001so [Music] i'd like to bring 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 the eastham township board of education in the following manner one posting written notice on the official bulletin board at the board of education office two emailing written notice to the burlington county times and the courier post and three filing written notice with the municipal clerk of evsham township can i have a roll call please mrs barbara giovanni here mrs everhart here mr fizzicaro here miss fleming here mr catherine here mrs noll mr lanzalada mr megan here mrs ronyan here we have a quorum thank you all right at this point i need a motion to go in executive session whereas an njsa
002104-12 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 resolved that the board of education will go into closed session for the following reasons as outlined in njsa 104-12 that's items 2.2 through 2.4 do i have a motion for executive session motioned by miss fleming do i have a second seconded by miss barbara giovanni any questions or comments about executive session let's go on the roll call please this is barbara giovanni yes mrs everhart yes mr
003frisco yes miss fleming yes mr canton mr lanzalata yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion passes thank you we'll reconvene at approximately seven o'clock [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so do so uh [Music] um my [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] me [Music] do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] to reconvene this meeting of yves shrimp township board of education can we all please rise for the pledge of allegiance thank you everyone at this point in time we're going into presentations and we have our annual self uh uh we have our annual hiv self
004assessment summary uh dr smith i give you the floor thank you mr and i would like to turn the floor over to ms mcgoulek who's going to talk to us a bit about our school annual hip self-assessment summary um that comes out later so i want to just spend a little bit of time talking about process and then we'll go through the categories the rubric and the actual sum of scores so in terms of process so typically the state would release the information in may in may to june our schools have their last school safety team meeting in the summer the principals upload the um their scores typically i present this to you in august and then it actually has to be submitted to the state in september and then the state would release actual
005grades late winter sometime spring once the state releases your grades you're required within 10 days to post those on your districts and school websites and then we always share this the actual grades at a board meeting and then that process starts all over again so this year in anticipation of last spring and everything that was going on the state did not release they actually didn't do that till august of this year but being proactive we had our schools meet and have their final school safety team meeting just like we normally would in may and june they talk about trends they talk about things that have happened as it related to harassment intimidation bullying preventative measures how they did um they scored themselves and they had that information ready so the state released in august this
006year principals spent that month going through and actually inputting that and then we are here tonight usually as i said i do in august i'm doing it tonight and then we'll submit that to the state so you have a presentation and then in my section is you to approve the submission of that to the state it's technically not due until december of this year but we tried to stay on the same time frame and i wanted to present since it's last year's information as close to last year as we can so in terms of the different what they call core elements or categories there were absolutely no changes from the rubric actually over the last two years so this is the third year that there's no changes each school rates themselves in these eight different
007areas and then each area has what they call different elements within them or indicators so the first one is related to your programs your approaches and any initiatives that you have at the school level the second one is any trainings that you do related to hip policy the third one is about other trainings and programs that you have for staff for volunteers for people like that the fourth is your curriculum instruction as it relates to hip and other information and skills like social skills um the fifth is hip personnel so required to have an antibiotic coordinator that is my lucky title required to have anti-anti-bullying specialist that's our counselors required to have school safety teams that is per the guidelines it's the principal it's the counselor it has a parent representative on there it has
008teachers on there we combine and do ours for kind of looking at climate so we include something with wellness and we also include something with green so we're looking at the full package uh six is actual incidents in your reporting procedure so are you following so as you know we have a policy are you following that policy in terms of deadlines and requirements seventh is your investigation and your procedures and then the last is the actual reporting and so that goes back to once your grades are released are you posting them on your website like you're supposed to so those are your different areas where you as the team that school safety team is rating themselves and how they did for last year in terms of the rubric you have up to three points that
009you can give so you're either zero as you're not meeting that indicator one is you're partially meeting two is your meeting three is you're exceeding so all of our schools in all of our areas are either meeting or exceeding so there's nobody who is in the does not meet or the partially meets so everyone's doing what they are required to do plus more in particular areas in terms of the summary report so this is what each school and what they gave themselves and so your total possible points are 78 you'll see a range if you look to the far right anywhere from 74 to 77 and then following each element you'll see the different schools and you'll see you know very similar in terms of a range within there so if i look at element
