Freehold Township Board of Education Meeting October 17, 2023

001y who's missing there oh oh Neil good how are you like to call this meeting to order the mission of the freeo Township School District is to honor and support every learner every day on the journey to become curious and engaged members of a diverse Global Community a notice listing the time date and place of this meeting was posted on the public bulletin board of all pre-old Township Schools at the entrance door to the administrative offices of the board of education on the district website at the offices of the Freehold Township Clerk sent to to the Asbury Park Press on January 6 2023 and sent to the news transcript on January 4th 2023 like to invite you to join us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the plag of the United States

002of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all roll call Mrs brand Mrs cosino here Mr gulo Mrs O Sullivan Mrs thomman here Mrs V theoi here Mr Williams here Mr amaroso here Mrs Lambert here we have a quorum okay I'd like a motion to approve the regular meeting minutes from September 26th okay all in favor say I I I any extensions no we're all in attendance okay okay um Communications all right Communications this evening we have enrollment uh June of 2023 we had 3,483 students September of 23 we had 3,453 uh compared to September of 22 which was 3,4 41 and that's only communication this evening okay like to thank all of you who have come out this evening to join us

003I'm going to hold off on my president's remarks until we go into Old business and new business later and go right into the administrative report um we are going to have a moment of silence uh so I would turn this over to Mr dixin at this point um for that thank you uh this past week we were notified that we had uh lost two parents in The District Robert Ross whose children attend he has one child at Eisenhower Middle School and one child at Applegate school and Jillian glassford mother of a student at Ericson school I'd like to ask everybody to join us in a moment of silence in remembrance of Robert and Jillian thank you on behalf of the board we'd like to express our condolences to the families of both of those parents

004and especially to their students in the district very sad I'm going to do the two um four and five the hi district and school grades and the bullying investigation report so that we can focus on the presentation uh that's in number three uh our hi district and school grades for the 22 and 23 school year just to give the board an understanding and the public that is a compliance evaluation meaning each school has a school safety team that school safety team goes through a checklist provided by the State Department of Education and it asks several questions which assess the compliance of the school and the procedures and the training and that they're aligned with the expectations of the state and then the um that results in grades um the max is 78 for this year

005um Donovan Ericson and West Freehold 77 CA 78 eclc 74 Applegate barolo and Eisenhower 76 with a total of 78 and we um through Dr breath hour the anti-bullying coordinator our school counselors as the anti-bullying specialists in the schools along with the ad administrators and teachers ensure that our policies are all followed on a consistent basis um this month since the uh opening of school we've had 13 reports of harassment intimidation and bullying nine were founded four were unfounded I'll turn over to um Bob for the it certification right I Robert D the school business administrator slbo secretary certifies that as of September 30th 2023 no line item has been been overexpanded in violation of njac 6A 23-16 do10 C3 and that sufficient funds are available to meet the district's Financial Obligations for the remainder

006of the fiscal year okay and moving on uh Mrs Montgomery will do the presentation for the New Jersey student learning assessment from the spring of 2023 is this yes can someone can set myair all right good evening um and welcome I am back this evening sharing the third of three presentations with the Board of Education uh regarding our student uh assessment uh as mandated by the state of New Jersey um you may recall previously in August I presented to you our student um performance on the access for Ells that's the test that um students who are English language Learners take and our dlm assessment tonight I'm going to be focusing on the New Jersey student learning standards assessment the njsla um this tests students in grades 3 through eight in the areas of English language

007arts and math our fifth and eth graders take the assessment in science and per state requirements I need to provide to you not just how our students are performing but also provide you with with subgroup demographic data so we're going to talk about um how our students performed as a whole and then we're also going to look at students how they perform you know how how subgroups of students by Race by gender and by program performed on this these assessments as well um so I'm going to start with English language arts this chart represents students in grades three through eight down the lefthand side um it tells you the total number of students that we tested um and then in each column to the right you can see the performance level so level one through

008level five level five being the highest performance level levels four and five combined are what we look at for proficiency so students in levels four and five combined are our combined proficiency rates for um for English language arts so some things that um are important to note or to highlight here um 63% of our students in grades 3 through eight are meeting or exceeding expectations in English language arts um that's the total of those two columns to to the right hand side um some important things to note when we compare our data to the um students performance across the state you'll see there's two columns in each performance level the district performance percentage level compared to the state and um you know well I don't know that any of us are are thrilled with 63%

009proficient we are we are exceeding um the state average across the board and so I think that's really something to to be proud of um we are not just seing at the level of proficiency we have fewer students at the lower levels of proficiency right so we have less students who are in this not meeting expectations area and more students um at the at at the district as compared to the state at the meeting and exceeding expectations level um this is that same data that we just looked at at the chart but um it's represented graphically um again those green bars are are are represent the levels of proficiency um the the stop the graphs across the top are our district data and the graphs across the bottom are the representing the state data so

010this is our first look at um how students perform um in language arts again Bren down by by Race So as I mentioned before we need to report out how students are per Performing in these subcategories these subgroups of students you'll notice in some places on the chart you'll see a less than 10 in the number of students tested or a a whole line of data that is empty that represents a population of students that are less than 10 across the district by law I am required to suppress that data not report it publicly because it could be um I could be you know revealing confidential information because it's such a small number of students um we were we will go through this disaggregated data by Race by gender and then again by um by

011program so um some things to note about our performance um of students as as we look at them by race 56% of our black students and 51% of our Hispanic students are demonstrating excuse me are not meeting proficiency standards across the district you want I don't have a preference sure um so I want to ask you about that um in terms of how the district is tackling that issue sure obviously now we have three Title One policies on the agenda tonight you know our district is starting to look a little different and how are we meeting that challenge yeah so Title One funding is a is a a big way that we do that um and I'll talk a little bit more when we get to the slide as we break down kids by demographic

012because that's how Title One schools are identified but um that gives us a pool of funding so that we can provide additional supports for students in those areas so our Title One schools um receive funding that helps us to provide an additional interventionist in each of those buildings so we have more staff to help serve our under our underperforming population of students couple question is um when did those interventionist join is that new I have they would been there so um the interventionist sorry was did Ellen have a question I don't know what that okay okay sorry um I'm sorry can you ask your question again Meg I apologize intervention the title one funding that allows us to add an additional intervention each of those buildings those are existing staff those are ex those are

013existing staff and the the staff who are in those positions for the most part are people who have been in those positions um if they haven't been in interventionist position they are um teachers who have been in other positions in the in the district these are not people who are new to the profession these are really seasoned and Veteran teachers who really know their stuff um this is uh subgroup data by gender this is looking at how our male and female students perform um compared to one another in English language arts and um interestingly in in looking at this data 69% of our female students are passing njsla as compared to 57% of our male students do we know why I do not I can certainly dig into that more um but I don't I

014don't know the answer to that off the top of my head now I'm sorry there's a differ like the lower grd and the higher grd or is it consistent um so it we we can look up there and see so they've got Elementary School grouped um so our elementary school students 49 + 12 61% at elementary is oh I'm sorry I'm adding the all students um female students 65% and male students 58% so yeah at the elementary if you look at the middle school level it's uh yeah it's higher yeah it is higher at the middle school level and interestingly it's the other way around in in MA we'll get there um this is our uh subgroup data by demogra by excuse me by program so these are our students um that qualif if for

015free and reduced lunch are so those students whose families are socioeconomically disadvantaged our students who receive uh Services through Section 54 our English language Learners and our special education students again there are some categories where that data is suppressed because we have fewer than 10 students in those categories but um some things to note about this um 11% of our district population um receive free and reduced lunch services so 11% that that's where we um identify Title One and um you know well so that indicates 11% of our student population are coming from homes that are that are economically disadvantaged in some capacity of those um 11% of our of our population of third through eighth graders 64% of those kids are not um are not passing njsla and language arts um additionally this uh

016data looks at our special education students separately these students are um receive a different variety of special education services than those that I reported to you on the dlm results these are students who receive their special education services either in an in-class support setting or in a resource room setting um 79% of those students are not proficient on njsla for English language arts but we at the last meeting we talked about wasn't I don't know recently we talked about increasing access to the mainstream C correct correct so I will speak to that as one of our action steps in in an upcoming slide yes thank you yes so next I want to share with you some longitudinal data this looks at um at our Ela scores over five testing years keeping in mind that there

017is a break in those years for coid right so on this um graphic you will see let's see if my little pointer Works um each of these bars represents a year of testing the three bars on the leftand side are the three years pre-o and the two bars on the right hand side are the two two two years postco with a a a testing break in between okay so um some things that I want to highlight in in looking at this data um we can do a couple of things when we look at longit udal data we can look at our at our performance over time right we can look at how a a grade level might be performing over time but we can also look at growth um for a cohort over a a

018series of years so I want to just highlight a couple of things take a look at this um this group of students right here um in 201617 those students were third graders and they performed at 66 proficient 66% Proficiency in language arts when when they moved to fourth grade those students performed at 68% proficiency and then when they moved to fifth grade they performed at 70% proficiency so while we are we you know pre-co we were noticing a downward Trend up within a grade level those cohorts of students were still making progress okay um and then I want to highlight some post um post pandemic numbers um because you see that there's sort of this Market drop off in these two right-and columns right those are the those are the two years postco um third

019and fourth grade in particular those are the the students that we know nationally these are the students that that are being highlighted nationally that are of great concern these are the kiddos who were um preschoolers kindergarteners first graders during the pandemic these are kids who who went to kindergarten on a computer or not at all right um so so we recognize that that clearly has an impact on what their first years of their foundational years of school look like and and obviously you know what what they're learning look like moving forward um I I I I'm not here to sort of paint an ugly picture of that I have some some positive highlights to show um and that is taking a look at this group of kids so this group of kids were third graders

020in 2122 they performed at 55% Proficiency in language arts when they moved to fourth grade just last year they went up to 62% proficiency right so when we're looking at right so when we're looking at kids across one year to the next and looking at cohorts and and looking for growth that growth is happening is it happening across every grade level for every cohort it it's not but it's more often than not it's happening with consistency I neglected to mentioned before this cohort of kids that we followed from third grade to fourth grade to fifth grade um I skipped over going to to them as eth graders right so pre pandemic these kids were 70% proficient in English language arts then the pandemic and then in e8th grade the next time they took the test

021they were at 71% proficiency so even even for those kids there was not a marked drop in their performance can I ask a certainly so certainly when you look at those numbers of third and fourth grade um nationally people are talking about those kids a lot um and and I'm sure that you haven't done this yet um but it may make sense to look at our historical data for those racial subgroups certainly and socioeconomic subgroups and see pre pandemic you mean look at how those kids did pre pandemic yeah and see if that's I'm sure it's a population you're looking at with high-intensity tutoring and stuff like that but but actually that population of students are the target students for that grant that we approved last month that we've that the district has applied for

022we asked for a really large sum of money from the state to help provide high-intensity tutoring specifically for targeting our third and fourth graders cool yes I and again it's jumping between tests but if you go back to that last sure that last row grade three 51% those were our kindergarteners during Co correct those are the kids that missed you know have the kindergarten correct so so one would anticipate that their first year of State standardized testing would look markedly different than the kids who took Ori correct correct absolutely thing my question is we've seen though where there are so far this year because map has rolled up correct right so we're so any interventions that are needed we've already is you know we we are our new intervention model is um in progress okay

023um we spent a lot of time over the summer analyzing spring map data our fall map data or our fall map window closed recently and we are in the throws of doing that data analysis and identifying you know scooping up additional kids if we need to but we have we've identified kids based on Spring map data that started the year who needed interventions okay and all all the I'm saying I know like M I don't know I know like Matthew did map already yes all the schools have completed their map windows Yep y um so the other thing that uh I am required to report to you is what what are we doing right what are we doing in response to this the student data so that you know how we are supporting student um

024student achievement so first and foremost and and this is happening for both Lang language arts and for mathematics is this new model for intervention that we've talked about providing tiers um of support and resources to move our pyramid to a the a truer um ntss model of tiered interventions and supports and along with that is coming a lot of support for teachers it is big change and I don't want to dismiss that um but we are we are working through it collaboratively and we are um going to provide teachers and interventionists and you know all of the people in the buildings the tools and the resources that they need to make sure that we can pull this off successfully for kids um as we do annually we obviously look at our njsla data and we

025monitor for um for dips in in particular areas of Standards um I shared with the curriculum committee this evening um a sample of the evidence statements that we get from from the Department of Education it's a report that looks at um how our kids perform on particular items on the test that are and they link those items to the actual standards that were assessed so we've done a tremendous amount of work with our administrators and th they in turn um at the building level with their staff about analyzing those evidence statements and looking at ways that they can instructionally support kids in the classroom around those particular standards where our kids you know may have fallen short um we will have a district goal this year in language arts for our uh students in grades

0266 through eight again um we we do this annually but we share with with you you know what our goals are and we focus on you know we have particular goals that focus on student achievement you will notice as I Shar with you this evening we will have District goals in both the areas of language arts and Mathematics in an effort to you know move our progress forward um at the middle school level I shared this with you last spring but one of the things uh that our curriculum committees worked on in the spring and through the summer is building these resource toolkits and and Carrie this is in response to your question earlier how what are the tools that we are giving to our special education teachers to um help kids in those resource

027classrooms and in in class support settings better access the the standards the grade level standards so we had um committees that included both general education and special education teachers this summer come together to build those toolkits around standards for math and language arts and we've rolled those out to teachers in the building so the teachers have access to that and that was a collaboration between curriculum and IT services okay yeah um and then obviously as we always do tons of professional development for staff right we need to make sure that our staff have the tools that they need to be successful to support our kids and their growth so we um did a lot of work and I shared this with you this summer around foundational reading and writing skills um we built a a

028word study uh series of units for our third graders we are doing standards aligned small group instruction support for all of our staff we developed a protocol um around using formative assessment data to create standards based targeted instruction for teachers at the middle school level we're working with our advancing literacy see um professional developers to support our teachers and our instructional coaches in the building so that we can continue to grow um or you know and provide supports for teachers um in the building we built um patterns of power uh units those are all around conventions of language um think to things that we maybe used to do like around sort of grammar and syntax and things of that nature um units for grades 3 through eight so all of those grade levels three through

029eight will have units um one unit each marking period um our curriculum teams built morphology units those are word study units basically at the middle school level really um focused on sort of Latin roots of words that's sort of the the backbone of that work um so morphology units in grade six through eight language arts and also lots of professional development around these um standards align pacing guides for foundational reading um that look like um you know traditional literacy programs um for our primary readers question sure how are we approaching the phonic issue is that part of yes that is so that professional development around pacing guides we our curriculum teams uh this summer built pacing guides for um our primary gr grades K1 and two um that include phonics pheic awareness all of the

030things that are that are the components of a strong foundational reading program um we are providing we provided training to the teachers at the start of the school year and we will be providing intermittent training throughout the course of the year to support the teachers on the roll out of these of these new units and making sure that teachers have the tools that they need to successfully teach them for for students and that Al goes along with the other grades as well or is it just K through 2 well the foundational reading standards are are only in K through 2 so you're not teaching f in the other classes it's not part of the standards we're teaching a word study program in third grade because that aligns with the third grade standards but but phonics

