeed so it's nice to have it in place an agreement there in case we do find ourselves in a place where what we can offer here for a gentleman student is just not [Music] having them thrive so uh just wanted to point those three out so thank you so i just had a question this might not be for you nancy um yeah yeah so if you look under superintendent's report you'll notice that underneath that we have mr burke and he's going to present on some questions that we had last board meeting including the blue side the comprehensive health thank you motion to approve items one through nine under education any questions or comments on items one through nine this is rob case roll call please [Music] this is davis

093yes mr miller yeah mr pro yes mrs robinson yes mr ryan next i'd like to recognize mrs davis for human you mr boone resources uh the human resources committee met excuse me that evening june 7th um before i begin anything i just like to take care of any language that is appearing in red on the agenda so let's start with page 14. under item number 13. very last item it should read preschool elementary special education aids eight positions you proceed to page 16 the marching band and summer band instructor is sean clerkin the band assistant marching band assistant is steve mccormick and the band assistant for the front which is the color card it's allen bride and their stipends are noted accordingly about midway down the list devin schwab will be doing peer-to-peer is 1

094658.86 we are striking uh wendy van fossen um as a peer-to-peer instructor and therefore the statement is struck as well under saturday detention there are one two three faculty members listed but the fourth one is to be determined almost at the bottom of that list of personnel we are um striking mrs lacasse as the zero period coverage and the stipend is also struck moving on to page 17. about three quarters of the way down the page uh natalie thornda thorndike excuse me will be the cosmetics chairperson age 25 item number 52 should read motion to approve the 10-month administrative assistant contract for kelly burns item number 53 should be striking christine batro's name page 27 and our resolutions number 58 from patricia coyle should read for an efficient and effective school office that assisted the

095it should say supervisor of special education services further down the page first we went across it should say for an efficient and effective school office that assisted the and it should read a system principle for student personnel services age 28 mrs nolan it should be for an efficient and effective school office that assisted and it should save the principal i think that's it did i miss anything i believe on the public's initial submission yesterday on page 18 at the top with the the dance club nicole receiving will be another um supervisor for dance clubs for the 320 oh yoga club i apologize you did give me that note it wasn't in red so the public knows like the last two board meetings uh the agendas are very robust in regards to faculty and staff so

096um we do apologize for those errors but fix them try to make sure they're right when they first go out but then we fix that too so at our meeting last night we reviewed the agenda items pertaining to positions that are still open in the district new hires and any resignations and retirements that we have we reviewed the hiring processes for out of district staff for the extended school year and homebound instructors we reviewed and renewed our commitment to hiring full-time versus part-time staff whenever it's possible and dr davis let us know that the federal juneteenth holiday will be observed on june 20th this year since the 19th does fall on a sunday or agenda items bear with me there are resolutions for our honored retirees this evening we have an additional resignation with intent

097to retire a staff member that was not recognized yet this evening that would be mrs felix monteleone we had a few resignations an fmla request reappointment of non-tenure secretary of staff member and our cafeteria aids pleasure approving staff for our extended year program and dates for the extended year program approving the junior senior high school manchin avenue school and haveland adventist avenue school extracurricular contracts for the 2022-23 school year approving a few district substitute teachers custodians and secretaries approval for summer curriculum revisions pacing guide pacing guide committee the rti slash win committee common assessments committee the sip committee and irs summer training you'll see a request for approval for the fall paid coaching positions the ticket takers football personnel as well as the unpaid coaching positions approval for staff members who will have independent study

098students approval of the mansion avenue breakfast proctors the gardening club evening concert chaperones steam club facilitator and the sel hiv interventionists approval for bus drivers approval for the mansion avenue climate committee approval for rti coordinators curriculum ratings and summer hours for rti planning approval of the pbis team at mansion and hagelin approval of the paws club at mansion approval of our student maintenance workers here at the high school approval of summer hours for elementary guidance counselors and mr dyer for technology duties approval of the sports schedules and activities and transportation associated with those activities i may have left a few out but i think that hopefully covers 50 some of under human resources dr davis do you have anything to add just a couple comments in regards to obviously our retirees we can thank them

099for the years of service they've made an impact on our schools and our students our their colleagues and obviously our our parents and caregivers items 12 and 13. it's our extended school year program offered through special ed i'd like to thank ms passenger the child study team and all the extended school year teachers and support staff items 12 and 13 speak to these yearly required programs our team has been running a marathon all year and they passed mile 26 and decided to sign up for a 10k you know they're all ultra marathoners or ultra teachers in my book and i thank them for that work that ultra educator comment also accounts for all of our extracurricular activities scattered throughout the agenda you know our faculty and staff go that extra mile really to support our

100kids i would like to thank all the staff who agreed to work with the various committees that are scattered throughout too for the 22-23 school year you can tell by the many things we're tackling multiple areas of instruction including but not limited to academic content and skills and social emotional growth and i'd like to note and i know miss davis commented on the pbi schemes at manchin and haviland being appointed the junior senior high school has posted their opening and will be selecting their members prior to the july meeting and as we go through agendas and things are getting posted the preschool team has already been selected and will be included on the july agenda just want to know that we're really looking at climate culture and things that we can do to not only

101celebrate and recognize our students and their families but also the faculty and staff so thank you [Music] may i please have a motion for items 1 through 61 under human resources [Music] second any questions this is robinson the pbis their work they're compensated happens after school hours in regards to the committee works and pieces that they do as you saw the presentation for the mansion avenue character.org promising practice all of that work happens outside of school that impacts the school day so when you look at the roar rallies and all those things that happen there is work that occurs outside so as far as specific hours we are updating most of our emotions to make sure we have the total so i can review that and get back with a little bit more information in

102regards to the exact amount if it's not already included recognition for students so i mean they'll use mansion as an example they go through um all their war expectations when they're able to go to the roars store and get different rec you know recognition for what they've done throughout the day the support that goes through they go through for themes to provide supports for the students and celebrations for them making good choices as they go through and they look for other curriculum connections that they can do as well so that those positive behavior support things are infused throughout i know there's been some conversation with training for staff um positive behavior support one of the independents is making sure you do you know four positives for every one recur you know correction um sometimes we

103really have to be mindful of it so whether you're a classroom teacher a cafeteria worker an instructional need so those trainings go through too so they prepare for and help train the faculty and staff i'll use mansion as another example of some of the work that they've done with the havlin staff that have some of those conversations as they try to implement those pieces which also gets the conversation for the high school to bring in some of those things here where we're really looking and catching kids doing what's right i would say a great example and i remember getting training you know 15 years ago in regards to that four to one and you can do it with your adult friends too if you happen to be out to dinner or at someone's house and

104you just comment this wrong case i really like the way you're sitting if i wasn't announcing it you would totally see everybody change their posture and how they or i like the way you said that too or i like to instead of saying oh you're slouching you emphasize what's positive that takes time and it also has to go across the school so everybody's doing it so there's training that goes on too so there's a lot um that happens within the in in all these different committees and the work that they do but it's very purposeful a lot a lot if not you know the majority of the work happens outside of school for that planning but then the delivery happens throughout the school day and school year so for the board members that aren't aware

105uh irs iron assets intervention and referral services um it's mandatory by code and statute uh statute and code doesn't define uh what your membership needs to look like but a strong robust irs team includes team members across the grade levels and then also across the content area so you not only have grade level teachers to provide input but then you have special area teachers and then special ed teachers as well as a guidance sometimes the nurses involved and what happens is if you have a student that is struggling once again it could be academically or social emotionally they go to the inrs team for for conversations typically what happens first is their process to report um in regards to what's happening you know they'll talk to the building principle in regards to supports we'll talk

106to a colleague if the student continues to struggle so they could formally come to the inrs team there's a lot of data that the teacher has to collect before so they're taking you know little notes in regards to how they're performing whether it be academic or social emotional so that when they come to the team and parents and caregivers are part of that initial meeting too they'll talk about how the child is struggling and then that very robust team will go through and look at and make some suggestions and recommendations that are also measurable they have to be measurable type things that they're going to work on and um then they'll go you know the student will know but then there are members of the team that will typically be assigned students to oversee where

107they can do follow-up in regards to how that student's performing so that they can report back our irs teams meet majority outside of the school day so it's great that the board has been supportive in regards to compensating them for that work it does take a lot of time in regards to thinking about how to support and by facilitating those meetings before school or after school it also affords them the time to really meet as a full team and that full team there's just a lot to consider and think about when you're looking at a student where a skilled educator is having problems and struggling with trying to meet their needs any other questions mrs rod case oh call please mr miller mr crew yes mrs robinson just regarding irs yes mr ryan yes this

108is shiva this is cassidy this is cox this is davis yes mr bloomberg yes thank you uh moving on to reports dr davis the hip report and your superintendent's report should we go back right let's get a clarification uh to which item did ms robinson vote down fourteen fourteen one fourteen okay under the hip district report you'll see different cases in regards to dogmon high school there's five total reported cases four were found not hiv they fall under the code of conduct and then one confirmed case manchin had one reported case and it fell under hiv have on the avenue had no reported cases and then the audubon park preschool had none as far as specific comments um i'm going to echo mr blumenstein's statements in regards to the student council reps i want to

109thank our council representatives for the reports of over the course of the school year i know they're not here but we were talking as they were going with sylvester in this group you know i thank them and i really look forward to hearing about all their success in the future they know i asked them to come visit and you know they know that we missed spotlight students we do that monthly we recognize students september through may so that gets us october to june um i'd like to thank our school counselors i didn't want to leave anyone out so there are specific people that do a lot of work behind the scenes in regards to getting that recognition gathering uh the votes from the teachers and or getting the nominations from the grade level so i

