001[Music] [Applause] [Music] 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 the eastern township board of education in the following manner posting written notice on the official bulletin board of the board of education office emailing written notice of the berlin county times in the courier post and filing written notice on the municipal clerk with the municipal clerk of each from township gonna have a roll call please mrs cappello here this is everhart mr fizzicaro here miss fleming here mr katherine here mrs noll mr lanzalada here mr megan here mrs ryan here we have a farm yeah she's the one all right thank you at this point in time we need a motion for an executive session uh
002promotions 2.1 to 2.4 whereas an njsa 104-12 allows for a public body to go into closed session during a public meeting and whereas the board of education of shrimp 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 resolved that the board of education will go into closed session for the following reasons as outlined in njsa 10-4-12 items 2.2 through 2.4 do i have a motion to go in executive session okay motion by miss ryan seconded by miss fleming any questions or comments roll call please mrs cavallo yes mrs everhart yes it's a yes no yeah thank you
003mr fizzy cara yes miss fleming yes mr camp yes mr lancelata yes mr meegan yes mrs ryan yes motion carries thank you will be in executive session till approximately 7 pm [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] uh [Music] any ideas [Music] uh [Music] so [Music] so [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so do [Music] uh um [Music] uh township board of education if we could all please rise for the pledge of allegiance thank you today i'm going to go back into a trend we haven't done in a little while and i'm going to read out loud the um eastern township mission statement which is something that i would like to continue to do
004in the future as a way of affirmation of what we are about 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 provides 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 thank you all right we're going to move past presentations today because we do not have any presentations today so we're going to move into a public comment for agenda items only this meeting will now be open to the public referencing agenda items only how
005if your meeting or 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 please limit your comments to three minutes per person as again per uh per rule make sure you please state your name your address speak clearly um we will try to hold you to three minute mark but we'll do so as politely as possible again this is for agenda items only for non-agenda items we'll have another session after the meeting anybody for agenda items only seeing none i will close that portion of the meeting all right at this point i'm going to move to item number six annual appointments and approvals i need a motion to approve items 6 1 through
0066 15. do i have a motion motion by miss ryan seconded by mr lanzalata any questions or comments in pertaining to our annual appointments or approvals seeing none let's go to a roll call please mrs capello yes this is everhart yes mr fizzy cairo yes miss fleming yes mr canton yes mrs noel yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes to everything but 6.3 6.3 correct thank you uh mrs ryan yes motion carries thank you okay at this point we're going to move to item 7 approval of the minutes i need a motion to approve items seven one and seven two do i have a motion motion by miss fleming do i have a second second it by miss null any questions or comments about the minutes of uh march 25th seeing none let's go to
007a roll call please mrs cappello yes mrs everhart yes mr visicarro yes miss fleming yes mr canton yes mrs noll yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes this is ryan yes mission carries thank you at this point we're going to move to item number eight this is superintendent's report and administrative items i need a motion to prove items eight one through eight seven do i have a motion for that motion of miss capello you have a second second by miss fleming before you go to questions and comments i will give the floor to dr smith thank you mr fisacarro as in prior meetings i have updates on two continuing topics schools and budget first the budget update thursday may 6th is our final budget presentation when we will recommend the finalized budget for board approval
008that will be our third presentation after the preliminary budget presentation in february and our tentative budget presentation in march we are continuing to examine many options for possible savings and we'll share about any adjustments to the budget in our final budget presentation on may 6th there is a resolution in our board agenda this evening that speaks to a large part of why we are at this point it is a resolution about the reduction in state funding that our district and the other 102 s2 districts are going through uh over the seven year period that we're in the um that the cumulative i want to draw attention to the cumulative we've talked a lot about the the 7.8 million dollars in state funding cuts that we're experiencing over these seven years looked at cumulatively it's actually
00932.6 million dollars if you think about you know the loss in in the first year carrying over for the seven year sequence the loss in the second year carrying for six years our loss this year continuing to affect us for the next three years of the seven year sequence my school's update uh i would like to share a point of light so this week marked all of our in-person middle school students came to school on monday and every day this week as we now truly have just two cohorts our in-person cohort which is 78 of our students and our remote cohort which is 22 percent of our students thus this is the first week since the week of march 9th 2020 that we have provided five full days of school for all parents for students
010of all parents seeking it our plan is to continue on this path for the rest of the school year and to use the experience from these coming weeks as well as from all the weeks of this year in our planning for september many thanks to all our staff across all roles for their tireless efforts this entire school year to provide the best supports possible for all our students in person and remotely there is so much for our staff our families to be proud of about this year i would like to give two special shout outs to our staff this week as it is after school professionals appreciation week so to our ecc director miss lea pearl leader and the recc staff deepest thanks for all you do and yesterday was our administrative professionals day nationwide