031specifically is a standard for the primary grades K through two because that was found to be not effective the the word study the found they found that the phonics was much more effective word study is phonics in third grade it's the the devel the the next progression or the development of phonics in third graders for kids who are readers okay it's not word recognition all right no okay that's okay moving on to mathematics so um this is our summary uh report for our third through 8th grade students in mathematics 56% of our students in grades 3 through eight are meeting or exceeding standards in math which leaves 44% of our students uh partially proficient or not proficient um just as a reminder and I I highlight this every year remember that um our eighth grade

032numbers look a little skewed because the algebra is that is that pull out of of the eighth graders that take algebra so the notice the number of students in eth grade that take eth grade math versus the number of students that take algebra and their performance across the proficiency levels we have a a much higher number of students at the algebra level um that are meeting expectations sure is there any I don't know where it is in the timeline but is there any thought about that 8th grade math program and the curriculum that accompanies it in in terms of revising it or well so I will share with you which really has nothing to do with the presentation this evening but um just two weeks ago the State Board of Education adopted new standards in

033English language arts and math K through 12 so I anticipate that U my curriculum teams and I will be doing work around making sure that our curriculum documents and any resources that we have are aligned with the new standards expectations yeah um this is that that visual again that graphic of the data from the the previous um again I think it's important to note um that our students in freeh hole Township are far exceeding performance of of students across the state right so if you look at these bars across the top these green and dark green bars these are our kids who are proficient um and they are much taller than the bars of the students in those grades across the state the um the not proficient level um at the state our we have

03444% of our students not proficient um the level at the state is is over 60% 64% this is our math uh subgroup data by race um based on this data about 27% of our black students and 40% of our Hispanic students are meeting proficiency standards in mathematics sure sure um I know just from reading that that performance especially by subgroup is is somewhat influenced by you know your classroom environment that you know do you see people like you as a math teacher refed in the curriculum where are we I know Neil at one point you know we we got extra time for our was it a Dei plan or or something like like where are we on our like inclusive practices Etc as a district um so I can tell you we've done a lot

035of work in that area from the from the lens of curriculum right like we've been building uh resources and tools into the curriculum to have teachers have access to that and um especially in the area of of language arts um you know recognizing that kids need to see themselves um and and their life experiences reflected in in the books that they read and the texts that they have access to um I you know I can let Neil speak to other things if that does that answer your question or do you have a well that answers for ELA but I'm just talking like District wide like I know Staffing is always an issue like is there what what what do you think in terms of these numbers and in terms of what we can be doing

036better as a district or what we already are doing as a district because I'm sure that you guys are already all over this I think the first step which has already been done was the curriculum Department work in ensuring that the curriculum documents and the materials that we use are in are reflect inclusivity and um that work has been it's finished um next we're working on the data from our um bullying reports trying to implement at the Middle School's currently restorative practices um looking also at developing a uh scope and sequence of social emotional learning curriculum starting in kindergarten through 8th grade and our Middle School still continue with Wellness Wednesdays and advisories because a good component of that is building relationships among students within the school that's the work that we're doing now um

037what are we doing or are we doing anything to attract teachers staff who also represent some of these yes we have anybody take certified teachers right we've always um put out our postings to organizations that search for a more diverse teaching staff we don't get a lot of applicants that are reflective of diverse backgrounds okay this is our math data by gender uh 53% of our female students are proficient in math as compared to 59% of our male students I'm sorry one thing I should share though is um your our teaching staff while it's not extremely diverse is more diverse than you would think because the ethnicities and backgrounds of teaching staff may not be apparent um but we do know that we have a good representation maybe not of every subgroup but we do

038have a fairly well representation of some subgroups within our teaching staff did want to mention that thanks um this is our math subgroup by program data again these are our students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged receiving 504 or special education services or English language Services um 22% of our students identified with special education needs were proficient in math and 18% of our English language leers proficient excuse me were were during last year's test assment yes right 22 we're we're proficient 22% proficient rate I can share these slides with the board so you don't have to frantically write notes I'm happy to do that this is um this is our longitudinal data looking at um at our students in in mathematics again I'm going to track a cohort for you uh with the black arrows so that

039you can see um how a group of students did pre and post pandemic so these kiddos who were third graders in 201617 were 64% proficient in math when they went to fourth grade they were 59% proficient in math and then they when they went to fifth grade they were 60% proficient in math then we had the pandemic and then as eighth graders now remember we have grade 8 math and we have grade8 algebra um 12% proficient in the grade math but 88% proficient in algebra so when you look at those groups of students combined our kids post pandemic have have demonstrated growth right again like language arts we don't necessarily see that across every cohort but more often than not we are seeing growth um and again I want to look um at a post-pandemic

040group so these are our fourth graders post pandemic they were 54% proficient as fourth graders and then became 63% proficient as fifth graders that's really significant growth post pandemic right so again while the bars aren't necessarily as high as we would like them to be we are seeing market growth from our kids from year to year that significant yeah it is can ask a question certainly how much do you feel that um you know we did a lot of I I know we put in the ramp for more Jing and stuff going forward but last year we did a lot in our middle schools I'm sorry elementary and middle but um those task teams yes thank yeah yeah so I mean we we were just talking about it uh yesterday the the principles in the

041buildings really felt very strongly that that time was really meaningful for kids right teachers were able to identify particular students who needed supports in particular areas and were able to keep them and pull them for a period of time long or short like yeah 3 weeks four weeks maybe six or eight weeks depending on what a student need they need P back in when they had to correct now is that something we're looking to replicate with the going forward the the intented tutoring or is that just be so the thank you very much Michael um the um the high-intensity tutoring Grant as I have written it um will we be using a thirdparty vendor to do um virtual tutoring we found that that model really successful in terms of being able to be flexible with

042parents we are going to um again I'm saying all of this in the hopes that we get the grant um we're going to offer it um at at home if families want to do it at home or on site at school before after school depending on school hours again in an effort to scoop in as as many kids as possible in a in a forum that will be most conducive right some families have after school activities their kids can't stay after school but they might be available at six o'l in the evening other families are going to want their kids to stay right after school and do it because they're so busy they have other things going going on we did also discuss this morning as I'm working on um finalizing the amendment to the

043ARP grant that there are funds left over I haven't shared with the administrators yet because I don't have the number of hours per school that we are in a position to be able to offer some level of that task team okay yeah and again it's just going to go based on yeah I know like last year for instance they use scores to say okay this is the level if you're close to this we're going to pull you in yeah because that was a big jump it was yeah it was I mean considering everything I think AE and I think it's I mean I think it's something that our our staff and our administrators should be awfully proud of they they worked really hard so again I don't you know I know that collectively we would

044all like to see our kids at levels of proficiency in the 70s and 80s and but we are we are far outperforming the state average and our kid and and we are moving in the right direction yep thank you uh welcome um do we have any data to compare the other districts in the regional um not that I can share publicly okay I I have looked at some of it okay and I will tell you we're kind of keeping Pace with where we've been historically you know I prepare that spreadsheet um we're kind of in the middle of the pack you know the districts that are wealthier than us do better the districts that are not as wealthy are doing worse which is consistent with what one would expect based on on DFG you know

045former those former DFG ratings um next steps in math um again similar to language arts we um are implementing this new model for intervention and again um you know making sure that we review and revise our curriculum based on on looking at our kids performance on njsla specific to those evidence statements um we built standards aligned common assessments for our middle school math classes um students will be taking those assessments throughout the course of this school year and um te teams of teachers will be doing data analysis at at department meetings to take a look at how our kids are doing um in relation to those standards assessments right so taking a look at how you know from a predictive standpoint how our kids are going are going to do when they get to njsla

046and also giving them practice around um test questions that look like or model njsla we will have a a district math goal uh one for grades 3 through five and another through grades 6 through eight focusing on math um like I shared with you around language arts we have built those resource toolkits for teachers so that um our special middle school special education teachers have resources to help them um provide standards based instruction and give those students um more access or rigorous access to the um general education standards obviously in in a way that um is accessible for their kids um and then at the elementary school level are standards aligned Bridges assessments um students are taking those on paper teachers are entering that data into linkit so that we can do some more data

047analysis in the linkit platform to tell us what standards our kids are doing well on and what standards we may need to you know build some resources for teachers instructionally around question how granular is that data like can you get to like a specific item analysis I can do yeah that's why we're putting it to link it because we can do that so it is and it's it's a great tool I know we discussed about correct me if I'm wrong link it being we're going to have some type of parent portal for link it's coming my letter hopefully should go out this week very excited not clearly not as excited as I am but okay fine you beat me there but my question is how like for instance is it going to just show our

048scores like we currently get out of G is or is it going to be able to drill down to a little bit more detailed data so you'll be able to see your child's uh score performance level and the range in which it falls so and and the ranges in map are similar to uh njsla so not meeting expectations partially partially meeting approaching meeting expectations and exceeding so you'll get your child's score within those bands you'll also get what that looks like from a percentile perspective um and then the that remember map is is reported by RIT score so the RIT score will be in the bands you'll get the uh percentile and then also in language arts you'll get your child's reading Lexile level okay science um I know last year we did a lot

049of ringing of our hands around our science data because it um did not look good again still outperforming the state I am um really excited to share with you tonight that our students in grades 5 through eight demonstrated 10% growth in their Proficiency in science so last year had 19% proficient uh Proficiency in science this year I'm reporting 29% is that 5 through eight or just five and eight five and eight so those tests are cumul cumulative fifth grade students take a science test that um that reflects science standards for grades three four and five eighth grade students take a science test that reflects standards for six seven and eight this is again that that Visual and Compares our performance to the state level again while 29% proficiency doesn't sound like something to brag about

050we are we are far outperforming the state um and again science data this is by race um because this is a much smaller population of students only our fifth graders and our eighth graders there is more suppressed data here there are um fewer students in these racial categories at each of those grade levels so there are several categories where um there is not data because I it would be personally identified um this is by gender our male students are ever so slightly outperforming our female students and this is by program again our English language Learners our economically disadvantaged students again more of this data is suppressed because of the small numbers of students that take the test next steps in science um based on our our performance last year on SLA we um kicked into

051high gear and did a a whole lot of U supports and revisions we purchased M Mystery Science resources um and provided professional development or will be over the course of this year providing professional development to all of our teachers at grades K through five to implement those Mystery Science resources um at the middle school level um our science teachers will be building standards aligned assessments similar to the ones that our language arts and our Math teachers are implementing and doing data analysis our science teachers are going to be collaborating in their department meetings to build those standards aligned assessments um and and test field test them with their kids and do some data analysis um we've also built um curricular resources for our middle school science that focuses really on on the science and engineering

052practices and those cross-cutting Concepts so less about sort of the memorizing of facts and more about studying science through the concepts of phenomena um because those are the kinds of questions that students will will have to tackle on the test thank you very much thank you thank you thank you sorry I do I do that okay it's really warm back there I just I'm afraid um but if we put the ear on then people in the back will not be able to hear it's heat not air oh it's heat coming out anyway okay okay we'll just leave all the windows open then I guess it's in set come on yeah it's not it's not on okay yeah you'll raise the room for like three degrees okay um all right so before we move on to

053public participation I'm going to move back to president's remarks those of you that were present at the last meeting heard debate by this board whether policy 5756 should be abolished by this board it is the policy of Freehold Township to make these decisions only after getting Community input we were hoping to have a round table and the timing for scheduling the round table did not line up prior to this board meeting so in lie of the Round Table then there will be a round table it be November we look at November 2nd I believe um so prior to having this meeting a survey went out to the public um I have two takeaways that I just want to share first and I will allow all the board members to have input prior to that much

054of the comments coming from the last meeting um were centered on this perception that if the B if the policy were abolished that there would be no protections in place for discrimination in this District at all um and that certainly was not true so part of the survey was to send out to the public all the existing policies so that people could read them themselves and decide for themselves whether the existing policies that we have in place in addition to the already existing statutes and laws in the state of New Jersey were sufficient um I think the takeaway and I'm going to allow Miss vendi who has the survey results to give all the survey results however I will say I think that there was some also some misunderstanding surrounding the survey so I don't

055think it's fair to the public to do this um after public participation I don't think it's fair to do it in new business or old business so um prior to moving on to public participation I want to have our board discussion with our survey results and platform off our last meeting also tonight we have present um Mr Michael Gross who is our board attorney um there were comments made at the last meeting and even after the last meeting about people's perceptions about the law the current law or things that we're trying to do that also were not true there's a lot of misinformation so I don't want to misspeak and I also don't want any member of the public here to uh not get the right information so we have our board attorney available to

056answer questions as well um I was asked of me whether we were going to put a resolution on tonight's agenda I don't anticipate putting any resolution on any agenda I I know other towns did that and I understand why um because the resolution put forth uh why they were doing what they did I don't think we need that because I think it's very clear we are going through a process and we are going to continue to go through our process um in the Way Freehold Township does it and that's with Community input and discussing it in public at our board meetings um so I tried to reach out to some people prior to sending out the survey to get some input after our last meeting I had not heard back from anybody so because we

057couldn't have a round table the survey seems like the next best choice to get some of the information out there with that I'm going to ask krie to give the results of the survey unless you want to speak first beforehand and then we'll have board discussion you want me okay um I'm also just going to give a brief summary of what the survey asked so that for people that may here no okay you want to take I'll just shut that one gentlemen no thank is this any better can see oh can you hear me [Applause] sorry nobody wants to hear me that one um so the community of relation survey it said prior to completing the survey we ask that you review policy 5756 transgender students in addition to the following current fil Township Board

058of Education policies and then we listed policy 5750 the equal educational opport Unity policy 5755 equity and educational programs and services policy 1550 Equal Employment anti-discrimination Practices policy 2660 affirmative action program for school and classroom practices policy 1140 affirmative action program policy 2411 guidance counseling policy 5600 student discipline code of conduct policy 5512 harassment intimidation or bullying and policy 8465 hate crimes and bias related acts the first question asked you to identify your role in The District if you were a staff member a parent of a student in the prek 38 School District or four Township Community member meaning not a parent of a current student the responses to that were we had 367 people respond um 16.1% were fre Township community members 77.4% were fre Township School staff members I'm sorry fre Township parents

059and then we had uh about a little less than 15% were our staff the next question said after reviewing all the policies referenced above which I just read uh after ruling all the policies referenc abroad listed them again sufficiently cover the contents of policy 5756 transgender students you asked to agree disagree or say you undecided um give me one second I want the actual numbers do you have this pulled up by any chance okay thank you it's hard to do both on the same yeah sorry that's okay I apologize that we don't have this on a slide the survey only closed on Sunday because we wanted to give uh people as much time as possible to get on and complete it and the results were only compiled yesterday and actually emailed to the board uh

