001[Music] i'd like to call this meeting of the eastern 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 the brony county times and the courier post filing written notice with the municipal clerk of shim township can i have a roll call please mrs capalo here mrs everhart here mr fizzycarrow here miss fleming here mr canton here this is noel here mr lancelata here mr megan here mrs ryan here we have a quorum thank you okay at this point in time i will ask for a motion to go into executive session a motion to approve items
002two one through two four whereas in njsa 104-12 allows for a public body to go into closed session during a public meeting and whereas the board of education of eastern 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 of education will reconvene following the end of the closed session at approximately 7 p.m now therefore be it resolve that the board of education will go into session for the following reasons as outlined in njsa104-12 items 2.2 through 2.4 do i have a motion motion by miss fleming do i have a second second didn't my miss ryan any questions or comments all right roll call please this is capello yes this is everhart yes mr fiscal cairo yes
003miss fleming yes mr catherine yes mrs knoll yes mr lanzalotta yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes ocean carries thank you we'll see all of you at seven o'clock which prime 7 15. do [Music] you me [Music] do [Music] do so do [Music] do i'd like to resume this meeting of the eastern township board of education if you please rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the god of the united states of america to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all it's weird that's what i was looking at okay the mission of the eastern township school district is to promote excellence in an environment that engages students in meaningful learning experiences in partnership with students dedicated staff families and community the district
004provides a strong educational foundation that will empower our students to 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 become contributing members of a diverse global society this point in time we're going to be moving into presentations uh dr smith the floor is yours thank you mr pit it's gone all right thank you mr visicaro i would like to recognize a very special student we have with us tonight victoria fluke if she's here and i see your parents with you too why don't everybody come on down that's that's so fantastic so victoria is an incredible artist this is the work that she made come on come on come here this is uh so she won the cooper
005levinson holiday card contest so the painting that we see here is actually it's not going to be it already is so joanie you want to come over mr joney our board attorney is from cooper levinson so it's very special that he can be with us too so it's actually part of our holiday cards that are going out to all districts that cooper levinson works with and to many other people and this is a certificate for you victoria that mr fiscal if you if you can come over why don't you give that to her yeah mr is ever heart and then i think we have miss gormley her art teacher here ms gormley come on down so just well this woman's walking down i just want to point out this is the seventh year in a
006row that our district has had a student win this contest and i know last year it's just it's a wonderful kind of deja vu because last year miss cormly was here also because her students won last year too and seventh year seventh year all it's like the yankees and the celtics all together so mr mr mrs flip can you want to come on down if you want to and good evening everyone just so you understand our our holiday card sends out a message regarding a the sponsorship we have of a of an organization called let us eat please where we've partnered with the south jersey food bank to ensure that children in need don't go hungry not only throughout the holiday season but also throughout the year and so this is our way of getting
007our message across and having this card and having these great artists allow us to do so is really very empowering so in addition to the card and will be getting a plaque and the squirrel will be getting a plaque which will be one of seven that will be displayed in the classroom we also have for you victoria a fifty dollar gift card for you to use and from normally a hundred dollar gift card to continue this great ability and empowering us for a message food insecurity is still a very big issue in fact it's a much bigger issue right now with everything that's going on in the world and to be able to get that message out regarding legacy please in such a wonderful way and with such wonderful art is greatly appreciated so congratulations
008victoria great job [Applause] do you want to explain to everyone what's going on in your picture um in my picture there is a snowman outside um next to a cabin that i'm assuming the kids in the cabin built um and it's snowing outside because there's no on the ground and that's pretty much it and it's great and what we do is we display these now virtually we used to put them in our conference room but we display them without any names without any school identifiers what have you for all our staff to review and vote on and once again it's a real demonstration to the wonderful students you have the wonderful community have and wonderful staff that you have that you have another winner for the 17 in a row so congratulations [Applause] saw mr
009hoffman taking a photo there mms principal so in a sense so you could say like the manager of the yankees winning seven years in a row so yes that is it's a great tradition that's about the best watercolor i think i've ever seen actually so we have another presentation this evening ms fleming would you join us up here for a moment so melissa fleming board member this is her last board board meeting tonight so and we wanted to take a moment to recognize you in a time when a day can feel like a month and a month can feel like a year i'd say it's probably been a century that you've been on the board um and um i know for my sake i feel like um hard head your smart head smart heart and