110want to thank the counselors for helping facilitate the spotlight students and obviously the administrators too i'd like to thank my secretary laurie pray for help with reviewing the statements and creating the powerpoint every month i notice that sometimes we don't have pictures sometimes it's because we don't and or there may be a parent that doesn't want their child's picture up number the the retirees i've already said several times in regards to how how they go before we go and i know mr blumenstein will share again i just want to comment before we get into the second open session you know i've been somewhat quiet since march i just want to assure everyone that i'm not going anywhere but before we enter into the second public comment section the meeting i'd like to remind everyone that

111our board members are volunteers and spend countless hours serving our community as members of the community they have a pulse on our needs that use this knowledge to help guide the overall vision mission and goals of the district our administrators are intelligent dedicated and passionate educational leaders they use their understanding of theory research and practice to serve their faculty staff and our students and their parents through their collaborative leadership our schools continue to grow and thrive our faculty and staff are exemplar educators as well their positive impact on the audubon school community is evident in the presentations this evening we celebrated our students retirees and active teachers and our practices it's indisputable our teachers have created and delivered innovative programs that address the academic social emotional and physical needs of our students let's remember that

112our employees have rallied over the last three years we've had to face a large reduction in force together and we spent the last two years reinventing our educational delivery model we've pivoted from in-person to remote to hybrid to remote to hybrid and then back to full in-person instruction all while focusing on the delivery of a differentiated rigorous and relevant curriculum our success has been a community effort and would not have been achieved without support from all stakeholders we are autobahn we are excellent and we should be proud as we approach the public session of this meeting i would encourage members of the public to reflect upon what they had to say and what may have led them to speak if you're expressing an item of concern did you follow the chain command and have a

113discussion with the appropriate person first it could be a teacher a school counselor a school nurse a building administrator did you reach out to me first as the superintendent if an item was there to celebrate if you want to celebrate did you reach out with the individual or individuals although the public has a right to speak let me remind everyone that what was shared by the board president is part of the formal agenda the board does not endorse public comics nor will the board be held liable for comments made by members of the public any individual who may be the subject of public comments including district employees shall retain all rights against defamation and slander according to the laws of new jersey as the superintendent and i can't stand silence members of the public the

114fame belittle or share falsities of how to report to the board administration and or faculty and staff with that being said i've asked our director of curriculum to report that the board needs to report first but he's going to come up and he's going to do a presentation on two items that misrepresented the public at our last meeting unless you want to do that first it might be better to let him present first so mr burke got to ask you to come up we're going to talk a little bit about he's part of the superintendent's report and it will be in regards to a text that the students have read the bluest eye and he's also going to do a comment in regards to the comprehensive health and pe so board members i'd ask you

115to go down so he can present to you [Music] um ah so hello everyone board of education um so tonight i'm going to be presenting about the use of the bluest eye in one of our classes here at auburn junior senior high school i chose to call this novel studies and the reason is because we get into a little bit of the techniques that teachers use when they are looking at novels so that's a little bit smaller than i would like but there's a lot of information here so i'll be sure to read all this to you too before we get into some of the specifics about the use of this novel i think we need to start here this idea that healthy and constructive dialogue is absolutely needed that cannot be understated um parent

116and guardian insights are important and concerns are taken seriously evidence of that is that i'm standing up here right now having this conversation with the board of education open communication between parents and guardians and teachers is critical to student success it's really important that when parents have questions or they have concerns that they reach out directly to the teacher often times what you'll find is that you know the things that are being done in the class are completely reasonable but it's important that you actually reach out and have that conversation with them we encourage you to please stay engaged in your child's education by reaching out to the teachers they know what's going on in the classroom best and we value healthy and constructive dialogue with parents and guardians and we are striving to improve

117our practices it's never perfect it's never perfect but we are continually striving to make that practice better so getting into this novel let's first acknowledge that the controversy surrounding this novel is real it's a real thing some districts throughout the united states have banned the bluest eye there are some places where they've actually banned this book the reason there is a passage in this book that deals with rape that's a real thing too but what about an audubon what are we doing here well in audubon we do not have a tradition of banning books instead we trust that the teachers in the classroom we trust that the professionals in the classroom are making good decisions about what they should be using to facilitate instruction the use of the blues eye is an example of this

118it's an example of a teacher deciding to use the parts of the novel that are appropriate to the age and objectives of the lesson the students were not they were not assigned passages containing a rage scene so that should be stated directly and i'll say that time and again while some folks stood up and they had concerns about the use of this novel it should be noted that the entire novel was not read only 11 passages were actually read in the novel and i'll get into that in a moment so one of the concerns that came up on may 11 there was some misinformation that was presented to the board of education and one of the things that i definitely need to do or one of my responsibilities standing up here right now is to

119ensure that the board of education has accurate information so it was stated that common sense media rated the bluest eye as 18 plus now i'm not going to stand here and say that common sense media is the ultimate end-all and be-all arbiter of what is appropriate for children but it's the source that was used during this meeting so the reality is the fact is that common sense media actually rated it as 15 plus the youngest student in the class is 16. other misinformation presented the board of education in may it was stated that 10th and 11th grade students read the book this is inaccurate the fact is that 29 students they were all in 11th grade and they're all in honors so these are students that are reading and being engaged in pretty sophisticated ideas

120about literature it suggested that they read the entire book this is again not accurate so the reality is that they actually only read the first 11 excerpts that you see up there on the screen the teacher had hoped to get to more but unfortunately there's just not enough days in the school year right because there's some really good stuff there but the reality is they only read 11 passages you'll also note that some of these passages they overlap so they didn't read the book cover to come it is suggested that students are forced to read sexually explicit texts incorporating rape and incest the fact is that none of these scenes none of these passages contain that the scene that's in question is on pages 162 and 163 it's four paragraphs long it's about a page

121and a half long the students they're not required to read that section they're not assigned that section they don't read it in class now granted students could you know go out on their own and read that okay that's something that could happen at home but as far as what's actually being used in the classroom now what's being assigned for homework no so one of the other questions that came up was what is the educational purpose of using this novel what does it serve our children well i went through it and looked at the teacher's lesson plans and every single part every single time the teacher used the uh this novel and it wasn't every day there are sound objectives that are associated with it when you look at the first one here explain the person

122the purpose of more some structural choices flashbacks shifting down your perspective and stream of consciousness as they relate to modernism so they're analyzing one of the the style of one of the greatest american writers of all time morrison won the nobel prize she should be studied in classrooms so look at the next thing apply modernist technique in two paragraph a narrative writing session so basically they study one of the great american novelists and then from there they go on and they try to mimic that style that's impressive stuff so let me give you a little taste of some of the things that students were doing some of the critical thinking that they were exposed to so the beginning of the book starts off with references to dick and jane now the reality is that none

123of these students know what dick and jane is from the 1960s right however that's where the book starts with references to that and then they're asked for these kinds of questions who do you think these books represent what do they offer for african-american children please note that the uh you know the the characters in this book are primarily african-american and that's why that comes up from what you know about the bluest eye already how do these passages contradict what we know about nicola's life and then explain why you believe morrison begins the text with a passage from the dick and jane books so what's going on here is that the students are engaged in reading a sophisticated piece of literature and then they are looking at parts of american culture that and seeing how it

124is that they intersect here's another passage so here's the content the narrator expresses hate based on jealousy for surely temple because she temple got to dance with bo james after an explain an explanation of the illusion students are assigned certain questions so again you know students may not know who shirley temple is or bojangles right so the teacher of course has to explain what that is but then they go on to talk about why does claudia hate shirley temple explain what claudia means when she says but because she danced with bo daniels who was my friend my uncle my daddy and he ought to have been soft showing it and chuckling it with struggling with me so what's going on here is they're analyzing how the narrator feels here's another interesting piece so back in

125the uh the 1930s there was an experiment done it's called the clark doll experiment and what they did was they showed um children a little black baby doll and a little white baby dog and then they ask the children questions and if you ever see videos of this it's a bit heart-wrenching but they ask the children questions like which is the nice baby doll which is the good baby doll which is the bad baby doll which is the pretty baby doll which is the ugly baby doll and when african american children were asked these questions a lot of times they would say the white doll is the good baby doll the white doll is the pretty baby doll which dog do you most look like oh i look like black baby doll so comparing that

126study with what's going on in the novel so what we have here is we have students that are engaged in critical thinking in a very deep and meaningful way what they're doing is they're looking at this huge piece of literature and then they're comparing it to real life studies it's cross-curricular we're looking at psychology and we're looking at literature right questionable content in excerpt so um in the third passage there is um you know it does depend that one of the characters begins to mentally for the very first time the characters they're uncertain about what this is what this means what's happening to her but the reality is this this is nothing new to these 16 and 17 year olds they go over puberty and hygiene in much earlier grades in elementary school they start

127going over that stuff so this is again nothing new um again what is the educational purpose so here what we have is we have the content of this passage here pages 9-16 narrator tells a story about getting sick and how she was cared for the narrator includes listening in on dialogue between her mother and friends gossiping about mr henry who will be renting a room from them so then the assigned questions describe the relationship between children and adults how are children treated who is mr henry yes there's relevance here what this gets to is how it is that children may model their behaviors off of what they observe in advance so i'm not going to go through all that because that would be a really long presentation i'm not going to do that to everybody

128but what we have here is basically a breakdown of all of these different passages that the students read so all these passages they're all outlined for you for the board you can go back and you can look at them in particular i'm not going to read all of that to you um i will um you know something to note here there is some graphic language but language that the students do see you know that you know just being as completely open and honest about this as possible all right so why use the bluest eye at all i already said that the controversy is real but why use this if there's so much controversy around it well why do we read books at all we read books to broaden our understanding of the world we read

