Freehold Township Board of Education Meeting September 26, 2023

001all right let me know when okay okay I'd like to call this meeting to order the mission of the Freehold 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 that this meeting was posted on the public bulletin board of all Freehold Township Schools on the entrance door to the administrative offices of the board of education on the district website at the office of the Freehold Township Clerk published in the Asbury Park Press on January 6 2023 and sent to the news transcripts on January 4th 2023. I'd like to invite you to join us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

002and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you okay roll call Mrs bran Mrs casalino Mr Gargiulo here Mrs O'Sullivan president Mrs Thalman yes Mrs benatoli here Mr Williams here here Mr Amoroso here Mrs Lambert here we have a quorum I'd like a motion to approve the regular meeting minutes from September 12 2023. second all in favor say aye motion carries okay um I will save my president's remarks until after um we get through the administrative reports so I think we'll start on the administrative report Bob with board member certification and then facilities okay all right so hi Robert DeVito the school business administrator slash board secretary certifies and as of August 31st 2023 no line item has been over expended in violation of njac

0036A colon 23a-16.10 C3 and that sufficient funds are available to meet the district's Financial Obligations for the remainder of the fiscal year the next item here is the budget calendar and for those who've been on the board for a while this is an annual uh item that we put on here usually in October this year I've decided to start the budget process a little bit early um if you look at the calendar it's almost identical to last year where we start the process now working with the admin team we start gathering information we start having our first conversations in January and February as a board barring any change in the election calendar which I don't think there will be um we'll have to adopt the tentative budget in March and then we will have a

004final budget hearing in April so this is a Cusack item and that's why I'm going to Cusack frame of mine so I decided to get on here for a month early anyone have any questions about the calendar itself okay next thing facility update so you probably recall probably about six months ago now we had a conversation about a potential need for a referendum so I just want to talk we're almost at that point to have that conversation and I want to go through with you guys just some things and for the next five to seven minutes on facility so quick history for the district the last time we had a referendum was in 99 and then again in 2000 or 2001 and the primary purpose of those referendums was for building new things new gyms

005new cafeterias the new West Freehold school every school got an addition we got new roofs at that point in time which now are all out of warranty and with the exception of the two that we just put on at West Freehold and over at Donovan all leak um all that new stuff that we purchased way back when has now become old so before we talk about kind of our needs going forward I did want to give you guys you guys can each take this it's kind of a listing of what we've done and and I do want to thank this board and all the previous boards I mean I've been here eight years now and we have gotten a lot of work done so it's not like we've been sitting around doing nothing to maintain

006our facilities for the last eight to ten years I know prior to my arrival um the board had redone the parking lot in between here and over at Fort below um Mr Amoroso the the cupola which has been dedicated to you when it was redone and there's some things done but if you look at the the doctrine I just handed out we have spent 23 and a half million dollars on projects so that's the good news the bad news is I have a list of at least 42 million dollars more that needs to get done so you know I'm not going to go through this whole list I mean the big pieces was the ESET that we did which impacted all the schools some of the things that you see in Bull bear those were

007things that were emergencies I remember my second winner here um pulling up into the parking lot over winter break and the entire facility team was outside as the pipes burst to run the boiler to here um the gym floor over Katina when I came back the floor had already sort of bubbling up West Freehold school we had a replace all that um HVAC has failed so we've done a lot but there's still a lot to go and just to give you guys an update we have um we haven't gotten the official notification from the doe I know it's been announced in the paper we're receiving a 1.4 million dollar Rod Grant and that'll be applied to two future projects for HVAC replacement over at Erickson and Applegate that will account for 40 of that projected

008bid cost which is about 3.5 million dollars we also so submitted for a rod Grant but it did not receive approval for because it was a level two priority and they were only able to fund level one for those who've been here for a while as I remember the switch gear box in the back of Eisenhower correct and we didn't have school for a couple of days three days so we did not have school for three days so that that's not a priority it it is well so the way they did it was it was HVAC Roofing and I think windows were like the big three winners the electrical system upgrades fell to a priority too so they ran they had a thousand applications from the 600 school districts to be reviewed and listen um

009we got 40 of one of our projects paid for I'm more than happy I never expected to get that much money um we will also bid that switch gear and all the other electrical panels in that building will be upgraded um I see a confused look on your face I thought that when we fixed that we did it we replaced the part that broke oh okay so here's the good news we will have eight more years of that part there's once we bid this it's a five to eight year lead time to get these things and and here here's what's going on and I've seen the article in the Wall Street Journal the com there is a year-long wait list for Transformers on the other electric poles the same components that go into all this

010gear also goes into electric vehicles and so there's not enough Supply materials to meet the demand and everything that they're trying to do there are developments across the country that are being delayed because they can't get Transformers into that are especially the bigger ones so um I talked to the architect about this it's it's not right now not a big deal because when we did the esip we replaced the Transformers and we replaced all the electric-based HVAC so the the load on that switch gear has been reduced and we've been okay and so we'll do the bid we'll we'll replace all the panels inside the building and then it could be three four five years before we get a new switch gear box but they looked like refurbished ones and they just can't make that

011recommendation they said there's still a 12 month lead time for that so but we'll work so we're doing a lot of stuff but as I said there's still about 42 million dollars worth of projects to go I am projecting um if I take off what we currently have in cap reserve the about million dollars we're going to put away through this audit process we have now and I subtract what we have to take out for those two projects I just mentioned we'll have about two and a half two and three quarters a million dollars left over um for either other future projects to fund pre-referendum costs to have the architect actually start to work on this to get this for 12 or 18 months out to a potential vote um or any other emergencies that

012pop up board that money can be applied to The Debt Service as I said we've got eight more years of The Debt Service left I think in three years we start to get a spike because there's one Bond referendum that's left um so we I've we've done a lot we don't have much money left in the kitty and there's a lot of things that are breaking for those of you that saw the email that I sent out last night about the univents um we had one break the other day they don't make parts for it anymore we're talking 50 to 60 Grand to replace that we have hundreds of these units district-wide that need to be replaced so grade or not that I'm aware of usually we did actually during the referendum in the original

013footprint of Donovan had all of its uh UVS replaced but that's the last time we've touched it we've done one or two here or there the one in my office serves as a plant holder we took the motor out of her a couple years ago and we put it somewhere else because I have there's an electric heater up there in my ceiling for a pipe um but I'll just reach off some of the things that are on the list and it's consistent throughout the buildings um Roofing is a big one the controls that control our HVAC I've mentioned a number of times the parts are obsolete Joss controls will refurbish our controls but once they go the units basically run at their set point you can't adjust them you can't do anything with it windows

014in a couple of places the UVS are big over at eyes and has Eisenhower about 4.6 million dollars worth of roofing 2.4 million dollars worth of unibence so there's a lot to do things that are also we have security vestibules that are priced out here for each of the buildings to create those man traps we've talked about for a long time that's on our long range list things that on the long range facility plan that we would like to consider adding and this is part of gathering information from all our stakeholders for security um ballers in front of all the schools for users don't know what the ball it is you know when you drive in front of the wild wire 7-Eleven they're the steel pipes that stick out of the ground or concrete so

015you can't ride your car through the front of the building yeah um the boilers and the k-pods are now over 20 years old they need to be replaced um both middle schools the lockers are almost as old as I am and probably we've refurbished them a number of times they probably need to be replaced um solar which was part of our strategic plan now would be the time to have that discussion we have we just did two roofs and those are right now the only two viable roofs in the district for solar I know we've talked about possibly concerning your PPA power purchasing agreement now would be the time to depending on where numbers work at to see if that's viable or if buying solar outright makes any sense so there's a lot we're also

016going to have that architect come and walk all of our steam centers and we've done a pretty good job I think of kind of snazzing up ourselves but um to have them come take a look at those spaces if you've got any recommendations for us so we're in the process right now if this board really wants to support this and start to investigate what we possibly do what it would cost um I would go to the architect tomorrow say come up with your proposal for the pre-referendum club I would that money that cost would be supported by the capital reserve funds that we have here and then it's about a 12-month process at least to work with the architect your stakeholders and our financial professionals to to start to develop a plan before you can

017even go out to vote and start to Market it my goal would also because I know we had this conversation a few months ago if we do go down this route we would budget for next year to hire a PR person to work with us prior to and kind of vote for referendum so I will send everyone out this list of projects here it's a lot but almost every school looks the same but we're at the point now to where we've done a lot I don't know based upon our budgetary needs I I can't anticipate having four or five million dollars like we did during the coveted years to put back in the capital reserve to take care of a large chunk of these projects so If I Stay within my time limit or they

018go over does anybody I know we spoke about I wanted to gather information we're doing it we need to referendum and not tell everybody why stories um with regards to the solo the solar instead of the ability to do like the field like some of the I've seen schools that have the fields yeah something like you could do parking you could do parking canopies um I'm not sure about the solar Fields um the only place it really has space to a solar field would be West Freehold and you'd still have to get it past the neighbors so if it's not directly connected to a load um you cannot use a field correct so well the one at Westfield you could directly connect to a meter you can't if you're thinking that extra piece of proper

019we've had that conversation before um on Dutch Lane it's no it has to be directly tied to a facility and I believe when we did this parking lot we put the trenching in for the canopy so that we could run the power leads without digging up the whole parking lot if they did it but it was requested yeah so the doe and I don't have the numbers in front of me I apologize the doe treats roof mounted versus ground mounted units differently in terms of what they're willing to pay for because remember if you do a referendum the state is on the hook for their version of 40 percent of their cost now they're still at I think 127 dollars a square foot which is ridiculous for building but we're not doing new construction we're

020doing renovation work which has a higher value with them so um the only issue with the solar is market conditions sole Market driven if you could do a Power person group because you need someone to finance that for you outside of the referendum but it's as I said before because it's on the east strategic plan that was kind of my I haven't done much work on it knowing we're going to have this conversation that it's probably best to intertwine it with a referendum parking lot and I think they may have rooms too I'm not sure so I know my son was at my uh my old stopping ground on West Robbinsville and he said oh Dad I didn't know they put up uh in the parking lot with the high school drivers the canopies so