010two it's either eights or nines if i look at element four everyone was a six if i look at you know element eight that's the reporting everybody was a six so you see slight variations probably the biggest area where we do see is element one and so because of those kind of variations we look at what were those where it was a two versus a three and then we come up with general recommendations so those recommendations or where those places were twos instead of threes related to end of year and honestly even last year thinking about that a little bit with just the pandemic in general last spring where we might have seen a school score themselves where it might have been a three in that particular element one area they gave themselves a two
011and what that came down to is making annual recommendations in terms of their initiatives or the plans kind of evaluating what you did and then talking about a plan or next steps and i think where everybody was last spring right the second is assessing what your programs and going through them i try this initiative and the difference between doing the initiative and talking about it is a two but doing the initiative and sending out a survey and then based on that survey information that would be the difference between a two and a three so we have that as one targeted professional development so that might be something where you're training volunteers or you're training your school safety team other than actually just attending or doing pd at a session you might actually do that by
012sending someone out either to see a webinar or go to a live presentation but again like presentations last spring um and then so what we also added is because in many of the areas the difference between a two and a three as i said is kind of data sometimes so that idea of you know depending on where we are we'll certainly evaluate the health conditions at the time but we might be doing some kind of survey which we do from time to time or school might do a particular survey like for example rice went from a 76 last year to a 77 they did a survey in the fall in one of their areas that they went from a two to a three so things like that and then we talk about that collectively when
013i have my anti-bullying coordinator meetings i meet with the specialists i met with the principals and we talk through trends things that we're seeing recommendations things that they're doing in the school [Music] any other questions any more questions you guys okay thank you miss magulok i appreciate your presentation all right moving on at this point in time we are going to go to public comment on agenda items only this meeting will now be open to the public referencing agenda items only however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or personnel 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 again some of the guidelining rules that i know that are usually
014posted up on up on the live stream just make sure that if you have any questions ask any of your questions then hang up the phone and then we'll answer those make sure unequivocally to please state your name and address clearly all right and we'll also try to talk as clearly as possible uh and am i missing anything in that list i don't think i am okay all right so uh at this point uh we will be going again this is for agenda items only hi good evening thank you so much for taking my call so i um it's called please statement please state your name and address first oh i'm so sorry my name is casey clark i live in grissom court in morrison village thank you um i was calling um to express
015a concern both my children are home doing the remote study my one daughter in particular is in fourth grade and in a rather large 100 percent remote class and i was curious how you guys were addressing some of the issues that i think are being talked about that the teachers are bringing to your attention such as the um the large class sizes and being able to really engage these students the technical difficulties you know i i'm not sure that i'm constantly i'm not sure that my child is getting the same education that she should be getting at this point is that all is that all caller yeah okay hang up and now and they'll answer the question thank you for that um those questions it is that that is our all remote classes and technology
016in general are definitely an area of extreme focus for us right now and as well the class size of some of our full remote classes trying to reduce that as well so i just want to thank you for highlighting those two areas some steps we're taking in that regard the and and some of the technology issues just in speaking with other districts are they are beyond any lo any local district um google you know google me for example um has been upgraded among other things um adding more grid views um to go from 16 to up to 49. those are adjustments they're making in response to the um nationwide use of google me for education which wasn't necessarily something that when google meet was first created that you know was envisioned as a national education
017platform but but you know we are seeing improvements um in terms of the functionality of google me both from the side of google and also in the local level um we are we've been experimenting with different configurations of laptops and other technology pieces for the google meets that's been going through our tech support which is in each building and looking at ways that we can help to enhance the quality of the laptops and other technology items that are specifically for our full remote teachers so we anticipate very soon we'll be able to provide our full remote teachers with even more technology in that sense than even a regular in-person classroom teacher so to address some of the um the needs of that full remote teacher which they because they depend entirely on technology to provide
