001hey Susanna okay I love 7:30 hey is everybody ready to go yes okay I called this meeting to order Co bed 19th emergency this meeting is being held by the conference in order for the board of education to its business this board meeting is being here's me we've got interference with a cell phone which is interfering with mrs. Becker statement sorry Becky okay okay all right speech on you on the district website you WWE ba org in addition members of the public who wish to provide comment during the good of the cause for the portion of the meeting may do so through zoom free direct access is available by URL that you are about to see or not I shall read it up there we go the URL that you see on the screen into
002the web browser of your computer or mobile device and entering the meeting ID and password that you also see on the screen upon joining the meeting your participation will automatically be muted to ensure that there is no disruption to the business being conducted by the Board of Education in order to be recognized select the chat feature in zoom then enter the and sending age of the meeting host you will be recognized to speak when your name is called individuals will be fighted to speak order in which we have received your request pull the secretary please call the roll Jew yeah mr. sesmar here mrs. loss mr. Hong yeah mrs. lakhs yeah this is Rhys mr. Simmons mr. Winston here as it better yes we have a quorum after the Pledge of Allegiance I'm going to
003ask that you remain standing for a moment of silence which will be observed in memory of Regina so Nikki who passed away suddenly on June 10th 2020 miss Sun eggy was a 2013 East Brunswick High School graduate with honors who went on to attend Monmouth University since 2017 Regina worked in our after-school program at Central Elementary School where she one activity assistant of the Year in 2019 Regina was dedicated patient and had a special place in her heart for our students our thoughts and heartfelt sympathies are with her loved ones please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag and one under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all please remain standing we may be seated thank you the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the
004right of the public to have advance notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies in accordance with the provisions of this act the eastern education has caused notice of this meeting to be published that the Board of Education offices also was provided so the Samsun or the Newark star-ledger the home news interview and the municipal clerk of East Brunswick all board of education meetings with the exception of executive session discussions are videotaped for later broadcasts and individuals who speak at the board's public meetings should be aware of these videotaping rules good evening I'm going to start off tonight as always with our superintendents report dr. molesky Thank You president Becker and good evening to everyone the class of 2020 virtual graduation ceremony was a huge success and special thanks to dr. Michael Piniella
005his principal Matt Hanna's assistant principal and John McMenamin our district multimedia manager for all their work to make the virtual graduation a special moment for our seniors and their families during our planning process we were investigating a lot of options from private service providers I was getting multiple emails each day and as you can imagine we had a plethora of offers for us to consider and evaluate and John typically displays a quiet humbleness but he is absolutely the best at his craft of anyone I've ever been associated with and near the conclusion of a particular discussion about producing the virtual graduation I asked John as we're evaluating other offers what do you think he simply responded I can do it better and he did thank you John it was clear your production was a tremendous
006it with the parents who reached out to me congratulations also to Bernardo Giuliana business administrator and board secretary Joseph crotch film director financial services Tara Rosa Ming senior manager and the entire finance department for the seventh consecutive award of the certificate of excellence of financial reporting from the association of school business officials international this latest one is for the comprehensive annual financial report for the fiscal year ended June 30th 2019 an ASBO recognizes districts that have met the program's high standards for financial reporting and transparency and while the wards like this are tangible artifacts of achievement I get to see how hard Bernie Jo Tara and their entire team work every day even harder most days in this virtual environment to maintain the high fiscal integrity of the district and oversee the utilization of local
007state federal enterprise and grant resources in the most efficient prudent and responsible manner many thanks and sincere appreciation to all of you the East Brunswick Board of Education has adopted policies and regulations that guide the creation of the district's curriculum our curriculum is constantly undergoing review and substantial and ongoing work among the Board of Education administrators and community representatives ensure the East Brunswick curriculum is rigorous balanced and reflective of our community I would like to emphasize that the equity work we have undertaken over the past six years and our ongoing commitment to invest in both curricular enhancements and professional development that support reinforce and sustain a culture of inclusiveness in East Brunswick and details of our ongoing curricular equity focus can be found on the refocusing tab on the homepage of our website at IDI
