001[Music] foreign [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] i would like to call this meeting of the eve shim township board of education to order pursuant to the open public meetings act adequate public notice has been given by the secretary of eastern township board of education in the following manner posting written notice on the official bulletin board at the board of education office emailing written notice to the burlington county times and the courier post filing written notice with the municipal clerk of eastern township may i have a roll call mrs cappello here mrs everhart here mr fizzakero here mr canton here mrs noll mr lanzalada here miss lay here mr megan here this is ryan yeah we have a quorum okay at this time i will ask for a motion to go into executive session
002and a motion to approve oh and sorry at this point i will ask to get a mission to go into executive session in a motion to approve items 2.1 through 2.4 whereas in njsa 10 412 allows for public body to go into closed session during a public meeting and whereas the board of education of eshim township has deemed it necessary to go into closed session to discuss certain matters which are exempted from the public and whereas the regular meeting of the board will reconvene following the end of the closed session at approximately 7 pm now therefore be it resolved that the board of education will go into session for the following reasons as outlined in njsa10412 items 2.2 through 2.4 do i have a motion miss cappella second mr fizzicaro any questions or comments all
003right roll call please this is capello yes this is ever hart yes mr fizzakero yes mr catherine yes mr lancelata yes miss lee yes mr megan yes this is ryan yes motion carries thank you we'll see you at seven o'clock [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] my [Music] do [Music] um [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] um [Music] i'd like to resume this meeting of the eastern township board of education would you please rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all at this time we're going to have board member canton read the mission statement thank you uh the mission of the eveshame
004township school district is to promote excellence in an environment that engages students in meaningful learning experiences in partnership with students dedicated staff families and the community the district provides a strong educational foundation that will empower our students to do the following achieve their unique potential embrace self-directed lifelong learning develop the skills necessary for appropriate risk taking and responsible decision making respect themselves and others problem-solve individually and collaboratively and become contributing members of a diverse global society thank you at this point in time we're going to be moving into presentations dr smith the floor is yours all right there we go all right so of course i couldn't let the first meeting of our new president vice president go by without a presentation that would get them out of their seats to come on up so
005why don't you both come on up here mr cantha in particular is very excited about spotlight so the presentation's tonight and there's actually it just works out that the people that are that are being presented recognized um our our business administrator john michinti so if you come on up mr joe idell our custodial supervisor mr tom donahue who just was here and is probably doing what he does which is take care of many things and he's probably trying to move a car right now so here he comes not even sweating so mr donahue come on over mr donald he's our facilities manager so the reason i have the three of them up here is um our district belongs to the berlin county joint insurance fund it is 38 districts it's called burlington county but it's
006really three counties 38 districts across mercer burlington and camden counties and last year 2020 2021 school year which was if you recall some of us may have blocked that out but that was covet all year long right and how do we do in-person learning during a pandemic so on and so forth so our district earned the recognition of being the top district for safety of all 38 districts in the berlin county joint insurance fund so that's quite an accomplishment i just want to recognize the three of you for that um i don't have too many if you can oh yeah if you pop that out it's the trophy is actually not a cardboard box it has a trophy in there i just want to make sure we get that out the uh the and there's
007two other awards um so it's kind of like when you get best picture you're also win for best cinematography and some other things that make sense for that award so we also won outstanding performance in claims management maintaining a loss ratio below 50 for the 2020 2021 school year and maintaining a five-year average loss ratio below 50 percent that's a five-year average below 50 percent and outstanding performance in claims processing average days to report claims between one and three days also for the 2021 school year and the i actually kind of have like mr shinty's words in my head about how because even though the three of them are standing here i'm sure right now they're actually thinking about the 865 employees in our district because everyone has a role to play in safety you
008know and and you don't win awards like this unless everyone's playing their role every day um so you know because these are three very humble public servants who happen to lead you know departments and our district in terms of safety um but at the same time it truly is work on everyone's behalf so i actually want to give a if we can give a round of applause to every single person because everybody here really likes getting the picture taken do you mind taking a picture miss mcgoula okay cool so let's let's uh you guys come in the middle and then yeah thank you [Applause] uh thank you mr ryan now we are going to go into public comment just in case anyone is not aware we have two public comments first public comment is for
009what is on the agenda and the second public comment what happened which happens later in the evening is for anything you wish to discuss the meeting will now be open to the public referencing agenda items only however if your questions pertain to student or personnel items or negotiations we ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public we ask that you limit your comments to three minutes per person it is also crucial please for you to give us your name and address before you speak up and also limit your comments to one time per public comment period is there anyone who wishes to speak okay seeing none we are going to close public comment period portion of the meeting there will be another public comment section
010at the end so at this point we are going to move forward with the approval of the minutes i need a motion to approve items 6.1 and 6.2 do i have a motion mr canthan and mr lanzalata any questions or comments regarding the minutes from the board seeing none let's go to a roll call please mrs cappello yes mrs everhart yes mr frisicaro yes mr canton yes mrs noll yes mr lancelata yes miss lee abstain 6.1 yes 6.2 okay mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion carries thank you at this point we're going to move to item 7 superintendent's report and administrative items do i have a motion to approve items 7.1 through 7.7 mr fizzakero seconded by mrs capela before we get into questions and comments i'm going to give the floor to dr
011smith for his superintendent comments thank you mrs ryan my comments are a little longer tonight i preface that but it's been a little bit of a longer month so it's still proportionate um and it seems hard to even remember that this is still january right um you know every month feels like multiple months during covid when this month opened at the beginning of the month our staff came back we were open all month it was tough covert activity in our region and community was higher than it was at this time last year which many of us never thought we would see that and despite staff shortages that were putting additional stress on our already stretched and hard-working staff and administrators we kept it going and didn't just keep it going but actually found capacity for