018the instruction um fortunately for some of our class sizes for remote we have seen overall while we've had some students um move in in both you know remote to in person or in person to remote is that we are seeing a slight dip in the size of those full remote classes as we you know the in-person um experience so far is is working in our district um so as that continues that could also lead to increases in in for example the formal class that your children are in another technique that teachers are finding and that our curriculum office has been working with teachers on is using small group approach to kind of break a larger class size up into smaller groups and working within the since a four remote class does have a bit more
019freedom in terms of the way its school day is structured it's not tied necessarily to you know a bell or full full school wide minute by minute structure and so we're seeing some developments in that area as well so i definitely um you know thank you for your patience and please continue to provide feedback to us as we move forward but just so you know we're definitely um those are two huge areas that we're continuing to work on and we'll continue to work on so thank you uh this is um you know this first session is for anything that's uh on the agenda we will have a second portion uh to speak of any item of interest uh that will happen uh near the end after new and old business so just just for callers
020just to know but i do appreciate your question caller thank you for calling in okay we're going to be closing that portion of the meeting again there is a second public comment coming later on next we're going to item six which is approval of the minutes i need a motion to prove items six one through six three do i have a motion motion by miss everhart seconded by miss ryan any questions or comments uh for the approval of the minutes seeing none let's go to a roll call please this is barbara giovanni yes this is everhart yes mr fritz zaccaro yes miss fleming yes mr catherine yes mrs noll i'm going to abstain to 6.1 because i was not at the meeting and uh yes to 6.2 mr lancelata yes mr megan yes mrs ryan
021yes mission carries okay thank you mr rashenti at this point now we're moving to item seven which is the superintendent's report and administrative items i need a motion to approve items seven one through seven six motion by miss null second by mr lanzalotta before we go into questions and comments i'm going to give the floor to dr smith for his superintendent's report thank you mr fizzakero so this is our first board meeting after we've restarted school so i just want to point out today marks day number 13 during a pandemic and that alone is something i just want to point out and and also as a kind of um celebration because honestly it represents a tremendous amount of work by all of our staff of those 13 we've had two remote learning wednesdays so that
022means 11 of them have been both in person and and remote we've got combinations of in-person and and remote we've got full remote there's a lot going on across all of our schools and again um it's the success of it so far is due to the effort and intelligence and the care of all of our staff and all of our roles and i just want to acknowledge that um here tonight the um i thought it's really important to have different voices um at the table so i wanted to dedicate a few of my comments to just sharing a parent voice i got it among the emails that i received this one really stood out to me as sort of encapsulating a lot of the different facets of what the first days have been so i'm
023just going to read for a moment this is from a parent i just wanted to take a moment to thank you for all the hard work and energy that the etsd team has put into the reopening and virtual program for eve sham i have children in two schools and i've been amazed at all the hard work the teachers have put into their classes amidst everything going on however i am not surprised we moved here specifically for the school district and every teacher aid therapist receptionist nurse police officer and so on has always been at the top of their game and a pleasure to work with and interact with and quote that one really struck me because that's why we moved to eve sham too so it just and as a family it really uh resonated
024with me and um i love how in addition to highlighting the work of the teachers the parent also mentions all the other roles because that is so valuable and important um and and speaking of other rules one one thing i wanted to point out because i'm going to include a little bit of budgetary news each time right so you know i think everyone saw one of my friday emails recently when i emailed out about this statement that was since our last board meeting the statement that i submitted to our new jersey senate budget committee kind of had a graph in it indicating the the decrease in state funding and the increase in local tax levy that we're going to be experiencing we are experiencing going to be experiencing um and the budgetary uh challenges ahead
025for us um so what it's going to mean and it's going to we're going to get there and we're going to get there successfully and it's going to be a journey of many steps and i just wanted to point out each of those steps represents people you know individuals and so just one little story from this week so we have a retirement at rice and in the media specialist position and there is a media specialist at mms who is going to be going to um rice and we also have a clerk typist at dms who's going to be going to mms both this transfers and i just you know um the media specialist from mms is going to rice is that when the conversation about that transfer took place that the way that she ended
