001more okay [Music] right um foreign yes i'm she said uh younger uh oh my god all right because uh that is yes hey one of my friends [Music] what's that [Music] is we still got two minutes um yes oh seven o'clock we're going to call the meeting to order mary roll call miss hefner here mr blandina miss gagliardi here miss parker here miss piccala miss seibert miss woolrow here mr edwards the new jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of the public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the sack the brick township board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be posted on the
002administration office bulldog board the official district website and channel b channel btv20 and sent to the ashworth park press the brick times the star ledger and municipal clerk's office if at this time everybody would stand for the flag salute and a moment of silence i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you often it may appear to members of our audience that the board of education act with very little comment and in many cases a unanimous vote please understand that before a matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting the administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with the superintendent of schools discussed it in appropriate boa committees and only
003then if the superintendent is satisfied that the matter is ready to be presented to the full board of education it is placed on the agenda for action at a public meeting board of education members are given advanced notice to review the agenda and through the chair ask questions or voice concerns in rare instances when necessary matters are presented to the board of education for discussion at the same meeting that final action may be taken presentations [Music] [Applause] 127 students perform for our parents to our summer spark academy i'm sorry dr anderson would you repeat that again sure so this summer we were able to offer a music camp for our students we're so excited students in third third grade through 12th grade were invited to attend um and they caught they culminated their three-week experience
004with this performance for their parents and so this is just a compilation of that uh nearly two hour performance so you'll only get five minutes but it was it was quite impressive some students didn't even know how to read music they came in not knowing because they were came in as third graders we had our music teachers work with them to teach them how to read music um others were quite advanced and so we customized the program to the needs of the students that were in the program and we're so thrilled i know our visual and performing arts supervisor miss lane is thrilled uh by the the outcome and the excitement that the students have we we know that this is going to really build our music program in the district so enjoy [Music] so
005[Music] my [Music] here we go [Music] solid [Music] john [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] you're a soldier [Music] we're getting closer this isn't over [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] okay just a few snippets from our summer program and now this past summer we've received many compliments our expanded uh summer programming both extended school year our spark program our enrichment program we had many many students that were not only fed and transported to these programs but it was a huge undertaking by staff and was very successful so great job so we wanted to share a little music snippet okay we're going to move on to approval of minutes um i need a motion in a second motion daisy a second michael any comments mary miss hefner yes mr blandina yes miss gagliardi
006yes miss parker yes miss walrup yes okay we're going to move into reports i'm going to start with my board president report good evening thank you all for being here tonight i want to say that regardless of the reasons you're here tonight it is always wonderful to see new faces with our regular attendees a room full of parents community members and staff are what these meetings are all about participation communication and advocacy advocacy for your children our district and community i hope you all consider coming and what and or watching online moving forward my name is stephanie wohlrab i am the board president and i will be emceeing this evening i want to start off by saying a few things about what i know you all anxiously awaiting to hear about our family our fabulous
007summer programs uh that just concluded um i wanna i wanna recognize two amazing individuals miss hanson who couldn't be with your us tonight and dr anderson i know it's a group effort but the two of you are amazing leaders and the board is so grateful you are who you are and you're here in brick we thank you for not only your leadership but all your hard work in bringing these innovative innovating and exciting programs to our students we truly had an amazing team on staff here this summer lorraine cooper was the coordinator of the asy program she worked tirelessly to plan a comprehensive academic program and integrated in a lot of fun interactive activities for students to ensure high attendance and engagement jeanette weiner organized and supervised the enrichment component of the program and worked
008diligently to ensure that students attend the program and received much needed services that were missing during the pandemics students were engaged and iep goals were targeted all of our teacher aides teachers counselors related services personnel nurses bcbas and cst members all work together including our two wonderful um supervisors and uh ann marie and um oh my god rachel sorry sorry rachel it it really is a wonderful team and the program was very very successful our summer spark was a comprehensive enrichment program designed to provide educational growth opportunities in all content areas and to help students explore and develop new interests we offered transportation and provided a healthy snack for students who attended the in person full day program more than a thousand students participated in our summer sparks program through virtual enrichment clubs credit recovery
009courses music camp and week-long math academies on july 29th 120 students and their instructors performed in a two-hour music showcase which we just viewed snippets of which included concert band bucket drumming sign and sing and choral performances students who attended the math academy said they'd never had so much fun with math and their lives this the escape rooms were awesome credit was restored for 146 high school students who attended the summer program these students will continue with their class we received great feedback through parent surveys and from parents who reached out to us over 137 of our dedicated teachers facilitated facilitated these enrichment experiences for our students a special thanks to our summer sparks coordinators erica carew darren st jean kelly romano and mike citron kudos to our cni department supervisors for designing a comprehensive
010program that ignited a spark of curiosity creativity and confidence in our students everyone demonstrated an enormous amount of dedication and putting these programs together and in service to our students so i want on behalf of the board i want to thank you for all your hard work [Applause] at this time i would like to read a letter that the board of education sent today to the governor under my signature as president with a comple and with the complete support of our superintendent dr farrell dear governor murphy please accept this correspondence on behalf of the brick township board of education the brick township school district is requesting once again that local control be returned to the district as you stated during a pre-vacation press conference regarding the stress of the past 17 months we hope your
011trip to italy provided you the break needed to recharge did the benefit of the trip outweigh the cdc's level 3 travel advisory notice dated june 16 2001 urging americans to reconsider travel to italy due to a high level of covet 19 in the country freedom to disregard a travel recommendation from the cdc to provide your family a much needed respite is your right it appears we respect that freedom of choice and concur that the past 17 months have been stressful for all especially our children the past 17 months represents approximately 40 percent of our preschool through second grade students lifetime and 100 percent of their school experience it is unfortunate that their families do not have the same freedom of input in their child's health social and emotional well-being upon graduation the class of 2022
012will have spent 20 percent of their school experience under executive orders and mandates moreover 45 of their sophomore year and 100 percent of their junior year isolated from friends and now in their senior year social interaction will be limited through masking and physical distancing like your recent trip to italy our families deserve the same social justice and emotional equity as we approach our third academic year confronting covet 19 risks as a community but as community members and leaders we must come together and do all we can to return the child in childhood focus on safety and wellness effective education voice of community and equity executive order 251 must be rescinded allowing the opportunity for healing and community cooperation instead of d-section to expect society excuse me to expect society especially our children to continue to
013accept mandates and restrictions indefinitely based on suggested recommendations is not only unrealistic but unjust when does it end as stated in the attached may 27 2001 letter there was once a need for mandates and control to ensure the safety of our new jersey communities but it is time for the decision-making authority for school districts to be returned to where it rightfully belongs locally you had agreed only to retract eight weeks later leaving children anxious and families disenfranchised with uncertainty furthermore we strongly disagree with your statement that anyone opposed to executive order 251 does not care for the safety of children brick township public schools administration and staff continue to demonstrate time and again that safety is our number one priority starting the new year under the auspice of local control with proactive protocols in conjunction
014we are confident we can provide a safe learning environment for students and staff simultaneously supporting effective education and the social emotional health safety and well-being of all utilizing an optional mass plan so while we disagree on executive order 251 we also disagree that those who oppose it do not hold the safety and well-being of students and staff as a top priority as always brick township public school board will continue to comply with all state mandates as our oath of office requires but as it pertains to executive order we do so with a heavy heart for our students and community members as this mandate impedes their voices freedom of choice social justice and equity sincerely stephanie [Applause] thank you that has already gone out to press and it's already in the mail to the governor plus
015we also put out an additional press release all of this will be posted tomorrow on the website for you to review okay now i'd like to clarify a few things because there's a lot of legal opinions floating around the internet and i would like to introduce everyone to our board attorney ben montenegro he's the person we go to for legal advice while we are okay with others opinions mr montenegro is our attorney and any other legal advice that is sent to us will be vetted through mr montenegro to ensure compliance before the board moves forward on anything in addition it has been said that boards do not require the support or approval of the superintendent to move a policy or action forward while there is some truth to that and we do have the authority
016as a board to vote down recommendations put in front of us by the superintendent we are a team the ability to work together hear each other's opinions and come to a consensus is in the best interest of the of the district dr farrell is a non-voting member of the board of education he is also the chief school administrator of the district he oversees staff and the day-to-day operation of the district we are the policy branch of the district we oversee the superintendent to ensure the district runs according to the laws without question rick is lucky to have him as our chief school administrator in addition to our amazing administrators building principals teachers powers therapists and counselors bus drivers bus aides maintenance and clerical staff i want to thank you all for continuing to work together
