East Brunswick Board of Education - April 22, 2021

001ready to go call this meeting to order due to the cobit 19 health emergency and in order for the board of education to conduct its business this board meeting is being held the video conference and stream live on youtube on the district website at www.event.org in addition members of the public may provide comment at 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 roll mr car angelo here mrs chair mrs true i see you you're there you're muted mr sismore here mrs moss here mr hung here mrs lack here mrs reese here mr

002winston i see you you're frozen and president becker here we have a quorum please rise to salute the flag here i pledge allegiance indivisible with liberty 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 public bodies i'm going to ask those who are watching tonight somebody is not muted if everyone who is watching the meeting tonight could please mute themselves [Music] definitely hearing some noise in the background if you are participating by zoom tonight please make sure you're unmuted mrs becker um everyone is muted that may be coming from one of the board members okay board members i don't know do what you can the east brunswick board of education has caused notice of this media [Music] by

003having the date time and place thereof posted at the education offices written notice is 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 the exception of executive session discussions are videotaped for later broadcasts individuals who speak at the board's public meeting should be aware of these videotaping rules good evening bernie you um it's you still feel that um static feedback is coming from one of the board members um everyone is muted at this point um it may be just something with the system right now okay all right we're going to start off this evening with the superintendent's report dr valesky thank you president becker and good evening everyone and happy earth day i would like to start

004my remarks this evening with a recap of the public presentation we gave on thursday april 8 that addressed our current and forecasted enrollment growth additionally tonight i would like to expand on our initial presentation to provide a more comprehensive context for our school community and especially parents of our third fourth and fifth grade elementary students let me begin by restating the root cause of our enrollment challenges that prompted the recommendation for temporary classroom unit additions and grade restructuring scheduled for september 2022 based on current enrollment we have used all our elementary classroom capacity additionally we do not have the current capacity to expand special education programming at our elementary schools and this is after we have moved art and music out of their designated classrooms school enrollment projections quantified by a demographic study update for

005the east brunswick public schools performed by statistical forecasting in june 2019 forecast an enrollment increase of 411 students and this is for the for the range from 2009 2010 school year to the 2022 i'm sorry the 2023-2024 school year i need to highlight that some important numbers are not currently published in any reports and this is since september of 2022 this is september beginning this school year we have registered 331 new students 64 previously inactive students have re-entered our schools now those are students that are likely have gone to private schools and re-entered east brunswick we have also pre-registered 110 students for kindergarten 27 students are pre-registered for ela and 50 total registrations are in some form of process for either kindergarten or ela as we begin our recovery from a global pandemic the problem

006is bigger than a simple we are out of space let's just make more of it consequently the solutions to the multifaceted problems we are currently facing become more complex too in fact many of you are not aware that the board of education has been discussing facility capacities along with our aging high school and grade level reconfiguration options since may of 2017. we know from research that clustering certain grades around developmentally appropriate levels can contribute to more successful outcomes later in a student's academic career we are also acutely conscious of the social and emotional impacts this pandemic has had on our students and their families in an all candor we do not know the full scope of the pandemic's impact on our students social and emotional health nor do we have a full assessment of the

007academic impacts resulting from the pandemic but here is what we do know we know we will need smaller class sizes especially in our elementary classrooms as we take additional academic as well as social and emotional supports to the classrooms our classroom reconfiguration proposal is not in spite of the pandemic in fact it is in direct response to the pandemic additionally we also plan to offer summer enrichment to remediate learning losses resulting from the pandemic now as community members are well aware our current school transitions throughout a student's academic career are prompted by the facilities we currently have the pressing high level question is how do we create an organizational structure that does not increase the number of school transitions in a student's eb experience yet builds cost-effective elementary capacity ultimately supports the distinctive needs of

008both primary elementary and upper elementary students and provides an opportunity to explore the adoption of a comprehensive 9 through 12 high school model our plan building our success is a multi-year multi-phased approach it begins to address by september 2022 a forecasted shortage of elementary classroom capacity for both general and special education students grade restructuring for this initial phase we call phase one is critical to providing appropriate educational spaces for all students and teachers as east brunswick residential properties continue to be revitalized with families who are enrolling elementary age children into our schools we are witnessing exactly what the demographer study revealed we are being impacted by the migration of students primarily in grades one through three also high in our prioritization list is the creation of appropriate spaces to expand our special education programming we

009want to have the capacity in our home school settings for our students to receive high quality east brunswick special education instruction and related services by opening up classroom space in each elementary school we create the opportunity for inclusion in the least restrictive environment in a child's home school along their same age peers inclusive education benefits both children with and without disabilities and some benefits include increasing friendship skills social emotional well-being access to peer models heightened academic success the opportunity for engagement and extracurricular activities and a strengthened field of belongingness so our overall commitment is to build sustainable classroom capacity focus on equity throughout our school district and contain costs to minimize the tax impact burden on township residents so our solutions must address the following questions how much space do we need for the immediate

010and future needs of the district where do we place that space and how do we organize it how do any spatial solutions integrate into our existing facilities and grade level limitations what is the most cost effective mechanism to communicate with our entire stakeholder group some of whom are on this meeting tonight how do we envision our future teaching and learning environments what other opportunities to improve our students experiences present themselves as we develop solutions for classroom capacities and finally what security concerns need to be addressed in any new facility or any newly added additions to existing facilities so to recap what our proposal was for our grade level reconfiguration for september 2022 with phase one was to reconfigure elementary schools to pre-k through fourth grade hammer shoulde would begin functioning as an upper elementary school

011i want to re-emphasize that hammer shoulde you know today is the middle school hammer shoulder would re-begin re-functioning as an upper elementary school serving grades five and six we are not trying to push students into a middle school model we are trying to create an upper elementary experience for our students churchill with the addition of temporary classroom units also known as tcus would serve grades seven eight and nine and of course our high school would remain unchanged with its current configuration of grades 10 11 and 12. now one of the questions that has been posed by some of the community members through emails to the board and both to me is why not add the temporary classroom units at the high school and just move the ninth grade to the high school in phase one

012well after a review with our district's architect we've determined it would be extremely difficult to place those temporary classroom units adjacent to the high school we would incur significant costs to adjust the site topography reroute traffic circulation roadways replace sidewalks and parking spaces meet water retention and wetlands requirements are just to name a few but we are working on a more detailed cost comparison that will demonstrate those additional costs for the public this proposal in phase one still incorporates four building transitions just as we do now but now at different grade levels now i want to emphasize that no matter when we implement this grade level reconfiguration we know it will affect certain grades and they will have abbreviated stays specifically at hammershow but only during the transition period so for every one of you

013who has reached out to express your passionate concerns about the impact this grade level reconfiguration proposal may have on your child or children you know i humbly ask you to consider this what if we were able to build a substantially better experience for your child through this process and hopefully the ideas i'm about to share for phase two which we have previously not shared presents a clearer picture of what we hope to accomplish in the incremental steps required to get there so phase two includes but is not limited to first developing plans to replace the temporary classroom units with a permanent structure and we are required by the department of education to do that once temporary classrooms are placed on our site and the second most important thing is to position the district to consider

014a new comprehensive nine through twelve high school on the existing high school site that would support optimum 21st century teaching and learning for all our high school and all our high school students and finally we know the the president and his administration have publicly discussed investing in infrastructure repairs and improvements and should any federal assistance come through the states to support school renovation or replacement i believe it's imperative that east brunswick public schools be prepared in advance to either accept or decline such an opportunity i want to thank everyone for listening to this lengthy presentation all of this information is is essential however i know there will be more questions and our typical for the good of the cause format is not designed for a question and answer format therefore i respectfully request that the