011and here in our district's greatest appreciation also to our administrative professionals across all our buildings every role makes part every role plays its part to make it possible for kids to pick out a book they love from a shelf to solve a math mystery problem to swing on the swings at recess to learn about kindness so thank you thank you dr smith are there any uh questions or comments to the superintendent's report administrative items seeing none let's go to a roll call please mrs cappello yes this is abrahart yes mr fizzakero yes this is miss fleming yes mr canton yes mrs noel yes mr lanzalata yes mr meagan yes mrs ryan yes mission carries thank you all right moving now to item nine curriculum and instruction i need a motion to approve items nine one
012through nine four do i have a motion motion by miss ryan second it by mr cantham any questions or comments pertaining to curriculum and instruction yes so during last month's meeting mrs ryan gave her policy updates uh before the vote which i think was a great idea so we're going to do that now so from curriculum and instruction we got three updates for for this month the first is attendance numbers like dr smith already mentioned um right now we have 78 of kids in school five days a week full day that's across the the district uh that's a five percent increase from last month and a increase from the month before um i think it's important to notice in in the last time we gave this update was february uh in february we had roughly
01335 of our kids in school for four days a week and now we're more than double that so i think that's a testament to the to the building level staff the teachers paraprofessionals across the board and the building level administration so thank you for that i think it aligns with our day one goal from august 5th of making sure that families have the option to be in person as much as possible or remote if that's what they feel fit for their kids so i think that consistency both academically and emotionally is important second update is for summer programs uh we have our summer learning academy which is made possible through our sr2 grant and plenty of other summer programs and i think it's cool that the summer programs are targeting not just one group of
014kids but literally every grade is represented and it's not just academics we also have summer programs for emotional wellness as well so i think that's awesome um and lastly as far as grant money uh we talked last month about the mental health grant there are some percentages allocated for different things within the mental health umbrella um we're still working to see tangibly how we're going to use that money to to best affect kids and then additionally there's one more grant that we received part of the american rescue plan esther 3 that we're calling it so that we have not received the money nor do we know the strings attached for what the umbrellas are for that but you can expect that update next month thank you any other question oh there's no just going to
015ask about the summer programs and anish maybe you can answer are we doing anything uh above and beyond what we usually offer in the summer for learning loss or anything like that yeah so so part miss magula can can chime in if uh i don't explain enough but yeah so part of the s or two money is um for learning loss and then there's another allotment for learning acceleration oh sorry all right okay so um as part of esser2 um there are two buckets one is for learning acceleration and one is the combat learning loss so both of those are being used for the summer as part of the summer learning academy um that is above and beyond what we normally offer um so there are things that that are being done um but i
016don't have much specifics beyond that any other questions seeing none let's go to a roll call please mrs capello yes this is ever hart yes mr fizzy carrot yes miss fleming yes mr captain yes mrs knoll yes mr lanzalotta yes mr megan yes this is ryan yes motion carries thank you all right now we're going to move to item 10 finance and operations i need a motion to approve items 10 1 through 10 16. do i have a motion motion any questions or comments for finance and operations seeing none let's go to a roll call please mrs capalo yes this is everhart yes mr fizzakira yes miss fleming yes mr camping yes mrs nell yes mr lancelata yes mr meagan yes mrs ryan yes nation carries thank you okay moving to item 11 personnel in
017a motion to prove items 11 1 through 11 10. do i have a motion for for that miss ryan for the motion and second it by miss knowle questions or comments pertaining to personnel seeing none let's go to a roll call mrs cappello yes mrs everhart yes mr pizzacaro yes miss fleming yes mr canton yes mrs noll yes mr mr lancelotta yes mr megan yes this is ryan yes motion carries thank you moving to item 12 now policy by which we uh we have a policy on the agenda i need a motion to approve items 12 1 through 12 3. do i have a motion for that motion by miss ryan do i have a second oh miss fleming thank you i'm sorry about that miss fleming with a second uh any questions or comments
018miss ryan yeah i just have a quick um comment for the board um as you'll see in 12-2 their second reading that we approved last board meeting and at 12 1 our new ones that aren't but most of them all of them are mandated so there really wasn't much discussion that needed to be had so please take a look at those and if you have any questions contact me or any other member of the policy committee thank you thank you ms ryan any questions or comments miss noel i'm sorry being in the environmental field the lead testing is that are they making that less often or more often whoever can answer that on the policy i had read it a few weeks ago i thought they were requiring it less often i guess you can
019you can answer that privately mr mr dante the last time that we tested uh december 2016. which was for uh the school year of that's when we started it was completed in june of 2017. it goes by completion date yeah they just changed the law now and we're getting ready to start testing again this summer okay great thank you thank you any other question mr lanzalata thank you uh very regulation 5330 the administration of medical medical cannabis is that also mandated by the state of new jersey okay thank you any other questions or comments all right let's go to roll call mrs cappello yes this is everhart yes mr fizzakira yes miss fleming yes mr canton yes mrs knoll yes mr lanzalotta yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes mission carries thank you all right