017through this difficult and uncertain time to ensure a successful in person 21 22 school year now as per the governor's mass mandate of august 6 executive order 251 districts must require mass in school buildings for students staff and visitors thus what we had um put into place with our optional massing in our initial reopening plan is now be it now has to be removed the executive order stipulates that no municipality county or agency can enact any contrary policy or regulation which could conflict or impede this order having said that the order provides for certain exceptions to the mass mandate such as being outdoors health medical issues disabilities eating drinking physical activities including physical phys ed and excessive heat conditions we are currently in the midst of updating the reorganization plan accordingly new mandates and excuse
018me new guidance just came down today in accordance with the governor's executive order and in getting ready and everything that was going on miss mcmahor who usually goes through that for us did not have the opportunity to fully review discuss with dr farrell and get it into the plan it is we are working on it and we had all hoped before we knew additional guidance was coming down that would be up today but just please be patient with us although the governor's decision to mandate mass was made it will do little to the safety protocols that we already have in place in our plan social distancing to the best extent practical practical cleanliness and ventilation are paramount when it comes to maintaining the spread of covet 19 within our schools as always the most important
019thing we can do as community members and members of the school district is stay at home if you're sick until it passes please as i mentioned we are going back to school in person not virtually that at this time is not an option additionally the governor took obviously our optional masking off the table i know that there is not one person up here that does not know the feelings regarding that mandate one way or another of our community and our parents and students within the district as well as statewide i mean it's all over the place it is dividing communities dividing board of educations dividing educators and dividing friends that cannot happen here if you leave when you leave here tonight i want you to take away two things i hope one is that we
020are stronger together if we work together there is nothing we cannot overcome the second is the governor may not be interested in your voices as it pertains to your parental rights and your input in your child's education we are and we will do all we can to address your concerns please open the lines of communication with your building principles as well as your teachers they care about what you have to say however they did not put this mandate in place but are responsible for its implementation through the guidance and direction of dr farrell our superintendent who is here at all times to assist you please remember we are back in person full time hold on to that as we collectively maneuver through this crazy fluid time the brick school system was one of the first
021to decide on mass being optional when the option was allowed by the governor dr phelps cited that the reason we went ahead with the decision was because of a lack of air conditioning district-wide there are additional exceptions to the mass mandate as i had said before but i'm going to repeat them eating drinking physical activity which includes phys ed and athletics health and medical conditions students with disabilities ieps and any outdoor time all exceptions will be listed in the reopening plan please read it and then read it again read the frequently asked questions page if you have any questions after you go through all that please contact ms mcnamara and she will assist you we anticipate the usual hot september and starting schools star and starting school with mass optionals but dr farrell will send
022out a message on that as we get closer to our first day of school i know this is frustrating i have two children in the district this is not what i wanted for them either but it is our job as parents community members and leaders to advocate for them work together respect each other's differences of opinion and show that through a united community aware approach we can accomplish anything even if it may take longer than we want thank you [Applause] at this time i'm going to move on to our additional committee reports i will start with ms mcnamara to i'm sorry i didn't see dr anderson thank you mrs walrab the cni committee met on august 9th at 11 am and in attendance from ms gagliardi the chair miss pacquala miss parker mr cutts mrs
023kane dr farrell and myself first we reviewed the items on the agenda for approval under training and travel there's two workshops and field trips are returning in september so there are several trips at the middle school and high school level that will be on the agenda for approval marzano focused evaluation system for teachers and staff will continue to be used for the 21-22 school year we have a non-public nursing agreement and distribution of funds in annual school nursing form on the agenda we have a motion for the use of four classrooms at brick high school for adult education civics and workforce preparation program through ocean county college uh there's a donor's grant application uh from vmms for uh class novels college at a pbsis grant for our secondary schools we have several college placements two
024at the elementary level two nurses a counselor and a social worker mr cutts provide an overview of the new digital citizenship unit in the library media curriculum he also provided an update on the social justice academy project entitled uplifting voices cultivating awareness through literature students will have the opportunity to join book clubs that will run from november through april mr cutts also provided an overview of the new ela courses and social studies courses at the high school level these courses included investigation of law order and justice shakespeare military history and the history of sports in america lastly mr cuts provide an overview of laura wooten's law which requires two quarters of instruction civics education at the middle school level he will be assembling a committee to research and develop a robust civics curriculum in grades
0256 through 8 during the course the next year the cni committee was introduced to mrs kane who is our new ela social studies k-5 and k-12 ell supervisor ms kane provided an overview of her vision for ela instruction and her plan to transition to brick schools there's an assessment update the district is preparing for the start strong administration which will occur during the week of september 27th the standardized assessment schedule will be posted on the district website in september the administrative team is looking at the panoram panorama survey data to support students transition back to school in september the data will help us build social emotional learning competencies and foster a sense of belonging in our schools and the summer program was concluded today as a matter of fact and so we are thrilled that
026our students who attended the summer spark program which you saw a clip of the music performance and we had them attending nearly a thousand students actually it was a thousand two students we told we calculated that today um participate in some function of the program uh which was either virtually through enrichment clubs or our jumpstart program they had experiences in sel and stem and they had some art mindfulness through art therapy it was just it was an amazing experience and we are so grateful for to our teachers and we also offered some math academies and our credit recovery program was a huge success we are so deeply appreciative of all of our staff kenny if you could pull up that slide i just want to just to give you a sense of the the amount
027of people who participated in this program you'll have to click so um that was our goal we had 18 courses offered in high school credit recovery those were all the courses that we offered um and we wanted to thank all of the teachers who participated in that program um we are so happy that our students can are on path uh to graduate with their cohorts with their graduating class a special thanks to erica carrow and darren st jean who coordinated that program and all of those staff members we also want to thank our music camp teachers and our mindful art teacher as well as bridge to algebra and our math arcademies in fact our educational specialists at the county superintendent's office came by to see our program and he was just thrilled at how much
028the kids were enjoying the program kids were designing escape rooms they had a great time and thank you to our enrichment club teachers we had about 70 virtual clubs that teachers facilitated for students and our jump start teachers jumpstart start usually runs from grades two through eight we actually ran it from grades k through uh nine this year and we want to thank kelly romano and mike cintron who did an amazing job it was is quite a lot to coordinate and we had some great feedback from our parent surveys and also our staff feedback they were really thrilled they were thrilled at how excited the kids were and how they really felt that we had re-energized our students and most of all i need to thank our super supes my team is bar none they
029are phenomenal amanda beatty chad cuts mary kane jennifer lane christopher thompson they did an amazing job working every day not only to coordinate and run and support the program but also provide professional development for our teachers because we had a huge professional development catalog of offerings for our teachers all some summer long and a shout out to brick memorial high school the administrators secretaries vinnie the head custodian there he's amazing absolutely amazing and his custodial custodial crew as well as the food services and transportation department dia stapinsky was amazing in helping support our students and getting them to program so just a big shout out and thank you it ended today and i'm going to celebrate [Applause] our next committee report mr edwards finance and facility you can do one after so finance committee met
030august 9th 1pm um mr blendia miss uh gagliardi myself and dr farrell first topic was the school funding litigation update there is uh still no news on the appeal that was filed however on the oprah litigation uh a new suit was filed against the department of education for their failure to honor the second oprah request to provide the data needed to run the algorithm so we're waiting to get a hearing date for that in front of a judge in regards to the new jersey natural gas filing updated the committee that summary judgment has been filed by mr montenegro's office in regards to new jersey natural gases not wanting to file the iran disclosure form as required by new jersey law i informed the committee that in regards to new jersey dep fuel tank violation that
031nothing has been heard from the njd dep in regards to our declaratory hearing we discussed the cyber liability insurance policy that was presented by alliant our broker in regards to bringing down our deductible for cyber liability from five hundred thousand to two hundred fifty thousand but there was a cost of it of 50 000 so the recommendation was to stay where we are currently and to talk with the technology department in regards to bolstering our cyber defenses and we discussed the food service a la carte pricing which is on this evening's agenda for approval even though the food for breakfast and lunch for students for 21 22 will be free there will be a la carte items available such as drinks and snacks that will be available for purchase that concluded our finance committee meeting
032uh facilities i should have went in reverse i realized that now but facilities actually met at 12 p.m they were first um miss mccollum mr bill india dr pharaoh myself miss mcnamara mr siegel from spies of architects mr you're from neta architects and mr pecorio first item was the hvac litigation i informed the committee that there's been no new news on that we're still waiting for information on that motion next was the brick township high school roof areas 4a 8 11 12 14 and 20 that are happening this summer mr picori informed the committee that the work is currently with 70 percent of the work expected to be completed by the end of this week roof 14 is still not started yet because we're pending removal of the solar panels on that roof to begin