015board consider postponing action item number one under facilities until our next regularly scheduled board meeting on thursday may 6th additionally i'm inviting all concerned stakeholders to join me on a zoom q a forum on tuesday may 4th from 7 to 9 p.m where we can have a dialogue on your questions and provide answers to them we will publish the zoom link and login information next week on our website now in other district news beginning this past monday we welcome back our students in all schools for five day week in-person instruction for those families who selected the option i really enjoyed seeing our students and lots of happy staff during my visits to school this week congratulations to chitti kindergarten teacher kim balak who was recently notified she is the recipient of the 2021 cooperating teacher

016excellence award from writing writer university which recognizes cooperating teachers who go above and beyond for student teachers kim mentored rider student carrie murano in the fall of 2020 and the district is proud and grateful to cooperating teachers like kim who used their talents to create the next generation of educators so congratulations kim also congratulations to our girls varsity volleyball team on winning the state sectional championship this year they played extremely hard for every point and a state sectional championship is an important accomplishment and we are so proud of this team for this amazing accomplishment go bears just a reminder third quarter report cards can be viewed online through parent access tomorrow friday april 23rd hard copies will be made available at the request of anyone without internet access thank you thank you dr valeski um

017board members dr volesky has made a recommendation in his report tonight to table the item on the agenda under facilities to table that vote for reconfiguration of grades and of proving temporary classroom units to our next board meeting so i'd like to open up the floor for any discussion or comments before i ask for a consensus on this anyone had wish to speak great idea okay please go ahead laurie oh i just did great idea sorry oh okay jeff is that your hand jeff i believe is frozen okay let me tell him he's frozen okay you're frozen can you hear me on the phone line yes we can all right let's it's i'm in an unstable internet environment so um this is me speaking this is jeff if if i'm still frozen uh first of

018all i i i i do want to mention a few things i did i did hear from very many members of the community on this and uh i appreciate dr valesky's suggestion in the mere fact just for the first fact let them know the community that you are hurt and and and some of the key points that were made um repeatedly in the communication i've gotten from the community i've really given a lot of thought i know there's a lot of commentary surrounding uh students with iep or special needs uh are we going to be equipped to handle all of that and and i i as a parent of an iep student i i respect that and that was a question that i had and in speaking to dr valesky about this if this adds

019any comfort to the community in this i i started giving some serious thought the fifth graders that are going to be impacted uh should this get approved will actually be if i'm doing the math right and dr valeski correct me the first graduating class that will experience either two or three years based on the time frame that you've told us for a build in what will be ultimately a 21st century high school that's replacing a 1957 high school long before the word internet wi-fi tech or any of those things were invented i think my perception of this is that what this proposal ultimately will do if and i could be mistaken but i don't think i am is going to provide the best opportunity for education for all students across the board and i think

020ultimately having a new high school and now talking about phase two i'm hoping that the public sees where this absolutely makes sense and represents the town and educational level and the expectations that have been set here uh so so with that i i support this being tabled i'm looking forward to hearing from the public and if what we hear coming back is anything based on the communication that's been provided to me in many emails phone calls texts and even on facebook i think i have to say and i thought about this i think we're very much on the right track but i appreciate the pump of the breaks because i do think the public needs to be heard so i appreciate your decision on that and i will support uh a delay in today's vote

021thank you yes dr baleski um i i also think that um scheduling the community forum is a great idea could you just repeat again the date and time of the community forum sure um and i wanted to emphasize too that there was never a an attempt not to have community forums uh i was hoping that we would have the opportunity to have face-to-face forums and given our current uh limitations on doing that uh really there is no other choice than to have a zoom type form uh let me see we've got a lot of papers here excuse me one second uh zoom will be a q a on tuesday may 4th from 7 00 to 9 00 pm open to all interested stakeholders and we will publish the zoom link and login information on our

022website next week and i'll also remind people in my normal communications during the week so we'll we'll keep everybody updated yeah thank you as i often remind the public um the board basically stays silent during um the good of the cause for the public because it's it's the public's time to address us but it's not a forum for questions and answers or for discussion or dialogue this is just the time for the public to come and speak to us and if anything needs to be addressed it's done following the meeting with one of the relevant administrators this is a great way to actually have a dialogue with the superintendent and his team about our plan so i i i also applaud this anybody else barbara thank you and and uh i also think this is

023a great idea and dr velesky isn't there an email if they want to send their questions ahead of time and give a heads up or what the areas that are interested the parents to talk about they can reach out to to administration yeah thank you mr reece the uh if you go on to the home page of our website uh you will find right there there's the for what we call the first tile the top left tile is uh entitled building our success there's faqs in there and you can go in there and the email address uh is listed in there um and i'm gonna i'm gonna look it up um i don't recall the i want to make sure i get it exactly right but i will i will interrupt um president becker let

024me let me look for it and i will i'll get it for you well if there's no other discussion i will ask the secretary to call the role mark mark ii uh jeff says it the best eloquently and since i you know graduated in 82 from our high school i think it's a great idea that we're going to be upgrading um i can't imagine what the children are going through with the outdated high school and i appreciate you uh dr boleski bernie and everybody for uh this forward thinking for our you know parents and students so i'm all for this plan okay so just again just to make sure every board understands we're voting to table the vote tonight to postpone the vote tonight and to schedule a community forum a heather i'm sorry i

025didn't see your hand i just wanted to comment i very much appreciate um dr goleski and the administrative team offering to table this um i think in reading the letters from the community it wasn't just um sometimes you get emails that are just a strong opinion but these were some very thoughtfully crafted letters and concerns and if people put that kind of time into it i'm so glad that we're going to have the opportunity to discuss these things answer dr valeski can answer questions um and i know that we are because of the growing population on a time crunch but i just think that this idea of slowing down to give the community time to answer some questions and to get a little more information is just such a solid plan of action so thank

026you for doing that problem president becker just before you take a motion or anything it doesn't require a roll call you can just do this by now i'm going to do i'm going to ask for a roll call because we're on zoom and um i had i talked to matt about this and he had suggested just doing a roll call so we will be voting yes or no on whether or not to support dr valesky's recommendation to table um i.e put off voting tonight and voting instead on the six for the grade reconfiguration and rental the tcus and to scheduling the community forum on may 4th okay then a motion needs to be made to do that yeah yes yes i'm i'm i swear i'm getting there joe but thank you so much i just

027wanted to make sure dr velasque you have your hand up yes ma'am i just wanted to make sure i got to the community about the email for the questions for the faqs it is questions with an ask questions at ebnet.org and if you put those up we will answer those questions and add them to the faqs you can see we already have started that uh so if you cannot make the q a forum on may 4th please be sure to do that so we can get those those questions and answers posted okay so can i please have a motion to support dr volesky's recommendation to tabling the item on the facility's agenda that would be a vote on the grade reconfiguration the rental of the tcus and to be scheduling a zoom question and answer

028forum with dr valeski and his team on tuesday may 4th from seven to nine pm may i please have a motion i'll move on heather second by jeff is there any discussion will the secretary please call the role mr carter angelo yes mrs chu yes mr sismar yes mrs gloss yes mr hong yes mrs lacks yes mrs reese yes mr winston yeah president baker yes i'm sorry call me whatever you like it's okay thank you martian carries that item will be tabled we will be removing it from the agenda tonight and voting at the next board meeting next on our agenda let me just go back on my ipad okay we have two presentations tonight dr baleski would you like to present our new supervisor of athletics yes president becker and the entire board it's

029my pleasure to introduce mr frank malta who's our newest supervisor of athletics and frank comes to us with a very um diverse background and and so we look forward to what he's going to offer to east brunswick and our east brunswick athletes and i had the pleasure of attending the signing ceremony the first signing ceremony that that mr maltha had overseen and i i just have to tell the board and mr malta how impressed i was with just the quality of the recognition of all of our student athletes who are going on to uh compete at their colleges and universities so with that mr frank malta thank you i think we need to be back on gallery view please thank you uh thank you for having me tonight and giving me the opportunity to introduce