026the conversation was asking when she could reach out and speak to the principal about getting the chance to go over there and learn and meet with the media specialist who's currently there and that just moved me deeply because um in the course of that conversation by the end she was thinking of how to be successful in that new role it's absolutely a team before self mentality which is um just worth highlighting right now and also the clerk typists so they there were two part-time clerk there are two part-time clerk typists at dms and they talked out with each other which of the two would go to mms um to be the clerk typist there and uh again that is team before self um and so each of you know it just speaks to like on
027a board agenda you see names and you see numbers and you see different things but like every one of those steps represents conversations and service and duty um to help our students ultimately um so that's one thing i wanted to point out as well in my comments um and then i'll save a few comments for um when we get to the retirements if that's all right so thank you very much mr president thank you dr smith is there anybody who has any questions or comments regarding the superintendent's report or any administrative item all right seeing none let's go to a roll call please this is barbara giovanni yes mrs everhart yes mr fizzy carrick yes miss fleming yes mr camp yes mrs noll yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion carries
028thank you we're going to move now to item eight which is curriculum and instruction which i need a motion to approve items 8.1 through 8.6 do i have a motion motion by miss ryan seconded by miss barbara giovanni any questions or comments pertaining curriculum and instruction ms barbara giovanni sorry the um digital divide uh grant accept fund in the amount of 184 182 we approved that last month but we had to do it for the acceptance and i want to thank mrs mcgulick for applying for it because it's going to be bringing chromebooks in to our first graders and to some kindergarten so i really appreciate it and job well done thank you ms barbara giovanni any other questions or comments seeing none let's go to a roll call please this is barbara giovanni yes
029mrs everhart yes mr fizzy cairo yes miss fleming yes mr katherine yes mrs noll yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion carries all right thank you let's go now to item nine uh which is finance and operations i need a motion to approve items 9.1 through 9.12 do i have a motion motion by mr lanzalata second second by ms barbara giovanni seconded by ms barbara giovanni are there any questions or comments pertaining to finance or operations mr lanzalata for section 9.3 the payment of bills i apologize for my ignorance i'm not on the on the finance committee uh what is warrant uh two payments were made uh june of 2020 in september of 2020 totaling close to four million three hundred dollars i just was curious as to what warrant those
030account and all right uh miss uh i'm sorry uh miss everhart you had your hand your hand up a little earlier so i just want to make a special statement to those generous individuals in 9.5 who again during this unprecedented times where everyone is struggling and i am most appreciative of that but they have taken the opportunity to take initiatives to supply items to the eastern township school district so thank you so very much i'm not sure if i can say their names but i i see the list of donations there and i just want to do a shout out to those individuals who felt the need or the desire or the willingness to want to pay it forward to the school district so thank you very much for that just felt needed to acknowledge
031that thank you thank you ms everhart i i 100 agree with that i think that's an incredibly noble act and something that will go into great use uh miss knowles you're you're still up and then this barbecue i can't say the same thing as miss everhart so yes i second that it was very very nice to see that uh the community pulling together and donating so thank you everybody yes ms barbara giovanni and i just wanted to say the same thing to thank the generous generosity of the people in our town thank you there's a lot of thanks for you for for doing all of that thank you uh anybody else questions or comments for finance and operations let's move to a roll call please mrs barbara giovanni yes mrs everhart yes mr fizzy cara
032yes miss fleming yes mr canton yes mrs noll yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion carries thank you now we're going to head over to item 10 which is personnel i need a motion to approve items 10.1 through 10.10 do i have a motion motion by miss everhart second it by miss knoll any questions i know there are definitely comments for this one any questions or comments for personnel miss everhart okay so i just want to make a couple comments here i want to go to resignation so while i think it's wonderful that the list of individuals are choosing this opportunity to move on to other adventures thank you for your time and service to the to the district but i just want to do a shout out to if i
033may to two individuals that i have worked with and have some experience with in my course of time on the school board so good luck to uh betty dovis i as well as with other board members back pre covet days had the opportunity to come in and experience uh exciting adventures in uh mrs dovis's class uh she was really great and i know elaine uh can help me here on that uh she just did some really creative things with the children here at demacy and i do remember her i think if i remember correctly she was knitting i used that crocheting plastic bags together for homeless individuals in and around the uh local communities found that to be just very clever and creative and the children the enthusiasm of all the stuff that she presented