021anybody have any questions is anybody opposed for me to get the proposal from the architect it may be in October when I could present it maybe in November okay and I will send you guys at this list I'll email it to you it's um like I said it's pretty consistent amongst the schools there's nothing that's really a surprise the stuff we've known it's just it's just it would be helpful to know it all before a budget times right so we know what we're up against in terms of like everything that needs to be on a referendum versus what we can possibly budget for or is that off the table no what would happen is let's say by the time we go through all this whatever falls off this list because there's two schools near their

022parking lots redone if based upon whatever number we back into what we feel that if we go to referendum the taxpayers would potentially support whatever falls off off to find other ways to finance that it could be at that point in time the the kitty for Capital Observer gets bigger and then we can start we do the projects one at a time maybe Rod grants become available um Hey listen every time I've gone through this exercise there's always a wish list of items and you know I can cut things will fall off because it just you can't you see that number what it's gonna be from a taxpayer standpoint and it's hard to justify but then we find other ways to do it whether it's um you know you could do a five-year lease Capital

023lease um different rules for that but you just have to make sure you have budgetary dollars available for the next five years to pay off that project um it's there's other ways so it's but we need to at least start gathering information back into Financial professionals will be the key people to actually say all right this is what our projections are and then we have to start having conversations the board and stakeholders are very what do we think we can support and then you have to build your question and that's when all the pr starts okay okay all right thank you if anyone comes to any questions just email me call me more than happy to answer Diane for the administrative report there we go um so thank you everyone for your participation at our

024uh back to school nights uh we have a few more to go Erickson Barcelo this week eclc um but we've had an excellent turnout by the board um so thank you thank you to all of our staff for all you're doing to welcome our kiddos it's hard to believe we're 13 days into the mission it kind of feels like about a hundred and um but it's great and our our buildings are are bustling with activity I only have one um short thing to say and then I'm going to hold Mr dickstein has shared some comments but I'm gonna hold them until uh later in our meeting um so we found out from the New Jersey teacher leader policy fellowship program that of all the applications that were accepted in the state we had one staff

025member chosen to be one of the ten to participate in this advocacy program and these teachers will work to learn about and engage in education policy and advocacy in the state of New Jersey so a big congratulations to Randy gecki at our early childhood Learning Center she she represents us well and it's a great reflection on our district to have someone um yay so that's all I have and then I'll turn it over to Michelle for now and I'll hold this one later um I wanted to Echo what Diane said thank everybody for uh attending the back to school nights and we have two more this week uh I think Erickson tomorrow Barcelo Thursday and eclc on the 4th I believe um so those of you that can make it please do so also if

026you keep check your email for each individual school's updates in those updates are the individual school PTO fundraisers and events going on um if there's opportunity for you to participate in any way for example Applegate school was running a labels fundraiser all you do is click on the labels and if you need labels for your home and you're going to buy them anyway you may as well buy them through there and have it benefit one of our buildings so just a reminder to check all the emails that come in with the updates from the schools because the links would be there for their various fundraisers so in terms of school happenings I know Katina school was supposed to have a walkathon for Pediatric Cancer Run by um live like a unicorn it was supposed to

027happen Friday I don't uh the 22nd so I don't know if that actually occurred if there's anybody here from Katina who can speak to it said he participated that's a good thing okay so when did the rain start the rain really started lately but you never know okay so he was there yeah no I think it was a great it was a great format they went out in grade levels or they were you know supposed to have gone out in grade levels um September 29th is katina's family movie night and they have a family uh steam center night on October 18th so um keep that on your calendar if you want to take a ride over there and see what that's all about Applegate like I said has their Scholastic Book Fair family night October

0286th then I guess then they'll kick off their Scholastic Book Fair and Erickson is kicking off their Scholastic Book Fair on September 29th not leaving out any other buildings I just don't have information yet from those buildings on what else they have going on but this is my friendly reminder to board members and parents alike to check the school happenings correspondence that come home because you'll have links to all the fundraisers and events there can I add something for Erickson sure that's okay Erickson is also doing the mural again so um for their legacy murals um a couple years ago they had the painter come in and do the one half of the building yes but Mike didn't get a book so now they're bringing her back to the other half of the building um

029so that is another four I know you did so um those Legacy books for the families and you know it's for current families it's for past families Future Families even I bought one for my kids right um so they're doing that and they're having parents come in and help paint their mural along with the artist yeah so that's coming up too I think starting this week okay paint cans were out okay yep and then also to preface we have a late addition to our agenda under policy to discuss policy 5756 so I want to give some background why this is on our agenda and how we're going to proceed with it um the policy was put into effect 2019 in this District as we were told it was a mandated policy as most school boards

030were um told for various reasons um many citizens school boards have taken issue with the policy regardless of what your reasoning might be and there are people who are part of political agendas political organizations who are pushing abolition of the policy for one reason or another um that doesn't belong on this school board but what is right by students and how we feel we operate within the laws is what is belongs on the school board so as you are aware several school districts ended up in litigation with the attorney general when they attempted to amend the policy and in part of um in the course of some of those litigations the attorney general has come forth and said the policy actually was never mandated and went so far as to say that the state would

031never ban a district from giving parental consent the problem with the policy is written is it is ambiguous and it creates confusion under the law as well as many other policies that we already have in existence and laws that we have in existence so typically a district like Freehold Township had we are committed by policy we are board we are aboard by committee so we have various committees where change would effectuate first and they would get discussed in committee and then discussed with the full board when you're talking about the possible abolition of a policy where you have nine board members who feels very strongly for very different reasons I thought it was best and conferred with Mr Amoroso who's our board vice president as well as our board attorney that we discussed this as

032a full board with each other um the way our district operates any policy goes through two readings so possible abolition of the policy would go through one reading we would call it it gets voted on and the second reading is when the final action would actually be taken So based on discussions that we will have later in this meeting under policy whether we put this on our agenda this evening as a first reading will be determined at that time if it does um over the course of the next month and I guess at the next board meeting all our community stakeholders would have a chance to weigh in via email and obviously at the next meeting where it would go on for a second reading each board member here is entitled to speak on behalf

033of the students in this district and the parents and their constituents as to how they feel about abolition of the policy and uh or you know some board members mentioned revision they can bring that up you might witness arguing amongst one another um I would just urge you to let the board do its job because we are not allowed to convene unless we're in public so this is our first opportunity as an entire board to discuss this so I ask for your grace and your patience when we do so so with that I will move on to public participation if anyone would like to address the board on an um item being voted on the agenda this evening please feel free to step to the podium state your name for the record write your name

034and address for the record if you have uh something you'd like to address that is not being voted on this evening we have a second opportunity for public participation later in the agenda so would anybody like to address just a quick question for you yeah um so you said maybe we're voting tonight maybe we're not should people like should people speak now or should they hold their like they could speak now they could speak later it would yeah it wouldn't be fine it wouldn't be a final vote any vote tonight would be a resolution to put it on as a first reading and then the final vote because our our policy practice and bylaws require two meetings that's why we always have a first and second reading and policy would require the final vote in

035the next in the next um the date escapes me at the moment but 17th so um it's really up because because it is a possibility of someone wants to get up and speak now I have no problem with it so if anybody would like to address the board please step forward I I will tell you that um I'm going to reiterate this because there's been some confusion in our board meetings um our statements are limited to three minutes in length and our the opportunity for public participation is an opportunity for public comment but not necessarily an opportunity for question and answer with the board we hear everything that you say sometimes we don't engage in an answer because it's not the right thing to do um understand that when I speak in this seat I

036don't speak as an individual I speak on behalf of the board so if something warrants further discussion and a thought process with the other board members I have not had the opportunity to do that so I would refrain from commenting back but it's not that I don't hear you or we don't hear you so on the subject of doing just okay please sign in I don't know if you sign up your name yeah and then state your name for the uh for the record foreign [Music] I'm a senior now uh paying taxes for all the school children to go to school here on the public school which I think is great I consider that cycle of life when I lived in Marlborough someone paid for my children to go to school uh I'm a little

037concerned about and I'm sure you've heard it because you mentioned it uh the school board issue has become very politicalized uh and uh there are certain groups like for instance the moms for Liberty seems very innocent group but it's not okay people are running for school board and are on school board to come and undermine our whole entire Public School System I'm not sure because I don't know most of you uh how I feel about everybody on this board or how I feel about some of the new people running for this book that if the agenda is right for this community um I think some people have their own agenda and that's why they're running for Schoolboy I just want you to know that I've seen you watching you and I'm sure the other parents

038in Freehold Township are doing the same we have a reputation for having an excellent school system and I don't want to see groups coming in here undermining this for us with this woke nonsense and destroying our entire civility I believe your job and that job as parents is to do no harm and that means not to torment in particular the lbgt community um I think that's a minority not a majority of people um so if the agenda is extremism then I say please don't go here because you're going to destroy our community and our family uh uh Public Schools we don't want to ban your books we don't want to make life harder for the teachers The Librarians who just don't want our education system to be political politicized uh you need to be teaching

039Reading Writing written to the well-being of all our students no matter who they are and not letting a certain group of parents and organizations which are very organized paid for the money uh coming into our systems and making them operate out more exclusive state school stagewise thank you thank you [Laughter] yeah okay foreign I'm actually a new resident of Monmouth uh County I've only been here for about a year um first of all I want to thank all of you for your service for the Board of Ed I know it's not easy I know it's a volunteer job I'm a school nurse I've been a school nurse for 13 years can we get an address please oh from 53 Duncan Way in Freehold Borough anyway I've been a school nurse for 13 years I've worked

040um I've been in Monmouth County working in comments for a year I worked in northwest New Jersey in a rural very rural school district and I've worked in a big Urban District in Passaic County and now I worked in Monmouth County and I feel like I have a kind of a unique perspective and I just thought I'd share with you just you know maybe you just reflect about and think about it as you're going for it this very difficult process and I know there's a lot of contention and I just wanted to share my thoughts I just hope you'd listen um as a school nurse my primary role always is patient student safety right that's like the main thing that I do that's my main focus is to make sure the students are safe I've

