001[Applause] [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] 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 to the secretary of the eastern township board of education in the following manner posted written notice on the official bulletin board of the board of education office emailing written notice to the burlington county times and the courier post filing written notice with the municipal clerk of eveshum township may i have a roll call please this is barbara giovanni here mrs everhart here mr fizzicarro here miss fleming here mr catherine here whoa mrs knoll
002here mr lanzalada here mr megan here mrs ryan here we have a quorum thank you at this point i need a motion to go into executive session 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 ypsham 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 it be resolved that the board of education will go into closed session for the following reasons as outlined in njsa 104-12 items 2.2 through 2.4 do i have a motion motion by miss everhart seconded by miss null any questions
003or comments let's go to roll call please mrs barbara giovanni yes mrs everhart yes mr fizzycarrow yes miss fleming yes mr catherine yes mrs noll yes mr lanzalotta yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion passes we will be having executive session in the library again we will be back at approximately [Music] 7pm [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] oh [Music] you [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] done [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] i'd like to reconvene this meeting of the eastern township board of education uh before we rise i just want to apologize
004for anyone in the live stream we had a technical difficulty uh before we entered so if we could all please rise for the pledge of allegiance okay everyone thank you very much for being here we are going to start off start off our board meeting uh with a presentation by dr smith on the new jersey cusack dr smith the floor is yours thank you mr fizzicaro i will try to be brief on this very exciting topic so this is the year when we undergo cusack which stands for the new jersey single quality single accountability continuum essentially it is the mechanism by which the new jersey department of education ensures that districts are meeting all the statutes and code through across five areas of operations the um interestingly right now and the uh the hyperlink in
005this slide leads to a bill that is right now in the assembly which would actually delay cusack for a year okay as a way of providing some relief to school districts as they seek to focus on the more pressing uh task of continuing education going during a pandemic the cusec rubric rubric does not use the word pandemic it you know was written and created before the pandemic so the the bill is is currently under uh consideration um and when it is finalized if it is approved it may not matter our our date for our cusek visit is january 29th so there are five components instruction and program fiscal governance operations and personnel these cover all the aspects of the school district's school what a school district does and how it should do it we undergo
006this process every three years what's called the dpr district performance review and every year we annually submit a statement of assurance just affirming that we're continuing to meet the requirements as set forth by cusack districts must meet 80 percent or higher in terms of their score in the five areas if they don't in either of those in any of those areas they have to create an improvement plan in conjunction with the department of education to ensure that they earn above and 80 percent moving forward so where we're at in terms of um what we do is a self-assessment and then we submit that self-assessment so tonight um i've recommended to the board to um in item 7.6 to approve our self-assessment it has a score in each five each of the five areas a couple
007of the scores are pending uh information that we will receive from the county office so the biggest area where we still need scores from the county office is in instruction and programming so so far we have 40 out of 40 that we can earn and then there's an additional 60 that's based on achievement data that we will receive as part of our um process moving forward the other areas fiscal management 96 percent governance 100 percent operations 95 percent there's there's 5 percent there that's based on information we would get from the county office such as did we submit our data reports in a timely manner where they did they meet a certain error free threshold and then lastly personnel is 96 percent i would like to thank very much the members of our cue sac
008steering committee um some of them are here with us tonight rich dan teen trish everhart our board vice president trish hafner a teacher danny mcgulick our director of curriculum john mcinty school business administrator irene romanelli our principal here at the macy myself and debbie van kuren eta president and teacher in the district thank you to all the committee members for giving their time while we reviewed the self-assessment and are there any questions dr smith thank you for your presentation again if there's any board members have any any questions on the cusack presentation seeing none then we will uh we will move on thank you again for your presentation dr smith okay at this point we're going to go to public comment for agenda items only this meeting will now be open to the public uh
009referencing agenda items only however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or personal items or negotiations we 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 uh we have uh one one email uh right mr rashenti yes uh to be read for an agenda item we have uh mr hoffman anything you wish to say okay that's that's our public so mr bashenti if you could kindly please uh read the email sure it's uh from debbie van cuon it says good evening i'm writing on behalf of the members of the eshem township education association tonight the board of education members will take a vote to change the calendar for the remainder of the year the new