060late yesterday so it has to be an oral presentation sorry sorry that one thank you sure what are you trying to do sorry yeah the numbers but that's not showing up in the interim while car's looking for the numbers I do want to address uh one um area of concern I had several residents question why Freehold Township staff members were allowed to participate in the survey if they did not live in Freehold Township so I don't know if you want to address I'll Mr dickstein address that the township staff members are a member of the school community at large so it was important to collect the feedback from not only the residents who live in the town also um which include parents but also it was important important to get the feedback of the staff

061as members of the larger School Community we do believe here that it's a team effort and our staff members are with our children their entire school day so we thought it was important to invite staff members who did feel comfortable and had an opinion to provide it soor okay so after reviewing all the policies referenced above um sorry after reviewing all the policies referen above that U policy 5756 was Trend uh sufficiently covered there was 35.7% agreed 45.4% disagreed 18.9% were undecided and then the last survey question was do you believe School staff should notify parents when the student discloses identity as trans transgender yes no undecided another 367 responses it was 76.3% said yes 20.2% said no and um sorry I'll do it again do you believe School staff should not parents when the

062student discluded his identity as transgender there was 367 responses 76.3% said yes 20.2% said no and the rest were undecided can you repeat the first one so sure the uh after veing all the policies referenced above um policies were listed do they sufficiently cover the contents of policy 5756 45.4% said they disagreed 18.9% said they were undecided and 35.7% said they agree and then the final question was if they wanted to leave other comments uh I looked to the MTH County MTH University poll was taken back in August of this year and the results were very in line with what our community responded they felt 81% of parents in New Jersey in M County Jersey felt that parents should be notified of any gender identity questions so and 77% in New Jersey in general felt

063that no parents should be notified of this issue so I think our our uh survey was similar thank you well and to be clear the policy as it exists just says Parental notification is not required abolishing the policy does not require parental notification or not require parental notification uh abolishing the policy leaves the best practices in the hands of the school district on a case-by casee basis which is what this district has been doing already um so I I don't know if that came across clear in the survey or not um some of the other comments that came through were um the the bathroom locker room issue I would call it uh people uh were confused as to whether we were passing a policy allowing a student or an individual to use the bathroom or

064locker room with for the gender that they identify with understand that that is already in place that is not a policy we are looking to abolish that's covered by the New Jersey law against discrimination so that was not a topic of discussion and part of this policy um but um so I just want to be clear on that as well this is not this board is not deciding to implement a policy either requiring or abolishing parental notification it's deciding whether 5756 is not necessary because it is either ambiguous ambiguous or already covered under other existing policies if you feel it is not I would appreciate anybody saying where you feel it falls short ask you a follow up on that just a point of clarification so the current policy says that there is no affirmative

065Duty for the school district to notify a parent and from what you just said I think what you're saying is that would in essence be in place even if we got rid of the policy because there would still be no affirmative Duty for the school district to notify a parent yes yep I just wanted to clarify I just want to know that just want to clarify because again there were a lot of Mis based on the comments there were a lot of misunderstanding misunderstandings and I just want us to be clear what we're really voting on um so do we know who actually opened the policies like could we tell I know sometimes we can tell but we can't tell if people so it's just basically on your honor that you say you read them

066I could tell you like the time stamp um probably the first 50 people definitely didn't because the amount of time would take to read all those policies the first 50 people you know responded within 20 minutes of the survey going out there's no way to read all those policies in 20 minutes and mean I don't have we don't have click data or anything on that but just looking at when it was submitted it was also shared at the uh we had our PTO on meeting and the PTO some of the the members the executive board members explicitly stated that they know them as well as others didn't read the policy which is why I think that first question based on the comments I don't think the first question was accurate had an accurate response I

067think it's a little skewed because if you didn't read those policies some people misunderstood that we were considering adoption of those policies those exist and they're mandated policies so I think there was some confusion in the responses um and as far as parental notification we have had the practice I have supervised guidance for 10 years prior to being in this position um and I've been in this position now for five or six years and um our work has always been that our goal when a child comes to us with any issue is to work with that child to inform the parents so that's not something when the transgender policy came out that changed our practice of always trying to work with children to collaboratively tell their parents we don't disbelieve that parents are not a

068critical role in not only their child's education but in raising their children so that is something that prior to the implementation of that policy was a practice that we had and since it's been been implemented once if if the board chooses to consider abolishing that policy or practice of and when we say Case by case we clearly will not disclose nor do I think any member of the public would want would would disagree that if a child we knew that there was a history of abuse or neglect in the household that that would be a case where we would work likely work with that child to determine if and when it was appropriate at not putting a child in harm if we had documented history different than if the child thought their parent would not

069accept it there's a difference between those two things and I want to be clear with that if there were a history of abuse or neglect in a household we would have a very difficult time working with a child to tell their parents when we have that document mented history that is different that is distinct and different than a child who says my parents will not agree I think we also you know my reading of the policy when I read 5756 and I've read it many times um that is consistent with it it it does say that you know if a child is reluctant to share this information with Mom and Dad they suit the principles superintendent is supposed to sit that child down and explain that if you are changing your pronouns at school if

070you are um giving yourself a new name chances are your parents may find out through your classmates telling their par Etc so it does provide resources or require the school to provide resources to facilitate that conversation and based on what you said at the meeting prior that indicates to me that's what the district has been doing prior to the policy implementation and if we're abolished we do the same but it's a Step Beyond that it's not just telling them your parents may find out it's working with them to come up with a plan to tell their parents and that's what we support yes to do that and that's what we've been doing correct and so that will not change that will not change no so so I guess what I'm trying to figure out is

071what will change right because if we're going to vote on something we have to vote on what we are changing like we have to know what that the implications of that change are so that's what I'm struggling with I've read all of these policies I went through them clearly 5756 has a lot more in it than any of these policies cover and I can go through specifically what I'm concerned about like what I want to know if you're getting rid of this are we going to continue to do these things um so can we do that all right it had to be very tiny to fit on this paper bar of me it says um schools should ensure a supportive non-discriminatory environment for transgendered students we do that for all students regardless and that's that's

072part of the reason of looking it's right it's the law and it's also when you look at those other policies the difference is that those policies talk about protected classes and groups one of which would be transgender this policy specifically speaks only to transgender so that that expectation would be for any one of our students a safe and supportive environment and I do see that two policies do deal with that policy 1140 and policy 5750 speak directly to that um school districts shall accept a students asserted gender identity parental consent is not required how would we handle that going forward I'd have to because we have first and second reading in between I would have to make sure what the law against discrimination says and if that is a requirement of that law okay I

073don't I don't know it well enough I said am not familiar for btim with the law against discrimination to know I'd have to check that that's not included somewhere in a law that we're required to follow regardless of policy okay that's fair but uh we discussed the no affirmative duty to notify a parent which you said would not change um if parents disagree with chosen bran s we already did that one principle what name change answer yeah we we discussed that um principal or design should have an open but confidential discussion with students to ascertain a student's preference in chosen name chosen pronouns and parental Communications would that still occur I think that goes along with the first one still because it's assuming that there's no parental involvement so I think I that goes along

074with what I would have to determine from the first question if it exists somewhere else outside of our policy in law okay dress permitted according to gender identity we don't even outside of that we have a dress code and if you're abiding by the dress code then you're within your you're following our policy so we wouldn't have a separate one um and building is covered under the building statute um superintendent must Ure training of school staff on sensitivity and respect toward transgendered students we do training throughout the year on all all all students regardless of how they identify it could be transgender it could be protected classes we do harassment intimidation and buing require training annually um we work with our students I'm sorry we work with our students with social emotional learning in order

075to um it's it's for all it's not specific which is part of what the con the Superfluous components of this policy is that we do that already with all classes of students but like transgendered and and I I will confess my own ignorance here there's a lot of new terminology there's a lot of new you know pronoun news Etc that certainly I am not familiar with I don't know that our teachers would be unless it was specifically addressed no we do not teach specific terminology regarding uh transgender specifically it's more broad of respect for all students regardless of how they identify the race ethnicity gender all components that make somebody an individual not specifically only transgender as it is in this policy so transgender is included but we also don't educate them on all the

076different terminology that goes along with you know understand because we ask how many students we have that this policy would even affect the question was are you ask you can answer I said part of the I think that reasoning is we developed staff training many times based on need and I don't think we have had the need because we're a K through 8 District so I don't want to misspeak you could get so in the last two years the number of students who have come to their councel or trusted adult to um assert gender identity uh issues it was zero in the elementary school and five between both middle schools and we have um well you have the enrollment 38 3600 students but if we felt that staff training was necessary well our staff training

077what we do none of our staff training connected to Sensi sensitivity or or working with it's more General and Broad diversity and not a specific class of students what cultural competence being sensitive to needs not a specific class of students okay so go ahead Mary but abolishing 5756 may call for more specific training on transgender issues that's I think I don't think it would okay that's my opinion I don't think it okay all right again these are just things that are included in the current policy that I want us to be clear on if we're getting rid of then we're getting rid of them um equal access to educational programs and activities even in circumstances in which other students parents or community members raise objections I think this that deals the sport issue the locker

078room issue Etc well the locker room issue the locker rooms bathrooms are already covered under the law and sports and that's not specific to schools that that the law against discrimination regarding the access are public accommodations and a school is a public accommodation it's not specific right to schools it's in society under the law of discrimination being a public facility we are abound to that law regardless of this policy that policy doesn't create that ability it's the law of against discrimination that the specific I don't have I don't have it in front of me Michael do you know it off the top is it 105f anybody the statute is it are you talking about the L yeah yeah have that is it 105f for any member of the public who wants to read it uh

079themselves regarding um public accommodation regarding and what was the other I was about to say interrupt me I'm m m I forgot the other thing was Sports so the uh governing Sports in New Jersey the I always say it wrong the NJ a s i a i s a their their own policy is that a student is permitted to play the sport uh uh for the gender they identify with okay that is that is their policy and that is the sports that is the governing body for the sports here 10 10 5-12 105 so just 11f I knew there was an F in there somewhere just to be clear and put it in the simplest terms so that everybody understands whether we repeal this policy or whether we don't repeal this policy a child who

080identifies as transgender can use the bathroom that they choose under the law against discrimination so that's under the law against discrimination not policy it's the law against discrimination that a public facility a public restroom needs to be accessible to students based upon or hum individuals not specific to students based upon their asserted gender identity if they choose it's their choice they don't have to and next question about the sport that is our governing body as Mrs Lambert explained njsia AA and we subscribe to the njs IAA rules if those changed then that uh would change as well so it's not a Bo the board policy it's the governing body for inter inter Scholastic Athletics what I'm trying to get at is that the board does not decide these things these are decided at the state

081level and we don't as a body we don't have control over how that affects a public any public building our public one is legislated the law against that discrimination the other one is by a body njsiaa okay in the case of um how are we going to deal with confidential the confidentiality plan regarding the students transgendered or transitioning status not even just dealing with parents but in terms of like how does a school district say we're presented with a child who's seven who's transgender ready presents in school as a boy are we going to keep that confidentiality status in place confidentiality with whom with respect to the community with respect to records with respect to anything on Genesis ETA believe the law again law governs what is reflected in the records as far as the

082the name and and those type of official records I believe the law establishes how we have to go forward we have not dealt with yet seven-year-olds who are coming forward asserting gender identity but while it might not be as formal as what you're speaking about with a confidentiality plan we're working together with them to provide that emotional support that goes along with somebody struggling with anything in this case gender identity as it would for anything else a child comes forward with but it's not we don't go the child typically works with us to determine what they want and where I just want to be just just also covered by furpa yes that's what I thank you yeah and and how would we handle school records just across the board like as far as the this

083this this um policy says that you will you know have the students reflected name gender everything on school records I believe that's what we're required to do under law okay not our po the the policy is weating it the law tells us we have to do it that way okay I just want to be really clear um would be would be true through reporting to through NJ smart too right the same would hold true for reporting through NJ smart we follow the we'd be following whatever the law guides us to do okay because it is stated in the law I just want to be really clear about if we getting if we're getting rid of the policy we need to be really clear as a district how what the law says and how we're going

084to handle it I don't believe it would change our practice because our practice is align with the law regardless of the policy but we still between the first and second reading will'll work with our board attorney to make sure that those are that we are doing what the law requires there another section in the policy that is regarding activities so not sports like you know through the governing party body that we don't have any through um the Sports Authority that we were talking about before I can't the I JSA thank you thank you um this is talking about um activities with respect to gender segregated athletic activities intramural inter Scholastic Athletics all students must be allowed to participate in a manner consistent with their gender identity outside of sports we don't have any gender specific

085programs including in murals or activities so it's not applicable no okay and then the other thing I see here is support the formation of clubs and programs related to lgbtq Youth and transgendered youth will we continue to have a diversity club we continue to support that so that it's important to understand that I believe leave those Bo the clubs in each Middle School the diversity Club so they're broader than than what's in that policy they're uh Broad and generic um diversity and those are funded by the PTO so if the PTO continue to donate money for those purposes then those organizations it's an annual decision but if kids wanted to meet and make an lgbtq Club would we know the way that that any organization has to be initiated by a staff member because there's

086funds that go along with it as far as payment but the policy right now says that we have to support such efforts would we now we do we have the diversity Club in both schools but you know that's where there's ambiguity in the policy what does it mean to support it just not deny it or to support it mean fund it mhm I could argue that both ways and that's my issue with the policy I think there's a lot that leaves School District out to dry so to speak in if you're you you can be on the losing end of that time and time again by making the wrong decision I worry that getting rid of the policy leaves us with nothing or or at least if we don't have a clear definition of what

087the law says and how our operational plan is then we're kind of leaving ourselves vulnerable as well if we operate within the legal guidelines within furpa within lad and we do what we are required to do under the law we are not here to legislate we're not a govern we're not the legislature so if if there's a lack of clarity across multiple school districts in the state then I'll then the legislature needs to get back to work and figure that out but and I don't believe a school district should be put in the dis in the position personally this is this is I'm just speaking personally not on behalf of the board of having to figure all this out and make these decisions that could open a district up to any lawsuit in either direction

088because let's face it who pays for a lawsuit who taxpayers do and it's not fair to them and i' rather have no ambiguity and hope to do the right thing you don't want to be violation of your own policy here or there inadvertently true but the policy was developed if I understand the history of it and I know this goes back before me this was eight years ago that this you know the legislation was initially passed the legislation directed because there was such confusion in this area the legislation directed the Department of Education to provide guidance to districts which then was taken to result in this policy creation well and I think part of the problem is if you read the initial legislation that was signed by Chris Christie in 2017 the legislation specifically states

089that they direct the uh Department of Education to issue guidance to help schools do what is required by listing some right nowhere does it say in that legislation anything about parental consent it's not in there so when the guidance came out and said no parental consent is required that's what sparked this whole debate and this whole debate has become polarizing to communities and if you look at most school districts as Mr dixen said they're doing there're seven other policies and they've been doing what they do all along just like no one transgender person is like any other transgender person no gay person is like any other people come out in different ways different forms at different times everybody's journey is unique and the school district at least here has treated each person as unique and