034to the children to do as a service opportunity and the children were so engaged it was a really remarkable experience as a board member to experience that so good luck to you uh and thank you for your service i also want to say a shout out to donna galley who uh is as a rice a former rice parent uh i've known mrs galley there she's been at rice for a long time so i want to wish her a lot of luck uh same to mrs kilroy i think i mentioned her at the last board meeting and it gives me great pause but i want to say shout out to mrs arenau who i know is moving on in 2021 to her second chapter or maybe third not sure but a life outside of yves sham
035school district and i want to say thank you for the time and effort and dedication that you have given to the district both at bieler and most currently at rice you know it's going to be a great loss but i'm excited for you but again just thank you for everything that you've done for our school as a principal in both those school communities best of luck that's it thank you miss everhart uh ms barbara giovanni and i'm just going to agree with what mrs everhart said and to betty davis i thoroughly enjoyed coming on those community days to see not only you but all the teachers engaged and how excited the children were to be doing these projects that went to so many good causes and i really will miss seeing you mrs davis and
036also to dolores castellanos i know her from way back and as a special ed teacher in the district and to everyone else and to mrs arenau for all you've done for our district and i can tell you you're going to love retirement everybody who's doing it so good luck any other questions or comments um i i quickly will say one comment i i'm going to uh i want to share a little bit about uh my my congratulations to uh miss dovis as well she is one of i think the very last of my teachers that are still was in this district uh and i had the a privilege of being in her class uh when i was in eighth grade greenhouse uh in her in her reading class and she is one of the most
037intellectual human beings i've ever met she was tough but incredibly fair and i i credit half of my vocab literally to the year that i spent with her she's truly an amazing woman and i honestly i i was taken aback earlier this week when i saw it because i i expected uh betty to be here longer than than the building would be up because i expect her actually to have her car in the parking lot right now and to be in her classroom because that's that's always the way that that that betty operated i would i would come home from rehearsal and go for a run and i would cross through this building at like five six o'clock at night and betty's car would still be there in the parking lot last one left on
038the corner right near greenhouse and that just speaks volumes and that's not like a new thing that was that was her standard clock out time she was an absolutely true she is an absolutely tremendous person and a tremendous tremendous teacher um and so i just want to thank her personally for the education she bestowed upon me and i was even blessed enough to be able to stop in her room every once in a while later on after i graduated to still say hello and see her and even had the opportunity to get to know her kids who i graduated with and i know she has a lot of grandchildren to love and i know that she will she will not be bored so miss dovis i uh i congratulate you with with the rest of
039the board you are a a stellar person and uh i wish you all the best thank you so much uh dr smith did you yes thank you i'd like to um just say a few words about a few of our other retirees we have such a a group this this board meeting um just over a hundred years of experience um just in the teaching realm leaving us so um uh dolly castellanos i just wanted to uh say a few words this is from mr feldman so she was with us 2016 has been with us 26 years in him township and started at the macy elementary school where she was among the first group of teachers to implement the resource program so our inclusion and pull-out program and then she moved to behler where she was
040a reading recovery teacher and also taught in a self-contained ld classroom where she piloted moving with her whole class into a regular second grade classroom every day for core literature instruction and then finally she moved to marlton elementary where she worked with all grades from kindergarten to fifth grade so that's just i think in 26 years she managed to be in many schools many different types of roles and i again just speaks to her impact here in the district another staff member i wanted to mention was um uh donna galley who began in 1989 here in our district as a kindergarten teacher at evans and then she transferred to rice when it opened um so you know that's that's a all a long and very valuable service with us um among the words that miss
041erin shared about her was um she highlighted her good rapport with students and parents and how her colleague co-workers appreciated her sense of humor and patience and her gentle compassionate demeanor which are qualities that we hope you know again in the way that um culture is built um through people that that that same gentle nature and caringness will carry forward um and you know as a legacy in all of those who worked with her um and then lastly i'd like to just point out something about um miss erin now i i i'm glad that news out is out because i had to sit on that for a little bit um but but uh you know just in thinking as i thought about what i would say about miss aaron i i haven't known her very
042long but with some people you um you can tell a lot by little details and she notices all the details that matter and the story i wanted this the little anecdote i wanted to say about her was i was reading an article about ruth bader ginsburg and one of the law clerks who worked for justice ginsburg had turned in like legal briefs to her and kept getting them back with like a ton of comments and vowed she was going to eventually get like fewer and fewer comments and she kept working and she kept working and like little by little over the years she would get the briefs back with fewer and fewer comments from justice ginsburg and then the last one of the last briefs that she gave her she got back with just two