010proposed calendar will change four remote wednesdays into in-person instruction days for students as an association we do appreciate that this proposed calendar does not take away does not take all the remote wednesdays away however when you really look at what will be gained we feel that the loss is greater for the students cohort a and cohort b will each gain two additional school days for the year in exchange cohorting and cohort b will lose four meaningful days with their classroom teachers to meet with them in small groups help them complete work get extra support in areas that they are struggling with get the enrichment that they need etc we have received numerous emails and have heard many stories of how both students and staff have said that during the pandemic these remote wednesdays are what
011have helped our students feel connected and supported our district takes pride in being able to have students in school four full days a week these remote wednesdays are vital if we are to continue to make this work in these unprecedented times on a personal level i teach first grade at that i teach first graders that are able to attend school four days a week i have used my remote wednesdays to meet the needs of my students who have been who have missed lessons due to quarantining as a result of travel or illness on the weeks that remote wednesdays are taken away the individual time with students will no longer be possible as you vote this evening the esham township education association is asking you to vote to keep the calendar the way it is for
012the remainder of the school year to do what's best for the students of the eshen township school district thank you mr ashinti with that being said there is no more there are no more uh comments mr ashinti on your end uh not for agenda items thank you mr reshinti uh there are no more uh no more members of the public that wish to speak we are going to move on from the open public comments for executive items or agenda items only all right at this point in time we're going to move to item 6 approval of the minutes i need a motion to prove items 6 1 and 6 two do i have a motion motion about mr lanzalata do i have a second second ah second if i missed filming i have to look
013over at the tv i'm sorry miss fleming uh seconded by miss fleming thank you miss knoll any questions or comments uh about the approval of the minutes seeing none let's go to a roll call please mrs barbara giovanni yes mrs everhart yes mr frisicaro yes ms fleming you lost her okay mr canton yes mrs knoll yes mr lanzalata yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes mission carries thank you at this point we're going to move to item seven which is superintendent's report administrative items i need a motion to approve items seven one through seven nine do i have a motion motion by miss barbara giovanni do i have a second second if i miss null uh before questions and comments i'm going to give the floor to dr smith for his superintendent's report thank you
014mr pizzagaro uh the first topic for my comments tonight i'd like to give a reopening update and i say reopening and it feels like maybe i need to change the the phrase on that because um we are now in day 48 so we are mid stream in the school year it's going very well especially considering all the factors we are managing in order to continue to enable the possibility of in-person learning the work of our all our staff and all roles is in a word stellar what we are accomplishing open since day one and i'll just name a few items using live stream for full remote at least two full days of in-person for all students with even up to four full days for some students it's so good for kids and it's not possible
015without the teamwork of all staff and all families across our town and i just think you know each day of learning is something to celebrate and we need to keep that in mind and continue to look for that positive certainly as we move forward into the winter every one of those minutes that we've accomplished this year in terms of the relationships that students have built with their teachers the connections they formed with classmates will help sustain those students and keep them learning and growing regardless of what may come in the winter even including a temporary closure for example you may have seen today that the risk status for five of six counties in our state including burlington county is now in the high risk status according to the new jersey department of health covet activity
016level matrix we are monitoring daily all new data both locally and in larger contexts we monitor it we analyze it always keeping safety first i'm in communication daily as is mr danteen our chief contact racer with the burlington county health department and i'm also in contact with superintendents from across burlington county and the neighboring county as we are all working together and pooling ideas to make the best decisions again based on data that is both national state county and very local at this time our local data does not suggest that we should close however if that were to change closure would occur could occur quickly and i would encourage all families to be prepared for that possibility at any time could it happen with less than 24 hours notice at this point rice is closed
017and its closure status will depend on ongoing data as it comes in and we will only reopen if it is safe to do so the other update i would like to share is um on our i wanted to say a few words about our calendar tonight so um and i i think it's a great example of how we are trying to be as purposeful as possible with all our decisions throughout this process and the the the heightened sense of um of loss and of change makes that purposefulness even more important so you know if you look at the calendar there are four days total four remote learning days that um i am recommending are changed to chord a or chord b days all of those four days start from mid-march onward so after the winter
018has passed and they will provide opportunities for our kids to get back some of that some what they might lose through the winter as you know closure may occur it's something that i've heard a lot from parents no matter how um much in person learning and and and just even from a full remote standpoint how much of a normal day we may seek to um create as this pandemic stretches on um the law that that accumulated loss accrues um and and certainly uh you know when um each passing day that grows one nice thing for our teachers is they they will retain at least two remote learning wednesdays every month so you know that opportunity um as in mrs mancurin's statement for differentiation to meet the needs of all students continues to absolutely exist through
