001jersey open foreign meeting act in 1975 the ottawa board of education transmitted notice of this meeting scheduled at 6 30 in the audubon junior senior high school auditorium to the retrospect newspaper and the borough clerk and by postings on the audubon public school district website and at the main pine street entrance of the junior senior high school mrs ron case roll call please mr blumenstein here mrs cox here mr gilmore here mrs davis here mr ryan mrs patrick here mr miller accent mr pruitt here mr simpson yeah and mrs scheider yeah thank you thank you mr miller to let us know in advance he would not be in attendance tonight um whereas the senator byron bear open public's meeting act requires all meetings of the audubon board of education to help the public there are
002certain types of matters that may be lawfully discussed in executive session meaning without the public being permitted to attend we will enter into executive session to discuss the matters outlined in tonight's agenda it will take approximately 20 minutes now please have a motion to go to executive session second all those in favor any opposed that's good okay any any opposed will be given the flag salute [Music] pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice realm we'll begin tonight's meeting with recognition of the students of the month for may and june one for may the rest from june dr davis turn it over to you it's always nice excuse me it's always nice to be back
003in person so it looks like we have at least four students of the month here you recognize in person who are going to recognize you all we will start with the slideshow what i'll do is ask for students call your nomination or your recognition and then at the end i'm going to picture with all the students a month just up here in front it's usually fun when we have pre-k all the way to 12 to see them from all different sizes so with no further ado we'll start with our first our first is a repeat because we had a technical glitch and uh had the wrong picture up so i don't know if andrew's here come on down if you are if not we're still going to read it out loud in seventh grade may
004student of the month is andrew petty andrew pettit was nominated as a seventh grade student of the month in met however a mistake was made at our last meeting and we apologize for that we would like to honor him at this time andrew is consistently has consistently been a star student this month for this year's math and language and language me start here andrew has consistently been a star student this year in both math and language joints he has gained confidence and has infiltrated his confidence into all of his work participating in class completing all assignments working collaboratively with his classmates maintaining good notes and reference materials along with having a great sense of humor are only a few of the qualities that andrew should be commended for his teacher is proud of anne who
005every day looks forward to seeing him become an active member of the borderline high school community congratulations andrew [Applause] okay three kindergarten students mateo is nominated as a pre-school student-run matea has only been in school for a short amount of time but has made so much progress in the classroom he is both sweet and kind and makes his teachers so proud we look forward to matteo's continued growth next year congratulations the kindergarten student of the month is jerry mustaro and i don't think i saw him i will gladly read his comments jerry mostaro is nominated as the kindergarten student of the month jerry is a good student who is careful about his work he has done very well with his reading writing and math he takes the time to do his best jerry is friendly
006to his classmates and has a great sense of humor he always has a story to tell and is excited about sharing jerry has done an awesome job in kindergarten and is ready for a new adventure in first grade congratulations [Applause] and our first grade student of the month is cecilia mccann is she here this evening okay i will happily read her comments as well cecilia mccann is nominated as the first grade student of the month she has shown a tremendous amount of earns this year not only academically but socially she has really shown and come out of her shell this year she is participating in class having fun with her friends and is just an overall great student she is a wonderful role model for her peers and her teacher is very proud of her
007she has worked very hard this school year we wish her the best of luck next year in second grade we know she will too great [Applause] joseph williams is nominated as the second grade student of the month joseph is a hard-working student and has demonstrated so much growth throughout second grade he is a very mature young man who always does his best he has questions when he needs help and is always there to lend a helping hand to others great job joseph [Applause] alexandra perrone is nominated as a third grade student of the month alex is a respectful alex is respectful to teachers and peers she is always lending a helping hand to classmates in need by offering assistance oh i'm so be careful is as the third grade student of the month alex is
008respectful to teachers and peers she is always lending a helping hand to classmates in need by offering assistance she takes ownership by being an active learner she is constantly participating and asking questions during lessons alex shows her achievement by completing assignments and classroom responsibilities accurately and on time she shows responsibility by taking the initiative in all situations congratulations to alex we are proud of you in all your achievements amanda drummond is nominated as the 4th grade student of the month come on amanda exemplified roar expectations this school year she showed responsibility by attending all of our afternoon google meet instruction sessions during these weeks she was actively engaging class discussions and was always eager to share her strategies and thinking amanda showed ownership by revising assignments based on teacher comments in addition whenever she had
