Board Meeting 1-25-21

001good so i have to change okay this doesn't have all of the stuff oh does it oh yeah it doesn't all right i'm so not used to using it though at this time call to order the new um public the new jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which time any business affecting their interests is discussed and acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act and board of education policy 0162 the board of education of the borough of bound brook has caused notice of this meeting to be posted in the board office and at the barnbrook high school and mailed her fast to the courier news foundbrook burrowclerk southbound brook board of

002education and any person who has requested individual notice and paid the required committee please stand for the plan i pledge allegiance to the plan of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and [Music] justice she is not here today she emailed me late saying she could not be here she's there i believe she's online mr [Music] here um all right well we're i guess the first couple of weeks into the new year um i'm personally happy my son is very happy that school is in session um things are i'm really hopeful for 2021 and i thank everyone that does show up and uh educate our children all right first off i'd like to um i like to congratulate coach jen daryn she

003is the national coach of the year our girls basketball coach so i'd like to make mention of that first uh under my coach's report she found out on friday i know she was given the award in the gym surrounded by her teammates and everything else so congratulations to coach jeff that's awesome [Applause] so i'd just like to go through some some fast things revolving around cloven currently right now we have five staff members that are covered positive we expect three to be returning uh sometime this week we have five that are on quarantine so right now we are down 10 staff members currently for in person we have six students that are equivalent positive and 23 that are in the quarantine right now central west has the lowest percent positivity rate positivity rate in the

004state it's uh it's the lowest by a full two percent somerset county is also one of the lowest positivity rates in all of the state um we have made some fast changes here uh after the last week um snowball should have started tomorrow but we'll have a virtual day tomorrow because of the predicted ice that we're supposed to be getting um tomorrow so again the snowstorm well it's supposed to be a snowstorm it has changed multiple times over the last few days um and even today over the last few hours the prediction of one to two inches to three to six inches to about a tenth of an inch of ice so we decided to go to a virtual school day tomorrow um and try and save the remaining snow days that we have because

005we do have you know all of january but little january but we have all february yet to go and of course we do have spring um we don't know um you know what weather impacts we're gonna have so we're trying to hold out to as many days as we can because as in bamboo over the years we know anything could happen um with coven uh we made change we're going to dably covered forms for parents so parents will be filling out the covert forum daily one of our other changes is that parents have to fill this out daily if they don't fill it out three times um or more um we're probably going to move the child to all virtual until this pandemic or until things loosen up a little bit more just for the

006health and safety of our students we have been trying to be ultra cautious this past week since we've come back i gave the directive that any students with any sort of illness were to be sent home and then we would clean those classrooms um that has caused a little bit of uh hindsight that has caused a little bit of a panic um so i take full responsibility for that so i have directed that we only do it for covic kids now so hopefully that will redirect some people not to panic as much again i'm trying to be ultra cautious trying to make sure that we clean the buildings as best we can trying to keep all sickness out of the building unfortunately uh people read into that that every time we were sending a kid

007home or cleaning the classroom that it was coveted related which wasn't the case so we have to make some some adjustments there additionally um i know one of the things that i've heard um that i would like to address real quick is about staff members working virtually right now currently due to health concerns we do have five staff members that are continuing to work virtually that is one administrator and for teachers that are working virtually into health concerns so with that my last piece is when we come back on wednesday i've directed all elementary schools to open their doors at 7 50 a.m to expedite bringing kids in um obviously with the addition of daily comfort forums we'll need some extra time to make sure everybody has their daily coded form done when they're doing

008their temperature checks and things like that so i've directed the elementary schools to open up early so we can handle that influx and make sure parents can get from building to building so that is all i have for rate the second and i am going to move on to students of the month and we are going to start with lamont lamont annex with dr s hi good evening congratulations thank you and now we'll go over to lafayette with mrs clark blackwelder um sophia diaz and we'll head over to smally with mr edwards good evening everyone our green three student of the month anthony giannano our grade four student of the month brian technology our grade five student of the month leonella concha and grade six student of the month valerie select congratulations and we'll head

009over to community middle school with mr santa's irma community middle school's got to recognize marley francois and martinez of the month and we'll move over to the high school with mr smith hi good evening um our students of the month crusader citizens of the month for january simon fittermack wilson solis valletta siena tenor and brianna tirado congratulations and now we'll move over to our um gem awards and we'll start with the mountain lion addicts with dr s extra um creates creative google slides and educational games and shares them with other staff um ms pemberton always thinks of both her and personal virtual students okay thank you congratulations and then we're going to go over to lafayette and mrs clark lafayette's gem for the month of january is robin griffin um she's not only a huge

010support for myself but she has really gone above and beyond for all the staff when we've been virtual in school with all the different platforms she really has been a huge support system so thank you robin and smalling with mr edwards miss peony has worked diligently to prepare her students both virtually and the person due to staff changes in the beginning of the year there were some days his peony worked with the new building-based sub daily she also had the guide and build a rapport with her student teacher she did all of this without complaining and being a team player she also has to move into another classroom to teach her mediation so middle earth can use her room for their students to eat lunch again no complaints just making it work and thinking about

011the students she's enrolled in the school of educated master's education reading literacy specialization program at georgia court here she will develop and implement two literacy coaching and professional development activities appropriate for her students this has been a difficult year for all but ms pionee is accepting the challenges and fighting through adversity i'm proud to announce our january gem of the month to our fourth grade teacher is nicole congratulations now we'll move over to community middle school with mr sam surma the community middle school gym award recipient for the month of january is kps mrs diaz consistently goes above and beyond to ensure that our students are learning supported and have the opportunities to do well mrs diaz is an excellent uh does an excellent job maintaining high levels of expectations in her class as well

012as high levels of support ms diaz focuses on fostering and maintaining student teacher relationships and understands the importance and value of relationship building in the classroom ms diaz listens to her students when they are in a time of need and gives advice when students are in need of a pick-me-up this dude has done mrs diaz works very hard every day to deliver lessons that impact students that are meaningful relatable and understandable she accomplishes this through pop music engaging films and current events figurative language lessons feature songs for the past 10 years have included an analysis of lyrics while other lessons include modern and class film film adaptations and compare and contrast today's issues in modern events around the world not only did these activities grab and maintain the student's attention for the entirety of the

013class period they also earn students respect for the time-consuming efforts the aspects for it's with my great pleasure to announce mrs diaz as our gem award recipient for the community middle school thank you okay now we'll go over to the high school with mr smith well again uh i would like to congratulate mr apozado for being named the high schools going the extra mile recipient mr apozado possesses a highly professional demeanor and a positive attitude towards all facets of the guidance profession he willingly performs and accepts the role of mentor coach advisor and counselor but supporting the goals objectives and needs of students on his caseload additionally he performs his duties in a manner consistent with sound ethical and professional standards of the guidance counselor in addition mr epizado encourages supports guide mentors and proctor

014student athletes through his involvement as the head coach of the track team as well as handling student athletes as they register for the ncaa clearinghouse moreover mr amazono facilitates the apex learning courses at the high school including but not limited to registering students for comprehensive courses for original credit and credit recovery in terms of testing mr apozono ensures compliance and success with all testing mandates at the high school in addition he developed the schedule of proctors and student placements which requires tedious maintaining of accurate and complete records coordinating distribution and collecting of secure test materials administering the test in accordance with the testing calendar and providing and completing all test documents within established guidelines lastly mr apozado provides students with information regarding naviance college exploration and the process of the common app and teacher recommendations

