001i'd like to call this meeting to order will the secretary please call the role angelo here this is true here mr sismar here here here this is locks here this is rhys here mr winston here here we have a quaran please rise to salute the flag [Music] 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 stream live on youtube on the district website 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 there is no disruption to the business being conducted by the board of education the new jersey open
002public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice 7 to attend meetings of public bodies in accordance with the provisions of this act the east brunswick 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 tribune and the municipal clerk of east brunswick all board of education meetings with the exception of executive session discussions our videotape related broadcast individuals who speak at the board's public meeting should be aware of these videotaping rules good evening everyone we're going to start off tonight as we always do with our superintendent's report dr valesky thank you president becker good evening everyone tonight i want to start by addressing the
003community directly even before last march 18th when we initially left our schools because of the ensuing pandemic the ebps organization had been committed to transparency so each of you has as much information as we can possibly give you i'm not exaggerating when i tell you that planning over this past year has been one half day at a time because information changes so quickly i have heard from some of you about your concerns with my decision and recommendation to postpone our restart of hybrid instruction until february 4th when we are faced with a decision of this magnitude we begin by assembling a variety of stakeholders in the district as we try to vet every possible option and forecasted outcome every option is considered and weighed against the most recent coveted transmission data we have as well
004as the health situations we are encountering in our own school district and i know we often get compared to other surrounding districts but comparison is often difficult because each district has unique circumstances and challenges one solution does not work for every school district just as i know every one of my decisions does not work for everyone in our school community but i remain committed to make the best decisions for the entire school community i try to communicate changes as soon as i accurately can but i know sometimes from your perspective it doesn't feel that way and i don't discount that some of you are frustrated and even angry i want to reassure you that we continue to plan a return to hybrid instruction that is as safe as it can be for every student every
005staff member and all the families in east brunswick for our return to face-to-face instruction to work whatever the date i'm asking every family to be transparent with us as well if we all follow published health guidelines report report close contacts and illnesses and most importantly stay out of school if anyone in the family is presumed or diagnosed as a positive code then our shared commitment to safety is elevated keeping ourselves and everyone around us safe is the only way we can successfully pull off the monumental task of returning our schools to full operation so another reminder the learning model form for churchill junior high school and east brunswick high school is currently available through parent access the form will close at 3 pm tomorrow that's friday january 22nd if you do not submit the form
006your child will continue with remote learning instruction i'm going to say that one more time if you do not submit the form and you don't need to if you want to remain in remote your child will continue in the remote learning instruction the hammershow middle school churchill junior high school in east brunswick high school music departments released a virtual winter concert series in december in january all performances were created by the staff and students of the various ensembles even though students were not able to perform together this year in the manner of a traditional concert they still were able to create beautiful music as heard in these truly emotional video productions all concert performances can be found at ebnet.org slash arts education and tonight we would like to highlight a clip of the east brunswick
007high school honors concert choir performing an arrangement of a gospel song entitled a city called heaven and this selection is a traditional sorrow song one that would be sung to cultivate a sense of hope through music and that's something we all need right now this performance features solos by seniors julian a day and zoe ascension i know you will enjoy it and it's coming it is [Music] oh oh sometimes i just don't know which way [Music] my wow sometimes i just don't know which way of a city [Music] oh that was wonderful you know i'm constantly impressed by the talent that we have in east brunswick and and even during the pandemic and being physically separated from one another our students still manage to impress and inspire um so i'm so proud of them i
008know their families are too as well as all the administrators uh michelle degrossa dr bolli everybody that's involved in the program that has cultivated these young young people and their talents so so thank you much to all those administrators um president becker if i could i would like to also offer a resolution of appreciation for school board recognition month absolutely thank you very much so resolution of appreciation school board recognition month january 2021 my where has the year gone whereas the new jersey school boards association has declared january 2021 to be school boards recognition month a time that all residents might acknowledge the contributions made by our local school board members and whereas the east brunswick board of education is one of more than 581 local school boards in new jersey that sets policies and
009overseas operations for public school districts and whereas the east brunswick board of education embraces for all students the goals reflected in the district motto of excellence in academics athletics and the arts and whereas the east brunswick board of education helps determine community goals for the education of approximately 8 200 children in preschool through 12th grade and whereas the east brunswick board of education members receive no compensation for their services yet are committed and active advocates for public school students and as board members collectively work with administrators teachers and parents for the good of east brunswick public schools and public education in general and whereas the east brunswick board of education provides accountability to the public communicates the needs of the school district to the public and conveys to school administrators the public's expectations for the