008net org and finally to everyone who contributed to the successful conclusion of our 2020 school year whether you were teaching and constantly checking in with your students and tried to maintain that connection with them whether you were supporting teaching delivering food in the commune that was desperately needed by so many families or pain vendors or taking care of our facilities while everyone was trying to work remotely so many people both visible and behind the scenes contributed to this tremendous effort and success to concluding this year it's not what we expected it's not how we expected when we started this year to finish this year but you know as the as the singer Frank Sinatra said we did it our way and I think we did a really good job and we've we've gotten some feedback
009from the community and we're taking that under advisement not everything was perfect and and I'll be the first to admit we have areas where we can begin to improve and we've started to investigate that but there are so many things that went right and so many things that went right because so many intelligent people invested and finally to the Board of Education thank you so much for your support we couldn't have done it without this governing body backing us up all along the way so tomorrow governor Murphy has announced that he plans to give us guidance for the reopening of school and yet we don't know what that is but we're not at the finish line this is a marathon and we just crossed the first water station and we're about ready to head towards
010the finish line but the finish line will not be crossed until we reopen school safely and we eventually return to normal operations so again thank you to a very supportive community to all of our families who shifted along with us and adopted roles they never expected to to fill as we started this school year but they did it with the highest level of integrity and they kept a smile on their face most of the time and and we made it so congratulations to everyone thank you to everyone for all your support Thanks Thank You dr. velinski you did leave someone and a few other people off of that list and that would be yourself and your incredible central office staff who have literally been working 24/7 throughout this whole thing I don't know how we
011could have done this without you so thank you to all of you thank you now we're up to the good of the cause for the public as a reminder members of public who wish to provide comment to throw so through zoom a remote videoconferencing system free direct access is available by entering can we see the screen again Bernie yes well thank you if you go enter this URL into the web browser of your computer or mobile device and then enter the meeting ID and password upon joining the meeting your participation will automatically be muted to ensure there is no disruption to the business being conducted by the Board of Education in order to be recognized select the chat feature and zoom then enter and send your name to the meeting host you will be recognized
012to speak when your name is called individuals will be invited to speak in the order in which we have received your request unless you are a student a minor please give your name and address for the record one of Education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues to protect the privacy of all students and staff concerns regarding individual students and staff members should generally be addressed by first meeting with the appropriate administrative staff participants will be limited to three minutes duration is there anyone wishing to speak to the board tonight we have no one requested to speak um I actually just saw someone came up on my screen Rebecca Galanter I have no chat come to the meeting host did you receive you said you received one uh yeah okay Rebecca Gallen so
013to everyone I'd like to speak Rebecca Galanter she just appeared okay hi good evening everybody I don't know if the video is supposed to be on but it's not uh my name is Rebecca gallant er can you all hear me yes great I just want to make sure I'm a resident here for 24 years I have two children that have very proud graduates of EB Public Schools my second child just graduated so he is of course a 2020 senior I'm really just wanting to let all of you know to how pleased I I have been with all of the efforts that have been put forth towards all of the graduation festivities I'm an administrator myself so I fully appreciate how complicated and difficult this process has been to have so many variables and unknowns it's
014very very difficult even for anyone you add having you know thousands upon thousands of students I can't even imagine but um I would like you to know that's um I know I speak for many parents because I have organized a Facebook page on this topic it's definitely been a trying experience but certainly very rewarding rewarding as well so I want to really sincerely thank you the door decorating the billboard the virtual was beautiful and I have to agree that the highlight was definitely certainly seeing my son course on on the video but aside from that the choir and the music was absolutely just spectacular so that's really all I want to say I just want to thank everybody for all of your efforts and I'm sure that it's been a 24/7 type of situation in
015particular for dr. vanilla and it's been great getting to know you as well and that's it thank you so much everybody thank you for coming to speak to the board tonight Rebecca is there anyone else wishing to address the board of education is there any thank you no okay see you none I closed the public portion first part of our agenda our annual about actions that we take every year to renew there are 24 of them so I'm going to ask for a motion for 124 and of course there is the option and time to discuss each and any of them that any board member wishes so may I please have a motion at the annual action agenda tonight by Mark is there any discussion Victor if you wouldn't mind talks about hope the NJ