010kind soul is really i think have been three tremendous assets for all of us on the board as we've navigated the challenges of covid of state aid reductions and so much else so thank you very very much thank you for everything and i think it's important to keep you know doing our civic duty and run to vote definitely and i will miss all of you um even though we've had some challenging times so thank you and i really appreciate the uh acknowledgement thank you very much thanks thanks there's a poinsettia under my do you mind handing that to me just um thank you thank you perfect um it's not a plaque but it starts with a p um [Music] so this is probably would you say this is probably going to be your last board
011meeting as president you say probably probably i i just want to double check just trying to double check because i i i feel like that's uh you've given a good advance notice of that um and uh it would be so seven years as board president total four four in a row in the last year yeah it's uh it's all it's interestingly it's the exact same number of years that we've been winning the cooper levinson art contest so so um but i just uh i feel this community to take a moment to acknowledge that being on the board is an incredible commitment being the president of the board is a commitment on top of a commitment and i think about the many challenges that we've gone through as a community over that time the many successes
012and um that your leadership was inseparable from all that and um the uh as i was thinking about like what would symbolize that you know it's like a gavel i think it's kind of like a typical kind of fallback um but actually like i immediately stopped because that's the antithesis of you actually i think a gavel is like someone who wants to stop conversation and you are a listener you know um so you know and why do you listen because you want to help things grow like a plant like people so joe for you buddy thank you um wow i thank you it's very very kind of all of you and um you know uh just uh i want to say really more a couple things for for melissa um we we we always have
013our challenges what we do and you know every days can be difficult because what we do matters and we make decisions that affect a lot of people's lives in positive and sometimes in not so positive ways melissa i have to tell you that serving with you the last three years has been a pleasure and um for me personally i now know why you're so good at the job that you have outside of being a board member because what you do requires such an uh a huge heart and and such empathy and you are probably one of the most empathetic people i've i've ever met and and that's that's huge uh because in all honesty we we need more people like that on on this earth and the fact that i've had time to serve with
014you that has rubbed off on me and i just from the bottom of my heart thank you uh for for everything you've done and for all the people that you have positively impacted i am i am forever grateful to have the ability to serve with you thank you melissa so now we're going to go to public comment um all right so just in case uh you're aware we have two public comments uh the first public comment is for what is on the agenda second public comment which happens later in the evening is for anything that you wish to discuss okay the meeting will not be open to the public referencing agenda items only however your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or personnel items or negotiations we'd ask you to see the super superintendent
015after the meeting since you do not discuss these matters in public we ask that you limit your comments the three minutes per person it's also crucial please if you give me your give us uh your name and address before you speak up and also it's one per customer all right so when you come up say your piece and then if there's something else in the second agenda that you have to talk about that's perfectly fine but when we're in here it's it's uh one one par so um if there's anybody who wishes to speak please come up for agenda items only okay uh seeing none we're going to close that portion there'll be another one later on all right so at this point we're going to move to approval of the minutes i need a
016motion to prove items six one and six two do i have a motion motion by miss fleming do i have a second checked by ms capela any questions or comments uh regarding minutes seeing none uh let's go to a roll call mrs capela yes mrs everhart yes mr frizzycarrow yes miss fleming yes mr catherine yes mrs noll yes mr lancelata yes 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 and a motion to approve items seven one through seven six do i have a motion motion by miss ryan seconded by miss fleming uh before we get into questions and comments i'm going to give the floor to dr smith for his report thank you mr pizzacaro so we are
017officially a week away from winter break at this time of year there are often retrospectives looking back at the prior 11 months the top 10 of this the top 20 of that but we've covered in all the other challenges it's hard to escape the pace of each day in order to take a look back at the larger hole but it is important to do that our schools are open our students are in they're excited and they're learning our staff and administrators are working harder than ever and that remains true every time i say it because then ever it ups with each passing week and i thank all of our staff for that effort though we live in the time of shortages one thing in abundance among our families is patience and understanding thank you parents
018for that patience for that understanding partly for how hard our staff and administrators are all working to try to keep things whole for kids as the signs are there that our children nationwide statewide and locally are hurting my message today about tick tock is just the latest example of that our kids are incredibly resilient they are handling far more than other generations of kids have had to dealing with constant changes masks at times remote learning more rules and more and more they are great kids doing a great job speaking of great kids i'd like to give a shout out to toby mizraki a fifth grader at mes he's battling what's called b-cell non-hodgkin's lymphoma the maltorec website has info about how to help him my december 10th update for families has the link to the