010schools and whereas the east brunswick board of education can take pride in its schools which rank among the best in new jersey and nationally in indicators such as high school graduation rates class size college entrance exam participation in advanced placement offerings and test scores now therefore be resolved that we join community statewide in observing january as school board recognition month and express our gratitude and appreciation to vicki becker laurie lacks mark carangelo susannah chu mark sismar heather guass lee wuhang barbara reese and jeffrey winston collectively the east brunswick board of education further unwavering service to the student staff and of course the greater east brunswick community thank you to all of you for all that you do thank you dr valesky and certificates are going to be coming to you via u.s mail after all
011the christmas packages are delivered for 2020 or 2021. hard to tell yeah we may we might be better just to deliver them to your houses thank you very much thank you we come to the good of the cause for the public members of the public may provide comment at this meeting through zoom by entering the url meeting id and password provided into the web browser of your computer or mobile device 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 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
012importance 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 all participants will be limited to three minutes speaking duration and i'd like to add to remind the public that this is the time for the public to come and address the board we do not feel this is a time for the board to enter into a dialogue with the public they should be allowed to come and speak to us freely specific questions can be addressed by the relevant administrators but please don't mistake our silence for anything but giving you the respect that we feel you deserve by coming to speak before us
013this is your time with that being said bernie is there anyone wishing to address the board we do not have anyone currently in the queue and i'm continuing continuing to monitor and no one there is no one saying no one i close the public portion um someone just spoke up just as you were saying those words okay um i enjoy having our community participate we will allow that person to to speak even though i said it uh melissa lennon hello are you able to hear me yes thank you so much for your time i i appreciate being able to to speak in this forum and to the board my child goes to frost elementary school i will have a second child in elementary school there next year as well and i i'm trying to be
014mindful through all of the decisions that the administration has made that we all have the same goal which is clearly to keep our children safe and to provide a quality education i also understand that the administration has been trying to manage this school district through a global crisis and am mindful of how challenging many of your decisions have been that being said this school system still needs to function with a vision of success and my child is in first grade i am watching these children sitting in front of computers all day unengaged unable to focus and i'm seeing the effect that it has on the quality of education and i'm seeing in my opinion a school system that's just floundering and i'm concerned as a parent now as we all know in november dr valesky
015you drove through town you saw long lines at the walk-in clinics and you decided to close the doors out of out of fear now i was at the same clinic days later and i actually spoke with the people that were there and what i found interesting is i was the only one there that was from east brunswick i spoke to teachers from madawan that were required to go there to get co-bid testing i met couples from old bridge and what i found out is the reason that there was such a large population at those clinics is it were the only ones in the surrounding area that were open that were providing covid tests yet dr valesky you saw something that scared you in my opinion you failed to do your due diligence and you reacted
016and the people that i see are suffering the most 30 seconds are our children i thought i have five minutes to speak three minutes ma'am okay so my question is why are we not capable of opening our doors the private schools the catholic schools the day cares and public schools in the surrounding area are open full-time point pleasant is open five days a week shrewsbury is open four days a week jackson was which is a comparable school size okay we have no one else in the queue thank you very much for coming and speaking to the board moving on to our agenda items under the board of education can i please have a motion to combine items one through seven so moved laurie moved by laurie secondly is there any discussion will the secretary please
017call the role mr angelo mark you're unmute mark angelo my apologies yes mrs chu yes mr sismar yes mrs guar yes dr hong yes this is lax yes mrs reese yes mr winston yes president becker yes motion carries for our community programs item there is one item on the agenda may i please have a motion for that don't move by glory second by leewoo is there any discussion all those in favor aye aye opposed abstain motion carries under curriculum and instruction there are five items i'd like a motion to combine items one through five silver move by second by jeff is there any discussion this is a roll call vote will the secretary please call the role mr carangelo yes which is true yes mr sismar yes mrs gloss yes mr hong yes blacks yes
018mrs reese yes mr winston mr winston yes yes president becker yes motion carries and our facilities agenda tonight there is one item can i please have a motion for it so move move by mark second by laurie which mark sorry mark two is there any discussion all those in favor right opposed obscene motion carries on our financial services agenda i'd like a motion to combine items one through three moved move by laurie second second by susanna is there any discussion all those in favor all right opposed abstain motion carries our human resources agenda there is one item can i please have a motion for that so you will move by lee will second second by laurie is there any discussion will the secretary please call the role mr carangelo yes mrs chu yes mr sismar
019yes mr squash yes mr han yes this is lax yes this is rhys yes mr winston yes president becker yes motion carries for our student services agenda i'd like to combine items one through five can i please have a motion for that move by lee wu second by laurie is there any discussion will the secretary please call the role mr angelo yes this is true yes mr sismar yes this is gloss yes mr hong is lex yes this is reese yes mr winston yes president becker are you hearing me yes we i've got that thank you you're welcome yes and motion carries and now um i believe our student rep tony is with us tonight always a pleasure to see you how are you how are things i'm doing well president becker i hope all
020are doing well with all of you as well um the only thing i wanted to talk tonight uh talk about tonight was the choice of virtual versus hybrid from the perspective of a student and um the main question that is being addressed is if the benefit of going in person and going hybrid outweighs the risk now obviously the first thing to consider is that everyone's individual situation is different some people have grandparents living at home where the risk is a lot higher but also do students want to go to school if each classroom is only two to four other students and the teacher has to teach to her laptop because the vast majority of students are still virtual and um it's sometimes perceived as sitting and staring at your screen at your desk at home
