001[Music] so [Music] so [Music] i'd like to call this meeting of the eastern township board of education to order pursuant to the open public meetings act adequate public notice has been given by the secretary of ef township board of education in the following manner posting written notice on the official bulletin board the board of education office emailing written notice of the burnley county times in the courier post and filing written notice with the municipal clerk of eastern township can i have a roll call please this is barbara giovanni here mrs everhart here mr fizzycarro here miss fleming here and that is an excellent lesson of why you can't listen to this why you're a microphone [Music] if you're taking them off i can't get the my phone to disconnect so now it's there you go
002there we go maybe this is the universe's way of telling us it's time to get back into demesey [Laughter] i think it's telling us we need to get the summer [Laughter] it's time anybody who's watching just uh give us a few minutes although most of you usually don't sign in until uh after our executive session after executive session he's gone [Music] all right thank you thank you mr shinty at this point in time you need a motion to go into executive session uh 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 eastern township is deemed necessary to go into closed session to discuss certain matters which are exempted from the public and whereas the regular meeting of the board
003of education will reconvene following the end of the closed session approximately seven pm although now probably about two or three minutes later uh now therefore be resolved the board of education will go into closed session for the following reasons as outlined in njsa 104-12 items 2.2 through 2.3 uh do i have a motion for that motion do i have a second second if i miss ryan um any questions or comments regarding executive session seeing none let's go to a roll call please this is barbara giovanni yes this is everhart yes mr frozocaro yes miss fleming yes mr canton yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion passes okay uh we are now going into executive session we will see you approximately a little after 7 p.m [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do
004[Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] ah [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] so [Music] um [Music] so [Music] welcome back to this meeting of the eastern township board of education uh if you could please rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Applause] all right um as per our um our zoom meetings we we don't have any pres presentations today so uh the first thing that we are going to go into is we're going to go into public discussion
005of agenda items only this meeting will now be open to the public referencing agenda items only however if your question 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 in this particular case email please limit your comments to three minutes per person on a um on a quick note uh just you know it's gonna be hard for us to do any type of back and forth with you say this every meeting uh but it is required it is recommended uh that you lower your your volume of what you're listening how you're listening to this uh so you can talk just like if you were calling into a radio station uh so we will try our
006best to answer you after you're off the phone if we can okay uh mr summers uh it is 707 so if you're go to 709 thank you all right thank you mr summers uh we are going to be closing uh the public comment for agenda items only and we'll be moving to item six the approval of the minutes i need a motion to approve 6.1 through 6.3 do i have a motion motion by miss fleming seconded by miss ryan any questions or comments per the approval of the minutes all right seeing none let's go to a roll call please this is barbara giovanni yes this is everhart yes mr fizzicaro yes ms fleming yes mr canton yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion passes thank you mr rashenti at this point
007in time i need a motion we're gonna go to superintendent's report administrative items i need a motion to prove items seven one through seven six so i have a motion motion by miss everhart second it by miss ryan uh before we go into questions or comments dr blachford would you like to speak uh you're you're a mute thank you very much anytime this pandemic has certainly been difficult for parents students teachers and in looking forward to the 2020 2021 school year i see a time of great progress for the eve sham school district our excellent teachers have developed technology and other skills on a level that is almost unprecedented unprecedented in looking at progress in education it's often step by step many times you can you think you can get good improvement in student academic
008performance that only results in a two or three percent increase for example if you buy the best math system and the teachers implement with a high degree of fidelity the improvement is often very small even programs like push and instruction oftentimes have very little effect on student achievement all those gains are important and they are hard to come by a three percent gain every year over a period of a few years is a big gain and we have to continue to look at those small increases one of the best ways though to increase student academic progress is structural change when we started using block scheduling all the research indicated it had a big effect on student performance about the only time it is not effective is when faculty members actively work to sabotage it and
009this does not happen very often when we're looking at the covid lockdown we really do see an opportunity for structural change our teachers have dramatically increased their ability to provide virtual instruction they will be able to use these skills the skills they learned in this process to supplement their classrooms methods and techniques and evesham is on the forefront of the structural change our teachers are highly dedicated skillful and have been provided with technology and in-service training now they will be able to dramatically enhance their instruction how much of our students lost during this shutdown it's hard to tell because the data is not available at this point but in one study researchers looked at the loss of instruction over the summer and projected it to the pandemic shutdown at-risk students could lose as much as