019malt and rec webpage i'd encourage everyone to check it out we will continue to move forward together into 2022 we are truly fortunate to be a community marlton and it is that community strength district town and families which is our greatest resource in times of challenge may winter break bring everyone peace and time with loved ones thank you mr fiscal thank you dr smith any questions or comments to superintendents report seeing none let's go to a roll call please mrs capello yes this is everhart yes mr fizzy caro yes miss fleming yes mr catholic yes mrs noel yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion carries thank you moving to item eight curriculum and instruction i need a motion to prove items eight one through eight eight do i have a motion
020motion by miss fleming seconded by mr canton any questions or comments to curriculum and instruction i thought that was yeah they were trying to get my attention that being said i'm gonna ask for a roll call please mrs cappello yes this is everhart yes mr fizzy cara yes miss fleming yes mr captain yes this is null yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes this is ryan yes motion carries that's just a reminder that i need to look to my left a little bit [Laughter] more right now we're gonna move to item nine finance and operations i need a motion to prove items nine one through nine thirteen do i have a motion motion by miss noel seconded by mr lanzalotta any questions or comments pertaining to finance and operations seeing none let's go to a
021roll call police mrs cappello yes this is everhart yes mr fizzy cara yes mr miss fleming yes mr canton yes mrs null yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion carries thank you moving to item 10 personnel in your motion to prove items 10 1 through 10 10 do i have a motion positioned by miss fleming do i have a second good loved one right here oh miss ryan's second limits ryan uh any questions or comments pertaining to personnel yes ms everhart just wanted to give a shout out to mr foster who is retiring uh from evan well yes he was a full-time custodian uh i just i was exposed to him at his days at mms and uh he's a he's a really interesting character and he was he did an
022awful lot for the students and the staff while he was there at mms i'm sure he's continued to do so after he left mms so i just want to give a virtual shout out to him and i wish him all the best in his retirement great great guy good luck thank you miss everhart any other questions or comments seeing none let's go to a roll call please mrs capello yes this is everhart yes mr fizakara yes miss fleming yes mr canton yes mrs noll yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion carries thank you we're moving to item 11 policy need a motion approved item 11.1 to 11 2 and 11 3 are blank motion approved 11-1 pushed by miss fleming seconded by ms cappello any questions or comments miss ryan i
023just want to thank the members of the policy committee for joining remotely i know it's so hard at this time to come to meetings but we appreciate you um calling in and getting this talked about and discussed most of these policies are mandated so there's really not much choice for the boards make but they're nonetheless important and thanks to mrs mcgulick for including the new bylaw into the safe return plan and having that link available for parents to see so thanks thank you miss ryan any other questions or comments for policy seeing none let's go to a roll call please mrs cappello yes mrs everhart yes mr pizzagaro yes ms flammy yes mr canton yes mrs noll yes mr lancelotta yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion carries thank you all right moving into
024committee reports is there any committee chair that has a report they wish to share okay seeing none we'll move past oh this is ever hard uh sorry for that okay i'm not a commit this is uh just a general statement to all the committee members that served this year it was a challenging year as everyone has indicated so i just want to say thank you to all those committee members that had to come together and discuss critical issues um especially well i guess i can't really single out any committee so i want to say great job to each committee and to each chair for uh continuing the dialogue which is so very important and uh all the best because it's going to change in january so great job to the committee members and chairs of
025this year thank you yeah piggyback off that um to the chairs and those in these committees uh you did a remarkable job this called for some late hours for you and and to really really weigh in on issues and i sat on several of them miss eberhard sat on several of them and your your thoughtfulness was was greatly appreciated so i thank i thank you and miss eberhardt thank you too all right uh moving into into old business we do not have any old business okay but we do have a new business right um based on the recommendation of the chief school administrator i need a motion to terminate the two employees discussed in executive session for the reasons set forth in executive session uh effective immediately do i have a motion motion by miss
026null seconded by miss ryan are there any questions or comments seeing none let's go to a roll call please mrs cappella yes this is everhart yes mr frizzakero yes miss fleming yes mr catherine yes mrs knoll yes mr lancelota yes mr megan yes this is ryan yes mission carries thank you that's everything for new business we are now going to move into open public comment this is for any items of interest the meeting will now be open to the public referencing any items of interest however your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or personal items or negotiations we'd 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 also that when you please come