012uh the types of events that make the education deeper richer more whole right like this week great kindness week in full swing so hopefully your kids have been talking about it kindness corner making gifts cards kind of snowflakes messages and more across all our schools it's fun and earn an earnest effort in our school district not just this week but every week it starts small but can have big effects and we never know when kindness can lift spirits or even save a life in my update for families on january 20th last week i included a link to the video of our january 18th community conversation about hate if you didn't get to see the the conversation on the 18th or watch the video link yet i would encourage you to do that it's about an
013hour long definitely worth your time i'd like to express my gratitude again to the participants on that panel we had congressman andy kim our mayor jackie veezy rabbi jerry david from temple emmanuel missionary wakas kursheed from al-nazar mosque father joe wallace from christ the redeemer parish and priest studio from india temple association and also deep personal thanks to the jewish community relations council of southern new jersey and helen kirschbaum who's the director of their rob goodwin holocaust education center for all their work including in the background to make that conversation possible another piece so among the resources that i shared in that january 20th update there was a link to an online discussion that actually started at 7 p.m tonight it's going on right now i'm not suggesting you turn away from our board of
014education we need to watch that but maybe you can do split screen but so for you see today is actually international holocaust remembrance day and um so that conversation that's going on at this exact moment is between the jewish community relations council and a guy named pastor chris edmonds he's from tennessee and his father was a u.s soldier in world war ii who was a hero a rescuer a man of kindness and what he did it didn't become known until after his death in 1985 but it being great kindness week i did want to share the story it's extremely powerful and when we hear whenever i hear when we hear a story about adults they were all once children right and and children can be raised to be kind and noble and strong enough to
015stand up for others or not so this story the germans captured more than twenty thousand american gis during the battle of the bulge the men of the 422nd regiment who were captured were marched about 50 kilometers into germany spent seven days traveling to a place called bad orb germany and after seven several weeks in the pw camp they were divided into three groups officers ncos which are non-commissioned officers and enlisted men the ncos were taken to a different camp there were a thousand men in that group the highest ranking nco was master sergeant roddy edmonds who was the father of the man of the pastor who's speaking tonight from knoxville tennessee and after their arrival the commandant of that prisoner work camp came to uh master sergeant edmonds and ordered him to have all uh
016one thou ordered him to have all jewish pows present themselves the next morning so next morning comes and standing out there are not a any section of the pows but all one thousand american pows have been ordered by master sergeant edmunds to stand in formation in front of their barracks when the commandant sees that all 1000 gis are standing there he turns to edmonds and says they cannot all be jews and to this master sergeant edmund says we are all jews the commandant draws his pistol aims it at edmonds and sergeant edmund says according to the geneva convention we only have to give our name rank and serial number if you shoot me you will have to shoot all of us and after the war you will be tried for war crimes commandant turns around
017and leaves there were 200 jewish gis among those 1 000 american pows and that act by master sergeant evans saved 200 lives that story is not even in this book but i grabbed this on my way over from my office so this is a book called rescuers if you if you if stories like that inspire you i would encourage you to check this book out um and i'll leave it up here if you want to come and check it out later after the meeting but um it's full of stories like that so this week is great kindness week in the yuchim township school district i even got a thank you note today from young elementary school student i had in my pocket today um and it has an excellent it says thank you superintendent with
018an exclamation mark which is just i love that a little touch right um because it's probably the age of learning punctuation so it's really nice i'm a former english teacher so you know that's most important for that i just um seeing it in the pictures and in the hallways is to just thank our staff for their passion and dedication and creativity when it comes to this week like an event like great kindness week um to help our kids learn and show kindness it really is like it always boils back to those individual connections between teachers and kids and um so you know that's where the progress is is made and i just want to thank our staff for all that work it feels especially appropriate always too during the you know a time of um
019we're again feeling like we're in a time of loss things out of our control but we can control kindness we can control how we are all of us together kids staff families now yesterday tomorrow the choice to be kind and that mrs ryan concludes my superintendent's comments thank you thank you dr smith any questions or comments the superintendent's report ms noel i just wanted to comment i saw in clubs and activities i believe that's under let me refresh my screen that's under superintendent correct okay 7.2 yes um [Music] mr de blasio's not here but i saw the yoga club at van zant and i love that i was just thinking about this today um because i am the rep for the and i'll talk about it later the wrap room and you know mental health
020and this goes hand in hand physical education and mental health i love the yoga club let's bring it to every school thank you mrs knoll any other questions or comments okay seeing none let's go to a roll call please mrs cappella yes mrs everhart yes mr fizzycarrow yes mr catherine yes mrs noll yes mr lanzalada yes miss lay yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion carries thank you moving to item eight curriculum and instruction i need a motion to approve items 8.1 through 8.6 do i have a motion miss everhart second miss noel thank you any um any questions or comments to curriculum and instruction okay i'm going to ask for a roll call please mrs cappello yes this is everhart yes mr fizzagaro yes mr canton yes mrs noll yes mr lancelata yes
021miss lay yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion carries thank you moving to item nine finance and operations i need a motion to approve items 9.1 through 9.14 do i have a motion ms cappella thank you a second mr canthan thank you any questions or comments pertaining to finance and operations mr cantham thank you over the last year when we talk about the events that go on in our town right when we talk about juneteenth or national night out or cultural expo i i made comments about how i think that all of those events that the township holds are really wonderful because it shows the focus on kids and our township's priority that our children are the most important thing that a society does and i think today with the sro agreement it shows
022not just the focus on the safety of our children but i think the sro program is more than that i think it also shows an emphasis on the mental health and the social health of our kids too so i think it's great that we're able to maintain an sro in every building and that it's now a split partnership between us and the township so thanks to made of easy and the rest of council as well thank you mr campin miss everhart i'd like to just say how encouraging it is to see items 9.12 and 913. i remember when they were very interesting items for our board and our township and our town and our school district to address i think it's great that they were forward thinking initiatives that we put together as a as