015that said he is confident in his responses and knowledgeable of the college application process including coordinating workshops here towards financial aid information for high school students and parents congratulations to mr apozano for beginning uh jen for the month of january a recognition and for the district uh this month is uh joe jarendola our director of buildings and grounds who is probably been the most hands-on director of buildings and grounds that we've had since i've been here um he goes out he gets dirty every day he makes sure that classrooms get cleaned he makes sure that when we have emergencies he's the one out there helping the guys make sure everything gets done again he goes above and beyond uh he's here early in the morning if i need him to come in the middle of

016the night he's the one that comes in for me uh him him and virgo have done a fantastic job um but this month um you know just with uh some weather issues and some heating issues and plumbing issues that we've had and me having to call him and have him come in he's uh he's definitely gone above and beyond so for this month for the district it's been uh that's it that is the end of my report okay there are no committee meetings since the last one so we are up to number four open to public for agenda items only so it has to be on the agenda it's impossible um can you hear me can you hear me i have patricia o'reilly 745 school house link um so i do appreciate uh the superintendent

017um letting parents come in because we can't be you know communicate through zoom as easily so um i did post some agenda items can you just review those and tell me i'll have it back and forth online do you see them um uh yeah a little tied up i don't have access to them at the moment but i remember the questions okay the first one was um i believe it was about interns so i'm gonna say it was under district high school and it was rescinding um so it was uh six point four correct yeah or six point seven six point five oh that's right so six point five the athletic department intern we're sending that um at the last board meeting i was asked a question about that and i thought that that person

018was a volunteer for us i then found out that that person is a paid host for us this year therefore she cannot intern with us she has so that the internship had to be rescinded um interns cannot be by the district if they're doing an internship your second question with regard to where parents can read policies that are coming before the board um until they're fully approved by the board they're not online once they're approved they go online and you find them under policies and your last question so that's on the home page yes website and your last question was about 9.5 the approval of university behavioral health care what they do for us this is a for bedside instruction for a student that is in a in a hospital setting and that is the

019provider for home instruction that you have to use okay and instead okay university so it does it doesn't pertain to any particular university it's just um i believe it's university hospital of new brunswick robert johnson or newark university one into two okay that's all thank you now that was all the online questions i saw before okay so we are up to number five approval minutes be it resolve that the boundary board of education approves the minutes for the following meeting regular meeting minutes of january 11th can i get a motion second and and also 5.2 which is the uh the minutes uh any questions on the minutes any comments hearing none can i get a roll call oh there you are like you're really here but you're quiet mr paul yes mrs mustin yes stevens

020yes yes yes number six personnel resolutions district in high school be resolved that the superintendent recommends for approval the resolutions as outlined in personnel resolutions under district and high school 6.1 through 6.6 may i get a motion motion miss mars second second missed mr any questions or comments congratulations to mrs listman yeah yeah we're all jealous all the teachers on this thing this is a perfect time to retire uh any other someone already asked about 6.5 hearing other no questions or comments can i get a roll call yes yes okay number seven uh personnel resolutions middle and elementary resolve the superintendent recommends for approval the resolutions as outlined in personnel resolutions under middle and elementary school 7.1 to 7.5 can i get a motion motion lauren's going to get a second second oh so miss

021bennett is retiring too does that mean mr bennett is [Laughter] are they [Applause] all right hearing other no other questions or comments can i get a roll call that's the ball yes yes yes it's chainsawy yes number eight policies resolve the babric board of education approves the resolutions as outlined in policy resolutions under district and high school 8.1 and 8.2 can i get a motion motion thank you any comments or questions with the use of school facility what did we finally what was the final amendment on that about school use we just added the regulation we added the regulations that we also uh changed that feature as you had asked okay all right hearing no other questions or comments can i get a roll call yes [Music] yes yes number nine finance resolutions resolve the

022boundary board of education improves the resolutions as outlined in financial resolutions 9.1 2 nine point five can i get a motion motions mr zepco can i get a second second any questions hearing no questions or comments can i get a roll call yes [Music] yes yes with an extension from three seven four five five noted mrs yes defazio yes okay at this time any other matters to coming for the board i know in your introduction you said that you're talking about snow days how many snow days do we have built in this calendar we built in four we used one already okay and i think i used one for it so we're down to two left okay so my concern with that is we still have the you know the balance of january which isn't

023really much less but we have all of february the beginning of march so and then we also have to you know it's found brook i hate to say it i know the flood project's done and everything is done but i i've been here for long enough that i still get very nervous springtime so so have they have they wait i know last year they weighed 180 days yeah so they haven't made that so that's still they didn't leave 180 days last year they didn't have 180 days last year they didn't leave it here and they're not going to leave it this year either so that's why you know i rather played a little bit a little safer you know we only have two days left because the last thing i hate to do is change

024the calendar you know especially with either dealing with spring break or pushing back gradually you know i agree i think um i'd rather put those two days extra vacation later on if we need to yeah okay would it be possible considering the in person and the teachers went home today expecting to come back tomorrow that going forward like tomorrow could be a snow day because the population is not prepared and then going forward like [Music] it's not that easy and and i do understand that unfortunately i couldn't make that decision any sooner than i did because again there's a process in place part of the process is i have to talk to you know south bamberg which is ascend receive relationship so i have to have conversations with her which we did all day um

025you know i have to talk to michelle at some point in time so there are some back and forth things that have to go on and again the weather reports again starting from you know early on especially today it had to change two or three times today alone um you know my hope was to try and get a half a day in tomorrow um our plan between me and me and dr gokey was to get a half day in tomorrow and send everybody home at noon and then at 3 30 the the latest report came out with ice starting at at 10 o'clock and then at that point in time it's you know the decision had to be made to go first i'm not sure and saying you made a bad call you did it

026based on the data at hand but well i think i think going forward i agree with it i think perhaps both faculty staff and and students should i think maybe a warning that they could go virtual so to make sure that like like this morning if you said to them listen we're not sure if we're going to go virtually everything home send make sure you bring home laptops or whatever you might need to do that just so that it's an announcement in the morning that it's a possibility because it's better to bring the stuff home and then have to bring it back the next day than not to have it i think it's not ideal i think you know in this day and age we really kind of have to be prepared for anything um

027and again because my experience has been you know whether it's god forbid 9 11 or you know a pandemic or whatever we we've kind of you know in the last 20 years we've kind of been through some of the most unimaginable of things in education that you could think of so again you know unfortunately um i'd love to give people notice if i could give people notice i would give people notice there's just times when i when i can't do that um trying to make you know a split second decision or you know i i can go back to michelle you can correct me or wrong might tear you guys correctly wrong i remember one time i tried to be really proactive we were supposed to get this really big snowstorm so i pulled it

028off the day before we're the snowstorm we're supposed to get a foot of snow we're falling off we're not gonna we're not gonna have school hold it off and we didn't even get an inch of snow i mean i you know that if there is a suspected storm that to just to reiterate to teachers to make sure to bring have children bring home the materials that they would need to use for virtual and make sure you bring home anything you want in case you can give them a just in case to be the tomorrow so that will just be rescheduled not that my daughter's taking this issue it's not it's not going to happen because this is the rescheduled date for the last time i got dancing so what are those kids they don't get

029the pfcps so it's unfortunate well they will they there's no chance they would have a date or anything although listen college board is they're they're digging out of a big hole so they might you never know um i did forget one thing underneath my report that i just wanted to point out it wasn't my weekend report to you guys but i did want to make sure i mentioned in public i want to thank the pto for redoing the faculty room over at smalling it looks fantastic so i just want to get you know if you're that smaller stacks that looks so much better um it looks fantastic so i hope everybody's happy with that all right anyone else have any new business all right at this point we are open to the public for discussion