041had the experience of giving a child an EpiPen when they've been in an anaphylactic shock I've had the experience of children with concussions I've had the experience with children in severe respiratory distress and my primary concern is always the safety of the child that is the first thing that I'm doing is I'm administering medical to that child before I'm calling a parent before I'm doing anything else I have to make sure that that child is safe that is my primary goal and most of us who work in the public schools and those of us who are Educators that's always our main the main thing we're thinking about is safety um another experience I've had as a as a school nurse is I've seen the child who's been whipped with the belt to the point that

042they have wit marks on their back and Child Protective Services has to be called because somebody has to protect that child and sadly and I know a lot of people it's an uncomfortable thing that people don't want to hear but sometimes children have to be protected from their parents and this is something that I've experienced in all of the three places where I've been a school nurse and I can tell you that I've experienced that more frequently than I've experienced any issues with LGBT parents or or LGBT kids or transgender issues between a child and a family so that is something that doesn't happen very frequently and not that calling Child Protective Service happened frequently but it's something that I have seen every place that I've worked and sometimes the staff and the people that

043work in the schools we are the Protectors of those children we are the ones that stand between them being sometimes hurt by their parents I'm going to ask you to wrap it up your three minutes is up so what I'm just asking is that you consider that because I certainly can't imagine being in the situation as someone who's worked for it with children for 13 years and loves every day of it being forced to call a parent when I feel like it's unsafe for a child I certainly cannot imagine having to do that that would make my job almost feel impossible and I just wanted to share that thank you thank you for listening okay did somebody take your sign-in sheet and one of the two people who spoke check your pile of papers the

044first woman had paper here I don't know there it is thank you sorry about that I'll tape it down next time yeah George Falcone East Freehold Road hello hi um this policy that we're speaking of tonight is being abolished around the state for obvious reasons on his face is absolutely absurd that you would cut off communication between a parent and the parent's Offspring not our child our offspring about situations as serious as this you call us for a headache I mean it's ridiculous that we're even having this conversation it's being abolished around the state because number one it was never mandatory you guys have been duped into it it was never mandatory and you've been following this policy since 2019 it's ridiculous that you didn't know it wasn't a mandate as usual they lie they

045lie to you and they lie to us and tonight it needs to end tonight I would remind this board that Robert's Rules of Order come before any policy of this board the Constitution comes before any policy of this board policies are nothing it's a piece of paper emotion needs to be made tonight to abolish this policy tonight and vote it on tonight and that's all I have to say thank you my name is Wendy Sabin I live in Freehold Township on Loganberry Lane I have a short statement to read I speak as a former school counselor of Elementary age students by repealing the current board policy without replacement you are nullifying the intent of the existing policy which was quote to ensure that the schools provide a safe and supportive learning environment that is free

046from discrimination and harassment for transgender students and that gender-based policies rules and practices can have the effect of marginalizing stigmatizing and excluding students that's your current uh wording as we all know childhood and Adolescence are times of exploration and experimentation suppression will not stop our children from discovering their true identity instead it can increase the likelihood of mental health problems like depression anxiety and tragically suicide as a professional and as a parent I implore you to protect our children respect their autonomy Independence and privacy by leaving the current policy in place if you don't you could potentially create a life-threatening situation for a child who is not in an affirming and supportive home environment and where school is the one and only safe and validating place thank you thank you [Laughter] mm-hmm good evening my

047name is Deb Smith and I'm a Freehold Township resident a 38-year taxpayer and retired hospital social worker having served this community for 35 years it was my greatest joy to support patients and their families through life-changing and life-limiting illnesses I care deeply what happens in this community the policy 5756 was instituted by a republican Governor Christie with both Dems and Republicans coming together the policy was created to ensure that public schools would ensure the safety of lgbtq Youth 45 percent of lgbtq Youth have considered suicide this year including half of the transgender youth due to not feeling accepted in simple terms New Jersey was just trying to lower the risk of student suicide an admirable goal right that doesn't sound like grooming to me as these parents rights groups moms for Liberty team protect your

048youth NJ project would assert those are the names that I've been called these are the groups that seek to divide clearly stoking the Flames of dissension so why now why after five years are people so angry have any of these parents called the school to ask if their own children have changed their pronouns I understand for Mr dickstein that fewer than five children since its Inception have been impacted here and that all five of them all five have been counseled and their parents were informed with guidance so I'll ask again why now 5756 requires that District Personnel should have an open but confidential discussion to provide counsel to the child informing them of the risk that parent might find out anyway and working with the child to tell the parents unless they don't feel safe

049and we heard what that can turn into these parents rights groups even want to out those children regardless of all the counseling experts that have demonstrated the extraordinary harm that it'll cause shouldn't parents know about their kids gender identity of course wouldn't it be great if every one of these kids came from a safe home environment but sadly the statistics prove otherwise transgender students from across the state and their families have been pleading with school boards not to do away with this policy why don't their voices matter most when my daughter was a student at Laura Donovan we had a wonderful program there called character counts which supported an anti-bullying program I would strongly encourage this board to stand up to the bullies and model for your students the kind of character worth emulating please

050do not rescind this policy hello my name is Matt Jenkins I live at four Westminster Drive in Colts Neck um there are two sides to this argument you know the people that's going to affect and the people that is not going to affect from the first group we've heard from the trans Community the children and adults and we've heard from the lgbtq community children and adults we have heard from Advocates we have heard from teachers and some of the Advocates who are on the front line of trauma and they all say the same thing please do not change this policy and on the other side you have the 99.9 percent of the student body who are not going to be affected by this they want it changed this is going to affect what does someone

051should say five people there's like one kid maybe yet we spend an enormous amount of time discussing this this is to protect that one kid like the the nurse who spoke a minute ago who she knows it's going to put in danger if she calls the parents that's all this policy is for that one kid in your entire District why are we spending so much time fighting this please do not change this policy protect that one child who needs it thank you foreign hello everyone my name is Johnny kandell I live at 72 rustic way for Hill New Jersey for my whole life um yeah I've wrote a little speech so I'd like to just read it now uh my name is Johnny Candela and I'm a former student of Freehold Public Schools I was

052at Applegate Elementary Eisenhower Middle School and I was even homecoming king of real Township High School so I've experienced this school system firsthand the good and the bad parts of it and I'm really disappointed that this Council may join other school boards by stripping rights away from trans youth as a gay man figuring out my sexual identity was really overwhelming to handle in middle school and high school I was constantly nervous about saying two girly things or singing too hard to the new Lady Gaga song I became hyper aware of my actions and I let my fear define how I acted and there was no way to live but I made friends in high school and college who understood what I was going through and talking with my peers in a safe space gave me

053the confidence I needed it's comforting to know I could have had I could have come out to a teacher I trusted when I was ready but if you repeal this policy that would make it impossible I came out to my parents when I was 20 at Moore's Tavern down the street and they were really understanding and chill and I'm so grateful for that I like to think if I was in school now where the kids are more accepting I could have started this big part of my life even sooner telling my parents was the biggest hurdle because I feared it would flip my life upside down and if they didn't accept me for who I am it could have ruined everything I hate to think of the young trans kid who doesn't feel comfortable or

054safe coming out at home knowing there there might be repercussions just solely for being yourself coming out is a deeply personal decision that you're stripping away from a person forcing a report of pronoun or name change to go to the parents who may not be ready to accept their trans child can lead to catastrophic hate if your child is struggling with their gender or sexual identity and they aren't telling you about it then it is not your business adding this forced outing and bureaucracy and parental pressure can stop people from understanding new parts of themselves this is protecting no one in 2023 I see a world where you can come out and be accepted repealing this law uh this policy that protects trans youth is a setback to the years of hard progress I'd also

055just like to end with a quote from queer artist Rebecca sugar I don't need you to respect me I respect me I don't need you to love me I love me but I want you to know you could know me if you change your mind so I hope you change your mind thank you any friends would anyone else like to address the board Carmela Steeler Freehold Township so I um want to say that every child deserves to be treated fairly in the same respect no matter who they are and what they are and I had a child in this system who was bullied in school and it went all the way up from middle school all the way to high school and in the end Township did whatever they could to I think they admitted

056that it was a bullying situation but in the end my daughter I needed to be there for her and I was made aware of how she was bullied it was something that I carry with her now in the past I carried her through it parents are there in the beginning and parents are there in the end where will the school district be when when children are out of school these are elementary school children I don't think we need to add to influencing them one way or the other people decide who what they are and I don't think I think that every parent has deserves the right to be 100 involved in all of their child's care like it is not okay to say that we're going to keep secrets from Mom or Dad I will

057there be abuse there could be abuse in a situation where people are crazy about grades and it could be I've had kids that were nervous about bringing home less than an a I mean those are rare situations and the school you know can decipher things like that but a parent children belong to parents they do not belong to government institutions and one and this policy is just a guideline and everybody has taken it to Golden Law and whatever as soon as you Google it it comes up and pops up as guidelines so I would like to see this removed repealed there are laws there are safety things in place for children who identify as LGBT or whatever they're identifying as there are laws to protect them and and keep them safe this policy just hides

058things from parents and quite frankly I'm I'm just shocked at what I'm hearing you know I'm not sure how all of you feel I know you're not going to admit your opinions right here right now I guess the town will decide come November what side they want to be on and it's not a political issue this is not a political I'm right and left and somewhere in the middle this is a parental right I want my children to grow up and have children where they can be involved in their care in their school and everything that goes on in that in school thank you thank you okay thank you hi my name is Brandon Leventhal I'm actually from Matawan trans youth have a higher rate of homelessness have a higher rate of depression and unfortunately

059have a higher rate of suicide by reasoning this policy you'd be making their lives way harder for no good reason if they don't feel comfortable coming out to their parents they quite frankly shouldn't have to you're just putting them in a very tough situation and if they do have loving parents good for them unfortunately not every kid has that and you'd be risking endangering their lives for no good reason just to for whatever reason you'd want to resend this policy there's no good reason to do it you'd be putting kids in danger and quite frankly you should not rescind this under any circumstance thank you foreign Township New Jersey I went to Joseph J Catena school Under the direction of Neil dickstein and I went to Eisenhower under the direction of Dr breathower so it's