023a district uh and here they are with their being renewed i speak about the evans contract the use of that space the repurposing of that building for yet educational needs we took a school and we have we have students in there just a different configuration so kudos to the district for doing that and for it continuing number one number two also remember all of the history and just everything that went through with 9.13 so i think it's great that we're still talking about teddy bear academy and the uh benefit that it is to the district and the fact that we are talking about tuition rates but the fact that it's still ongoing in our district i remember i was on the group of people that went to tour mms when we were turning that area
024back there after we got rid of purple hall we repurposed it and made it the teddy bear academy as it is today so uh been here a long time and it's great to see that these initiatives are continuing so great job everyone that's it thanks thank you mrs everhart anyone else like mr fizzakero i want to comment um you know just reiterate and add on to what mr cantham said about the uh about 914 the sro shared service agreement i i think i i thought i think this is wonderful and what i think is most impressive about this is that this is something that's happening for multiple years uh this is going on until 2025. it's not a every single year will we won't we will they won't they type a situation where it's hanging
025over i love the the idea and concept that this is something that is going to put many people's minds at ease for a very long time and i think you're absolutely 100 correct i think this goes as important as to protect children physically which should always be a priority it also is a big part of their mental and social growth i think a lot of people when we talk about sro services i think a lot of people miss that aspect of it and i think on um i think specifically between the k2 to eight and specifically six to eight i think that's incredibly vital so to know that this is this is gonna be around for three years before we even have to really start looking at this again i think this is wonderful and
026everyone that was involved in this i truly thank you i think this is fantastic so nice job thank you mr fizzicaro any more questions regarding finance and operations seeing none i'm going to ask for a roll call please mrs cappello yes mrs everhart yes mr fizzycarro yes mr canafen uh yes to everything except for where my name appears on 9.4 okay mrs noah yes mr lancelata yes everything but 9.4 as it pertains to me okay miss lay yes to everything except 9.4 as it pertains to me mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion carries okay moving to item 10 personnel i need a motion to approve items 10.1 through 10.10. do i have a motion mr fizzicaro second mr lanzalada any questions or comments pertaining to personnel miss everhart sorry my chatty kathy tonight sorry
027uh so let's talk about these resignations great job and wish a lot of people luck that are moving on to new adventures i just wanted to give a shout out to two people uh that i've course past was over the years and that would be cindy wozdik who i have been i've seen do the music program through all the years so great job gonna be excuse me a great loss there but i wish her a lot of luck i hope she continues with her pursuit of music at the south jersey orchestra she takes some of the children and she herself plays so i think it's great good luck mrs wozdick also to maureen hannan or maureen heenan uh grant writer she also was an integral part of like day of service when we would go
028in as board members back in the day before kovid where we would go to experience stuff that the teachers would do with the students for service and she had some amazing ideas for the kids if i'm correct and correct me if i'm wrong but i think she did like taking plastic bags and putting them together to make things items that the homeless could lay on they were like shoprite bags and it was the yeah it's the coolest thing um so shout out to her and all that she has done for the district with her extracurricular activities with all the grant writing and all of those activities so best of luck to mrs heenan also want to give a shout out to nicole mandry who is moving on she is from my home school at rice
029so i know a little bit about her and i wish her a lot of luck moving forward again congratulations to everyone but just a special shout out to those people good luck thank you thank you mrs everhart any more questions regarding personnel okay seeing none i'm going to ask for a roll call please mrs cappello yes mrs everhart yes mr fizzagaro yes mr canton yes mrs noll yes mr lancelata yes miss lloyd yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes mission carries moving to item 11 policy i need a motion to approve items 11.1 and 11.2 do i have a motion mr fizzakero second invite mr canton any questions or comments pertaining to personnel yes 11.1 and 11.2 policy any questions nope okay seeing none i'm going to ask for roll call please mrs cappello yes
030mr mrs everhart yes mr visacaro yes mr canton yes mrs noel yes mr lancelata yes miss lee yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion carries okay moving on to committee reports does any committee chair have a report they wish to share at this time and if so could you just state the name of your committee mr lanzalata thank you mr ryan i appreciate it this is for the committee of community outreach public relations it's a little extensive so bear with me first we would like to thank robert luther and the marlton rotary club for meeting with dr smith in the community outreach committee on january 4th in the meeting we discussed fundraising ideas the state of our district the effects of covet on our schools and future plans moving forward together with the rotary
031club we appreciate their time and their our continued relationship that we have with the rory club and we look forward to meeting with them again with the mrc there's a couple fundraisers first deck hockey's having a 50 50 raffle they're being sold on the mrc website the winner will be announced on february 10th there's also valentine's day candy sale so buy yourself some gummy bears and some chocolates help the kids registration for spring football spring soccer spring softball are all are all open now and coaches and referees are needed to just reiterate with the panel discussion of hate that dr smith had already uh talked about you know dr smith was also the host there so we'd like to thank him for putting that all together as well as with the whole all the six
032panel members um you know if you haven't seen it we really recommend that you take a look at it it is in dr smith's january 20th update and it it's really just filled with discussions and you know and lessons and points of view you know that can foster understanding respect and the acceptance of others and that's really where we're going for um you know in this community um with the town council again reiterating how important is the the sros uh with uh um with our three-year agreement with this with with the town council you know thank you so much to mayor vizi and the rest of the town council for for um you know their great leadership on this you know with all the violence and the threats of violence going through social media on
033our staff and schools these days we're very lucky to have a leadership in our town who's willing to put our children safety first also congratulations to chief chu who's retiring after 25 years of service to the eastern police department issue is a better and much safer place because of his dedication to our and service to our community i hope he enjoys his retirement and finally the eevsham education foundation is having a huge fundraiser the event is on friday february 22 25th at the mansion in voorhees from 7 to 10 30. the theme is casino night there will be cocktail parties food from local restaurants djs dancing auctions baskets i'm trying to make this sound good black dancing yeah blackjack craps roulette and an exclusive poker table um tickets are 100 bucks piece and the best