019those remaining two or more remote learning wednesdays per month as well as all the opportunities for differentiation that are imminently more possible when students are in person you know the ability to differentiate for a teacher is vastly greater when the student is in the classroom instead of on a screen and so that will be enhanced as well through this calendar change and by the end of the year some of the purposes that the learning wednesday originally existed for such as technology troubleshooting and teachers meeting in groups to scope out the year are no longer really needed the technology will be you know has has gotten smoother and by that point in the year we'll have had even more time to improve and at that point the year isn't mostly in the rear view so it's
020really about trying to increase the amount of time that kids can have in the classroom and with their peers at school so um and lastly just congratulations to an unofficial congratulations to um candidates from our board elections so and it's not officially certified until tomorrow but i did just want it since um i didn't want to mention that um people don't think that i don't follow the news that um we have so marianne cappello leah ryan and anish kanthan have a bit looking at the margins of votes are um will be joining us for uh continued board efforts and um and at this point i know uh janice knoll and elaine barbara giovanni and i wish we could add a 10th seat somehow to keep both of them on with us the it seems to
021go back and forth all the time and i feel like we won't really know until the end of tomorrow but um i just wanted to say to both of you um how i wish for me personally that we could just pull up the 10th chair and uh and thank you both so so much for all that you do and yeah that's that's i just wanted to make sure i said that because i really feel it and thank you mr pizzacaro thank you dr smith any questions or comments pertaining to the superintendent's report seeing none let's go to a roll call please this is barbara giovanni yes this is everhart yes mr fizzicaro yes miss bombing yes mr canton yes mrs nola yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes this is ryan yes motion carries thank
022you moving to item number eight curriculum and instruction i need a motion to approve items eight point one through eight point seven do i have a motion motion by miss noll second it by miss barbara giovanni any questions or comments pertaining to curriculum and instruction seeing so miss noel my memory on 8.6 tuition um grades one two eight dr smith so this is um in terms of uh what what it means or what it what yep so we have a this opportunity for um employees of our district who do not live in town if they were to wish to have their children enrolled in the in the sham township school district they they have that ability at the reduced rate of 6 500 per child that's what they would pay which is not what it
023costs us but it's what we offer to our employees yeah okay so then they get to choose the school that they go to um i i i wouldn't i that's a that's a good question and i'm gonna have to say i don't know on that one yeah yeah i'm gonna have to say i don't know um but i but i am eager to look into it actually okay yeah yeah we could talk about that miss mcgullen and one other comment i just want to say i'm happy that the tuition for the preschool integrated and also the full day kindergarten will remain the same for next year i think that is wonderful considering our financial times thank you any other questions or comments seeing none let's go to a roll call please mrs barbara giovanni yes
024this is everhart yes mr fiscaro yes miss fleming yes mr constant yes mrs noll yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes this is ryan yes motion carries thank you now moving to item nine finance and operations i need a motion to approve items nine one through nine thirteen do i have a motion motion by mr lanzalotta do i have a second second if i miss null any questions or comments pertaining to finance and operations seeing none let's go to a royal call please this is barbara giovanni yes this is everhart yes this is fizzicaro yes miss fleming mr canton yes mrs noll yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes this is ryan yes motion carries thank you moving to item 10 personnel i need a motion to approve items 10.1 through do i have a
025motion motion by miss fleming do i have a second ah second if i'm missing the hole any questions or comments pertaining to personnel miss barbara giovanni yes i want to say congratulations to diane castellani i've known her for years the bookkeeper and she's retiring and i know she's going to love retirement also to maureen van acker and kathleen kaiser and jane paris is i'm not quite sure i know jane but i wish them all uh the best in their retirement miss everhart that's exactly what i was going to say i wanted to congratulate the women from the central office i don't know them quite as long as elaine but i know they work really hard and i do see them there sometimes during budget season working so thank you very much and good luck to
026everyone in their retirement this next chapter awaits thank you good luck any other questions or comments personnel thank you miss fleming seeing no more questions or comments let's move to a roll call please mrs barbara giovanni yes mrs everhart yes mr frazier yes miss fleming yes mr canton yes mrs noel yes mr lanzalotta yes mr regan yes mrs ryan yes but it's staying from 10.4 due to family conflict motion carries thank you moving now to number 11 policy i need a motion to improve 11.1 through 11.3 do i have a motion oh good lord i miss barbara giovanni do i have a second second by miss noel any questions or comments pertaining to uh to policy seeing none let's go to a roll call please this is barbara giovanni yes this is everhart yes mr