027up state your name and address for for clarity and also that this is again one comment per person uh is there anyone who wishes to speak up in public comment please come on the microphone is right there just uh please give me your name and address i'm kim galliazzi i live at 115 peabody lane i'm opposed to any mandates on my children including but not limited to masking quarantine and cova 19 vaccination all persons by nature are free and independent we choose what is beneficial for ourselves and our families children are suffering both mentally and physically from these mandates dr smith were the children notified that it was okay to take their mass off in gym classes you agreed with me in an email dated on 11 30 21 i can tell you for a
028fact they weren't as children are still fighting this battle in gym class they are stressed scared and conflicted with whom to trust all children parents and teachers in esham township need to be informed that mass can come off during physical exertion i am requesting that you add that in your weekly update for east championship school district family's email i'm extremely upset that we as parents take pride in raising our children to respect and abide their authority figures just to have some authority figures take complete advantage of our children in school now i'm forced to teach my children that they no longer have the faith in entrusting these people and they need to say no and defy them i am in utter disgust with the school system and that what it has become over the last
029two years if this board was truly concerned with the well-being of our children then proper action to resolve these mandates would have happened already we were informed of the new quarantine guidelines by email from dr smith today stating that non-vaccinated children will have to quarantine for 10 days or test out of out at eight days when vaccinated children still do not have to quarantine at all forcing non-vaccinated children to quarantine while vaccinated children who can still catch and transmit covid is not exhibiting equity instead by following these guidelines you are segregating and discriminating against non-vaccinated healthy children we as parents will not allow this discrimination to to continue it is harming the most important people in our lives please educate yourselves on executive order 251 where it recognizes the importance of in-person learning and mental
030and social well-being being please educate yourselves on the new jersey constitution also please take notice that people created government and that i am the aware of the fact that your purpose as elected officials is to protect protect our liberty and right to happiness i'm here tonight to tell you that we want our normal back get rid of the mass mandates and quarantine guidelines it is our choice most recently we were informed that middleton middletown township school district made quarantine voluntary for close contacts we the citizens of esham township demand that the eastern township school district safe return plan located in the federal american rescue plan act section 2001 be revised immediately to adopt these same guidelines as a middle town and that reflect our constitutional rights for your convenience i'm providing you with copies of
031the new jersey state constitution the executive order 251 and the safe return plan that middleton township public schools have revised submitted and approved as of 21 12-13-21 you thank you pass it out to the board after the meeting anybody else wish to speak again please state your name and address i'm a little taller my name is natasha malnichuk i'm at 134 windmire road good evening i wanted to take a moment to thank you for giving me this time to exercise my freedom of speech i hope you not only listen to what i have to say but hear what i am conveying to you i stand before all of you as not an anti-vaxxer i'm not a democrat republican i'm a mom i'm a mom that moved from pennsylvania back to new jersey for the public
032school system and these last couple of years i've made my decision and i certainly regret it i think it is very easy to get carried away with all the social media news and overload about kovid we really don't know what to believe so many act on fear or just making the right decision for their own family we are doing so because we live in the united states we need to continue to make our own decisions based on what is best for the individual situation there should not be reprecautions for those that choose the non-popular choice it is stated that positive cases have been on the rise and just because the cases are rising does not mean that the incubation period changes i completely agree with keeping children home when they are sick i'm a mom
033of course i do if your rules were the same for all individuals i would still think it is a bit overboard but would be extremely thankful that the children are being treated equally for a district to say that a child that comes in close contact needs to quarantine for 10 days only if that child is not vaccinated it's absurd there are absolutely no studies or scientific data that support that a person who is vaccinated cannot give it or get it this district is choosing to separate those students and punish them for not being vaccinated let me tell you something that is my decision i am their mother i am choosing not to vaccinate them and that is my decision for my family and how dare you feel the need to separate my child because i
034did not do that i currently have a healthy child in quarantine she supposedly was at a lunch table with another student and apparently unmasked for more than 15 minutes we were told she needed to quarantine for 14 days without the possibility to test out of that if she was vaccinated she would not need to quarantine unless she had symptoms she was told to stay home to reduce the risk of the virus spreading and we were unable even to test her out for an interesting interesting twist her siblings were allowed to attend school because in fact if she got covered that spread would not start at home please tell me again how this rule put into place is stopping the spread how is this not separation of students i understand the mandate changed effective today however