060very nice to see some familiar faces here I absolutely had a I actually had a wonderful experience going through the field Township School District and I'm so proud to be a product of that district and it's inspired me to become a teacher myself which I've been doing for the past four years and I'm very saddened and embarrassed to see that our district is now considering removing policy 5756 I am a along with a teacher I'm an ally and an activist for marginalized communities including the lgbtq and um just to be very very clear this is not a parental rights issue this is a trans youth rights issue so just making sure that the lens on this is very very clear the people that this is going to affect are trans Youth and their families and

061they have come forward in many towns I've been to many board meetings and they are all in favor of this policy they are the only ones who this policy is going to affect and they are all in favor of it so for what reason would we be rescinding this policy I truthfully do not know other than to please parents rights groups I'm very confused um another thing is that uh as everyone said trans youth is very marginalized and at higher risk for depression I'm sorry I lost my train of thought um but essentially there is no other lens other than looking at this from the lens of trans youth rights and I again am proud to be a product of the Freehold Township School District I hope that we don't let these smaller political organizations

062influence us in any way and continue to do what's right for the children and keep that in mind thank you um sign in first I guess so my name is Mary Waddell I have lived in Freehold Township for about just short of 30 years raised three kids at the Katina School and Eisenhower and I'm going to tell you a story a little story a personal story that it's not specifically related to the transgender issue but Mrs breathauer might remember what I'm going to talk about um one of my kids as she was growing up she was having she was bullied she was having bullying issues no one I'm sorry I'm a little nervous um nobody wanted to tell us um I ended up finding out about it after a couple years of us bringing her

063to a counselor uh thought she needed an antidepressant we didn't know what was going on we couldn't figure out what was wrong with this kid and I'm talking when she was in elementary school so fast forward we get one of a parent came up to me at the bus stop and she said one day Mary I don't know if you're aware but my dog Erica's coming home very upset about how Jamie's being treated sorry I just said her name I shouldn't have just done that but um anyway fast forward she um in share time one of her teachers came called us and she said uh Mrs Waddell I have some were very concerned we don't know what's going on with Jamie um but we think there's something wrong and we don't really know what it

064is we are concerned but we would like to come in and meet with you guys if you could come in and talk with us so that got this ball rolling where we might went and met with them so thankful to Mrs Creech for making that phone call because she didn't know what was going on with Jamie yeah I feel terrible for kids who have depression anxiety my daughter has all of that um and when push came to shove you know we we got that information from the school kind of validating okay we're not imagining this there's something very wrong with our daughter it's not just Mom and Dad being overprotective we were Flying Blind at that point when the school contacted us we said okay there is a problem something's up from there we went

065to the pediatrician fast forward that was May of 2009 by July uh week so may we go to the doctor they say what's wrong I have headaches PS how often every day how often for how long four years so this kid had been suffering for four years she wasn't the type to complain two months later she had a two-day brain surgery and her life was saved and I credit Mrs Creech and you Diane you probably remember I I mean me coming into the school that day we thought she was literally not coming back to the school so I'm not this was not a specific to the transgender issue but I am just trying to remind you guys of how important it is that we all work together you guys the teachers and the parents it

066we're known no one's trying to hurt anybody but I really when they go home if a child is struggling with whatever their issue is whether it's their sexuality headaches whatever it is you have the schools have them for eight hours of the day sometimes more often more and when they come home if they are struggling with any of these issues by the way I should mention that my daughter sorry yes there was a there was an attention all right Ellen but yeah I hope you understand what I'm saying thank you very much be notified I'm saying that my daughter was one of those kids not for that specific issue but right hi everyone Kim Loxley 230 Concord Drive Freehold New Jersey see these index cards I had all these entrance cards ready to go forget

067them with what she just said I'm going to talk about my own daughter when she was at Eisenhower school back in the 90s there were seven boys that were sexually harassing a group of girls they had quite the little thing going on one boy would put his hand under a chair and the other boy would push her down cop a feel and that was it the school system didn't call me the school system didn't have to call me my daughter Told Me Not only did she tell me all of her friends told me because lucky me I was the Kool-Aid mom so we had to have a little discussions about it what do you do in a situation like this well how do you go my daughter and her friends went into school and solved

068the problem themselves because they were Brave and because they weren't afraid to talk to an adult I listened to parents here tonight and I don't understand why aren't parents talking to their children that would solve everything you don't need 57.56 parents should be talking to their children have dinner with their children go out with their children catch a ball with their children and you'll know you'll know what's going on and that would solve a lot of these problems thank you very much have a good evening thank you okay but would anyone else like to address the board okay um seeing none we're going to move on to a Personnel committee Ms O'Sullivan uh we did not meet as a committee so I would like to move number two to this Patrol listen number three new

069employment as listed number four established start dates as listed number five salary adjustments as listed number six leaves of absence as listed sevenths railing Services as listed number eight District honoraria resignation as listed number nine District honoraria as listed number 10 District honoraria update as listed number 11 District honorary correction as listed number 12. additional compensation transfer of assignments and room as listed number 13 summer IEP meetings as listed and number 14 certified substitutes as listed okay any questions roll call Mrs brand Mrs casalino yeah Mr Gargiulo yes Mrs O'Sullivan yes Mrs Stoneman yeah Miss vinatoli yes yes Mr Williams Mr Amoroso yes Mrs Lambert yes motion carries okay curriculum and policy committee Miss casalino I'm gonna move the action items first number three as listed number four the second reading of politics and regulations

070that's listed through number five student teacher practicum observation and placement as lifted [Laughter] okay okay so um can we have a second on the action items any questions on the action items all in favor say aye aye motion carries okay um now to the discussion um I think uh prior to reading uh the discussion uh prior to the board discussion Mr dixby couldn't be with us this evening he's on medical leave Dr brettauer is going to read a statement that he gave for her to read on his behalf good evening I am disappointed I cannot be here in person but I am home recovering from surgery it is important based upon the conversation that the board is having this evening to share some thoughts I moved to central office administration as the assistant superintendent 16

071years ago during that time sure sorry about that during that time is that better yes okay I moved to central office administration as the assistant superintendent 16 years ago during that time my responsibilities included school safety in a time where incidents when incidents of school violence were increasing and a new law governing harassment intimidation and bullying was being implemented six years ago when I transitioned to the role of superintendent of schools my focus upon the safety of each and every student in this District continue to be my primary focus and still is today It is Well documented that students do not learn in an environment in which they do not feel safe as the superintendent is my responsibility to ensure that this is the case for our students however this is not accomplished in isolation

072throughout my years in a central office administrative role I've partnered with Community with committees which included parent representatives to plan and Implement a variety of initiatives policies and procedures an environment in which parents are Partners volunteering in schools and working hand in hand with staff to provide a positive welcoming environment is one that we strive to Foster it is my belief that parents play an active role in their children's education and contribute to their feeling of comfort and safety in school as we move forward the school year I want to assure you that I take my responsibility seriously in providing an environment in which each student feels safe in our care and one in which parents play an active role in supporting that environment my commitment to ensure our students feel safe and welcome is

073not contingent on any one policy or regulation but it is the core of my values and my responsibility as superintendent and will remain so throughout my career as an educator thank you thank you feel better Neil um do you want to address some of the comments we some of the comments centered around the fact that if if this policy were abolished students in our district would lose certain rights and certain protections I don't believe that to be the case I want to ask Dr brettauer if she's okay addressing some of the comments as Mr Dixon is not here tonight I'm not trying to put her on the spot so if feel free to you know to punt and because the nine of us have to you know weigh in anyway so I I think that

074as an educator as a mom as an educator as a mom um I needed to know that there are protections for my daughter in school and federal and state law do provide those protections one example would be 5512 the HIV policy which you know we report on every month because it is pretty rigid in that if anything comes to our attention at all where there's a perceived perceived not actual perceived uh in discretion or something that is upsetting offensive discriminatory it runs the gamut or just an unkind statement we are obligated to uh one tell the parent that we are investigating two run an investigation and three determine a conclusion and that is for any child uh despite um your race your color your nationality your sexual identity it doesn't it's it could be perceived

075so if someone calls me that and I perceive myself as an overweight person that's a Hib and no adult and no child could make that statement without repercussion so I do think it was well intentioned when 5756 came it had good intentions but I don't think it really did anything to be truthful I think we already have some pretty uh Equity policies and procedures in place to embrace all of our children and I think we do value each and every one of them and we protect them and and similar to what Miss wodel just shared you know to every single child who walked through the door was one of my kids when I buried a couple of my kids I lost my kids when Jamie had surgery it's like my kid had surgery um so

076not for one minute whether that policy is in place or not will that ever change each kid who walks through the door we look at as our own and we want to protect and we want them in a safe environment and we'll do anything that it takes to do that so I just wanted to say that you know there I don't want that perception to be out there that the kids are fending for themselves because that's not true okay um Neil am I allowed Madam president may I talk um I moved to rescind policy 5756 and may I say why as part of the discussion I would like to have a discussion first because you moving before this board has had a chance to discuss it I'm only going to move to table it and

077then we're back to square one all right we'll do it later there so you could say why you would like to that's why we're we're discussing what to do with the policy which we know has been a thorn in people's sides for several years so let's just discuss it so like Dr Diane said prior to 5756 we are having a discussion with each other with each other all right well you know I had to look to the left I looked to the center and look to the right that's how you do public speaking I just want to make sure we're clear about why we're doing that yeah okay okay so Dr Diane brought up a very good point what did we do with the policy prior were our kids being hurt prior to 5756 I

078have not read many statistics at all in the last 15 20 years of uh teen uh suicide I haven't read and I read all the time also we're dealing with minors they need their parents will we allow the children to say coming to school and say hey I want to smoke we go crazy or we want to drink they go crazy so the population is very tiny it's one percent no one wants trans uh children to be heard in any way I don't I grew up in the 60s and 70s on a positive positive they were transgender people in my day okay and I didn't hear in the neighborhood that so and so committed suicide I didn't okay the children are suffering from dysphoria but it's not only dysphoria new studies have just come out

079they have depression bipolar disorder deep depression um schizophrenia they need counseling and help who doesn't want to help them okay but the parents are integral in the process this policy hides the records of the students that's very very wrong they go in as Jack believe their parents ejaculate they were in school as Jill well this well who's outing them they're in school the kids are seeing them as Jill they're calling with Jill she's now a she it's going to get back to the parents no eventually so why not bring the parents in now Neil brought up something very good he said he actually talked to the transgender children and asked them and work with them can we tell your parents and I really respect that so he was doing it within the confines of five