033osborneville area osborneville roof 235 and 6 is 65 complete and on track for completion by the end of august herbertsville roof areas bh and the annex started this week in regards to the energy savings plan i informed the committee that the implementation agreement with dco provided that financing was to be completed by july 6th financing however did not get completed until july 30th and therefore dco is asking for a 27 calendar day extension from december 30th of 2022 to january 6th of 2023 at no cost to the board of education so that change order is on this evening's agenda for approval we then talked about the lighting replacement with led and occupancy sensors that is happening at every one of the schools green tech is the subcontractor for dco they are currently 100 completed emma
034havens except for the multi-purpose room lights and they are 80 complete at drum point elementary school moving very rapidly the district wide energy management system which is also being installed all the buildings jersey state controls is a subcontractor they've began staging their supplies in the boiler rooms at drum point emma haven's vets l lanes mill elementary school the heating valve work has been commenced at emma havens and they are currently storing their control panels in the warehouse for installation the solar panel project that's happening at brick township high school warren h wolfe osborneville lanes mill drum point herbertsville and the transportation building is uh held right now for a meeting with the town planning board in regards to the issuance of permits for really for the carports at bricktownship high school there's a meeting scheduled
035tomorrow for that to proceed forward oil replacement and combined heat and power brick memorial high school uh informed the committee that the plans are 50 complete and the expectation is that that project will be out to bid in october the plug load controls at all the various buildings will begin installation in the summer of 2022 and then option 1a of the energy savings plan was the carports at brick memorial high school and vets complex that rfp is out on the streets now today we actually had a bitter meeting it is expected that those bids will be opened in september with an award at the september 30th board meeting veterans memorial elementary school 2004 roof edition we're currently working with tremco and new jersey natural resources to have the solar panels removed so that we can
036commence that job lanes mill elementary school parking lot there's it's really coming along nicely they're scheduled to begin paving on monday jcp nails removing the poles in the parking lot tomorrow the whole lot should be done striped by next friday which is terrific because it's ahead of schedule uh lanes middle elementary school replacement of the six top roof the six rooftop boilers i'm sorry six rooftop exhaust fans uh they had to hold off on doing that work right now because of the lanesville amateur school parking lot they couldn't get a crane into the site so that will commence once the parking lot is completed the turf replacement at vets middle school uh it has been decided to there was a polyurethane i informed the committee there was a nationwide polyurethane shortage which delayed the start
037of the project it's now been determined that we're going to have that project begin in november at the conclusion of the fall season for athletics veterans elementary school and veterans memorial middle school rooftop boilers mr precario told the committee that both boilers are piped and gassed ready to go and are waiting for testing and commissioning the brick township high school weight room rooftop unit mr pecoria informed the community that that project is 100 complete so that can be removed from the agenda brick memorial high school penthouse c and d replacement of the air handlers and water cooled chiller tower we informed the committee that after review of the architect's cost proposals that were received from both neta and spiesel that it is recommended that we proceed with neta on that project and that's on this
038evening's agenda for approval and that work will go out to bid and commence during the summer of 2022. lake riviera middle school boiler midstreams elementary school boiler and emma havens boiler we discussed with the committee the proposals received from both spiesel and neta and it was recommended that we proceed with spiesel on those projects again that work would go out to bid in this year for work to commence in the summer of 2022. veterans middle school boiler violation mr pecori informed the committee that in reviewing the violation with the new jersey school insurance group rep from chubb which is a boiler inspector he was able to provide strong defense for eliminating or reducing the fines present from the department of labor on those boilers and finally in regards to the cares act ii funds and
039american rescue plan funds that we've received we discussed the unit ventilator replacement and air conditioning potentials at emma havens lanes mill midstreams lake riviera vets middle school veterans elementary school and we are waiting on proposals back cost estimates i should say back on drum point elementary school and osborneville elementary school once we have those cost proposals back then we will be able to proceed with recommendations on which areas of all the schools will be received universally or replacements and or air conditioning new jersey school insurance safety grant mr bricor informed the committee that that work that's concrete work that's being done over at lake riviera that was to begin august 16th and should be only take a week to complete uh mr picario then brought up that during the inspection of the boilers the representative
040from chubb insurance recommended that we add veterans memorial middle school boilers to future replacement schedule and ms mcnamara asked the committee if i'm sorry ms mcnamara informed the committee that staffers at brick memorial along with mr saluka would like to dedicate the athletic office at brickmore high school in honor of and recognition of bill bruno to be known as the bill bruno athletic office and ms mcnamara will be putting forth a resolution to the board for that consideration and that was it it was a long meeting yeah it wasn't long going on i'm going to be giving you our our last report which is our special education committee report mr mrs hanson could not be here with us tonight in attendance were dr farrell miss hanson myself miss seibert and miss piccala hires on the
041agenda many special education hires are on the agenda tonight including teacher aides teachers child study team members and therapists these are a result of resignations retirements and new positions due to esser funding needing to address learning acceleration for the upcoming school year this proportionality through our mandated spending in dispersed disproportionality we are training teachers in responsive classroom we have trained approximately 70 teachers administrators counselors and csts child study team members we have applied for an njdoe grant to implement pbsis in our middle and high schools we will be hiring three bcbas to work with our general education students and to serve as consultants for for behavioral interventions through our inrs teams curriculum to be approved in august and september spanish culture class high school world language class specifically designed for our multi-disabled students students will
042learn common words and short phrases while also studying the culture of spanish-speaking regions of the world they will be studying dress traditions and food as well as geography of nations transitional life skills and academics in this class our 18 to 21 year old students will work in our new apartment space which i can't wait to see when it's done we're getting close i can't wait learning life skills that they will need to transition to adult life after high school functional life skills such as laundry cooking and housekeeping will be explored as well as relevant functional life academic skills and math and ela will be taught throughout the class um she goes into the um the summer program and i'm not going to do that again but i do want to mention a few things that
043i i did not mention which is we really received a lot of donations um during the program from local businesses so i want to make sure we thank mike's crumb cakes chick-fil-a carabas knights of columbus and knights of columbus for the ice cream party and we just want to thank the entire community for supporting us and this program and our dedicated educators i also wanted to mention that during that program the children went on virtual field trips with presentations from community partners such as jenkinson's which introduced the kids to their sloths and penguins cactus island owls brick township police department and therapy dogs and many many more community opportunities so it was really a great program i had my son and my grandson uh both were uh attended the program and they like to call
044it their school camp and they couldn't wait it's really a wonderful program and i thank all of our staff for uh putting that together okay at this time this will be the first opportunity for public comment and it will be for agenda items only the board invites thoughts and reactions on agenda items each participant is asked to give his or her name prior to making a statement all statements still be directed to the presiding officer the board will not during the public portion of this meeting discuss matters involving employment appointment termination of employment negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance of promotion or disciplining of any specific perspective or current employee and or student for those of you that are new my letter and things pertaining to that will go on the
045next public comment piece this is for agenda items once we get through this we move through the agenda rather quickly and then it'll be your opportunity to speak okay is there any questions from the public yes in the back i can't see your face i'm sorry please come on up oh wow hi okay [Music] nice job thank you and mr edwards that was music to my ears with all the unit ventilators it's been a long haul where you're going to find the let's see 2 million 700 000 for the heaters you've got 257 unit veterinators at 40 to 40 thousand mr campbell i don't mean to interrupt you could you speak into the mic because i'm even i'm having a hard time hearing you so i want to make sure everybody hears you i was
046just wondering you know where these unit ventilators hopefully they're going to be like we put in the brick township high school with air conditioning vital because right now we have 257 unit ventilators that are as old as the buildings except for brick township high school what good are they and don't go hooking up direct digital uh controls to them because you're gonna have to pull them out again you're going to get recharged it's a big project and they you there it's between 11 and 12 million for the ventilators with the controls jersey controls i haven't done at the factory i i'm loving it it's about time the condensing boilers replace all these archaic boilers that we have now the hot water with condensing boilers now the problem lies in the fact that these oh boilers
047matter of fact before i get into this you have a proposal from us basil for midstreams and lake riviera okay they did not do what meta does it's called the scope of the work they have nothing spiesel for lake grip or we're going to just do the the boilers in the plant there's three plants it's it's a problem in the 1996 section you got two utica boilers waiting there to be installed that's the old section you got those two monsters that had to be replaced with three condensing boilers and then you got another four small ray-a-thon slam things which have to be replaced so it's a big project but you gotta i hope you can get the money and it's got to be now with all this ventilation problem and the cove and whatnot it
048would be after this year you didn't do it negligence no ifs ands and butts so pleased on the midstream that is one boiler but it's got a rooftop that's got to be replaced the only thing left to really worry about at midstreams there are 34 unit ventilators take them out their originals but you gotta massive problem and but i'm glad that it's finally come to fruition i can't you know it's been frustrating okay now your security officers i think you made a mistake there there has to be one male and one female in each one of the high schools because they have to be able to go into where the problem areas are locker rooms bathrooms thank god you got i'm sorry but you got beat down in that 12 million dollar fiasco with the