129this book because it's culturally relevant the intersection of race gender and beauty standards these are themes that are brought out in this novel building self-awareness and or empathy so the demographics of audubon they're shifting they're shifting and what we have is for some of our students this idea of being self-aware of maybe why it is that they have these beauty stand these ideas of beauty standards and then empathy for others that idea that self-perceived ugliness because that's something that the the characters go through in this novel they perceive themselves as ugly what does that do to a person it makes them feel undervalued unwanted and invisible again why use the blueist eye at all well modeling for students how to engage in real meaningful discussion while navigating controversy and disagreement that's a cornerstone of democracy

130morrison once said that laureates great writers yet to come they do not blink nor turn away that's something that our teachers are not afraid to do they're they're willing to engage in these controversial topics here's something that was said about morrison that ability to help her readers see and reckon with some of the harshest parts of our world is what has made her books a staple in school classrooms and then this last part here why teach anything controversial in schools that's a really good question too you know this is a controversial book but why would we use it why would we teach anything that's controversial well teaching about controversial issues in the classroom can provide a safe place for students to ask questions express their fears learn how to listen to one another and deal

131with difficult topics in an increasingly multicultural society the fact of the matter is that there's pretty much no safer place for students to learn how to navigate some of these controversies than in a classroom with a professional that's trained on how to do it ending remorse is important so now this stuff here comes directly from the teacher please know that i reached out to the teacher i reached out to a lot of different folks in our district and engaged in this conversation but what this does is it's a contemporary synthesis of the periods and progressions studied throughout the year so when you go throughout american literature there's a lot there think about how far back american literature goes i mean you could start the puritans go all the way through transcendentalism and all these things

132but morrison brings it all together so just as women bridges american realism and transcendentalism morrison bridges and blends a number of pieces and periods so and we have you know some of the more particulate about that here the other piece is this leaving it out would leave a study of american literature incomplete we read gatsby and we get into and it seems incredible credible but it gets into the fractured consciousness and alienation of a generation the bluest diet is something similar but what the lewis eye allows us to do is it's the integration of marginalized voices into the literary canon this is an equally valid thing to study and here it's not just ottoman that believes this the bluest eye and passages from the bluest eye have been included in the ap literature exam three

133times moving forward as you all know as i talk about more on a regular basis we continue to revise curriculum every year or in a curriculum or vision cycle and it just keeps on going right parents and guardians they're encouraged to attend events like back to school night and conferences where they can learn more about what's going on in the classroom they're encouraged to engage teachers in productive dialogue about what their children are learning ask questions the place to ask that question is the teacher director and then online um parents and guardians are encouraged to look at curriculum guides posted on the website each year we go a little more each year gets a little bit better i do want to leave you with a few things to consider this first one because the reality

134is this i mean this brings up really important conversations in our district and how it is that we operate as an organization i'm not up here saying that everything we're doing is perfect i'm saying we can certainly improve but these are important questions how do we reinforce the importance of parents and arguments reaching out to teachers with concerns i mean i'm up here saying it now but when parents and guardians reach out to me with a question of concern usually the first question is have you talked to the teacher about this that's a really important dialogue to have furthermore [Music] how do we improve the communication about what is happening in classrooms at every level we certainly have things in place you know we are getting better at posting curriculum guides online we have back

135to school night but that's an area what we can certainly look to and say okay can we do that part better and that's a conversation that we'll continue to have and this last part and this is a really important part how do we draw a line between what is happening in the national and state conversation versus what is actually happening in audubon you see the reality is this i've seen folks come into these board meetings and they say the use of a rhetoric that's really really concerning really strong concerning rhetoric and i have concerns about that but the fact of the matter is i think we've forgotten something but the teachers that are in the classroom most of them they're a part of this community too many of them actually live in audubon or the

136surrounding town we're talking about people that they could be your child's soccer coach your kids might play with their kids they might go to the same church as you the fact of the matter is that you know we talk about teachers like they're out there they're not they're a part of us and that's something that we can't forget i think the answer to this question lies somewhere in here lies in the answers that go along with questions one and two there's a works cited page there um it's not an official mla format i apologize for that all right um can we do any questions or yeah any questions from the board i guess i don't know where to start with this really i personally don't think that the rape is made an issue with this

137that parents are having i think have you read the book yes so you know that it's about a african-american child that is pls and wants to become a white you don't see that causing any division racially right like that you don't see that editing issue as well so in the book what we get a chance to see is we get a chance to see a perspective that from a marginalized group and i think that is something that's important not just for members of that group but also for our our students that are white as well i mean you know that's part of why we read we read to gain perspectives from a whole host of folks and part of that means that we have to dive into some of those uncomfortable conversations about really what

138beauty standards are you know she wants blue eyes because that's what she sees and you know that's what she sees is beautiful that's what's being presented to her time and time again and that's a that's a theme throughout this book so um so ultimately you're asking me if reading a book about um you're asking me if reading a book that presents the perspective of an african-american child is creating divisions in our school and classroom is that is that ultimately what you're getting yes i guess of you that she is almost jealous and wants to become call hate and muslim white okay all right all right well i mean the the reality is that i'm really addressing the concerns that were raised at the last meeting now if there's questions about um whether or not we

139should use books that um engage in topics regarding race um that's a whole other conversation i'll be happy to present about that too um but you know i don't want to go off the cuff and you know really start getting into that because when we start having conversation about some other books that we probably shouldn't read classics like um to kill a mockingbird classics like so there's there's a lot in the literary canon and this is another voice in that literary canon and then you bring out having um just going to puberty natural cycle things like that when you feel that we should draw a line between this having happening in the school and just parents teaching this in their household well i just feel like that is just crossing a lot of value the

140teachers okay so that's not something that i get to make a decision on that's something that comes from the new jersey state learning standards and that's something that's that's covered in the elementary schools um so um you know the reality is that that's just a part of what we are required by the state of new jersey to teach i guess yeah i guess we can't argue with the state even though that is wrong um and then you say the common sense rating the they gave it a 15 plus but then you just take note that the parent rating is 17 plus i would i feel like you should add that to the slideshow as well i should also add that the student rating is 15 plus as well or the parent the parent's rating where

141the book well oh yeah i'm not denying that i'm just saying with common sense media i mean common sense media they're the ones who actually do the research you know um if we go to amazon or we go to any comments section of any website i can't necessarily sit there and say that that all the people who are putting comments into the the web are actually um researching what it is they're talking about using best practices when they when they approach these things um but it is it is true you know i think you do bring up a good point uh there are parents that were on common sense media and they did rate it as 17 plus there were students on common sense media they rated it as 15 plus um yeah i'm just

142saying that just a match at that yeah yeah oh yeah and like i said i'm just going by you know replying to what was brought up at the um at the last quarter okay thank you no problem any other questions from the board okay i believe if i just keep going forward am i doing it right one more presentation the other one is so much shorter um but uh it's informative about a process that we'll be moving using moving forward [Applause] there we go okay okay so um at the last board meeting it was uh brought up and you're gonna see a common theme throughout both of these presentations um so this one here is about the comprehensive health and physical education standards the the reality is that i'm sure you've seen in the news

143all kinds of things that are out there about like oh this is in the news about what's going to happen in first grade and things like that right the one thing that i'm going to stress throughout this presentation is this part right here the audubon community so let's first get to demanding so in 2020 literally in may of 2020 it's an awesome timing from the state um considering that everyone's going to lock down but they released new standards for every subject except for math and ela districts are mandated to implement the standards in 2022. but recently there's been a lot of commotion at the state level whether it be the governor's office or the department of education um so there's been a lot of commotion there and they came out with this broadcast if you

144don't know what happens is the department of event they release broadcasts on uh i guess like a weekly basis or so and in their broadcast they give us you know guidance on how we should handle different situations or whatever so in the broadcast this was the information that was shared with us first off material adoption is a local lea decision based on the local curriculum development and review process again let me stress local the strongest curriculum is one reflecting the input and expertise of the entire school community including educators and families and then leas are strongly encouraged to provide opportunities for meaningful engagement with the school community so how do we navigate this right well ultimately we need to balance this the state has their mandate of standards but at the end of the day

145we need to interpret that in a way that is right for audubon sorry we got crazy response here there we go so um audubon public school district will meet the njsls mandate that is something that we will do that's just the way it is we must absolutely do that but at the same time we're going to ensure a space for both community and individual values so just like that broadcast said these are local decisions from members of the audubon community audubon park audubon northeast room choice i hope i didn't leave anybody out i did i apologize i think that covers just about everybody but ultimately this is a decision and the way we go about this this is something that needs to come from us it can't come from the outside can't come from outside

146pressures at the end of the day the autobahn community needs to do right by the automotive community so the procedure what are we going to do how are we going to tackle this well there's some things that have already started taking place right so back in the spring um we are we reviewed the parent involvement plan with the administrative team um teachers identified standards by grade level so back in april and then again this is the concern that came up in may but back in april what we had the phys ed and health teachers do was they went and they identified the specific standards that would be covered by grade level so we had a sense of like okay this is where it should be placed within our curriculum and then we present to the

147board of education what our plan is that's this right here right and we are developing a parent survey i'm going to talk more about what that survey is going to entail in a moment and then um we're going to start initial curriculum revisions this is going to be a little bit different because of everything scrolling around it we're going to review the data from these surveys in august and then continue with initial curriculum revisions and then in the fall we're going to have conversations with teachers when they come back to school about hey this is what we need to do based on the information that we're getting from parents so let me get to some particular channels so in the spring at that surface i just mentioned this the healthy teachers they reviewed the standards

148their deliverable was this teachers identified standards that are taught at each grade level in may we are developing a plan to get parent insight into what standards concern them by grading so that's an important piece we're going to give parents an opportunity to flat out and look at the standards and tell us i have a great concern about standard one but standard two i'm cool with right and then um in june we're presenting this in june we're going to continue to develop this and parents can identify the specific standards that are concerned we're going to be publicizing this survey and how parents can go about this and then begin setting uh appointments for staff for parents to do this survey i'll explain what this is in a little bit in july parents um they continue