009a question regarding her work she took the initiative to reach out for support she showed achievement by not only turning in all of her assignments on time but by putting forth her best effort she showed respect by being open to suggestions from both teachers and students also she politely helped classmates when they needed assistance her teacher is so proud of the growth that she has made during this school year amanda is a hard-working student who embraced this unique school year and is very deserving of this award congratulations amanda [Applause] michael siebold is nominated as the fifth grade student of the month michael has done a tremendous job this year adapting to both remote and in-person instruction michael joined virtual meets eagerly and participated and engaged with peers and teachers in the classroom his academic efforts
010demonstrate ownership and responsibility michael has been working hard to achieve his goals and is succeeding he puts his best foot forward and his positive attitude exemplifies that of a true mountain lion his teacher states it has been a pleasure to be one of michael's teachers this year and she is proud to nominate this young man as the fifth grade student of the month congratulations [Applause] brian nguyen is nominated as his sixth grade student his teachers state that ryan has been a pleasure to teach all here he's maintained a great work ethic and a positive demeanor while learning at home and in the classroom while in school he was the first to greet everyone in the morning with a big smile and a ready to learn attitude he took ownership of his own learning by participating
011in every class discussion and completing all of his assignments ryan has integrity for he is someone who consistently stands up for what is right we're so proud of ryan and we know he'll be a great he'll be great in seventh grade congratulations [Applause] good evening everyone we said that valeria is a seventh grader recent development is nominated as the seventh grade student of the month all year marisa has been coming to class prepared and ready to work she completes assignments without hesitation and does not procrastinate which has been a large part of her great success marisa always participates and is an active member of the classroom she is friendly with all other students in the class and brings positive energy every day it is no wonder that marisa was inducted into the national junior honor
012society this past spring we are sure that she will continue to accomplish great things at audubon high school congratulations [Applause] the eighth grade student of the month and it's riley you're k back is probably here read the nomination i'll give her the award another time riley your cabin is nominated as the eighth grade student of the month riley's nominating teacher states that she has been one of the top performing students all year not only does she do well on her assignments and assessments but she is a constant participant in the classroom which makes the entire class so much more engaging for everyone she is always focused picks up slack when the class gets quiet and does not shy away from tough decisions and discussions she has consistently worked to get better all year and her
013teacher is extremely proud of her next year you can find a student athlete on the field hockey and softball fields keep working hard conor paine is nominated for 9th grade student of the month all right he has been nominated for a scholarship he has excelled tremendously in his math class and has earned aids every marketing period conor is quick to help out the entire class as they work through challenging problems he is also one of the most active participants in class despite being a remote learner conor's engagement and the instruction should be commended he is so bright and offers so much to everyone around him his teacher says connor is such a true pleasure to teach [Applause] congratulations isabelle in a sento is nominated as the 10th grade student okay well izzy is an exemplary
014student she works hard every day in class and participates in discussions both verbally and with online questions she's always willing to answer questions and is very helpful to others as he is respectful and caring she always wishes everyone a nice day at the end of class her hard work dedication and kind nature make her deserving a student of the month thank you izzy for always just being yourself her teacher states we are very proud of you and lucky to have you with aubun high school congratulations our junior quest is cheville gonzalez she's been nominated for the 11th grade student of the month she's kind smart and funny and it's obvious that she enjoys school she effortlessly brightens up the classroom with her smile and personality she works hard and assists her fellow classmates through all
015this thing in school she's also a very good friend he gets along with everyone and he's a fun fact she's been the student of the month every year since seventh grade this is a true testament to how wonderful she is the best of luck with you in september as you start cherylin gazilla sherwin is nominated as the 12th grade student of the month charlene is being recognized for her scholarship and service every single day charlene goes to class ready and eager to learn she takes her classes very seriously and all of her hard work paid off as she ended the school year with all age in addition to her studies cherylin takes giving back to the community seriously as well she's extremely active member of the interact club and a girl scout who has been
016working towards her gold award charlotte makes a positive impact no matter where she is we know she's a bright future ahead and she will surely be missed at ottawa high school we wish you all the best [Applause] so if i could have all the students of the month come up we're going to get a group shot so you can come up close too if you want to get a shot but um all right [Music] [Applause] those that are here for the student of the month presentation now would be your time to escape but feel free to stay for the meeting portion business yeah please have a motion to approve the minutes from the june 9th public and executive session and the june 28 special meeting session roll call please mrs cox yes this is davis