080seven five six and that's fine but I'm saying we don't really need it um studies they talk about suicide we talk about all sorts of suicide and the suicide is after a kid when they're young at 14 and 15 they have the puberty blockers some of them get surgery and then when they're 18 and 19 they realize what the heck did I do and the studies in Sweden the studies in Sweden have said that that's when the suicide is happening read the studies in Sweden they're coming out and the same thing UK UK had a very big transgender policy but they're modifying it because of research I'm not done Jeff no no I'm I have a question for you go ahead so to your point you said that Neil is working with would be working

081with these transgender students what if that child tells Neil I don't want you to tell my parents it's a problem it's a problem that the parents are not told that's the problem but not the child themselves he's a minor the child is a minor and is maturing they don't have the full faculties all right Jeff would you like to speak next I just had a question for Neil that's fine I answered on on how you feel about this policy well I I can't vote to abolish a policy without putting some Protections in place um one of my biggest concerns is we notify a parent on Tuesday Neil's Point again that the child is having trans thoughts however you want to frame it okay that kid doesn't show up for school Wednesday Thursday Friday then what

082are we sending police officers to that house so are we doing a wellness check on on this child like like with any child who is absent and I'd like to ask Jeff a question but I would like to give an opportunity can I just ask this question please kindly Madam president yes okay this this state and federal laws protecting the trans they're right here listed in the policy so you don't need another policy and they talk about everyone talks about oh Mom's for this and a lot of uh politics who helped the state of New Jersey to write this policy it's got its state equality which is an activist group but actually in your point more than once you said 55 57 57 56 works you said it works you know it doesn't yes you

083did you absolutely I didn't say it said because Neil it Neil I don't interpreted it all right we need to hear each other for each other I hear them okay who asked me to give my point I get my point now okay can you put your mic on okay thank you and how I feel because I don't think till I answer the questions I can truly know if they're appropriately supposed to be answered by Neil they may not be answered tonight and that's fine that's fine the next meeting I want us to consider them and I want us to get answers for them okay um so if I'm going to go through the policy itself and what it says essentially not I'm going to read it all but I'm going to refer to specific sections

084under the definition of terms it says it is recommended that school Personnel discuss with students the terminology and protein pronouns each student has chosen will this still be happening or is this something that we're borrowing by getting rid of the policy are we not allowing a pronoun decision is that a pronoun discussion with like a teacher and a student if they if the child wants to have a discussion yes it they are allowed to have a discussion so we wouldn't be prohibiting that even though this policy protecting that would be gone that still would not be something that this Administration is going to prohibit from taking place no okay I have a follow-up question go ahead um so who is that so is that how will we know that that's and how will our staff

085know that that's what's supposed to happen so say this discussion happens or even here you know some of these other things that are in this policy right if we take the policy away how will we not end up with chaos and how will we not know clearly what's going to happen for instance it says the school districts shall accept a student's asserted gender identity parental consent is not required will we continue to accept a student's asserted gender identity without alerting their parents this policy right was written and it was shared with us just to be clear that it that it was mandated we were told yeah and we have broadcast bamboozle anybody that's what right it had the requirements yeah it came out from the thing and we did it right so um just to

086be clear um we don't are not mandated to or not you know what I mean like this policy was basically saying that sure this is saying we would not so my question is if we remove saying we are not required to it doesn't say that we cannot it doesn't say that we would not correct it says we are not required to so what affirmative Duty I think correct correct what so what would we do so if a child tells if a child whose birth name is Jane says that they want to be John and they want to be called him are we going to tell the parents I will tell you that as in each each individual is an individual and each case involving a transgender student is individual to that student so Neil if

087he were here will tell you he cannot answer that it's on a case-by-case basis that that's an answer though so it will be if we rescind this policy and it was prior to by the way you know we've had plenty of students prior to this policy plenty of students who who would fall under this criteria so just to be clear so if we ever send this policy the district would approach each each issue each child's on a case-by-case basis so sometimes we would alert the parents and sometimes we wouldn't I I can't have I can't have Dr breath how I answer that with Mr Dixie not here okay this is something you can explore and we should explore as a board over the next several weeks but that's not a fair question for her right

088now and and that's fine part of this is to have this discussion and start thinking about these things um then I have a follow-up question to that and perhaps you can't answer this one either um so so we were talking about trans a lot um what is our policy if a kid is lgbtq and they're not disrupting the school they're not a behavior issue but they're just out do we make a phone call home and say hey Jimmy was holding hands with Dan thought you should know to be honest in my time as an administrator I barely had the time to make the calls that I had to make um so my me personally no I I'm not making I didn't make those calls nor would I continue to that's not what the essence of

089this is about the essence about a child being allowed to be who he or she is and be comfortable with that was in place prior to 2019 and will remain in place if this policy gets abolished I just need to be clear the Sops to that that everybody wants answers to we obviously haven't had more than 10 seconds today me Bob Becky Chris cleffy to even sit and talk about that so I I'm going to concur with what Michelle said I'm not going to answer questions about the Sops of carrying it out but I can tell you prior to 2019 13 years of which I spent as the principal of the Middle School this is not our first rodeo it it I'm just I need I need you to know from the bottom of my

090heart like we your freedom of speech is protected as long as you don't create an unsafe environment for someone the minute you say you're bringing a bomb into school or there's someone has a weapon you have lost that right and these are kids that we're talking about these are kiddos who are not high school kids we graduate them at 14 years old we have to provide a lot of supports from pre-k to eight and we always have done so now I'm sorry I'm not I'm not if we're getting rid of this it's a good meeting to be in the hot seat bring it up all right now I'm gonna I'm gonna talk I'm gonna predicate this with understanding that that Neil does and and unfortunately ask you to give him the question look at this

091no I didn't Terry I had no idea that it was certain well I said we're here to discuss it but don't put her in the hot seat it's not fair to her I did call this meeting put your mic on please about this Mom I'm only upset because Neil did ask to have the questions presented to him today and he could have answered them and given a statement to Diana nobody asked me if I worked with Diane nobody asked me for questions he did ask Mary recovering from surgery at home I'm not giving him a list of questions look and it's not like we don't want to provide as Michelle said our practices and our policy adoption in this District require a two reading process it doesn't really doesn't matter what vote takes place tonight

092because it's not over until it's over we have October 17th right so I think what Michelle is saying let's talk about how we feel about it right if there's action taken please know then we have three weeks until October 17th to get you the answers to the questions that you need that's totally fine sure no no I'm trying to write them down you can choose to answer them or not or or maybe you can't answer them and that's fine they're killing me okay you're killing me no this is the policy with my notes um this the part of this policy also requests that the superintendent or designation to ensure training is provided to school staff members on sensitivity and respect towards transgendered students is that going to continue yes okay can you read that again

093sorry this policy though the superintendent or designation ensure training is provided to school staff members on sensitivity and respect towards transgender students you could say it happened in the past and they'd have a policy on it outside of this policy okay that requires it be done annually okay and and that's that's great I didn't know that part of why I'm asking these questions I need to make sure asking them I just don't want Diane to feel like she's in the hot seat it's not fair to her it isn't I don't I get that everybody here for the most part wants to protect these kids absolutely the principle or designation should happen to open but confidential discussion with student to ascertain the student's preference on matters such as chosening chosen pronoun parental Communications it already requires

094that I assume we're not getting rid of that portion and typically it is a student who comes forth of course I'm just making it clear I'm not pounding the pavement right kids come forward we have confidential conversations however and and I would never as with all conversations they have it's prefaced with right where is this going what does that mean right case by case what does this mean right sure if you're going to come out like this in school obviously like Neil said last time there's a conversation that takes place that it's likely Freehold it's a small town I mean it's a bigger town but it's a small town kids go home mom and dad might find out about it how are you going to handle that conversation one school bus ride home yeah Harrison

095I mean truthfully we're usually the last to know I mean if you want to be honest you know we're on Fantasyland with our phones and social media we are the last chance to know um then it says the school district May seek a variety of professionals including counselors School psychologists to provide emotional supports for all students who demonstrate a need and that are we going to continue to provide that support we have a very deep well of related Services child study team members school counselors social workers psychologists and when needed we bring in outside folks to help us support the need we also have the YMCA we also have some psychiatrists that we work with directly we have for any child in need for any reason again I'm not qualifying it yes that's our job

096that's as Bob said that's that's that's the stuff that's in our budget that's mandated right like that you know we're obligated to provide that except I'm sure and we've all had presentations on how schools overall could use more access to mental health services without a doubt without a doubt now a school's obligation to ensure non-discrimination on the base of gender identity requires schools to provide transgender students with equal access to educational programs and activities even in circumstances in which other students parents or community members raise objections or concerns that is we have diversity clubs are we keeping them yes School staff members may not disclose information that may reveal a student's transgender status except as Allowed by law the principal or designee is advised to work with the student to create appropriate confidentiality plan regarding

097the student's transgender or transitioning status will that still be happening it's always the goal it's always the goal is is to have the parent in the process that didn't that didn't change and it doesn't change so now this is the flip side so I'm a parent who knows my child is presenting as their true gender which is different than their gender at Birth I come to this District and I let the school know that Sally used to be Steve thank you presenting a Sally completely presenting a Sally we're going to keep that confidential are you a parent yes the parent and child are coming to you together in this scenario there are enrolled and your parents and you're saying I'm coming into the district I'm moving in which sometimes happens quite frequently in these families

098and I'm having this conversation with you as an administrator just to make you aware are you going to you're going to maintain that confidentiality you're going to keep the records yeah and you're going to keep the record it would be coming to me in the first place because they're enrolled as well their records their their legal name might not match the name that they're presenting to the school line yeah well that we can in Genesis put in the preferred name so whatever you as the parent enroll them as yeah what if a child can you just put your mic on Mac I'm sorry that's fine what if the child who has a preferred name and the parent disagrees with that what will actually happen in the school that's a good question I guess we you