049securities because there's nothing better than a human being and do you have a supervisor for these people and the qualifications for these people in other words they have some kind of background in security or are they just people they're like well yeah you have a one more minute that's key i know you don't have enough money for the elementary schools but you can float a male and female rotating during the days okay that was very important and i still think you ought to take that annex make a police substation there by herbert no big deal if you want to wrap up your thoughts and all right well i gotta i gotta finish it uh in the next part but uh you caught me off guard it was wonderful news thank you thank you thank you
050mister i do wanna i'll talk about ventilation there just a little bit all right um so as you know we have um and i said it last month i think to mr fennelly we have about 9 million in that sr3 20 has to be utilized for learning acceleration academics in the classroom we feel the remaining amount we want to use for infrastructure we don't want to use a one-time revenue source for ongoing expenses because we won't be able to replenish it so right away we looked at our air conditioned ventilation if you don't know two buildings the two high schools have what we call fresh air intake air condition that we're able to utilize during this pandemic you cannot use wall units during the pandemic it's not fresh air intake all the other buildings do
051not have the fresh air intake and ventilation systems so we wanted to start looking at a plan over the next few years i wish we could do it in one year mr campbell but i want to say depending on the building it's anywhere from five to maybe seven million per building for the ones that don't have the ac ventilator so it may be a few years and we're looking at plans we're looking at our obviously our middle schools and larger populations and then large schools would second floors where the heat rises and we're getting cost estimates on all of the others and between we've been able to this board has done a great job the last few years and mr edwards we're really putting anywhere between five to seven in capital improvements in the budget
052into infrastructure repairs so we are looking at a long-term plan and that will be also part of strategic planning where we will start you know designating schools over the next uh a few years that we can utilize some of this influx of federal money and as we start budgeting for improvement you know for capital improvement so and it will start probably next summer but to the extent that we could do multiple schools at one time is it's pretty cost uh inhibiting security offers i'll ask ms mcnamara to comment on but i will tell you we have a great group of security officers mostly retired police we have two kind of pseudo manager supervisors and ms mcnamara oversees uh security for the district ms mack thank you dr farrell yes we have all of our security
053officers are retired police officers we do have one of those members who heads up the unit for security officers and i work closely with that individual i also work with our two sros or school resource officers from the brick township police department we're currently transitioning some of those positions to new sros in my years in district i've worked with a number of sros from the brick township police department and coordinating with our security officers in order to keep all of our schools safe our principals are confident in being able to communicate with all of our security officers and central administration myself along with some of our building level administrators are trained each year by the state in order to oversee these programs we will be going for an updated training uh this fall thank you
054and lassie you mentioned the annex mr kim i think i told you last time but the annex has been utilized from our food service department our supervisor food service right and and some of our support staff for food service has been utilizing that building for a couple years a couple years now so thank you um and just to add i know that recently the federal government has put together some monies for infrastructure the guidance on that and and whether or not we would be eligible hasn't come down yet so that is certainly something we would look at that would be able to help us in taking a five-year plan you know a little bit closer so you know um that just happened so we still have to look into that um so that's where we
055are on on that um is there any other yeah do you want him to go first are you going to go first you're not going to do anything you're okay are you going to save your mind your slater okay mr fennelly i want to talk about these later right yes vic finale well i only have a couple of items tonight try and keep it on the light side to at least the end of the meeting this this one's for mr blandina my friend over there who says i have to be more positive so i committed to finding something positive on every agenda i'm gonna do it because of you i didn't say it was hard okay uh under curriculum and instruction number seven ocean county adult education what it appears like they're being able to
056use the facilities here for free to teach us all people how to be more pleasant so that's my good thing for tonight that's it under operations number 10 i don't know if it matters but if you go down uh to one where it talks about mates and ocean county vo-tech those numbers don't add up to the total amount i don't know if it matters because you're voting on it but you've got 105 students at 1560 and 183 at 1780. my number is a thousand dollars different than yours so you might want to check that well we revised that right yeah we revised that so it's probably yeah um updated on the website today so i don't know when you print it out right i know i was looking at it this afternoon so i don't
057know when you update it but okay well if you came up with 306 540 then you came up with the right number because 305 760 is the wrong number rounding it around a thousand dollars i don't know if you can vote on something if it has the wrong number uh just clarifying numbers under human resources and i and i know you changed everything on the agenda now where you gotta we gotta keep you on your toes mr fenelli what me we gotta keep you on your toes well it's a big hr yeah if only because i'm the only one that looks at this then that's okay i can click on it and open it up that's wrong what i'm looking at is i would say rough numbers yeah we're going to table that item thank
058you thank you it's wrong we're going to table it oh i knew that attaboy mr finelli make we'll let the vocational school i only looked at the agenda for a little while we get we do get that from the vocational school so we will let them know what's wrong and it's been table yeah okay thank you though and i have to thank you because the business administrator there is a good friend of mine now i'm going to bust his chops and he can't do math okay i can help him out with that that's good [Music] just clarifying numbers human resources number six roughly about 14 teachers aides and about 14 teachers you're approving tonight special services what is what i spoke about in the report correct is that addiction replacing retirements um some we need
059um and as we've told you a number of times as it comes for teachers aids it it's in an iep so yeah it's required to talk about something a little different the end of the meeting but okay and the last one number 27 just for clarification the title corrections it appears to me that two assistant principals are now being athletic directors at one of the schools so my question is did we do away with the position of athletic director and are these people taking on additional responsibility but getting additional money this is a simple one so back in april we had a job description chained because we want our athletic directors to also work as assistant principals they do supervision they do observations and all that we changed the job description to include that title
060when we renewed both of those adaps whatever all the renewals in april we renewed them as director of athletics and not under the title that was approved okay a month earlier it's not assistant principles becoming nope same people same people same people the title change was done back in actually march or april when we renewed them for their employment we renewed them under the old title did they get together should they get more money nope nope thank you contractor you got it i said i'd be quick any other questions on agenda items seeing none we'll close this portion dr anderson curriculum and instruction thank you miss worrab under curriculum and instruction the superintendent recommends that the board approve items one through ten i need a motion and a second motion missy second daisy for discussion
061and i just say i'm happy that field trips were back into play this year just in general sorry very good oh no i think we all are a little bit of normal um mary yes mr blandina abstaining number four yes on the rest is gagliardi yes miss parker yes this will rep yes mr edwards operations a superintendent superintendent recommends the board approve items one through 23. oh excuse me are we do we have to go through a tabling of yeah sorry about that yes you do if we could first before you move on items one through twenty three if you could table item i can find it uh the ocean county votech contract within item ten ten motion in a second i'll make the motion mike second melita any discussion mary miss hefner yes yes
062landina yes miss gagliardi yes miss parker yes miss walrup yes superintendent recommends items 1 through 23 with the revision of course the item number 10 removing the ocean county votech contract i need a motion in a second motion missy second michael board discussion mary miss hafner yes mr blandina yes miss gagliardi yes miss parker yes miss wilrow yes hr mr clyser thank you miss walrab under human resources the superintendent recommends to the board for approval items 1 through 50. i need a motion in a second motion daisy second moleta word discussion none mary miss hefner yes mr blandina abstain on 24 and 25 yes and everything else miss scotland yes miss parker yes miss woolrob yes at this time um mr cleisler would you like to introduce someone oh ms mcnamara excuse me ms mcnair
063would you like to introduce our new employees that are here and we have a number of new employees on this particular agenda so if you are here would you please rise i know i saw a few oh no thank you so much family i do want to give kudos to mr chrysler over the last few weeks uh been doing a yeoman's job learning the ropes uh of hr especially during the summer as you know summer is very very busy with resignations retirements um and new hires to get in on top for september up to the last minute so thank you mr chrysler welcome and congratulations to our new hirise um one of the things i've said i met with all of you in the final interviews and i said we want people that want to
064be here and everyone here wants to be here and that's a start and it's a plus so thank you plus he promises he's only hiring the best so public comment this is the second opportunity for public comment each participant is asked to give his or her name prior to making a statement all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer comments shall be limited to five minutes and each speaker may only speak once the board will not during the public portion of this meeting discussed matters involving employment appointment termination of employment negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance of promotion or disciplining of any specific prospective or current employee and or student do we have anybody that would like to public comment sure yeah i'm going to say you are you always
065last oh am i closing the meeting tonight oh that's not nice we know he's the best um let me read part of my letter i again well i'm going to give dr farrell a chance to respond he responded to me personally but i always think that you respond to the whole town as opposed to an individual so here's my letter i never mentioned about the buses on that thing and you're talking about heat there's a place you got to watch but uh anyway i believe mascot dangerous for our kids and should not be worn i don't care what the governor thinks uh parents in my opinion have rights to health concerns for their own children and i i'm not a doctor and i'm not a parent of a school child okay i know i started