017yes mr gilmore yes mr prue yeah mr ryan yes this is shivo yes mr simpson yeah this is patrick yeah mr yes uh before we start i received a couple emails after our last meeting that online the video was a little difficult to hear at times i will try to speak loud and clear without blowing out the ears of the few that are in the audience next we will move on to public participation we recognize the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters and community interest in order to permit the free fair and orderly expression of such comment the board has set aside two portions of this board meeting for public comment on any school or school district issue that
018a member of the public feels may be of interest to the residents of the school district for the first portion this portion public comments are invited on matters pertaining only to agenda items for tonight's meeting for the second portion which will occur at the end of the meeting public comments are invited on all matters pertaining to the school district participants should announce their name address and any group they may represent if applicable the board reserves the right to limit a public discussion public discussion of a topic can be limited to 15 minutes 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 you can reference our bylaws and our policy manner for more information
019on this on our policy 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 this 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 comments sessions are an opportunity for citizens to share their opinions and remarks with the board it is not a question and answer session the board may or may not respond to public comments at the time they are made and is no 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 individual who may be subject
020of public comments including district employees shall retain all rights against defamation and slander according to the laws of new jersey does anybody have a comment on an agenda item for tonight's meeting okay seeing none we will move on to the committee reports there are no actions to speak of for governance tonight we have not met recently i would imagine we'll meet one time before september um so there is nothing to report out of governance does anybody have any questions or comments for the governance committee okay next we'll move on to operations i'd like to recognize mrs cox thank you mr blufenstein we have not had a meeting since our last board meeting our next scheduled meeting is august 4th as you can see on the agenda there were some safety drills that were conducted prior
021to the end of school we do have a resolution to approve professional services as listed as the agenda we are also um i just want to recognize mrs randy's mr burb and mrs messenger for all their work in regards to some of the annual grants it takes some time and effort to go through and complete them and get them ready traditionally there's time that's involved in regards to when they're released and when they move out and they'll be updates to these but i want to thank them for their efforts and all the collaboration that they have to do in order to get those done may i please have a motion to approve items 1 through 11 under operations any questions or comments on items one through eleven mrs ron case roll call please mrs davis
022yes mr gilmore yes mr prep yes mr ryan yes mrs yeah mr simpson yes this is free turkey mrs cox yes mr bloom is signed yes motions thank you next i'd like to recognize miss shiva for education [Music] we have not had a community meeting um tonight's agenda there's a mission to improve the senate received tuition contracts which are calculated as for new jersey's department of education guidelines through the mounting for school district the 20-21-22 school year uh approval for attendance for some staff members to attend conferences workshops also a motion to improve the state of new jersey state board of education list of religious holidays committing students absence from school for the 2122 school year and admission um i'll say it but i'll end up saying it again um motion six and eight you
023know it's heartwarming to see as we start to plan for the return to school for full day in person construction in the fall and as they you know it's nice to see our agenda continuing to show and showcase that and i'm really looking forward and it's nice to have marching band back on and ready to go and uh the use of our facilities and it's nice to have some of the students in the buildings now and continuing that as we ended out the school year so i'd just like to recognize that we will be returning full day in person september 7th may i please have a motion to approve items 1-8 any questions or comments i have a just a question on six the bus costs what are we paying for this yeah yeah and
024in a comment that's good to see um a lot of times these costs are passed on to the students which you know i get i get times are tight but it's good to see that the school is stepping up and you know supporting students and paying for those transportation calls so that's just a comment from me um okay so we have a motion to approve writers one through eight any other questions or comments on those items okay mrs ron case roll call please mr gilmore yes mr prue yes mr ryan yes this is mr simpson yes this is retrica mrs cox yes this is davis yes because there are women's side yes questions thank you next i'd like to recognize mrs davis for human resources thank you mr gruenstein the first thing that i would