099know we have to talk about it we don't know okay what do we do now or we've never encountered that yeah I mean to be truthful it's not really been an issue I know it's shocking to hear but for the most part we're usually less to know and it's a lot of times the parents and the kids wanting to make sure that the it's kind of hard to hear this discussion sorry we're trying to I'm trying not to scream into the microphone here um I just said that it's usually honestly over the years and I'm only speaking from experience it's more of a conversation that comes forward and wanting to make sure that you know the teachers know and you know it's it's never been a I I want this I want that so I

100don't know the answer talked about that I do then have a question and based off of what Michelle said before case-by-case basis again student Neil meets with a student how whatever that pop however that works and that student absolutely tells Neil you cannot tell my parents what does Neil do on that case by case basis I'm not Neil oh I understand so I I or as an administrator or you know there are has been times over the years where uh students might have shared something not like this and I said I'm sorry I can't I can't do that that's me I don't know if that was the right answer uh I'm just saying that I know that I've said sorry what you just shared with me I cannot I cannot um you know like I

101said each of these kiddos is one of my kiddos and at any point you know when your mom on ten I go up uh so no I err on the side of um there are no secrets may I have a point that I want this board to consider because I have the utmost respect for you Dr breathower and for sorry I have the utmost respect for you Dr bethauer and also for uh Mr Dick Steen and I believe you when you say that they're your kiddos and I've seen how you've treated my own children and um I appreciate that very much but you know someday you won't be in the seat someday you're going to retire you know someday Neil will retire by the end of the week so I just um these policies that

102we create we have to think about you know what will be in place when you're not here and what if we have somebody who feels very different in that place are they and they're doing it on a case-by-case basis what decisions are they going to make in the absence of a policy and I understand I'm a parent I'm a parent of three kids one in the district right now I understand the desire to be informed and engaged I totally get that but since when in Freehold Township can't we do both I don't understand why we want to repeal this policy and not have something that works for everybody in its place we do uh may I say something Dr Diane yes policy New Jersey law against discrimination NJ lad and you have the title nine

103of the education Amendment Amendments of 1972 I'm pretty sure most of the questions being asked most of them are covered under those two policies did you read them I bet they are I read them and I searched for it and I can't find it so please I invite you to look for them and if you find them new please show them to me because I've spent the better part of today trying to look for them okay I respect that but I bet you they're still there not having read it I I would anybody else like to can you please have a Micah thank you I'd like to just repeat that everyone on this board considers children's best interest at heart otherwise we wouldn't be here we're volunteering our time our effort and our good works

104for this but I think a policy that's redundant and that tries to hide things from parents is not in the best interests of children children need an open honest discussion with their parents with their teachers with their administrators to be themselves and to be less fearful if they're afraid to to speak to their own parents it's a medical issue it's not just it's not a policy issue you can't mandate Health you need to have uh procedures in place that help children and I think we have that in in our schools so I don't see this as a policy that needs to be supported when it's being redundant and uh hurting parents rights the government the schools should be support of the parent parents shouldn't be behind the school the parent comes first towards the child

105thank you enough thank you very Eleanor anybody well I'll let somebody else go first we work in my opinions so I'm like you want to say anything I can keep going around the room okay Mike keep going I carry I have a question you need to put a mic on there thank you sir here you want this one okay as long as something comes on okay I've been a parent here for 10 years I'm going to be a parent here for 10 more years um some of you have lived here five minutes and you think that you can come in and say how we should do things because you don't understand how we have done things um like Diane and Michelle and Neil Dixon have said like kids come first year like when I ran

106for this board I didn't run to say I'm going to support you but I'm not supporting you I ran because I I believe the majority of us have every single student in this District their safety their their education everything about them you know in the Forefront of their minds you know I appreciate people coming out but you know like Mike said do you live here do you have kids here because I'm learning from a lot of people that don't live here and don't have kids here and I'm probably going to regret saying this to you but I think that I would like to do a Roundtable with our parents in our community and get feedback from them I agree I agree 100 percent as a board we have always only considered all policy after hearing

107parent input and so we should have round tables you should we should hear from all the parents the same way they should hear from all of us what we're thinking why we're thinking it um parents you know you can't educate yourself unless you hear all sides from all people so and that includes parents I agree so I would agree with that so I would like to say that I would like to set that up I mean I can work with Bob or not Bob um Neil and Diane sorry Bob you're in my line of sight um to arrange those because I think it's very important to hear from the parents and and I mean our students are young we're not a high school district you know but anybody who is Mary give me the word

108I'm looking for um connected not connected like uh experience with our district no no no no um everybody this is going to affect yeah thank you sorry you know I I think you know for somebody like me who I you know I don't agree I I don't believe your religion belongs on this board I don't believe your your politics Will Be Long on this board I don't believe that you should be here for any other reason than to support every single child in this District regardless of what color they are what gender they are what sexuality they are they're nor diverse their neuro typical like that for me is the biggest thing and I don't believe that our Administration or would ever do anything like I trust Neil I trust Diane to do what is

109right on a case-by-case basis or like looking at students I trust them to do what is right policy or no policy so I just want to know that I how we do things here that's not how we do things other places and I think we get thrown into the mix a lot of times with all these surrounding districts well this happens here and this happens here we're Freehold we don't do it other ways and I think that how we've been doing it and how you if the policy were to go away I trust Neil and Diane and Becky and Chris and Bob and everybody in this District to do and our principles to do what is right and I will set their own tables and those just to they are usually virtual no they're going

110to be in person we usually do both right I think we should just do one in person it might be hard but it might be hard to get a building it might be hard to get a building but we'll also okay I'll call Kelly tomorrow okay yeah just to be clear we have five ten 13 days business days before the next meeting so okay I'm gonna add to that because I'm gonna say that one of the things I got stuck with today listen nobody has all the answers here nobody wants to hurt kids like that's what it comes down to nobody wants to step in between a parent and their child either you know it's a difficult issue but one of the things in our ethics is that we are only going to take action

111after careful and thoughtful appraisal so I think we owe it to our community to do that of course whether we like what we hear or we don't yeah or we do two readings so that's a given whether you know I mean whether we do one reading tonight the second the first reading is next meeting I don't really care I will defer to the the majority of the board but that this but we have to have this discussion because we need to know where we kind of stand in terms of moving this forward or not if I was sitting here with nine people saying this is ludicrous we would never abolish this we wouldn't even have a round table but let's let's call a spade a spade we are nine people with nine very diverse ways

112of thinking and why we think the way we think so it's only fair to one another that we be honest with each other so we know what we're dealing with and can I just clarify or ask a question about last meeting and who can remember what Neil said but I thought Neil said that with this policy he never kept parents out like from what he said of The Limited number of kids that were impacted those discussions most of those kids had already told their parents and those that worked with them and then he worked with the remaining to actually have those conversations with their parents which is I think if I read this policy correctly what it says to do well so this is the problem with this policy we could read it one way

113other people are reading it and and Neil will tell you this if he were here there are other districts there are even board attorneys advising other districts that what that policy says is you cannot tell the parents at all so the state basically you know you know njsa I think it's 18 a 36 41. basically says that the Department of Education should issue guidelines to the schools to protect the rights of these students and in issuing these guidelines this state put in all this other language now um I'm I guess at this point I'll speak for myself I I was I was I would always go last out of deference so if anyone else wants to speak first go ahead anybody no Mike um okay Heaven listen to what everybody has said and being a

114parent and an educator you do have many different types of students that come across your path and you really have to take each case as an individual case and sometimes you can't or shouldn't tell a parent and then sometimes you need to tell a parent even if the child says please don't tell my parents because I've had that a gazillion times but you have to all right so based on whatever the situation is when you know that a kid once you make that phone call as soon as that kid gets home is going to get beaten with that strap that's when the decisions have to maybe take a turn you have both sides what we have to do and and I won't say oh that'll never happen here in Freehold that only happens in the

115city no but that you have to be able to take each individual child each individual case each individual set of parents and say okay these are all facts this is how we're going to have to proceed sometimes it's going to be calling a parent sometimes it's going to be calling an agency for extra help sometimes it's not going to be calling the parent it all depends on the case and that's how we have to look at this how and this is maybe a question for those of you who have more experience as as administrators but apps in a policy how is a teacher going to make that decision teachers make those decisions almost every day uh I know that they're mandatory reporters yeah as a mandatory of water there you go um teachers principles they

116are on the hot seat every day and that's what a lot of people don't realize and then you have to make those decisions based on the facts that are presented to them at that particular time but without any policy or guidelines to fall upon or standing standard operating procedure I just feel like we're leaving them out there I don't agree no I think they're already there Dr brother how many hours a day you spend Consulting with your colleagues about all the propensive issues where they're asking for your guys because the teachers come to them with an issue that's why I have a job and that's essentially what what I do is act in consultation of so um I'm going to concur with what Elena said the minute-by-minute decision making is happening in the classrooms it's

117happening in the buildings it is um it is a fast and furious that's why I didn't mean to minimize your question before Mary but truly any principals who are here tonight any teachers who are here anyone who's listening they're taking time away from their plans their grading they're responding to parents they're not taking time away from watching TV that's not happening right it is a all day all night um all-consuming job um I don't believe we're leaving where it we're negatively impacting kids like I said and I had I not lived breathed and walked in these hallways myself prior to this policy it's what we did I brought in Consultants to work with my staff right to to build empathy to say how do we work with kids who are different and it's it could

118be right nor diverse it could mean my ERI kids it could be my kids who are trans honestly first the 805 kids I had they were 805 little people sitting in front of me with 805 different things going on at home and 805 different parent structures and who right there I mean it's it is Monumental what we're asking Educators to do and I just need to be clear and I know this is a volatile Hot Topic but prior to this policy we did right by kids and that will not change period and you guys are the ones who hire the superintendent and the superintendent hires all of us and it in the image of what we want right we test the superintendent go forth and bring these people who who want bring have these values

119and bring them here and that's what we do all right we're just a different I don't know that it's very different I think it's just what we know I think that truly you know I think every town in New Jersey is having the same conversation I know what we do here yes what we do here how we handle situations we are not going by what you see that we're not a cookie cutter place we're not somebody that says we're going to do this across the board for every single student we we don't do that from a academic standpoint I don't think we do it from a special education standpoint we I don't think we do it from a mental health standpoint I mean ask Bob how many times as a principal and even now do

