001everybody's ready i'm going to start the meeting okay i call this meeting to order due to the covet 19 health emergency and in order for the board of education to conduct its business this board meeting is being held via video conference and streamed on youtube on the district website at www.ebnet.org in addition members of the public may provide comments to this meeting through zoom by entering the url meeting id and password you see before you on the screen upon joining the meeting your participation will be muted to ensure that there is no disruption to the business being conducted by the board of education will the secretary please call the role mr carangelo hello here this is true here mr sismar here mrs guass here mr hong mrs blacks here mrs reese here mr winston here
002president becker here we have a quorum please rise to salute the flag 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 [Music] the new jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed in accordance with the provisions of this act the east bronzer board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published at the board of education offices written notice was also provided to the sentinel the newark star ledger the home news and tribune and the municipal clerk of east brunswick all board of education meetings with
003the exception of executive session discussions are videotaped related broadcast and individuals who speak at the board's public meeting should be aware of these videotaping rules i have a very brief statement i'd like to read for the last 16 months due to the coven 19 pandemic the board of education's meetings have been held virtually in accordance with governor murphy's executive orders the governor has recently rescinded these executive orders and public bodies will return to in-person meetings the board of education will resume in-person meetings beginning with its meeting on august 5th our next meeting i know we're looking forward to it i hope this is good news for everyone we're going to start out tonight with our superintendent's report dr valesky thank you president becker and and with your announcement we have to return to in-person meetings
004i'll have to make sure that i'm uh not casual on the bottom that are professional on the top and the bottom i think we all will have that same concern sir yeah so good evening everyone i'm so proud to report that our child nutrition department served a total of one million eight hundred one million eighty thousand eight hundred free meals i'll say that again one million eighty 80 800 free meals including breakfast lunch and snack to the east brunswick community this past school year and that number is 300 000 meals more than last year it is important to note that all expenses were funded by the federal and state grant programs and there was no cost to east brunswick taxpayers i want to thank joe crotchfeld who spearheaded this entire effort our child nutrition staff
005era mark school security officers bus drivers and our school nurses who all contributed to this overwhelmingly successful endeavor that benefited east brunswick students and families we continue preparations for september when we will return to full days of instruction with lunch for all students and beginning the month of august i will communicate critical updates to the community as we approach the first day of school which is thursday september 9th as i did last school year i will continue to use phone email and text to keep you informed of any issues or mandates that may affect our school community we are working hard to coordinate communication from multiple district sources so families are not overwhelmed by multiple calls on the same evening in addition to maintaining safe physical environments in all our schools which became the mainstay
006for our successful return to five days a week of instruction last school year one of our major focuses this summer is on preparing social and emotional support for our eb schools community as we return to a more normalized school operations in september additional details about this and other important summer initiatives will be shared during school board meetings during the month of august over the past month since the end of the school year and graduation of our class of 2021 which doesn't seem that long ago we have been analyzing what we've learned during the pandemic and how we can reapply so many positive elements to our school instruction and operations using what we have learned we will further improve east brunswick public schools as well as the educational experience of every single student thank you thank
007you dr moleski um one of our board members was kind enough to pass along to me a message that several parents are having trouble logging into the meeting i know that there was an issue with the agenda that was published the last four digits were incorrect i'm was told that the screen that was put up at the beginning had the correct but let me say the correct code for those of you trying to log into the meetings 977-1264-4525 i hope that clears up any confusion um board members let me know if you continue to hear from anybody who's still having a problem thank you bernie okay this brings us to the good of the cause to the public members of the public may provide comment at this meeting through zoom by entering the url meeting
008id and password once more please thank you so much provided on the screen in order to be recognized use the chat feature select the zoom meeting host and then enter and send your name to the host you will be recognized to speak when your name is called and individuals will be invited to speak in the order in which we have received your request the board of education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest to protect the privacy of all students and staff concerns regarding individual students and staff members should generally be addressed by first meeting with the appropriate administrative staff participants will be limited to three minutes duration is there anyone wishing to address the
009board this evening bernie we have one individual uh mr john arthur okay good evening sir thanks for joining us hi thank you i just wanted to briefly introduce myself my name is john arthur i'm the new director of the east brunswick public library um so obviously as a librarian and as someone who values being a good resource to the entire community that means being a good resource to the entire school system as well so um hopefully we'll be working together on a lot of different projects and i just started two weeks ago here in east brunswick but i've been a librarian for a while i started as a children's librarian i was most recently director of the englewood new jersey public library and actually the director of the metuchen public library before that so i'm