090dealt with it accordingly my concern is I have faith in this Administration to do it the way they have been doing it but when they're no longer here like I said at the last meeting you weren't here we can all assume at one point we can get hit by the bus and you have a different Administration right or retire you have a different Administration in place who reads those words parental consent is not required and chooses to read that as I never have to give parental consent now you're on the opposite side of that and you open a district up to a lawsuit but they words no well I know that the words but that is how some people are interpreting them and which is why I think this policy has become such a polarizing

091Force but I think we should all still discuss it because I like going line by line just there are concerns I do think it's important because I don't recognize everybody here but I've been in this district for 20 years 27 in education I've been a principal in the district assistant superintendent superintendent and for any parent that knows me any staff member that knows me they know my commitment is to the safety security and well-being of every single child in my care they're all in my care and I will steal this from Mr sever for those who have been here they are I'm sorry you share your children with me they're my children when they're here and they are my goal will always be regardless of any other characteristic of any single child they are a

092student of fre Township thereby my responsibility and my commitment will never change to the safety and wellbeing and I can assure you I see some of our staff here they are on the same page as me they are in our care we will support them we will do what we believe is best for every single child on our care every single day and Michelle go back to what Mary said before about the formation of the clubs programs and so forth if it's not say something were to happen at a school right they want to form a club it is denied they f rers would be to come to the board anyway on an appeal right like that would be the chain so it's wouldn't just not happen or violation I think of state law to

093deny anybody a club contract it's the difficult part it the difficult part is the funding that goes along with it yeah there's there's a stien for a staff member to advise that comes and and as you're familiar or contract or with the Teachers Association lists specific um Sports and area for which they're renumerated separate from that because years ago and we couldn't afford to um to support financially all of the ones that were out there PTO agreed staff members it depends how each school is different but a lot of times our administrators or our staff say these are the we think what um these are what we're asking for this year as far as honoraria go and then the PTO agrees the board approves them so um that would be the challenge is the renumeration

094that goes along with somebody working with a group of children can you talk to me a little bit if if I am a transgendered student and I am dressing as the opposite sex at school and asking my friends to call me by a different name but I don't approach a staff person do you still try to make the call home I'd have to consider that it's it's we I we haven't had that yet are this students typically seek out support from a trusted adult to say this is because it's not something that's easy parents see them leave the house right it's not it's not something that we've experienced um yeah it's not something we've experienced each child has come forward in these cases to ask for the support and when I say the support I

095want to be clear it's this the mental health support in their in their adapting to whatever they're experiencing with their gender identity we don't go further than that and Council councel them on the medical care counsel them on where to go next we counsel them on their while they're in school their mental health and well-being as they're struggling or not struggling um potentially with in this case gender identity but in anything that they're doing you I have a question to your point when you said you would have to see how to handle something like that no granted we don't know the exact numbers or that could ever even happen but if it does absent of a policy wouldn't we have to have something in place a guideline or a policy to say that if this

096is to happen we are going to notify the pars or we're not going to notify the parents no this policy doesn't say that so that doesn't and again it's hard certain like hypotheticals I can respond to that's not one because we haven't experienced it again over the years there have been that few students who assert gender identity and come to a trusted adult for support in the past two years the number is five and in those cases this the student has come to a trusted adult for that support or at least just to notify so I can't that's a that's too ambiguous of a question for me to say I know exactly what I would do no I have a question as a followup to that medical issue you said that the CH child is

097uh supported uh mentally emotionally but isn't that a professional level that should be add should transgenderism is a sexual dysphoria SAR that should be uh supported by doctors and medical professionals way we would treat insulin deficiency or a broken leg or an on the job of a school the job of a school counselor so you're talking about a medical condition which our nurses would counsel students on and and refer them so when it's when we're dealing with transgender specifically the role of the school counselor is to help them with their social and emotional well-being as they're going through this not to counsel them through a process so for example a student may say um I'm thinking of dressing as the other as as the gender with with with which I identify how what what what

098should I be careful like how can how can I do that and be safe with my peers that's what I mean with support we are not mental health professionals to go as far nor medical doctors to talk about physical transition so we don't discuss that we are not medical professionals and that might be to what you're referring but our goal is to support the mental health and well-being of the any child who comes forward with any issue so we would work with them again part of it is working with them to tell their parents but also it is while you're under with in our care what issues are you experiencing and how can we support you with those issues okay I understand okay I have a question um so we're going through this policy and

099there's a couple of places where you know you're not sure you're going to check with the law you know I'd love to hear what that says but otherwise it says you're saying that nothing's going to change so and these areas Michelle that you say are ambiguous um why can we not work on this policy and make it less ambiguous but still preserve these these protections for transgender students my personal opinion would is that you are opening up this District stct to a lawsuit in either way either Direction look at so take the ambiguity parental consent I'm sure you have half this board who would be happy to say parental consent um or parental notification should be required you have the other half of this board who say it should never be required depending upon which

100side you fall on if you put in a policy parental notification is never required in my opinion you've now violated the fundamental rights of parents to parent their children if you put in that parental notification is always required you can potentially put any student In Harm's Way um it's it's you're always going to balance the protection of the law with what's in the best interest of the students in in that world less is more the less you say the better off you are because once you say it you become defined by it so that's how I feel I think that's statute says no affirmative Duty it doesn't say you have to it doesn't say you don't have to it kind of gives you the freedom to decide as we have on a Case by casee

101basis how to so you got a superintendent in place who directs his administrators any time you have a transgender student go to a trusted adult our policy says you're under no affirmative duty to tell the parents so it's our district we are not going to notify the parents cuz that's what our policy says there no affirmative Duty so we're just never going to do it we don't have to we don't have to correct it's but so that then if I were a parent I'd be all over us saying that that's what he's essentially going to do if the policy is done there's no affirmative DY for him to well that's nope we said that we are going to work with cons continue as we did before and during this policy to work with children in

102a communication plan to tell their parents in a supportive environment and also as far as taking away the protections it it doesn't the only question I'm leaving with is can a student change their name without parental consent and I said I have to check with a law against discrimination other than that that's the only question I'm leaving with that's unanswered unless I'm missing something the other one was if the parent disagreed with the name change that's that that's this question okay um so my question is what you just said we work with the child to create a communication plan and we support them um why can't we say that that's what we're going to do so that the parents are clear what we're going to do everybody's clear what we're going to do and any

103forture board future boards or superintendant or whatever unless they change the policy it will be CLE clear exactly what we're going to do because I'm not going to do that if a home has a history of abuse or neglect in it so it's again it's that that's not the answer I have a question for you Michael if the mandatory reporters if you want to answer this after this meeting that's okay being mandatory anticipate I'm gonna say I'm not going to give legal advice I'm anticipating your answer but I'm G I'm gonna put it out there to think about being being mandatory reporters if we did have a policy that said we would work with the student to to notify the parent but there suspected abuse would the district's obligation to the students supersede the policy

104you can think about that okay I'm just I'm just you know my answer would be I'm not going to give legal opinion in public session I will certainly reserve it for executive session and answer your question okay fair any of the other question was would we develop a confidential uh would we have a confidential discussion with students to ascertain their preference chosen name chosen pronoun and obviously it does tie to the first one because it deals with parental communication and that's what you said you would check with the law well is Rel up to that yes we'd have that conversation but it would then be contingent upon what does the law say about doing it with or without parental consent so we can have the conver ation could it be implemented it depends on the

105law and I think we also have to know with this population um and certainly I am not an expert here um I don't think any of us are um but with this population of students it's not only a physical abuse or neglect situation that that would necessarily trigger alarm on the student's part sometimes the the student obviously did not go to their parent first um there are concerns with this population concerned concerning homelessness concerning parent apparent alien them after they come out there's there's a whole host of other issues than a pure D is it even dius anymore it's probably not dius anymore situ that's that's difficult to ascertain from a child so I would have to say preliminarily yeah that it would have to be a documented case that we're aware of of dcpm

106with abuse or neglect in the home I don't think we can use whether or not a parent would accept it as a guideline for notification so you would notify unless there was a documented case in the home we would develop a communication plan to to work with the child to tell the parents together and if the child was vehemently opposed to that every step of the the way if the child was vehemently opposed to that every step of the way and insisting no no no I don't want to tell them then what we would still develop a communication plan working together with the goal to notify the parent okay which is what so I actually do have a question we are not taking a vote to abolish tonight uh we my we said at the

107last meeting that after dis that after discussion we would consider putting it on for a first reading which would put a second reading on November 14th's meeting meeting that would be the final vote on in November if we put it on for a first reading tonight we would have a community Round Table prior to that um probably have some public participation this evening so I and again it's obviously up to the board members would think about toring it once again to after the round table because I think again to there was some confusion with that survey I'd like I would like the community members to voice to I want to hear before we even have a first reading of this if we're going to have a first reading of this policy I would want to

108hear from directly from the public in a round table setting prior to that would the mic can't hear you which one so we're let's finish our discussion and then we'll decide we'll discuss which direction we want to go in okay I okay so you don't need a motion to table just a second no we don't have a motion on so we have nothing to table okay right just confused if we were putting it on for first reading tonight why wasn't it on the agenda for first reading we didn't discuss it we didn't even have the survey results okay it's just it's just a weird order for me because usually we live the theary and I thought that was presumptive so I didn't put it on okay and and if if after this discussion we felt

109it should go on tonight for a first reading people were in alignment with that um you know reading the survey results I felt that there was some ambiguity that needed to be discussed and I felt we should discuss it as a board in public like I said other towns put it on for a first reading having had no Community involvement and I believe that's probably why they did a resolution so that the public could see what the thought process was I just thought and I thought we all agreed that the manner in which we're doing it in public and over the course of a couple weeks kind of vetting all our issues was the better way to go so Carrie have any okay any comments one way or the other um please my comments are

110that I don't I I you know I I realize it's not a clear-cut issue um I do appreciate what Neil said I do trust Neil I trust Diane I trust Becky I trust Bob I trust our administrators and our buildings to do what is right by students um and even by our parents you know we are a very inclusive District we work to bring parents and families into our schools I mean you know those of us that are schools you've seen it last year and even more this year our family notes are reading like we want parental involvement in our students um and I don't want parents to feel as they we are shutting them out and I think clarifying everything tonight that we do you make a communication plan and that is how we

111have done things and how things would be going forward I think it's very helpful for a lot of people um do have faith in our Administration and I do feel that whether we vote to a Bish or whether we vote to not aarish the policy that the students would be protected and our parents will feel L included in what we do and really really really ask me if we could take a break when we do this with Megan I um can I can I just and a small even though I'm not a member of the board um we we're doing presentations this week for school violence awareness and for school safety week we're meeting we meaning our juvenile detectives and and I um and me we're we're meeting with all of the fourth fifth sixth

112seventh and eighth grade students and parents are receiving communication from the principles so we were at bar on Monday there was a point to this and then we were at Applegate Monday afternoon we were at Eisenhower this morning we were at CA this afternoon we'll be at um West Freehold in the morning and then at Laura Donovan and then on Thursday we'll wrap up at Ericson seeing the number of children who responded to the do you game at home do you have a phone do you have a device do you know these apps and knowing that there are consequences what we ADV ing in those communicate to parents is everything that we said to the kids your parents should be scanning your phone no less than two or three times a week it is your

113parents device and they need to be aware because you be putting yourself In Harm's Way so I just want to be clear about the messaging that it's always about care and concern for kids and it's always about parents of students who are minors and are under the age of 18 and for anyone who wants to know Snapchat has a parent. snapchat. that shows you how to mirror your child's Snapchat account become a family center so you can see everything that's going on and they're working with us to provide safe environments for kids who by the way under 14 shouldn't even be on Snapchat but that's another whole issue um so I just wanted to be clear that our messaging is consistent we are partners with parents We Care incredibly about children um and our messaging

114is that we are working with parents and parents have to work with us to keep their kids safe right that is the messaging that I gave today so I I'm sitting here and keeping my mouth shut um but the the children who have requested to have their names changed in our student information system their parents are aware we would the last to know I'm just going to put that out there that if you walk down the hallway of the midd schools which I do every day you can't tell they're all dressed the same big and baggy it's all over the place I know you go you guys are set right I see the same crops on boys on girl it doesn't matter the principles that are sitting here know so I think we have to

115stop for a second the reality is we Embrace diversity and we embrace all of our children I don't care who's wearing what color what kind of clocks and I think that what Mr Dix is saying very very softspoken way but um I need to just say parents should be aware of what their children are doing who they're interacting with and having conversations and that is part and parcel of us all working together in a prek through 8 District everyone under sorry Michelle I have another question and correct me if I'm wrong because my understanding is that this policy was never mandated it was approved by error or by U miscommunication from the uh I'll explain what how did that work it was so the law that was enacted in 2017 listed I don't have it

116in front of me but say five or six things that were the law that they said that they would direct the Department of Education to issue guidance to schools in support of how to enact those law not enact them but how to handle those requirements Implement how to implement those requirements and when the St Esme who does our um our policy writing as most districts use took that law and translated 5756 the policy that's known today it had an M on it understand that when law is enacted that a school district should have some sort of policy on sometimes the um designation on the policy mandated means that it's either a requirement of of a law that was enacted or it's mandated because under NJ qac they be looking for school district to have some

117sort of written policy encompassing these guidelines so there was an M designation on that policy it wasn't approved in error everybody knew what the law was everybody saw what the policy was whether that whether there was confusion as to every element in that policy being law or not I would say yes there was but most of what's in 5756 is embodied somewhere in a statute um there are a few elements that went outside of that including the parental notification requirement where I think the guidance was supposed to help School school districts and instead created um a lot of distraction for a lot of boards of Education in this state who really need to get back to educating the students as you saw in Miss Montgomery's report and we're we're divided on it we're a divided

118board we're divided State we're a divided country we're a divided world for God's sakes you know so I you know there is no there's a lot of misinformation out there as to um this board enacting a policy erroneously that did not happen it's not it's not black and white like that and that's just wrong um yes there was an M designation on that policy which meant mandated and part of that is because 99% of that policy is embodied in law somewhere so it technically is mandated maybe not all of it was and some of it was just that a statute said you know that a board of education should have some sort of policy on this so they don't want you to get hit with qack points and I could let Bob tell you what

119happens when you get hit with qack points so you'd get a corrective action plan you know whatever I think the confusion that's added to this whole um issue issue is that the uh the Attorney General plen issued a statement you know if it was a public statement saying that this wasn't even a mandated policy so that's just adding more confusion I think he was referring to the parental notification piece of it because that's specifically right what they were yeah it was it was more of a legal argument he was making correct based on that piece and based on the fact that this that the policy itself says no affirmative duty to inform it doesn't say you inform or you don't inform and the statute never said anything about parental notification either way so that was

120just added language that created a nightmare for all of us thank you very much um Michael did you want to add anything to that or hisory or did I say correctly or yeah no I think everything that was said is on point the the idea that Strauss Esme and Strauss Esme represents or provides policies for probably 90% of the school districts in the state of New Jersey um and they're the ones who put the M on there for your policy committees to review and every District when they see that M they think that it's mandatory what what what a true mandatory policy is is for example your Hib policy um because the Hib statute specifically says in the statute that school districts shall promulgate policies to enforce these statutes that's what would make a true