066started out with white house chief staff anthony fauci said monday that hopefully making kids hopefully making kids young kids who are missed won't have any lasting negative impacts again long term who knows also what dr fauci said that it's important to keep an open mind about masking for the centers for disease control and prevention recommends unvaccinate children ages 2 to 18 in schools regardless of vaccination status in light of the rapid spread of the coronavirus that they because of delta variant and stuff wear mask all the time i'm not a doctor and i'm not of his opinion um the benefit of mask in preventing serious illness or death from covering 19 among children are infestingly small at the same time they are disruptive to learning and communicating in classrooms they may be partially effective in
067shielding adults from covid but since when is yet is it ethical to burden our children for the benefit of adults that's disease control at one time said something like that given the survival rate among children mass mandates might prevent one child that in the coming school year one in the country they're talking about not in brick not in the state of new jersey in the whole country it's a tiny fraction of approximately 900 deaths of children 5 to 17 years old in 2019 if this is an aim to save children's lives other interventions such as enhanced pool safety would even be more effective than doing it that way at the same time long-term harm to our children from masking is potentially enormous masking is psychological stressor for children disruptive learning covering the lower half of
068the face of both teachers and pupils reduces the ability to communicate in particular children lose the experience of mimicking expression of essential tools of nonverbal communications positive emotions such as laughing and smiling because become less recognizable and negative emotions get amplified bonding between teachers and students students will definitely take ahead overall spicaday masking excellates the chance that a child will experience anxiety and depression which are already pandemic levels in this country dr mccary he's on tv all the time so i pulled him out well despite his idea that he says he's not an anti-vaxxer he says it's different in kids kids are different and when we require every kid to wear a cloth mask when we know that the outbreaks are regionalized and we know that most adolescents now a vaccinate we think that there's
069too many downsize to make this effective just as the effects of covert 19 are not fully understood nor does psychological damage and learning loss of social recovering enhanced faces as a communication student at chico state matthew tennis he learned facial expression smiles have more impact on verbal communications and it's even more true in the younger you are as a young person not us adults when the brains are being formed they need that and then at near the end in general the american academy of pediatrics had said pandemic has taken a heartbreaking toll on our children and it's not just their education that suffered but the mental emotional and physical health considered then that masking children associated increases in anxiety and depression decreases in communication and socialization development and social development increases headaches face rashes redness
070impaired facial recognition and even tooth decay since they have dentists in a family and they say the same thing our children are our nation's most precious resource let's make sure to take a close look at what the sign says and the school district needs to follow the science not some nut in washington thanks for your time i messed up john saluka 950 silvia court i forgot to say that at the beginning thank you any other public comment well i thought we were saving you for last is there oh mr gamble are you still back there okay i just i always see like the fingertips sorry i don't agree with your assessment on this business with all the eskos the bottom line is the unit ventilators don't work they're 40 50 years old you're not going
071to hook up any dcc's to them right are you anybody crazy to do that right okay 2221 whatever i'm this is out of my wheelhouse why don't we take that make your comments many times i've met with you okay and i told you that the esco financing should be direct financing with the energy company over a 15-year period not energy saving you can get this all done starting next summer if you can sign a contract for 15 million dollars over the next and there's no excuse for it i'm sorry it's too important too many people's health is at risk whether it's teachers or students they got to come out of there and we got to have a combination heating and air conditioning this isn't something that kicked halfway down the road you always seem to
072find it for something else and i also stressed before when the river on the board back race we designated two million dollars a year towards projects and it became available after release got done with bricktown high school but no you didn't want to get involved with it you used it on other things it's time to get back where it's got to be done i was trying to be nice but it's it's festering a lot of lives here are being affected by it in other words next summer all human ventilators come out all boilers come out no it's hands and butts find the money because this is serious and i'm not going to play with it anymore i didn't mean to get you don't understand you do not you're new unfortunately you inherited this little problem
073now jump into something else i noticed in the curriculum there was a new course in there called investigation of law order and justice i don't know what it is but i would like a quick synopsis of it quickly right now when i get done here to see just what it and i thank you for taking the time to do it but that is uh very important and i would like copies of the scope of work from spiesel when can i pick them up i mean you you put a half a million dollar project together and there's no scope of work this is not kosher because you wind up getting screwed in the meantime they'll put something inferior in there netta does it why can't spiesel do it mr davids okay um dr farrell do you
074want to sure let me uh why don't dr anderson do the curriculum um so two of our teachers proposed a course and these teachers love mysteries and what they wanted to do was make it an optional course for 11th and 12th grade students who like mysteries and so it's it's really aligned to the standards of looking at text evidence and being able to pick out clues um and use problem solving skills so the resources include edgar allan poe agatha christie and then there were none uh and modern young adult novels like one of us is lying so students are going to use their investigative strategies to analyze the text and draw conclusions and inferences from the text kind of like a whodunit type of thing so that's the that's the summary of the of the
075class let me talk about the ac and the unit ventilators because there's two separate things as unit ventilators are going down we are replacing them mr campbell and when we do that we're replacing them with air condition and let me just say this when you talk about we could do this in a year i want to be clear to everybody we're talking if 10 of our 12 schools do not have the ac if we do all the unit ventilators over with the ac you're talking about 50 million dollars and you're talking about doing the installation and construction in probably a summer for 10 schools at best the financing when you talk you know i used to work in my previous life as an esco the energy savings does not pay for the air-conditioned unit ventilators
076it pays for replacement so all i'm saying to is it we've been doing what you're asking you're asking it all to get done at once and we can't at this point we've been putting in pla please please you you spoke yeah you spoke you you spoke you you said these unit ventilators we should replace them all at one time and we can't right now but as the ones that are getting bad we're looking to replace them and add the ac part am i saying that correct with the unit ventilators and in some i think the middle school a couple cost estimates are almost 7 million dollars to not only replace the unit ventilators but the air add the air condition and install it so when you talk about 10 of our 12 buildings that don't
077have air condition as those unit ventilators go down and you replace them with new unit ventilators and air conditioned you're talking 50 million dollars now you said that you've always budgeted 2 million for capital improvement here well we've been up to seven five to seven million a year has been budgeted for capital improvement on replacements such as unit ventilators on these large esco projects which some do pay for themselves the payback comes in off the energy savings the esco financing in the esip that was done does have some substantial energy savings but remember the control systems are what the savings are i'm not going to get in a debate here mr campbell you you ask me some questions and and i don't want to get into a q a but we do have a project
078and we do agree that they have to be replaced but i do not foresee and i know mr edwards doesn't and i know the board would love it and i'm sure all of us but i do not foresee getting new unit ventilators and air conditioning all our buildings uh this quickly but it is part of our plan to improve infrastructure the last thing you asked for was copies of a scope of work and i i don't know what you're talking about if you're talking about the spiesel it's so i think he's just what he's referring to is in their proposals of course two different firms do a little bit differently so neda has a proposed scope of work it's like bulleted right under that term spiesel and each one of their proposals has a scope
079of work as well it's just under article one project understanding it says description of project specifics are as follows and it gives bullets of what work is going to be done so who would think work is in both proposals it's just laid out in a different format so if you read through it i'm looking at article one under spiesels this is the uh lake riviera middle school boiler project it lays out right where they're just print that out right there place the hot water boiler plant serving the building boiler standalone water heater in the kitchen remove the incinerator architectural electrical work associated with the work of notes above i mean the deep the work here so i'm not sure if you've just over it was an oversight but they do have the scope of services
080thank you just one question please real quick we're not looking for energy saving we want to finance with vco for 15 years you can't do that the least purchase um new jersey department of education and the state statutes mr mondegre i'm going to really refer to you the longest lease term that you can take is a five year lease and if you were at the end you have to pay it back in your operational budget so you would actually have to cut money in your operational budget to take that operational lease on so it's not doable so the i think that we have a plan in place i think you have to let us move forward with the american rescue funds and the karazhak monies that we have that we plan on putting towards ventilation
081we uh i think there's a plan in place that was going to as dr farrell said i don't think we're going to be able to air condition all of the buildings but we are going to be looking to replace unit ventilators the ecip does have the controls that are under dco's contract to replace all the the pneumatic controls with digital controls those controls do not get ripped out once you put new universal layers and they just get reconnected the digital controls get connected to the universe there are now when you put the new ventilators in you're just disconnecting like you would normally do anyway and reconnecting so i've asked that question many times i know you've brought it up in the past and i've been assured that you're not ripping out the controllers when you