043words on it at the very top and the law clerk said just those two words were the most powerful feedback she'd ever gotten on anything she'd she'd written and the words were just right just right and when i think of this air now as a principal i think just right so thank you very much to to her for her service any more questions or comments to personnel let's go for a roll call please mrs barbara giovanni yes mrs everhart yes mr fizzakaro yes miss fleming yes mr captain yes mrs noll yes mr lanzalotta yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes mission carries thank you at this point now we'll go to item 11 which is policy i need a motion to approve items 11.1 through 11.3 do i have a motion for policy motion by
044ms noel seconded by miss ryan uh do i have any questions or comments pertaining to policy seeing none let's go to a role called please mrs barbara giovanni yes mrs everhart yes mr fizzy carol yes miss fleming yes mr canton mrs noll yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion carries thank you moving now into committee reports uh i need a um i do not need a motion for this uh moving into committee reports uh is there any uh committee chair that wishes to share their uh their report uh miss noll i'll share on our technology committee quarterly meeting that we had last week usually our technology group led by mr summers very busy over the summer but this year even more so um they worked hard on hard wiring a lot
045of the classrooms were needed for the internet um more stable internet connection and of course the thermal scanners installing those at every school and a huge chromebook inventory and loaner program that we rolled out this fall since many more families requested the use of chromebooks for remote learning and as dr smith discussed some upgraded laptops for some of the teachers so they could have a better platform you know using google meat on a better platform or device and i also want to mention the active panels that we were able to purchase not all of them are in yet but as they're coming in the team is installing them and ms mcgulick explained that it was through the generous donations from the ptas correct me and of course the education yves sham education foundation that we
046were able to also leverage a what was the sale mrs mcgulick buy two get one free so we were able to get more active panels this summer in the middle of this you know pandemic and economic downturn and lastly this first couple of weeks with the help desk mr summers team fielded over a thousand you said over a thousand work orders coming in from parents and i believe also teachers were in that category so they have been very busy i wanted to update the group and thank them as well for working so hard miss everhart thank you miss noah so i it hasn't happened yet but uh we're going to have our first pta pto meeting in person i think the first wednesday of the full week in october and that's going to look a
047little different than it's looked in the past because i imagine those school community leaders are going to come to the table with some creative ideas in a way to do fundraising or some other initiative to help their school community so i'm gonna i'm gonna be looking forward to that it's gonna be a meeting of the mind so to speak and that's gonna be a great way for us to share information from our arab doors to their doors and vice versa so um i'm sure there's going to be a lot of conversation that's going to be really helpful so i'm looking forward to that it's going to look a little different but i'm anxious to meet all the new uh school leaders from the ptas and pto's that's it thank you miss everhart mr lanzalata i
048just like to thank the marlton recreational council for welcoming myself and dr smith this month we you know it was it's our attempt to improve the community relations um and also introduce dr smith what we're doing in the school and just you know our overall open reopening plan they were very very receptive we appreciate you guys having us over there they also urge um you know all the parents uh just to let them know they let they want to let them know that you know despite some of the extracurricular activities being in the sports being cancelled for this year you know in our school district that the marlton recreation council is still having sports for the most part and that they urge you to please sign up thank you thank you mr lanzalata you got
049it any other committee reports all right seeing none we're going to move uh it says here old business is 13.1 but there is no old business it's just a typo uh moving into new business there is no new business right good all right um i'm gonna move past old business move past new business to item number 15 which is uh public comment for any item 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 would 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 there will be a timer up on the screen for you to
050see how much time you have left also again if it's if you're asking questions please ask the question don't don't hang or linger uh just just uh you know hang up the phone turn up the volume and we will we'll be able to answer the question so you're able to hear it and lastly make sure that you as you call us to turn the volume off so that we can hear you also um me or oh okay all right all right and then uh finally and most importantly please state your name and address with that being said it seems like we're ready go ahead okay my name is john janks 39 carlson avenue my comments tonight are about the closure and virtual learning of course we know how how many people in burlington county under