030with the state name and address [Music] you can hear me right patricia o'reilly yes um so just a public service announcement um i got two doses of the vaccine so don't be afraid of it i i in the second dose i was a little achy um but i think it's a really good thing so hopefully with the teachers getting vaccinated and you know hopefully we'll get rid of all these mass and everything so that's the first thing and then the second um is i i did post this online but i actually remember it um it's about the drama um i just noticed um other schools the kids are allowed to have productions masked and and but for some reason bound work is still virtual um just wondering you know what the thinking is behind that

031um they're proposing that they said to me was asking to do a virtual um play i have not heard from mr smith or drama about any changes to that um so i would have to uh defer that to mr smith at this time um because i i have not heard anything contrary to that has have they asked to go i've got i've got no no requests for that only because i mean if you can come and do uh basketball well you gotta remember you're doing basketball with no spectators right but you can do you can do it you can do it without yeah right yeah other schools like plays you know and then the kid and then the teachers watch and i'm sorry the parents watch online right right yeah i agree making those virtual

032yeah you're not interested in it you know yeah i know my son isn't interested in virtual home he was not really involved to the director to ask to bring that before the board [Music] all right that's it thank you right he would have to want to do that all right okay we haven't said no you just right and that's like if you so mrs fisher's going to read the online one for me because they're linking we have 23 comments online um and i'm sorry i need to just have my nose out because my glasses fog so i'm going to try to get through this the first one is from ashley gonzalez who is a teacher in the district she says good evening i am a teacher at the valley school district and i am fairly

033concerned about the amount of students already being sent home in my building and only the first week of school i am constantly consistently telling the truth on my covered forms for the safety of my fellow colleagues and students even if it may lead to quarantine that would be unpaid it seems as though there are parents in the district that do not care for the safety of our teachers staff and other children in my classroom one of my students was in the nurse's office while there was a child going home with symptoms my student and aide came back to my classroom not putting two and two together until later that day we could have all potentially been exposed not just in my room but multiple rooms since my students require speech and ot services this means

034those teachers also came into my room and had contact with other students throughout the building also because my classroom is brand new starting 119 i had to borrow materials this whole week from another similar classroom limited on materials and there was a student in that room that didn't come in due to symptoms my class had gym where there were two classrooms in the gym because they were displaced due to a 24-hour rule of the foggy this is disruptive to my students as well as to those students i feel unsafe going to work every day with the lack of truthfulness that is coming from the parents if they haven't been telling the truth in the first week of school what makes us as teachers feel safe what makes us feel like they will tell the truth

035about coping positives within their family i feel being virtual is the only way to be right now until there is a safer time to return back to school i know where i go and what i do outside of my house i can only trust myself to keep my family safe virtual learning is the only solution to keeping everyone safe thank you for your time miss gonzalez the next one is from um karina danubio who is also a teacher in the district dear board of education after being back in the building this past week i have some concerns regarding our current covent foreign policies to me it is necessary that all who walk through the doors of our schools fill out the coconut form daily that includes staff and students at the moment students are only

036required to fill it out once a week on a sunday evening this then assumes the honor system of something happens monday through friday that includes but not limited to closed contact symptoms and or household member testing positive in the past it was deemed inconvenient and too troublesome for parents to complete it each morning but contracting covet is more of an inconvenience i believe changing this policy will allow more to feel they're in a safer environment changing the form to daily had parental support and even one of your own board members via the town facebook this past week i hope you take this into consideration the third one um patricia o'reilly 7 45. i already everything okay thank you all right rolling through here i'm on number four um oh that's you again oh yeah the

037district prepared to welcome all students in the building at this time or has the district had to bar students coming back in person if they were originally registered to be solely virtual because the district has to limit the number of students coming back into the schools to ensure so yeah i forgot about that one yeah yeah at this time we are a hybrid or staying hybrid at this time number five jackie beers a kindergarten teacher at the annex i would like the board to consider having the parents of in-person students complete the club for their child every day and not just on sundays teacher and staff are required to complete it every day and for the health and health and safety of all i feel that students should have the form completed every day as

038well symptoms and conditions can change on a day-to-day basis and they should be documented on a daily basis so we are doing that yes we are doing that that that went out this morning number six katie lira um 623 mountain avenue hello my name is katie lira and i'm a librarian at lamont annex in lafayette elementary schools i've been in the district for six years and i also live in balboa i'm concerned about the rising cases of kovic within our community in town and even more concerned with the number of students who are going home daily from our schools because they display signs of illness i truly believe we're all trying to do our best as a district with the temperature checks hand washing masks and so much more but we are still having students

039go home sick every day as a specialist teacher i see every single class in both the lamont annex and lafayette every time i receive an email letting me know a student is going to be virtual because they're sick i do some mental math did i see that student this week did i go to their classroom did i see their sibling teaching in person has been stressful as a specialist teacher i am alone in the classroom with up to 13 students plus students online and i'm trying my best to engage with students and create a dynamic create dynamic lessons while adhering to safety procedures it is complicated and stressful and i do it four to five times a day back to back five days a week building a building i worry about being exposed to covet

040as well as exposing others potentially as i go to each classroom i see students being escorted to the nurse science going up on classrooms doors that a room is being sanitized and my stress increases the vaccine is here teachers and staff will hopefully get it soon i along with most staff would feel better about teaching if we waited until we were vaccinated please consider going virtual until staff and teachers are vaccinated the next one is from kristin martinez from the child study team we are writing on behalf of our child study team we are a multi-disciplinary team consisting of individuals with different responsibilities or backgrounds but one common goal we work not only for our students with special needs but other general education students within the district who need specialized support as well it is

041imperative that we make ourselves clear we want our students in person however we want this done safely and unfortunately we do not find this to be the case at this time we would like you to listen and understand our roles and backgrounds on the cst we consist of learning consultants social workers school psychologists occupational therapists speech and language therapists and behaviorists we have numerous responsibilities that we would like to share with you we travel between multiple buildings in a day or within a week our related service providers ot speech therapists as well as behaviorists work with students one one or a small group up to five students from multiple classrooms and buildings our case managers psychologists learning consultants social workers hold iep meetings meetings with building representatives or administration supervisors supervisor meetings i'm sorry or

042administration supervisors meetings with teachers and are working with in a variety of classrooms working with the staff on behavior programs completing observations and providing individual small group counseling our case managers and related service providers conduct one-to-one evaluations with students and young children not yet enrolled in the school as well as new students who transfer we do not have classrooms but caseloads our caseloads are ever changing as students are referred to the cst and evaluations are conducted we work hard to see every student individually and collaborative and collaborate to identify the least restrictive and most appropriate classroom setting for our students we support our students teachers and community with this understanding in mind we would like to outline some of the issues we face so that hopefully we can find a solution our goal is to

043continue to provide services with the knowledge that we are accounted for when making decisions in regards to our staff safety currently many cfst members are sharing rooms many related service providers pull groups to the same room this makes con contact tracing very difficult at the annex up to four related service providers are expected to pull groups to the same room at the same time that means up to four groups of students with each group pulling from multiple classrooms with that being said if there is an instance where a classroom is being sanitized does that mean the therapy room should be sanitized as well that has not been the case all cst staff work in multiple buildings we are not necessarily identified as being exposed to coded when a positive case has been reported we have

044found that we tend to find this out directly from our families after the quarantine time has passed some buildings have tried to assist in keeping track of where we are with a signing book however this is not in every building with this new policy of removing classrooms for fogging many buildings no longer have space for evaluations to be completed in general there is a lack of space in some of our buildings staff is being told not to congregate in the lunchroom there are lots of teachers and classrooms that need to pull out for example dra testing blanket testing cst evaluations related service therapy sessions which leads to more people being in the hallways or stairwells stairwells on the floor we have spoken up and have implemented certain procedures within individual buildings however because we travel