020this point we're going to go into committee reports i know two committees have spoken already are there any other uh committees that wish to split the report mr lanzalata from the community outreach committee first like to thank dan morton and the rest of the morrilton business association for welcoming dr smith to speak about the current events that are going on in the eastern public school school district the topics that were discussed was are reopening updates middle school sports budgetary issues due to the state budget cuts and coveid bus advertising opportunities for companies in town and that was followed up by a question and answer session by dr smith thank you thanks again uh to the marlton business association for welcoming us to a lunch um and you know just the opportunity to speak appreciate it
021thank you mr lancelata anybody else ah miss ryan okay um yves sham education foundation um it's a great organization to support they're going to be having their annual golf outing in june and i'd like to thank the pto and pta presidents and organizations for sponsoring a whole um which in turn raises money for the district so thank you for all of your support yes ryan what is the date for that i have some people that i want to tell about the the golf outing okay well you can 12 there's i believe june i believe it's june 12th but i don't have my phone with me which has my calendar so june 11th it is it is thank you anybody else all right let's move past committee reports we're going to head to old business there
022is no old business moving into item 15 new business there is no new business i'm not missing anything am i okay good all right at this point in time we're going to go to open public comment for any items of interest this 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'd ask you to see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please limit your comments to three minutes per person i will do my best to politely remind you of those three minutes also please state your name very clearly and your address very clearly and lastly uh please speak to to us as the board and we'll do our
023best uh to uh to answer any questions that you may have if anyone like to come up and speak please please come on uh good evening ed beck i'm at 5 548 justice drive so a couple weeks ago i sent emails and a couple phone calls to the state legislators as requested i received a call back from a couple of the legislators senator sweeney's office as well as congressman kim's office so i have a couple questions uh related to what they had discussed but before i get to the questions a couple comments um my wife sue has been a power professional for about 17 years with the district she's with the rice school in the preschool autism program so i have a firsthand look every day to the impact that she brings to the students
024and just two basic thoughts that i have with respect to the budget cuts there are two areas one is the quality education and the other has to do with the humanity aspect of it so with respect to the quality of education i could see from a consistency standpoint how that's going to be impacted cutting the hours of the power professionals to part-time is really going to impact the consistency of what the students learn every day their interaction with the students is going to suffer and that's going to go against what is being preached as the budget cuts being because of quality to improve the quality well that goes against what's actually going to happen the second has to do with the humanity aspect paraprofessionals are already one of the lowest paid groups within the district
025so it's unconscionable to me how we could turn around and essentially cut their compensation in half okay i i see firsthand the value that they bring so i asked the board for the for the may 6 vote to really reconsider the cuts as they pertain to cutting the hours and the benefits of the power professionals on those two grounds equality and humanity so now with respect to some of the the calls i received back so someone from senator sweeney uh called us back laid out very clearly s2 spent a lot of time um he mentioned that he had been speaking with some folks on the board and there was some additional state aid that could be available for districts that are suffering with s2 because of covid so my question is have those discussions been
026occurring and what's the status of those discussions and then secondly second question in talking with someone from congressman kim's office they mentioned that there was more latitude in the spending of the relief aid that's coming to the districts as opposed to the original covet aid so i believe the district is earmarked for about 900 to 959 000. so i'm wondering could any of that money directly or indirectly be used to help to to save the power professional hours and their benefits um mr beck first i just want to say thank you for your advocacy with our state officials as far as uh the state funding cuts that we're going through um in fact i think it's your advocacy and the advocacy of thousands of other people that is prompting someone from uh senator sweeney's office
027to to mention something about additional aid um that's promising nothing's been released publicly about about that possibility but i we will certainly be looking to see um i wouldn't be surprised if they are talking looking in that direction because of all the advocacy because there really has been a flood of emails phone calls um social media posts relating to again it's really a not a complicated ask but the state funding reduction sequence was developed long before anybody thought corona was something other than a beer you know and and uh and now we are in a position where they're insisting on moving forward with these state funding reductions even though we're in a pandemic that's been the one ask you know so so i'm glad that they mentioned that to me that means that they're continuing
028to think about the ramifications of insisting on cuts that were developed for a world that doesn't exist and we will definitely be looking for information they might be releasing about that um as to your other question uh about the um from congressman kim's office so the uh what will happen is the uh department of education in new jersey will release sort of the official guidelines for how that money can be used that hasn't been released yet once once it is though we will certainly be looking for as many ways to use that as possible including for uh staff and benefits that that's definitely uh something we want to take into consideration what those ben what those uh funds could be used for and like you said it's about 923 thousand dollars from that chronovirus relief