016si a a which is the Association for high school sports so that kind of reminded of hearing certain things and different articles and statements from the state about what's going on with high school sports this is one of those things that could change every single day but as what are we looking timber well it's hard to tell president after what September is going to look like so right now what nsj IAA which is they've issued guidelines for the got the document right here return-to-play guidelines dated June 19th and this is for the period July 13th through July 26th only and this is for conditioning of athletes is purely voluntary but it allows unlimited basis contact of students you know under regulations with some pre certification through questionnaires and some medical checking when they come onto
017the field number of students that can participate together what kinds of activities they can do so that's where we are right now the guidelines are going to become dau Tinh tiered or phased as part of in alignment with what the governor is allowing to happen in the private sector but also you have to understand as I'm sure you all do that those those guidelines those allowances can change from week to week or even day to day depending on what's happening with the the Kovach situation and you may have seen the news recently that the governors of New York Connecticut along with governor Murphy from New Jersey have imposed a mandatory quarantine for people who are migrating back into New Jersey from eight individual states primarily from the South and Midwest so things continue to change
018we we monitor not just daily but literally hourly until well into the night because things get released late at night or we're seeing things released by a twitter and then essentially in the governor's press conference but NJ s IAA is kind of through their executive ward gotten together and developed this document that aligns for all the athletic directors very specifically what needs to happen and how it should happen in order to bring athletes back this summer starting July 13th at the first date for only conditioning activities so that's where we are okay as far as district procedure goes maybe blue maybe you might know um in terms of parents having to get in people work and student athletes having their physicals and having that paperwork filed also with the district are all of those the
019same as anything changed because of the pandemic do you want an answer we both have the answer but you could go ahead and answer that or one of the things that has changed is that the state is looking to allow for athletes who have already had a physical last fall that physical will be okay for this fall as well there is a piece in that that we're a little concerned about it does mention that if it's possible to get a physical again during the season that they would recommend that so that's a little different it does take a little of the pressure off parents to have to go out there and get that physical but it also leaves it open that the state is asking that if we can get those athletes eventually get them
020physicals before the end of the season that's what they're requesting and and president doctor if I could there there is a huge amount of reliance on self-reporting by the athletes and their families to assert that they are healthy to participate that they have not been exposed to COBIT they have nobody in their family has been exposed to Cove it so those are things you know as as we know there are people that are carriers that are asymptomatic and so somebody you know to the best of their ability could answer that question but but still could be somebody could infect other groups of people so that's that's where it becomes very it's concerning it's understanding the athletes wanting to get back together I understand the coaches wanting to get reconnect with their athletes I understand wanting
021to prepare for the fall season and along with that you know I'm also concerned about the just the the uncertainty of some of the the documentation and the soft certification and the reliance on self certification to make sure that everyone's safe and healthy is better one of the things just also add to that one of the things we will be doing when this the athletes do come back is we would be taking temperature checks making sure we survey them we'll also be monitoring very closely to make sure that that you know they're healthy and that they're doing well but as Victor dr. Valesky said a lot of it is going to be self reliant on in terms of you know what the information they're bringing to us okay thank you Lou I was actually gonna
022ask about the temperature take me okay and I assume that we're getting this information out to all the parents and students it's on the website or an email has gone out to them from aficionado perhaps we're still waiting I know for the verification from the state but this is what the NJ si said is happen so as soon as that is completely approved we'll have it on the website and also mr. u NASA will make sure it's it's spread out in terms of our athletes our coaches and our parents yeah I do you think it's important for parents to know about the physical part I'm never having to make those physical appointments months in advance and and now I'm sure it's even more so I'm sure that will be a relief to them I don't
023know if the governor is going to you know reveal anything tomorrow and is reopening guidance and I don't know you know we I have not heard anything personally but that's gonna be included in there but we have no idea he may say something with reference to return to athletics tomorrow okay thank you I had one more question it was actually a request for a little bit of an explanation Bernie perhaps you could address items 10 through 20 for all cooperative purchasing agreements and I wanted to point this out to the public because we we don't just pay lip service as saying that we are do our best to be financially responsible fiscally responsible that would be 14 different cooperative purchasing agreements that we enter into into you for an effort to save as much money