034part is that there will be no losers because it benefits the students of each we thank scott zielinski the president of the eastern education foundation for his hard work and everyone and for their benefiting our schools and our our students if you'd like to purchase tickets or at least to take a look at the flyer you can go to yves sham education or you can go to their each education foundation homepage on facebook and they are looking for volunteers so if anyone is interested please let me know okay thank you so much for that time wow amazing report mr lanzalata thank you very very much any other committee chairs would like to report on anything they've done this month miss everhart i'm afraid to follow that actually i will be brief so i am the
035new curriculum chair this this year for curriculum and i'd like to welcome committee members marianne capello and jamie lee we met this week and with miss mcgulick and with uh in the presence of president ryan um that sounds so funny doesn't it that's good job um we met for the first time to go over it was a great opportunity for us to you know uh indoctrinate miss lee to how the meetings will run in the future and to explain to her how curriculum runs in the district we showed her like accounting methods and we discussed those kinds of things in case she had questions when she looks at budget pages danny went to great length explaining categories and subgroups and all that kind of stuff so that was great review for us and a great
036way to get jamie hitting the ground running with with those kinds of things the other thing we talked about were some agenda items that we already voted on we talked about the calendar which we already voted on and we talked about some of the updates that are continually happening with the eastham township school district safe return return plan which is online under our website and you can look on there every time changes happen in the district miss mcgoulick and her team update those new additions to the safe return plan in italics so you can see what has changed or what's new to that document i think the last thing we did talk about briefly was some of the curriculum revisions that are going ongoing we will be looking at uh quite a lot of things
037and apparently the uh the board will be reviewing a lot of documents here through the year we're reviewing mathematics english and language arts we're looking about at the comprehensive health and pe we're looking at curriculum for visual and performing arts and we're looking at technology so those are ongoing with her and her staff and as board members we will be looking at those documents for review and for question we also talked uh briefly about the budget that is ongoing and that's a great opportunity for um to bring ms lee up to date on some of the things that curriculum does cover in the budget and we will be getting budget pages and we will be looking in greater detail those items that curriculum and technology will be addressing in the budget so we look forward
038to that over the next couple of months as we continue to develop the budget so thank you for your time that's it thank you mrs everhart that was fantastic any other board members have any reports annie mrs noah i just wanted to update the group on a liaison for what's called the wrap room and some of you may know what it is but for those of you who don't it is a wonderful organization they actually have physical space and [Music] it was started by three moms who lost their sons to i believe a drug overdose so i just want to read what's on on their website it's at wrap room.org just so you understand what they do so they're not licensed therapists or counselors they are advocates for those seeking treatment and offer support for
039their family members our goal is to empower families through shared experiences we strive to help our clients and their family members understand addiction its effect on the entire family unit and offer hope so i just wanted to preface that we had a meeting a few weeks ago of the board of directors and mr hoffman is on the board of directors as well as mr buchabello we are also going to be welcoming two principals from our elementary schools mr de blasi from van zandt and mrs schroeder from bieler so i'm very excited about that and they will be joining us at our next meeting in march the wrap room board of directors consists of a large number of individuals from different organizations representatives from the police department their community outreach unit somebody's always there and again
040you know having the sros so the police department is involved and marlton business association in helping families especially around the holidays to offer support financial support meals things like that and then of course representatives from the high school cherokee lenape regional school board and um something very exciting in the fall the cherokee peer leaders were able to go to the middle schools i think that was november and if i understand that did not happen last year so that was wonderful again that started up where the peer leaders went into the middle schools from cherokee and um [Music] i don't think i have much of anything else we'll meet again in march and our group will be getting larger as we welcome mrs schroeder and mr de blasi thank you mrs knoll and thank you to
041all your township staff for joining that committee and representing us thank you any other comments or committee reports okay right now i'm going to move into old business but we don't have any old business but we do have some new business based on the recommendation of the chief school administrator i need a motion to issue a new schedule of meetings beginning in february with executive session beginning at 6 30 pm and public meetings beginning at 7 30 pm can i have a motion please mrs knoll and mr canthan any questions okay um can we have a roll call please this is capello yes this is everhart yes mr fizzagaro yes mr canton yes mrs noll yes mr lanzalada yes miss lee yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion carries okay that's everything for new
042business now we're going to move into open public comment the meeting will now be open to the public referencing any items of interest however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or personnel items or negotiations we ask that you seek the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public we will ask that you limit your comments to three minutes per person and also this section is meant for one comment per person anyone from the public willing to speak come right up to the microphone if you could state your name and address clearly heather sponseller 34 bonaire drive first i'd like to say thank you so much for serving on our board of education i know it's often a thankless job i'm here to ask you to do a
043policy now that masks will be optional as soon as the public emergency is over february 10th so the governor declared another public emergency it is supposed to be over february 10th i think we should have a policy now that as soon as that is over we are mass optional in school the reason i'm saying this is because the school is the only place where my kids wear masks they go over a friend's house no mess they go to dance activity sports no mass they go to stores they go to restaurants no masks they're fine the covered rate has been going down and down the risk for children is so low children in the past two years in the state of new jersey since it started the pandemic started two children have died from covid four