025like to address on the agenda is some corrections so let me flip through here and make sure i get all the items in red so page 19 number 24 age 19 number 24. there is a longevity payment for um aides who are entering their 16th year so there is an adjustment there for ms geisler and then if you turn the page age 20 for miss marshall miss macentonio miss quinn and then there is also a change in title for mr lingo page 21 all the way at the bottom number 34 uh dan growing the contractual rate should be 1814 dollars and 55 cents if you flip the page to page 22 uh still the same item but all the way at the bottom of that list mr stubbs there's an adjustment in that stipend as
026well it's 5867.55 page 23. uh this is a continuation of item 35. miss marshall is listed as the website manager the stipend is 2070.55 bear with me i win again with the most item numbers on the agenda um number 55 on page 29 should be struck number 55 on page 29 should be struck dr davis does that you only missed one this time of year and for any uh members of the public uh typically the may agenda is very robust and then june we pick up a couple but because of the negotiating agreement between the board and the aea there's motions that are repeated on this agenda so it's very long so uh maybe mrs davis will have a shorter list next time but on page 18 item 21 melanie boards up is actually a
02712 month employee not a 10-month employee so close and for the uh the people that are joining us on youtube live all the agendas in-house have these corrections in red so and they're just corrections and i guess i'll do another comment since it's my turn i would like to recognize again though the hard work of the business office and then also my secretary so chris flynn out of the business office and then obviously heavy ron case the va and then my secretary louis craig for going through this agenda and doing their best to make sure that all these motions are correct um if for some reason there's any errors on here we will make some adjustments in august but we do believe we we got them all right but sometimes we don't but thank you
028for those efforts it takes a lot of time to make sure not only this paper is correct but all of our systems are correct as well so thank you for that work so under human resources we um would like to note the appointment of barbie leonard as we have an avenue principal we would like to welcome her we have several appointments math coach special education appointments and part-time custodian you'll see mrs burns appointment as the administrative assistant we do have some resignations miss mabos with keys we have a special education aide miss fisher and our social worker this is posadas we do wish those individuals well in their future endeavors also appointments of academic coaches guidance curriculum committee instructional counsel summer student maintenance positions also a pilot program of the computer science club at mansion
029there will be a nursing practicum appointment and also our teacher field experience students coming over few substitute teachers approved and mr dyer is approved for summer technology duties and ms marshall um no it's not we've struck that motion it's always up to the last minute um human resources did meet this evening as we always do prior to the board meeting um and the only other thing that i wanted to note um is that the negotiations team has got a meeting with the audubon administrators association we have had two meetings so far and our next meeting is scheduled for monday july 19th yes thank you mr blumenstein you'll note that on the agenda there are contract approvals for both mrs ron case and for dr davis these are um contract rules that happen each year it's
030a little bit different than the education association or the administrators association those are approved every three years but that is just a general course of business for the board to approve mrs ron case and dr davis under the current negotiated terms for them did anyone have any questions okay thank you thanks mac please have a motion to approve items 1 through 20 under human resources any questions or comments on 1 through 20. roll call please mr crew yes mr ryan yes mrs shivo mr simpson yes mrs b trickett yeah mrs cox yeah mrs davis yes mr gilmore yes mr blemenstein yes thank you please have a motion to approve items 21 for the 40. any questions or comments on 21 through 40. roll call please mr ryan yes mrs shivo mr mrs davis yes mr
031gilmore yes mr craig yeah mr blumenthal yes on the next set should 56 become 57 okay may i please have a motion to approve items 41-55 roll call are any questions or comments on 41-50 roll call please mrs shiro mr simpson yeah mrs buchurka this is cox this is davis yes mr gilmore yes mr prue yes mr ryan here mr bloom is signed yes passed thank you moving on to reports there are no hips to report dr davis your superintendent's report yeah just comment in regards to the hiv there are no district reports for july and then also the subsequent to june next board meeting we will present the ssds report that's reported by biannually not only talks about the hidden and violence vandalism type actions but then also the programs that are put in
032place for the education of our students as far as superintendents report um the first part and if our tech guys and gals can put on the powerpoint i'm going to pop up for a second but the first would be and i said it already we are really excited to get ready for the reopening on september 7th for a full day in person there are still conversations happening in regards to the hottest topic is face mask i did send out a communication last week to the community that gave them the opportunity to make some comments in a google a google docs survey and right now i think we're up to about 50 different responses and out of those 50 responses 80 of them actually address face masks uh i'll do a more formal report next uh
033next board meeting in regards to the the numbers and what's relay it's a complicated decision it's a complicated situation and scenario there's different pieces and there's different thoughts in regards to students that have the ability to be vaccinated and they're 12 and older whether or not they would be mandated to wear masks in school or not there's questions about vaccinated staff members there's questions about pre-k through really sixth grade students that do not have the ability right at this time to get vaccinated there's different articles that the public has shared with me whether it be through jama or ama talking about the pros and cons so that conversation will continue we had a pandemic response team meeting last week and it was really the number one topic for us to kind of discuss and to