024as so Bernie I was wondering if you could just talk for a minute I don't expect you to know exactly how much we say but I'm sure this has a tremendous positive effect yes absolutely so you know we we know that you know purchasing in bulk always results in savings and and so what are these concert' these cooperatives enable our governmental entities school districts local governments county governments and the like to be able to get together and purchase because there's more power purchasing together and weather and as you noted we have a myriad of consortium at we participate in not only for goods and services I mean that's what it is it's it's not only goods but it's also services of a variety of types it could be anything from facilities maintenance to services that
025they that may be required to support students in their education additionally there's also cooperative agreements that we enter into for transportation services as well so it covers the gamut and we do we do believe that it is absolutely beneficial certainly more efficient than if we were to do each of these on our own thank you is there any other discussion this is not a one call vote yes we'll call it is there are some items in this batch that require roll-off hey man well the Secretary's over oh yeah mr. sesmar yes boss yes um yes relax yes mrs. Reese mr. Simmons yeah mr. Winston yep president Packer yes motion carried moving on to a Board of Education items and I please have a motion for items 1 2 3 on board of education agenda [Music]
026by Jeff it's any discussion this is well called Oh will the secretary please call the roll mrs. chew mr. sesmar yes this is boss yes mr. Hong yes blacks yes this is Reese I'm sorry I missed that yes mr. Simmons yes mr. Winston yes where's it Becker as much and Karen's moving on to the community programs to agenda can I please have a motion to combine items 1 through 8 okay second buy me blue is there any discussion please um oh I see yeah a lot of interesting programs here and I was just wondering this is different than what we've done before right so how did we go about finding these remote programs were they already out there or you know I believe mr. Chu I believe that mr. Crouch felt and Ann Marie Gilbert
027worked very hard to find vendors that already had a virtualized program so this isn't something that was just created it was something that was already kind of tested and and beta tested so I think that we're offering our students a really good opportunity this summer for summer enrichment and some opportunities to engage in things that they haven't been able to because of the the self-isolation any other discussion this is Jenna what what are we water what did you come by here with that in the D programs item one pp okay all right good thank you no problem any other discussion this is not a roll call roll call all right Jane pushing carries moving on to our sanities agenda there is one item tonight item 8 award can I please have a motion for item
028number 12 no by Todd okay second by libra is there any discussion hi Shane pushing carries our financial services again 16 items I would like to combine items 1 through 16 bueller bueller by mark ii by taka is there any discussion uh yeah I have a question excellent tell me about this electric bus grant and the retirement of our buses by entering into this I'm understanding that correctly mr. Giuliano yes this is a really a terrific opportunity that to our attention it just so happens that the buses that would be retired are actually in the process of being retired so we already replacing vehicles so the requirement under this grant and this is the these funds are through the Volkswagen settlement which are being administered by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and what's
029required is that they want to reduce some emissions understandably some of the research that that we've done Middlesex County has a high level of emissions so if the county has does stand to benefit and they're looking for innovative programs at which this would be because there are no electric buses at this point in time in Middlesex County or to my knowledge anywhere in the state we are looking to replace 11 diesel fueled buses with 11 electric buses we do have the infrastructure at our support operations facility we were planning that at some point in time we would want to have electric buses so we we included the infrastructure when we constructed that facility so now it's a matter of putting the components in so and just for members of the public if they haven't looked
030at the agenda this particular package is worth four point what was it four point five million dollars what funding all he paid fully funded through the Volkswagen settlement program not a dollar that come from the district and that also includes any type of installation cost and the labor costs there will be zero cost to the district that is our expectation yes what the reliability of we've done an evaluation on these buses as compared to other buses dr. Valesky and I had had an opportunity at a couple of years ago to attend a an energy meeting and where this particular manufacturers bus was available and we took a ride in it and it was just phenomenal the history on on these vehicles is very good California has been rolling these out in in large quantities so
031we're very optimistic to to you know to what this can do for the community right it sounds great I just I just don't wanna you know just kind of go into this without now these buses what's how often they need to be recharged because we're running several routes when we get in a situation where they're going to not be available so the vehicles in talking to the manufacturer because we'll be we've been working with them in preparing the application and so if I remember correctly the the vehicle charge would provide for a hundred and twenty five miles of travel on one charge so that would easily provide for service throughout the course of the day and then at the end of the day buses would be returned to home base they'd be hooked up to