030myself i've been in education for the last uh 24 years i've had quite a variety i've taught quite a variety of grade levels at the middle school and high school level i had the opportunity to coach at those levels as well teaching coach at those levels uh both male and female sports um and for the last 15 years i was at jackson memorial i concentrated more so with baseball during that time i did a lot of our strength and conditioning there and i also had the opportunity to teach adaptive physical education there which uh for the last eight years there was a was a wonderful experience and was one of my toughest goodbyes when i left jackson um it was such a i had such a a great rapport with our with our students um

031i'm looking forward to this position because i'm looking forward to the opportunity to work with our coaches and student athletes i think it's something that um you know just concentrating really on baseball at jackson uh this gives me a a wider range of of of kids and athletes to just be around and make a difference with and i look so forward to that i want to continue the sense of pride hard work and the traditions you know of our coaches and student athletes here so that's something that i'm looking forward to in this position um a few things just the you know my first site of our athletic programs here um you know the first thing that that struck me with our coat was our coaches you know i made it a a point to

032get out to games and practices even before i was able to start i was able to come to some games at night and and just see what we were all about here in east brunswick and i am so impressed with the teaching and you know the one thing i look for you know in other and other coaches is i look to the student athletes and i look to see how they perform in practice uh in games uh their body language um you know just the little intricacies of what they're doing uh in the course of a game and see how they're being taught and i think you know our coaches have done a fantastic job i am really impressed with them and i am looking forward to the spring coaches i'm looking forward to see

033to see that part of it too i got a great great chance to see season three our season three um athletes perform and now we're into season four um so uh we're starting our regular contests uh this this week uh we open up our regular season uh season three a couple highlights you know our our girls volleyball team uh did win a sectional championship as dr velesky talked about earlier our gymnastics team as well was a top team in the gmc and was a top five team in the state as well and both of those teams have a lot of our young ladies coming back so there's a bright future for them and we're i think looking forward to seeing them next year as well um so and the last thing here is that um

034i think we're going to we're going to continue to do what's best for our student athletes and protecting them and keeping them healthy we're following covert protocols our coaches are and our athletes are doing an outstanding job of that um and it is our utmost concern right now i think you know into season three and getting into the spring of season four you know our job right now is to keep our athletes and our coaches healthy and to keep them on the on the fields and courts and allowing them to play uh and you know something that we put together in district uh was a video was a video put together by uh john mcmenamin and daniel blaylock it's a wonderful informative video um and i think we're going to show it now um it

035is it is a three and a half minutes and just filled with a lot of information for our athletes in our community um that was a very fast three and a half minutes perhaps um joe bernie who's sharing the screen there we go technology is wonderful until it isn't um i will we could certainly invite you back uh this is uh it'll be spring for a while and we could have you at the next board meeting or the one after that to present the video frank that's fine uh you know one thing i should say is that our coaches um and our district we've put it you know on a lot of our team websites a lot of our players have had the opportunity to view it already uh we're trying to um get it

036out to our student athletes and to our our parents um so i mean it is it is a great video uh it is on youtube that it can be it can be viewed on there as well but i can just finish my last two slides so um moving into the summer you know we're looking forward to getting our athletes and bands back on campus with their workouts at night with their practices preparing for the 21-22 school year you know one thing i think that is that is just uh an awesome and awesome start to the to the next school year is the end of the summer hearing the band playing at night practicing uh preparing you know our student athletes are on campus you know and they are able to work out and prepare um

037and you can see we put our official start date our official start date for um heat acclimatization for football is eight nine uh the rest of our teams begin on uh 8 16. um so uh we're we're we want to get back into a regular normal uh athletic year i think that's the biggest thing that we're looking forward to i know our coaches and athletes are as well and you know we're again good here to all of the covet protocols that are going to be adjusted uh and we will follow suit and we will do everything that we can you know to keep our athletes out there you can go on to the next one and just that you know i kind of alluded to it earlier but you know we want that normal fall

038athletic season there's nothing like watching our teams in the fall uh it's a great time of year it's probably the best weather of the year uh and get a lot of people out and one thing i have to say we got a little taste of that a couple days ago you know our our campus was jumping we had a lot of home events going on it was kind of great to see that it was awesome to see all the people out uh awesome to see our athletes playing and participating it was fantastic and it felt like it felt like normal and i think that's you know what we're all looking forward to uh one last thing i'd like to end with um you know our upper and our upper uh admin team from our upper

039admin you know they've been wonderful with me and just uh helping me out our our high school team and our churchill team also they're awesome excellent educators involved there and i am so happy to be able to work with all these people day in and day out it's it's been a great experience for me in my first three or four weeks here and i really look forward to being here and you know seeing more of our athletics and more of what our school has to offer our our student athletes thank you very much for this i really appreciate it thank you thank you frank thank you so much for coming and talking and giving everybody not just the board but everybody who's watching a chance to get to know you you have a lot of

040current and former sport parents on this board we all but we all have a passion for athletics and like everyone else in our community we have a passion for our children that's a great word passion is an awesome word to use well it's it's a great word to use with athletics because it also involves sportsmanship which we're we're so proud of in this district i also would be remiss if i didn't take a minute to thank someone um in september we were presented with a very unique situation we needed an interim athletic director um we didn't really have time to train anyone so it had to be someone who could hit the ground running and oh yeah during a pandemic uh with lots of restrictions and upsets to the usual rules regulations and seasons and

041just like in the comics there was one man who came to mind um and that was um knop or frank knoppenberger's people know it yes i was mr frank knappenberger uh our former uh athletic director and supervisor of health and phys ed for the district agreed to come out of retirement and be our interim director and you checked off all the boxes frank and then some once again thanks for bleeding green thanks for being there you did an awesome job and i'm sure that you're going to continue to work with frank to help make his transition even easier and smoother and we thank you dr velasquez did you want to add anything no i want to concur with you president becker and on you know behalf of all the administrators extend just extreme appreciation to

042mr knoppenberger for coming out of retirement coming back to east brunswick he did it like like you mentioned at a critical time with covid protocols uh and you know frank just brings such a wealth of knowledge with nj siaa rules regulations and and the protocols that were being put in place uh he did a phenomenal job and we were able to pull off seasons for the athletes and i mentioned that to the athletes of the signing day that you know we were we were a school district that had a season we had all of our seasons and we had some we had some things we had to resolve we had some quarantines we had to do but they weren't significant and we were able to deal with them and i i really want to express

043my appreciation to our athletes too who took it upon themselves to treat themselves and their fellow athletes with such care and i think that contributed to our success so and i i look forward to mr malta and his leadership and that like i said it was evident at the signing day ceremony the other day so i look forward to many many great years with mr malta thank you i appreciate it and just to piggyback on that you know uh frank knoppenberger has been a a wealth of knowledge for me and he's been a great person to you know throw things off of and talk to about this position who who better than him and uh you know he and cristiano have been a great help to me in these early few weeks of just getting

044acclimated to the position because i think they they both did such a fantastic job and uh they're going to be a tough act to follow but i'm going to do my best that's part of the challenge so i want to thank them i have to give a shout out to christian ozzo too because when christian houser did double duty he assumed a new position at the high school as an assistant principal but he still had his feet in a couple of camps the same time and he demonstrated the excellence that we've come to expect in east brunswick so thanks to him too and the phenomenal job that he did during his tenure as the supervisor of athletics yeah chris sorry i didn't mean to leave you out forgive me um you did do the double