045that only goes so far we write to you today because we need district-wide procedures for contact chasing to protect those professionals who work district-wide number eight uh this is from diane pavlichko 120 west franklin street at the last meeting the question was asked if anyone knew why the two teachers listed on the agenda were leaving their position dr gallagher answered that it was for better paying more money i can assure you that at least one of the cases money had nothing to do with her reasons for wanting to leave three years ago i stood in front of the board for the same reasons i'm writing this today another good teacher that made a big impact on my kids is once again leaving bamboo both have felt the administration creates a toxic environment they don't feel

046appreciated or that their voices are heard it's a bit like deja vu for me for the teacher in 2017 and the current teacher neither had anyone from the district reach out after they submitted their resignation why is that does no one care the teacher i speak about today didn't get any type of response to her resignation nothing not anything from her direct report or hire no one asking why she's leaving no what can we do to keep you here no counter offer to keep her here not even a good luck best wishes nothing what a terrible way to treat someone who has worked here for six years in 2017 i spoke up about the need for exit interviews i learned recently that these are being done by the superintendent or assistant superintendent with no one

047else from the district or boe present is that true if a good number of teachers leave due to conflicts with upper administration why would we continue to have upper administration conducting exit interviews without anyone else present of the five teachers that my eight-year-old son had here in balmer three have left the district and only two remain that's really sad we have amazing teachers here in fabric it hurts me to see so many of them leave especially when i know how wonderful they are it's a shame the way they are treated year after year we need this to change i challenge the board to ask themselves going forward how can you help change the toxic environment going out in our schools what's going on number nine this is from c del ponte a teacher in the

048high school we are the members of the english department at the bambook high school there is no denying that the school year has been difficult for everyone and we would like to offer our take on our experiences we know that being in the classroom is the best possible place we want to return to normalcy but teaching in a building where students and the majority of staff remain unvaccinated in the midst of a pandemic is not safe and has the potential for tragedy as the number of those infected with kovid continued to rise and the number of students returning to the classroom continues to drop it is increasingly obvious obvious that the live classroom is not a healthy environment for teachers students and staff we are concerned for our entire community thank you for listening and

049acknowledging our concerns number 10 christina pemberton seven jill court middlesex members of the board as a teacher one of my top priorities is safety i strive to create a safe classroom every year for my students this year i knew my priority would be the hardest thing to achieve given the circumstances coming back to in person learning in january has proven in just five short school days that this is not safe i do not feel safe every single day i see other classrooms being evacuated for covent symptoms i see students being shuffled around with their materials to find a safer space than their own classroom parents are continually sending students to school sick and they are endangering other students as well as our staff and their families i am scared every morning that this will be

050the day that my class needs to be evacuated and i will be putting my family at risk i want to protect my students and family i do not want to be the reason anyone gets sick or loses a family member i am taking every precaution to protect those around me i wear two masks every day i wash my hands frequently i practice social distancing as much as possible which is a struggle being a teacher of the youngest learners i do not make unnecessary trips or put myself in high-risk situations the safest place for me during the day is sitting in my car to eat lunch being a teacher of our youngest learners puts our teachers at the greater risk and being here for the last five school days has proven that teachers are already quarantined

051and students are being sent home with symptoms every day i would like the board to consider going back to virtual learning until the staff members can be vaccinated and the transmission numbers go down this is the only way to protect our school community thank you for your time number 11 catherine ryan 163 cheerio she's a teacher in the district dear board members i'm writing to you i am worried about my safety and the safety of my students and colleagues the numbers for coded are at an all-time high and us teachers aren't vaccinated yet there are more students than ever in our rooms given that more than half of the cases of covet are asymptomatic and easily spread we have to assume we have double the cases we already see the information about the new more

052dangerous strands suggests that children are much more likely now than ever to contract clovis and get sick or pass on it and pass it on our students are doing traveling sports eating out seeing extended family and friends because of these reasons i feel unsafe in school please consider either going back to remote learning or substantially increasing the safety measures for us in the classroom most businesses even grocery stores have bought plastic partitions to protect their employees when they can't distance we need those we also have enough students that when we walk through the classroom we cannot remain six feet away from the students special teachers special teachers still travel from room to room possibly spreading the virus to many classes in a day we don't have ventilation in our building where we are asked to

053be around others for more than six hours at a time there's nowhere to eat lunch and i've simply stopped eating lunch there are multiple exposures and cases already since returning and there's no evidence that we won't have more cases the longer we're open i miss normal school and i understand the difficulty we are all in with facing the challenges of this year ultimately the most important thing should be the safety of our students our staff and their children and families please consider sending us back to remote instruction until teachers can be vaccinated or until the school can be outfitted with more safety measures like plastic barriers and better ventilation at least let us go home to teach when the students aren't there or consider limiting in-person instruction to those students most in need such as

054special education students or english language learners i appreciate your time and thank you for your consideration and protecting us all number 12 joe goldan a teacher at somali school um your board of education members i am writing today because i feel there is a need for better communication about the district's protocols regarding over 19. as a veteran teacher and association representative in my building smalley school i get questions from other teachers that i can't answer or feel uncomfortable answering because a lot of the information we get is through the grapevine is there a set of protocols that can be shared with the faculty and staff so that we are all operating on the same set of guidelines i think that some of the anxieties that we feel could be lessened if we knew what the

055expectations are when a student has symptoms or is sent home or if we need to quarantine i realize that this may change over time and that we are doing the best we can to adapt during these difficult and stressful times and i thank the office staff especially the nurses for all of their help and guidance i don't expect any confidential information to be shared but if we could see what the procedures are and how they are being implemented that would be helpful halfway there number 13 kristin rozziniak a teacher at um the annex school dearbound for board of education my name is christian mediniak i'm a special education teacher at lamont annex in all my years of teaching i've done my very best to educate and provide the students with a loving caring environment i

056took pride in knowing that i was providing these students with an environment that they felt safe in through this pandemic we as educators and as parents have had to make a lot of difficult decisions because we need to do what is best for the children unfortunately after just one week i don't feel that it is safe to go back to be back in school i as an educator fill out a covert form i fill out fill a covent form out to provide members with an accurate with accurate information about myself after this week i can't help but wonder if accurate information is being given to the boundary school district from the covent form their parents fill out once a week many children came to school with multiple symptoms of illness causing a domino effect there

057are many students and staff disrupted because of that how is that giving our students the best education we can give them if parents cannot be truthful as the numbers in somerset county cases are rising they are putting the faculty at risk every single day in my eyes this is not about teachers wanting to be home because it is extremely challenging to teach virtually and i absolutely prefer to be at school this is about keeping students their families and the educators of bandwidth safe as a mother i come home every day potentially exposing my family to something i could have got from work because children continually are coming to school with illness symptoms and families are not following protocol my family matters too at this point in the pandemic we need to consider not where we

058educate but everyone's safety and how we educate thank you for your time this is from constance charleston uh 219 west high street as of january covet questions new daily coveted screening grades k-6 due to limited or rather no parking at our k-6 building will the school doors be open earlier than 7 50 a.m to accommodate the time it will take for the daily screening process has curbside screening been considered to increase the timelines and least exposure to clover 19 during the daily screening process will there be an identified fast track line for students who have their cover 19 daily form completed prior to arriving at school with a start time for students be altered to accommodate for families who have to travel between two or three of the k-6 buildings to drop off more than