010also familiar with middlesex county so i really just wanted to say hello and i really look forward to joining the community it's it's obviously a wonderful library and um it's just exciting to be a part of it so please reach out stop by and you know we'll all work together again to make the east brunswick public library the community the heart of the community the way the way it already is but even even more so so thank you for your time thank you so much for taking the time to stop by that was just great so gracious of you and yes you took the words right out of my mouth the east brunswick library has always been the heart of our community and we look forward under your tenure to being back to full speed
011and residents being able to use it as we always have and again thank you so much for taking the time to introduce yourself greatly appreciate it thank you all bernie is there anyone else wishing to speak to the board we have no one else in the queue okay seeing none i close the public portion i i see a hand uh uh like the hand symbol i don't know is shannon christie i'm looking um let's see okay there's a hand raised yes shannon christie that's yes that's me can i speak sure okay hi um yes um so um my name is shannon christie um i am from east brunswick um so first off i want to say today is national fragile x day i want to make everyone aware of that um so i am a
012carrier and my daughter is a carrier with a premutation as well um and so she is in early intervention and we are looking at the preschool program uh which is awesome um now my grandfather is also a councilman and he helps our camp daisy and all this other stuff um i see a lot coming in with the critical race theory and all of this stuff which is wonderful you know that you guys are looking into it my main concern with it is i'm wondering if it's more that you should be worrying about revamping history lessons in school more than adding curriculum i was i graduated east brunswick in 2007. so i i'm not my daughter's fourth generation um so i know your system i know what happens there um you i you guys it might
013be different now but what i went through and what happened to me i slipped through a lot of cracks and a lot of stuff happened i spoke out on issues i felt that were very important to me in history that was not taught the right way and you guys didn't address me the right way as somebody had who had intellectual disabilities so i want this to be taught the right way i do not want it to be taught to my daughter at a young age who is just delayed and needs help and it may not be getting addressed the right way listen i understand i have friends who are trans and we we we love love in my house and i love east bronze like i graduated in 2007 and i'm not saying that your
014curriculum misses anything and i i believe that we need to teach our children about stonewall because what happened at at stonewall is very important so that's why i'm saying history needs to be taught because we cannot forget what happens to our gay brothers and sisters we cannot forget what happened to our african-american brothers and sisters because there is systemic racist racism that is happening and education is power and that's what people come to east bronze like for but we also do have a community here of children who are young with intellectual disabilities and who might have just delays that might be slipping through the crack that it might lead to some things like abuse where maybe at home where i'm you know i don't want to get church and state but we're here and this
015is public things happen so we need to talk about that stuff because abuse is real and you know i come from a psychological standpoint um and i just really care about children okay so thank you guys for listening just please care about children that's all thank you please rest assured we absolutely do and thank you for taking the time to come speak with us tonight i had already closed the public portion so we're ready to move on with our agenda okay moving on to our agenda before i ask for items to be combined on our board of education agenda is there anything anyone wants separated out okay mark was that a hand raise yes on the policies 1581 domestic violence okay so let's take them one at a time there's only two can i please
016have a motion for item one minutes june 17th well moved moved by laurie second second by leewoo is there any discussion all those in favor hi hi hi all right opposed staying motion carries okay can i please have a motion for item two policies first reading mark you would like i'm sorry which one separated out forget the motion part i jumped the gun which one did you want separated out sir just policy 1581 domestic violence okay can i please have a motion for those policies listed on tonight's agenda except for the first one 15 81 go moved move by laurie second by marco angelo is there any discussion all those in favor opposed i'm sorry oh okay mr carangelo yes this is true yes mr sismar yes mrs boss yes mr hong yes this is
017lex yes this is rhys yes mr winston yes president becker yes motion carries now now can i please have a motion for policy 1581 so moved move by laurie second by mark sismar is there any discussion mark sismar i just have a question um the policy stated that we are allowed to grant unpaid leave to a victim of domestic violence for only up to 20 days is there a reason for the 20-day cap because i see it as a very traumatic experience at times and i didn't know if 20 would be enough or if it's controlled by state statute uh so that's my question where did the 20-day limit come from mark i think this came right from strasses may have mandated revision of the policy but i i honestly would have to check on
018that 20-day cap i don't know if i have to make a motion or you know i would think with board approval there's going to be circumstances where i personally would want to grant more than 20 days if necessary for somebody's unpaid leave so matt did you have something you wanted to say that comes from the state statute and folks should understand that employees who do experience that also have rights under the family medical leave act if they're psyching suffering psychological trauma they could get an additional 12 weeks of continued medical benefits uh during that time and can utilize sick leave so there's actually when you add that together you could be offer you know about four months okay um but that does come from the state statute yeah i'll have to disagree with the state