149to set appointments to come in and complete the survey we're going to continue to publicize the survey none of this publicizing can happen until i actually have this conversation with the board though um and then we're going to have parents come in and complete the surveys about what standards and health indeed concern them so the survey itself let's talk about this we're asking parents to identify the specific njsls for comprehensive health and physical education which caused that concern the survey is going to be administered at audubon high school if parents need support they will be encouraged to reach out yes we are going to ask parents to actually come to the school to complete the survey here why because we need to ensure that it's actually the parents of the students that are in the

150classroom that are taking the survey we need to make sure that we we know exactly who's taking this survey so that we can truly say yes these are indeed the stakeholders um if anyone has any issues coming in of course we'll work with them you just call up hey i can't get there can you help me out and we will figure out a solution one survey for a parent a guardian at their child's grade band if a family has more than one child they can take more than one survey they can basically take one survey per child august into september we're going to review the data we're going to identify the trends what standards are the most concerned to parents and then we're going to be having that conversation with teachers and saying hey just

151so you know the third grade parents are very concerned about this particular spin so when it comes to back to school night later on in september we need you to address that and talk about how did you plan on addressing that standard again parents are encouraged to reach out to teachers with questions after back-to-school night if they have further concerns after that then we're going to ask them to reach out and have a more detailed conversation this year is a critical relationship continuing curriculum uh revisions so again we revise curriculum all the time here it's a never-ending process um the revised curriculum guides that will be posted on the website um if you haven't been to the website please check it out you should in particular check out the math post page she's doing a

152fantastic job i know this isn't about math but it's always about that and then this right here so we're also in addition to reaching out to parents and asking about hey what what most concerns you about these health standards we're reaching out and we're having conversations with rutgers and they have some experts in curriculum and health and physical education and ultimately they're going to work with teachers throughout the fall to take those revisions that we initially do and make them even stronger and then from there provide the professional development education we're implementing as well um so we're at the end of a five-year revision cycle you know i stood in front of you all about five years ago and said hey it's going to take five years to get the curriculum where it needs to

153be so we can actually do things like have all of our curriculum guides past cusack right and that's exactly what we did now we're gonna have to take another look and see okay what are we gonna do for next year as far as the approach to revising curriculum there we go this is an important piece any major instructional shifts will not occur until after the board of education has reviewed and approved the curriculum so we're going to stay the course until we get to come back to you and have that dialogue about hey we reached out to parents that these were the concerns they had we had an expert come in or actually two experts come in from rutgers university and they helped our teachers work alongside teachers to develop this curriculum and this is

154the ultimate result what this means is it might slow us down a little bit that's okay i'm okay with slowing down a little bit if we can get to something meaningful i mean we could just piece together something that just doesn't mean anything at all and it would piss you sac but is that valuable no no it's not about doing the expedient thing it's about doing the meaningful thing again that whole partnership between the parents and the teachers that's going to be an important piece of this so i believe at the end of that presentation thank you for bearing with me um any questions from the board of education yes [Music] yes so the first question on the survey is what brave band does your child fall in and the reason why we have to

155ask it that way is because the way that this tip the survey service the standards are structured it's k to two three to five six to eight and then nine through 12 right so we'll be asking that question where does your child fall and then you will be looking specifically at the standards that are specific to your child now is it going to differentiate between say seventh and eighth grade it will it won't um is there that much of a developmental difference i don't i don't know but if that becomes a concern in the comments section that's something that i would encourage people right now [Music] um [Music] we're looking at a two week window it'll probably be the last two weeks in july i have to work out some of the logistics with the

156high school team because they deal with the actual physical building and then also with mr chisholm with the technology but he assures me nowhere okay sorry sorry when it comes to distributing a survey or getting that information out there how are we going to advertise that there are a lot of strong feelings about this and i want to make sure that all voices are heard people that are in support of it as well sure sure so um we're definitely going to be sending out blasphemy to everyone who's going to have a child in audubon schools next year they're going to you know be receiving messages from me and it's going to be on a regular basis um because sometimes like you get something and then you kind of forget about it but we want to

157put it on their radar as much as possible because the more input we can get from the community the better and my hope too is and i'll try to figure out a tactful way of saying this because sometimes you take surveys i'm like well they're all concerning to me well that's not as helpful as if you say this one is concerned but this one's not as concerning so you know we'll have to have that conversation too okay is there an opportunity for community members uh right now we're just looking to have the past guardians of students that are currently in our school system oh is there an opportunity to say that you're in favor of certain standards like will the questions be so that you know that's a really good question because quite frankly and

158shame on me i've been you know pretty focused on a lot of the the negativity swirling around this so right now the way that we have it structured is um you know from no concern to very concerning and it's kind of like a lighter scale you get to choose but you know along with five dots or whatever um but i hadn't actually considered that uh as being another part of this um and that's something that you know i'm gonna have to take back and um figure out a way if we can i'm sure there's a way to incorporate that and i'm glad to answer the question because that just sparked the whole on holding part of my brain so appreciate that i'm glad that you said that and that's important for these presentations because sometimes

159your questions actually just give me ideas so thanks all right other yeah and i'm a little bit concerned about the point at which in the timeline parents can go directly to their child's teacher and discuss the curriculum implementation of it i fear that it may be you know maybe there's some more structures about how those conversations like the the structure of those conversations yes yeah yeah well yeah that's um that's certainly a concern because you know that sometimes parents come in and this is just a reality of life sometimes folks come in and they have genuine questions and they they're just curious and they want to make sure they fully understand other times folks come in with accusations about what it is that you're trying to do to my child um and um i'm pretty

160sure it's not that but okay other questions for the board well they'll be because most of them are already registered so we'll be certain to retest that as well we get all the contact information during that process okay other questions or concerns all right i think that concludes everything i have to say thank you everyone for listening thank you for your questions they're very insightful i appreciate that question so [Music] can we get those lights adjusted a little bit thank you a little bit further [Applause] okay moving on to uh special program representatives mr miller jameson county head services we did have one meeting it was very brief it was just voting on directors for the cc esc and it was just 15 members that were already part of it and that's all that meeting

161was about thank you school boards mrs davis i was not able to attend the county school board meeting but i believe mrs mr miller did attend is [Music] of achievements um just the only other thing i wanted to mention is i know it's last minute but there is a public relations workshop on friday from nine to one it's being held remotely um i am registered to attend it so i look forward to reporting back to the board with uh with any helpful information thank you aes viscosity [Music] i just wanted to report to the board that we did have an ad hoc committee meeting with the members of the bounty from board of education we met on may 16th here in the media center it's an excellent excellent meeting great problem between their members and

162and our members as well um we are extremely pleased that there's been improved collaboration and communication between the administration in both districts but the goal now i think is to really um further foster the relationship between the students and the families in both of the communities we were extremely thrilled to see that they had an opportunity for the mountie from 8th grade students to come over here to the high school i believe that was the friday before memorial day weekend it was a half day here at the school so that actually had been one of the action items that we had on our on our agenda that we wanted to propose so we were really really pleased to see that that did occur um and then going forward we're just looking to see a clear

163developed written plan for transitioning the mounting from students so that it doesn't matter who is in administrative positions will always know that this is the process and this is the procedure for um for embracing our eighth grade students as they come over to join us at the high school um and then we had a couple of other suggestions for some academic collaboration also we'd love to see a course selection night not only for the incoming eighth grade students but as parents we expressed that it would be really nice to see that for our seventh eighth ninth tenth eleventh and twelfth grade students because um we know that while our guidance departments our individual guys departments and then our guidance department here at the high school we know they do meet with the students which is

164great but i have two boys and not everything gets home to me all the time so um we just think it would be terrific if we could have parent nights for each one of those grade levels when it comes to course selection but dr davis has my meeting notes from that night and we look forward to having additional meetings with that ad hoc committee and seeing what we can what we can do further to foster that relationship not just with with the students but also in the the two communities and families this is shiva did you want to add anything yeah speaking of um one question i just wanted to i thought of it afterwards will the incoming eighth grade students be included in the survey their parents and if so you know how will

165they get you know the information you know um i just want to comment on that too uh that information came fairly quickly and i want to applaud both not ephraim and um and specifically a lot about the counselors the eighth grade teachers and then this rising force who are facilitating that articulation because it was i don't know 48 hours maybe and uh they got together and it was great the kids were happy to be here they had one-on-one tours so it's nice that we were able to get our eighth graders from mountain from in the building and out about feeling well and uh part of so we we've done similar things in the past and continue to look for that so i do appreciate that quick turnover any other more comments yeah um real quick

166i did want to say that i said i continue to support the transition from part-time to full-time and i applaud how much progress we've been making and thank you amy for taking all my questions and fielding them i also support the school lunch program initiative that jim knight around history with that and that is super effective the green team has been meeting and talking about the drainage problem as well and there's areas of collaboration that are possible for that so i'm going to make a comment and encourage that and i would like to say a shout out to miss smelter for the mansion and the whole mansion team for their character ed work and their promising practice accomplishments so a heartfelt congratulations from specifically me great job yeah to build on that i know mrs

167smelter doesn't like to take all the credit or should she you know but i think we have strong leaders in this district our buildings and they create an environment um that allows teachers to thrive and to do what's best for our students and with that being said i'd also like to thank mr burke i'm proud of his presentations and i am proud to provide the leadership that he provides as a curriculum leader in this district and gives space to teachers to have the courage to put lessons together like the one that we saw tonight and as a teacher uh if if i had been called to task on on a lesson like this i might rethink ever teaching it again i hope that this particular teacher and mr merk can work together with the rest