121mandatory policy um as as Michelle was saying previously though the the m means mandatory in Strauss Esme lingo meaning that it's something that you should as opposed to an optional because you need to enforce the statute and therefore this policy mirrors the statute but the Attorney General's office as part of litigation in the Handover case did say as part of oral argument that the policy is not mandatory as it would be in the same realm as a Hib policy where districts are required under the law or districts are required under this statute to promulgate a policy that's what the Attorney General admitted during oral arguments the policy it's not just the that's right it's just the policy is not mandatory because the statute didn't require districts require mandate districts to promulgate a policy it mandated

122the Department of Education to provide guidance and that's all it said and that's why the Attorney General admitted as part of the Handover case that this policy because everybody has the same 5756 that that policy is not mandatory for school districts to have under the law but the elements that are in that policy were in that 2017 statute and 2019 and rised and revised in right 2018 and covered another correct so there isn't a board of education I've see a lot of people out there stating you know that the boards adopted this erroneous ly whether a board adopted this policy or not we'd still be doing the same thing truthfully I also wanted to say a word about the the um survey itself just FYI um and in all in interest of full disclosure I

123was contacted by people on both sides of this issue wondering if they voted correctly based on their own opinion like I think people were genuinely confused so I want to I want to I would acknowledge that it doesn't help that some people submitted you know duplicative responses and caused Carrie extra hours of weeding through all the answers um we could have had our results a lot sooner so that's a separate topic for another day but um in light of the fact that a bunch of us participated in the League of Women Voters candidate for we had one night to do a round table and we we couldn't get it done um yeah and listen that's that's seemed like well we were trying to reach out to people from the previous board meeting who got up

124and spoke to see if they wanted to form a small subcommittee to review these policies but I didn't hear back from any of those people so this seemed like the the the next best thing no and I I think we do a good job generally speaking of of trying to involve people and I get that this was a first attempt and maybe some things didn't work so well you know that's okay um I think it's important that we continue to to do this like I think it's important that we continue especially like you said Michelle this is a polarizing issue this is a polarized climate but we've always done better here in pre-old Township we've always been able to talk through issues that perhaps we disagreed with I don't really understand the rush to try

125to get this done before we had that round table like I I think there was some pressure people felt to try to get that Round Table done before this meeting I I don't really get that without a round table I don't think this conversation is rushed I think this board has known for months that this conversation was coming um I certainly don't feel rushed in it um after the attorney general made his comments in Handover I it it opened up a forum to revisit this whereas before knowing maror and man Alin and Middletown we're in the middle of litigation why would we bring up this discussion do we need to join the litigation freay you know causing legal bills with all I to say way but you know when you're doing it with taxpayer dollars

126you have to be fair um so wasn't the right I I didn't think it was the right time I don't think many others thought it was the right time I think that now um other Mo a few people thought it was the right time I don't think it was rushed but um for you feel rushed you want to speak yeah okay microphone works yes we didn't hear from you so no that's okay um yeah I I agree with you I don't feel it was rushed and um I like the idea that um should we make a motion to put it for a first reading that there would be a round table before the second reading is that correct I think that's yeah that's sure because I think we also owe it to the people um

127that want this policy removed that it at least be put on for a first reading I don't even see this board table in it again and if we bring that up I don't personally I don't have a problem with that I would be will to make a motion to at least put it on for our first reading so that we can put it on the floor have the Round Table and then it wouldn't officially be removed until after the round table so I kind of feel that way I think the evidence is overwhelming because of a parental component of this that it's an overreaching and unnecessary policy and are existing laws protect these students so I see no necessity to leave um a policy plates that's dividing your community needlessly because our students are getting

128the correct Services whether the policy is there or not so um to this CA on your committee I would be will to make that motion I don't want to create chaos or have people feel we need to table it because I don't think anything really comes of it other than that we will continue to deliberate it into a second reading so I would just like to that's all I really wanted to say okay um any other board member so before we move on to uh you want to take a break before public participation sub to the board yes okay can I just explain I see Hands raised the public participation is the opportunity to address the board um this the rest of it is a board meeting in public that you're observing the public participation

129component I know some people are under to board meetings happens next after that at which time everybody has three minutes if they choose to make a statement um I'm gonna make I'm gon to make a to take a 5 minute recess to allow individuals to cool off use the restroom and then we will go right back into public participation can I have a second second what time is it's 912 what's going on do aoll call for the board members Mrs brand Mrs coino here M gulo Mrs O Sullivan Mrs thomman here Mrs vori here Mr Williams Oh here Mr amaroso here Mrs Ambert here we have our quarum again okay um this will be the first opportunity for public participation um for items that are on the agenda this evening as as well as our

130newly added discussion um if you would like to address the board please write your name and address on the signin sheet state your name and town for the uh video record you're free to State your address for the video record but if you don't want to you could just put it on the sign in sheet um statements are limited to 3 minutes in length should not be abusive obscene or defamatory in nature um so if anyone would like to address the board please step to the Podium please write your full address on there as get yeah and it's okay I'm not CU site the handwriting police but when you state write your name try to write it as neatly as possible because you may not like the way I put it in the minutes if

131I want to follow up with a question I I I can't find you hey everyone my name is Lorie jaffy I have lived in free hole Township for 26 years I have been can you hear me okay can everybody hear me okay sorry I'm gonna hold it I'm gonna hold it sorry okay do over um my name is l jaffy I'm a a resident of free Hill Township I've lived here for 26 years I've been a nurse for 32 I have four adult children that all went to freeold Township Schools um I have great Affinity respect and admiration for the education they received here in Freehold Township I did have prepared results um prepared uh remarks but I'm not referring to them because Mr dixin you answered a lot of what I had in my

132previous remarks but I would like to say this I do agree with Meg's suggestion in that this policy should remain in existence and if we feel that we have issues with the policy that perhaps we reward the policy so that it seems to me that the policy is being considered as abolished or to be abolished because of the um it puts us at risk for litigation I've heard that discussed a lot this evening so if that is the case perhaps we change it so that the policy does support the student support the administration and the school system um but that we can have this policy in effect so that Educators and anyone dealing with this very vulnerable student population will have guidelines to allow them to to um you know go through any processes with

133these students that may be needed um I respect and appreciate everything that you said Mr dixen about how you manage the system but as was mentioned last time by Michelle we won't all be here forever there will be you know people following after us and I believe a policy always serves the people who come after us right um it's a it's a way to protect this population it's the way to provide guidelines for people who don't know how to navigate these Waters I don't see a policy as putting us at risk for litigation if it's created with that in mind and with the sole purpose of protecting this uh very vulnerable student population that's all I have to say thank you hi everyone here we go um I'd like to speak today from the oh

134I'm so sorry yes my name is Nicole dprca I'm ad1 risky Drive um I'd like to speak today from the perspective of a parent of a transgender child in the Freehold Town Township Schools um our experience with our own child coming out as trans and working with the school has been absolutely phenomenal our son's guidance counselor and the entire admin team have gone above and beyond to create the saf safest environment possible for him and they are there for him when any problems arise and we really do feel like one team um this is possible because we as the parents came to The District in support of our child to want to work hands in hand with the school and if I recall correctly from the last board meeting this has been free hold's experience

135so far parents working hands inand with the district which is a wonderful thing and although it may not have happened in Freehold yet the day will come when the child confides confides that they are trained for the staff member and it's simply not possible to tell their parents as the parents may have fallen victim to fear and propaganda and misinformation and disinformation on trans issues holding genuine disdain and contempt for Trans people creating an unsafe unsupportive home since the child and that that's not always indicative of abuse in the home I'd like to add that you don't really know what's going on with the parents if there is no document evidence of abuse since the child cannot change who they are they could be stuck in a no one situation and they truly may not

136be safe not just from physical abuse but more often from psychological torment these feelings can Surly lead to depression substance abuse anxiety and suicide and that's not hyperbole on occasion a child needs to confide with a trusted adult someone other than their parent and the school provides that safe space if that safe space is taken away we run the risk of these kids having no one with whom they can safely share their feelings and gain support trust and resources now even though the policy has to do with trans kids and trans kids make up a tiny fraction of the school population surprisingly enough the part of the policy in question didn't even apply to our our own trans kid just like it wouldn't apply or affect 99.9% of all the parents in Freehold but it's

137so important that the policy remains in place for that tiny tiny subpopulation of trans kids whose lives would be in danger if a forced outing occurred the policy would not only save that child's life but it would protect the district as well when they realize how unsafe it would be to out a child in certain situations in these rare cases the district will find itself so grateful the policy exists and will immediately realize its worth they just haven't experienced a specific case where that part of their policy is warranted yet and if we pl some of room who are against this policy I leave you with this if you're if you aren't fond of the policy there's something that you can do to make it so the policy never affects your family you can go

138home tonight and say these words to your child hey just so you know if you were ever questioning your gender or sexuality we want you to know that we love you for who you are and we've got your back 100% those those simple words solve it all it solves it all if your child was questioning their gender and had no idea if they could talk to you about it saying those words confirm that they can talk to you about it and what a huge weight lifted that would be for your child minutes are up thank you I have one more line can I say one more line one more line okay do this for your own I understand and if you do this for your own kid you'll become the heroes of freeold because it'll

139allow the policy to only apply to this tiny subfraction of trans kids who don't have families as wonderful as yours thank you my name is cormel Ste I live in Freehold I've lived here cor hold the microphone up I've lived here for uh over 21 years and I love this town just as much as all of you do I think what we're arguing about here and I hate to say arguing or disagreeing about is how children are protected everyone in this room wants to see children protected and I believe that children are most protected when the parents are involved and the parents know and if the school is the one to bridge that conversation with a parent that's fine Bridge it but removing this policy uh is still unacceptable in my opinion because if if

140you still don't have it in place where you're going to notify parents you're still putting a legal issue on the district as well and we just heard that it's an atrisk population why do we want to not involve parents and tell them um and I've said this before children are most protected with parents are involved no one loves their children more than a parent I I I I can't understand that long after children are grown and out of the school the parents are still involved in their care uh in addition um I just this board here you guys admitted that you guys put it in place um the people that are up for election in 2019 it wasn't mandated and I know you said you had the Little M on there and I guess it

141was confusing but if if I were a board member and I was not happy with the way something read I would investigate what we can do to change that and navigate it or figure it out whether it was mandated and maybe we shouldn't be using Strauss smme or whatever that policy writing organization is and we should write our own policies or find another place to write policies and um if there's suspected abuse in the home we should investigate it absolutely 100% no matter what the case is we never want to leave a child like like that and um I understand the bathroom law and stuff like that what is the district going to do to protect female children that are in the bathroom and there's a a trans female in the bathroom like what what

142is the district I you know I know that's law and that you have to allow a child to use the bathroom of choice but what is the district going to do to protect those children in there and yeah they're not going to answer they've said that they they can't answer my questions but um yeah so what you're going to have like bathroom attendance like I'm not suggesting that because I don't want our tax dollars to go up but there needs to be something in place that would protect those children girls and it has happened where girls got raped and abused in a bathroom thank you oh you forgot to write your name I did actually I wrote it all the way got you no problem I appreciate it my pleasure hey everybody uh my name

143is Dash deesa I'm also 81 ariskin um Nicole is my wife and I I will not be as eloquent as she was um trust me I had a whole thing planned out and this is what it turned into so um I'm just going to kind of go off of what I have taken some notes off of your discussion um I'm a educator I'm a little school educator in public school um I am also parent of a trans child I'm Nicole's spouse and I myself am transgender and here's the thing you're the Board of Education I'm an educator we need to do what we do we need to educate we need to educate ourselves because as teachers we need to constantly learn and I heard a lot of the discussion about and I don't think it

144was intentional I just think it's a lack of Education I heard a lot of terminology that maybe wasn't exactly correct or maybe just you know ignorance to the fact this round table you're talking about is very important and I for one volunteer whenever you need me to be part of it to speak to that because I'm the lived experience and I am part of this community and we love it here 13 years ago we decided to start a family we said we want to be in free hold that was it we else cu education system as well teachers and I think that you know I want you understand we already have trans kids that you don't even would not be on your quote unquote radar and that's because they come from affirming households but you

145can't tell when household isn't affirming there may not always be that trail abuse is Insidious times and and silent so I'm also having a conversation with I see it in my own kids my own students who've come to me because I am The Trusted adult yeah you know I've sat there across from parents at conferences using the kids given name by their parents because they know that if they're outed they may not be in school the next day and that's not hyperbole we can't do this if we are the stewards of children like you said they're our kids right they're all our kids then we have to be that parent between you know eight and three or whatever it is um I'm sorry I know I'm rling here I took a whole bunch of you

146know notes here I'm very Afra that you're that you're discussing this but please don't miss the fact that right now trans people are the center of a culture War and the survey I read it a bunch of times and as soon as I opened it I said oh my God people are going to n jerk this and go from a place of what they're hear in the media and I think that's what happened those ones you got back in 20 minutes that's exactly what happened right so we need to do a better job of bringing that forward of actually talking about what the policy is like you said if it's not a net loss then keep it um and Mr di you said about how we affirm or we we protect all kids if a

147house is on fire on a on a on a in a city in a town Block House Field's on fire firefighters show up we're not going to look at the firefighters and say what about all the other houses that could catch on fire all houses matter and I think you know I'm wrong with this trans kids and trans people are at the center right now and we are scared and we have to make the schools a safe place I'm an adult 45 years old and I'm scared that's all time hi good evening um do I have to hold the S this okay hi uh Dar um I'm a uh foral Township parent um my kids are now 14 and 20 um I've lived here 25 years as an adult and 5 years as a kid

148I went to Laura Donovan for grades one through five um my daughter nle is now a freshman at communications High School um sometimes the difference between a known abusive home and one where the child is just saying they don't want to tell the parents is the fact that the child hasn't told their parents yet and I again that there are children being abused at home right now and the school does not know the district would benefit from an explicit policy that says there is no requirement to tell parents as an extra layer of protection also um I was dismay to hear gender identity compared to disease it is not a disease the whole idea of notifying parents Tre gender identity as a disease or misbehavior that the parents need to be notified about why aren't

149the parents being notified that their child is cisgender also when my daad was in eighth grade at Baro she knew two kids who were transgender who were afraid to tell their parents these kids are here in our community and they are afraid and regarding the no one loves a child more than a parent there are some homeless transgender youths who would disagree with that thank you my name is Pastor Pat medley I've lived in Freehold Township for 25 years um I was the pastor at the Lutheran at Hope Lutheran Church uh Hope Christian School uh for 18 years I have pastored transgender youth um and adults and I'm an educated I have an education degree before I went to Seminary part of my Seminary education was I took the course on human sexuality at reers

150med school um what do Pastors know about sex we know a lot about sex we do weddings you know we counsel with families we see the whole family not just the student that shows up in the classroom so we're aware of some of the Dynamics in families because we see the whole family very often um my anxiety about uh if we abolish this policy is that transgender students are going to think that the school will automatically out them they're going to guess that that might be the case and without breaking confidentiality about the families that I have pastored many of those children did they were suicidal before their parents were notified by them or with the help of people that they trusted if we eliminate from the students mind a trusted teacher counseler coach that