045duty and you continue to contribute so much to our district and to our kids so we're just lucky to have you in any capacity and i believe we now have a second presentation dr valeski yes president becker we have an update for the boarding community on diversity and equity initiative that we kicked off with effective school solutions and leading that for the district is dr figueroa who is going who's our assistant superintendent for student services and who will deliver the presentation hey good evening everyone tonight i'd like to update you on the work that we've been doing with effective school solutions on further building a foundation of racial literacy and cultural inclusion this fall we contracted with effective school solutions which i'll say ess because it's a lot easier to say to help us with

046our efforts to further our work with racial literacy and cultural diversity we realize the importance of having an outside organization come in to look at what we were doing in these important areas over the past five months ess has conducted 11 focus groups surveyed stakeholders gathered data that we can use to build a sustainable culture of improvement in that time ess has also provided 18 professional learning sessions for staff administration across the district so in phase one in the summary what we have done already the needs assessment we've created an action plan and as i mentioned before racial literacy and cultural sensitivity professional development for administrators teachers and support staff for the needs assessment basically how we collected the data school visits we had six different schools that we that ess visited looked at climate

047and inclusivity focus groups there were 11 various groups each one about an hour session long district-wide climate survey we had over 600 responses to that survey which is very good terms of the data collection there's several components that were included such as student discipline employee demography and grade level required course materials questions related to curriculum and this slide is consistent with the work we have planned to do elementary families said 74 percent books in my school show different races hammer shoulder 63 percent believe that curriculum materials used are culturally inclusive and reflect diverse races and ethnicities the high school and churchill 60 believe materials were culturally inclusive parents 53 percent believe that materials were culturally inclusive and diverse and staff 56 staff believed the curriculum materials were inclusive and diverse next slide please so if

048we look at our culture of racial inclusivity um we scored very well in the green areas and some of the top yellow areas areas like families are part of events students of all backgrounds socialize and work together school rules are applied fairly in most cases though these two on the bottom right one clear rules against racial insensitivity was only 71.38 and students in my class schools respect each other's racial and ethnic differences 68.83 okay if we can look at the disciplinary history by subgroup you can see that it's 2016-2017 through the 2019 220 season data on suspensions black and hispanic students have represented about 35 to 45 percent of the suspension days while representing about 12 percent of the student population okay so let's take a look at the breakdown racial breakdown of staff and

049students our asian staff are only six percent 33 percent of our students of asian background so there's a big disparity there hispanic staff five percent seven percent students black students at three percent i'm sorry black staff at three percent and students at five percent so we've made some improvements but we definitely need to continue to look at that in terms of staff diversity disproportionality and restorative justice restorative justice is something dr vanilla had previously started at the high school uh restorative justice focuses on identifying motivation impact of action alternative behaviors with a focus on educating and building empathy so it's more therapy versus punishment well let's take a look at some emerging insights um main which is our main focus for us in terms of work we can do first i'd like to acknowledge that

050we have staff that genuinely care about all of our students that was clear throughout the data staff diversity we're working with ess on possible recommendations to expand our staff search pool to recruit more quality individuals of diverse backgrounds opportunities to make curriculum more culturally sensitive i know dr bowley and her team are looking at curriculum assessment updates uh that address multiple ethnic and racial viewpoints and this this work takes time also opportunities to improve cultural racial inclusivity we plan on working directly with ess to improve respect for racial differences more clear rules about being racially unkind to improve staff ability to address an acceptance and inclusivity of all students opportunities for holistic discipline approach ess can help us work on further focus of restorative justice and finally on this this particular emerging insights opportunities for

051more educator readiness to handle those racial conversations and incidents ess can help us better support staff and administration uh in adding to their toolkit in terms of how to manage these discussions effectively okay so key recommendations continue the professional learning capacity building um also key recommendation of expanding staff diversity uh create more culturally sensitive uh curriculum and assessment continuous thought of justice prepare staff to better be better equipped to handle culturally sensitive discussions and topics and that's the the plan for us at this point moving forward through next year we also plan next year to eventually get parents and families more involved as we focus on the following year as well i also want to thank dr volesky and the board of education for all of your support in this work thank you lou any

052uh comments questions from board members thank you uh again lou it's it's always very um exciting but also so important to hear what we're doing to promote um being inclusive being tolerant our children about basic kindness and respect not just for each other but for themselves i think that being in a continual state of improvement and looking to put forward new initiatives it's absolutely the way to go investing in professional development is absolutely the way to go i know our teachers our users were before but something i used in conjunction with this district all the time passionate about promoting tolerance justice respect so really really very glad to see all this mark one i believe you had your hand up thank you yes i i think i'm gonna take some time to uh look at

053this that was the first time we got to look at the items on that survey um but being in the schools for five years working there being a former student i'm very proud of our staff in the schools and you know i wanted to thank them thank dr figueroa and everybody involved in this so thank you to the staff anyone else susanna yeah i just want to echo that um thank you for for this initiative and the work and um you know and and really taking uh taking the time to to have a objective you know third-party view to come in and look at it move forward it's an important topic that's top of the news all the time and you know it's it's uh you know the children are our future and you know

054i know that's a cliche we overuse it but they really are and anything we can do to help move forward the culture of uh inclusion is is definitely a great step forward thank you okay next on our agenda is the good of the cause for the public members of the public may provide comments at this meeting through zoom by entering the url meeting id and password you see before you on the screen in order to be recognized use the chat feature select the zoom meeting host then enter and send your name to the host you will be recognized to speak when your name is called individuals will be invited to speak in the order in which we have received your request participants are limited to three minutes duration and again i want to reiterate what

055we said at the top of the meeting this is the time for the public to come talk to the board please do not mistake us being quiet and attentive as anything other than that we listen and hear everything you say we do not view this as a forum for discussion for question and answer we view this as a time for you to be able to speak any questions any follow-ups will be handled by dr volesky and his team so joe is there anyone wishing to speak to the board actually bernie's controlling that bernie there was no one in the queue at this time okay uh seeing none i close the public portion moving on we have several resolutions of appreciation laurie would you please give us the honor of reading the first one resolution of

056appreciation administrative professions day professionals day whereas administrative professionals are partners in the education of our students and whereas administrative professionals play a major role in creating an environment that is conducive to learning in our schools and whereas administrative professionals provide valuable services to our students faculty staff parents and other members of the community and whereas administrative professionals are essential to the efficient effective operation of the schools and whereas administrative professionals facilitate important communication between the school's parents and other members of the community and whereas administrative professionals helped to maintain the excellent reputation of the district now therefore be it resolved that the east brunswick board of education proclaims wednesday april 24 first 2021 as administrative professionals day in the district and expresses appreciation to our administrative professionals for the dedication and commitment to our students

057and our schools may please have a motion for this resolution move by barbara second second by lee wu is there any discussion all those in favor aye aye opposed abstain motion carries our next resolution resolution of doctor of appreciation i'm going to ask dr valesky to please read thank you president becker resolution of appreciation faculty staff appreciation week whereas all members of the faculty staff contribute to the excellence of the school district and whereas all members of the faculty and staff are partners in the education of our students and whereas all members of the faculty and staff play an essential role in creating a welcoming and secure learning atmosphere in which all students are able to achieve at the fullest extent and whereas the dedication and commitment of all members of the faculty and staff

058are directly related to the outstanding accomplishments of our students and whereas there is no greater legacy than the sound education of our that our students receive now they're therefore being resolved that the east brunswick board of education proclaims may 3rd through may 7 2021 as faculty staff appreciation week and commends all members of the faculty and support staff for the time and effort they devote to our students so moved move by heather second by barbara is there any discussion uh i think laurie uh that was lori lori i'm sorry and did you wish to say something yes you know i just wanted to say this is when i get to put my parent hat on this is one of my favorite weeks of the year because our staff is so wonderful and having been a