082put in the universe the controllers will be still brand new digital controllers that will provide energy savings to the district which then pays for the projects that we're doing all the lighting the boilers the brick memorial um you know all that work is the combined heat and power plant at brick memorial it's all work that's being done we're doing a 10 million dollar project that's going to be paid back by energy savings paid back over the next 15 years so it's a substantial project it's not it's not something small i listed all of the work if you heard me doing the facilities committee report i detailed all the work that we're doing this summer and next summer it is i've i'm going up in september i'll be here for 14 years it's the most amount
083of work construction-wise capital-wise that this board has ever done it's a tremendous amount of work so i mean i've given the board accolades before in that regard in regards to improving the facilities and you know i'll give it again there's a lot of work that's been pushed forth by this board and there's been a big focus on improvement of the facilities thank you if um mr campbell if you have any further questions you know dr farrell's phone number and email um please reach out is there anybody yes ma'am hi hi uh amy doudkish um and i i don't really know too much about this so i just wanted to ask so i did hear there were some districts that were going to file a lawsuit against murphy if he doesn't take away his mandate i'm
084not sure like what you know about that but would that be something that brick would look into doing if he does not okay and do as mandate is the first one um i want sorry you have other questions i'm sorry um so that's the first one the second one is because he took away our virtual learning what will happen when there's exposure in a classroom and we now have to take our children how is that going to work is it going to be a whole class is it going to be a class you know well we can get into that a little bit with you but understand that we didn't review what just came down so okay but we'll tell you what we know today okay that's my second one my third one is nothing
085to do with that um is brick going to teach the critical race theory this year and how is that being there's no critical race there no they're not state did not adopt okay part of the curriculum that was my third okay so yeah we it's not a standard we're not doing it um i don't know why it's flying all over the place because i've actually had other people in other districts ask um so i'm gonna take the first one and and dr farrell will will take your second question um i guess about a week ago i sat on a conference call with free new jersey kids where their attorney spoke for probably about two and a half hours i sat on that call i was the first one to ask them to please forward me
086a copy of the brief he said he was making some changes i told him we had a board meeting thursday night but that if brick was to consider it i would need the brief to forward to the attorney and our superintendent for review once they reviewed it and legally there were no issues with the board i would then share we would then share the brief with the board members and once we got through that we could put it on the board the board agenda for a vote i have not received that as of today so i'm not saying no but i'm one person and until every and i heard what it's about but until they review it and they review it i can't tell you one way or another but i will tell you i
087did sit on the meeting for two and a half hours and it was interesting but again you know it's so but we are aware okay doctor and i know miss walrup mentioned in her beginning comments that you know we would utilize our board attorney to look into some of these legal actions or they're looking at what govern we have no issue considering things it they just need to be legal and we need to all be able to review it not one of us can make a decision on something without it coming before the board before them being put on the board agenda for a vote so i just want you know i just want to understand like i said i know it's been out there and it's yes but that was the first meeting number
088one i don't know how much will change before that i'll talk about the court because you know what we just got new guidance on educating students under quarantine so the governor made it clear there's no virtual option meaning a parent can't request a virtual option for their child like last year we have said all summer and even at the end of last year we are going to do the best to not quarantine an entire class or you know an entire athletic team or club we're going to go back to what we were doing in june which we're going to look at you know close contact over those and those students would be quarantined depending on our risk matrix in the county would depend on the days anywhere from seven i look at miss matt because
089she's my guru anywhere from seven to like 14 days with that we are going to treat that as if we would if someone was out three or four days they're gonna have google classroom assignments they'll have the same number of days to get back at that once it becomes an extended period outside we'll be treating that like a homebound instruction type student without the visit now today's guidance that i didn't really get to dig into it and i know miss mack didn't because she was with me most of the day is giving us some guidance on possible virtual instruction if you have to quarantine an entire class where that teacher's got to teach it but i have not gone through it so so we're looking at it like homebound instruction at this point so it's
090and i don't know if you know but does murphy consider that virtual like so like we're not opting to be home but if you have to send my child home we're quarantining yeah no because so when we talk virtual instruction we talk asynchronous and synchronous right almost everything is some kind of remote instruction now because we all have this right so we could send emails and say post your assignments anything that's not done simultaneously is asynchronous everything that we were doing last year most of it was mostly synchronous that's the issue teachers are now in the classroom with say 20 of the 25 students teaching and we quarantined a table say of uh second graders they would have assignments posted in google classroom they'd have to get back to teacher feedback if the entire class
091was to go out and that's we're waiting for we would then be able to quarantine the entire class and have that teacher provide that instruction virtually but we have not gotten that specifically yet from the governor miss mac can add probably a lot better so so according to some of the documentation we received we all know that under njac 6a 16-10 were required as a public school system to provide instructional services to enrolled students when they were confined at home that would include quarantine what the new guidance that came out today is looking for is how will we follow the health department protocols for quarantining and how will we provide those services to students at home and we're required to put a plan together to demonstrate that to the new jersey department of ed no
092later than the end of october i don't know more specifics because that was a fast read on my part right before i walked into this room but that's kind of the summary of what they're looking for so we will have a plan for any student who needs to be quarantined and dr farrell is correct our hope certainly is that we we don't wind up having to quarantine an entire class our administrators are very good at keeping seating charts we know how to contact trace we've done a very good job of it for the last 18 months and we will continue to do that so that we only have to quarantine students who absolutely have to be home and we will put together a comprehensive plan to make sure we follow through with their instruction so
093that they are consistent with their classmates within the classroom and they continue to maintain those relationships very good thank you thank you thank you together any other public comment or questions yes pam go ahead hi my name is sherry bell my daughter goes to mid-streams i was not planning on speaking tonight but i do have a few questions um one is in murphy's mandate he does have the health exclusion how are you requiring notification for those health exclusions that's my first question uh secondly um eating and drinking will you guys be providing water throughout the day so they can drink all day okay enough said um and i just wanted to make a point uh to why i am here regarding the health part of the masks i i am a mother of a 33
094year old and an eight-year-old and been a mom in between and a nurse the entire time um so i have a little bit of experience with raising kids and uh and what i choose to do to them medically um my daughter had headaches every day every day coming home and i'm not talking about my mom my headaches she was crying in tears on the couch every day coming home with the mask on i would take the mask off her she'd have blisters on her mouth okay i am what do i do i have to take care of my patients that i'm saying because you know we were heroes a year ago and now we're zeros but you know what i mean so my option was i quit my job and stay home so i don't
095have to subject my child to this deadly mask because we don't even call they're not masks okay they're face coverings masks are n95 masters they do not make for children there is no n95 mask for a child when it got really bad and want to keep this like maybe you'll think about this with the heat thing pollen season first of all is 24. it's 12 months a year um and we suffer badly that's why i had to leave i have a cat allergy someone here has a cat um the pollen gets in the mask i tried telling all the parents please please please fold up the mask when they go outside because it gets in there and they breathe it in and they're breathing it all day i was an allergy nurse for 24 years
096i cannot tell you well i've had kids diamond i had to give them epinephrine okay this is what's going to happen to our children they cannot breathe pollen directly into their mouth for eight hours i i i my head is spinning wondering where the academy the pediatric academy where fauci francis gets this stuff from because it's it's really unhealthy for our children i'm going to leave it at that i'm starting to shake because i'm getting angry and i'm trying to keep this calm and i first wanted to thank before i said this thank you guys thank you dr farrell i will say the reopening plan you guys were first in it you were on it and it it was awesome you guys did a great job so thank you thank you thank you dr sure
097um so they're they're i keep saying there's many exceptions if you look at the mandate and the executive order and i i spoke to our board attorney and many other superintendents some of them i've been calling soft outs and i probably shouldn't use that word but you know as an ex-baseball guy some are soft out the simple exception is any medical condition medical concern a doctor's note does suffice and i've said to parents they have a doctrine or provide it to the teacher to the principal to the case manager if you need to so it's on file so i talked to one parent her child has respiratory issues someone had asthma very documented that's simple that's part of the exceptions you know i acted in june on excessive heat days dr anderson will tell you
098i don't think anybody gets hotter than i do i'm always sweating and i got the air probably on too high here for some people um but that is at the auspices of administration that is a decision that i can make i'm not a weatherman but i know the first few weeks of september are usually hot and usually hotter for me and every every child and every staff member is different on how they gauge in their temperature and their heat whether they're coming off a hot bus or not um so i i will be making that call just like i did in june we have instructed administration and we've talked to you know some of this i want to get into but i think some of it is a little bit common sensical um we have
099very empathetic teachers that would look and say oh tommy uh you know is that bothering you because he's pulling it down do you need a mass break we have numerous mass breaks anytime eating drinking any physical activity outside at any time so um i trust in the professionalism and the empathy of our staff uh to address those uh concerns it is not black and white it's not a one-size-fits-all thus all those exceptions to the mandate as you saw in there um so i think uh you know i've been harping on the positive like mrs walrup said to be honest i'm excited about a full day in person school i'm going to take that first because i thought you know my parade was rained on when the governor came out with the mandate i'm going to