151could mean some children will die and and I'm really worried about that so so that's one of the reasons I think this policy is essential I would not eliminate it I'll just Qui say for those that aren't aware in the room we all start out female we we have mapped the human genome we do know now for example the genetics that lead to a male's testicles not descending um we know I had a person who came to me and said do you want to hear my story I said yeah tell me your story I never felt like I was a boy I had external male genitalia but I never felt like I was a boy I was an eagle scout Marines I had pain they took me to the hospital said oh you probably have

152to have your pendix out he had cancer of the ovaries I I just think that and people will say oh God doesn't make mistakes no God makes people in very diverse ways I just think we we can't imagine that know enough to make decisions for people they have to discover who they are and kids today they go online they say I wonder who I am and they start discovering some of the wonders of that hello um that's a tough act to follow uh my name is Tina kton um I live um in a Freehold Township since 2006 some of you may remember my children who are now grown um I want to say thank you so much for that call back to Mr Saro yeah exactly uh he really did embody what we want for

153all the kids that you know school is a safe place I'm going to ask two uh rhetorical questions which to think about not asking you to answer them but will you if you repeal the current policy which is to work with children to to get them to uh talk to their parents if you reveal that and you go for a more mandatory reporting will you fully disclose to students anything you tell me we're telling your parents full dis like the Miranda Rights anything you say can and will be reported to your parents number two what impact would that have on those who want to report abuse within their home once word gets out that there's not a safe space that it's going to be bam your parents will know they may misinterpret or misunderstand kind

154of what my pastor said and think I can't tell so I just wanted to leave you with those thoughts not meant for you to answer and you know what thank you you guys have a hard job all right hi I'm Josh chistine uh I currently work as a substitute teacher I do and I've worked with uh students in wide variety of jobs uh swimming instructor substitute teacher K instructor just all kinds of jobs with kids um one thing that I've noticed is that you can't always know if I know a lot of people are saying you don't know if the kids being abused but it's goes even ler when you don't know how the parents will respond to everything even if it's not abusive it could be very um alienating even just as far as

155just oh I'm not going to say I don't approve your lifestyle but now I'm no longer going to look at you the same way I'm not going to talk to you the same way and I feel like as was discussed throughout the meeting you guys were saying oh if I see any example of abuse I'm not going to I'm not going to tell anyone there's not always a side of abuse there's not even always always aign that they'll respond negatively to the point where not even every kid knows if they'll respond negatively which is why they most likely came to you in the first place before going to the to their parent I think that you it shouldn't be appeared in the like it shouldn't be removed in the first place because it's not doing

156any harm at all uh if anything it's keeping you guys less liable like because uh other schools that have removed it have already been brought or uh they had complaints and I believe uh suit has already started coming up uh with the other schools I believe it was manal English toown and milstone I think was milstone I'm sorry amended it I I I apologize for my uh misting there uh but I think uh one person actually had like a really good idea which was uh M Tom sorry uh which was if you don't like the wording of it just work on the wording there's no reason to remove it and as and as like a few people have said if you remove it you're going to remove some level of trust because not everyone even

157understood the wording of the survey that you guys were saying not everyone understands the wording of the actual uh like issue of the uh I'm sorry of the policy thank you I I was P TR to thought there sorry uh but if they don't even understand the policy and they just hear oh well they remove the thing that might have been protecting me they might not even be able to get that explained to them because they're not going to trust you anymore to come to you with that problem they're not going to say like oh did you remove this because now we don't trust you in the first place at all you have to remember that there's a certain level of trust and I think that trust with transgender students has gotten better with the

158policy not worse and I think you're just going to be held more liable not less that's all I wanted to say okay good evening do I push something or okay okay good evening my name is Louise Wen and I live in South buzuk I'm a retired psychiatric nurse practitioner with over 25 years of experience and have treated many children and families from freeholds over the years my wife had 34 years and I have at three adult children three grandchildren today I'll be speaking with my psychiatric nurse practitioner hat on although my mother hat never leaves I'm going to start off with something I prepared then I'm going to wing it a little I'm going to tell you that two one actually one of my clients to a face a face to the statistics you hear

159M was a 9-year-old trans female who came out to her parents 6 month months before I met her because her trusted adult suggested she should she had a good relationship with her parents but was afraid they wouldn't accept this news she was right her disclosure was met with anger invalidation and threats her parents told her if she continued on this path she'd be dead to them faced with having to choose between living as her true self and losing her parents she attempted to hang herself bar temp was interrupted and she was hospitalized but even then parents refused to discuss her gender identity there was no history of abuse so DCP and pece said intervention was not warranted we sent her home after hospitalization we knew in all likelihood she would return and she has since

160attempted suicide several times I've heard a lot during this election cycle about parental rights to know I'm a mother and grandmother of course I agree with that but contrary to what you've heard policy 5756 does not Endor keeping secrets from parents rather it serves to protect wom's children like him by helping him to transverse this difficult Journey safely imagine how your staff will feel if they were the ones who added end to her parents because there was no prior history of domestic conflict or abuse She haven't had a good relationship with them and then she attempted suicide in my professional experience if a child is afraid to tell their parents there is a reason and now I'm just going to wing it but it's still with my psychiatric nurse practitioner hat on I don't know

161how many of you are therapist but we're taught to listen to our guts and I'm sitting here and keep in mind I'm an adult I'm a grandmother my wife and I were the lead couple in the fight for marriage equality both legislatively and in the Lambda will see the one marriage will actually be married 10 years in in few days um I'm sitting here worried about do I come out don't I come out why because well I and I hear a lot of good intentions I do want to say that and I thank you for that I'm also hearing yes we have sensitivity training but I'm hearing like someone else mentioned vocabulary that doesn't exist and I wonder if children hear that you know whether it's words like transgenderism or transgendered the term is trans

162howc me okay can I just finish okay words matter and if it makes someone like me feel anxious I can only wonder how the kids feel when you're sitting in the room I urge you to please keep this child in your mind and do not repeal 5756 it provides the necessary guidance to your STA and protect students thank you am I am I doing this right where do I speaking to like this oh there it goes uh Jacob Pender Rucker New Brunswick I signed up earlier um oh it looks like it's a different one um I'll I'll sign up at the end um Jacob pend Ruckers New Brunswick um and I want to talk a little bit about what some members talked about about parents rights and how it's important that parents are involved and

163the best thing for a child is with parents involved and I completely agree with that and you know who else knows that not just the nine people or eight people here sitting here on the board but every single child knows that as well so the best idea is to think if a child is in a protective safe home that they will come out to their parent first who has raised them their entire life as opposed to a teacher who theyve known for likely less than 9 months and if there's not there's probably a reason for that and that's a reason that a teacher or a school official does not need to know that's reason that they do not need to get in between the life of a child and their parent let me put 57

164and 56 into perspective for everyone just for a second imagine you're working at a big box store and you have tons of departments and one of those departments is a gun counter and you're selling guns and there's a lot of employees you have hundreds of employees it's a big box store and they could be working any where any day their job is fluid and one day they say hey you need to work at the gun counter so the employee goes to the gun counter and he's told how he needs to sell a gun so he looks into his employee handbook and sees no regulations no nothing now that employee could be someone very familiar with New Jersey laws on how you need to register someone on how you need to do a background check on

165selling a gun that person might that person may also be their first day ever seeing a gun their first day ever selling a gun that may be their first time ever doing that and that person is going to look at that handbook see nothing and they're going to assume that they sell it the same way they sell everything else because in that handbook they're not seeing that it's not up to the employee to look at New Jersey state laws to know every single New Jersey state laws to do their job it is your job to provide policies to the teachers to the staff of this school district you keep citing all these things are already protected in the New Jersey laws against discrimination all these different things but what where is that in Freehold if

166you repeal 5756 and Freehold what other policy is in place what are you putting in instead of 5756 to reflect that Freehold supports the New Jersey laws against discrimination how do teachers how do staff members support those laws and follow those laws and lastly I would like to ask because someone said either we whether we keep it or not we're subject to litigation 5756 has been in place for four years since 2019 so I'd like to ask the board attorney how many how many lawsuits how many how many how much ligation has been brought up against this board over with the policy 5756 in the past four years thank you all right we're not going to get provider an answer a that okay push this can you hear me okay okay okay can you hear

167me okay okay um before I read a statement I want to say that uh my name is Janice alanik I live in how Township and I'm a member of the mouth County League of Women Voters and I thank candidates who participated in a very wonderful respectful Forum last night I didn't really plan on reading this statement tonight but after hearing the word parents and parents and parents and parents I'm a parent and I have a background in special education and everybody is sort of acting as if every child has two perfect parents well I had an extremely emotionally abusive marriage to someone very narcissistic who hasn't spoken to my daughter in 17 years because she finally called them out on all of the lies and this was there when she was like you know 15

16816 things were really difficult the school didn't know what was going on but God forbid in her situation if she had had to come out to a parent or like when you talk about these perfect parents and families do you tell both parents do you who decides which parent to tell or if they've got uh my ex-husband had kids from his first marriage so there's stepmothers and stepfathers and mothers and fathers and and divorces and all kinds of stuff you it's a complicated road if you decide that you're going to do that do you notify the parent in 30 days or do you notify them in 45 days and what if the school year is almost over and then they're going to be going to another school do you force the child to tell the

169parents before schools out or do you wait until next year when they have a different teacher um but I I just I'm I really wasn't going to read my statement but I just really feel that that I need to because of the way that things have gotten so so political and the League of Women Voters while it supports issues wants critical thinking discussion respectful discussion and support for issues without worrying about who's going to run for what position who's on the ballot who's not on the ballot basically the League of Women Voters has a long history of advocating for the rights health and education of children defending our democracy and discrimination against the lgbtq plus Community go hand inhand we are gravely concerned with proposed policies that put students safety and mental health at risk

170and violate New Jersey's law against discrimination public schools are a Cornerstone of democracy and New Jersey should strive to ensure our schools are safe inclusive and welcoming for all proposals like this are causing extreme political polarization over maybe one child maybe three children [Music] um it's also causing uh an increase distrust in public education and Civic engagement hiting children puts them at risk for bullying harassment and discrimination it makes them more vulnerable for self harm and suicide here's the bottom line if a child is not sharing information about their sexuality or gender identity with their caregivers those grown-ups should be concentrating on the environment they're fostering within the four walls of their own home instead of attacking and blaming the school where the child might feel safer and I'm sorry I don't get to finish

171reading I will email a copy to you I didn't realize my mic wasn't on all time would anybody else like to address the board um hi uh my name is Megan veren um I'm a substitute with the district um pretty much everyone has already addressed the points I wanted to make um so I I really only have one more Point um and I do before I begin I do want to thank you all for the clarity and Candor you know regarding this policy and that it was made more clear um policy 5756 may not be mandatory but it's still very much needed it was enacted for a reason I understand there's still you know some am um ambiguity in the policy but it still lays out extensive guidelines and it includes protections that have not

172been laid out as clearly and other laws including you know more extensive staff training and assurance that a child won't be outed if that's not what the child wants I can't attach to the training full-time teachers get but I know uh as a substitute teacher we don't get enough training regarding you know education and sensitivity surrounding these topics um it's very basic it's a very brief course online um I think there needs to be you know more education more clarity um and I think that training would provide that um that's why this policy is needed to provide education to you know make sure there's no misinformation going around um that's pretty much is all I wanted to say you know more training is needed thank you hello hi I'm Cheryl Pou this one uh in

173a Freehold Township can you lift your mic so they can hear you in the back oh what do I have to do oh oh I'm sorry thanks um my name is Cheryl Pou I live in Freehold Township Schools um and I'm here to support the um res indication of 5756 um the policy violates parental rights my right to know what's going on with my child um I am very empathetic to Children unfortunately dealing with gender dysphoria and the families that have to deal with that as well however the school should be Advocates of bringing the child to the parent and um not keeping them separated from the parent If the child has an issue the parent should be the ones to know the parent is the one who loves their child the most more than

174anybody else in this room or at school or anywhere else um the majority of children have loving parents there are some kids who may not but the majority do so to say that um a parent is the one who they should be afraid to go to is ridiculous okay um children who are feeling you know that things are not going the way they should will always have some apprehension of of saying something to their parents that's normal just like if if a child or girl got pregnant they'd be you know somewhat apprehensive to tell their parents you know a a teacher or counselor maybe somebody they can trust to go to to discuss the topic but the role of the teacher or the counselor should be is to get the child speaking to the parent

175not the opposite this policy goes against the rights of parents and any one of you I would think would want to know what would be going on with your child in school okay so I think sometimes it's hard to do the right thing but the right thing is to abolish this policy it is not mandatory and as far as education is concerned I think there is a lack of education on this topic of gender dysphoria throughout the entire school system and as far as I'm concerned the state because if you educated yourself on the issue you would know that it is not the way forward for a child to be affirmed in their identity that way they need mental assistance to uh they yeah you can disagree yeah that's fine let the speaker disagree that's

176but facts are facts do your research there's plenty of regret out there okay so it's not the place of the school to Usher a child into a transition okay that's a family matter so I am here to support the motion to to to uh remove this policy from the school thank you oh just one other thing the children are protected under New Jersey lad anyway so there are protections already in place hi my name is Sher and I agree with Cheryl can you state your full name oh Sher can sorry and I agree with Cheryl I'm from Freehold also and I think that parents should be notified let's say a kid is going through something and it's a phase or a fad and you go ahead and you protect this child and the child doesn't

177want to go down this route but because of peer pressure or whatever you the child goes down this route and they don't want to and if you don't tell the parent the parent doesn't know what if the parent can help the child you know so I agree I think it should be I think it it should stay thank you okay on hi I'm Michael kassi um so I am in agreement as well of abolishing the policy I think I could speak for the majority of the people surrounded by myself and my neighbors were also in a great because we are very active parents we want to be involved in our children's lives and I would want to know if something's going on for example I forget all the ages but like if my child was

178to show up at the mall to get her her ears pierced she couldn't do it without me there if I they wanted to get a tattoo they couldn't do it without me there either I could consent I could let them get a tattoo at 15 but if something's going on in school somebody's bullying somebody in school if somebody if my trial graffitied on the lockers something in school of course the school's going to call me so why in what an important topic like this if somebody was going to come up if my child was deciding or not sure what was going on I want to know so I could help them so I could guide them so I could take them to talk to them whatever it's going to be I didn't say I was

179I was going to you know not listen to them I'm not going to dis own them I want to know what's going on though and I think that's the right thing to do as a parent because I could say from the majority of the people in this town probably even the surrounding towns these are family towns most families are for their children I understand there other people made points that yes there are parents there are there's dysfunctional families and whatever no no offense to that but I'd say the majority of the people that I'm surrounded with their parents care about their children we do everything I just got back in practice I mean you know we're in the field at night you know so I mean that and that's it I mean I wanted to