034be deliberated on and to consider and there's still a lot to consider tomorrow afternoon i will be meeting with the county superintendents the candy county superintendents and it is the topic and it's the main topic on that agenda and i believe the department of health the campaign county department health officials will be joining us too but what i can say firmly uh is that we will be returning to a full day in person on september 7th and we will be listening to the community but i'm also taking in safety and security of both our students and staff when we make some decisions in regards to face masks and the last piece that i want to do is i just want to let everybody know that next thursday evening communication will go out to the public
035to let people know there'll be a photo montage presentation that i will be building along with bob garrison the architect that's working and assisting us with the referendum really talking about the story of the referendum and why those items are on there and the picture tells and tell a lot so i'll flip through that real quick just to show you uh some samples of what that presentation will look like it will be a zoom presentation we know we get a real good participation and it's also a nice forum to save and will be updated on the on the district website where the referendum is referenced so i'll flip through some just quick pictures thank you gentlemen for setting that up so i know it's difficult there's a little bit of reflection here but this will
036not happen when we are on zoom it'll be a nice clear chris picture you know some of the things that we'll be doing and we're talking about is site work and pieces that need to be done the bottom picture you can see some of the work that needs to be done over by the the football stadium there's other pieces thank you for that all right there we go and this is just something i said there's gonna be a lot more but uh this is the exterior renovations some of the things that have to be done on the high school brick point um some roof work that needs to be done we talking about timelines and when they were last addressed um a lot of what's in the referendum really has to do about making sure
037the shell of our buildings are safe and secure so we can continue instruction there's some interior pieces where you can see the cafeteria here in the major senior high there's some things that need to be updated also the walk-in freezer that needs to be updated and i know right now it's not great on this picture like i said next thursday join in or if you can you can always play the zoom later some of the the equipment in the cafeteria that really needs to be replaced and if you could see that picture right now you would know yeah i think it needs to be replaced 20 30 years old anyway that's just a taste so i'm trying to get people revved up to join me next week to see a little bit more there'll be
038more presentations in regards to the referendum and there'll be some more pieces for the community the pta meetings the open houses some things with the audubon's fathers and all the other community groups too so everybody's kind of aware of what the need is it's really about our children our schools and our community and keeping it strong so i just wanted to give you a little teaser for next week all right thank you dr davis next we'll move on to continue our reporting how there's nothing to report right now for camden county ed services mrs davis anything for school boards okay um i have one thing related to that mr miller was unable to attend tonight he did share an email with everybody but he was looking forward to sharing that with everyone and i think
039ultimately trying to um you know start a conversation on some of these things so i'm going to read a couple things that he wrote just to put them into the record and then i think what we'll do is um you know assign these topics to the appropriate committees most people might be the education committee but um and we'll have them look into it and joe can be a part of that conversation and then we'll report back out but at a recent county meeting he came across some information about mental health courses that new jersey school boards has been developing specifically for freshmen so i think the pandemic brought a lot of mental health issues to light so um i he mentioned that that's not the sole focus of it but you know moving forward as
040we come out of the pain i mean it's important to focus on mental health for kids making these transitions and so i think that's something the education committee can probably look into and uh related to that uh methods and strategies to assist um incoming students that are coming into a new building so in our case sixth graders going into seventh grade um i think maybe also probably eighth graders going into ninth grade but we can discuss what those transitions look like um i think also in our with our case mattie from students coming into you know a whole new situation so um i think there's a lot to discuss there we've been discussing those things so um i would say that education committee will pick up on both of those and i you know i
041want to thank joe for uh sharing that with us and we've had anything i've just had that we have an administrative meeting uh you know retreats over the summer and we'll be meeting next week and one of the conversations will be some of those transitions when we ended the year it was great because the community employment regards the kindergartners you know some of our kindergartners never attended school right they remain remote so for them when they come into the building even as first graders it will be their first experience so this mrs ledger just uh to prove we welcome uh on board um it'll be one of the things that we need to do and and to talk about but then also our our second graders to third grade um so there's a there's a