032the charging stations they would charge during low demand periods and for the next morning they'd be ready to roll again just to say Jeff on that visit Bernie referenced it was actually part of we received quite a few presentations from a bus company terms of taking part we were given large amounts of information so no board meetings we had presentations bus company with a lot of information and then there was the on-site visit so this is something that had already come up a few years ago just that that provides you any comfort level but the source of power you know in a power outage or something like that what what what ever happened today that was a program that was initiated by if I remember correctly was a public service electric and gas they were
033looking for proposals that would provide for emergency sources of energy in it well in the case of an emergency such as what we experienced in Sandy for example so one of the plans at that point was we had identified some locations throughout East Brunswick such as service stations which create function without electricity and where the vehicles would have been deployed to be able to provide power so that the gas pumps would actually be able to continue to work we were not successful in that process we didn't receive any kind of feedback actually it just kind of died but that's that's what you're recalling it was a process that was intended to provide for emergency services so that the vehicles could be deployed for that purpose Susana you were involved in that I think or I
034I was not part of the team that was running that solicitation at pmj so for full disclosure I work for C a CNG I work in the department that issued that solicitation and and Bernie is correct so we were not successful in winning that it was a competitive process I do have a question on this one this grant a competitive grant or is this the bunch you know kind of first-come first-serve or what you know what's the selection criteria for this one the information that that was put out doesn't really specify the the that it's a competitive grant although I would imagine that they are going to provide they are going to assess what these look you know what these proposals look like and the extent to which it meets what the Department of Environmental
035Protection's objectives are I think one of the main things is the impact to reduce pollutants within high pollution areas dr. Valesky you're muted yes I'm sorry about muting myself I just wanted to say that one of the things we could expect if we are successful in obtaining these buses is that we would be part of a test that giving feedback to the manufacturer on the utilization of electrical bosses in particular you know with with a load and in winter conditions what kind of life do we get those kinds of things and feedback to the manufacturer so I would generally expect we would be in conversation with engineers the manufacturer throughout the term of this module and my question is is it a hybrid bus or is it a is it the specifically electric it is
036an all-electric vehicle I mean we were even around town we have more electric fuel stations even if you look in the Brunswick square wall there's a bunch and so that's really the way a lot of places are going and honestly I would feel safe having my kid on that bus so thank you for doing this for the air as well the electric buses that's one of the things that will do is it will clean up the air locally you know let's let's hope for this and as well there's a lot of other initiatives focusing on electrification so it's not this one there'll be other ones and I think you know Bernie and the team here have had the foresight to prepare our our you know infrastructure so that it's ready for electric vehicle so if
037not like I said if you know I don't I don't know if it's competitive or not this one but there I think there'll be more opportunities as what I'm saying there's there's definitely a focus on you know improving an environmental impact through electrification Bernie I have a question are these buses radiated in terms of safety in the same way that of traditional combustion engine buses yes they in order to operate in New Jersey they must pass and meet and pass all of the requirements for a any type of school bus that's operate so it does it meets all of those criteria that was one of the first questions that that I asked there was no point in going down a path for buses that that we would not be able to use and they do
038meet all the criteria and that's all the safety criteria so we would be in good shape with that sustainability it's a I'm just initiative you know as Suzanna pointed out what it will do for the environment alone and I think it fits along with what we've been trying to do as a district to harness things that are brought to us that can increase our ability to be sustainable in all aspects of operations I think it's a great thing I think one of the things also in terms of vehicle maintenance because no one asked about that vehicle maintenance really is limited to tires and windshield wipers battery this is the vehicles of is anticipated to be being able to meet the 15 15 year plus and actually the company has been the company was talking about
039how they are going to be deploying the used batteries after the 15 years and used batteries of this type are actually going into other kinds of projects because their life is longer than what we would be able to utilize for purposes of a bus so we should have no problem with that if I may add I'm just looking online over here also the the battery is that eight year warranty and it has an electric motor that actually offers more energy than the regular motor that we have now so if anybody is interested to see more you online cuz it's a lion correct the lion bus's lion boss yes yeah we lie in electric calm and I'm not sure if it's our particular one but they explained in detail and these buses have zero emissions in