01038 percent of their learning eve sham and other school districts will need to support the students a little earlier i said eve sham is on the forefront of maximizing skills we are not a don't go it alone district during the year and throughout the shutdown there have been many meetings where teachers share their good ideas curriculum wise we were highly effective in communicating our plan evesham teachers have been flexible and responsive to our students and faculty through feedback we improved our digital digital learning approach the entire time we realized that oftentimes less is more why rush through a multitude of facts that can be forgotten we analyzed our normal curriculum and made our virtual instruction match it as closely as possible and talking to other school districts we are highly effective we omitted some topics
011condensed others and accelerated through others eve sham continued to focus on teaching children we were flexible with students grading and we quickly responded to parent and student requests our teachers incorporated our students unique characteristics in their instruction they modified in stress assessment and activities to help the students our teachers further refine their instruction to make it as easy as possible for the students to learn the skills and concepts all instructions should be as easy should make it as easy as possible for the students tasks can be technologically simple to complete but still require a depth of knowledge our teachers added to their instructional skills this into an even a greater year in a greater degree there's no one fixed way to accomplish a task students were given choices and options to show understanding as well
012organized as teachers are this virtual instruction created a need to sequence tasks on an even higher level over the next couple years we will have financial changes in eve sham but we are well positioned to overcome them you have excellent teachers strong families a highly supportive board of education and wonderful students you also have a new superintendent justin smith that will lead the district to new heights he is backed by a very strong administrative team that includes principals assistant principals supervisors and cabinet members i know some community members are wondering about our school budget during the pandemic they wonder if they're going to get money back or not no one in our fine school district is going to waste any taxpayer money we will be able to compute the savings after this year ends and
013all the savings will be used to offset future expenses i would like to thank you for the opportunity to work here and there's one thing that's very important please blame me for anything that goes wrong over the next three years thank you thank you dr blachford uh any questions or comments um i i will say this uh dr blachford this may be our last regular meeting with you barring some type of surprise meeting that shows it's july that no one wants um i i i do i do want to tell you that uh i've i've had the privilege of working with you very closely um probably i've i've spent more time with you over the phone or through these types of meetings that i've done with superintendents in the last like nine years um well
014because of everything that's been around us but uh you came in came in here and the idea was in my humble opinion the idea was come in here just make sure the ship is right it until we find the new superintendent and just we'll just we'll just ride it off into the sunset yeah it didn't seem like the world agreed with that assessment and uh they threw us i wouldn't say a curveball more like a cannonball uh i've i've been doing this for for a little while and i have never in my career even as a student in this in this district have ever seen uh seen us go through something like we've had today and i i am so thankful for your steady leadership and and what you are able to do you you
015never one moment at all backed down from a challenge uh you never in in any moment uh even cave off to the idea that you were an interim superintendent you felt like the real deal the entire time and it never felt like that interim tag ever applied to you i am incredibly grateful uh to to have the privilege of working with you and uh you know i at this point i i kind of made the joke earlier but you know when i found out that we were having a doctor come in i didn't realize that we were gonna have an epidemic uh that doctor uh but i uh my recommendation is that somewhere down the road they built a statue for you somewhere in this district for handling everything that went on so i um
016i really from bottom of my heart personally um and for for the board i want to thank you for for your service and getting us through some of the roughest times that we've ever faced uh truly absolutely a pleasure to work with you and i will be working until roughly about july 20th with you but uh publicly i i felt incredibly compelled uh to tell everybody who's watching us what an incredible man and superintendent that you are thank you very much i appreciate your kind words any other questions or comments i would like to make a comment um to dr blanchard you have been there when we needed questions answered you answered it fully if you didn't know you went out and searched and you always got back to us when we had questions and
017i truly appreciate that as a board member and i have enjoyed working with you unfortunately um now it was virtual where we couldn't be face to face and i wish you the best as you leave our district you have to watch it to us thanks again any other questions or comments uh mrs fleming thank you yes again i want to uh reiterate everyone's compliments to you um it has been definitely a pleasure i love the quick replies that you always give and um your ability to continue working hard even in the face of the uh unprecedented times that we have had thank you and and i certainly wish you the best thanks miss everhart i know you had your hand up yeah i just i didn't know this was testimonial time but i'll say great
018spectacular job there dr blattford just to use your word your favorite word and it's been a pleasure working with you and uh you've been nothing but uh cooperative and uh available and uh to joe's point we really have uh we've always had just an open door policy with you you know you've been really open with uh the cabinet and with the board leadership because these truly were unprecedented times and you always kind of kept the board leadership uh in the loop and uh you know we bounced off a lot of ideas together because we were all going through it for the first time together so thank you for that and uh you know thank you for you surely didn't think this is what your time here was going to be like but you did a