059student in the district and a parent in the district and a board member in the district um this is the best week for me because no matter what school i'm in i get to have all the other parents and the students come together and really show their appreciation and especially when you look at what we've been through with the pandemic and it's affected families in so many different ways the one thing that has never changed is that when you say to the parents in this district please come out and show your appreciation for your staff and your kids teachers they all are there and generous and willing to give and so unbelievably thankful and it's just a beautiful thing to see so this is this is they're all wonderful resolutions and i appreciate our nurses

060i appreciate our administrative um assistance but i just have to say um not to play favorites because i appreciate everyone but as i said this is something that really i think brings the district together and the parents and it's just a great week so and i have fun planning it so gloria i think you brought up a really good point i remember when i was pta president um always having trouble getting parents enough parent volunteers to fully staff any given event we were going to do except for the staff appreciation uh in our case i it was breakfast um they they couldn't get to me fast enough offering to volunteer so um says a lot about the people the parents in our district but also the faculty and staff they want to do it and

061i'll tell you it's funny when i first took over years ago it was a day and i started in the different schools i was in making it a week long and we did something different and parents do and and not to embarrass barbara but i was talking to barbara about hammer shoulder and what i was doing this week and how excited i was even with the uh covid um you know restrictions and barbara turns around says hey well i gave to to centra that's uh to to churchill she said i'd love to to donate i love the staff at hammershow so you know that's the thing parents are so unbelievable i'm barbara's such a generous person i didn't mean to embarrass you but her kids are long past hammer commercial so it was just a

062nice thing to see but i think that's what our staff does it inspires the generosity and the real true appreciation from our parents thanks barb was there another hand up heather i just wanted to express my greatest appreciation to the staff and to the teachers um this year has been unlike any other and i do think that perception of what happens inside well inside the classroom wherever the classroom may be but perception of what happens inside the classroom this year has swung so many times you know you see people teachers and staff are our heroes and then it's you know strong feelings in other directions about what should happen in that frustration with the pandemic and i think despite swings and frustrations and huge wins that the teachers and the staff have just always provided

063such an excellent level of education and support for the kids i think it hasn't mattered where the classroom was if it's you know on on teams or if it's in the classroom or on the field the support for the students has been consistently above and beyond what anyone could hope for and i know the teachers have worked more hours this year than any other year in their career the paraprofessionals everyone is just seems to be working round the clock and i am deeply appreciative for what they're doing for the health of the community as well as the education of the kids thank you was there anyone else mark sismar yeah most of it was said by the others so i won't repeat that um thank you very much and you know just note from september

064the staff came back into the schools it's important to get the kids in the schools and the hybrid training is is very difficult on the staff i've heard from many staff members and they they answered the call they came in the buildings and they did the job and very proud of them and this this has to be the toughest year on record for a teacher by far for what they've done in the classrooms and they continue to do so thank you very much from the bottom of my heart anyone else and we have one more resolution that i believe laurie is going to read about national school nurse day before you do that you just didn't say all in favor oh sorry all in favor aye aye opposed abstain motion carries thanks joe lori well

065i will read this resolution but i have to correct myself i realized something what makes the second resolution so important is that it encompasses all three so i just realized that i don't have to apologize to the nurses or the administrative professionals because the beauty of staff appreciation is it's everybody right there you go even dr valesky even dr volesky especially dr valesky so with that being said um where is east brunswick public schools team of nurses positively impact the health and safety of the students and staff and whereas our school nurses play an essential role in creating a welcoming and secure learning atmosphere in which our stude all students are able to achieve to the fullest extent and whereas the dedication and commitment of all east brunswick school nurses played a vital role during

066the covet 19 pandemic having been instrumental in keeping students and staff safe now therefore be it resolved that the east brunswick board of education proclaims may 12 2021 as national school nurses day and commends all east brunswick school nurses for their extraordinary time and effort they devote to our students and staff i please have a motion for this resolution so moved mu by lee will second second jeff second by jeff for any discussion leewoo so i concur all my fellow board members that i want to give my special appreciation to our school nurses our society is changing so fast our student is changing on daily basis our schoolnotes are facing challenges dynamically changing every day so they have to deal with our students health confidential and they care about them on the daily basis i

067really appreciate thank you dr boleski and then barbara president becker i just simply want to say very quickly the administrative professionals the faculty staff the nurses my success wouldn't be possible without them that i just simply um a representation of the district these are the people that come to work every day do the work and the resolutions have lots of nice words in them but i've got to tell you the actions are so powerful and that's what i saw when we returned to school on monday and we saw just happy staff welcoming students back our nurses walking around making sure students were safe and you know in every single day i'm supported by two ladies in my office who you begin to understand what the relationship is when they can tell you this is what

068i think you would say because they could already anticipate how you're going to behave so i appreciate everyone so much so thank you barbara i believe you had your hand up i i just wanted to echo uh what we have said but thank you to everyone from our teachers our nurses and our administrative professionals and everyone involved with the schools and especially the nurses uh you know um they really have they've been put in a position with with the pandemic that they i'm sure none of them have ever imagined and really we thank you all for for all your dedication very well said anyone else okay moving on to our board agenda can i please yes susan you wanted to say something no i don't we have to say i to this last oh boy

069i'm sorry folks my problem is i'm looking at my ipad for one thing my laptop for another and the phone for another so i keep forgetting where i am in the agenda thank you for everyone for keeping me on track all those in favor giving you a real challenge tonight joe okay okay now for our board of education items can i please have a motion to combine items one through six move by laurie second by leewoo is there any discussion mark mark one yes on item number four the policies policy zero one five two board officers i wanna hear from the curriculu the uh policy committee i made a suggestion and it was tabled a few meetings ago because it doesn't include any opportunity for candidates to make a statement or for candidates to take

070direct questions from board members in a public meeting and i guess my question is for all for all four people that were at the policy meeting why is that not part of the policy for our election process susanna uh yeah uh so so it was um brought to the policy committee it was discussed um there was not a consensus to make an additional change to it so we moved it forward um you know in the version that you see it um we also took into account uh some information we we received from from matt um i don't know matt if you want to jump in and and you know discuss you know the feedback from what other districts are doing as we talked about so what i did for the for the board is i

071went and did a search of the various districts we represent as well as other districts i didn't see that in any policy i looked at the model policies for school boards and strauss esme i spoke to school boards and well it's not illegal to put that in there it's unusual um and i would say that it's not i haven't seen that in any other policy in the state one might exist school boards did say it's not illegal to have that but it is quite uncommon um i also spoke to strauss esme the person i know there and they said that they've never seen that done either so i gave i provided that information to the policy committee when they asked me for that can i ask a question uh to uh mr kobe regarding that

072please jeff oh jeff you're so frozen okay yes no my voice is here uh mr kilby in in your research and going back to that is it also uh not typical that more than one candidate uh is uh trying to secure that position therefore leaving really no necessary reason uh to have any type of presentation made to the efficacy of that particular candidate mr winston i i didn't i wouldn't be able to discern that from looking at a board policy i can tell you in my travels around the state i've been at many boards where there's contested um i don't call it elections but contested appointment for the position of board president i mean typically what happens is as you know there's no second required there's a just a nomination and very often the person

073or the individual who makes the nomination for a particular candidate says why he or she is nominating that person to be the president and serving on the board similar to what you guys did uh earlier this year um when there's not a contested election clearly you're right you wouldn't need to have any type of of statement but even you know i'm not able to discern whether or not you know a given board has its policy because they've had contested elections or not what i can just tell you is that i did not see anything in there where there were statements made or you know minor speeches made by people running for the board um one of the board positions that's not to say that somebody nominating somebody just as you guys did like this earlier