040our efforts to try to help the environment this is a wonderful step phone rings also Barbara thank you for bringing that up because this particular vehicle also in certain points of its operation recharges the battery to a certain extent as well so it's not just throwing their points in the operation where it's working to recharge so yeah it's quite good quite good I had a question two things I remember references the Charis funding that we're receiving Cara's emergency relief Fran um Bernie or dr. B if you could just talk again what exactly what comes money for do you want me to or you want to feel free that's fine there's there are there are specific purposes and I think your let me see I'm sorry president Packer which item wasn't in your finance 30 oh
041yes 14 or make sure I got we have a number of there we go oh sorry I might be old yes we have there there were specific requirements that the money can be used for they could be used to deploy technology used for building Santa sanitization or for for mental health support for students and staff and we had already identified as board priority of investing in you know therapeutic counseling and support for our students primarily and then you know being able to point staff in the appropriate directions to be covered by their own insurance so that became a high prayer we had already invested in technological infrastructure to support our students distance learning and we've already done a very very robust job of getting prepared to sanitize their buildings even before the closure for the
042pandemic so we felt very strongly that the focus of this funding should be on that mental health component by the the carers Act it has a two-year life so it would be used over the course of the 2020 21 school year in 2020 122 school year so just to make sure that the general pomp just ends because I said it's a nice amount of money yes we just must be given to the school district that we just add to our general fund budget this is for very very specific purposes and I'm assuming we're going to have to provide backup and justification for every penny of it absolutely and it's very tightly controlled so that's why you know the fact that we had already done performed an RFP and have a have a response to the
043RFP it's aligned with what we had already planned in advance of the carers funding it helps support our recovery on the fundamental health side very nicely for the next two years just one more question Bernie do item 14 of the schedule 2020 21 township of East Brunswick there had talked and different policies changing the deadlines and providing people with perhaps tax relief I just want to know us being in shape we see from the township we receive what we were supposed to schedule has been right on time no no issues and the payment schedule for the new fiscal year is consistent with how it's been developed in the past so we've been they okay at this point and any update on funding from the state no other than the report that I provided a few
044meetings back we are still looking at the reduction of approximately 1.6 million dollars in next year's budget that's an additional reduction from what we had originally incorporated into the final budget we've not received any guidance at this point from the do-e that's what everyone is waiting on as well as whether there's any supplemental information to come as a result of the governor's anticipated budget message that is slated for the end of August though right now we're just holding steady waiting we have been working and I don't want to give the impression that we've not done anything and just waited we we have been working on some alternatives and we'll be having appropriate conversations with the board when is the next scheduled any payment from the state usually the state actually state payment that would normally
045have come in July is getting pushed off so there's a bit of a delay on that but the amount is really not substantial it's not going to hurt us okay thank you any other discussion okay well the secretary please call the roll this is gieux mistress is Mark yes with his blob yes mr. Hogg you voice changed yes mrs. lakhs yes this is Rhys what mr. Simmons yeah mr. Winston yeah president Becker yes motion carries we have one item on our services agenda it's a contract when you will can I please have a motion for that goodbye Jeff is your discussion my abstain motion carries I'd like an item to combine a motion to combine items 1 2 & 3 on our Human Resources agenda please okay whoa is there any discussion well the secretary
046please call the roll this is chuh yes mr. sir smart it's his gloss yes mr. Hong yes this is lacs this is Rhys yes mr. Simmons yeah mr. Winston yeah president Packer yes motion carries moving onto our student services agenda can I please have a motion for items 1 & 3 3 Eileen will second by Barbara is there any discussion I had a question um in item number three there's a very long list of approving out of district placements do we expect that dinner provides tomorrow and throughout the summer we'll also be in reference to these special or private schools where we send our students to important I don't know how much we have to pay before September but if the situation changes what are we going to be looking at in terms of getting
047our money back or I mean of course there's always about what the options are viable options for educating these children as we need to but just in terms of the financial aspect of it trying to be responsible for before we know if they're even going to open president Becker I think that the guidance the governor is going to offer tomorrow will apply to all public and private institutions including those that offer services to our students that we didn't district placements I'd like mr. Jacoby to weigh in on the financial obligation once the board takes action on this because there are services that these these entities have been providing to students in a virtualized environment obviously it's not the face to face environment but our place had to shift and that was a requirement that was