019statute on that it seems it seems light to me from the experiences but uh if it's in the state statute i can't argue that absolutely actually that it it does make a good question mark matt is there ever occasion where a board of ed can object to something in a state statute and and is there a formal appeal process let's say just kind of curiosity what the board could do is they could write to their legislature you'd write to your state senator and assembly people and tell them that you don't believe that 20 days is sufficient and then they can go through the amendment process of the statute additionally mrs becker um the board uh could adopt a resolution uh during the periods allotted by the new jersey school boards association and forward that resolution
020to the association uh for consideration in this delegate assembly uh where they compile position papers uh from the uh njsba to take on with the state you had some good points mark and there's some good fruit and thought there thank you okay um this is also a roll call vote yep mr corangelo yes mrs chu yes mr sismar yes mrs gwast yes mr hong yes mrs lex mrs reese yes mr winston jeffy froze yes yes yes yes got it and president becker yes motion carries before i before i asked to combine items one through four in our curriculum agenda is there anything anyone would like separated out seeing none can i please have a motion for items one through four move by laurie second by levu is there any discussion all those in favor opposed
021motion carries i'm hearing a slight echo um do we need to mute some microphones um all non-board member participants are muted okay on our facilities agenda before i ask for a motion to combine items one through three is there anything anyone would like separated out see none could i please have a motion for items one through three moved move by mark angelo second by heather is there any discussion jeff was that a hand you froze again it was the 10th second am i frozen you're you're slightly garbled again um susanna i believe you did have a question okay i just had a question um related to two and three so when we go out to bid and and the bids aren't within we go out to bid do we adjust the scope or do we
022look for more bidders i'm just curious what is the process to address that if we don't get bids within our budget right in in these cases um this would not be an adjustment of scope um it's really been a function of what's been happening uh in the economy um so if we take for example the courtyard project um in a matter of a couple of months uh the the estimated costs on that doubled to the low bidder and that's uh excessive uh we know that that project should not come in at that level um and then i think at the end with regard to the second item uh on number three uh that is um uh one where we are soliciting uh additional competition um because those uh bids we feel came in uh good
023so it depends on the on stances if it was a very large project a big construction project um we would potentially have to look at uh modifying the um the scope of work but typically that wouldn't come into play until after we've at least gone through two rounds of bidding yeah because i know there's there's significant supply chain disruptions in um construction industry so so i'm i'd be surprised i would i wouldn't be surprised that we see issues as as we go off for bid for all kinds of work so i mean to the extent we can delay something that that would help us save money so i don't i'm trying to understand like for example with the courtyard then i don't think or our price is going down enough that if we re-bid we
024think we'll get something we won't be we're not planning to do a re-bid immediately we're going to we're going to hold off at least several months and see what's happening out there in the marketplace okay thank you very much you're welcome so bernie my question is if we delay the bidding process that will delay the beginning of the project will this delay cause any safety uh issue with the case in the in lawrenceville school no not nothing whatsoever it'll be fine okay thank you you're welcome any other discussion okay all those all those in favor aye opposed motion carries before i ask to combine items 1-17 on our facilities services agenda our financial services agenda is there anything anyone would like separated out scene none can i please have a motion for items 1 through
02517 in our financial services agenda move by laurie second by marco angelo is there any discussion will the secretary please call the role mr carangelo yes this is true yes mr sismar yes this is gloss yes mr hong yes this is lex yes this is rhys yes mr winston yes president becker yes motion carries yeah before i ask for a motion to combine items one and two on our human resources agenda is there anything anyone would like separated out saying none can i please have a motion for items one and two oh by laurie second second by susanna is there any discussion will the secretary please call the role mr carangelo yes mrs chu yes mr tismar yes this is gloss yes mr pong yes is lacks well this is reese yes mr winston yes
026and president becker yes motion carries before i ask to combine items one through three on our strength development agenda can i please ask if anything if anyone wants anything separated out seeing none can i please have a motion for items one through three move by laurie second by leewoo is there any discussion all those in favor [Music] opposed abstain motion carries before i ask to combine items one two three on our student services agenda is there anything anyone wants separated out seeing none can i please have a motion for items one through three by laurie second second by susanna is there any discussion will the secretary please call the role mr carangelo yes this is true yes mr sismar yes mrs gloss yes mr hong yes this is lax yes mrs reese yes mr winston
027yeah president becker yes motion carries i was told that our student rep is not with us this evening so this brings us to committee reports information items and for the good of the cause of the board and i would actually like to start out tonight um it would be remiss of me not to commend a lot of people to the outstanding job that was done with graduation this year every year it is a fine-tuned event but this year certainly brought challenges like with everything else not only were all those challenges overcome but we were provided with a heavy dose of community that's been missing due to the pandemic and it was wonderful to have it back indoor arenas provide good venues they're practical in order to worry about the weather their air condition but to