029the sr2 money which is the first round of relief that school districts have received the parameters for that are stricter that can't really go towards benefits but the um but the chronovirus relief there may be some daylight there for us yeah do we know the timeline of when those guidelines are going to be brought down will it be before the budget we don't know the timeline for that yeah will will any of that be taken into consideration though with respect to the budget layout for may 6th or it um it just without having in hand the specific guidelines it's hard to do that you know um so we'll we'll see you know what what comes out okay um mr beck uh very quickly um thank you for uh calling our legislators thank you for calling
030the governors and senators and whoever else wants to listen and and if i could just say very quickly i hope that you're not the only one and if you could tell people to keep calling all week you know every day twice a day three times a day the only way we're going to get some stuff done is if they know that we are in a cro a severe crisis if they don't know about the crisis that we're facing right now they won't do anything about it so we try your advocacy yeah we we try for sure and i i call often yeah uh with that in fact the day that i got the phone call uh your name was mentioned specifically that he had gotten off the phone with you earlier that morning so thank
031you absolutely thank you thank you [Applause] good evening i'm karen enoch three wood thrush trail east medford i'd like to begin by posing a question to the teachers and paraprofessionals in the room tonight why did you choose this career most of us in this line of work will all have a similar answer for the children and for the positive impact that we can have on their lives it certainly isn't for the money but the reality of the situation is money does play a role and tonight's meeting is a testament to that my name is karen enoch i am one of the powers that will be affected by the elimination of health care benefits and i am speaking tonight because i refuse to allow my 20 years of service to be reduced to a dollar amount
032on a spreadsheet before i step down from this microphone i would like you to hear my story i entered this profession as someone who dreamed of making a difference and along the way i found a family and a place of belonging at marlton middle school but now now i stand before you as a very disheartened employee after dedicating more than a third of my life to serving this district and its children i had hoped that i would be able to work my remaining years at mms and retire with lifetime benefits but given the proposed health care removal i am forced to reconsider my position to the board please understand i am not asking for your sympathy no rather i am asking you to remember my face when you cast your vote next month i am
033here to remind you that your decision impacts much more than just a bottom line the proposed budget will ultimately force the hands of 56 passionate and dedicated employees to seek alternative work because the salaried pay without benefits is below the reasonable means to live and provide i am not unsympathetic to your dilemma i understand that you are facing a problem and pulling our benefits may appear to be the simplest and most efficient solution but i want to issue a word of warning the choice you are about to make will have consequences you are showing the district that when push comes to shove your loyalty does not lie with your employees and that the years of service sacrifice and dedication does not have the power to outweigh the bottom line and who is going to suffer
034from this the teachers who have come to rely on their powers and the children who benefit from the additional support and also the consistency from employees who feel valued that are compensated enough to stick around long term yes working with the functional budget is a necessity for us all however i wonder if there may be an alternative that does not include the destruction of loyalty morale and the livelihood of 56 individuals who have dedicated a lifetime of service to the children of this district and so i ask you now have you truly exhausted all other options is there really no alternative that would allow the few of us left to keep the benefits that you promised us when we were first hired i am asking you today as an educator a mother a member of
035this district and on behalf of the present and future children of our education system please do not pass this proposed budget thank you for your time thank you hi lucia millington um i'm back um i don't know how to follow that really um but i just wanted to reiterate that this is really um really devastating to to those that it affects you know the school district that that i'm part of that i work for that i pay taxes to and that i care so deeply for um is now really affecting my life and the life of my colleagues by stripping our benefits i know you all are in a difficult spot it's been a rough year for all of us but to top that off with being told in the midst of a pandemic that
036you're losing your benefits and your pays being cut in half is is just truly devastating so um thank you for your service but please please reconsider [Applause] hi my name is rebecca depersia i'm at 7 sandwood drive i'm coming to you as a concerned parent my family and i just moved to the district about four months ago and we moved here specifically for the school district my son attends jaggard and is autistic my daughter attends mes as far as my son every therapist every neurologist every doctor that he's ever been to has suggested for my family to move to marlton because of the school district because of the support that he would get so my husband i took a leap of faith and we are here and we absolutely love it i can see a
037huge difference in my son he now loves school it used to be an absolute torture to get him to go to school but now in the short four months his um teacher his para has been amazing and um not to discredit his teacher because she's amazing but his para has made all the difference in the world he adores her he comes home from school every day talking about her talking about the relationship that they've built and how special it is and how much he has helped her and how much they get along and just she's everything to him she and and she missed a few days um during the school year and he was so upset he was concerned about her he and then when she came back he was so happy to see her