019great job and uh we wish you nothing but the best moving forward and uh you know we'll be talking with you through through the middle of july here but thank you really on behalf of the rest of the board thank you for everything you've done good luck thanks thanks a lot you have a bright future um dr smith is going to do spectacular and it is an incredibly good uh cabinet and you know administrative structure you have all right with with that being said we're going to go to a roll call mrs barbara giovanni yes mrs everhart yes mr fizzicarro yes miss fleming yes mr canton yes mr lanzalotta yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yeah motion carries thank you now we're moving to item eight this is curriculum and instruction i need a motion
020to approve items 8.1 through 8.7 do i have a motion motion by miss ryan seconded by miss fleming any questions or comments pertaining to curriculum and instruction all right seeing none let's go to a roll call please this is barbara giovanni yes mrs everhart yes mr frizzcarro yes miss fleming yes mr canton yes mr lanzalotta yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yeah motion carries thank you uh moving into uh finance and operations i need a motion to improve items 9 1 through 9 25 do i have a motion motion by ms barbara giovanni do i have a second seconded by mr lanzalata any questions on finance and operations all right saying none let's go to a roll call please this is barbara giovanni yes this is everhart yes mr fizzicarro yes miss fleming yes mr
021canton yes mr lancelata yes mr meagan yes miss ryan yeah mission carries thank you mr bishop gone item 10 personnel you need a motion to prove items 10.1 through 10.11. do i have a motion motion by miss ryan who's on fire seconded by miss barber gmail trying to get through it any questions or comments of personnel all right let's move to a roll call please this is barbara giovanni yes this is everhart yes mr frizz cairo yes miss fleming yes mr canton yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes this is ryan yes special calories all right we're gonna move past item 11. there is no new policy for the board to review uh so go to item 12 which is committee reports is there any uh committee that wishes to share the report joe can
022i just share one thing um as the anti-bullying coordinator the curriculum board curriculum committee did discuss the anti-bullying bill of rights the state recently released the annual school grades that we get and so we are required once those grades are released to post those on our websites our schools have posted those and then we do report them to the board so i just wanted to draw the board members who aren't on the board curriculum committee's attention to that i give a update or self-assessment scores every august uh the actually the state's about a year behind so it is the report from last august that you were presented the scores are exactly the same as what the school the school scored themselves in terms of their self-assessment so we were anywhere from a 75 to a
02377 each school with 78 being your total possible points and then the only thing additional piece the state does is they actually will then average all of your school grades and then give you a district grade as well so our district grade ended up being a 76 out of the 78 so i just wanted to report that out to the full board thank you mr goolick i appreciate that report mr lanzilata thank you christopher um as the layout liaison to the marlton rec council i just wanted to make sure that any parents that are listening out there know that the springs the refunds for spring sports that are no longer running should be out there and to make sure that you guys look for those in either check form or uh you know on your
024credit card statement um because the refunds have been processed in the last two weeks and also that summer sports have started again they've continued starting june 22nd in the forms of baseball and softball and soccer practices obviously with some restrictions and there are new things happening every day but but summer sports have resumed as well thank you mr lands a lot i appreciate that got it any other committees okay we're going to be moving on out of committee reports and we are going to move to item 13 old business we do have some old business here we have a motion for 13.1 which is on clubs and activities do i have a motion to approve the student clubs and activities 13.1 mr lanzalata is the motion do i have a second miss everhart thank you
025um any questions or comments for 13.1 all right um can we go to a roll call please mrs barbara giovanni yes before i tell you my vote i just want to say because legal action can be taken against us the law states that we have to pay all stipends i reluctantly vote yes mrs everhart all right i just want to say uh thank you to the finance committee for um some creativity um that was brought to the board um in discussion of this uh topic so i'm going to say yes but let's keep those ideas fresh ideas coming thank you mr frieza cara yes this is miss fleming yes with um some reluctancy due to the legal aspects but yes mr canton yes mr lanzalata yes mr megan no mrs ryan reluctantly i'm going to
026vote yes but for the legal actions too unfortunately motion carries okay um we are going to move into uh into new business which there is none so we are going to move out of new business and go into open public comment uh this is a time the meeting will now be open to the public referencing any items of interest however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation students with personal items or negotiations we'd ask you see the superintendent at the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public uh please leave your comments of three minutes per person um and of course as i said in the beginning this is not a question and answer thing uh there are some good uh directions up there on the live stream to tell you uh