035vaccinated children still do not need to follow these new restrictions there is absolutely no data that shows that vaccinated children cannot transmit this virus you are rewarding the vaccinated and punishing the unvaccinated this is taking advantage of your position please share with me any data that shows that at minute 16 she has a higher transition rate these rules simply just don't make sense i'm asking you today to hear me to stop for a second and think about the rules you have in place and ask yourself if these rules really make sense i want you to think about the kids think about my children my healthy child has been home for two weeks not getting the proper education i actually pay in my taxes not only that but i pay in a tuition-based kindergarten program she
036is home all because she supposedly sat at lunch for more than 15 minutes without a mask i would have loved to see that because i've never seen her sit at a table for more than 15 minutes it is difficult to teach my children to stay silent as they are being treated unfairly we are taking a step back in society i ra i was raised by a strong immigrant father that came to this country to live out the american dream and escape separation i will not allow my children to be raised in a world of segregation today in school my oldest daughter had her mask down under her nose and was told to leave the classroom and she had to sit outside in her middle school in this school for five minutes by herself that needs
037to stop i'm not going to allow my children to be treated this way i need you to consider your mandates and what you're doing to our children to my children thank you thank you anybody else wish to speak a public comment all right seeing none we'll close that portion oh i'm sorry i didn't mean to to cut you off i did not see you just please state your name and address my address is 130 deerfield avenue i was just giving a moment to see if anyone else had something on the same topic so sorry for the delay um this is a reintroduction i spoke at the last meeting and um joined a conversation about full-day kindergarten and half-day kindergarten marlton and i wanted to thank dr smith and miss mgulik for meeting with us privately
038just to um follow up still here still interested in this conversation and i wanted to um just speak for some public knowledge to share some more information about what i believe are disparities in kindergarten i'll keep it to three minutes um half day kindergartners they receive 40 minutes daily literacy education full day gets 120 every day after gardeners get 20 minutes of math instruction full day gets 35. add that up over the course of a week that's 400 more minutes for full day kindergarteners compared to half-day kindergartners you may check the boxes of the curriculum and consider it the same the extended time says it isn't so how many full-day kindergarten students exit kindergarten at a higher reading level than half-day kindergartners because they're afforded the opportunity to have more time are we providing our
039half-day kindergartens with the maximum potential opportunity or are we limiting them this boils down to two basic factors education and finances i've touched a bit on education um finances i know that it can be um seem like there's some hurdles here but i want to point out that i counted um i might be wrong 34 districts in the county offer tuition-free full-day kindergarten we are one of two that charges for public full-day kindergarten the only other one we can compare to is morristown they charge a fraction of what we charge we charge fifty five hundred dollars they recently reduced their rate to thirty seven hundred i think that the perception is that we're offering families the option how nice of us when really this it's the exact opposite we're not giving families an option we're
040limiting families but we're either saying either you can afford it or if you can't your child will get a fraction of the benefit of this education we are now the anomaly the standards have changed everyone else has figured it out i'm happy to meet with all of you and try to work through this i don't have um so many ideas you're a bright bunch of people i'm sure that we can figure it out if we all work together thank you thank you please state your name and address uh kristen nardello i'm at 94 kent ave along with the tuition-based kindergarten i have a preschooler right now i'm going to have a full-time kindergartner come august first i need to write a check for 3 500 in three installments something i don't understand to morristown being
041the comparable district that has tuition kindergarten offers it over a 10-month payment there are so many parents that we've talked to in the last month that we've been you know talking about tuition-based kindergarten and so many people don't understand or can't afford to do the three payments you know we at one point would have been that family luckily we're able to do that but it's it's such a burden and i don't understand why we can't spread that out over 10 months and obviously the goal would be to have free kindergarten but in the meantime if that's not something that we can do can we make it easier on families and do it over a 10-month payment plan i think it seems like an obvious choice it seems discriminatory to me that come august 1st if
042you don't have a thousand dollars for preschool or 2500 for full day kindergarten that you can't send your kid to the district kindergarten so thank you thank you please state your name and address hi can you hear me okay my name is rebecca de persia i'm at seven sandwood um i came today on a whim because i wanted to um to be a part of my children's lives i didn't prepare anything but i did want to just commend the two women that spoke earlier about the vaccine mandate the mass mandates all the mandates and i 110 agree with every single thing that they said um as a parent as a mother i make my children's decisions for them uh that's my job that was kind of the deal when i got pregnant so um i'm