028have graduation at home this year on our football field it's just darn perfect i remember seeing going into the high school before the ceremony started and seeing the kids lined up in the halls it was noisy crowded dark dimension crowded and yet i have never seen a happier bunch of students in my life they were together in their school after a year and a half of being remote and hybrid and remote only and then remote hybrid they were together as a school community as a class in their home to dr vanella and russell petranco you did an outstanding job spearheading this event you and your entire team are to be commended dr and your entire team the high school staff and administrators were with these kids every step of the way and showed up for
029this last step of their journey miller rentals which provided a wonderful setting and i think they also put in an order for the perfect weather we had the east brunswick education foundation and jack levitt provided a lift for all of us with a banner flying overhead attached to an airplane people are still talking about it it gave everyone such a boost our district security staff who kept everyone safe as they always do and everything orderly along with our east brunswick police and first responders again keeping everyone safe and orderly as they always do the high school pta active right through the last day east brunswick township in the mayor everyone doing their part coming together as stakeholders in this event the parents families friends of our graduates we've said that before you guys are our
030heroes what you have gone through your commitment and compassion and dedication with your children this past year and a half is nothing short of remarkable and the senior class i believe i can sum you up in three words if i can struggle to pronounce one of them correctly possessing indomitable heather correct me indomitable spirit you're an amazing accomplished group of young men and women if i'd left anyone out i'm sorry again all stakeholders who had anything to do with this wonderful send-off we thank you so much okay any other board members wishing to speak laurie uh there's really nothing more that anybody can say you said everything so eloquently i just wanted to go back to one thing that i find very interesting year after year and i and as someone who graduated on that
031field there really was a part of me that loved being there and seeing those kids because i have those memories and as a board member that's been there giving diplomas out in the sun center or cure center or whatever it's called now there's something beautiful about the pomp and circumstance there versus this but i have to tell you you're absolutely right the community aspect of this was so beautiful and if we didn't have the open arena and i know you thanked back and you thank the education foundation you're right that that plane and it's funny we get so many grants year after year from the education foundation they do so much for this district but the irony about that was something so small you know big but you know some really did put a smile
032on people's faces between that and being greeted with a water bottle on a hot day you never thought about that we think about the grants but you never thought about the human touch and the fact that everybody as a community was all looking up there and and just you know coming together it was even better than my graduation which i thought was the greatest graduation in the history of east brunswick so um yeah kudos to everybody jeffrey yeah i have two things tonight uh but first i was very happy to hear in the superintendent's report uh from dr velesky um about the attention that's going to be paid on the mental health of our community coming out of this pandemic i've been an advocate all year round and have probably made some requests and maybe
033to probably stretch some of the individuals uh within this district and it comes from a pure place i'm happy to see it getting the attention that it deserves i i won't use names but in in the community next tours i i read about a heartbreaking story which i'm sure some of you may have been exposed to if you're familiar of a young lady who unfortunately uh uh her issues in mental health and and some of the others just got that really took hold of her and unfortunately she was not uh alive to attend her graduation and from what i read it was completely mishandled from the neighboring district i am happy to hear that it's on your radar dr polesky i look forward to hearing a presentation by the guidance department and hear about what
034they're going to be doing and changes going forward that could encourage us so with that i just wanted to thank you for taking uh uh well said uh and lastly and i'm not sure and protocol dictates this or where appropriate so i'm going to offer him as a motion and uh this motion uh if this is the appropriate place thank you uh and if they get seconded uh i would like to make a motion that uh a uh that pushed down into the policy committee a look at a bylaw and i would like that bylaw to be explored with the board's approval to uh limit executive positions within this board uh to two years on with a one-year break i think it's very important that we get a difference in culture and energy and ideas
035and exchanges coming from the executive level of president and vice president and i think that would allow two years in one year off to apply a proper rotation so uh many others can bring to the table their leadership skills and their ideas and uh and their cultural uh differences that may in fact benefit this entire community so i would like to offer that as a motion the motion specifically is to explore this idea push it down to policy for the wording and bring it back to the board for a vote and that is emotion matthew just asked for a second this is this during this okay is there a second okay yes i'll give a second to explore it okay is there any discussion okay all those in favor opposed abstain i don't think that