038um even during spring break he didn't want to miss school because he didn't want to miss seeing his para um i just want you to know that from a parent standpoint this is huge your eve sham reputation is huge because of your school district because of your paras and if that goes away if you take away their health benefits and they find employment elsewhere it is going to absolutely change the dynamic of the school district and it's going to hurt my child both my kids but mainly my son and i think it's going to really damage the reputation of the district and all these therapists and doctors that i've met through the years that have recommended eve sham district thank you for your time thank you hi my name is melissa mercer i live at
039five darien drive in cherry hill and i've been a speech therapist at jaggard school for 20 years i just wanted to get up again and plead with the board to reconsider their decision to take away the power benefits wonderful that we have a parent come out and stand up there are many many parents in this district that feel the same way that they came here for the special education services that they thought they were going to get and whose students will be in not the same situation with the decisions that are being made i just want to say that the jagger students and all the students in eve sham will be negatively affected by the decision to take away paris benefits i'm begging you to find another way i think that we need more information
040about the rescue act i think we need to look into being part of the pilot study we don't have to agree to be the pilot but we can be part of the study and spread out our debt and i think hearing from the board that you are actively looking for other ways will go a long way towards making the staff feel that they are valued thank you good evening debbie van curan i'm the etea president and i'm speaking on behalf of the etea leadership we just wanted to say that we appreciate our recent meeting to discuss ideas to help alleviate the budget shortfall we were hoping to have some more concrete information from you before the meeting this evening we look forward to further discussion in a timely manner and we are requesting that the
041finance committee be prudent in communicating with etea we feel that this conversation needs to happen before the special board of education meeting on may 6 when you will be taking a vote to strip our powers of their hours which will result in them losing their eligibility for health benefits dr smith has previously stated that there are 67 paras that are eligible for benefits he has said that the average benefit package cost about 25 000 this comes out to 1.675 million in actuality 11 of our paras have never taken benefits and have already opted out for next year we feel that the number being presented is inflated the actual number is 51 powers at 25 000 equals 1.275 with the idea that we have been throwing around in meetings and the ideas that have been given
042and the federal funding that you have received and will receive the board should be able to cover the 1.275 million according to the us department of education fact sheet which was just released yesterday money can be used to continue to employ existing school staff this evening i would also like to speak on behalf of the educators and i would like to speak as an educator i would like to talk about the guidance counselor position that has been cut here at macy schools the last bullet of that document that i told you that was released yesterday on page two it says that the money can be used to provide mental health services and supports including through the implementation of evidence-based full-service community schools and the hiring of counselors here are just some of the responsibilities of
043our building counselors they welcome new families they teach lessons at every grade level they work closely with teachers to provide support and intervention to academically struggling students to bridge gaps before a formal intervention needs to be initiated they organize facilitate and support the irs process they plan and implement a variety of in-house pd they see students and groups for regular counseling they supervise and train staff for standardized testing there's kindergarten registration incoming sixth graders transitioning eighth graders to cherokee high school attendance compliance hib and climate teams defense paperwork et cetera et cetera et cetera demacy's school is a unique k-8 school i've worked here since they opened in 93. asking just two guidance counselors to cover all of these responsibilities especially during a pandemic is not what is best for kids the counselors serve the
044whole community and require them to have daily connections and build relationships with the teachers the parents and the students the mental health of the dimaces students is important enough to continue to have three counselors to cover our k-8 community dr smith i am asking and urging you to reinstate that third guidance counselor here at temac board of ed members i thank you for listening this evening the etea looks forward to hearing from you in the next 13 days to put an end to all of this stress and anxiety that we've all endured over this past school year that has been brought to our members thank you so much hi my name is mary meadwell i am a second grade teacher at bieler elementary school i'm here because i've been following along with what's happening with
045sweeney's office and some of the legislature that's going on and i think you know some of what's going on there is a cause of our problems some of the information i have is that there's 2.7 billion dollars that's coming from the federal government that's supposed to help with through american rescue that 2.4 of that is supposed to go to our districts and that of course in new jersey we're going to use the formula to divvy up that money so you know where eve shams stands there but um that it's not really supposed to supplant any of the money that we've already received from the state um and that really that the um only stipulation that i can see comes with that is that the stakeholders are engaged like us teachers paraprofessionals who are engaged every
046day with the children be a part of the process and how that money is spent so i guess the only thing i ask this board is that you just wait until you get that hopefully that's good news and positive news and that you guys before you make any decisions on the budget i know you have to make some decisions but before you do what you have planned to do to the paraprofessionals that you think about it and just wait and see what happens with the um the relief money thank you very much [Music] hi tracy brown from marlton middle school when i was hired here almost 20 years ago we were honestly one of the lowest starting salaries in the area and you know i talked to a lot of people and a lot of