027frisia carolina yes miss fleming yes mr canton yes mrs noll yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes mission carries all right let us move to committee reports anybody wish to share uh anything going on with their committees mr cantham all right so this one's gonna take a couple of minutes so from the ethereum township human rights advisory council in conjunction with the friends of the black run and their leader john volpa the human rights advisory council and the school district is working on an art project for our middle schools called people of the pines people of peace this is basically an educational outreach program for our middle school ages and we're going to be looping in other middle schoolers who live throughout martin but don't necessarily go to our schools to kind
028of realize you sham's unique cultural history and the diversity recognition that has happened throughout our 350 year past to to enable peace within the community it's interdisciplinary between the social studies and and art so kids are going to be recognizing a history figure from e-fam and then creating art about it and that art could be a drawing it could be a painting a song theater whatever it may be we're currently right now in the process of creating a rubric for that so first i wanted to thank mr hoffman and miss rominelli and dr smith for their involvement and help and then from mms yellow hall we have miss andreoli who's helping us she's a social studies teacher there and then we have from demacy we have miss dyken who is an art teacher who is
029helping us and then also from the pta at mms we have miss alkowitz and ms schwab who are helping us there too so we're looking to to announce the project formally in january and then hold the judging in april um so that's part one second update is this morning a couple of us met with the group at cherokee that's sponsored by the anti-defamation league called uh no place for hate um so dr burnbomb was there captain miller mayor vizi deputy mayor cooper councilman elect freeman uh president fitzgerald from lrhsd mr fisacarro myself met with them um so we're basically talking about local government and how those kids could get involved and one of the the most tangible outcomes that came out of there was the kids there have been doing anti-bias training with the anti-defamation
030league and they've been working through that training with the teachers actually and training our teachers at cherokee about their inherent biases and how to correct for things like that and one of the students wanted to get involved with middle schools so i thought that was a great idea because middle schoolers are going to listen to high schoolers more than they're going to listen to any of us right so that's a something that's in the works that dr smith will talk to to mr hoffman and mr romanelli as well and hopefully get the the high schoolers out to the to the middle school for some anti-virus stream so thanks thank you any other committee reports seeing none let's move on all right number 13 we're at old business there is no old business all right so
031we're going to move on number 14. new business there's no new business number 15 open public comment uh 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 see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please limit your comments to three minutes per person mr shinty uh the floor is yours okay i have three people individuals that emailed in public comments the first one is from katie morgan and it says when will second feeler parents be notified that their child is moving from four days in person to two days hybrid next question is related to question one why can't the students coming back from full remote
032attend a different school that is already hybrid instead of taking away days from students of biller parents are parents were warned that they might not be sent to home schools if they decided to come back later in the year question three can we have the parents fill out a daily form in genesis where they have to check off the symptoms a child is having i have to do that for my own children each day it is a good reminder that we that you shouldn't be sending your child to school if they have any symptoms we we have a lot of runny noses coughing and sneezing coming into our rooms and teachers are having to send them down to the nurse which was carol but if i can respond to that i just wanted uh miss
033morgan thanks abel our second grade thanks for uh those questions was actually appealer today this afternoon went up for a budget conversation so um uh you know it's a gr we love feelers fantastic school um thank you so much so the first question um when will second grade dealer parents be notified their child is moving from four days to f from four days in person to two days in to this hybrid so um what i would say to that first is we we just the data is just out of the oven we closed the survey last week and we're analyzing um those numbers right now um so that you know all possibilities are still being examined and so i would add an if to that question um probably like if if that that is necessary
034to move from four days to two um it's it's we're look we're going to be trying to make it possible for all of our four-day in-person arrangements to stay that way that is our goal second question why can't students coming back from full remote attend a different school that is already hybrid instead of taking away days from students at bieler um the uh well like i said what we want to do in looking at the numbers is try to maintain consistency as much as possible for all students be they in person or full remote so um you know uh i think uh so definitely i would answer that question is to say that we're trying to avoid uh we're trying to preserve consistency and avoid scenarios that would um create change you know unnecessary change
035for students um and then number three the daily form and genesis so um that's something we talked about through our uh reopening committee work in the summer and the committee uh opted to use a back-to-school genesis form at the beginning of the year for that and then to continue to send out reminders so i know i've included that attestation form with the reminders of symptoms in some of my friday update emails for families and we also include all those symptoms in any email that we send out to a school where a case has been identified so those symptoms that you're describing definitely have been disseminated and reinforced talked about i know i've seen them in school-based emails that go out as well so our families are definitely aware of those and i would suggest in