100take that first and i'm excited about it i'm going to be excited for our students because that is what all of us are here for as educators right and parents to get them excited to come to school and we're going to open school full day in person and um and then we're gonna we're gonna go for there but the exceptions are very clear and you asked about notification i would provide a doctor's note to the building level principal you know we've tarped on chain of command you know contact your teacher your child's teacher contact that principal get those notes on record if you wish it would make things easier for all of us right no two more on that i went too long on that side you always go too long any other public comment
101yeah yes pam come on up jasmine silva um just have a question about the medical my daughter can you speak in the i'm sorry you can move it down if you need to go ahead about the medical my daughter um she experienced from the mess a rush right we never go to the doctor she's petrified to work when that's two weeks she loved it yes she come home also saying that sh when she was wearing the mess she was in preschool and wolf she will hide under the desk to take breaks so if we never documented the rash and that how we're going to get a medical exception so i would talk to either your child's teacher case manager there are different mass also there are options with different masks yeah but she's spread like
102she hates it like like she will get like she can breathe yes but we never documented that so we don't know how we're gonna prove that she can wear a mask we change different masks all give her a rush well it's not really the mask that you're talking about it's anxiety but the mask too it serves the skin it gets red so all i can tell you is there are different options you mess i would contact the case manager but i believe i can see a doctor too because there could be other other issues that someone could provide are you are you dad yeah you got me yeah and my other question is if we cannot send her to school what we have to do to uh remove her from um the schools why can't
103you send her to school because we don't want her to wear her mask and we don't get to talk to your husband and no he is in the same place well i mean and talk to the principal yeah if we can't figure out because the best thing for her is it being we know we can't resolve that issue and help you with that then we'll help you figure out how to what you need to do need to do next thank you though for that question is there anybody else that has any questions no okay allie i saw your like fingers i thought you were raised um mr finale your job your turn information sharing oh i'll save the mess to lisk okay uh on the on the new website 8446 students in the school district
104is that accurate was the number you just said 8446 that's on the new website is it accurate i don't know i will make i would check for you and if so how many uh pre-k kids you have in this school district right now well none all right don't be as smart that was easy how many on i don't know i'm gonna find out i'm looking at miss mack i want to say about 300. okay pre-k right 200 300. we'll have to be exact i'll get that good okay it doesn't have to be exactly about 300. so if that number is correct just to share information your enrollment went down again another year because it would be about 8 100. and you know i yes this guy oh wow i wonder what's been going on in
105the last almost three years that could have affected our investment apparel 520. let me tell you what's been going on right because every year i i asked the enrollment numbers and the night in 2019 i asked on 10 15 and it was 86.05 and then on 8 20 20 it was 83.80 and you know now it's up to 84.46 but you've got the you know 300 preschool so just enrollment is going down again all right um i also noticed that it says the spanish control now teacher to student ratio is 12 to 1 and it had been at 13 to 1. and i'm just wondering for the last two years i've sitting all these meetings and hearing about all the money they're cutting out of the budget and all of the class sizes going up
106just the opposite happened it went from 13 to 1 to 12 to 1. so what's going on with that that's a rhetorical question has anybody looked at the census numbers that just came out i was really busy today they come out in this week half of the people in the room called or emailed me they came out last week well i'll give you the information you know i go to the town council meetings too right yes the number that i hear in brick all the time is residents about 77 000 at the last census 10 years ago it was 75 000. since they only do a census every 10 years they kind of add the growth factor into it so that's where the number came out 77 000. well lo and behold the real number's
10773 000. so brick in the last 10 years although most other places went up bricks bricks population went down by another 2 000 people and that's going to continue to happen and it's going to happen for several reasons which i'll share with you if you haven't thought about them number one all the people are leaving and even though the housing market is really booming right now a lot of those houses the one right of course for me somebody in new jersey borders his second home so even though the houses are going fast that don't mean more people are coming in it doesn't mean that we're losing tax yeah i mean they're still paying taxes and we think of the price and they're really quiet neighbors so yeah they're not there they're really quiet um students
108who go away to college don't come back because it's more expensive people are waiting longer to get married and having less children when they get married so all of those are gonna that trend is gonna continue i hope your demographic study tells you that just for my own information and if you and if you haven't haven't been on the website and saw all the comments you got a potential high school going up in your backyard right now right you pass it every day when you come in here i'm going to be on the phone tomorrow with joanne bergen saying okay there was a big rumor going around that they're going to put a boys school in that beth or building and that's not true there's nothing on the planning board blah blah blah those rumors
109are not true and then three days later you read oh by the way they're already operating as a school and when i drove past tonight i could see at least 40 boys out there so my question is if that happens are you are you going to incur any additional expense are you going to have to bust people from lakewood and things like that to go to that school are you done with all your questions or are you no okay yeah yeah because now um oh my other question is okay i'll ask one more question it's an easy one you talked about the nine million dollars i just read that there's another bunch of money coming out to the schools could be that's the american what's the last one infrastructure though the infrastructure bill we have
110not gotten anywhere they are talking about that huge infrastructure bill what it's going to be designated to schools my hope is they designated to schools that need the ac ventilation more than other schools okay that would be great so you don't know how much money you know the last one we had we told you is the 9 million number we've been talking about the last few months and 20 has to be earmarked for learning acceleration and we want to use the rest for infrastructure okay let me just talk a little bit about masks well you you have to wrap it up because you're at your five minutes but i'll let you finish your thought okay uh just just make asks all right and and i want to share information with you and with all the
111people here right as much as i go over your agenda i read everything there is about covet i really do so first thing is when you talk about coved now talk about delta don't talk about the old one talk about the new one the delta variants and by the way there's another one after that which they don't really know about but delta's the bad one that's very contagious i have no skin in the game what you do in the school with students i'm not telling you what to do i really don't care what you do but i want to share with information so you when you're making these decisions you're thinking about these things all right so when you talk about the governor i hope you mailed the letter to italy because he's not here
112yeah he's back today yeah okay just remember that when the recommendations come out to wear masks and do social distancing and whatnot that's not the governor's recommendations that's the cdc's recommendation which he chose to just to ignore when he went to italy yes i'll let you finish but you need to wrap it up and i'll respond cdc it's the medical people telling you that right not not the governor he passes the laws but he's not the one just for your information i watch all the stuff right now in ocean county only 49 percent of the population have received their two vaccinations that means in this room half the people could not be vaccinated it's only 49 percent i thought the number was a lot higher but it's not one in two people in ocean county
113have got vaccinated that means one and two aren't vaccinated and when you're talking about kids in schools the vast majority of the kids are not vaccinated so remember that number three right now they're talking about booster shots because if you got it it might have worn away or if you got the vaccination you might eight months after your last uh i'm familiar with it i get updates every tuesday from the county health department the cdc gives recommendations the governor chose to create take the recommendation and make it a mandate not a recommendation we do get seat we get total miss mcmahon i get every tuesday and i i i could go into a lot of studies how they figure the delta variant by the way if you go get tested positive for covet they don't
114tell you you have the delta variant until you're positive a sample of all the tests go to another genome type lab that take the sample and have an algorithm and extrapolate to give you the percentage that would be considered the delta variant so i i don't want to waste time on this because my knowledge you're telling me i get updates every tuesday and it's it's mind-boggling what's going on in other states and other countries around the world right yep all right one other one other thing the medical profession i i i happen to be in the doctor's office today right and they hand you a stack of forms to fill out well the fir the first three forms are just to have to do with covet right and one of the doctor's office i go
115through it's not even good enough that you walk in with your own mass because they make you take it off and they give you a new one they also said oh are you vaccinated and i said oh yeah i got both of them when did you get them um end of february beginning of march okay next time you come in bring your card we want to see it now that's the medical profession that's acting that way that's got to tell you something i mean these are the people that that lived and died with this coal bed for the whole 18 months we've been dealing with it and they that i mean they don't even trust my mass they give you another one so when you're doing that when you're thinking about all those things remember
116all those things and remember you're dealing with you're dealing with another unknown right now a delta virus that's much more contagious and i i sit here with a mask on now and i haven't had it before why is that well because i can get the i can get the delta and i can give it to somebody else even if i don't get sick but by the way a small percentage of the people to get it are ending up in hospitals that's my say thank you did you want to answer i'm going to check the enrollment numbers and update for the website because we are doing a lot of work on the oh ben do you want to address the um his question regarding sorry about that the question about the busing it's actually the opposite
117way the obligation to pay for transportation costs is for your residents so for instance if we have pupils who go to mon donovan catholic or st rose or cpa those are the students that we have an obligation to pay transportation for within a certain area if they're in the brick township if they reside in brick township so your question was by having a private school in brick township would we be paying to bring kids from other towns no it would be that town that would be paying to bus them to brick township and and just so it's just how long do you think it would take them to get a brick address well it's really not like they opened up the school when they weren't allowed to i mean they absolutely have no problems with