044total with covid all having comorbidities it's horrible i don't i truly want zero children to die ever but in that same time period 42 children ages 5 to 17 have committed suicide that means that mental health is so much more important than and so much more dangerous for our children than covet is we need to focus on the mental health and having them wear masks all day is horrible they need the social emotional connection with their friends classmates and teachers making mass optional is great because if anyone is worried they can put an n95 mask on they are protected it doesn't matter what anyone else is wearing or not wearing they can deal with themselves and then for people that know the risk is extremely low they can not wear a mask parents are fully
045capable of making the correct decision for their own children and their families so that is why i'm asking again now to make the policy so that once the mandate is dropped we can go straight to mass optional i want us to stop treating children like they're diseased they're not every single student staff and teacher that wants the vaccine has had plenty of time to get as many shots as they want so if if they believe in that and they want that they're protected we need to put this back in the parent's decision and make mass optional thank you thank you very much [Applause] i think there's a good question address it yeah um yeah yeah i'll just respond the sponsor arms it's so nice to i just wanted to respond and say uh it's great
046to see you um in person i i've gotten your emails and i and i i really appreciate it like you've been a voice in my head uh through the journey as as all the parents are that reach out and i i just it's nice to put a name in the face so i just um thank you for your contributions along the way um tonight and uh you know i would and it kind of give me a nice opportunity actually to sort of speak a little bit to your question and um because we are you know i mean uh i want to say um you know that that masked mandate that's current in the state of new jersey mass required in old new jersey schools that's been in place for such a long time right going
047back to september 2020 when districts first reopened for in-person learning it got the the recent 30-day emergency extension by governor murphy but we know that'll expire in mid-february and with cases decreasing and public pressure building we can we can anticipate that there may not be another extension you know and at that point it would revert back to districts to determine their own path mass is optional or mass is required and etsd we are prepared and we are ready for that moment when it comes so we've discussed it we are ready i will share more details next week not tonight so that we can all be proactive for that day when the mandate ends all right thank you dr smith are there any other members of the audience that would like to have public comment please
048come on up if you could just clearly state your name and address thank you let's see if we can reach this anywhere can i get that sword first off justin it is lovely to meet you i would like to thank police chief chu and especially rice principal kelly cam for their continued support in our school um i'd like to begin by quoting that our president has claimed that we're no longer in a pandemic and we it's glaringly obvious that we cannot trust medical advice from the head of our country nor can my children trust their educators anymore as they have been informed since september to hurry up and get the adults vaccinated so we can stop wearing masks in school and that unvaccinated adults are dangerous if a president can claim this is not a
049pandemic anymore why is evsham township school district still claiming it is one murphy decided to reinstate the public health emergency for 30 days yet the rates of covet infection have dropped dramatically in the past few days directly related to the rise after winter break according to the state dashboard so there is no foreseeable reason why the child's mask mandate will not end on february 10th congresswoman stefanik has stood up for the children of a new york county striking down governor hocal's unconstitutional statewide school mass mandate rooted in politics and not science as she believes that violates state law she asserts that by forcing masks on children in our schools these mandates have impeded the development of our next generation studies published in pubmed highlight how missing educational opportunities impacts the child's neuro development compared to
050children from 2011 to 2019 pandemic children suffer significantly reduced verbal motor and overall cognitive performance even in the absence of direct infection and illness environmental changes associated with covet are significantly and negatively and affecting infant child development so what do we do about this the assembly advanced advances bills aimed to improve mental health services in k-12 schools admitting that students have experienced unprecedented stress during the pandemic spurring a mental health crisis of anxiety and depression caused by increased social isolation you know the mandatory quarantines that we continue to inflict on healthy children why would we spend millions of dollars slapping band-aids on the wounds that the government and the border vet are inflicting upon our children why don't we just stop abusing the children all together the brownstone institute provides over 400 studies to display
051how school closures and mass mandates have failed in curbing transmissions or reducing deaths instead the restrictive policies were ineffective and devastating failures causing immense harm and no government has been able to prove or even claim their policies to be successful since i can't show you my graph these policies harm children such as psychological harm depression anxiety suicide drug use crippling isolation domestic and child abuse sexual abuse of children largely affecting women and minorities and per heather's comment there's no justification for masking children who have a near zero risk of death two children in new jersey died from 2020 to 2021 which is of course seriously an issue however the risk of suicide and murder is much higher 42 suicides 59 homicides 16 drug-related deaths and deaths in the 5-17 category marlboro school district has taken
052a 9-0 stand to support giving parents the choice to mask their children or not upon the relief of the governor's directive our children in nevisham have to wear masks in schools but not at sport events restaurants or crowded shopping malls franklin township public school as well has taken a stand for their children voting to end in-school close contact quarantines and allow the children to remain in school saving the children from the depressing isolation issue that a state assembly wants to spend millions of dollars to band-aid the harm of force masking and quarantining of the children clearly outweighs any perceived benefits we've not been provided any statistical evidence to support the continuing mass policy including any safety data statistics on adverse incidents and never has masking my children kept them from being forced to quarantine we've
053patiently negotiated communicated and followed rules but we are no longer willing to be submissive to unconstitutional mandates that are causing physical mental and emotional harm especially to my own three children thank you for your time thank you mrs foley hi if you could clearly state your name and address my name is katie masterangelo and i am at 25 hardwood road we are here tonight to educate you on a few things that have been happening that we are now made aware of we are requesting for proper action to take place to resolve these issues immediately please take notice your oath to office affirms that your main purpose is to protect and maintain my individual rights by upholding the constitution this includes the rights of my heritage those in my care which are my children to date
054eve sham township school district board of education and superintendent have agreed to receive three million seven hundred thirty nine thousand one hundred and eight dollars from the sr1 sr2 and arp esser in order to receive these funds you are required to implement prevention and mitigation strategies also known as recommendations which includes using unapproved medical devices such as masks discriminating against and depriving healthy children of their in-person public educations by enforcing the by enforcing close contact quarantine am i pushing an experimental gene therapy drug on us to keep our children in school these are a few laws that we've come across title ix title vi of civil rights act 1964 is labor law legislation that outlawed discrimination based on color race religion sex and national origin section 504 of the rehabilitation act 1973. this this impairment