168of the staff to continue to put these types of lessons together for our students to think critically and you know i'll leave it at that so thank you mr burke um any other comments um so i will be uh resigning as the president effective after tonight's meeting this year has been the long and difficult year for board of education we've been presented with a lot of different challenges throughout the school year uh from the outside and from the inside and the board has spent countless hours trying to navigate those working with mrs davis we have added meetings spent hours after these meetings talking in executive session planning for those meetings takes a lot of time i think i did that job well i'm very proud of the job that i did and i enjoyed it

169uh we still have a lot of challenges ahead of us and it's going to require quite a bit of time and i just don't have that time coming up next year um things with my family are changing and in my life are changing and while i'm committed to remaining on the board i don't have the time that this position is going to require moving forward so with that i'll be stepping down it's a natural time to step down because we're going to be setting our goals in july so although the board reorganizes in january we really set the goals and set the tone for the year of july so i think for for new leadership to take over at this particular point makes sense as per our policy and her decision mrs davis will step

170up as the president and that leaves the vice president spot md which needs to be filled and um as has been discussed uh mrs cox has agreed to step into that role and has the support of the board moving into that so i thank them both for for that i don't expect there to be a hiccup at all mrs davis and i worked very very well together and i can i continue or i look forward to serving in whatever way i can moving forward so after tonight um mrs davis will take over and there's just a few things blue cents that we have to tie up for the board that's the superintendent's evaluation has to be finished by the 21st we want to look at doing a board self and completing that before the retreat

171that will help frame some of the things for that agenda and mrs davis and mrs cox will have to set a retreat agenda retreat date with an agenda and turn things over so thank you and uh i look forward to to tackling the challenges that we have to tackle as a group so when you accept the position of vice president you um you accept that a situation like this might arise however it was my sincerest hope that i'd be able to continue my partnership with jim that as long as the board wished us to continue in these leadership roles jim and i had lengthy conversations especially over the past few weeks and i understand and i appreciate the reasons why he's stepping down but i want to say publicly that it has been a privilege

172to serve in this role with him and i've learned an incredible amount from him as we've collaboratively worked through all of the issues and situations that we've faced in particular this past year i value his knowledge his integrity his thoughtfulness and his focus to always keep the needs of our students and staff in the forefront personally i thank you for the conversations i thank you for the hours of work and planning i thank you for the sacrifice of your time and i thank you for the exemplary leadership that you share not only with me but also with the board you promise that you're just going to be a phone call away i'm going to hold it to that as i try to navigate these next six months okay moving on to public participation everything that

173i read in the beginning of the meeting still stands please remember that individual speakers are limited to three minutes topic can be limited to 15 minutes if you would like to make a comment please come forward state your name and your address good evening i'm eric miller president of the audubon education association um mr blumenstein i'd like to thank you for your service well um i'd like to not say precedent but i would like to request an extension because this is extremely important topic sure okay thank you i am here tonight to express concerns the association has regarding the safety and security of our student staff and overall school community on may audubon high school had an unexpected and unplanned lockdown that the association believed should have been addressed differently a student pushed the panic

174button in the high school principal's office to activate a lockdown this is the most serious of our school security protocols for your reference a lockdown will be initiated at times of imminent danger it results in an immediate police presence and a total building shutdown the panic button is located under a desk and is connected to the audubon police station it is important to note that the panic buttons under the desk cannot be accidentally activated you must insert your finger inside the casing and push the button you don't simply brush up against the button and activate it consequently we believe that more should have been done and that we and the public should have received an email with accurate details about the lockdown from either the principal or the superintendent we did not the email that

175was distributed was the same notification used to announce our scheduled monthly safety drills the message stated that quote we successfully held our monthly school security drill and then resumed our regular school schedule end quote this was not a regularly scheduled school security drill in fact it took place during the state mandated nj sla testing students and teachers were scared this lockdown happened during state testing no one thought it was a planned drill especially not during state testing staff and students were shaken if there was complete lack of transparency about the security issue our staff and students are judged on the results of the state testing some teachers allowed students to continue testing while others stopped because of our complete lack of safety and security training no one really knew what to do testing was not

176extended so those students who stopped testing did not get as much time as some of their peers the concern of our members is the test scores may be impacted negatively which in turn impact our district test scores students graduating etc in fact some of our veteran teachers told the association that their students actually apologized to them after the lockdown most of the students were so shaken by the lockdown that they simply shut down for the remainder of the state testing we also had physical education students and staff who were not part of testing outside on school grounds at the time of the lock-in they had no clue what was going on during the lockdown nor were they informed the lockdown was over as a result they stayed in lockdown hiding out behind the shed at

177the tennis courts unknowingly for longer than needed there was absolutely no communication between any building level administrator and the physical education staff in the past there has always been walkie-talkie communication informing the teachers what to do during such events and when it is complete not informing staff students or the public of what truly happened demonstrated complete lack of transparency and was an exercise for judgment on the part of the school in the district administration it is also important to note that on march 9th 2022 the high school had an unauthorized person in our high school it was reported by a staff member to an administrator and in turn reported to another administrator for approximately 15 to 20 minutes it was unknown who the intruder was or where they were in the high school when that

178occurs a lockdown should be initiated it was not we consider this to be yet another serious breakdown in safety and security protocols as a lockdown was never initiated and should have been the association wishes to express these additional concerns that leave our students and staff vulnerable our district safety plan which is required by the state of new jersey and contains a statement of assurance that signed by the superintendent calls for safety and security training throughout the district on an annual basis for all students and staff the required training for staff newman veteran for substitutes and students no longer takes place and it hasn't taken place for two years our substitutes who are responsible for our children in the absence of their regular teachers have absolutely no idea what they should do in an emergency situation

179how is this evil possible after we've informed the superintendent why was this not immediately addressed the safety plan contains many other components of the district require district is required by state law to follow here are some of the components that are not followed a copy the safety plan must be distributed to all district employees the district must develop and provide an in-service training program for all district board of education employees to enable them to recognize and appropriately respond to safety and security concerns new district board of education employees must receive a copy of the safety plan and receive the in-service training within 60 days of the effective date of their employment students and staff must be trained how to use a safety plan and what their responsibilities will be in the given response our current

180school safety specialist was appointed by dr davis two years ago this position is required by new jersey law and requires the employee to be certified as such dr davis failed to ensure that this person was certified in a timely manner it has taken two years to do so as he just completed his training last month it should be noted that there was specialist training last year but our safety specialist did not attend training nor did he complete any of the required items that were mentioned above last year either please recall that we were not remote the entire school year last year we had students and staff in our buildings even if the safety specialist was not set for training these requirements are clearly written in the safety plan that we have used for years it's

181not hard to follow in fact it even comes with a checklist recall that this is the same safety plan that the superintendent signed the statement of assurance for verifying that everything in the safety plan is being followed and completed please note these concerns were brought to the attention of the superintendent on multiple occasions our concerns expressed during those conversations have still not been addressed or fixed and they impact the safety and security of every student and staff member every day in our schools actions speak far louder than words or empty promises and the fact that none of these items were addressed immediately by the superintendent is shameful puts our students and staff at continued risk if you were told tonight any of these above items take place in our district right now or have taken

182place in the last two years that's inaccurate they used to but they no longer do and we need to not only open for that the association is speaking tonight to express our disbelief that these issues were not immediately addressed and believe it is important enough to make this public statement tonight so that the community is aware of the conditions that exist in their children's schools it's a superintendent's job to ensure that everything takes place is required by state law and he has failed this responsibility to ensure our students and staff safety and security and we should all be very aware it is the association's belief due to a multitude of concerns regarding the items mentioned above our staff and students continue to be in potential danger the association cannot in good faith remain publicly silent

183any longer and allow such conditions to exist in our schools thank you hi my name is nicole mccormack i was actually the one last month who brought up this book and i appreciate the amount of time that went into looking at it and responding to some of my concerns i spent quite a bit of time going over how i was going to address this tonight and i timed it to three minutes but since the presentation labeled some of the things that i said is misleading i feel like i deserve the right to address those things on record so if i take a little bit longer i apologize for that so number one um when i stated that the book was being read in 10th in 11th grade i'll admit it wasn't 10th grade my bad

184it was a mistake i don't appreciate that being labeled as misleading the board i'm not an expert i'm a mom i'm a parent okay i don't need a degree or a certification to come to my board of education meeting and express my concerns my child is going into eleventh fragment here that book which i have read is not appropriate for her and i don't want her read it so that was my concern and that's why i brought it to you okay she doesn't have a teacher for me to go to right now um so going to the director of curriculum or a teacher is not really an option she's not in that grade yet so i hope you can understand that the other thing is is that um in the presentation it stated that i

185misinformed or misled by stating that common sense media has 18 plus that's incorrect i would ask you to go back to the board meeting from last month and look at my comments that's not what i said i said there were reviews from people on that website who said this should be 18 plus so if a presentation is going to be made to you know address some of the things that i'm saying that's misleading i would appreciate it if it's represented honestly and i don't feel that it was and as a parent and a mother in this district who grew up here and graduated from the school that's quite disappointing so when i said that um what's the educational value of the book what i meant to say is as a whole the book is extremely

186sexually explicit and the fact that you're only teaching certain sections is not enough when you're sending the book home with the kids every other page has a racial slur it is just non-stop sexually explicit material and so i would have you know appreciated if that was addressed a little bit more i understand teaching the book in the context of cultural you know um whatever you need to teach as far as um cultural identity and inclusiveness and things like that i would never say ban a book i never did say that that's another thing um said to be on the book i said i wanted to know how it got into the curriculum and let's address that because i don't feel like there is transparency to the parents and honestly that's the biggest problem if there