043just gonna tell a little personal story that um my daughter goes to mes and she came home from school the other day and told me that the nurse came in the office and uh she was terrified she was terrified that the nurse was going to bring her into the office and give her a shot equally as terrifying is the principal um asked them one day hey show of hands who here has been vaccinated um none of his business it's no one's business who's been vaccinated and who has not um my son comes home from school and it's a daily conversation in his classroom who's got the shot who's been vaccinated how many times have you gotten it oh my arm hurts because i got the vaccine it's no one's business who gets this vaccine and
044if they do or do not and it's our personal choice it's our freedom as parents as americans that's why we live in this country is that we have freedoms and i just wanted to voice my opinion as a parent as an american that this is unconstitutional and this is discrimination when teachers start to segregate kids that are vast and unboxed and i just wanted to say my peace thank you thank you anyone else wish to speak please state your name and address hi i'm melissa lampman i'm 13 old republican my child is currently first year in eve sham we've been attending marlton christian academy and we had great experience there my daughter has been at marlton christian academy since she was two my son is currently a second grade at marlton elementary and it was
045a hard decision for us to transfer him to the eve shame township school district but we did hear such great things about it and i grew up here so i decided to change him to this school district all last year when he was at marlton christian academy he did not have to quarantine at all now these rules are ridiculous i'm about to take him out of the school to send him back to marlton christian academy where they actually value their education and they value what the parents choices are as a teacher in another district i think it's outrageous these quarantine rules i teach at a high school our kids are in close contact with each other for an hour during lunch time without their masks there are no quarantining with them if regardless of their
046vaccination status they don't contact trace during that lunchtime hour so this is your school doing this this is eve sham doing this not all schools in new jersey are following these same guidelines and at this point it is unfair and i choose not to vaccinate my child and i think that it would be totally unconstitutional to separate them because if he has to quarantine now the whole school knows that he is not vaccinated that is a hipaa violation as well i'm pretty much disgusted in eve sham township at this point and i don't know what i'm going to do with my child next year my daughter who's currently in kindergarten because she hasn't had a quarantine she gets to sit down once she's in her desk she puts her mask down and guess what there
047hasn't been any outbreaks so this here is something that you as our board we elected you to speak up for us as parents you're our voice you're elected so you need to hear us hear what we're saying and as parents we know what's best for our children if a child wants to stay home if the child has a fever they can stay home the flu shot is not mandated and kids don't have to quarantine after they have the flu and that affects kids more than covid affects kids then that needs to be considered as well thank you thank you anyone else wish to speak nicole thomas to surrey court marlton i'd like to share a letter that my son who is in fourth grade wrote to the governor murphy during free time i don't want
048any more masks please can you take all the mask rules away so we can regain our freedom and so we can all breathe make it a choice to wear a mask or not so we don't smell our own breath so people can stop freaking out because someone is not wearing a mask thank you anybody else wish to speak all right seeing none we're going to close that portion of the board i can just that's why i feel i want to just say a few words in response to the comments we appreciate everyone who comes to our board meetings and the perspectives this uh this tunnel that we've been in since march 2020 has been longer than anyone imagined and tougher as well and we we hear that in the voices of the people who spoke
049tonight um i i do want to point out and there's so much information to share right so that's that's one of the sort of hallmarks of the time we live in is not only is there so much info but it's also always changing right so like today the uh the update to the quarantine guidance where it was 14 days mandatory no ability to test and return early this afternoon that changed i sent that out right away because that's a wonderful thing we're glad to have that back because i know when parents lost the ability to test and have their kids return earlier with a negative test that was a big blow so that was you know that was a welcome change um in all those instances we're just following the guidance that we've been required
050to follow through the safe return plan that every district had to develop and through the department of health guidance that comes out so you know when it comes to something like vaccination um that that that piece about people who are fully vaccinated being able to um continue to come in they'll have to quarantine that's if you go to the the you know the information i've shared out through the various updates it's right there at the bottom of the chart and the even the quote that i use today is is right out of the guidance so um you know what so we understand there's a lot of um you know a lot of uh strong feelings about all this um and i think the most important thing is just to respect that everybody has their own