055or disability must substantially limit one or more major life activities these activities include such things as walking seeing hearing speaking breathing learning working caring for oneself performing manual tests such as eating sleeping standing lifting bending reading concentrating thinking and communicating title 2c 27-2a bribery in official and political matters a person is guilty of bribery if he directly or indirectly offers confers or agrees to confer upon another or solicit or solicit accepts or agrees to accept from another any benefit or consideration for a decision opinion recommendation vote or exercise of discretion of a public servant party official or voter on any public issue 18 u.s code 242 deprivation of rights under color of law whoever under color excuse me whoever under color of any law statute ordinance regulation or custom willfully subjects any person in any
056state territory commonwealth possession or district to the deprivation of any rights privileges or immunities such excuse me privileges or immunities secured by protected by the constitution or laws of the united states or to different punishments pains or penalties on account of such person being an alien or by reason of his color race then are prescribed for the punishment of citizens shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year or both and if bodily injury results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include the use attempted use or threatened use of dangerous weapons explosives or fire shall be fined under this title or imprisoned by more than 10 years or both and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if
057such acts include an attempt to kill shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years for life both or may be sentenced to death thank you if you could state your name and address please kim galliazzi 115 peabody lane in continuation of miss mr angelo 18 u.s code 241 conspiracy against rights if two or more persons conspire to injure a press threaten or intimidate any person in any state territory commonwealth possession or district in the free exercise of or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the constitution or laws of the united states or because of his having so exercised the same they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years or both and if death results from the acts committed in violation
058of this section or if such arts include an attempt to kill they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years for or life or both or may be sentenced to death federal law title 21 usc section 360 bbb 3e1a iii 1-3 of the federal food drug and cosmetic act individuals who individuals to whom the product is administered are informed have the option to accept or refuse administration of this product and under the number code 1947 the voluntary consent of human subject is absolutely essential this means that person is able to exercise free power of choice without the intervention of any element of coercion by federal law we are refusing any and all unlawful eua products or testing on all offspring but not limited to eua tests eua medical procedures eua
059facial mask coverings eua investigational products including facial masks eua testing centers eua health data tracking and surveillance platforms critical race theory diagnostic laboratories i.t health data platforms social distancing cova testing temperature taking and or experimental gene therapy injections also known as the covid19 vaccination i hope to believe that you have not intentionally broken these laws and therefore i am requesting that you immediately vote to update your guidance and the freedom of all of our children be restored guidelines should reflect personal and parental choice to opt out of the masking requirements and quarantine please make this guidance a parental choice personal responsibility and rule of law parents have the right to make the decisions about the health and education of their children we are their legal guardians we created them and you have no legal right
060to impose these damaging acts on them a few suggested common sense guidelines are encourage parents to keep their children home if they are sick encourage children to cover their mouths and noses when sneezing and or coughing encourage children to wash their hands please uphold your oath to protect our constitutional rights or step down from your positions thank you thank you ladies any more members of the public wishing to speak okay if you could just state your name and address clearly hi melissa lampman 13 old republic lien i was just asking for you to revisit the mandatory five day quarantining since some schools are taking that off and not requiring it anymore and also the masks too thank you thank you good evening state your name and address please okay can you guys hear me back
061there i knew we were having a hard time hearing everybody i think if you speak clearly like into the microphone like this then everyone the acoustic sir okay i'm no public speaker i know uh my name is rebecca depersia i'm at seven sandwood drive in morrilton so i'm here on behalf of the mass mandate but it sounds like you guys may be open to whatever having some options but i hope that you are all true to that so um i have two kids in the district uh every day without fail as we're waiting for the bus my kids say do i have to put these masks on and unfortunately i say yes you do and they always ask me why and they say mom i can't breathe in them i have a hard time understanding
062what my teacher is saying to me why do we have to wear these and i feel awful because i agree with them i think it's hard to breathe um it's hard to understand what what people are saying and honestly when you're doing your presentation tonight i had a really hard time understanding what you're saying because everything is so muffled with the masks on and um to be honest i have a hard time recognizing people if somebody if one of you all walked up to me in the street without a mask on i probably wouldn't know who you are because i've never seen your face so um so i agree with my kids so it's really hard for me to really you know hit home on why they need to wear a mask my kids love
063school but because of the masks they they don't want to go they just they really hate the masks but it doesn't have to be this way there are several districts in the area that have dropped their policies uh middletown montague millstone union and franklinville have all recently dropped their mass mandates the new jersey department of health is just guidance recommendation it's not a law the mass mandate is up to the districts whether or not to follow it we have the choice we have the freedom the choice to do what's right for our district for our kids i'm hoping that our district will adjust to that i'm hopeful that you'll consider adjusting the policy on the benefit of all of our children this is not a political thing this is strictly a health thing and if
064i have enough time i would love to share a little personal note my son that's in the district is a special needs he has multiple sensory issues and he will only wear one mask one kind of mask and i have two of these masks that's i got lucky and bought a two pack so my son wears the mask one day the next day i wash it in the laundry with the rest of the with the rest of the load a few weeks ago um i was doing laundry and i forgot to put his mask in so i had to wash still had to wash his one mask and i'm not going to use a whole uh you know washing machine for one mask so i decided to hand wash it so put in a bowl