120I go so I got this question today what do you think about that every day right a parent was asking or a stepmom was it right and she wanted and Genesis and school messenger and how do we oh maybe we should be sending to 10 different emails right we're just we're uncovering this as we go right and so unless someone and a parent comes forward and says hey I have a question how can you better meet the needs of my family and then we say how can we do it right how can we do that um because our goal is to be inclusive it happens to the kid sitting in a junior high classroom right now who's thinking I have nobody to talk to I think that might be able to talk to this teacher

121um an adult which is what which every kid has at least one trusted adult if I know at least one but what I tell that trusted adult is not in that Circle of trust what do you mean it's not in that Circle of trust so if I know I if I tell you I really like you Mrs Dr breathower I think I can tell you this this is how I'm feeling my parents are not in favor of this I'm not saying my dad's gonna beat me up my mom's gonna they're saying there's a tough conversation ahead and I need your help most times kids are coming most times stand okay I got a lot going on in my life I need help can you help me that's what we do in HR what are you

122picking up the phone or are you canceling that kid like you would now that this is a conversation you do need to have with Mom and Dad me personally yes and and nine times out of ten you're talking to administrators and counselors or teachers particularly Elementary who have these kiddos for six years the families are in like in woven into the Fabrics right they're Fast and Furious but you're talk these are not strangers we make like these are just kids coming and off the street saying hey I have something to share no these are our babies we're having conversations and and transition meetings it's all we it's what we do I don't mean to get passionate about it but my Lord this is what we do this is our life so you know I take

123offense when people say this policy goes away and we're just going to trample all over kids I'm asking the questions okay go ahead but what's in everything sorry by listening to it later on my fellow colleagues on the board I respect everyone's opinion on this board I know we're all over the map on this um I've also spoken like I did when the mask issue came up to professionals I spoke to pediatricians I spoke to counselors I tried to do my homework I tried to speak to as many people as I could about this topic I think one of the things that's tough about it is I'm a Michelle yearlwar you know there's a thing called settled law you don't kill someone that's settled law right this is unsettled law right Michelle it's unsettled because

124these are kind of untested waters they're murky there's nothing very clear about what comes out of this policy let's answer one of the positions of someone that came to the podium they said oh what's the harm in this well there is a harm in the fact that it sets a precedent when you take away a parent's right to talk to their child about an issue or be involved in a conversation and to go back to Diane's Point um you know maybe we're spoiled in our district because we have a district where we so trust our administrators and our teachers and our counselors that um we like to leave that open door so that to Anna's point where there are cases where there might be a danger at home it's just automatic we would just know

125that the right steps are being taken to protect that child and I respect the opinions of the people that feel like hey you know we don't want any child to be harmed why take this away I think the reason is that we do have the laws in place to protect the children we do it now whether this policy is there or not isn't going to affect the services we provide to our children so for me it's harmful to think that we have a government that can create laws and then those laws can get into the schools and then you send your child to that school and then there could be a secret or something that the child isn't allowed to take home to the parent that and I'm not just talking about this issue tomorrow

126it could be another issue it could be any issue that might come up in the future I think it's a dangerous road to go down I don't think you need to codify you should not tell parent x y z you can't code that uh but it it sets a precedent Mary that this could just open Pandora's Box to the Future what next could we do to hide from a parent and I don't think it's necessary because whether it's there or not I don't feel like any child is being harmed because like I said the services we provide now are so professional and follow state law that is an unnecessary I think it's just an unnecessary policy to put in place that's causing everybody to get into a big fight over over nothing because the protections

127are already there I think this is an issue that's just dividing us and it shouldn't because everyone here on the board loves and respects children and we know our teachers and our administrators do and we have to work together on a case-by-case basis and I think that's the best way to move forward let's not try to make so many restrictive laws our hands are tied and we can't even make decisions because we're so afraid to talk or move we can't function like that we have to entrust that when we seat people into these positions they're going to make professional decisions for the best interest of the children and try not to make the law so restrictive that's my position on it so I kind of favor abolishing rather than amending because I feel like getting

128rid of it gets rid of a big problem and it leaves the right decisions to be made by the right people that we put in place right that's my opinion okay so I guess um I I agree with what Mike said he was on point with that um I think that we have great teachers and administrators and I think they can handle most every problem that comes up period now there may be an error occasionally but we'll reunion I would like to draw everyone's attention to policy itself it says the school district shall accept the students asserted gender identity parental consent is not required a student need not need any threshold of threshold diagnostic or treatment requirements who have his or her gender identity recognized and respected by the school district school or School staff

129members so in other words there's no counselor talking to the student and working through him he just comes in one day and she's the I'm a she and we have to accept it according to what this says in addition a legal or court-ordered name change is not required there is no affirmative Duty for any School District staff member to notify a student's parent of the student's gender identity or expression so it's it's very clear what they're saying here the parent is left out it's not right you can't get between the states that you get between the parent and the kid and my question is going to be are we going to still abide by that that if a kid and I think you might have asked it Meg what are we going to do if

130a kid says I want to be I am a he how are we going to handle that as a district if Mom and Dad are opposed to that and that we're going to have to come up with right it's not going to be black and white you know it'll be a case by case yeah you don't need that that is true yeah so that's not going to change okay do you have a question so if we're doing it now under the policy why are we going to balance up a policy that we're following anyway because it stops the parents from being part of the conversation right the sole issue is Parental notification that's big issues that is honestly why we're here it's why it's a Hot Topic throughout the state um I I have heard

131from our public I've heard from all of you I've spoken to many of you in the past so many of you already know where I stand on this the guy come from this from a different angle and I don't know if it's my legal background or not I believe in equal protection under the law for everybody regardless of who you are how you identify and everything else I believe in no discrimination whatsoever but I also believe in those things not at the expense of discriminating against somebody else and I do personally feel and have always felt that some of the policies and laws that we have infringe on what I believe is a fundamental constitutional right to parent your children in the way that you see fit there's a long-standing string of Supreme Court Federal

132cases um and balancing what I believe to be a fundamental parent right against keeping a child safe and supported and non-discriminated against in our schools is no easy feat so I'm not going to criticize the policy for what it is because I think the intent behind it was to protect children the practice of it though is creating chaos and infringing on other people's constitutional rights which I don't agree with um as we as I sit in this seat I feel like I take an oath as a board member to uphold the laws of the state and of the United States Constitution I took an oath as an attorney to uphold the Constitution and my reading of our constitution as our and our Supreme Court cases supporting it support a certain level of parental rights it

133has nothing to do with my religion or my beliefs I'm not aligned with any political party I I in terms or any extreme group I'm not doing this at the request of any of these groups in fact if you spoke to some of them they'll probably tell you that they hate me for one reason or another I'm here as an individual who stays true to what I believe in and my reading of the law so my feeling is this policy has gone too far and leaves too much ambiguity and it leaves school districts open in my opinion to litigation the flip side of that is while I do have extreme trust and faith in our Administration they could get hit by the bus tomorrow so without you know certain no offense Diane I've been in

134this town for 32 years and I see how this district has done things for 32 years and it's been consistent that whole time um but you never know so I think it all of it deserves careful consideration um in terms of what this should look like how this should my opinion is that any amendment to this policy is going to invite an NJ lad um backlash um but abolition of the policy and acting in a way that is conforms with our U.S Constitution and our state laws provides you a little bit more protection from any type of litigation that's my that's my personal opinion do you think do you think Michelle the way it's been implemented here as Neil described it and obviously we don't know fully how everything works um do you think that

135it was ambiguous here like do you think that we had a problem as a district with our our individual because we're talking about our policy right I understand it was a Statewide policy that was pushed down by Strauss Esme but do you think we had an issue with the ambiguity I get it in different places it could have been no I'll tell you why because I don't think that this District operated in a way that it it operated to the letter of the law of the policy this District did what this District always does which weighs the best interest of the child with all the laws that they operate under they typically do things by the law by the book if a child came to any administrator in this district and said I want to

136come out to my parents however the few times I raised this my father beat me you know Seven Ways to Sunday I have faith that that staff member is not gonna that father is not going to be the first person that's staff members calling that that begs a different and a bigger conversation the flip side of that is if you have a student who comes and and I'm Catholic who says hey I can't go home and tell my parents this I'm Catholic it's against my religion and that staff member says okay you know I I think that puts the Child In Harm's Way and that child in turn maybe does something to hurt themselves in the future and those parents find out that the school knew what was going on with the student I think

137you invite a lawsuit that way too I don't think that helps anybody so the the problem with a case-by-case basis is that you're open to a lot of subjectivity so my personal goal is to stand by our federal laws our federal case law or Federal Constitution work with what the state has given us but provide something that removes the ambiguity because if there weren't ambiguity with this policy we wouldn't be here right now we have it and which is why we're here oh if you have ambiguity you open the door if you open the door you open it to extremist groups who will use it to maybe get things they want for not the same reasons you want them as well and I don't go for that either um so I I've never I had

138this conversation months ago even with Jeff I I am not a fan because I I don't I don't stand by the constitutionality of not um of the of not telling the parents and I'm not saying there's situations where a parent shouldn't be told of course a child who's in danger of harm should always be protected but parents have rights in this country and until they legislate or decide otherwise we have to we can't ignore them and that's where I'm at with that I don't think anybody here is against parents rights I think we're all parents right we're all parents here right so but you were talking about ambiguity the policy in at least the way the state is interpreting it takes away that ambiguity and I think what we're arguing for is actually more ambiguity

139we're trying to get to a place where we can evaluate it on a case-by-case basis using the professional backgrounds that you have so if there is a child you talked about who's going to say if you tell my parents they're going to beat me you know what I forget the phrase you used six ways to Sunday yeah Seven Ways to Sunday thank you we won't tell the parents right or are you in favor of always telling the pair I'm just trying to I'm just saying that there's there's there's a a conversation that needs to take place and while the actual language of the policy says Parental notification is not required Mr dickstein if he were here would tell you direction from the state tells him it's mandatory that that he doesn't buy a parent so