047people told me what a great district this this was and and how much of a family atmosphere it was and there's been a lot of ups and downs over the years and some of you on the board have seen me many many many times over the years i looked back at emails way back to even from miss millington in my building asking for our help back in 2013 over this whole para debacle some of these powers were hired the same year i was or around that time and we were all made promises i've been fortunate the promises aren't being stripped from me but that family feeling is not really here right now and some of these family members are in my building not just the whole district but like 10 of these 55 people are
048in my building i i've been working with them not necessarily in my classroom but in the building mms has so many specialized programs the powers are the backbone in our building i i honestly can't imagine what a day would look like our administrators are already running around with coverage half the time if they just called out for one day this district could potentially just fall apart if every power didn't show up i mean they are really a backbone and there are family members and i'm really really surprised that it's come to this again like we have fought this battle so many times and we're here again and some of you know some of you don't i was on a school board for six and a half years i i know you have tough decisions to
049make this is a lot of money dr smith is new i know it is the job of the superintendent to figure this out and a lot of times it does come down to dollar and cents some of you were on the board when we when a promise was made i i can't can't believe that these 56 women are going through this again there was a promise on the table and we as educators have something called past practice so even if it's not written in our contract once it happens a couple times a couple years it's almost as good as being written in the contract unfortunately the paris can't go to arbitration and fight this the way we can but some of you were on the board some of you sat at that table and you
050know the promise was made it's it's just so sad i mean i literally came into this district with so many promises being made and such a family atmosphere and it is tearing us all apart again no one wants to fight i i want us to all just be happy and be in it for the kids like we all are but there's just so much turmoil and so much sadness and it's really disheartening every single day to see people sad in our buildings and truly our schools will not be the same the turnover will be just horrendous i don't know if you have stats on that maybe you should look into it because every time i turn around there's a new power the turnover will be just horrible for the sake of the children because i
051can guarantee you almost all of the 55 ladies will be out if they're if their benefits are gone and again i i just i can't believe some of you made this promise and you know you know it was a promise so if there is anything you can do to make this not happen i implore you to look at your other options before that may 6th meeting to bring each and back to where it needs to be for all of us thank you for your consideration can i can i ask you a question i i want to ask you a question because i'm i'm a little confused on on the on the promise i i i don't i don't recollect this at all i might not have been at this i know i was not at
052this table was this in in 2013 2010 when was this there have been so many years and that's why i didn't use names because i did not i don't yeah i didn't want to call specific people out um because i'm not 100 sure i wasn't at that table i've been at many negotiations tables and things over the year that was not a table i was at i'm sure there are many people within district or past supervisors or administrators that could corroborate the promise and the promise was that we were going to grandfather essentially that's the term that was used grandfather in those people who had already been hired with benefits and from that date going forward the contract and agreement was any para hired after that date whatever that magical date was someone in here
053knows sorry not to address them someone knows the date whatever that magical date was going forward all powers would be hired at what's the magical number 5.75 something like that whatever the magic number is so that they wouldn't get benefits so everybody after that date came to the district that was the promise made to them you can get hired for this many hours at this hourly pay you're not getting benefits welcome to the family that's your promise but the other people were i think the expression is grandfathered in truly they made that promise i was not at that table i don't want to speak to who was at the table but it was truly a promise and it was it was it was spoken word like i i i'm asking this because i i'm and
054i'm being incredibly sincere about this the first time i heard about this was when it was brought up a public session probably a couple meetings ago and i i zero recollection of this but there was also about three years i was off the board in between so it could have happened in that point um but it was like a was it a it was a conversation piece is that what wasn't a written agreement it was a conversation piece or again you don't you don't know because i don't want to give false information i don't really try to stick to the facts and i don't want to spa this has been a long long time but whatever the date was that we started hiring cars at 5.75 whenever that magical year was i believe around 2013
055someone in here knows whatever year it is so whatever that magical year was we've never hired a power with benefits since okay but the 55 ladies or whatever the magical number is 67 but 11 say no whatever the magical numbers are they were told here you are and guess what some of them were literally hired my year i can't imagine now fast forward 15 years later somebody tells me oh by the way you're not going to get your benefits anymore by the way you're not going to get your pension anymore i i just i can't fathom that our district is doing this we've never done stuff like that i just wanted to excuse me joe i think janet kimmenhauer was the one that got up at a couple meetings ago he did it and i