074this year uh can make a statement on behalf of of the person that you're nominating and that is that is typical okay you can't tell who can't see you that's okay i i understand that's i was trying to get in quickly so i'm under if i'm understanding this correctly the hesitancy of including this is simply based on the reason that i've checked with we've checked with other districts and they simply are not doing it is that is that our position are you tell are you asking me mr winston yeah yeah yeah i i don't i don't mean i don't make the call i don't make the calls on what the board wants to do with its policies i just provide legal guidance as i said including that is not illegal i'm sorry bad feedback including

075that is not illegal i just did a search of other policies around the state that i could come across uh on just going on websites and going to school boards etc and i didn't see any policy that had that type of language in it again it's not illegal to have it but i was just i was just providing i was asked to provide what do other districts do that's the information i provided susanna [Music] yeah i was just going to add to address the question the policy uh committee members who um who were in attendance discussed it took took that into consideration certainly that it wasn't the only consideration um and determined that uh the the policy would be better served um as it was and and you know and that's you know that's where

076we ended up mark yeah i have two things to say on that one there will be a candidate statement because the way we do it now when someone nominates someone they do make a statement what's simply going to occur is the candidate will nominate themselves and we'll make a statement whether or not our policy has it in there because that's past practice the other part of this is if a candidate for president or vice president of this board is reluctant to take questions from other board members in a public setting that gives me concern we should be more open with these things we should do it in front of the public we serve the public so to not have a candidate statement to not take questions from board members and someone wants to be a

077president or vice president of this board that gives me great concern that's why i brought it up that's why i suggested it i think we need to be more open with the public vicky when it's my turn jeff let me meet you okay let me just see is there anybody did i miss somebody's hand okay jeff go ahead uh to miss true um i understand that was the position of the policy committee and i'm happy to hear that it was debated can you please uh provide give me a little bit more color on this what is the hesitancy of doing this what was the pushback to feel that it did not need to be included during that policy meeting what was the objection certainly um taking into consideration that um you know a policy is

078something that we want to make sure is something that lives on it's you know consistency across the state that was one consideration it wasn't the only one um board members run right you're you're not just placed into a position so everyone knows what the board member stands for so it just didn't seem necessary to add that um you know that that step and add something that nobody else has done uh so you know i'll i'll leave it at that there were other board members if anybody wants to comment but um that you know that was the view of the policy committee anyone else yeah just on that and i appreciate the answer so really i was i was i was closer to right i guess i addressed the question to the wrong person uh when

079i asked mr jayakovi but your first your first response was that's not the way anybody else is doing it in the state uh in spite of the issues that we've had hold on hold on in spite of the issues that we've had on this board in the most recent election the the first thing you stated was that's not the way anybody else is doing in the state is that really the reason why so if you're done um that was a consideration as i said the members in attendance who took the time to you know be members of the committee thank you very much um discussed it and did not feel it was necessary to make the change it was a consensus view um i was at the meeting that night and um from what i

080recall from the meeting there was a sentiment that um by the time a person's name is put forward into nomination that um there wasn't a need for a q a session that the person nominating them could do a job stating their position or as mark just said someone can nominate themselves he's absolutely correct and make a statement but we didn't feel that we wanted to turn this into a forum for a debate if you will and that there was an opportunity i see your handmark and that there was an opportunity for the person nominating to make points about why the person they were nominating would be a good leader and or as you did say mark and it was an excellent point one can nominate themselves and make a statement absolutely and we did not

081feel it was a matter of not wanting to be transparent and not wanting to face the public uh and that somebody running for the board is looking to dodge look uh somebody interested in being a board leader was looking to dodge questions and answers from their fellow board members i i do feel that we we did want to know how is this being handled by other boards what is considered good practice best practice and so we were very interested in mass conclusion that he was not aware of any other boy that had this as a part of their policy so it was an aspect of it mark now i you had your hand up again maybe mr carangelo can go first okay thank you guys so my position being that i came in during my

082first meeting to vote for a president i would have appreciated uh knowing kind of beforehand who was running and then when we got to the meeting uh you know what you know person a running put their name in a hat and then they made a little statement and they might ask a question um and i'm i'm glad i voted for who i did you know but um you know because i think vicky does a fantastic job so i'm happy i you know and then um you know person b so judging from me coming in uh i would have been more i don't know inclined to go with what jeff and mark are saying not because of any other reason but the timing i was a new board member my first meeting was you know boom

083vote for president i was like oh my god what do i do you know but uh now i see i made the right choice though uh just because other boards do it doesn't mean that this type of situation where someone comes in first day boom the first thing i gotta do is vote for president was a little scared you know because i don't know if i should make the right choice the wrong choice so having a statement and maybe b asking multiple people questions would have helped guide me to my answer so i'm just an individual case that probably happens maybe once every 10 years who knows but that is a reason to have a statement and maybe ask some questions no actually mark any new board member their first meeting would be that meeting

084in january now since we changed around elections from april to november the board reorganizes in january which is the first meeting for any new board member so any new board member would absolutely be in that same situation since then i think it's appropriate to allow the new board member an opportunity to you know hear what the candidate is saying that way they can make a you know a good uh you know estimate of why they would want to you know vote for that person for president because it's super important i mean you do a great job so you know i just wanted to throw my experience because i was a new board member and i think that's what maybe mark is just trying to say is maybe new board members need a little more you

085know listening to candidates thank you mark appreciate that viewpoint heather oh i just wanted to say having been in the same situation mark you know earlier but the same situation i felt that that came across in the nomination speeches the people that were nominating the people that were running had a great deal to say about the board career and the achievements of the people they were nominating and their perspective on what they had to offer which i thought was a solid way to do it if only because i think people are less likely to speak to their own strengths as much as somebody who cares to take the time to think it through and nominate them so i felt that i was given that information in fact more than i had even expected in the

086nomination speeches they were there and i felt confident with what i was doing although at that point in time it was a different election but um but there was a lot of information provided just in a different way heather thank you i i understand and i appreciate that and uh helping me through but um and asking a question of a potential uh president would be appropriate as well and i know that you know someone nominating would say some you know beautiful stuff it's warranted but asking a question from another board member might still be appropriate is there any other discussion mark yeah you know again i agree with mr crangelo on any given year you could have three new board members coming in on the election process that's just the way it rolls so you'd

087have three new members coming in relying on one statement made by another person it's kind of thin um and i i do like to ask people questions in public and that's not taking a shot at anybody or anything but listen when you're in a public meeting we we have the open public meetings act and if somebody wants to be a leader on this board as the president or vice president i think they should answer questions from board members only i know if you opened it up you know it would be impossible to control with you know hundreds of people possibly but when we go to get elected the east project education association gives us a forum there's questions and answers we hear people in real time answer questions you want to be the leader on

088this board you want to be the leader on any any type of board i think that type of person that wants to be that leader should have to answer questions in a public setting that's my opinion and i don't see why it would be a bad thing i've heard nothing to the contrary that'll be a bad thing to add that to our policy mark did you want to separate this out this policy and have a separate vote taken on it or do you do you want me to move on with calling for a motion for all the policies uh can we separate uh yeah we separate out 152 can i make a motion to separate out the vote for 150 there is a motion on the table to separate uh 152 is there a second

089don't move jeff angelo second okay one one second um all those in favor i opposed obscene okay motion carries so first i want to go back to the original motion which is for all items on the board of ed agenda one through six with the exception of policy number zero one five two under item number four can i please have a motion move by laurie second by second second by susanna is there any discussion yes i have a question on one particular policy well about another policy okay um mark angelo had actually raised his hand first thank you so uh 2624 is the program uh a grading system and i see that it says uh revised um a plus 98 to 100. maybe heather could answer the bet better because she's a teacher in school