051the age of 29 have died and that of course is zero and and from the cdc website we've got adolescents aged 10 to 17 may be more likely to become infected with cars sores covet too than uh children younger age but adolescents do not appear to be at a higher risk of developing severe illnesses yes i hope you heard that covid19 does not present a severe risk to children clear evidence from the fact that more children have died from flu than from covid19 now what does this have to do with opening the school quite a bit actually and we also have another document from the cdc and i quote the u.s educational system was not built to deal with extended shutdowns like those imposed by the coven 19 pandemic it teaches administrators have worked hard
052and i agree with that certainly but this is a quote to keep learning alive nevertheless these efforts are not likely to provide the quality of education that is delivered to the classroom most importantly learning loss is probably the greatest among low-income black and hispanic students that's the cdc's comments not mine cdc the students know it the parents know it the teachers know it everybody knows it remote learning is substandard who is hurt more it's the underprivileged the economically disadvantaged the minorities probably single parent children bottom line from these two inconvenient facts from the cdc covid does not impose a serious risk to children that's a fact i'm sorry with that people you know may not may not like it but it is affected low and hispanics will suffer disproportionate learning loss when you close the
053schools you are making a a a minority group of people uh suffer at the consequences uh and of course you know no one no one under the age and bro in burlington county uh we got a half a million people no one under the age of 29 has died uh and you know so by keeping the minority children out of school five days you perpetuate the disproportionate learning loss what does that mean that means that you are they effectively creating systemic racism in this state and who who is doing that my question is who is who is who is is promoting this kind of you know uh ridiculous you know policy well i guess like well you don't have to look too much farther than the njea they're lobbying and discouraging and encouraging virtual learning
054the department of education is establishing rules so you guys can't um you know yes can i please make a commentary please state your name and address first my name is erica seifer and i live at knightsbridge go ahead carla okay john richard schrock a professor of science education at an emporia state university frequently writes about education and this pandemic has provided an opportunity of a crisis of convenience it's given big ed tech a chance to regain their footing in the field of online education but i think that most students and teachers and um parents have been underwhelmed and really there is no substitute for in-person face-to-face learning i think everybody on the board intuitively knows that and feels that and i'm just imploring you as parents as grandparents to just fight for our children and
055to just push as much as you can to um you know following the science and the facts know what's right and and to open our schools back up because our kids need their education and an online education no matter what any big tech company will will try to convey it's no substitute for an in-person peer collaboration education that's all i have to say thank you caller since we had kind of taken thank uh both i thank both both callers i apologize again um we do have that three minute timer so if you do go over we you know in just the uh you know we try to be fair with that so i apologize if you felt cut off um so we are going to move past the public comment and head into at this
056point in time board announcements is there anybody here who has any board announcements miss ryan okay um partial to all the staff at dimacey middle but i have to commend all of them on the drop off and pick up procedures for the past two weeks they've gone smoothly and without incident so i applaud them standing in the cold in the early morning when it's not 100 light out so good job to miss romanelli and her staff i too agree with miss everhart i look forward to seeing what the pta and pto presidents come up with i know that some of them have already started their fundraising efforts so i'm curious and excited to see what their upcoming efforts look like in the future i know that an email went out about lunches and if you
057have any questions you can contact the business office with those specific questions instead of speculating over social media so you can get all the facts because it's a really great program and i think we're lucky that the the country implemented that so thank you thank you miss ryan miss everhart so i want to piggyback on the earlier statement i made about donations so i just want to do a shout out again to the public to the school communities because i did see the great support for picnic tables that's going on in the district i think there are some residents that are working school by school to set up picnic table donations to help the children during their lunch time to not sit on the ground and i know i think rice and beeler jagger also
058might be ending you know getting all their tables but i think they're working school by school and it's turning out that there's parents there's previous alumni there are um donations from people that maybe don't have kids in the school district that are just donating there's there's i think the wood stream swim club gave some picnic tables to vanzant so again it's just a great opportunity to shout out and thank the the eve sham community for coming together and rallying around the eve sham township school district to help them face these challenges in a positive way i mean nobody really wants to have those kids really sit out there right in the freezing cold and on a blanket on the ground so they've rallied together they're painting them they're delivering them we've got council people doing