059one child does this change or add any type of daily screening process for students to participate in sports what considerations are if any are being given due to the fact that parents have to arrive to their own place of work on time without exception and providing the community on such short notice questions uh regarding the cover 19 vaccination is there a plan or a minimum a tentative draft plan for 100 return to school dependent upon staff receiving cover 19 vaccination with the cdc confirming there is a shortage of available vaccines has this prompted any alternate planning until after spring break thank you and have a good evening i'll respond to that okay i'll send your name all right um this is from jackie beers kindergarten teacher members of the board i am concerned about what

060has been occurring at the annex this past weekend today we had several instances where classrooms had to be relocated to the gym or other areas due to students or teachers being sent home with possible quoted like symptoms the rooms are then being fogged and the classes cannot return for 24 hours while i greatly appreciate the attention to the health and safety of all this does not make for a proper learning environment for those classrooms first live virtual teaching is stopped for that time period second having our youngest students pre-k and pay located to another room that does not adequately have what they need for learning is also disrupting their education third teachers and age are being pulled out of their classrooms to cover other classrooms while we are all willing to help and be accommodating

061this disrupts the continuity and learning of more classes and further exposes others by mixing students with other teachers how much longer can this continue i am asking the board to reconsider their position and return to all virtual learning with all virtual learning our youngest students can learn from their teachers without disruption and prevent possible exposures thank you number 16 scott kapalbel i'm a teacher at lamont annex dear members of the board of education i'm writing this letter to discuss some of the concerns that i have with the current reopening plan of the school district it does not feel safe or very well thought out and i know that i am not the only teacher who is concerned we have recently returned to in-person teaching when the cases are worse than they were in november when

062we went all removed i personally know more people now than i did that have been exposed to someone who's tested positive and are now quarantined we have been teaching in-person classes for less than a week and already have multiple staff and students needing to quarantine including myself now i informed by the appropriate staff about my exposure and was instructed to quarantine and stay home for seven days until i could be tested the student quarantine period for exposure is five to seven days i'm not sure why there is a discrepancy here i was also told that i need to call out and use my own sick days for this quarantine period while i understand that we do not have the covet hours anymore i do not feel that we should have to use our own sick

063time when we have the capability to teach from home now i still have virtual students and can easily teach them just like i did when i was home for two months in the fall i do not understand why i'm being penalized for being honest about my exposure and i also feel like there are protocols in place to address situations like mine when i was absent one day to start my quarantine my class had to be relocated to the gym for the day and my virtual students did not receive any live instruction at all i did not have an assigned sub either so they simply pulled someone from another class i just wanted to make you aware of the situation because it is happening to others too if we were still teaching from home this all

064could have been avoided and my virtual students would not have lost my instruction time ultimately i do not think it's fair that the staff and students suffer because we cannot provide the appropriate combinations when covered related issues arise i just wanted what is best for the health and safety of both the staff and students i ask you to please reconsider the decision on the reopening of schools during this very difficult time number 17 is mona liskowski who is also a teacher um first grade teacher dear members of the boundary board of education as everyone is well aware cover 19 cases continue to surge and now there is a strain that is more contagious and very likely more lethal furthermore there is a growing number of people who have contracted the disease and continue to suffer

065long-term deleterious effects this disease can cause significant damage to the heart and lungs even for those people who have recovered despite the rate of infections being worse than in the spring for some illogical reason our district has gone back to hybrid learning many people are stressed and scared about returning to in-person learning i am terrified of being infected by coping 19 and then causing the death of my poor 82 year old mother who i helped care for because she has advanced dementia i'm scared of contracting the virus and dying leaving my three sons motherless i am scared of having any of my colleagues and students die and then having to deal with the guilt and pain that this did not need to happen i am scared that i'll die only months before i can finally

066retire according to dr vinhda january 10th teachers and support staff in schools should be fully vaccinated before they're expected to return to in-person instruction doing otherwise is wrong and unjust to teachers nationwide january 15th as we await vaccines we must reduce transmission to save a portion of the 4 000 lives lost daily at a minimum vaccinate teachers and other staff at risk for dying before you expect them to return to in-person learning to earn a paycheck why is this even a debate january 17th i get daily messages from teachers and their unions filled with fear there is no law that demands in-person instruction at any cost we have 4 000 plus deaths daily 200 to 300 cases daily and a new strain that poses uncertainty pause in person vaccinate teachers and staff and then resume

067january 23rd the public officials most zoom experts not covered ones expecting anxious educated educators to go back into the classroom during a very tough part of the crisis of those memories of people in suits who've never served in uniform voting for our troops to deploy easy to say harder to do another doctor expressed a similar opinion in an article entitled most schools should close and stay closed through winter she has a link there as a physician mother daughter of a school teacher and former city health commissioner who oversaw schools i know that in person schooling is crucial for children's cognitive and emotional development but loss of learning isn't the same as loss of life and we cannot put the burden of society's failures on the people who work in schools if we truly want to

068prioritize children we need to drive down community infection needs and invest in safety upgrades in schools not jeopardize the lives of teachers staff and their families isn't it better to be safer be safe than sorry especially considering how many people keep getting sent home sick and how close we are to getting the vaccines thank you for your support um do you want to keep reading these we got about eight to ten more to go or do you want me to share them with you later or do you want me to keep reading are they are they all pretty much the same okay this one's from a teacher do you want to speak with any right i mean obviously we get that everybody needs i think everybody deserves to be heard all right um this one

069is from steven nor whitney who is a teacher at community middle school they're board members my main concern is the fact that parents are required to complete a covert form weekly during this pandemic i believe we need to be more diligent and everyone should complete the form daily having the students sit in their seats for four and a half hours is in my opinion a long time they have been good with this so far but i have been noticing masks beginning to be lowered below the nose i apologize for that this is a concern to me and is leading to me to sanitize everything before i begin my class i feel we need to take this pandemic seriously for the safety of the students their families and the families of the teachers kelly hellman who's

070a teacher at smalley educators by nature are nurturers we know that the best place for students to learn is in person however over the last week we have seen students coming in sick or coming in while their household is awaiting test results our teachers are coming in every day and risk bringing covenant home to our families social distancing at arrival and dismissal is near impossible at smalling especially once there is snow on the ground and some parents without mass are walking up to talk with teachers families are traveling out of state and some are being honest but not aware that they need to quarantine for 14 days and some may not be truthful i have had kids returned from their bathroom trips without a mask these are all concerns that i and many of my

071colleagues have as we navigate teaching in person as we navigate teaching in-person students and students online i thank you for all the precautions you have been taking and wanted to express my concerns i have this time this one is from lena um 101 west franklin street hi i heard that you may be going virtual i um this is from damaris um cologne um 324 evergreen avenue congratulations to mr apozada for being elected for bbhs way to go this is from jackie beers kindergarten teacher at the annex who will supervise the students from 7 50 until 8 10 and where will they go during that time eight and it'll be in the hallways um this is from brenda sanchez 345 grove avenue fabric it has come to my attention that during winter break mrs fisher traveled

072out of state florida new year's restricted travel high risk overstayed on vacation didn't quarantine upon our arrival back to new jersey and attended work multiple times uh putting multiple staff members the community and et cetera at risk how do you expect to keep down from staff members students in the community space when administrators cannot follow proper club with 19 protocols and guidelines so say that i had a rapid test [Music] this is from corinna de nuvio just wanted to take the time to thank the board for the cope informed policy change i appreciate your time and attention to the matter this is from lena um 101 west franklin street also my concern is if you do go virtual what happens to the single parents that have to work i can't stay home because i have

073to have rents and bills to pay if i get evicted from my apartment how will my son do his online school all right can i from that there's like a gazillion questions from me obviously we're gonna go to the daily forum um are there consequences what are consequences i know in new york um there's there's a couple things that they've implemented um the mass protocol we were told that if there's students that can't keep masks on or whatever that we were allowed to flip them to fully virtual we've done that already okay so all right so if there is so teachers would have to let administration know if there's a student that's not following [Music] you know that send a kid to school we're going with the three strike rule which i announced already okay