180keep it simple but I think the bottom line is I want to know I don't think that should be hidden I I my child can't can't get a tattoo without me knowing so I think this is more important than a tattoo thank you thank you hi my name is Michelle gesar I am a resident of M County I am a teacher in M County and I'm a parent of a child of M County I actually went to par school and westf and not in Township High School can you your town please paron my town is Neptune um so the reason why I came tonight to support keeping 5756 is because as a teacher for over 20 years I've definitely seen amazing parents who and I appreciate that the parents cannot understand that there are students

181who cannot tell them their parents things I I appreciate that they love their their kids so much and they they will accept just like the gentleman before he said whatever his kid needs he's there that's great and most of the parents that I interact with in the schools where I teach are the same but there are many that are not that way and 5756 provides a little more protection for that very very vulnerable population and as an elementary school teacher and I have over 20 years I've only had two students who have ever told me that they were misgendered one whose family was very supportive and we were able to work we worked really well with them um and a lot like what Mr Dick Ste was saying like when you you you bring your

182family in and you have the conversation you make the plan and then I had another student who hit under my desk every day because he didn't want to go home and the reality is that that happens and I'm sorry I'm I'm actually not sorry I'm happy for those of you who have no idea what that looks like but I do know what that looks like and 5756 isn't for me and it isn't for you but it's for the parents who aren't here and it's for the kids who can't speak at home so please keep 5756 because you don't know what's coming you talked earlier about how the demographics are changing in Freehold so it's an amazing Community it was when I grew up here too but that might be changing so the more protections that

183you can provide for the people who are coming here the better and if it's not harming anybody and it's really not and it's not changing anything about the way that you already act do everything please keep it please keep the kids safe thank you thank you hi my name is uh Adam kgal uh 3202 jica Circle um so I recently moved here from s island the stereotypical move um but we moved here not because of uh the price of houses or because we really wanted you know a bigger house but we moved out because the education system in New York was failing us and we picked freeholds specifically because of the statistics here and my son has thrived here he goes to Ericson he's in third grade he is the happiest boy I've ever seen

184and it's only getting better um I am a veteran I'm a cop for the Army I'm a firefighter and I have lived all around the world and I have been in contact with thousands of people from different nationalities and cultures and I was in the Army in February of 2012 when the Do Not uh don ass's Health policy was stricken and it was a it was a great moment uh people came out that were scared um that didn't know what to do and they were accepted um and I truly uh Embrace everyone no matter who they are um but as a parent um you a lot of people here have have said all the negatives that can happen um but no one has really said the positives that can happen out of uh informing parents

185um and it's it's it's equal parts yes bad things can happen but some good can come out of it as well as a firefighter we can't save every house we try and we try to save as many lives as possible so if telling the parent you know unfortunately there may be bad repercussions but there can be some good ones out of it as well I'm not saying it's a bad or a good thing but we have to we we have to keep the parents informed you know this is going to be maybe a bad analogy but a lot of people said how if if the news comes home the parents can react horribly um and again this may be a really bad analogy but there are parents out there that if their kids come home

186with a very low grade on their test can end very bad so do we not tell the parents 10th grades anymore either because I know parents personally who have beaten their children for low grades beating them so when do we stop that is that is my biggest fight I'm not saying this policy is is horrible or it's good but I'm just saying when does it stop when do we pick what we tell the parents thank you your three minutes rep if you can W up quickly thank you I want to remind everyone when you to when you address the board to face the board um okay okay so I spoke at um I don't know if it was the last meeting or the me oh sorry my name is Mary woodell I live in fre

187Township and um I spoke at I told the story before I'm not going to tell it again but I just want to say to about Mr dickstein and Diane breath hour this this District does a great job of finding the balance and I think it's really important that we keep the lines of communication open and like what that man just said you know if we can all acknowledge that this is a very can be a really really difficult issue for these kids going through this um wouldn't it be great to think like you know if there's a kid who's keeping the secret and they're having emotional problems about it or whatever who's taking care of them when they go home at night who who's in who's aw like when they're in their room and maybe

188there was somebody on the bus that was harassing them even though they're not supposed to maybe there was somebody who was picking on them in the classroom when they're not supposed to the teachers can't see everything wouldn't it be nice to know that the schools and the parents are communicating the way they always do here and they've done a great job and I just want to say um I think this this policy has just been nothing but divisive and I'd like to see it go away so we can just get back to what you guys have always done is a great job and I think we've always worked well together and I just want to see that continue and have the fighting stop and that's it thank you would anybody else like to address the

189board okay yes I would just oh sorry I would just ask again my name is l Jack I'm from pre hle Township um if the policy Remains the policy as it as it is written does not prevent someone from communicating with parents is that correct correct it doesn't prevent notification correct okay thank you would anybody else like to address the board okay okay um seeing nobody we are going to move on to um personel committee um I believe the only person from that committee here tonight is is Miss B so make you have to move sorry hold on hold on where' my board docks go okay I'll a hard copy all my mes okay no uh see okay the Personnel committee did not meet the evening um I would like to move the following item

190number two resignations as listed new employment as listed establish start date as listed change of assignment and salary adjustments as listed change of assignment for the school year 2023 2024 as listed extend or change long-term assignment as listed leaves of absence as listed curriculum committee as listed PTO honoraria as listed and thank you to the PTO for all of these wonderful activities that they enable us to have um District honoraria as listed District honoraria update as listed volunteer as listed long-term substitutes as listed certified substitutes as listed non-certified substitutes as listed salary adjustments as listed okay did I miss anything does anybody have any questions on any of the items I have one question in new employment what why would some be highlighted they were after the agenda was Frid okay sorry my mic is

191not okay then can I have a second I'll second R call Mrs brand yes Mrs coino yes Mrs oan yes Mrs fman yes Mrs VY yes Mr Williams yes Mr Osa yes Mrs Lambert yes motion carries motion carries thank you Doug okay don't tell him I said that what's on the record now yeah okay moving on to our curriculum and P um and when we move into this we need to decide whether we are going to do the first reading I'd like to make a motion I want I'd like to make a motion to put policy 5756 on a first reading for abolishment since we have our board attorney how I'm going to make a motion to table okay so we have to vote the table first I second I'll second motion table hold on

192one second sorry and that was I think hit first for no Mary did Mary Mary did the first I think second okay so is that a a a roll call vote we're on the motion to table motion to table yes one of our ethical obligations is to uh confine my board action to policymaking planning and appraisal and I will help frame policies and plans only after the board has consulted with those who will be affected by them this puts a duty on the board to delay actions until we truly can understand and digest the information available on the topic the concerns of our community and help best to serve the interests of our primary constituency our kids that is why I supported of the community Round Table where we can do what we have done

193before with controversial issues that have lots of misinformation sring from outside groups and have a conversation with the parents community members teachers and kids as to what eliminating this policy would mean to them I think we tried to gather that information in put the survey but that format is not conducive to the conversation and good information we hope to share I think it proved challenging to develop questions that were not confusing as many folks on both sides expressed concerns to me that they answered the question quote wrong I am making motion to table this until we've had a chance to understand and explain more clearly the impacts of removing this policy and the community's feedback as to whether those impacts make sense for fre Township it is a way it is a way to turn

194down the political noise on this issue and talk about the actual issues at play we know that the intention of this policy was to protect a highly vulnerable group of students transgender youth are two to 2.5 times more likely to attempt suicide they are more likely to be homeless and to be rejected by their parents not that they all will be we've heard from parents tonight obviously that that's not the case in um but we also know that lgbtq us that report having at least one trusted adult were 40% less likely to report report a suicide attempt in the last year this is what prompted the legislature to act 8 years ago to try to Foster our supportive environment in our schools they did so in an overwhelming bipartisan fashion and the bill was signed

195into law as you pointed out Michelle by Chris Christie this board adopted the policy that came out of that unan unanimously as well for the same reason the goal here was to protect kids so if we're going to get rid of this policy we need to recognize that transgendered students are small minority that has historically been subject to discrimination in fact in this very District last year there was at least 15 incidents where kids here in preo Township were sub subjected to bullying because of their perceived sexual orientation or perceived gender nonconformity those are the incidents we know about if we SE to remove this policy which was designed to protect these most vulnerable kids we need to understand the implications of doing so I don't feel I'm in a position to do that that's

196why I need the motion to table Mr Lambert can I respond um yeah this motion um for the public sure this motion for the public is to do a first reading and with respect to your comments Mrs coalina we would have a round table before the second reading so it opens up the possibility that something can come up at the round table to educate board members if they feel that they want to vote a different way but an overwhelming majority of the community would like this policy rescinded and perhaps replaced one day with a policy written by professionals and lawyers that know how to write this policy properly which does not infringe on parental rights there were some wonderful things that Meg pointed out that are in the policy that we could preserve so um

197I'm not opposed to adopting a policy in the future that may not infringe on parental rights but right now I'm pretty cemented in my position to abolish because of that element of it so I want to make that perfectly clear I sympathize with all the other elements so um just to put out there that's why I feel like we're ready to do a first reading and then have the round table and then we have the second reading and it provides plenty of opportunity for debate thank you like can I ask a question Mike okay um Mike why couldn't we do do it all hand in hand like you clearly said that you know you're not you're open to a some sort of policy down the line why couldn't we do this all hand in hand

198and probably Mr gross could answer that better than me but he probably won't obviously right now but that policy already was written once and look what happened so so I feel like it's not going to be this board that's going to have the brain power to put that policy in place that the whole State's going to adopt I think it has to go back to the legislature back to the people um that are going to write these policies and Implement them in the schools it Causes Chaos for us and now we're sitting here holding the sandbag so the state should take a look at what what's happening with the controversy over this policy and rewrite it and keep the good points that are in it take out the points that violate parental rights and then

199it it would be something that wouldn't be so controversial but I don't know that this board can do that and Mrs Lambert um could maybe um expand on that but that's my opinion anyway to answer that I don't know um I'm not saying having a policy down the line after this one is abolished if it is is abolished is out of the question I understand why most members would want a policy just to have a little extra reassurance despite the understand the elements of the policy that would stay in place are already in place in statute and the ones that we're arguing about are not going to stay in place and the townships that amended the policy to address that one issue are currently tied up in court so that's why it can't be done

200hand inand it it needs to be done more linearly in my opinion but I would think that we would have to consult our board attorney ad noiseam um before we took further action on any type of amendment I wouldn't want to call it amendment I would want it to be a whole brand new policy that that's not going to happen overnight whether the rest of the state wants to adopt a different our whole our policy should we put one in place go right ahead but um that's going to not going to happen overnight I mean and this has been a discussion that's taken the better part of a year the better part of our resources our time um and at some point we need to decide what we want to do it then put it

201to bed so we can move forward well it's on a first I a first reading tonight or not a first reading tonight it's going to end up on a first reading I'm sure at some point so um I'm I seconded the the motion to table it because um as you said before if we repeal the policy nothing's going to change we've already been doing these communications plans with the parents it seems performative to me to repeal this policy now um when nobody's being affected no parents' rights are being affected and nothing is going to change in the daily operations of the school except that children who may be entering our schools in this vulnerable Community from this vulnerable Community will lose a sense and a guarantee that if they are not comfortable and they are

202fearful um that they could be outed in a way that could cause them harm so so I think that yes that could this policy be better sure I'm not opposed to that but I don't think that we should be repealing this policy without anything in its place um I will say this much regarding student awareness of our policies I think that you would be hardpressed to find uh most students who are aware of all our policies and what they provide and I think Diane could Dr breau could speak better to this as a middle school principal our students come to school all the time and if they they self-incriminate where middle middle middle school staff has to stop them in their tracks and say understand what you are telling me I'm going to have to

203tell your parent and they go anyway you know they go anyway I don't know that anything that goes on in this we are a k3a district this is not a high school district if we were a high school district I would venture to say that they would be way more aware of the actual policies I don't know how much weight I put in that argument when our students are 3 years old to 13 14 personally but I you know I welcome being debunked on that I don't I that's just how I personally feel on that they they are aware of what we tell them what we teach them they have no idea who you are they don't know what a governing what a board of education does they have no idea they just know what

204we do they know what we say and our actions that we care about them more than anything in the world and we'll do anything to protect them that's what they know because that's what they feel and that's it and I and I respectfully hear all that what you're saying I am very saddened that we are sitting here Becky did a beautiful presentation tonight and the and we are not talking talking about students and their achievement and their growth we are talking amongst ourselves we have divided ourselves as a board and I I am heartbroken having worked in this district for 23 years I have never ever ever ever started the application to put in my retirement papers but I'll tell you right now this is one of the most disheartening conversations that we've endured for

205over a year yeah Michelle like it was never brought up to I'd like to make a statement also I think that the majority of this policy may have been just to divide everyone because all the uh the safeguards in place for the kids are in place in the schools the parents are being communicated with eventually or with you know understanding from the kids I think this is going just against like Diane said to bring people to to discussion and and contradiction I think I support Mike and I support Neil and Michelle I think we all are basically saying the same thing the children are protected we want them protected but we also want parents to be protected it's not about State step stepping in between a parent and a child and it's not about hurting

206a child or outing a child it's about doing what's best for a child the oldest people we have the oldest children student the older oldest students we have are 13 or 14 years old do you let them smoke a cigarette do you let them drink a uh a shadow whiskey no we make them we take them and nurture them and teach them what's right and down the line when they're ready they can make their own decisions so one of the uh parents out there said there were um regrets and there are regrets they showing people after 18 after puberty that have changed their minds and realize that they made a big huge mistake and they're the ones committing suicide they're the ones in uh depression they're the ones with uh nervous breakdown so I think

207we should just slow down and let parents be open with their kids thank you can I respond to you I'm going to try to do this the best possible way I can since the the first day you've comeing to board meetings and now elector the board you leave that flag for parental rights okay and I agree parents need parents need rights but the problem is that you perverted the termal parental rights you brought politics into this you're not for parental rights you just literally just said you just said you were for the kids stop please stop and because again I talk to paraka District this is disagree let him speak okay we need to be respectful of one another ex he speaking his opinion you need to let him speak parents who actually me questions

208about the survey and they they brought upal rights to me and I asked them what rights do you feel that you're not being provided by the Freehold Township Board of Education not what they might have heard if something that's happen in Marvo or how or any other surrounding Town very hard for to get an answer to that question matched with the fact that we did have a survey Miss Montgomery presented the results that curently said over 90% I don't know the exact somewhere between 90 and 97 let's call it they have knowledge of what goes on in our schools so again what rights are we taking away from parents I would someone I would like someone to answer our question and you you're you sit here you rot the flag for par the rights so

209maybe you can answer that question what right as a son of a child in within the school do I not do am I not getting cuz I'm been I'm in the 97% I know it's going on with my children on a day-to-day basis so again I I agree with Dr Beth Hower as well that we have more important business to attend to District wise 100% but this was brought up under this this this flag of parental rights and in what rights are we denying our parents what hav been able to answer that question can I answer that question oh please because right are being offended when kids aren't spending time studying when 54% of our kids are learning and and not at the 80% that they were before the pandemic we kept our kids home