090and then c plus is 76.79 um can someone explain to me why the plus is 86 because i would assume that an a plus would be a hundred like a plus would be a hundred um my suggestion to uh make uh a plus 99 to 100 and at b plus you know those numbers you know an 86 isn't a plus it's kind of middle so maybe someone can explain to me why these numbers they are um dr valensky joyce uh i'd like dr bully to respond right so um the only proposed revision to this policy is at the beginning the red line there removing the letter grades from the fourth and fifth grade standards based report card um the rest of the policy has been unchanged um this policy you know has been long-standing in

091the district and you know this grading system is what has been in place um okay so my question is why is what is the justification for a b plus at 86 and a c plus at 76 i would think that uh 70 you know 7 78 i mean not like a little higher would get them at plus am i making sense or in my office no you're making sense um the 98 you know because think about it a plus is 98 to 100 and then b plus is 86 so that's two points that are different 86 87.88 my suggestion of my thought i don't you know i'm not saying i need to change policy or whatever but reading through i would think that an 88 or 89 is more of a plus to me personally

092i'm going to say in 89 it's plus 88 isn't a plus i'm sorry mr angelo i didn't mean to interrupt you it's okay i jumped in too fast president becker yes um may i recommend that that i have dr bully's team research uh mr carangelo's questions uh and we return to another board meeting with some answers to the correct questions he's answer he's asking so you want to also um take this policy um out of the motion victor dr boley do you concur we can certainly look at at what mr crandall is mentioning i do know that these calculate into students gpa scores and are aligned with college board um i'm certainly willing to engage in a further conversation with you so what we'll do is we'll do that and we'll re-communicate with the entire

093board i'll do that in writing prior to the board meeting okay matt um why an 86 is a b plus that's considered uh even if it's college i mean i own a school and 86 is not a b plus in arsenal so mrs becker let me just say one before you guys go on right now is this the grading policy that you're presently utilizing 86 is a b plus yes so i my suggestion would be that you guys passed this resolution because if you try to change it now you could adversely affect children's gpas generally when you make changes like this this would be for incoming um freshmen or something like that you've got to be very careful because you don't want to change mid-year you would you could actually change people's rankings and everything

094in 86 which is kind of the middle um you know there's a plus yeah a lot of times mr mr crunch a lot of times they do this because some of the courses you know if you're taking an ap course and you get 86 they're so rigorous or honors course but i don't know if that's the reasoning but i was actually involved in federal litigation over a policy uh dealing with weighting of grades and stuff so just be very very cautious my suggestion is if this has been your current practice you should maintain it study it and then if you're going to implement a change you have to do it holistically so it doesn't affect any of the current students who've been relying on this policy in the past i think it's an excellent point

095mr jacoby i i wasn't suggesting that we changed the policy i was just suggesting that we give you know we provide answers before the okay or took action uh another another option would be to pass the changes that are being recommended here and then take a separate look at what mr carangelo was mentioning and provide a comprehensive answer i'm not suggesting what mr crandall is saying is incorrect it might be very correct but i think what you want to probably do is just make sure you have the policy in place and then you guys can study you can always revise the policy in the future and if you guys want to have you know 88 be a b-plus you can do that but you got to look to make sure it's not going to adversely

096affect any of the current students right and remember again um mark you're you're bringing up some very good points but again um as with any policy we would need five board members to agree to um change it so i want to change it i'm just thinking you would like you would like to have the administration consider reconfiguration and provide you with some justification for the current grade distribution uh i'm not saying i want to reconfigure i want answers as to why the b plus and because if you think about it 98 to 100 is you know pretty high but in 86 you know 76 is a c plus whether it's a hard class or not hard class so now we're going to say well you know an easier class c plus is still 76 i

097need i just don't understand that in my mind i would say a c plus is a 79 not a 76. so are you comfortable leaving this on the agenda for approval tonight with the understanding that um your concerns and questions will absolutely be addressed of course okay so um i think there was another question before we vote on um the motion freighters one through six jeff yes president becker thank you uh i'm just um it's more out of curiosity unusual change under number six recall a board member pursuant uh 1927a what what was the importance of removing the word regular meeting and what does that change so uh if i may mrs becker on that point please respond i'll respond to that so mr winston um that came from um uh commissioner decisions that came

098from the department of education uh the removal of the word regular uh gives the impression that um uh from that the um absence from special board meetings for example don't count and that's not the case all board meetings count for purposes of determining absence and so the word regular gets removed it's any board meeting including including committee and a committee meeting no a committee meeting is not a board meeting a board meeting is only one that has been duly advertised and consists of a quorum of the board it's yeah it doesn't it doesn't include committee meetings jeff good enough i was just curious thank you okay so i believe um where we last slept our heroine she was asking for um a motion to combine items one through six and and joe please remind me

099do we have a motion in a second for that yes okay so we we're going to be doing a roll call vote on items one through six with the exception of policy zero one five two under number four okay will the secretary please call the roll mr car angelo yes mrs chu yes mr sismar yes mrs gloss yes mr hung yes mrs lax yes sorry mrs reese yes mr winston yes president becker yes motion carries and now may i please have a motion for revising policy 0152 board officers to reflect the recommendation by second by mark is is there any discussion just can you just can you read it back exactly what did you just say in terms of well okay so what i believe would happen now is that if a majority of the

100board decide they would like to incorporate mark's suggestion it would then go back to the policy committee for exact wording matt am i correct and then it would be presented for first reading and second reading like any policy actually right now the policy that's before you you would need to have a motion and a second and if somebody wanted to make an amendment to it you could do that or if there's a motion on this policy to amend it you could consider it that way this policy said right now the policy that you have on the agenda is the possibility to vote on okay so what we're doing make a motion to amend that policy and send it back to policy committee you need to have a motion to amend the policy so we're going

101to go ahead and vote on the policy as is or or alternatively if somebody wants to make a motion to amend the policy and send it back down to the policy committee you can do that i'd like to make that motion right if i if i may before you can make the motion you have to have the policy as it stands on you know up as a motion so you need a first and a second on that first and then you commit discussion and then after that discussion you can amend that the motion that's on the floor with the precise wording that you wish to have amended i don't know if we're going to have the precise wording bernie i mean wouldn't it i think you don't need to do that you can you have

102to have a motion in a second on the floor for the current policy if somebody wants to make an amendment to include the language that mark lisberger suggested and refer back to the policy committee there would be a vote on the amendment that fails and you go to the full the original motion [Music] okay so i'm asking for a motion on the policy as presented correct matt correct can i please have a motion so moved moved by susannah second by heather is there any discussion with glory that moved was that lori or susanna it was me she kept using us tonight heather i'm i'm sorry guys i the heather's box keeps lighting up sorry um i think i don't know if jeff is muted or not i'm getting a ton of feedback it's really really

103hard to follow but i think he's the only one not muted so maybe it's him i'm muted i'm muted and now i'm unmuted jeff if you can mute your phone it keeps on popping up saying it's you yeah it's your phone jeff okay so now matt where are we now there's a motion a second on the floor and now it's open for discussion so somebody can make a motion to amend the emotion on the floor and refer back to the policy committee based on what mr sismar had suggested about having statements by the various candidates okay but then what are we voting on the the original one or the amendment it's just like a motion to table vicky when somebody makes a motion to amend you would then first vote on the motion to amend

104okay if it passes it goes back if it fails then you vote on the other one got it okay so mark thank you i make a motion to amend policy 0152 to include a statement by the candidate if they choose to do so and a question and answer period for members of the board only to ask questions of potential candidates and for to be referred back to the policy committee correct and pleased to be referred back to the policy committee for their review now we need to have a second on mr sismar's motion and once that's done you then took a roll call jeff seconded right jeff yes okay now there'll be a roll call on the amendment to the policy okay so we're now going to have a roll call vote on whether yes