042lot to talk about and really to get the kids i know the high school team met this morning or yesterday morning to talk about some celebrations that they can do and kickoffs for the return of the school so the kids are really excited to get back so um we are having those conversations and it's also nice that school boards is recognizing the importance for social emotional learning but then also transitions for students um and family members in regards to being that hybrid model that we went through all last year so we're going to continue to have those conversations and we're going to get ready for september 7th some of those things will happen before because we need to open our buildings a little bit before so some of the students can be in the building
043and thank you any comments from board members mrs davis i just wanted to thank all of the individuals that were involved with the three graduations i was able to attend them along with several other board members and they were just absolutely lovely events and we were so fortunate to have excellent weather whoever scheduled that for the high school thank you very much we were it was such a wonderful evening and it was so good to be able to do all those events in person so kudos to the organizers of the graduations anyone else i would just like to thank everyone for participating in our retreat although i was thinking this week it wasn't really a retreat it would be nice to go away sometime yeah that was that was nice but i thought last night
044was productive um good conversation and i think one of the things that i really take away from that discussion last night was how well we work together we don't always agree i think that we hash things out we talk we discuss we deliberate we spend time but at the end of the day you know we all really show respect to each other and i know that's not the case on every board of education you hear some real nightmare stories which i think are outliers but it you know not everywhere um do do people get together in a room and talk to each other that way and i want to thank everyone for that um i think that uh we will take the draft that we came up with last night the goals that we set
045for ourselves and maybe have them formally approved at the next meeting in august and having some time to reflect from last night's meeting i said this last night i think it's important that um you know we don't we obviously don't put those away but we're going to have to continue to work on those what are the action items you know what are we actually going to do what questions are we going to ask how are we going to ensure that progress is being made so that's a discussion that you know we'll keep going and hopefully we'll build into every board meeting moving forward so i want to thank everyone for their time okay any other comments okay we're going to move on to the next public participation section um everything stands from the statement that
046we read at the front of the meeting this is the second portion so public comments are invited on any matter that pertain to the school district i want to remind individual speakers that a topic will be limited to 15 minutes and individual speakers will be limited to three when there's about 30 seconds left with your time if you use that much time i'll just you know politely let you know that there's about 30 seconds remaining for your time to make a comment with that being said would anyone from the public like to make a comment please come forward to the microphone yeah probably the top [Music] thank you very much we'll make sure that everyone gets a copy of that for those that are viewing at home a comment was made regarding of air filtration
047systems that are being sold to different schools and an article that addresses the pros and cons of these different systems and the science behind you know what's uh adequate and what's not thank you very much for that any other comments can you hear me i'm vanessa whale i'm streaming um it's nice to see everybody's faces finally i'm here obviously well for a couple reasons this time maybe a massive situation um and i've said some studies and dr davis and i have been communicating a lot so ultimately i want the same thing best for the kids um so we'll wait to hear whatever happens again when are we expecting to find out what the plans are i know a lot of districts are saying august 4th for several reasons just planning for us as parents whether
048it be letting them go back to school homeschooling going to another district my other concern is with the threat of another lockdown you know whether it's a rumor or not it can happen at any time what's the plan b for that you know are you going to go back to remote learning so that's a major question the other thing i sent in the survey one of the my concerns was i know a lot of the schools are going to be promoting vaccines and stuff who's that information given to who's going to be asking those questions how are we going to handle segregation how we can handle discrimination against kids who don't or can keep vaccines that's a big important to me um that part is separate from my next question [Music] um you know the
049major concern for me right now like i said is when are we gonna know if masks are optional and what plan b is in all three of the schools i have kids at two schools um my other question is more of a curriculum question i know it's probably brought up or i'm sure he's already heard about it and i know we as parents don't necessarily you guys don't have to give us a copy of the curriculum but i'm requesting one my major concern is the critical race theory and also the lgbtq mandate part of the curriculum that i guess governor murphy has recently passed i'm not opposed to either war but i would like options and i would like it to be considered maybe elective i know at the beginning of the year they had