051perspectives right and that's important and if we're all sitting around the kitchen table we want to be able to hear those perspectives together and try to find the best path forward together so that's what we're always trying to do and we'll continue to do and i appreciate everyone who came out tonight thank you dr smith all right at this point in time we are going to go to board member announcements are there any announcements by board members listen i don't want to make it i mean like i just want to say that my children have not come home and said that there's any kind of asking in the classroom who's vaccinated who's not that doesn't mean that it hasn't happened i just hope it's not happening in our classrooms and there's no mention of vaccination
052for children again my my children have not reported show of hands and i would hope that our teachers and administrators would never ask that question and listen to your question there's your comments so our nurses have have sent out communication to parents if they voluntarily want to tell us their their child's vaccination status we can use that to help their child stay in school for the guidance so that's that's what we've asked for i understand um the you know but if you look at a classroom full of kids and you watch kids in the hallway and throughout our school day um there's there's no there's no uh differentiation by by vaccination status and and no questioning of show of hands i would hope i i trust well of course i'll follow up on the example
053shared earlier today you know in the meeting so but um but we are not um [Music] you know if kids are talking about among themselves but we're not we're not asking although we'll be following up in that instance yeah that's that's that's a that's a serious allegation we can't have anybody asking anybody or showing raise their hands especially for little kids we can't we can't do it for anybody but they're an extraordinarily vulnerable group to that i would i would be very unhappy if that were for the case mm-hmm um so i appreciate you following up on that um in terms of thank you i apologize and i just wanted to just say merry christmas to everyone happy new year and i hope everyone has a very relaxing and restful winter break we all deserve
054it um also i'll get miss filming of you or mr lancelata i'll be right with you in one second i apologize mr lanez um also just a couple of notes this board has on a few occasions has written to or have approved letters to the governor in terms of mass mandates uh this this board has done that and it's done it's its diligence when it has to do it all right so it has it has been sympathetic to that i do want that to be relayed right that we have done that yeah i could name so three examples would be uh so last may um as a group of lenape region district so that's nine districts are eight k to eights plus the high school district we sent a letter to the governor asking for
055um some wiggle some exceptions if possible on the masked mandate that's what led to in part in part because there were many districts that were doing that as well the extreme heat exception that enabled which was very advantageous for things like our school buses all our buildings are air-conditioned so it didn't really apply in our indoor spaces but it did apply to buses another letter we sent that was just from our district was in august which was relating to medically fragile students and giving them a remote option um so that did not unfortunately lead to any um change but um that that was certainly uh we were trying to make our voice heard on that um as we do try as much as we can to serve the needs to the greatest extent possible of
056every child in our district and then most recently this change with the um the 14-day quarantine bring back the right for parents to test their kids and have them come back early if they test negative um well we didn't send a letter on that one there was there were many behind-the-scenes conversations that our district was a part of with health officials and education officials to try to make that happen so i'm just glad to see that come about mr lanzalata apologize floor is yours thank you very much mr fitzgerald just just so we are all transparent on this um the masked mandates the quarantine mandates uh the the regulations that we're following here they are in fact mandated by new jersey law correct it said will can answer that he's already gone over executive order
057has a force of law correct as i've advised the board previously oh excuse me as a good evening to everyone as of advisor board previously executive orders do have the force of law uh but new jersey department of health guidance is guidance and i appreciate that um and i appreciate that you know for the last year two years i've been a numerous board of education meetings where the question comes up as to the distinction between a mandate and guidance and you know what is the difference and what's the distinction between those two with regards to the mass that mandate under eo251 was recently upheld from constitutional challenge by a federal judge that was a week ago the decision came down finding that it did not infringe on either equal protection or on the right to
058free speech as far as the guidance it has been i think the general consensus of education attorneys that school districts should follow the guidance of the new jersey department of health in fact you that um some extraordinary circumstances to why you would not do so a board of education uh is is not doing its uh discharging its responsibilities from an ethical standpoint or from any other standpoint if it doesn't follow the guidance that is issued and given to you um and in that regard you know i appreciate and i appreciate everyone's opinions regarding vaccination and the treatment of unvaccinated versus vaccinated individuals i would suggest and i don't mean to get in a belabored discussion or debate about it um distinctions between stu individuals who are vaccinated and unvaccinated have occurred since vaccines were invented