140that in and of itself we don't want to make it mandatory that we always do because of the examples of the nurse who was here earlier speaking about okay correct if you want to amend a policy and say parental notification is absolutely required that's a different conversation that's a different conversation we're talking about abolishing this policy that gives the school district um who's getting guidance from the state in saying that parents shouldn't be notified so if we abolish this policy we don't have to listen to what the state is saying I don't understand how that was until the state legislates otherwise no we do not we make our own rules so even currently we don't have anything okay you know so even partly we don't have to without this policy we have to follow all

141the other rules which say that they can there can be no acts of discrimination there has to be a safe the the statute says that students have to be nurtured in a safe and supportive School environment so you have to have certain protocols in place that provide what we are statutorily required to provide which we've already been providing but like I said I do live my life by the get hit by the boss Theory you should always plan for the future you know as much as I love you all excuse me that's your biggest concern if Dr bethauer wasn't here and uh Mrs Montgomery Mrs Montgomery wasn't here and Mr Dixie wasn't here would we have a different culture in the school would it not operate that way and that's I'm sure I want faith

142that the answer to that is no only because for 30 years yeah and seven superintendents it was always operated that way so you would have faith but you you never do know I'm not going to say never I don't know Michelle can I make a statement in the support of Mike's statement before that this law this policy is more geared towards a precedent that would tie parents hands it's it's you know rather than open for protection of the children it's really in my view more of a hindrance for as a protection for the parents because it says no affirmative responsibility yeah it's a first step and then they're gonna they could be other steps that support that and expand on that it's best to leave parents to children with our care we have counselors we

143have uh other policies in place that protect children of all of all kinds you know we're all here to to help them to help them nurture them to help them grow and help them be the best student or best citizen that they can be we're not here to hinder a child this policy is in my view I see it as a hindrance of a parent because all the other angles of the of the policy are covered by federal state and local laws except for all the we've been addressing them over the years it's really comes down to parental notification I agree that's really what I mean honestly that's really what I think well and just so I'm reading the policy correctly all the policy says on Parental notification is that there's no affirmative um responsibility

144on the school to disclose it it doesn't say schools can't disclose it the policy wording itself says there's no affirmative responsibility which it sends to me like when we talk about a case-by-case basis we're kind of adopting that philosophy well we have been I would say but not every other place has and not every other superintendent would and either a policy is sort of legal on its face or not legal I don't know like I I think I look at things a little differently in that regard and I maybe I I should just remove myself from that conversation but I I don't understand even in all these discussions like why isn't anybody analyzing the Supreme Court cases on parental rights who in the state of New Jersey is doing this I don't know the case

145out of Pennsylvania where the the police officer who threatened to out the kid was personally found liable right and that's it that's a that's an appellate court decision that is in our jurisdiction foreign if we vote to abolish or anyone votes to abolish the policy does the other side of that and maybe Neil or romata since they're the ones that made a motion and seconded it is now it's absolute is that part of the the end game here is absolute every single case we're going to notify the parents it's a case by case the answer is that we don't know the whole purpose of this meeting was to start the discussion alert the community let all the stakeholders hear what this is all about why we're having this discussion because we have different reasons for

146having it my reason clearly is different than everybody else's reason and maybe hold some round tables let Mr dickstian answer a lot of your questions he is our superintendent we could have put this meeting off until next month but it's better to start these discussions while in advance so everybody has a chance to be heard emails parents may be viewing in maybe other parents aren't they'll hear about it tomorrow they'll want to email our own administrators should weigh in this affects everybody in or not just us so that Michelle do you need a motion that we table a vote until roundtables are happening and further discussion like how does that work like where do we go from here where do we go from here any person can make a motion to put this on as

147a first reading to abolish any person can second that if we don't feel that it's the right time I can put a motion on next meeting to abolish I can put it on for a second reading next meeting Michelle you had said that when it was done right I would have a chance to put the motion in you said that so I would like to put in the motion uh um I would like to move to abolish five seven five six stuck in the motion I'm going to make a motion to table that you need two-thirds vote on that though the table and I believe no majority majority vote to table it and I'm not opposed to tabling it I am in favor of abolishing it but I'm not opposed to tabling it because people

148do need the opportunity to weigh in it's the only fair thing to do so the way you don't want we've been weighing in on it and discussing it everyone knows that's awesome the community the community community the round table idea which was a great idea by Kyrie so there's emotions there's two motions and there's some there's the motion table so do the Motions table first it has to look it up it never happens because we have Robert's Rules right here I think we have it's time yeah we have two motions and I mean thank you foreign recess while we figure out Robert's Rules of Order foreign okay we're returning from Recess before we begin um I was informed by our technology department that our batteries are running low so for those of you at home

149if the video cuts out you should still be able to hear audio right correct it's only the audio the video battery that's running low okay so if you are at home you can still listen once the video cuts out but hopefully we can finish the rest of the meeting without the video cutting out so and I just confirm it's the main motion which would be the motion that Mr Roger made and then miss bran seconded that is in the pecking order the lowest of the pecking order so the motion to table is higher than that motion to amend to table would set have uh would come before the main motion which is to abolish at this point in time I thought Robert's Rule once I move and it's seconded it has to be discussed and

150um no once you make you can make a motion on top of that ever right okay so were you the first on that the first table and Mrs Thurman was the second do you need a roll call we will take a roll call okay so um we'll call the table roll call to table Mrs brand no Mrs causalino yeah Mr gargiolo no Mr O'Sullivan yes Mrs Feldman yes this has been the tolling yes Mr Williams yes Mr Amoroso yes Mrs Lambert yes motion the table carries so now over the course of the next three weeks prior to our next meeting we're going to host a round table asking her for um dates and availability so okay I'll let you know okay okay and then we hopefully will hear from our community in that time okay

151um with that moving on to finance facilities and transportation Ms vended holy the finance facilities and transportation committee did meet this evening in attendance for Mr DaVita Mrs bran Mrs Lambert and myself uh we had a lot of items that we had to discuss there was a transportation issue the committee reviewed a transportation request from a parent and um Mr DeVito will respond tomorrow with our decision construction update the committee discussed the ongoing HVAC project we are still waiting for train to deliver a number of Batman thank you backnet cards for us to be able to tie the units into our controls we're also waiting for some parts to come in to tie a new unit at Applegate into the fire alarm panel other facility needs we had to we declared an emergency at Erickson

152the heat the heat exchanger for the unit above the media center needs to be replaced the cost is forty thousand dollars for the part alone we'll have portable units in the space until we can have the parts fabricated and installed demographic study we engaged with the company last year to create a demographic study for the district due to all the proposed housing we anticipate the final report by January facility staff and studies we are in the process of evaluating our staffing needs for grounds a third-party company is going to provide us some detail of our true needs for labor and Equipment versus what we currently have we'll use this for the upcoming budget we are looking to do some the same for our custodial staff as Bob mentioned earlier in his facilities update the rod

153Grant we received 1.4 million dollars this money will be applied to the next HVAC project for units at Applegate and Erickson state aid we received an additional 200 000 in state aid for student Mental Health um and then we reviewed the agenda items can I ask a question on facilities we had an issue over at Katina with one of the child study rooms and the controls on there was that fixed not I'm not aware of what the I think that they it's a room without windows and one of the I guess one of the switches or the controls wasn't working in that room and they couldn't even use a portable unit because there's no windows I'll have to follow up but we've I've got probably 50 portable units I thought you said something about it

154as meaning so what was happening was and we don't have we have the majority but not all the bacnet cards over at Katana and so some staff members are viewing and I don't know if this is the case in this room that the units aren't working at all when the set point for air conditioning at 75. so anytime the bacnet card is not included and it has not been installed the factory set point for air conditioning is 75 and the factory set point for heating is 71. so I've had a number of Staff members in other buildings that have the same issues say to me it's not working no it's working it's not working at the temperature you might like it to work right now so I do off the follow-up I am unaware of

155each and every single thing that's going on we've got a number of things that one doesn't ring a bell so I'll find out okay so but it's not like all of them have been here at this point no the majority as I said for um JJC have been but they're still we're I'm not gonna hold my breath they I for I've had five different dates now since the middle of July we're supposed to get another shipment come in the end of this week but again it's every day that's come and gone and my understanding is these are the same type of chips that are used in automobiles or using everything and there's still a shortage of them so and I don't know how trained who's the manufacturer how they're deciding who gets what I know

156our contractors had numerous conversations the architect has as well they're trying to push them but it's I'm not sure what our where we are in the pecking order for you know a national company who gets what but hopefully by Friday we'll have some more then we just then have to wait for Tran come back out install them test it and then have the control company hook that unit back up to the control system downstairs okay I'll find out though it's I don't recall Mr Shaw asking me about that room so I think when I was there they were working in other spaces okay um they move them yeah yeah I think it was bacnet related and they were moved so okay yeah foreign okay um I'd like to move the agenda items the number two

157the secretary and treasurer's report as listed number three bills and claims I'd like to thank Mrs causalino for doing the bills this week Tracy is going to harass you um okay thank you total bills two million nine thousand three hundred seventy nine dollars and fifteen cents payroll two million 524 863.51 for a grand total of four million five hundred thirty four thousand two hundred forty two dollars and sixty six cents number four travel and related expenses as listed I'm sorry was that me I think that was me number five transfers as listed number six disposal as listed number seven disposal of surplus property for gov deals as listed number eight School Bus emergency evacuation and safety drill report as listed number nine honorary at Erickson Elementary School thank you to the element Ericsson PTO as

158listed and that's all okay anybody have any questions can I have a second all in favor say hi hi maybe pass one down thank you thank you so much okay um moving on to Old business new business I think we've had plenty of business um going out tonight so I will move right into public participation if anyone wishes to address the board on any item please step to the podium state your name and town for the record write your name and address on the sign in sheet statement should be limited to three minutes and shouldn't be abusive obscene or defamatory in nature would anybody like to address the board on any item seeing none I'd like to thank those of you that stayed with us to the end for coming and participating um especially in

159light of the discussion that occurred tonight we look forward to hearing more from all of you I hope all of you heard all of us we certainly heard all of you and I thank you for your time and your comments um with that said I'd like a motion to adjourn first apartment games or Friday night God willingly okay the weather who knows that's right September 29th at overtime the Hartman soccer game between Barcelo and Eisenhower so we have a motion to adjourn a second second all in favor say aye oh