048that was laid out under the law and reinforced when we when we closed our facilities the services would still be provided to students but it in a remote remote fashion and connection with students as needed to support and therapeutic opportunities though mr. Jacoby did you have anything that most of these all of these out of district placements are based on IEP s and the IEP is a legal document and it's been determined by the professionals that these present the least restrictive environment for these children with various needs so we can't unilaterally change that and right now governor Murphy tomorrow is going to be announcing and his announcements will cover these types of schools that will have similar restrictions as you're aware governor Murphy did announce that extended school year can start to occur this July
049in person with social distancing masks etc so I envision the governor's office is cars it that many of these students require in-person instruction and in-person services whether it be physical therapy occupational therapy behavioral therapy so I think that that's going to be covered tomorrow but we are obligated to maintain these at district placements because there are contained in the various IEP s for students that require these types of services now I believe that expenditure itself that is my sincere hope that we can give all these special needs students everything that we can I was just concerned about approving a tremendous amount of money for these particular schools without knowing to be open but I guess everybody would say will be in the same boat so in any other discussion I think it's the first year
050I've seen that our self-assessment came out with a perfect score card so Lou I'd like to hear your comments on that I mean I I know some of the training or you know just like you to comment on that and that is servant yes you will correct mr. this is the first year that we have actually come out with a perfect score part of the reason of that is our professional development you know the hard work by all of our staff and administration but also the state has kept a rubric the same the last few years so we were able to improve on those areas that we felt we needed improvement and you know finally we came out with what we what the state would say is a perfect score based on our self-assessment that
051they have you have to be done you know we're always looking to to to improve our school climate and our safety teams in our schools are working towards that already for next year but that but thank you for noticing and yes it's kudos to all involved our principals especially who run the safety teams or student assistant specialists all of our teachers and staff throughout and of course our students and our families that have been part of the success of it great thank you and as you said there's always more work to be done but you know these are the babies and thank you any other discussion well the secretary please call the roll this is chuh yeah mr. sesmar yes mrs. gloss yes mr. Hong yes relax yes this is Reese yes mr. Simmons yeah
052mr. Winston yeah Rebecca mention carries moving on to the transportation services can I please have a motion for items 1 & 2 I can by the rules and I need to scratch it Bernie I don't second motion to the roll call this is uh this is voice vote okay is there any discussion all those in favor close ups take motion carry moving on its information items and a good of the cause from the board is there anyone from the board who has something they want to talk about Laurie yep turn your microphone I just mentioned that the Indian culture Society had their emerging artists virtual yeah our virtual recognition of a young lady from our high school a tenth grader rising 11th grader Sophia Sepulveda Pizarro one defying gravity was her award-winning script and um
053dr. Lasky and I were there and it was beautiful all the people that spoke about her or the girl herself was unbelievably well-spoken and hopefully at some point maybe we can have her come in and do a reading for the board or at least a partial reading no just wants to mention that she was very very very impressive young lady Thank You Lori I informed that our no student rep it's with us tonight Tony you know school's over your first board meeting no I think you would like to say tonight oh you're just kind of sitting back to again no I do have some things to things to say specifically relating to the at the end of the school year I'm sure you're all interested in the student perspective and generally it's very happy the
054beginning of summer so it was a great time because you never think about the end of summer which seems to be the most sad time but for the beginning art for that into the school year there were a few feelings that it was a little anticlimactic which I understand especially with there being no finals and I guess you don't you're on in the school environment for the final few days I guess it's kind of weird to one day wake up and just some of my school is over but I could think the virtual graduation really helped need some of those feelings and personally myself I thought the virtual graduation was very well made I believe the majority of the seniors and even kids from other classes were watching it and even if people didn't watch
055it with the alternative of an in-person graduation I guess it values the virtue a little bit less but it's still it's still a great cause and it was very well made I also want to inform you that there was a great student turn now at the food drive that was hosted at the mall every Saturday in June and who is dead kated towards helping families and organizations that have been stricken by kovat who have run out of food and yeah as I mentioned we got a great student turnout I don't know the exact number but a lot of pounds of foods that have that would have been donated so go Abby for I guess the collective effort to donate some food and yeah I guess in general it's just a very happy time and the