074so if they've done it three times that's it that they have to go fully emerging okay um are your ways to put partitions can i ask for clarification on free strengths is that what is that it's not submitted prior to the student entering like whether it's not submitted three times lying three times whatever it is they get three strikes and that's it they're going fully virtual because we're not compromising the health and safety of our students and staff can i suggest that once one time well i think i think not filling out one time might be a little too steep because if you don't fill it out i'm sorry your kid goes home oh no they can go home that day they're going home if they don't fill it out but i mean to flip

075them fully virtual there's going to be three right they don't come into school unless they have that form filled out correctly right i can tell you that i missed it one the very first day of school and i have two kids and i hit submit on both of them and one went through and one didn't go through and i promise you they were both there and i the nurse called home and i was like it's it's she's like where is it i said boom there it didn't go through like that was a tech issue my kids are now virtual because there's that's one time that's ridiculous i mean no no no so those are two those are two separate things you know it's not recognizing the same sign-on i've done it five million times with

076my same password i think it's a little steep um i agree that something needs to be done about sending kids sick or lying i mean there were parents that like we know after the fact as in the kid was in school yeah the kid was in school before we found out that things like that like because it's a it's a very confusing time guidance is changing it's like rigorous cough favor one or two of these did anybody follow up with the parent or guardian and was there confusion was it a blatant like right and so i think i think things like that maybe there needs to be a policy that if you send a child knowingly when you know you shouldn't have like you lied on your form that you need to then you rescind

077your right to send your kid to school okay again i listen to me you guys tell me what you want and i put it in place because i think it's a legal question though right how because you're saying to prove intent i mean if your child if someone is at home with covid and your child is living in the same house where someone was diagnosed with covenant and you send your kids to school there's no way that you could possibly say you didn't know the person that you're living with couldn't possibly expose them to coping true right i mean that's a that's exciting yes i would agree with that if there wasn't they if they weren't tested at the time when the kid goes to school then the next day they tested positive i guess

078that'd be different but what i've been told for work policy is that if you're getting tested everybody's not going to work until you get the results of sentence right and that's actually here too and it should be with anyone that's in that household as well because i know in the very beginning of september all i have to do is say to my principal hey my brother called me to say that he wasn't feeling well and that was it i taught him home for two weeks then um so that was the other thing that i wanted to bring up that um i know miss mr cacao had brought up um is there a way to know are there two teachers in every classroom yes all right so if if one of them has to quarantine obviously

079in the case of now are both of those teachers does he just quarantine because of exposure outside of the school he's quarantined his exposure outside of school okay so is so i kind of like agree with him is there is there no way because i know when i flipped in september i was possibly exposed and then i wasn't um i was able to then teach virtually uh to my students is there is there a way that if he's not sick and he could possibly then pick up like at least the virtual half um and work with them from home isn't that a better scenario than than you know because because i would imagine a teacher in a classroom having to teach live and virtual at the same time there's someone quarantines then you know can

080we put it so that they they you know that they flip to virtual then in his particular case the answer to no because the second person in the classroom is probably a teaching assistant so again when it comes to technology the kids in the building the level of technology isn't the same so therefore it could be streamed in and out at the same time but i'm not saying that they should stream to the classroom the person in his classes is teachers mrs cody tuning in virtually but i can't do it equally across the district the entire district isn't co-teaching gotcha so i can't again i have to be careful because i have to make sure i apply these rules equally across the district so i can't apply it to tv or even in the middle

081schools i can't apply equally across the district and at that point in time what i'm going to end up doing is i'm going to end up with a a grievance and an arbitration case right yeah i mean it does well that's a sticky wicket because i mean it would be it's really when you do where you have the ability to teach from home virtual students anyway the virtual depth of the class i i understand but if if so i'm not a teacher i don't know the internet if if you have the ability where possible isn't that better i know grievances i know that isn't it better to apply it when possible yeah but if i do that i agree i think he would agree that yeah but if we do what he says if we

082do that contractually we'll absolutely get a reason because said someone in high school has to quantity and they say well i can't teach virtual i'm going to have to use my sick days i'm going to have to use my time and how come mr coppola didn't have to use his time and then it's just going to open a whole a whole number of people yeah is there any talk of them [Music] those days don't come out of your sick day that's however if you're quarantined because you were exposed to someone that was sick and then you get forced to quarantine and then three weeks later you you someone was has a cold and a cough and you're pouring like then then then it turns into a an it could turn into a never-ending quarantine you

083know what i'm saying yes i think i think are teachers considered frontline yes we have been in school since september so so you guys are considered like front line workers well i don't know what that would constitute that but new york city teachers from kindergarten from kindergarten foreign have been full-time from eight o'clock to two o'clock every single day since september except for two weeks in november so if the teacher in new york goes out sick positive with corbin does workman's comp ticket no okay that would only get good if they're exposed if it's confirmed that's why i was asking because it has to be work related and that's why i was asking in new york if they were considered from high i don't know if who would classify you have to have to backtrace

084it to a transmission in school well that's the other question to let people you know know where something has traced back to transmitting within the school system meaning because someone came to work or came to school they knocked over from being here so so it's it's outside in the school where the transmission is so the people so there's things that are quarantined they quarantine before they and you know with the patchwork of comments that are there the overriding gist of everything is especially from our teachers is what it what is the presentation of the board to uh i i can't say the word guaranteed but to look at the word of safety for them to come in to uh to work every day i'm an educator myself i understand those concerns but i think we

085also need to balance them with the concerns of that one single parent that said if i can't work what am i going to do i mean i think that these are some real life situations and i feel that i hear both sides so i think i think you know in order to respect looking at we're looking at little symptoms we need to look at where we had in relation to our our approach to online versus in-person learning i think that's what i'm hearing from the teachers i just want to throw that out there because that that's that's where i think we need to look at our focus where are we well again i think part of this is my fault because i tried to be ultra cautious and you know any sickness that was coming

086in because i was worried about the flu and sniffles and everything else that i i really thought playing at safe fight by anybody who who had anything like that send them home play it safe and they'll just clean the classroom so it's my fault um you know so now now we're going to go by the cdc rules of if it's two particular um symptoms you know the room gets cleaned and the kid gets home or if it's one particular symptom depending on what that is and so on and so forth so again um i looked at it from a health and safety safety standpoint of you know again flu season cold season it's winter um really thought you know let's let's er on the side of ultra caution with this um we're opening back up

087let's clean let's ultra clean let's you know i mean the first the first beyonce the first person that went home in the district wasn't even a kid it was teacher so the first person that said though was a teacher because the teacher was coughing and sniffling send the teacher home right i mean so again i mean i mean i do think i said i don't want you to i thank you for that and i think i thank you for your diligence with that dr gallagher i i i guess what i'm just saying is that you know what like there was an issue of uh additional protective gear additional barriers what what exactly are every classroom every teacher has um they have a mask reusable cloth masks that face heels um they have they have uh

088disinfecting wipes and then obviously um every room gets sanitized every night um and they also get fogged um i believe every night which i can double check but i also know that when we do those deep cleanings they're they're getting scrubbed followed the whole nine yards so um but i know everything everyone i've seen some restaurants that use that i don't necessarily think that they really do anything i'm just gonna say for child study team because i'm a child study team member in another district and to my fellow child study team people i understand where you're coming from for doing the testing uh when they do evaluations and testing are we have we have shields for that okay we do have practices for them okay um for the child study team the question was more