027so mr summers uh mr case let me know when you are ready to uh start accepting we're at 7 28 we'll go to 7 30. thank you very much you okay it's 7 30. all right we're going to close that portion of the meeting and then we're going to go into board announcements are there any announcements by board of education members all right oh miss everhart yes so the school year is over officially so i don't think we were together when we uh met last time school was still in session i think so i just want to say great job weird end of the year weird last quarter but kudos to everyone kudos to the teaching staff who just pulled it out uh did some really creative stuff saw some stuff on uh online that
028you did you know all through that whole process really very very cool um great job to all the teachers great job to all the custodians who continue to keep our schools uh operational you know you went in and cleaned and made sure everything was taken care of and so that they're in tip-top shape for when we hopefully go back in september thank you to the bus drivers who didn't really drive anybody but they did other responsibilities in town you know they they did things with the township or um and thank you to oh the people that did the lunches and thank you to you know just um i i don't mean to leave anybody out so help me here uh thank you to the uh lunch age you know who did some training during that
029time just did some really creative stuff here in the district i hope i didn't leave anybody out thanks to the staff at the admin building but they were at their homes but they weren't they kept the district running smoothly so i apologize if i left anybody out but great job i was proud to say that i am a member of the eastern school district school board because if you talk to other surrounding towns we really did a great job and you should all be very proud of everything you did this year great job thank you that's it thank you miss everhart uh miss fleming i just wanted to also say that i'm very proud to be an eve shams school board member as because uh in talking with other folks that i uh work with
030their districts were not doing anything near what our wonderful staff and teachers and personnel and custodians were doing so hats off i'm sure the day-to-day grind was um exhausting and mind-blowing but ever we got you guys got through it and um thank you again to everybody everybody that had a piece in that everybody thank you mr fleming all right um so at this point in time uh we are going to be going into um going into a second executive session um and i will uh you know read off that motion in a moment uh just to let everybody know that that is happening um so we are going to be going into a second executive session uh whereas i'll need them i'll need a motion to go into that first i'll let me read it
031out and i'll give you the motion added motion to whereas in njsa104-12 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 you say an hour half an hour oh half an hour i'll be gone in an hour um approximately a half an hour uh now therefore be resolved at the board of education we're going to the closed session for the fine reasons as outlined in njsa 104-12 personnel and attorney-client privilege is there anything that i'm missing there mr shinty no i think
032that covers it okay um do you have a motion motion by miss fleming seconded by ms barbara giovanni uh roll call please this is barbara giovanni yes this is everhart yes mr fiscaro yes miss fleming yes mr canton yes mr lancelot yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yeah motion carries before we sign off into executive session please note that action can possibly be taken after the executive session so uh if you are um patient person to wait half an hour we might have an item to work on so in that case uh mr case and mr summers please let us know when we are in executive session [Music] do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] you [Music] do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] uh [Music] so do [Music] do [Music]
033do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] um [Music] any ideas [Music] um [Music] um [Music] so [Music] do [Music] um [Music] do [Music] so [Music] [Laughter] [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Laughter] [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] my [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] hey [Music] oh so [Music] okay uh we are back from our second executive's uh second executive session um let me just make sure that i'm resuming my record there we go all right uh we do have um we do have uh action uh we do have action um to to uh take a note on uh mr rashenti how should i mark this i mark
034this under new business or yeah yeah it's new business and and mr rashid before i do that should i ask for a public comment um typically i mean i guess you could i mean typically that we we don't for new business we don't need it you had two public comments already okay just want to just wanted to make sure all right um just wanted to cover all my my bases there all right so we are going to be opening up new business here and this is going to be item 14.1 and i'm going to need a motion to approve a resolution to file litigation with the sos group against the state of new jersey department of education for failure to comply uh with uh with an oprah request um did i say that correctly mr
035shinty yes she did thank you i do have a motion on that miss fleming is the motion i have a second by miss barbara giovanni any questions or comments pertain to that all right uh with that uh being said let's move to a roll call please mrs barbara giovanni yes mrs everhart yes mr frazicaro yes miss fleming yes mr canton yes mr lanzalada yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion carries all right thank you uh listen anybody who's still watching us i appreciate you waiting as long as you did um uh we we really do appreciate all the hard work of everybody who's been around here and doing what they got to do um and i'm glad everyone's uh school year has survived uh at this point in time i do need a motion
036to adjourn the meeting because it's past my bedtime uh motion motioned by miss barbara giovanni seconded by miss ryan uh and mr lands a lot if he wants it too uh all in favor of adjourning i right we will see you on august uh 20th all right so uh it's not before if not before stop saying that so listen everyone have a wonderful summer and uh we will see you back afterwards uh and again dr blachford thank you again for all your hard work um all right peace out all right good night everybody bye hey frank and frederick good night everyone good night hi camille thank you frank and frederick see you all later bye-bye [Music] you