021to going and sitting and staring at your screen at your desk in a classroom now obviously this is um one side of this situation and some students cherish the opportunity to go outside consistently and go to a learning environment and of course provide some much appreciated company to the teachers who have to go every day um but some students don't want to wake up earlier two out of every four days and you know it depends what like each weight each side has a different weight and um i think one of the more important things is that or at least i personally believe that we will see or we're more likely to see an eventual mass switch to hybrid as opposed to a gradual trickling in of students switching to in person and i think it's
022because the decision is largely based um on what your peers are doing right you don't want to go to school if some of the kids that you know that are in your class aren't going if you're not doing what all your friends are doing why would you take that risk and go for it so um of course everyone's situation is different but uh since it's so strongly based on what your peers are doing i think that eventually we'll see a mass switch as opposed to everyone trickling in and uh dr vlaskey touched on this but the winter concerts uh put forth by the choir and the orchestra and the band it's amazing to see how talented the students are and how smoothly they're able to adapt despite the situations um one of the biggest things
023over the summer was everyone was like how am i going to play my instrument if i can't even you know sit in the band and you know we can't even fit more than 10 people in the room and it's great to see that it's so like well done now and the production of the video was great and yeah those were the only two things that i wanted to bring up tonight thank you thank you again as always we appreciate you taking the time to come and let us know what's going on with the students at the high school this brings us to committee reports information items and for the good of the cause of the board i just wanted to simply start out by um also echoing like tony just said the performance by our
024students shown in the video early tonight was amazing your passion for the arts your commitment to what you um decided to get involved in is inspiring the production was terrific but just seeing your faces and the smiles and the passion with which you were singing thank you for sharing that with us greatly appreciate it and now uh anyone any member uh board committee report information item for the good of the cause jeff thank you president backer uh speaking on behalf of the finance committee meeting which was held on january 19th uh that was our first meeting of this year my first meeting is a chair of this committee and i am encouraged uh by uh the folks that are involved some of the comments that were made just a fast overview we've uh beginning to
025lay out some of the financial uh opportunities that are being faced with now within the district and uh many of which are very good others are going to be need to be worked through and i appreciate the work that mr giuliani has done in presenting some of the data crystal clear makes it very uh easy to uh really assess what's going on uh from a topical standpoint uh we did discuss some of the enrollment in state state aid enterprise revenue which of course has changed drastically as a result of the covet 19 virus along with the educators health plan classroom availability and if i it was one takeaway from this is that i'm encouraged that we have our eye on the future on to brighter times and we as a district are absolutely going to
026be prepared to uh springboard out of this virus to a strong i expect a very vital district so i appreciate everything thank you that's my time thank you jeff good report any other members liwu yes thanks susannah last thursday of january 14th i attended ebef monthly meeting as everyone knows that the pandemic is caused and is still causing huge trouble for everyone and every organization so ebef so the primary fund rising event such as the pi dinner and the celebrity dancing of activity may not be held on time so you know uh still jack and his entire ebef team are working very hard to provide our school district with all kind of funding and supporting so if anyone in east brunswick community if you know any foundation private or public foundation is willing to help
027please contact jeff contact that organization please bring any financial resource to the ebef which eventually will benefit our school this school district and benefit our children so please do whatever you can to help ebf help our children thank you lee very important to know thank you for bringing that up any other board members wishing to speak susanna um just wanted to report that the um east brunswick human relations council will be holding a um facebook event on february 9th on tuesday at 7 30 pm celebrating black history month and i'm really excited about that program i'm participating on that planning committee a lot of just really wonderful um businesses and artists and dancers will be featured so if you can sign on at that time it will be um live with pre-recorded sessions and we
028also have contributions from our own very own students from east brunswick schools so very much looking forward to seeing that but it also be recorded so if you miss it you can always go go on facebook follow east brunswick human relations council and you can access the the recording after the fact thank you thank you susanna for bringing that to us for to there for bringing that to our attention any other board members barbara i i just wanted to mention uh we had a parent and i appreciate parents coming to speak to the board um and i definitely it's to advocate for your child i have kids you know in the district and my sister has kids in the district but i just want you to know that i've never known dr valesky to act
029out of fear um that's not his way in fact he's very data driven and i have not always agreed on everything uh related to covet all the time exactly and we all have different views but i have to say he's been very thorough data-driven the entire administration and the the characterization of us floundering i have our teachers are excellent our administrators are excellent so i want you to know we hear you but just remember that these are people who are working very hard in very tough circumstances i just lost my father to covert and it's not easy and i'd rather be cautious and save lives so thank you barbara that was beautifully beautifully put i think you spoke for all of us thank you so much anyone else wishing to bring up anything at the
030good of the cause seeing none we do have a need for a closed session the board of education must discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion in a public meeting those matters we intend to discuss are those items listed 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 and action will not be taken may i please have a motion to go into closed session second by jeff is there any discussion all those in favor aye aye opposed abstain motion carries thank you for joining us tonight stay safe board members please leave the meeting and log into closed session you