036that case with what you're describing i'm definitely having a conversation with the principal to talk that through and yeah so thanks so much again continue on mr ashanti excuse me continue on mr roshanti okay the second one's from jen van horn my name is jen jennifer van horn i am a teacher at marlton middle school i move classrooms five times a day using three different technology devices to teach math to students in front of me and at home at the same time i am i am drowning right now it is physically impossible for me to accomplish all these tests currently required of me with without working hours beyond my school day on a daily basis i continue to work those hours because like many teachers i put the needs of my students before my own
037i can't show up the next day without a lesson ready to go there is no other option but i honestly don't know how much longer i can sustain this pace and the thought of losing a couple of remote wednesdays only adds to my stress your teachers need remote wednesdays to survive we need them to have time to meet with students who need extra help we need them to have time to catch up on our planning collaborating grading giving feedback communicating and so much more we need them to take care of our mental health because each day feels like a train wreck if you take that time away your teachers will suffer even more in that and any benefit that you think you are gaining from having students in the schools those few extra days will
038be outweighed by the fact that your teachers have burnt out long before the end of the school year i'm doing my best i can but i am not okay please don't make it worse ms van horn thank you for that um very well considered and personal statement about your experiences they are very palpable and powerful i would encourage any of our staff who are feeling um you know we're this is such a trying time for for everyone um the uh that stretched us in ways we wouldn't imagine and that feels differently for each person so please um you know if you feel you need more support continue to talk with um the supports that are in your school you know and and communicate with them and i know that we're in constant communication with the
039principals they are a fantastic source what i'll call like almost like a data filter to to relay to us in central administration how our teachers are doing and we also learn on our own directly from teachers through conversations and visiting classrooms and and curriculum meetings and other ways so you know i would love to talk specifics about things that would help certainly as as it relates to the calendar um the the remote learning wednesdays they will they are all in place except for the four at the end of the year so um you know i just wanted to spell any sense that um you know it's it's all or even some it's it's it's it's a few you know a few at the end of the year um and again thank you so much for
040all the all the work that you're doing um and uh i look forward to even conversations with you about other things that could help so thanks again mr shinty when you're ready okay the next one the last one is from cecilia hagan as as a potent as the pandemic is surging with positive covet cases increasing so are the positive exposures that we the yves shem esham school staff and students are experiencing i received that lovely unwelcome call that someone i'm in close contact tested positive for covet 19 not a welcoming call so after freaking out the next step is quarantine and getting a covet 19 test to see if is to see if you are positive as you worry about yourself and definitely worry that you don't give it to your family members that could
041suffer even worse so today i stood for two and a half hours in 25 degree weather to get a covet test okay so um she's missed a couple words here says along with other thousands of other people including many children okay i assume that's what she meant because she was standing in line top of this top this off with thanksgiving next week at the at a time when you if at a at the time when you if possible would love to spend time with your immediate family but definitely can't if you are sick or exposed to the virus this will keep going on and on with the holidays all coming up we need to close schools and teach full remote through the year as long as we are all together we will continue to spread
042this virus as we eat in schools and colder days even with masks on each holiday more and more children and staff will have their holidays ruined as they are either exposed or sadly infected please you need to think and care about more about your youth sham family and keep students and and staff remote and safe through the year amazingly luckily we were shut down for other positive cases which actually helped lessen the days of contaminate days of contamination to us i want to thank miss heegan for um sharing about her experiences that that there are so many aspects there to respond to but i just what i can't get out of my mind is how it's it's just seems so unbelievable on a national level that we are almost a year you know since uh
043kobet first came to this country and we are you know march to now so um essentially eight months deep into the pandemic and that we still don't have sufficient testing to go around that someone would have to wait two and a half hours is it astounds me and i it makes me uh actually like ashamed um you know as just as a citizen so um i'm sorry you had to go through that just please know that safety is absolutely always first and we are monitoring the data daily that is in fact why rice is closed and we monitor that and it's why the other schools are open because of the data and our constant daily communication with the berlin county health department as well as superintendents from the lenape region berlin county and camden county
044and i you know i would just say that as we move forward your thoughts are taken into deep consideration and i will carry them with me and thank you again okay at this point we are going to close the public comment section and move to item 16 board announcements are there any board members who have any announcements seeing none we are going to move uh into uh adjourning the meeting uh i need a motion to uh motion to adjourn that was weird motion by mr lanzalata second it arigom second if i miss no all in favor all right um everyone have a happy safe thanksgiving be careful be careful be careful [Music] my [Music] um [Music] um [Music] uh [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] bye [Music] ah [Music] you