050a day of silence for somebody a high schooler that had written a letter i know there's issues with the lgbt community i know they they need help and we're here to help them but i would like it to be an elective just like they did with that would that day whoever wanted to be silent that day was silent that day whoever didn't didn't so i guess that's you know my major concern at this point is you know what we're teaching our children because i'm going to have a serious problem and i'm assuming those people are with the crt being taught that's going to cause a lot of problems in schools it's going to cause a lot of bullying in about 30 seconds so that's it thank you and thank you guys for putting up with
051mine thank you um the board at this particular time will not comment on any of those most of the issues that you raise with masks the opening anything related to vaccines and the curriculum they all relate to the day-to-day operations of the districts which ultimately is up to the decision of the administration dr davis do you wish to comment on any of those at this particular time well i just want to you know thank this as well for our active participation in the school district she is a member of the pandemic response to thank you for your service um we're having conversations in regards to the opening you know the goal would be to meet and have information out to the families in early august in regards to any of the mass mandates as far
052as closings of schools we monitor right and and our actions throughout the 2021 school year really mirrored and followed along with recommendations from the department of health uh depending upon you know the levels and i you know we reported weekly to the community they come out on thursday so even last week when i when i sent that out i'd let everybody know what our levels were we were green and then we popped to a yellow tomorrow usually it's released between afternoon will be up and you know we'll continue to monitor that as we go through the summer and we'll have to pivot potentially you know the plan is to return full day in person we'll have to see where the levels are so those are some things that are difficult to answer as far as
053the curriculum related things you know this will always follow through and follow the nj sls which is the new jersey student learning standards if you have specifics and questions like that you can always reach out to me and or mr burks in the audience to the curriculum director and i think there's a lot of misunderstanding in regards to what that curriculum really means so if these questions are happening within our community are they going to be important to do parent nights just to keep you abreast and aware of and there's some conversations to do some of that even prior to the start of the next school year so it's important to be vocal it's important to be active it's important to let us know so if you have questions so we can address them like
054big comments before in regards to facebook i do not read our facebook posts so if you have questions or you have concerns please reach out directly and i think i'm fairly good at responding in a timely manner so if i don't have the answer we'll find it and uh and search and book so thank you yeah and on on that note i would also encourage members of the public to you know you don't always have to go to dr davis you know if it's curriculum there's mr burp the principals of each high school should be able to give you access to that information as well so it's always a good idea to start with your building and work your way up um you know through that through the system um okay so we do have
055any other comments from the public um could you please read that into um while we're getting ready for that just a reminder to everybody that uh we still will read comments into the record but they must be sent to mrs ron case prior to the meeting so we do have one go ahead yes we do have one from mr scott alexander he writes do you have a plan for returning to full in-person school if so what is it will mass be required to be worn in school would or excuse me we would like the board to hear our voice but can't be present at the july meeting okay so i think we've addressed that correct uh if there's any other questions or comments please follow up through email any other questions or comments mr burke
056hi everyone so um how many minutes do i get again great right for you one yeah i know so um i don't know if three minutes is enough time to thank all of the teachers that are involved in the summer bridge program um you know just so that everyone is aware um and unfortunately they're not here right now to hear this but but the work that they're doing is truly amazing they have really come together and set up a program where every day these students they're of course getting a little bit of ela a little bit of math but they're also getting a counseling session and they're also getting either steam or they're getting music just so you know i mean some of the things that i've seen walking around are absolutely amazing i've seen
057students that are building little squirrel feeders i've seen students that are learning about rhythm by using water balloons i mean what these teachers are doing is they're really putting joy in education so i just wanted to come up here and publicly thank them i sent out a thing to the district thanking them but it's just it's just not enough so that's all i just want to thank them thank you thank you any other comments okay we have a motion to close the public participation all those in favor any opposed okay we do have need to go to executive session may i please have a motion to move into executive session all those in favor any opposed the executive session could take at least 60 minutes maybe more action may be taken and again just as
058at the front of the meeting we are going into executive session for reasons that are marked on the agenda as allowed by law thank you and i would just comment for the public we will not be coming back to the youtube so we're not going to leave you on pause for the next hour or so um but any action that's taken will be in the minutes for anyone who wants to review thank you you