187is transparency you wouldn't have parents coming here upset and concerned when you send home a book with children that is speaking about topics such as incest rape bullying domestic violence animal abuse pedophilia prostitution childhood pregnancy miscarriage child abuse molestation and explicit sex scenes i think a parent should be notified that that is the book that has been assigned just like movie and tvs have ratings for a reading for a reason parents should be notified that the book that their child is going to be reading has that content in it and i don't think that it's too much to ask for a letter to go home to notify the parents that this is the book we're going to be reading this is the content that is in it if you don't feel it's appropriate for your

188child then you can opt out and here's an alternative i did not hear anywheres in this presentation tonight about a transparency process and when you're talking about controversial sensitive topics like that there definitely should be otherwise you're going to have more parents up here concerned and confused about why it's something that's being taught in the school so what i am asking is that a transparency process gets put in place for books that have sexually explicit material in it so the parents can decide whether or not they want to write their kid to read that book i understand you know the colleges look for that book they assign that book or whatever for ap classes but that's not appropriate for some people and it's not appropriate for some children who have been through trauma that book

189has trauma all through it and so i'm asking for a transparency process and i think in addition to that because other districts are doing this as well they're creating parent advocacy committees for transparency and i think that's something that i would like for us to do here and i'm asking for you to consider that because as far as the sex edge curriculum that's coming up transparency is another part of it and i appreciate mr burke going through what you guys are doing with the parent surveys but as we know the standards are different than the curriculum so you can have a parent do a survey about them not agreeing with the standards but what they really want to know is how those standards these wrap ups are being used so what is the curriculum that's

190going to teach those standards that's what they're concerned about so if we create a parent advisory committee then we'll have that transparency there'll be less misunderstanding but again i appreciate you taking letting me take a little bit longer but i felt like i had to address some of these things that were used in the presentation as me being misleading they weren't my intention and if you look at the meeting from last month that's not what i said i understand thank you you're welcome hello my name is dan wilkins 619 southwest fight tonight i speak before the board with concerns about the proposed bell schedule for the upcoming 2022-2023 school year as a student of this school i believe that it is my responsibility to share my opinions on the proposed schedule and how i believe

191the board should proceed with next year's schedule of audubon high school for your information i will be a junior next year the proposed schedule makes several changes that are either unnecessary or impractical compared to the current schedule that has been in use working completely fine and completely properly for several academic years the only change that i currently support for the upcoming school year is the elimination of the homeroom period as its purpose of taking attendance has been made redundant and obsolete by our electronic system of scanning student id cards that system is practical and effective and i fully support however proposals of lengthening class time and shortening the lunch period along with the passing time may make sense for meeting an educational agenda but are irrational and greatest proposals in terms of student needs even

192if the time added or subtracted from certain periods may seem trivial in some lines shortening the lunch period in my opinion and in the opinion of many of my peers who i represent tonight is going in the opposite direction of what students need in terms of having proper time to eat and consume their lunch along with proper food service as of now lunch periods are 25 minutes long and many of my peers spend a solid 10 minutes or more waiting for their food this is amplified if they are in the salad or hoagie lines this is not the fault of nutriserve lunch aids they are great in what they do and they are wonderful people however my primary concern is that this existing 25 minute period does not give students enough time to eat their

193lunch without rushing in many cases the new jersey state department of agriculture states at adequate time shall be allowed for student meal service and consumption under their school nutrition policy the current conditions in my opinion contradict these policies set by the state department of agriculture for students that have a preceding period on say b or c building on the other side of the building and have to take a longer commute to the cafeteria the current schedule does not allow those students or most students for that matter regardless of their commute to have adequate time to consume their meals as the aforementioned state agriculture department guidance states guidance from the school nutrition association a highly credited nonprofit that has been around since 1946 and services over 50 000 schools they recommend at least 20 minutes for

194students to consume lunch i advocate for a longer lunch period not by some egregious number five minutes maybe maybe seven or eight but i advocate for this not because of frolicking or mischief amongst my peers but because we have one of the shortest lunch periods out of public schools in our direct area and in our county and the lunch period we currently have goes against state guidance and guidance from well-acclaimed non-profits this also ties in the proposal of shortening passing time which would force students to rush from class to class especially if they have to walk to opposite ends of the building in heavy foot traffic this could cause more accidents involving tripping or falling that would make our hallways even more hectic than in some cases they already are the board of education should

195strongly consider going through my speech tonight not going through with this proposed bell schedule for the upcoming school year even though the number of changes in his bell schedule overall may seem very trivial it would heighten the negative effects in our school environment especially in our hallways and our cafeteria would go against what me and many of my classmates who i represent tonight believe is right for this building thank you for your time thank you good evening my name is ellie direnzo wyatt i work excuse me i live on chestnut street i am a member of mom's demand action and i just want to be clear that moms is a gun violence prevention group we are not anti-gun my brother is a dea agent i fully support the work he does and my brother-in-law also

196works with immigration i'm not anti-gun what i am here to say is to let you know also another part of my life is that i am a retired teacher i worked 30 years in public school and private schools i subbed recently at manchin avenue school which was a lovely experience but i want to know and i know the time is short but i would like to know what the board members opinions are of army teachers we withhold comment uh until after all the public comments are given and even then there's no guarantee that we'll respond to that tonight i understand that's you know that would that might happen i understand that that could be a policy but in view of what's been happening around our country can i at least i'll have a response [Applause]

197rosemary anderson 32 central um i want to thank mr burt for his presentation tonight on the lewis guy in terms of the survey that brings out to parents i believe that you're missing a large population of stakeholders in the community um i live in a very young law um my daughter is 10 months old but we plan to stay on i'd love to send her through the school district however as an educator i really want to be able to participate and uh have some sort of state not only my tax dollars but in my dollar's future education and just because she will not be in the school district next year doesn't mean that i should not be able to participate in a survey that's going around about standards coming out in new jersey two years

198ago and how they'll be implemented in the district so if you feel like you're too close you know and you need to step back uh welcoming the community into your survey reflection um i think would be i would be welcome to the opportunity for me to meet with you and um i think that the board should take that into consideration as well moving forward thank you um first i want to commend the student i think he's already left but i because it's late and he needs to go to school tomorrow but i think he's an example of what can be done and i think also something that you might want to consider about getting a speech in debate club in the high school because he did research analysis and that would be great and i

199think it would be great for all our students so let's start with that positive moving on i do want to say in regards to the health standard i do have some concerns if parents are going to be putting in their two cents because we've already heard from even a board member who felt that it was menstruation was something that we shouldn't talk about that concerns me greatly because a lot of people and the age for people to get their period to menstruate is getting younger and younger and i can tell you right now if you are a child who parent didn't think it was time yet or was it squishy and icky or this feels uncomfortable or maybe talk to your doctor about it or something like that and maybe as men you you don't

200understand this but uh you know if you all of a sudden started bleeding through your penis and had never heard of what was going on you'd probably be greatly taken aback and think you were dying there are young people cis females and trans males who if they haven't had this talk don't have this education this health education about the normal things that happen in your body you can't say well it should only be in sixth grade seventh grade eighth grade because it's happening in third grade and fourth grade so let's look at the professionals and see what they're saying and not just go to reactionaries i also i'm talking to my daughter and many of her friends they're upset they're limited in bathroom time because a lot of times they are menstruating there are other

201issues going on and they need more time and when you're having because of a tick tock challenge you can't go at many periods and things like that and menstruation happens it's not on a timed schedule 8 am on tuesday you're going to have your period it's all over the place particularly in the first couple of years and i'm going to tell you there are probably many people in this auditorium who went through this and always had a sweatshirt because you're bleeding through your underwear because you didn't realize you were getting your period that day and it's incredibly embarrassing but the more you talk about it in school and normalize it the better that it can be for the children in this school of which probably 50 or more are dealing with this they would also

202really like it if you had free pads in the bathrooms so that if something happens unexpectedly they have that available to them right there and they don't have to be going to the nurse's office or asking around other people that it can be just something that they take care of discreetly privately and they're done and so i also want to say maybe we need to incorporate fahrenheit 451 so that the children of audubon maybe have a broader perspective and recognize the dangers of banning or limiting or abstaining from various books because they make you feel uncomfortable and if you want to talk hear about incest rape assault murder and everything else just turn on fox news thank you my name is laura riddell i will not state where my where i live i will not

203state my street address but i've been resident of audubon since 2004. my daughter ariana scott of deluzio is a junior here at audubon high school i want to clarify we have different last names but i'm her mother and she's my child that's been a source of confusion i will now read a statement from ariana scott and ellucia so the words that are coming out of my mouth are her words she was unable to attend tonight but she wants the board to know this the audubon board of education its administrators faculty and superintendent andrew davis have no concern for the health safety and well-being of students and teachers you deny access to the bathrooms students have a right to use you do not represent queer and non-white individuals in your curriculums you turn away when students

204shout slurs and obscenities at each other you ignore our concerns you ignore our grievances you ignore our outright protests you claim to value diversity and acceptance through the equity and affirmative action program but i challenge you to tell this to any student that is not cisgender heterosexual white or male they may disagree they may tell stories of their discrimination and lack of support from your employees they'll tell you their accounts of students using racial ethnic and homophobic slurs without consequence but perhaps most of all they will tell you that their voices are unheard emails unread petitions overlooked how can you call your actions equal and affirmative who feels equal when they are denied human rights what are you affirming when students can't use public bathrooms in medical emergencies or when menstruating when you are violating

205three new jersey state laws in doing so do you think permanently closing gender-neutral bathrooms is equality for transgender students these questions are not rhetorical in fact i implore you to answer them look at what you've done for your students i dare you to answer to girls to queer people to people of color and may you reflect upon your choices that's the conclusion of ariana's statement i will now speak for myself dr davis you mentioned before that you would like the board to be treated with respect but there's there are volunteers that spend copious amounts of their own time on the board and i completely agree with that as a member of this community i have volunteered for many organizations over the years but no one on this board was assigned to the board of education