059quite frankly since the 1920s and since vaccines and it has always been statutory law that during the outbreak of contagious diseases people who cannot demonstrate either immunity to or vaccination from those diseases are subject to just you know different types of uh you know rules and regulations regarding attendance in particular you know vaccinations have been required and are mandated in certain circumstances as you probably all remember i still have the scar for my polio vaccine on my shoulder um you know i know my son had to have his record of mmr dppt and what have you that is you know must be submitted this vaccine is not mandated it is encouraged and the law is very clear during the outbreak of any contagious disease uh individuals who may have been exposed to or are unvaccinated
060from that contagious disease that provision has been there in the law since the spanish flow since the 1920s so in that regard we're not really doing anything new uh we're not really following any different types of laws always been embodied in 18a and i appreciate parents every parent has the right to make the determinations regarding their children i absolutely support that i also you know support the idea that you know from a mass that infringes on constitutional rights uh needs to be evaluated under strict scrutiny that's why i'm not and have never advocated that a board of education require mass for people in attendance at a board of education because i think this is absolutely constitutionally guaranteed right of the people to assemble and petition the government for the redress of grievances and why should
061somebody come into the board of education mean be treated differently than somebody going to a township committee meeting why i don't i don't think that would pass a rational basis test can we but that being said um the mass mandate was upheld uh you know governor murphy embodied it in eo251 and then in eo253 if i recall he clarified that any exemption for medical exemption had to be come from a medical professional and had to be documented uh through that process so i do believe executive orders have the force of law and our law and are enforceable and i do not believe a board of education should veer away from uh enforcing an executive order i just uh uh ask one more question if uh well is there are there any repercussions for um a
062district if they do not enforce the code of law so interestingly enough yes uh there are uh repercussions that are uh outlined both in the executive orders themselves with regards to any individual who doesn't follow an executive order there are also the provisions that the commissioner of education is directed to withhold state aid from districts that don't file the law and it can be an ethical issue for board of education members who recommend not following the law you know everyone's familiar with what the township of middleton board of education did uh interestingly enough that's where the governor lives so we will see what happens with regards to that because you know i mean i think he lives next door to john bon jovi and bruce springsteen in middleton but um yeah still right they're all
063right there on the navasync river i think um but we'll see what happens with that i mean that that resolution by the board of education um is obviously making the rounds around the education community and it's a topic of discussion and if there's a discussion that would allow me to give guidance to this board of education to move in a direction uh that is different than the direction you're in you will hear from me in that regard you will hear whether and to what extent because i don't think anyone likes what's going on now no one likes this okay and nobody wants this but you are legally required to do what you're doing thank you so much mr clinton thank you mr donia mr lancelot you have any more questions are you okay no honestly
064thanks antonio for the clarification i appreciate it and i just i appreciate your expertise any other announcements or comments or questions miss ryan i just wanted to announce that the eshim education foundation will be holding their annual event on february 25th at the mansion so save the date casino night yeah yeah yeah i'm so glad you mentioned that well i didn't think they had an official like fancy name like win wine and dine or whatever or win dine and win but it is an event that's going to raise money and they um donate some of their money to our school district so it is a great event to support and participate in they're in the planning stages so save the date thank you miss ryan any other questions or comments miss everhart i just want
065to wish everybody a safe and fun holiday season and uh enjoy the break well deserved as mrs noel said earlier also to the board have a safe and joyous holiday season if you celebrate and we will see you in january thank you mr heart any other questions or comments all right i'm going to leave off with uh just one comment um mr daniel first of all thank you for the explanation that again i appreciate the clarification that you're able to provide us um secondly uh i'm about to adjourn the meeting and i i just i want to just uh what's up my final adjustment and i i honestly uh you know i i really wasn't i really wasn't gonna like say anything about this tonight and i was literally gonna go home and play fifa
066and i'd be pretty happy um no but i i wanted to i wanted to extend a thank you to to the board members and and to the administration for the lovely the lovely plant and um i'd honestly you you've you've been a pleasure you you're a pleasure to work with and and to be a part of and i'm very grateful for that and and i and i i get where we are and there's a lot of disagreements and and you know we we have conversations and sometimes we see eye to eye and sometimes we don't i i appreciate um the respect you gave when you came up here and and give your opinions and your thoughts and i hope that you have felt that i have done the same for you uh in that time
067that we've had together um but i am just looking forward to sitting on one of those spots over there but again i just want to uh i want to thank you guys for everything and um i hope all of you have a wonderful holiday so at this point i will wish to a motion to adjourn uh motioned by miss ryan seconded by mrs all in favor oh thank god