056think if you want to get more information i would reach out to her or regina spitaleri or john scavelli because it was even before my time or russ's time when we were on the board but we were told that that was something that came up in conversation and so i think that they're the people that you need to reach out to i just yeah i just want a clarification because i only like like i said i only heard that and it was you're right it was janet and i had only heard that before so i just wanted the clarification i appreciate that thank you very much i apologize if those of you tenured on the board were not at that table i wrongly assumed that some of you are at that table there's there's very
057few of us left i know i know but some of us have been around a long time in different levels so that's why i didn't want to use names because i don't know those facts that's perfectly okay i appreciate all of your consideration and i think that again it's just an important piece that i'm not sure is like fully understood and i think that that's a big deal to break a promise as huge as that like we're talking 15 years ago or 10 years ago i mean some of these people have been around a long time and now to just strip it away i'm in you're 21. some of them are in your 20 you're 21. so close and now what it's just really it's really disappointing so please please reconsider before that may 6th
058meeting anything you can do thank you very much i appreciate that hi my name is nicole green i live at 1625 old marlton pike i am a therapist within the district i'm also a parent who has four children that have either gone through or are currently in our district i'm speaking tonight to ask you to vote no to the elimination of the benefits of many of our hard-working paraprofessionals i could point out how unbelievably hard our pairs work to support the children of this community or discuss the hours and years that they have put in with the promise and expectation of benefits when they retire but i'm going to talk instead about who this decision will impact the most which is our children with special needs i would ask that before you vote in eliminating
059our pair of benefits you would travel benefits within the district we have both employed within our district we have paraprofessionals who do hold benefits and paraprofessionals who do not hold benefits while we have excellent paraprofessionals in each of these camps there is one important difference most of us who work in the district already know that the turnover rate of paraprofessionals who do not receive benefits is much higher than the turnover rate of our paraprofessionals who do receive benefits the reality is that we lose many of our paraprofessionals specifically the ones who do not receive benefits every year in our district these paraprofessionals have a hard demanding and at times exhausting job for a limited salary and no benefits although they love the children of our district many of these paraprofessionals are forced to seek jobs
060elsewhere where they can make the same amount of money and also receive much needed benefits our paraprofessionals who currently maintain benefits and are the they are the constants of our special needs program in eve sham township i couldn't personally do my job without all of these paraprofessionals their turnover rates are lower because they like all of us choose to work through those hard days those difficult months those sometimes tough years for job perks such as benefits this is the reality benefits do matter our children with special needs often can't speak for themselves they can't tell you that they struggle with change and need to see the same faces week after week and month after month they can't tell you how important it is for staff to support them in very specific ways in order to
061help them to learn and to avoid a meltdown as you can imagine this takes hours of intensive paraprofessional training which is then solidified with years of experience so what i i would like to ask what those numbers are what are the turnover rates of our paraprofessionals who have benefits as opposed to our paraprofessionals who don't i would also encourage the members of this board to know the answer to this question before making this important decision i do understand that we're in a precarious position in terms of budget and that had hard choices have to be made but we can't make this decision at the expense of our children with special needs i ask you to look for another way thank you thank you just taking a quick scroll around is there anyone else who'd like
062to speak oh good okay georgia terry reside in the woodlands development i'd like to acknowledge that lenny lenape people who are the traditional landowners that this school stands on and that you are meeting on today the land is part of the ancient homeland and traditional territory and i recognize the continuing connection to land water and culture i pay my respect to the lenny lenape peoples past present and emerging and their continuing presence in the homeland and throughout the lenope diaspora evening i just want to say thank you to the board for the time that you give um volunteering to sit on the board i also um would like to say that i would love to see your meetings open with a very similar land acknowledgement given that you are education i was here last on
063february 25th to introduce the diversity and equal opportunity network widely known as dion we seek to encourage and increase diversity inclusion and equity within schools and assist other school districts with their efforts as well as our community in 2021 statistics show that the school body is made up of 22 non-white students um and also in 2021 and i also acknowledge it last meeting that i was at the first person of color who sits on your board being a niche i would also love to see some more representation true representation of our community on a positive note dion launched a their first annual book drive yesterday for those who are unaware um dion is collecting books that are inclusive and represent diversity and equity and we will be donating those to all of the schools in
064eshen township school district yesterday at our kickoff launch thank you to anish and jeff from the board who attended to support us i want to thank you dr smith for also attending and speaking um for our live stream the event and um this is magoolikoo i'm not sure he's here today thank you also for attending um we have had a massive outpour already we've all raised 500 worth of cash and um gift cards for for this contribution um towards books we are also wanted to just let everyone know that the the location for a drop-off is at the eastern township municipal building and we also have created a wish list on amazon the list was created by dion um members who are all professionals made up of resident students alumni um and the general community