210for for a year they were forced to wear masks they were forced to to uh be subjected to emotional harm these are car these emotions carry with them every day in school I mean I don't know there were there classes that certain par that many parents were offended by but no one paid attention to the to the round table with that and they were legislated by law the I'm talking about the sex education classes in the the second through through 8th grade so those offended a lot of people we don't teach sex education in second grade well there be clear there classes regarding those okay then to your see can I respond I don't want to feel like I'm interrupting here but go ahead okay keep it quick one quick question have an executive session

211no I'm I apologize break do okay would you agree that a parental right of opting out of the health and phys curriculum would that be considered a parental right they should have had parental op in understand but we we've heard that story conversation I'm going to end that conversation that's irrelevant we need to get back to the business at hand which is that we have a motion on the table to put on for a first reading abolishing I'm getting there I'm getting there 5756 to which Mary countered with a motion to table that motion so the first motion that needs to be voted on is the motion to table Mike's motion are we ready to vote on that let's and do a roll call roll call we're doing the table we voting to table a

212yes vote will table the motion and there will be no action on that policy tonight wait say that one more time a yes vote will mean that there will be no action taken this evening on the policy vote Yes to table it no to not table it it's correct correct yes vote will table the motion and as a result there will be no moving of the uh the abolishment of the policy yes we'll table a no will get us to the vote on the motion to abolish if everyone's clear they're clear roll call Mrs bran no Mrs coino yeah uh Mrs o Salin that was a no Mrs thorman yes Miss vori no Mr Williams yes Mr Amarosa no Mrs Lambert no motion to table does not carry we're back to the main motion which

213was the motion to abolish policy 5756 as a first reading ready for the roll call yes okay Mrs bran yes Mrs coino no Mrs o solivan yes Mrs thorman no Mrs Veni yes Mr Williams no Mr Amoroso yes Mrs Lambert yes motion carries to abolish for the first reading the policy now we need to have a round table and understand that you have another vote in November you can change your vote if do your homework talk to your constituents I have for months on end I recommend you all do the same and come back prepared in November rest of AG anybody have an issue up here with the November second date that's what we it's a Thursday right November 2nd okay I'll ask Kelly tomorrow I'll tell you're reach is everybody on the board okay

214with the November 2nd date for Round Table and spreading the word we can only have three board is okay we can't have five board members pres we're have to have a sign up sheet or a lottery break into smaller groups right we went what was that Bara we went into room no three hole we went into different rooms so that we were not four different rooms right so that we were not all together but right I guess we didn't consider that for the potential October 16th date because that was going to be at the bar in the Baro gym so I guess if we can secure a location where that is possible we can have more than four board members as long were spread out throughout the building Michael it's enough to give you anxiety

215I know it gives me a little anxiet I won't attend I'll just keep it clear I um okay hello um okay now the rest of curriculum depends on the the size of the wall the height of the wall we were on separate Island there was we were in completely different of the wall someone was in a library someone was in the gym as long as you're not conversing with each other not violating the Sunshine Law no soon board members went to their respective locations as soon as they walked in and when people checked in and said okay you're as long as you guys stay separate and you don't converse about board business all right do you want me to move yes pleas yes all right um we did meet this evening um present was uh

216Mrs Montgomery Mr Williams Mr Amoroso myself and Mr D 16 joined us for forun um we discussed the items on the agenda we had the njsla presentation by the way thank you for putting that together that was very important information for this board to consider thank you um Title One policies that are on the agenda um there are three Title One schools um they will be listed under the um policy um oh sorry now I messed up um September 28th um that we had a professional development day that was early release and this is kind of what Mrs Montgomery was talking about in terms of our diving deep into Data our staff actually analyzed the evidence statements from the njsla in each building and so they saw where any potential weaknesses were with the students

217and got to really familiarize themselves with how that data looks and how it can be used to drive instruction um we discussed the 2year math acceleration pathway that we have created um this is to give our students in Middle School a path way to Geometry for those students that qualify um and right now there are several students in on that track um we discussed the revised District mentoring plan and the revised District personal development um plan um which is on to be amended because of the chapter 9 requirements which were just updated okay yeah yeah again and and that oh why can I ask why like what's driving it to happen so soon again um no no it we just needed to revise our documents to be aligned with the new the new um requirements

218of the chapter that was adopted this summer right um and the impetus for us to do it most immediately is because qac is coming okay we could have in in other under other circumstances we have waited and just done it next year okay okay but not qac nope ha those S those were um I would like to move for first reading the policy regulations listed um I would also move the course reimbursement as listed the teacher practicum observation and placements as listed uh the revised uh professional development plans and mentoring plan as listed the HIV district and school grades for the 2022 2023 school year the affiliation agreement with Keen University and that's it okay any questions can I have a second second all in favor say I number five item one number five item

219one all right motion carries thank you motion carries moving on to finance facilities and transportation Miss vender toy the finance facilities and transportation committee did meet this evening in attendance were Mr D Mrs Lambert Mrs brand myself Mr dixin um for a little while um we discussed a transportation issue and the committee discussed um a solution we discussed the 2425 budget some items for the 2425 budget include Staffing workers compensation and equipment needs we went over the construction update uh we discussed the progress of the current HVAC projects and the rod Grant motions on tonight's agenda we also discussed adding a few items as an alternate bid to the HVAC projects that we will bid out this spring um for a facilities issue we discussed a number of critical facility equipment issues they include the

220trailer at the Deep PO for the tww staff hbac unit Vents and one of the vehicles for Property Services we over a facility use policy um multiple groups are using the same permits for fields and we may have to revise the regulations at an upcoming meeting Food Services we discuss the revisions policy 8500 the most significant change is that in 2425 we will um be offering breakfast in our schools currently the EC is the only school that we are mandated to offer breakfast and then we went over the agenda items that's it you want to move the rest oh yeah okay so hot Leave Me Alone um agenda item I'm going to move the secretary and treasures report item number three as listed number four bills and claims as listed thank you Mrs Bren for

221doing them uh total bills in the amount of 1,875 8457 uh the 929 payroll of 2,491 73275 and the 1013 payroll 6940 a grand total of 6,862 68673 um number five travel and related expenses as listed number six transfers as listed number seven standard operating procedures and purchasing manual as listed number eight mandatory use of direct deposit as listed number nine the nursing Services as listed number 10 approval preliminary eligible caller state project number 166 0-02 1-23 r501 hbac upgrades number 11 approval of preliminary eligible Coster state project number 1660 d025 d23 D r501 hbac upgrades number 12 the approve the co bid with CD CD government CDW government Inc for 2324 number 13 the idea basic fiscal year 20124 Grant number 14 the ARP Grant number number 15 honoraria for Joseph J ktina school

222thank you um in the total amount uh 20,000 20,000 thank you number 16 a donation from the Lord Donovan school PTO to laa Donan School in the amount of $225,000 to be used on the sound system thank you thank you yes thank you any questions um the transfer for the number three the printing contract charges why weren't they invoiced in 2223 the company didn't send the invoice we had what we thought it was all and when we spoke to the company they said they had I some employees that weren't there anymore and they miss sending it out to us so we own the money as per the contract and there's no you snooze you loose I tried I tried that that defense didn't work it's not ideal I'm not happy with it the fact that

223I could have spent the money closed that last year's budget and we were getting some bills um and then they oh yeah by the way person left them this is what so we had breakage from our property insurance and that's where it came from the Cub this expenditure does that work in court snoo you lose def any other questions can I have a second second all in favor say I I okay motion carries okay I I did oh great you r as well so if mind's watching hey Mindy Mindy yes I'm fine I roll my eyes um moving on to uh old business new business president's remarks I will refrain from all of that we already discussed a round table on November 2nd uh check your emails from all the buildings to participate in any

224of the elementary and middle school events and fundraisers um I was alerted that a nothing bun cake Bulet fundraiser from Ericson yeah so if you feel like getting fatter go right ah it's really good uh no so keep um an eye out for all the schools all the events all the fundraisers we get the emails with the updates I'm just going to urge you to do that is there anybody not getting the updates they come about weekly when you open themed in the eded in the s'more is typically the something right right and in the in the newsletter we'll give you the updates to some fundraisers if they're listed problem with email in general I don't think it's specific to that situation but I know I have to resolve it you have what I had

225I told you that I had that once before too going to J Pat up until about two weeks ago a month ago give or no wa there was something wrong with the website so um when they click there there were two websites so light of the fact that we have an executive session and we will uh possi possibly take action after it I'm going to move right on to the second opportunity for public participation if anyone would like to address the board um please do so please write your name and address on the signin sheet and state your name in town for the record statements I'm skipping right over it skip right over it statement should be limited to 3 minutes in length and should not be seene or defamatory in nature uh not really

226a public participation but my name is Lisa Johnston I'm the president of our freeold Township Education Association so I'm doing a public service announcement we are having our meet the candidates night on Thursday this Thursday the 19th at 7 o'clock we sent out of the flyer again today and that is the one with the correct Zoom link there was a flyer sent about 3 weeks ago that does not have the right Zoom link so I wanted to make a public service announcement that we are sponsoring and meet the candidates nights for our board candidates please use the one that came out today that is the link to use um I will probably mail something out to the entire District tomorrow with the correct link as well because we want as many people as possible to

227be hearing what our candidates have to say so short and sweet everyone's going to hopefully have a good evening because it's now quarter to 11 and you guys have executive session yes exactly I get at 5:00 to get to that middle school cuz it starts at 7:15 thank you thank you okay um Jeff you wanted to mention something I don't know if this qualifies as new business or old business but the hearten game God willingly will be played Monday night at open at seven stinks so again I'm not sure if it's old business or new business because we've canc 23rd yes Monday night the 23rd Monday night the 23rd at what time 7 o'clock six o'clock and open cut I'm shot okay open okay also school pictures are coming home they look awesome great job

228as always yes you may sorry I didn't see that you wanted to I thought no one else wanted to speak so I just uh one is I want to thank everybody because I know these are difficult uh decisions that we have to make um and I just wanted to make one more comment to m Mr Williams you're talking about how are parental rights violated um based on this policy I guess your question was how how are we not having our parental rights um honored with this policy uh because it's in writing in a policy stating that we have no rights to know what our children are doing that's how it's being violated not really that's not really what it says it just says Al consent is not required parental no it says notification also in

229theal notification there's no affirmative duty to notify right exactly so since it's in the policy now it's up to the school to notify us or not you don't have a duty to notify us so that's I'm just trying to say the reason why because it's in writing it's in a a policy so if you want to remove the policy and have a you know like if if if you understand the child's family is the kid is very dist to talk to his parents you know you can kind of work with that and and try and get the kids together with the parents to discuss any problems they may have but the point is when it's in writing it's in a policy in a document we're signing our rights away when we say we we recognize

230that policy and we agree with it so that's why so our par our rights are being minimized so anyway that's all I wanted to say thanks thank you uh may I also add a state your name again please uh my name is Josh kersen I was up earlier uh I just wanted to uh say really fast that uh there they can still like you can still you've been saying that uh you talked to them to try and set up so that they feel comfortable talking to the parents right that's not like being table like that's not that wouldn't stop that's been going on the whole time if the student doesn't feel comfortable they don't have to but you can still keep working with them and if they say hey I don't feel comfortable you won't

231force them to but it's still an option it's not taking any of the rights away because you're not making them do anything so just wanted to point that out also uh I I still haven't heard any answer to that either uh but thank you for your time I really appreciate all of you coming on and dealing with so many people and so much things going on I understand this is a very uh divisive topic so thank you so much thank you round table November 2nd yeah hi J Jacob Pender Ruckers New Brunswick and I'm just back up here to say that I'm very disappointed in the transparency of the school board tonight the lack of putting 575 six on the agenda has confused many it was not brought up during new business it was added

232to the agenda during the meeting that gives the public no time to come out and discuss something that is not it's not involved in new business you change the agenda as you were voting on it that is not transparency we pay as taxpayers fund the schools of New Jersey I don't know about anyone else but I am very disappointed that this was brought up to a vote not just under new business I can understand that but added to the agenda so basically that means that people can see an online agenda come to the Schoolboard meeting or not come because they don't see something on it and then the school board can change the agenda at the time of the meeting they can add anything they want take away anything they want vote on it during

233the meeting that is not appropriate that is not transparency and that is not how Schoolboard should be run thank you hi I W again I wanted to finish my statement um but first I I wanted to say that um all of you here are appreciated you all wear different hats you go home your Ps parents you go home your spouses you got your jobs you you have your position on the board and I hope that you will understand that I wear different hats I'm a parent I'm a league volunteer anyone that received any text messages from me or emails from me I want to make it very clear that as a league volunteer every candidate gets the exact same script which is written by the organizer if I happen to have been the tech person

234last night on The Forum all I'm doing is copy pasting a message that goes to a candidate that says I'll be here if you have a problem with your mic or whatever whatever happens you don't feel well and you have to leave I do that and I take that my position with the League of Women Voters very very seriously and protect that reputation um but as a parent I am not willing to wait until a child does commit suicide because somebody did something and I just want to read the the very last part of the statement from the league and this was written from the the state level the the board of directors for the New Jersey League of Women Voters it's important to note that the policy 5756 is not a standalone policy but

235part of a concentrated effort trying to repeal it to undermine public education in addition to attacks on lgbtq and student plus um Plus student rights the campaign includes book bands attacks on sexual education and attempts to rewrite American history by prohibiting accurate and necessary conversations about race and Equity the League of Women Voters cannot stand by while a small minority uses our classrooms as political backgrounds at the expense of our students and our country's future this is also attack on our Public School Educators and has served to drive highly trained experienced teachers out of the out of the field it's time to say no to these attacks time to support our Educators and stand up for our children we urge the board to the board of education to reject the proposals under consideration tonight which

236you you already have done the first read um I hope that you will all the the political divisiveness that has been ramped up throughout all of New Jersey and I've probably been to 20 different Board of Ed meetings and I have seen people say things that are just so outrageous and unnecessary and hurtful I don't want to be the one parent that didn't stand up and say something until a student committed suicide I'm sorry thank you very much thank you and I hope you will consider your position would anyone else like to address the board okay um seeing none I'd like to thank all of you who came out to participate tonight uh for for your input we value your input um please I would remind you all um that to look on our website

237for to confirm the community round table and um at this point I'm going to make a motion to go into executive session um can I have a second a second second okay whereas pursuant to njsa 10412 B the Board of Education May exclude the public from that portion of a public meeting at which the board discusses any of the matters described at njsa 10 412b items 1-9 now therefore be it resolved that in accordance with the provision of the open public meeting act the Board of Education shall conduct a closed session pursuant to the personnel and legal exceptions prescribed by njsa 10412 for the purposes of discussing a Personnel matter it is anticipated the length of time of this executive session will be 45 minutes and that action may be taken in public at the

238after the executive session be a further resol that the said discussion may be disclosed to the public and the reasons for discussing and acting upon it in closed session no longer exist so at this point we're going to uh go into executive session action may be taken at the end of executive session on the item that we discuss while in executive session we hope like it should take no longer than 45 minutes um so they have to I have to ask you all to wait out the hallway we're going to take a two-minute recess I don't think no how you doing