206everyone on the board wanted to be on the board ran in an election to be seated on the board and with that comes responsibilities responsibilities to treat your students and their parents with respect to hear concerns and to be more transparent now i personally brought a concern to this for january of this year i emailed every individual on this board and i did not receive an answer i emailed mr blumenstein directly and did not receive an answer the chain of command in the high school is sorely broken i went through the chain of command with principal nicholson and with yourself dr davis and i received no response emails unanswered phone calls not returned promised phone calls not made so i implore all of you to reflect on that and in conclusion menstruation is a normal

207biological event nothing to be ashamed of nothing to look away from and nothing that should be censored out of anything be it a work of fiction sex education or any other area of the curriculum thank you thank [Applause] hi my name is jennifer webber i am on south davis back to the bluest eye as we have already heard tonight the bluest eye contains several explicit descriptions of sexual encounters and sexual violence including the rape of the main character who's a 12 year old girl like a father but it seems to me that people who are objecting to this book believe that 16 year olds would be shocked or traumatized by this information when in reality our kids are inundated with sexual content from the internet the video games advertising tv shows i recently discovered a

208show on amazon prime which is kind of an example of this it's called euphoria it caught my attention because there's a former disney star that stars in it and when i first saw it i was like oh my 12 year old might want to watch this well i was mistaken because the show is it's full of really really heavy stuff drugs sex date rape unhealthy sexual relationships and i remember wondering like how many teenage kids are watching this thinking this is normal behavior how many were in a bad relationship being abused and now seeing it played out in front of them and i thought i know there's nobody talking to them and discussing their show with them they're just watching it which brings me back to the bluest eye this is an opportunity to discuss

209uncomfortable but important issues even though the book was published in 1970 it's still relevant today i applaud the teacher who wants to lead those discussions about the difficult themes in this book and hopefully help kids to make comparisons and connections to today for example one theme how a person's perception of beauty is based on society that is so relevant for today so many kids are on tick-tock they want to be tick-tock stars nothing that we see on those sites is real it's all filtered it's the best of everything it's only little snippets and this is something that can be talked about reading this book the core messages of the bluest eye are what makes it such an important and powerful read they are very simple racism is bad children should be protected not abused rape

210and incest are wrong societies that tolerate or turn a blind eye to children being abused are wrong victim blaming is wrong the little girl in this book was blamed for being for being raped the town turned against her and wanted her taken out of the school so no one could see that she was pregnant ignoring the problem doesn't make it go away it only damages those who are suffering i know my time is up but these are messages that we can all be on board with [Applause] hello my name is stephen wilson i live on ward avenue and i have two kids in the district i felt compelled to say something tonight after comments made in the public portion of the last board meeting regarding health education and threats to terminate and imprison educators for

211acknowledging the existence of lgbtq people about a sudden groundswell of support for the superintendent and the utter dismissal of concerns by the teachers and about the banning of a book by a pulitzer prize-winning nobel laureate who wrote this particular book to quote remind readers how hurtful racism is it is the responsibility of the school district to educate his children in the most truthful honest and inclusive way the truth is that gay lesbian bisexual trans and queer people not only exist but exist here in ottoman as parents as kids as friends and as people in positions of leadership it is perfectly okay for teachers to talk about that the truth is that the better health education the kids get the better decisions that they make growing up the truth is that the superintendent is leading a

212district that whose teachers are telling us is somewhat dysfunctional the truth is that we need to teach our children in an age-appropriate way especially the ones that look like me about the horrors of racism and sexual assault and how to center voices that are not white and male in regards to the health curriculum i will want to lend my support to a progressive health education curriculum for all students that is inclusive of all gender identities and sexual orientations and promotes and teaches age-appropriate safe sex and enthusiastic consent practices that do not exclusively privilege heteronormativity the citizens of our borough both child and adult represent a spectrum of identities and orientations and our education system is obliged to reflect itself in the community that it serves a more educated citizenry will make better health choices that

213will benefit themselves their families and their neighbors if we don't have professional educators having these discussions with students because let's be honest it's really difficult to have these conversations with our own kids the truth is that we are seeding this education to the internet or to teenage peers in regards to the superintendent i'm pleased to hear that he has been receptive to concerns that have been brought forth to him by his employees as a leader of teams myself i know the importance of having a team that supports you and without that support the organization suffers and in this specific case the children suffer i'm fully behind giving the teachers the support that they need in order to thrive in their incredibly challenging and vitally important jobs in regards to book bans i spoke with one

214of my son's teachers at children's night last week about them reading the big lie in class a book centered around a young jewish hungarian woman who experiences the worst of humanity during the holocaust this teacher was grateful that i was appreciative of her reading with the kids and she expressed concern about what parents would think about them learning about the holocaust because of its heavy nature and that's what talks of book bans lead to teachers feeling worried about what they're teaching when what they're teaching is the truth i praised her and encouraged her to keep teaching that comfortable stuff because that's where the learning happens i know some folks will disagree with me and that's fine if they truly don't want their kids to be educated on par with their peers they can opt out

215but we as a community have an obligation to teach the truth no matter how uncomfortable it makes us feel i also want to read if it's okay a statement by a friend wanting to be here tonight but is stuck at work uh if you will give me one second they were concerned about sharing their name but bravely decided to again this is not me i'm reading this on behalf of someone that wanted to be here tonight and could not hello my name is marcus henderson before i transitioned i was known as mia henderson i'm a former student of ottoman schools and a graduate of the class of 2015. finding a teacher that was lgbtq was what saved my life as a student i tried to come out as trans and a teacher i felt safe

216talking to told me i wasn't anger frustration anxiety is what i felt and i almost ended my life until i met another teacher who told me that everything was going to be okay students ridiculed me and picked on me in the locker rooms and accused me of making them feel uncomfortable and watching them get undressed it's important for all students to know that there are queer lgbtq students in audubon and it's okay and normal the students who are queer need to know that they are safe and seen which is something that i did not have at audubon schools i also want to add how important it is to teach about the harm of racism and stereotypes if we don't talk about it it continues even if it makes you uncomfortable to talk about you're supposed

217to it's supposed to make you feel uncomfortable everyone deserves an equal chance to feel like they are wanted in the community and are comfortable especially at school i am biracial person who was called the inwarding school and when i retaliated i was putting in school suspension it happened again after my friend was called a slur used for gay people and i reacted i didn't feel safe and was told my outburst meant that i had anger issues i never felt like i could be my true self i felt like who i was inside wasn't good and that was then there was something wrong with me i tried to go to adults who were supposed to make me feel safe and instead they put me into anger management groups when they should have found ways to teach

218the students and other teachers that what was going on was not okay to make changes you gotta pick the hard way gotta make people uncomfortable because people of color and lgbtq students are constantly uncomfortable we all deserve to be happy and safe and i just want to add briefly according to human rights commission over 50 of trans male teens have attempted suicide 32 percent of trans female teens have attempted suicide and 40 of non-binary teens have attempted suicide so this is a a problem that does not exist outside of audubon this is a problem that we all need to acknowledge in the rest so thank you for your time [Applause] hi everybody i just want to comment on this because everybody's talking about book bans which i really didn't hear anything about bannon books at

219the landscape meeting but i will say as a parent i don't care what book you're sending home to my child as long as i know what's going on that's not the problem the problem is a teacher being able to control the classroom conversation which every kid should be comfortable enough to have their opinions and present that conversation but that conversation also needs to have a time and a place and an ending and when they move out of the classroom respect each other's opinion it might not be right it might not be it might be wrong might be dead but respect each other and try to understand where the other person is coming from so that would be my biggest thing to this board as you're talking about books and mr with the curriculum is make

220sure that the kids even though it might be 15 plus or 17 plus the kids that are in that classroom are able to still respect each other as humans as friends doesn't matter a community we're all in this together we're humans we're here together and it would be nice if the kids were able to respect the teachers in the classroom not disrespect them and handle the conversations that need to be handled because it only gets worse as they get older thank you um good evening my name is leslie kirsch and i live at 263 maple avenue in audubon and i know several of you as board members over the years and i have the greatest respect for the time and effort that you take it's not something that i would have the bandwidth for but

221i am very concerned about what children are being exposed to in terms of gun violence in this country and this poster says don't look away tell the senate to pass gun safety laws now text bold 644-3 and i know that you've all watched different news outlets and you're aware that there is gun violence in this country but it is insidious to me that we don't even really offer prayers and concerns we just think it'll go away and it's not in fact the 1990 to 2004 ban on assault weapons which was bipartisan in this country several republicans are speaking out about how they voted for it then nobody was complaining then about their guns being taken away the ban was important because we were coming out of things like columbine and a decade previously i guess

222the assassination attempt on president reagan what's important to know though and something that we can take in on a local level in a minute is that since 2004 gun violence as a whole has increased by over 262 percent and we're all adults here and i'm saying these words that there are no children in here other than our amazing avt back there and so my concern is the almost incestuous way that we showcase all these things to our children and yet we really don't do anything about it and i think that might be one of the reasons why suicide among 10 to 17 year olds has gone up by over 60 percent and i would just like to be able to as a moms demand action volunteer and i have spoken with people on the board

223and the administration thank you mr burke about being able to be included in some of the curriculum as far as speaking to the board or to the pta about the be smart program which within the word smart is the acronym for securing your guns modeling responsible gun behavior asking whether or not there are guns in the home not because you don't approve of guns i have had a gun and i come from law enforcement and such and i understand what the second amendment stands for but in asking you help to understand whether or not that household has secured their guns and if they haven't then you have the opportunity to say that maybe that play date with johnny isn't excuse me a good idea the other completion of the acronym is the risk of teens