065of eastern township it's quite in-depth and it's been heavily researched to benefit all of our children so we really encourage everyone to check out our amazon wishlist you can buy directly from the wishlist and have it shipped to us or if you would like to support your own bookstore retailer you are welcome to purchase that and drop it off into the donation bin um and we also i will leave a bunch of um these this is our flyer i guess i just i'm showing you because you will be seeing this plastered all over eastern township boards more shopping centers everywhere you can because we really love to get the word out and i also believe that it's going to be in the school newsletters thank you real quick real quick uh a couple things real
066quick uh first of all thank you for the invite i i appreciate the invite i'm sorry i was not able to make it i wasn't on the notice i couldn't get there that's okay um but i do look forward to to others like this i wanted to clarify because anish and i had talked about this um there was a there was an african-american minister who served on the board of education here in the mid-1980s i did not know that my father served on the board of education in the late 1980s here and he reminded me because he was watching on on on live stream i'll have to get more information on that to let you know about that that would be really nice yeah absolutely but i i know um after everything was said my
067my dad actually in a funny little story he called me up he goes you know anisha's not the first and i was like what so i would like to acknowledge anisha's being the second person given that this town it has been around for a very long time absolutely my my dad is my dad is quite the school board historian so i i i refer back to him on a lot of those things so he schooled me basically in that conversation because i was just frankly unaware i mean i was five so but he uh he he he reminded me of that i'm gonna get a little bit more information and anything i can provide you i'll let you know cool thank you any time may i say something yes what's your permission yes when is
068the end of the book drive so it runs through to the 21st of june and we will be providing um the board and schools more information as an event is planned and prepared for i guess an official handover the the significance of the 21st of june is actually in national indigenous day and we are hoping to hold this event at savage field which recently has been recognized as an indigenous burial ground yes okay dr smith you summarized in an email and i believe you indicated you're going to communicate all this to the families in a friday letter that's such a good lead-in because yes actually tomorrow tomorrow's email going out that's perfect and and uh thank you so much for coming and sharing it here because you know it's one more forum where we can
069get the message out there are so many just so well-crafted details i'm glad we got to talk about the june 21st indigenous people's day connection and just um so we're very excited we're so thankful for the work um with this book drive and to see what comes of it and to continue to talk about it as we move forward and so uh thank you thank you so much thank you we um appreciate the ongoing relationship as well thanks thank you good evening my name is susan beck i live at 548 justice drive and i'm my message is pretty short here um i would just like to remind you as everybody has said the children of the district will suffer for many years to come if this budget is passed i implore you please reconsider i
070would also ask you to remember that we did what was expected of all of us the paris coming back in september during covid giving everything we had wearing many hats doing many jobs every day in addition to our own and i would ask you to just do the same thing for us and save our benefits thank you [Music] i'm going to close this portion of the meeting nobody else right i just want to i didn't be preemptive on that okay i'm going to close this portion of the meeting uh and head into board announcements are there any board announcements cantham all right my name's have been mentioned too many times i'll try and make this quick um all right um so first of all i want to thank dan morton and the martin business association
071for hosting uh for hosting dr smith and i for a luncheon last week um when you hear the terms marlton business association you would assume it's a a group about making money but um the first thing that that came to my mind was both community and philanthropy they they were chomping at the bid for different opportunities to get involved in both our district and then there were some mrc opportunities as well that were being discussed so uh thanks to dan and the entire martin business association i look forward to that relationship ongoing um the other update was uh the dion book drive um i think the the dion book drive is is wonderful um thanks to timothy tori and the rest of the dion membership for hosting us yesterday um at the kickoff event um
072i look forward to the continued partnership and i think it's wonderful that a group that's supposed to be focused on curriculum is helping us uh create books that that obviously helps with our pocketbook as well um thank you anybody else all right so that's funny yes um justin dr smith excuse me do you think it would be um essential to share with the uh meeting tonight in the public that deadline that we spoke about the may 6th versus when it has to be approved and sent so that it might be a better understanding as to why a couple questions that were asked won't fit in the timeline thank you miss plumbing yeah i'd be glad to talk about that so um we are we are running up against the deadline of may 7th is the
073deadline when we have to have had our public final budget approval so that there isn't an option to push that meeting back at all essentially so and miss filming thank you for that question thank you miss fleming can i add one quick thing i know this probably is overstepping my bounds but when the email came out yesterday about the kickoff for the dion book drive at the library yesterday it got me thinking especially tonight when she said the amazon wishlist i'm just thinking curriculum one book one school how about something along that vein just some just throwing it out there i see a curriculum committee curriculum committee just to suggest thank you mr anybody else i'm losing it today all right that being said um we have no executive second executive session at this point
074in a motion to adjourn a motion merged by miss ryan seconded by ms snow all in favor [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you