118anything i can only answer the question yes okay so okay if they're from other towns we don't pay correct those towns would pay for their residence but if all of a sudden their residence becomes here we'd have to pay for it okay all right okay um i think that's that's it we answered all his questions correct you're gonna you're checking on the thing oh the enrollment and and by the way i i appreciate what what you're saying about the mask and you know but as of yesterday when i checked the numbers ten percent of cases in brick because although i look nationally it what's concerning is is what's here in brick okay right now during our school year we weren't having transmissions happening in the school for you know all this time now the problem
119with the governor's decision as we see it isn't specifically mass it's the fact that he's taking away by putting in this mandate the participation of parents not only in health decisions as far as mass go but in educational decisions um you know parents have rights to be to participate and he's taking away the voice now when it's at a local level we're not saying that at any point what we'd like to do with mass optional wouldn't change if we if there was a huge outbreak or numbers change or anything all we're saying is we will provide the data to our parents to start to discuss other options and what might need to happen moving forward um you know somebody that's sitting in trenton that does a blanket mandate because it's easier than you know looking
120at the data we they talk to the department of health almost every day right miss mcnamara i mean we report the number but my thing is is it's not that we don't understand what you're saying and it's not that it's not really about the choice as far as it's not really about the mask itself because we have people in the district that want the mass mandates we have people in the district that want the choice when we looked at this it was about you took away anyone's choice to make any sort of decisions with their children as well as right now in brick of the cases 10 percent are in that unable to be vaccinated piece of the overall number in brick none of them are hospitalized none of them are in critical care as
121a matter of fact the majority of cases in brick fall between that 35 to 55 age group unvaccinated so you know you're you've got to look at the data dr farrell ms mcnamara and the district got us through the last year and a half of the pandemic going in and out there were there were parents that were upset we didn't move fast enough we didn't move too fast well i'll tell you i think at the end of the day everybody appreciates the fact that our kids were safe we did the right thing and they were included in the decision that's all we're saying so we're going to agree to disagree and you know that's nothing new to disagree i'm sharing information i think everyone here is following that information and we appreciate you making sure
122the first thing i want to say is you talk about no choice what's going on in all the colleges right now and well i'm here in rick from eight yeah pre-k through 12. so while i appreciate that too what's going on there they're mandating they're mandating vaccinations exactly you don't get a vaccination you're dis you're gone right now you might think that's hard but but that's what the reality is that well i mean these are things that we could debate all day because everybody has their opinion on it but i'm sharing i appreciate it right up front i have no i appreciate it but yeah well we'll start in this game move on from from that thank you for talking and listening thank you thank you mr mr fennelly are there any other public comments
123um yes ally hello allie kennedy hi just wanted to say thank you that was a fantastic letter and if you could have heard my phone going off from everybody that knows that's watching that um is listening and has been waited with beta waiting with baited breath to hear what you had to say thank you the letter was perfect it was strong and it pointed out all of the things that we needed to that he's very much a do as i say not as i do and that's not okay with us um thank you miss mack for an amazing reopening plan that we know is going to be fantastic it has been for the last 18 months and just good luck to all the teachers to our administration in the back row back there um we're
124looking forward to a great school year my least favorite part of the school day is having to pack lunch in the morning i've never been so happy to pack lunch i'm going to pack a little bag of cheerios so that they could put it on their desk so that they're having a cheerio and that's how we can get through when we have to so thank you thank you for all your hard work thank you everybody thank you any more public comment seeing none i'll close that portion um any board comment at this time no i okay get melita i i just wanted to uh thank our community for coming out tonight thank you for being a voice i just wanted to let you know that we do feel that parental and family involvement in education
125is critical to the success and the happiness of our children we might disagree we might not see eye to eye but i appreciate you coming out tonight having the conversation and the dialogue with us because everything that is said here is heard and is thought about and is pondered and thank you for coming out second i wanted to say this administration this leadership you might you know as board members as community people we might not necessarily agree with every single little aspect but i can say with confidence this administration and this board loves values our children and this community and every decision that is made is done with a student-centered focus so i want to thank the leadership for nurturing our children caring about our children and valuing our children thank you for that welcome
126to our new hires um you're joining a great school district not only am i a board member i'm also a parent here in the district and i have to say that this district has been such a happy place and a positive experience for me as a parent for me as an educator with my children my kids come here with and they are greeted with love they are greeted with a nurturing environment and i know dr farrell and ms walrab said you know reach out to teachers reach out to the schools please do so our administration our teachers are here for the students they care about the students if there's something that you have a concern they will work with you to do what is you know the best that they can do for the student
127so please reach out to our you know to the principals and to the teachers because they are the best of the best to our teachers that are opening up a new school year i just want to thank you and offer you my love and my gratitude our children will be walking into your classrooms and into your company with smiling faces and greeted with love and i want to thank you for that i know that it has been a struggle for all of us and our teachers and our school community have been dealing with their own personal issues and family issues however when it has to do with the children they put it to the side and they focus on our children and i am happy and i am grateful for that so teachers and support
128staff i'm wishing you a best at a happy school year and remember the mountain that you climbed last year and what you went through last year and hopefully keep that momentum going to keep climbing higher and higher and higher thank everyone for coming out and wishing you all the best good night does anyone else have any yes missy i just wanted to say you know um before i'm a board of education member i am a parent i have four kids in this district my youngest started school with a mask on and my oldest will be starting his senior year with a mask on definitely not the way i envisioned their educational environment to be but i just want everybody in this room to know that we are definitely in it for the best interest of
129all of our kids the health the safety and the well-being of all the kids in the brick district we all have kids nieces nephews grandkids we hear your your voices your opinions we're listening believe me we're listening and we're all in this together and i just want everybody in this room thank you very much for coming out um quickly i just wanted to thank dr anderson miss hanson for the spark academy um especially the credit recovery program because my student to be here actually took part in it and because of that he will be graduating with his class this year um it was fantastic and he minimally complained so for that extremely thankful because he's 17 and he's really good at complaining um and that's it and you know everybody have a great night and
130we'll see in a couple weeks great thank you missy daisy mike god mike i'd just like to again come uh congratulate the new hires tonight i thank the uh staff the central administration here for the job they're doing under all this uh it's a tough decision uh we got to keep moving forward and sometimes we don't like it uh but unfortunately we got things we have to follow and um sometimes i don't like it but i gotta follow what i gotta do but uh again congratulations and i wanna thank my friend mr finale for uh the positive comment tonight thank you very much uh with that everybody have uh a great cup together i'm the only one oh yeah okay um i want to say have uh what's left of the summer and uh labor
131day but we got a few more we got two more months of summer but so enjoy that uh while it's still here um again enjoy it have a great night thank you mike daisy you're you're good or you um um just really quickly i don't want to reiterate everything that everybody else said but i just wanted to again thank everybody for coming out tonight um congratulations and best wishes to our retirees and welcome to all of our new hires um i just hope everybody has been enjoying their summer so far and continue to enjoy it up until school starts after labor day and i am looking forward to the upcoming school year just not waking my daughter up for high school as she's starting it she's going to be really fun in the morning so
132other than that i'm so excited i was going to wave to her as she goes on the bus for her freshman year so other than that just thank you everybody and enjoy the rest of your night thank you um i'm i just wanted to say boy tonight went a lot better than i thought so i really i really do thank you all for understanding our position of really needing to follow the law um because we've all taken an oath to do that and dr farrell just wouldn't look good in stripes so um but you know and and i appreciate that you're really you know you're really hearing me when we're saying although we have to follow the law and but we need to do this all together and really listening to each other and help
133each other through this so i really really really appreciate all your understanding and your commitment to your kids the district um and your help with us getting through and and your consideration and understanding when your kids to go back to school and understanding that the teachers and everyone are just doing what's coming down for someone else so like i said please talk to your principals talk to your teachers then your principals and if that doesn't work then you call dr farrell and we'll help you figure it out but mandates all those things are not your teacher's fault and that's what i think we need to really remember um because putting a teacher in a position where you know it it could be difficult is it's just really not fair because they're just doing their job
134that sort of stuff that's why he gets paid the big bucks um so you know i really appreciate your understanding with that and with that september 6 labor day schools closed well obviously but that means for staff um september 7 rosh hashanah again schools close september 8th is our first day of school for students september oh my god i can't wait september 16th yom kippur school is closed and then september 30th regular meetings 7 p.m here and i expect to see you all here because that's the only way we stay together as a community and make sure we all know what's going on in the district so i need a motion in a second for an adjournment motion daisy second missy mary yes yes thank you thank you everyone um