224to having such easy access to guns and when i was down in dc today it was very interesting how we talked about the fact that there's such a push for hardening our schools that costs money and guess who brings those programs out the gun industry the manufacturers and the distributors of guns made 10 billion dollars in 2018 and all of us spent about 3 billion that same year in the aftermath of gun violence so um getting back on track with smart the risk to teens and then also to just have these conversations to tell people about your concerns and lastly even though the gun lobby and individuals and corporations want us to think about hardening our schools and providing more mental health if we had gunsense legislation specifically background checks let me tell you what

225that would do please please wrap up i'm going to see you for three minutes i i understand that and i'm my brain is a mess it's been a long day um i know um because criminals can exploit the unlicensed loopholes by buying guns from strangers online we need to have a federal legislation for background checks they're easy to do in fact statistically everybody in this room lives within about 10 miles of a uh a registered gun please wrap up your final comment here okay anyway thank you i'm just gonna wrap it up there so i embarrass myself but i i really would appreciate us having a program in our schools to talk to parents about gun sense thank you i just wanted to ask the word respectfully to consider extending the time to five minutes

226and i know how ironic that sounds at this very late time of the night but other districts give the parents five minutes to speak there are a lot of districts that do that and because we're not educators and we're coming up and we're trying to talk about complex controversial issues we i feel under duress trying to like hurry up and get through what i'm trying to say um and it leads to um misunderstandings as you can tell with the constant connotations to me saying that i'm trying to ban a okay i just want to reiterate i am not asking the board to ban the book i am asking you to consider it as part of the curriculum because yes transparency but also i refuse to believe that there are no other culturally relevant books that

227could fill that place for you and also i took the time to make copies of the problematic scenes that were in question i put it there and i forgot to tell you earlier so i made a copy for all of you so you can see exactly where my concerns are thank you thank you okay seeing no other so i didn't come as prepared as the rest of these people and i'm not very eloquent my name is amanda i live in west pine street i had one graduate from this school and two currently in the junior and senior high school as well as another stepson in gloucester city and an adult step daughter very recently in my home we were touched by sexual harassment and intimidation and stalking which happened in this school now i know

228that i can't speak um to specifics and you know specific administrators and students because liabilities and all that good stuff but what i will tell you is that not only has this happened to my daughter but it has happened to other people's daughters in this school as well and they got the same reaction that might have got they were dismissed they weren't believed and the perpetrator the aggressor the criminal as far as i'm concerned is allowed to continue to walk through this school is not allowed to be in school activities to walk in his graduation while my daughter has missed the last 10 days of school 10 days of her education that she won't get back excuse me she's going to see a trauma therapist more about 16 years old for things that have happened

229in this school and for things that have happened outside of this school it's not okay and someone needs to look at what your hiv policies are because they don't work they do not work they don't work for the females that are being sexually harassed and intimidated they don't work for the transgender kids they don't work for the boys that are told that they're being boys they don't work across the board you need to look at it we have students that kill themselves we have students that bring guns to school this is why because they're not heard and they're dismissed thank you [Applause] good evening i am sarah kulin i live on chestnut street here in town first of all i want to thank mr burke for your presentation i really appreciate the transparency i think

230it's a shame that we had to get to that level of dissecting the curriculum necessarily when that is a conversation that could have happened with the teacher and the affected students and parents um i had no problem with the instruction of the book i found the presentation very enlightening um i do wish to speak though about the importance of providing trigger warnings and resources not all parents are aware of when their children have been assaulted in some way and if they happen to read the book even the sections that were not assigned by the teacher and start to have a reaction the parent might see the reaction but have no context as to why the student is reacting in that way so just having some awareness about potentially triggering material i think could be very

231helpful from a trauma perspective and i also think that the school district if you are going to use materials like this again which i don't object to is that there are additional supports in place explicitly stated to the students that if the material is triggering to them in some way is harmful to them in some way that there are resources available through the counseling department but specifically in light of this material now completely different topic through my past couple of months subbing i've noticed that the students spend a lot of time on their chromebooks which is not in itself problematic however walking around the classroom it's very easy to see students on youtube or playing games when they're supposed to be involved in some type of instruction our brains are not fully developed until we're

232around the age of 25 or 26 and so giving students the access to stimulation outside of their classroom materials and expecting them to be responsible i don't know that that's entirely fair for someone who's eight nine ten years old there are computer or technology monitoring systems that are available one example is goguardian it might be expensive i don't know exactly that part of it but there are systems that allow the teachers to see what is going on on a student's screen at all times so that if they happen to be by their desk or if there's a support teacher in the room who is able to observe that can see oh the student is not following the material right now they're on youtube they're doing something different and i just think that [Music] giving the

233students that extra level of oversight in a way i think can help them because they are too young in a lot of instances to make these good decisions for themselves like i said their brains are not fully developed as a parent as an adult i know that i'm on my phone all the time i have trouble controlling myself with technology at times and so expecting our kids to do that without some sort of outside parameters or supports is probably unrealistic so thank you [Applause] yeah please have a motion to close the public session all those in favor any opposed police have a motion for five-minute recess any of all those in favor any opposed i will reconvene in five minutes put on the table tonight most of these issues if not all of them are

234in the day-to-day operations of the school district which are in dr davis's wheelhouse we are asking dr davis to probably re-watch this public comment session take take more copious notes and report back to us on all these issues but just to summarize um you know the aea brought up several issues regarding the school regarding school security while we're not going to address this tonight i understand that you have a meeting with the aea and you'll be discussing that with them very shortly i would encourage the aea to reach out to the school board through email following that and letting us know if things have been clarified or if there are still questions or concerns and we can keep that conversation going a lot of conversations about the bluest eye seems like honestly that there's more

235common ground than not um i think that um there's room still room for discussion i think some good points were brought up by people who both support and oppose using that particular book and as mr burke said it's a conversation it will continue and we're not perfect and mr burke and the school leadership will continue to find ways to create space for parents to have conversations with the school district about what students are reading and watching and learning in the classroom i think that's in everybody's best interest and we will continue to work towards improving that i would ask dr davis to ask his team to look at ways in which they can do that and report back to the board on what they found that also goes for the health curriculum i think everything

236i just said about reading books can go for the health curriculum as well i thought the student i didn't catch his name well wilson wilkinson wilkins made some very good points about the bell schedule again that's the day-to-day operations of the school i would ask dr davis and his team to consider the points that were made tonight and respond to them what are the rationale for what you're doing do you agree or disagree with the points that he made maybe reach out to him have a conversation if he truly does represent other students then that's a valuable conversation i think that you could find space to have um regarding guns and gun violence um you know i would say in terms of harming teachers we've never discussed that it hasn't come up for discussion i'll

237leave that at that in terms of any other legislation you know i would encourage people to it's great to come to school board meetings and we'll take those into consideration i think talking about gun safety is just as important as talking about some of the other issues that we've talked about tonight there's definitely space in classroom for students and teachers to teach about them and i'm sure teachers will have in light of what's happening they find space as professionals to talk to kids about those and i'm sure they will continue to do so but some of the issues that were brought before the board tonight are not necessarily in our purview and you know really those should be addressed to other public officials namely our legislators um regarding uh i don't know there were some

238comments made tonight about not getting back to emails and there was another uh some other comments about sexual harassment um some of these issues are tied up in litigation right now the board takes takes advice from our solicitor responds to people in the public when it's appropriate and then hands it off to our solicitors once it's in the hands of the solicitors you know we take their advice and it's my understanding that some of these issues are being discussed at that level and i the board at this point has no further comment on that in terms of sexual harassment if you know i would encourage anybody if they feel that deeply about anything happening that's completely inappropriate and they should go to the police about that do you want to respond to that in particular

239i mean student safety in the school some of the comments that were made are things that definitely need to be addressed so if you have that concern and you've already reached out to whether it be the school counselor and or an administrator and haven't had follow-through please please please reach out to me i have had a conversation with a parent recently and then that is under investigation and uh there is some piece you know there was some comments in regards to hiv and protocols and procedures we continue to refine and define um based on some of the comments that were shared there's some things they definitely need to discuss with the administrative team and then our hiv specialists to do a majority of the interviews but as you said i'm going to review this board

240meeting and go a little bit deeper and make sure that some of these things can be addressed that need to be addressed and and and to whatever degree you can the people that left their names in their address please follow up with them especially some of the more serious allegations if you're not aware of those then you obviously need to get to the bottom of those and find out what's going on there and then finally some of the again the last comments about trigger warnings parents for education support for student screen time i think those are all things that we need we need to get better at it and we're not you know there's a lot of key people people that were here tonight so i know mr burke was listening i know our technology

241director is here um those things that are shared whether you share in a public forum like this at the board where you share parents reach out to us and caregivers or students we do review and consider them and also look at our practices so i would encourage people to still continue to reach out follow the chain of demand but also there's levels up so when things get to a high and level sometimes you have to skip some steps but we are working to make sure we're providing is a safe school environment and parents are educated and have some availability we are for example the chromebooks are staying home um i know a blast went out from the technology director regards to how to monitor your your students screen time if you let them use that

242device over over the summer and there are things that we have in-house to help monitoring too so it's just a comment in regards to many things that were said we're going to be reviewing and considering all the things that were shared excuse me update to add to that we did add a particular product to our purchases for this year we did a pilot there were a few teachers that were already part of that that addressed the concerns of the parent specifically for teacher focus and focused education for those devices to keep them from straight from educational process so we'll go into detail with them that's mr chisholm he is our technology director who just made that comment because you can see them on camera there's been a lot shared this evening so and we want

243to go through and review it all and digest it so well like i said we have a lot of work to do and a lot of conversations that need to be had amongst ourselves with other stakeholders and let's get to it please have a motion to return all in favor any opposed meeting adjourned you