089about classrooms but from the child study thing we do have actual barriers to them um we've used them all summer long and i know the one question is about like four different people in a room right right but again that that room is a big room and you're adhering to the six feet social distancing all of the old you know normal protocols because they're using full-size rooms everybody's vast and doing all the normal protocols so again um i can go back and look but i mean they're supposed to be signing in in every building that they're going into they're supposed to be keeping a lot of who they're meeting with they're supposed to be running the schedule who's it supposed to be so the contact tracing part of the child study team should be relatively

090easy right again we run into this all the time because everybody wants to know who everybody else was who everybody else was and we're not going to tell you unless it impacts you if it's not impacting you we're not telling you because you're not going to it's the same right so so again when you hear the comment well i found out from the family after they're quarantined well it was because you had no need to know all right so then we have to make sure that the child study team um that that we make sure that that protocol is in place that there's a sign if that's not being done i'm probably going to lose it because that was a that was part of the order because again forget pandemic that was part of the

091audit so that those steps were put in place because of the audit never mind the pandemic so if i don't have that because of the audit never mind a pandemic [Music] testing or something they told that kid and they go to an assigned room that room is assigned to them they pull the kid from their their existing places of who they serve yeah um dr gallagher when they take that child out they're going into a room that's a specific assigned cst ring right in each building yes so they have their privacy okay listen i understand why people are on edge i fully understand yeah i fully understand i just i just i i hesitate to to want to go virtual only because when when when the school itself is not the means of transmission then

092to d to just close up is a whole other layer of problems remediation is it happening in person or is that mostly online mostly online i believe so that was one of the if teachers were able to go home at the end and do their remediation from home and that would stop the eating in classrooms teachers eating and i don't think you know that's that is what's happening in my district that most because the fear it was like the eating and everything and the remediation i think my organs my only concern was that and and it has been brought up by the association and my answer to the association um we have some people who have really lengthy drivers well not everybody can be honest through not everybody well that's what i'm saying though is

093but then again who's going to police it then at that point in time like you're going to have a chart of of who lives in a certain parameter who is able to get home and get on you have to in case that you have the option to go home if you would like to my district right now we're all fully virtual and we have the option to teach from school or from home and if you go in you go in and if you don't you teach from but the problem is you can do it at the end right you're ready but if it takes two hours to drive so then they don't take the option to go home with people who can if you but the problem is what happens when they elect to take

094the option and they miss their remediation well what's the penalty that i'm in the position of i have to bring somebody up you know i mean i'm just gonna say i'm just gonna say as a person who works in this setting if i had a two-hour commute i wouldn't drive home i mean what teacher i think that's that's just an obvious problem for a lot of people what time from the time school ends to the time remediation happens [Music] right so so now we're in that same you know sticky wicket of well if you allow and you have to allow evenly you know what i'm saying so someone could complain that well i'm not able to go home because i live an hour and ten minutes away and you live in bound brook i'm just

095i mean that is what's happening in other districts like it might just it is and there are people who have to say i mean there are people who live in town and choose the state because they have small children right even for that [Music] maybe uh tomorrow or wednesday about this yeah i just think it's kind of a good intermediary that's right some of the stuff if remediation can happen online if it's mostly happening let me talk let me talk to you and see if we can come up with sort of an agreement on that okay they didn't even have to be tested they're all new [Music] what if a teacher doesn't have the sickness okay as i explained when i had my my conversation with the association that we would take that on a

096case-by-case basis and we got to a point that if somebody ran out of space okay and we were taking out this extreme circumstance i think we have to be pretty flexible with that kind of okay the issue was if they run out of time and i have already spoken to the leadership in my meeting with them because i had a meeting with the leadership that when we got to a point if anybody got to that point i would take that on a case-by-case basis and see what you can do right because we don't have a stick bank right you do have a segment okay you have a we have a setback and there also has a clause in the in the contract that allows me to do certain things okay so again i'll take that

097on these basis right to work with them i'm just [Music] to the nurse with cold symptoms all right are they kept separate from every other student that goes to the nurse is there something in place yeah each nurse has like a screened partition with at least two like i don't want to say the room but two partitioned areas that they can partition kids away from each other okay just in case like they're talking about any sort of across life someone goes down and then thinks they may be sick you don't want to expose them other students so just make sure that you know teachers know that yeah i think the the newer nurses rooms that we did actually i know the high school has a separate room um i'm not sure what lafayette does but

098they they definitely have a partition at lafayette um smalley has partitioned and so does small yeah because i mean you wouldn't want to cross-contaminate yeah is it one second from another place the teacher just call ahead and say hey i've got one with these symptoms you know just to make sure there's nothing to send them okay all right so i know there was talk and trying to um it done for teachers in schools or you know like is there any more talk or anything that that was shot down by new jersey um office of emergency management schools were told that we were not going to be allowed to to do vaccines so we already sent that out to our staff and asked them to sign up through the uh the state state web i signed

099up there's no appointments waiting lists again that's that's what we got that was a statewide thing but again when you talk to superintendents from other counties other counties are doing things so much differently i i can't speak to that like i'm just asking who you got the information from i got from the state the state yeah state state department of um office of emergency management said they will not approve any sites to give out vaccines oh we don't that's i mean you're trying to vaccinate all the teachers bring it to the teachers right well but again that was that was you know did you just move to new jersey honestly vaccinations i don't know if that applies to school but it's right miscommunication is probably as bad as all of these horrible situations we're going

100through and is there a way we can put something together i know it's been done but maybe just to put something together for the staff to say this is what we've done this is what has been done because i think that no matter what we say tonight there may be staff that are still going to go back to the buildings and there's going to be a lot of miscommunication of what what hasn't been done to be proactive and say this is what has been done i just throwing that out here yeah i i i send everything that comes to me that's coming from the state is is being told to be set to stay after we do i think at this point in time i think the big thing right now is when it comes

101to these quarantines and covid we have a we have one point of contact in the district that everybody should use and that's that's um mrs snell town she got married so mr snellman oh she's the one who's talking to the health department to talk to the doctors and again as as somebody had mentioned these things change you know and i don't want to say change but they're fluent you know it all depends on the particular situation the particular the particulars of a household or the particulars of how you may have been exposed things like that so there are multiple scenarios multiple conditions that have to be meant that that all play into how long the quarantine is what kind of uh whether it's a rapid test pcr test that you have to have i'm not

102necessarily talking about the quarantine or anything talking about what proactive steps because the district has done in relation to addressing their fears oh i could do that those 33 comments or 28 comments where teachers speak they're afraid so i think i think we need because i'll guarantee as i'm sitting here the next one we'll have 50 and as an educator i don't blame them we need to address their fears their concerns and i think this board has done and you've done a lot proactively so let's show what we've done okay that's just i'm suggesting no problem but i definitely think there needs to be consequences for families so i just wanna i wanna go over this really quick one more time so we're going to go because i have to again send out another blast

103to parents prior to wednesday number one if you send your child to school sick or rely on the form it's a one strike rule they're going to virtual right and three strikes if you missed right yes you forget to do the foreign okay you want to make sure i got it before you send it okay and now it's virtual for the observation or for the duration of the school year so don't lie because that's lying never solves anything anymore it's just like because if you listen if you so just keep your kid home for a couple of days you're right they just go virtual they just go virtual so you don't have to call the nurse it doesn't count them as if yeah they still they're just absolutely it's not an abscess they're still present

104they're just little birthday okay and there's not the parents that do that you have so we know that but you know because what happens if you don't show up in person we're called to find out where the kid is you know but the kids the kid logs in at home and so the teachers these you know the teaching is present all day so it's a little thing but it makes a big difference for the parents to know this as i have not called in when my child stayed home and logged in in high school all day but you're high school high school's attendance is much different than in elementary attendance section we would put online today and that's how it would because it would say in person student and then we would type in online