065a little bit of laundry detergent hot water i couldn't get over how disgusting the water was and how many particles and just grossness that came up out of this water in this water from wearing for one day of my son wearing his mask for six eight hours in that day so imagine what that's doing to his lungs breathing that in every day and let's be honest not everybody's kids get a different mask every day they may wear the same mask multiple days and just imagine what that is doing to them breathing that in every day so i give you all a challenge when you get home tonight tomorrow the message you're wearing tonight or that you've worn for the last six to eight hours i challenge you to hand wash it see what that water
066looks like after you've washed it and see how you feel about breathing that in at all times so that's my challenge to you guys thank you thank you mr virgil [Applause] any other comments from the audience okay please state your name and address clearly hi my name is natasha melnichuk i'm from 134 windmir road thank you so much for letting me speak tonight i just want to ask you guys a question just keeping it as real i don't have any studies on me how many times have you guys been wearing those masks and you sneeze right like you sneeze and you're like oh my god what am i gonna do i just sneezed i have a mask on where do i take it off how do i get it off think about a child right
067think about a little kid that has that moment that they sneeze in class you know how upsetting that is for a child i too have a child that has special needs in the district he has extreme anxiety ocd on the spectrum so many different issues wearing these masks stress him out every day it stresses him out when he gets in trouble for putting it under his nose it gets him nervous if he's not wearing it right and someone tells him to put it up it stresses him out if he has to sit at a certain table there's certain things that we take advantage of because it comes natural to us right but for some children along with adults it's not that natural it's not that easy and i think that a masked mandate is very
068tough on somebody i'm a mom right and i choose to make every decision for my children i choose to do it and i do what's best for my family what someone else's does that's fine they want to put their kids in a mask i completely respect that but i think we have to really stop and think and think about we're parents we have the right to do this for our children it's so hard right like every day every day since the day i was pregnant i think to myself am i making the right decision should i let them eat that piece of candy should i let them play that sport should i let them do that reading i think about it every day but what i do i do what's best for my family i'm
069not judging anybody else and and i'm simply okay with what everyone decides to do i just think what's best for me is what i do for my own family and i just think that the masks like the other mom said it's just hard they're disgusting for kids you know you know when your breath smells right like you can you can look at it i understand it i've been very aware even more aware now that i do wear a mask but for kids they don't get that they don't understand that my kids when i get my two younger ones or in kindergarten first grade my two youngest when i get them from school they were afraid to take off the mask when they sneezed so sometimes it's like sticking to them it's like sticking to their
070face you look at there was a study done in florida it was moms made them do is i think in gainesville florida out of six of the mass five of them were contaminated and guess what when the study was done they were life-threatening they were life-threatening things pneumonia there was strep there was meningitis on these masks and you just have to think about that not every family washes them every night i do because i'm crazy like that but you have to really think about not everyone can not everyone can with jobs and everything else so just think about these masks what they're doing to these children thank you so much thank you miss needletech [Applause] any other okay come on hi you could state your name and address clearly for us my name is dorian
071carlton my address is 130 deerfield avenue i'm here to continue our argument for zero tuition full day kindergarten for all students in marlton we've been here for a few meetings and i just like to do a quick recap so at our first meeting we emphasized the social inequality of half day versus full day kindergarten half day kindergarteners don't get lunch they don't get recess they don't get guaranteed choice time like full day kindergarteners do and they miss out on some full school activities they're not involved in the school life until they're in first grade at our second meeting we discussed the academic inequality of full day versus half day full day kindergarteners get 80 more minutes each day of literacy instruction they get 15 more minutes each day of math instruction they get guaranteed choice
072time 41 minutes each day that's taken sometimes from the half day schedule for related arts we've covered um last meeting that marlton and one other school district in burlington county are the last two districts to charge for full day kindergarten i i did look since the last meeting and now not just the county but i'd like to comment on the fact that statewide best my best count there are 555 school districts in the state of new jersey it seems to be calculated every 10 years according to the census i read that there are 14 that charge for full day kindergarten we are one of the bottom three percent as far as our academic offerings for our young learners i'm not proud of that as a resident of marlton this is a money issue i think
073that's pretty clear that we need that that's what we need to figure out it's the hurdle we need to jump i'm requesting a cost analysis i would like it calculated how much it costs to run kindergarten as is right now how much does it cost to run half day and full day then i'd like a projection of what it would cost to run zero tuition full day for all there was talk earlier in the meaning of esther funds this money that was allocated to our district there are allowable uses for it it says it can be allowed to be used to provide principals and other school leaders with the resources necessary to address the needs of their individual schools are we deciding that it's a need to offer equal education to all of our young
074learners another allowable use to address the unique needs of low-income children or students children with disabilities english learners racial and ethnic minorities students experiencing homelessness foster care youth including how outreaches and services delivery will meet the needs of each population how many students don't get that it's not a choice that they're attending half day kindergarten they're not able to pay 5 500 a year for their education earlier in this meeting one of the board members commented applauding the forward thinking initiatives of the board and that's great i would love if a year from now we looked back and applauded ourselves for the forward-thinking initiative of instilling full-day kindergarten now to provide equal education to our young students thank you thank you mrs carlton [Applause] well you can move the microphone there you go state your
075name and address please danielle remus 39 old republic lane i'm here today in support of our movement for full day kindergarten for all students i just wanted to share this article with you all that came out this week in the marlton sun our our opposing viewers have said that half day kindergarteners receive an equal amount of overall education as those that receive full day i ask you then why are we advertising in our town paper for full day kindergarten by saying and i quote it extends early reading and math concepts language development fine and gross motor skills related arts and social skills into complete full day academic program thank you hi thank you for having me my name is jillian mink 13 kingswood road first of all i just want to say i'm a former