059it we have previous board members and residents that are coming out of the woodwork so to speak to help these kids have a better uh more positive uh lunch time during this challenging time so thanks to the public for just rallying again for the children thank you miss ryan i know that dr smith sends out his friday communication with everyone and i just wanted to make sure that you're all taking a look at the community tab on our district website because that is where all the flyers are now located i know that he mentioned it in his email but instead of having to research back into your emails to look for the specific flyer that may have gone out it is now centrally located on the district website under community tab so i just want
060you all to take a minute to check that out as well so it's one stop shopping that's okay miss noll i just wanted to talk about the first couple weeks of school and how things are going in my household and i've already said this to dr smith during our and miss mcgoulek during our finance and technology i want to thank all of the teachers and staff on an amazing job that they're doing with the synchronous learning i'm a stay-at-home mom so i'm right there with my two elementary of aged children and it was a good plan on paper and i'm proud to have voted for it and i thank the other board members who voted for it but to see it actually implemented is amazing i don't know if anybody else has had that opportunity
061at home with your young children but it is absolutely amazing how the teachers are able to engage the children in the classroom at the same time as the children at home so amazing and i'm so happy that we did move forward with the synchronous learning plan i it keeps my children focused rather than choosing from choice boards which other districts may be doing we did that in the spring so much better the plan was great but it could not have worked if our teachers were not so amazing and also all of their supports in the classroom with the paraprofessionals and the aides so i want to share that with the other board members since i do have that first person knowledge of it having the two young boys at home so great great job to
062everybody in our schools my boys are in marlton elementary so of course shout out to them but i know the teachers and staff and all of our schools are equally amazing so thank you board members for supporting the plan miss fleming yes i just wanted to say and piggyback on what miss everhart said about very much thanking the community with huge applause for rising to the occasion in this middle of our pandemic i think it's wonderful thank you for all their time their effort certainly their extreme generosity thank you any other announcements i i will i will just say uh real quickly uh just a uh a simple note of thank you um you know our our job as the board of education is the easy part all right it is it is the easy
063part what you guys are doing every day is the hard part and i i want to thank you on behalf of my daughter who i know is getting a an incredible education from her second grade teacher um and thank you from all the parents that i've talked to um as socially distant as possible uh in the last in the last couple weeks who who always talk my ear off in in a positive way about about things that are going well or not going well in in the school district and they are always very honest with me and in their honesty they are um just they're so so grateful for you and and you know i think throughout all of this i i just hope that that is is felt there is a serious sense of
064gratitude by everybody that i meet and you know i it's funny i you know talk about technology and talk about all that stuff and my first my first two days in the classroom my google me crapped out and my my wi-fi network went haywire and there were there were things that just just frankly weren't working um and i i just you know i thought to myself i'm just i'm gonna do what i can do and and if i do that i'll and try to do it to the best of my ability then hopefully it will carry on and and it'll reflect upon the students that i have and i know that sentiment is is being felt along all of my colleagues because i do consider you colleagues in that in that sense and uh so
065just i just want to simply say thank you and recognize the difficulty of what you're doing and just how utterly important it is mentally emotionally and uh and physically i it just bottom of my heart thank you um with with that being said um we are going to go into a second executive session i'll need a motion to whereas in njsa 10 4-12 allows for a public body to go into closed session during a public meeting and whereas the board of education of eastham 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 a closed session at approximately sorry hit my mic uh approximately 8 45 now therefore be
066it resolve that the board of education will go into closed session for the reasons following reasons as outlined in njsa 12 4-2 and that's personnel matters uh do i have a emotion and just also make a note in that motion that no action will be taken after the second executive session do i have a motion for the second executive session motioned by miss fleming do i have a second seconded by miss ryan may i have a roll call please this is barbara giovanni yes this is ever hart yes mr fizzy carol yes miss fleming yes mr canton yes mrs noll yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes lucian carries thank you as i said before and i will reiterate this there will be no action taken after the second exam this second
067executive session so for those of you who are not staying around for our elevator music i wish you all a wonderful night thank you [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] um [Music] um [Music] um uh [Music] so [Music] [Applause] so [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] me [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] foreign [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] i'd like to reconvene this meeting of the asian township board of education we have moved out i've accepted the second
068executive session as i noted before there is no action being taken i need a motion to succeed good night [Music] foreign [Music] um [Music] me [Music] um [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music]