056biggest question is what's going to happen in September which I'm sure you don't have an answer for but yeah that's that's that's about it thank you guys thank you so much what are your plans for September I mean the summer summer unfortunately I had a program lined up at Stevens Institute of Technology that was like a summer research thing but unfortunately that was cancelled like most summer programs so a lot of kids are kind of scrambling to get last-minute internships as am i I fall on that boat but it seems that it's going to be a very independent summer for both me and for a lot of my peers just think you'll have all that time to spend on getting your college essay ready that is also true a lot of kids but there's also
057a lot of talks relating to College about colleges not allowing early action which is like the deadline for which I guess most kids cram for and at least what most kids would be focused towards if they worked on it over the summer and main reason why colleges would do that is just to give kids more time to take their standardized tests like the SAT and the a CTS most of the summer tests have gotten canceled but even then yeah a lot of kids would end up working on college applications over the summer yeah you have to update us on the college application process for the fall it's gonna be different - thank you so much for coming tonight greatly appreciate it thank you so much for you guys any other board members wishing to speak
058at the good of the cause I just Susanna yeah just a brief update on the East Brunswick Human Relations Council I haven't recorded out on that while so that is the council that continue to meet as we do remotely and using conference call there have been a series of coffee and conversations kind of highlighting and all these groups that have been active helping you know doing things in the community and actually dr. Gillespie as he we talked about it at a prior meeting was featured on one of them I think there's another one coming up I don't remember the exact date but I would ask you know that if you're interested to follow them on Facebook East Brunswick Human Relations Council and the next event is featuring some of our restaurants that have been you
059know hit hard by tough times but you know have you know helped in the community donating food to first responders and so they're going to be featured in the next one yeah I encourage folks to follow it and you know just just a good way to stay connected all the things that are happening in the community thank you Susannah thanks for all the time that you spend I know that it involves a lot of time and effort and you've been doing a great job for years with that and when you - I just wanted to also offer congratulations to Bernie Terra and Joe and their entire staff on the latest honor it just reflects the integrity and commitment you have to fiscal responsibility and it's one of the reason why everything is possible so great
060job guys any good Susanna's our trust yeah Jeff real quick look Victor work anybody who knows maybe look what was the response like on the surveys you had sent out to the seniors the graduates for the upcoming ceremonies they sent up this what was the RSVP like um dr. vanilla and mr. Hannah's reported that there was at over 600 students that were reported to come and they were following up with other students that didn't respond so the class I believe the number was around 662 so it's a it was a very very positive response good and in that I not at all it was a long journey to get here but thank you very much and congratulations to the seniors that they at least I leave with a little bit of magic I think it's
061great I'm glad so many participating so thank you and your staff for making this work well thanks to dr. vanilla and especially to to Matt Hanna's Matt Hanna's has been the the architect behind graduations as the assistant principal that fell under his responsibility and this the spiritualization of graduation and and now pulling off this in-person graduation safely with in coordination with the township there are a lot of people to thank but but Matt was a key player and and dr. vanilla behind the scenes working with the class and the parents there I appreciate everyone including our Township partners the police department everybody's going to be involved in making it a highly successful event right great good to be clear Lou had nothing to do you know so we had we have a lot of contributors
062here everyone you know this Board of Education has been supporting us every step of the way and it seemed like we would take one step step sideways and maybe take half a step forward half a step back and it seemed pretty precarious at times but I'm thankful and appreciative that we finally got to this point Jeff is a parent of a senior congratulations to you and your family yeah he's done he checked out several months ago we had eight he's done good yeah this has been quite a year correct English district we had dr. Vennela being recognized by his professional association is the best in the state we had Christian oz Oh being recognized by his organization's the best in the state forgive me if I'm leaving anyone out but it's just great to be
063a part of this district is anyone else we do have a need for a closed session so can I please have a motion for the Board of Education must discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion the Board of Education intends to discuss matters of spot - those items tonight's agenda the way that exception is estimated to be 30 minutes afterwards a 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 barley will any discussion all those in favor aye Steen motion carries board members please leave this meeting and login to the closed session the rest of you for joining this way please good night [Music] you