076educator i worked at northstar elementary which is a member of the uncommon schools i worked under julie jackson who is now the president of uncommon schools i've had doug lamov in my classroom the author of teach like a champion and i am very passionate about education and educational equality for all students that's why i'm here um to support full day kindergarten first i want to share my personal story i have a daughter in second grade and when it was time for her to go to kindergarten we decided on the half day program i figured with my experience in education i could fully support her academically with any deficit within the month it became clear that it wasn't the curriculum and it wasn't the academics it was the lack of social interaction with peers it was
077the lack of opportunity for outside play it was the lack of opportunity for choice and time to settle in and get to know her classroom because everything was rushed and rushed a transition to a special a transition to the bathroom a transition to math and before you knew it the two and a half hours were over she came home exhausted but also unfulfilled i can't give her peer to peer skills i can't give her small group instruction i can't do that if it's just me and her she needed that extra time so we made the choice to enroll her in the full day program however we didn't have five thousand five hundred dollars lying around i like to think of my family as pretty average like many families in marlton and we just don't have
078that money in our budget but it was a priority to us that she get into the full day program so we cancelled our vacation we reached out to family and we found the money we scraped it together and i know how lucky and privileged i am that we were able to do that and that we'll be able to do that for my other daughter and my son but i ask you how many families in this town aren't going to be able to scrape that five thousand and five hundred dollars to give their children an equitable education to every other marlton family i'm going to find my spot because i lost it so in 2022 i'm just finding it so hard to believe and wrap my head around that if you don't have a family does
079not have five thousand five hundred dollars laying around for their child's education that child cannot receive and this is a direct quote from the full day flyer opportunities for extended early reading and math concepts so if you don't have that money your child's not getting that extended learning they're not going to get extended time for fine and gross motor skills or more opportunities for related arts or developing social skills how is that fair how is that equitable this deficit as a teacher as a former first grade teacher who taught in a low-income district who has a passion for educational equality this deficit isn't going to stop in kindergarten it's going to continue it's going to follow them to first grade where you're going to have half the students from full day half the students from
080half day come together do you think they they have the same social behavioral skills academic skills what challenges does that now present to our first grade teachers our second grade teachers so this isn't a kindergarten problem this is a whole entire elementary school problem and i ask you is this the district we want to be where our youngest learners and their families if they don't have the money they don't have five thousand five hundred dollars they don't deserve to be on an even playing field is this who we want to be i struggle to wrap my head around the fact that we are one of two districts in burlington county and as dorian said 14 left in the state of new jersey that don't have full decay it makes me wonder where our priorities lie
081yes it's a financial thing but surely we can all agree that educational equity among our youngest learners our top financial priority right we can agree on that and i definitely say that taking any and all measures to avoid a socio-economic achievement gap is also a worthy financial endeavor right i think i think we can all get behind that so that's all that's my closing but thank you for your time and i hope you really seriously consider this because all of our young learners deserve an equal playing field thank you thank you [Applause] any more comments oh hello hi kristen nardello 94 kent ave hello again this is also my third meeting and i continue to be here until um let's say five kids so a lot of kids going through kindergarten um just following off
082of what um jill said what the board says we all talk about how the importance of our early education is many times we referenced it tonight and it seems like the most basic and important thing to do would be provide to provide a full day program for all of our learners we've been able to have a lot of conversations with people through our facebook page so just general conversation there's a lot of single parents who talk about how you know the struggle we have people that couldn't come here tonight because the struggle of being a single parent and a lot of people move into this district and are shocked when it comes to kindergarten time and they don't know that they have to pay for it so they just send their kids a half day
083and that's something a lot of times people i've had a lot of people say to me well then move to a different district move to cherry hill move to mount laurel move to one of the surrounding districts this is my home i came here for the education system i came here for the education um like i said i have five children i have my oldest is in special education we came here because it was important for us to be in this education system i grew up in marlton i love this town it's extremely disappointing that this is not a priority to the board to the district it's it's very it's very concerning and we are going to continue to be here and hope that we can make a positive change thank you thank you [Applause]
084appreciate it any more comments from the audience okay thank you for all who spoke um seeing no more public comments i'm going to close the portion of this that meeting um any comments or questions from the board mr campin yeah so there were no um formal board member announcements at the reorg so i just wanted to thank the the rest of the board for their confidence in the leadership team and as well to the to the outgoing leadership team um you guys served for more than a full term which the time commitment is tremendous right so i think on behalf of the entire community we wanted to thank you for for your leadership over the last couple of years as well as being available to mrs ryan and myself for questions as we navigate how
085to be leaders ourselves right i know i've called both of you on multiple occasions so so i appreciate you guys being available um and then also being a being a board member is a is a significant time commitment and being a chair of a committee is an even more significant time commitment so i just wanted to thank all our chairs i think there's a lot of great work that's done in the committees that doesn't really get talked about so for all the chairs given reports i think that's a great step in making sure we talk about all the good work we're doing so thank you this guy always tells my thunder i it's okay i agree i'm 100 with what uh mr canthan said and i just wanted to again thank the board for their
086support and um getting behind our new initiatives and new way that we're running the board meetings and everything we appreciate your support i did want to mention some fun things congratulations to macy for their the macy rocks flyer and newsletter there's great things taking place and so thank you to mr fox and the staff and just going back to the webinar about hate and thank you dr smith for for monitoring that and what i got out of it was that every single denomination they basically said the same thing but in a different way the students are the solution hate affects everyone hate touches everybody and it's true so if you haven't watched the webinar i strongly suggest you go back you'll get something out of it and if you want to watch it with your
087children they will definitely get something out of it also um so thank you to everyone i know it's been a long meeting so if there's no more board questions or comments okay i'd like to make a motion to adjourn mr fizzakero thank you mr lanzalata thank you all those in favor aye all right thank you [Music] you