105or no this policy should be amended to reflect mark's suggestion and be sent back to policy committee for language will the secretary please call the role mr carl angelo yes mrs chu no mr sismar yes mrs gloss no mr holland no this is lex yeah this is rhys no mr winston yes president pecker no motion carries i'm sorry so now we're back now you go to the you go back to the original motion so you need to have a roll call in the original motion to adopt the policy as presented in the agenda this evening right what he said okay motion in seconds right jeff please call the roll uh joe no problem mr angelo no this is true yes mr sismar no mr squaws yes mr hong yes mrs lax yeah mrs reese yes

106mr winston no president baker becker say you call me the wrong name i call you it's one of those nights man yes now can i say motion carries yes okay thank you all thank you all for that discussion okay now where are we is it still thursday okay yes we are up to curriculum we have one item on tonight's curriculum agenda can i please have a motion for that don't move second by susanna is there any discussion all those in favor opposed obscene motion carries the item on our facility agenda has been tabled to the next board meeting that brings us up to finance financial services can i please have a motion to combine items one through four no move move by lorry second second by leewoo is there any discussion this is a roll

107call though will the secretary please call the roll mr carangelo yes mrs choo yes mr sisma yes mrs gloss yes mr hong yes mrs lex mrs reese yes mr winston yeah he's no longer here okay i know he keeps going in and out to try and get the drink if he rejoins president becker he can then just record his vote on this one mr winston indicated he was going to be leaving the meeting early okay okay uh president becker yes motion carries we have one item on our human resources agenda tonight can i please have a motion for that item move by laurie anybody second by mark two is there any discussion will the secretary please call the wrong mr corangelo yes this is true yes mr sismar yes mr cross yes mr hung yes

108mrs lex mrs reese yes president becker yes motion carries on our student services agenda we have three items tonight i'd like to combine items one and three can i please have a motion for that i'll move move by laurie second by barbara is there any discussion will the secretary please call the role mr corrie hello yes this is true yes mr sismar yes mr squash yes mr holland yes this is lex mrs rhys yes president becker yes motion carries we have one item on our transportation agenda can i please have a motion for that item move by laurie hold on hold on sorry just let me catch up okay you're okay okay second fight second by mark ii is there any discussion all those in favor opposed obscene motion carries committee reports information items and

109for the good of the cause of the board i believe our student representative lou you said was going to be with us tonight tony good evening how are you i'm doing very well president becker i hope everyone is doing well as well did you have a good spring break and holiday yes yes i did uh i actually was able to go and visit my sister who's in cleveland right now and she's at med school so i was able to get that done in spring break and then come back quarantine and then come back to school so oh great it's a visiting family is always wonderful so what do you got for us yeah i just wanted to say it's probably the most exciting time to be a student right now i think as the student

110the student experience has been throughout the year consistently rising but this week there's been a spike and it's not just because of the five-day schedule and you get to see your peers and socialize in the hallways with people that you haven't seen in over a year but it's also because of excitement for some events that are on the horizon and i think some of the students who kind of treated this week as an experiment to see whether they were willing to come on and wake up every morning for the next few weeks and the remainder of the quarter i think that they had an overwhelmingly positive experience so the retainment on the people who signed up to be in person i think should be uh pretty good so and this is just a testament to

111you know the diligent effort put in by the staff and the teachers and uh everyone that made this possible so that way the students can have this nice normal or at least slightly normal experience um it's an especially exciting time for seniors as we uh are kind of cementing our decisions as to where we're going next year uh and i have a little quick little update for you guys but i'll be attending the university of illinois at urbana-champaign to study computer engineering so i know you guys have been tracking my progress and i just wanted to share that with you wonderful news congratulations thank you president becker uh i'm excited and all of the students that know where they're going are excited especially to show off their new school pride uh on the senior decision

112day which will be may 3rd so that's another thing for seniors to look forward to and then uh we have another series of events coming up one of them is uh that the national honor society is hosting a combo drive this saturday where uh students and staff can drop off either donate donations of diapers baby wipes and formula for the central jersey diaper bank and any various snacks and bottles of water for elijah's promise and also next month uh in mid-may to or early may of mid-may uh if you remember last year we had the mcfoods battle of the classes food drive which was i think like one of the first few big events or at least community gatherings that we had in quarantine where we received i think over 25 000 pounds of food

113so uh we're doing it again this year in mid-may and uh hopefully it's even better than you know the exceptional result that we got last year and uh that like i said that's happening in mid-may so i just wanted to plug those two events as you know uh good events that really can bring the community together and i also a lot of other people have shouted out but the fact that athletics is continuing and not only just continuing but succeeding like the gymnastics team and the girls volleyball team so you know it's a great time to be a student it's an exciting time to be a student and i'm just i'm just like i said giant spike in the happiness and i'm just happy to be a part of the ride thank you that was

114such a nice uplifting upbeat report greatly we appreciate it hope the rest of senior year continues to be a positive thank you any information items for the good of the cause of the board lori i think you had your hand up i did although i hate following tony because it was so exciting um on a not as happy note um i did notice that ruth chang is retiring and we always lose good people to retirement when it's their time um and this is another one of those where it's going to be especially big shoes to fill she has done so much for our world language program she is one of the most passionate dynamic people i have ever met and um i'm a little heartbroken right now i'm thrilled for her and her family but

115um i just wanted to say i hope we can get her back in virtually in here at some point um before she goes but uh what a loss for the district what an incredible incredible woman and she's done so much so thank you ruth susannah did you have your hand up uh yes uh and just to echo what uh you know miss lax uh just just mentioned i i don't know there's anybody with more energy and enthusiasm uh for for her position and her role um so we are going to miss her dearly she's she's brought uh forward you know so many so many new ideas and new programs to us and uh certainly wish her well in retirement so i was very sad to see that in the uh in the gender packet uh

116for tonight's meeting um i also just wanted to mention uh human relations council held on april 20th a um a facebook live event which is available now um in in the recording an event called building bridges combating anti-asian racism and we had a wonderful panel who shared their expertise with us and we also had wonderful representation from our students from ebhs including the asian club and others and um i encourage you to watch it uh and especially you know when you hear the voice of the youth and it really gives us um you know pot gives that gives us reason for optimism so uh you know just want to thank the kids and all the uh the panelists and the participants in the event that night um i also want to piggyback on what lori

117and susanna just said about ruth ruth is the kind of person who walks into a room and literally lights up the room um her passion is unequaled it's impossible to be around her and not become passionate about um well everything having to do with school but especially languages ruth i i wish i remembered enough of my high school and college french to be able to say what i want to say to you in um in french but the only word that comes to mind is um say that one yeah mercy baku and um one illustration of ruth and her personality and how she motivates people when the first time she came to the curriculum meeting to talk about uh the addition of mandarin to the foreign language curriculum she literally came with a bag of

118the little cutie mandarin oranges and as she talked about this exciting class she wanted to introduce she walked around the room giving us all the mandarins i know it sounds it may lose something in the translation but that's ruth whether it's giving out mandarins or figuring out ways to engage kids um we all are sorry to see her go but we wish her luck every year we big goodbye to veterans in our district um who adds so much who bring so much to what is the character of our district and they all deserve our gratitude anyone else any other information items seeing none we do have a need for closed session whereas the board of education must discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion in a public meeting and the board of education intends

119to discuss matters as follows those items in tonight's agenda the length of the closed session is estimated to be one hour after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene in action will not be taken can i please have a motion to go into closed session second second by liwu is there any discussion all those in favor aye opposed abstain motion carries good night stay safe thanks for joining us board members please log out and log into closed session congratulations tony you