105today so school's is different because you guys take period by period of time i was going to ask this does the first person's current elementary they're not so if they take first period it says online does everybody else see that or do you all have to no no office and then the office just mass does it and it's done so again for attendance purposes once he does it first period it's going to the office and the office then marks the present for the entire day so then whatever the teachers do after that really doesn't matter because it's already done on a central location whereas in the elementary school it's not done that way it's done at the office so they have to call if it's middle or right okay so i don't have to know

106that so there's no ambiguity so in-person students if they're staying home from remote just in case of school the parents would call in and say remote or there's also like remote kids so like you're calling in remote you're calling it sick or if you're overloading they're calling you sick yeah but i think that needs to be perfect because we had animals somebody was supposed to be in person but wasn't there it was there was a lag but there was some confusion at home and the kids showed up and everything was fine like you know you could clarify with the parents that call them in remote sick it's just easier to tell everybody's a call you're not yeah just call you got two kids one in high school in the middle school you don't even can't

107remember to say everybody just call just in case it's easy all right get down all right so mr jackson all right i figured if i didn't come up here you wouldn't know i wanted to talk uh lauren paxton president association um like first i'd like to welcome mr thomas ellie and mr zepco back to the board now that you're back maybe we can restart the uh council and what you said earlier maybe that's maybe that's maybe that could be our first agenda item sure okay we'll send some emails yes the committee would be lovely right some of the things uh trying to i don't don't have a pen and paper um i don't think the rooms are getting sanitized like you think they are okay i'll just say it that way i don't think they're

108getting sanitized like you thought they would and like it's on paper well then somebody's got somebody all all somebody has to send me an email and i'll go physically check myself and then i'll get on somebody because that's my expectations i'm not here i'm not arguing with you i'm just i i'm not arguing with you either but what i'm trying to explain is if somebody doesn't tell me i can't go and fix it so so what i need is i need somebody to tell me and i'll go fix it okay but but i gotta know all right what can you explain like i have no idea what you're talking about like is it filthy or does it not smell like nice it's not being wiped down with lysol whites or something like that on a

109daily basis it's not it doesn't get fogged on a daily basis um so i think that was part of the original plan you can correct me if i'm mistaken but i think that was part of the original plan and i don't think that's happening on a daily basis um i and i i know that would be a huge undertaking especially if you only have one machine or two machines and six buildings so we have more than that so okay so i don't think that's happening um something i noticed that uh the letters were mostly from uh middle school and below in the high school we had a different situation we our situation is drastically different we have very few kids in the in the in the building and in the classrooms we're able to separate

110we have maybe five in a classroom for most most scenarios we have less than a third that actually show up on a daily basis so the question is why are we we're we're teaching the in-person kids in the virtual platform so there's that in the high school we have a different situation where the kids are getting off a plane at night and trying to get into school the next step they have been called at least some of them have that's a different situation i didn't hear any of the elementary teachers stating their students were in a different country the night before and they're trying to get in so that goes with i guess you could say the dishonesty of some parents trying to squeeze their kids in so there's that um dr gallagher don't kick

111yourself for airing on the side of caution and cleaning the classrooms so we'll never fault you for being over cautious on that so keep being over cautious those letters there was a lot of letters but it wasn't all the letters that was just a sample you said it could be worse next time they could we could release all of them and we'd be here all night reading them it would be the same thing over and over again okay but that's that doesn't need to that's not needed you now know how the teachers feel and they are scared and the reasons why they're scared is that more contagious strain that's eventual they don't have all the protections necessary are there any particular protections that you feel that that would assuage that fear well uh it was

112said that they're gonna line up in the hallway and the aids are going to take them in so that right there um certain classrooms are the students because of the levels they are are unable to wear a mask correctly so the teachers in those rooms have a real fear especially because we know these parents are still having sunday dinners with a large family members you know families coming from different houses we know this we know that the kids are sleeping over other houses okay we know this stuff that the kids tell us they they tell us too much to be uh quite frank so we know what they're doing and that's what scares us they're still going to restaurants still still going to diners they're they're not certain students are unable to wear a mask

113correctly some teachers change diapers they tie shoes they wipe noses still because certain students are unable to do it for themselves those teachers are escaped i appreciate the fact that you've listened and you're actually and you are discussing it and talking about it and trying to fix it but you appreciate that that's that's why they wanted to send these letters to you so you can hear their fear most of you are teachers so you know it you get it some of you are virtual so maybe you haven't noticed it all the way again um and it's i the main thing is there's if everyone wrote a letter you might hear more different scenarios those were just a handful that's only 20 of them all right so i do appreciate you listening and talking about it

114and maybe starting up the ed council so we can maybe do it on a more regular basis um but the concern is that many districts are extending virtual until spring break until first round of uh vaccines that's what they want they want you to listen and uh hopefully i don't know just we just appreciate the fact that you listened and you started talking about it okay that's that's what we need more conversations because they they genuinely are scared for themselves and their family members thank you i i just have a question so we were talking about uh teachers when they get vaccinated only 50 percent here when i get that same right so i'm just going to throw like a scenario so like if we do go virtual until the vaccinations happen right what happens

115when 50 percent of the teachers don't want to get vaccinated because they don't trust a vaccination but 50 percent right that's a whole lot of mass that's a whole number and again i think you know we've had open conversations about this and we've had dialogue about this and you know i don't want to you know elaborate too much on it but we've talked about this and said we're going to continue this conversation about that as we move along and you know again this is part of just continuing to have some dialogue back and forth and trying to find some common ground and making sure we do things that are in the best interest of the teachers as well as the community and i i think um michelle's question was was really important and um let's

116say as a board we decide our superintendent we decide you know we're gonna stick with what we're doing is there some way to meet in the middle where we can do something that's going to help you feel better that's i think we we heard a lot of letters and and again i'm a teacher so i i know i get it but a lot of them just kind of said i'm afraid i'm afraid do more but not really have all i think we heard the partitions and not much i don't know what can what can we do i think is what we're asking how can we help you you actually did a little bit by mandating the okay forms on a daily basis i heard many teachers reference them um certain rooms need the partitions more

117partitions better partitions um can i ask just how feasible that like if you were to say if they said here are the rooms like this you know i'm gonna guess there's a certain population of students where where you that would be more important and you said these rooms we needed i mean is that feasible is that something we could look into i could look into it okay all right so then so like if you give us a list of rules let's no no no i'm saying he gives you a list you look into it you say all right let's talk about why what we're thinking here that's all and just to listen to add to what you were just by bringing up the uh that when the students leave some teachers would take advantage of

118going home eating at home and going online and teaching virtual because that's what they would do here so that we were going to have a conversation with that um so that would definitely help uh some people because just getting out of the building is a benefit to some yes so it would reduce it and it brings the stress level that's right a lot yeah like if the intent was to reduce fear and uh and that that would help i mean i i think the best thing is that there has been no transmission in my in the business perfect time the breaks it could be ugly i think we got lucky and then right so no one wants to no one wants that first one with the superintendent they say the same thing because we were

119often after halloween because we take the whole week off in november because we vote in the school and she said we dodged a bullet because there were so many cases and everything oh yeah all right thank you all right at this time we need executive session what numbers are we're gonna do one seven and eight and we're gonna um just so everybody knows there's nothing yes there's nothing after executive session so the board is going to return from executive sessions so tom we're going to be adjourning from executive sessions so we can shut down youtube and uh principals and everybody you guys are good to go you