036motion carried mrs becker um i i didn't hear um very much of a voice vote um across the board i would suggest you guys just call roll so you can hear okay okay bernie please follow me we'll do uh mr carangelo i'm in favor of this yes uh mrs chu no mr sismar i'm in favor of going to policy yes mrs guass no mr hong avastine mrs lax no mrs reese no mr winston president becker no okay uh the motion fails mission doesn't carry mark granger hey guys um coming from the people who said no is there anyone that wants to add why they would say no i'm asking a question lori i can only speak for myself the reason that i said no is that i don't think that you necessarily have to limit
037people's ability to run for leadership the board is nine members and every year every january whether the nine members are the same or different based on the election you have the ability to elect a president and vice president and if you feel that someone is not doing a good job if you feel someone's been there too long if you feel someone doesn't represent your views you have the ability to do that i don't know that i think we need a policy to change the the makeup of the leadership that's just my opinion that's why i voted no mark thanks laurie i agree anyone else i think you know as board member everyone has a voting right for one and there's no reason and to explain why you vote for why for years or no so
038i don't think this question is proper for us to answer well in my thoughts i want to learn you know i'm sorry mark uh i think leeway was trying to intimate that maybe me asking a question of why was inappropriate but i just want to learn that's all i'm trying to oh i don't i don't i don't think so legal um yeah i didn't i didn't interpret it as that but um yeah i just want to learn that's all i'm interested in of course i'm here so much you know so questions questions are always are always encouraged lori i just wanted to follow up with that so so mark and i feel bad about this you as a new board member have experienced the board of education in the zoom world you never got to
039sit around the table and to have conversations and to get to know your fellow board members thankfully as mrs becker said you're going to have that opportunity in our next meeting so no so i i realize that as a new board member a lot of this is new to you and you're learning across the computer screen but personally going forward and i hope you have a you know long and healthy tenure on the board you will find that the leadership is just that you know the electorate elects nine members nine individual members to the board of education the leadership of the board of education is something that is decided upon just between those nine members and the reason that it's between those nine members as you're you're basically taking and deciding who you want to
040run the meetings and lead the board if you find that you don't agree with that person as i said you're going to have time because generally you're on the board for you know at least a year with them i realized for you you came in your first day you're being asked to um make decisions about people that you don't know and you have no idea my advice um advice to someone coming in in the future is abstain if you're new and there's a change in leadership and there's um a contested race then maybe you abstain if you don't know but generally for all of us you're going to get to know the people around this computer screen a little bit better and that's how you get to know their philosophies how that they would um
041you know commit leadership and the way that they would run aboard or you know so hopefully for you you're in such a you know you're in such a distinct individual situation because none of us came into it this way we had to adapt to zoom but we all had relationships and you know we've gotten to work with each other so for you hopefully that'll become a little bit easier for you because you can also add ask questions around the table you're in a position where you can't you know look to the person to your left or right and say hey you know what i'm not sure what to do here we all had that and i'm sorry you didn't get to have that but it will get easier i want to sit next to you
042anyway so you know you play big cookies i hope so gloria i think i think you brought up a really good point and um i i think that um you know a reminder we're all nine individuals we each have one vote uh no one has any special power or authority the board's culture is decided by the nine individuals who make it up at any given time and i think we have a great group and we have an opportunity to embrace a culture and to communicate and again mark glory brought up a really good point it's going to be a whole new dynamic when we're in person and i think you'll you'll really get a lot out of it well i think where my error is coming is um i've only reached out to maybe four
043board members for advice and uh you know dr volesky too i've reached out to so i think i need to broaden who i reach out to maybe barbara moore or someone else you know susanna so you know i think i need to be better at whoever reach out to as well sure absolutely absolutely anyone else for um anything good of the cause i'm sorry libra i have an additional comment mark the reason why i said that i got so many trials i i have you know so many times the different viewers give different opinions i i'm not allowed to ask why you did that so that's why i think this we are allowed to do whatever you know based on our own personal judgment experience so we should respect each other's opinion so i after
044meeting you know you if you want to communicate with anyone want to know why what is there his or her decision-making process it's free to communicate but that i don't think it's a good idea to to ask this moment okay was there anyone else with um committee report information item for the good of the cause for the board okay just want to make sure i'm not missing anyone we do have a need for a closed session whereas the board of education must discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion in a public meeting and these subjects are within the exceptions to the open public meeting act the board of education intends to discuss manners as follows those items listed in tonight's agenda the length of the closed session is estimated to be one hour after
045which public meeting of the board shall reconvene in action will not be taken can i please have a motion to go into closed session move by laurie second by marco angelo is there any discussion all those in favor aye opposed abstain motion carries thank you for joining us tonight board members please leave this meeting and log into closed session enjoy the rest of july bye you