001I'd like to call this meeting to order sorry I'd like to call this meeting to order the mission of the Frio Township School District is to honor and support every learner every day on the journey to become curious and engaged members of a diverse Global community a notice listing the time date and place of this meeting was posted on the public bulletin board of all 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 7 2022 and sent to the news transcript on January 5th 2022. I'd like to invite you to join us in the Pledge of Allegiance and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under
002God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay roll call Mrs kozlino Mr garciullo here Mr Matthews Mrs O'Sullivan president Mrs thorman here Mrs benatoli here Mr Amoroso this is Lambert here we have a quorum I'd like a motion to approve the regular meeting minutes from November 15 2022. all in favor say aye aye motion carries I'd like a motion to approve the executive session meeting minutes from November 15 2022. all in favor say aye aye any extensions no everyone was there okay good okay Communications feeling communication is enrollment October of 2022 we had 344 students we had the exact same number in November of 22 and if you compare that to November of 21 we had 3496. thank you um going to uh skip my president's remarks until after our administrative report we have
003a departing board member that we'd like to recognize um a little later in the meeting so we're going to uh I'll we're going to do that a little later in the meeting but I do want to wish everybody a happy and healthy break our schools have been bustling with activity I see all kinds of fundraisers I there was Barnes Noble there's the gift fundraisers there's a lot going on every day in every building a crazy hat day where your pajamas day I see and it's great to see chorus concerts band concerts there's nothing greater than seeing all the Student Activities hustling and bustling and making life feel good again so thank you to all the parents getting their children to all these activities our staff members our administrators I just wanted to give that quick
004shout out to thank everybody and wish everybody a happy healthy break and like I said we have a departing board member which we will honor later in the meeting at this point I'll turn it over to Mr dickstein for our administrative report and some staff recognition so first although I won't spend a great deal of time on it since we will be later on behalf of administration or our school administrators our teachers and all the staff we would like to express our appreciation to Jen Patton for her service on the board um I have been fortunate enough to know Jen from the board back to I was laughing trying to think back to when she was pregnant and we were expecting the board baby yes years ago who are now in what grade fourth grade
005yes yes so um the you know what we what one might think we look for in a board member as administrators is somebody who just will sit back and agree and that is absolutely not what we look for we look for somebody who challenges our thinking um and pushes us to think to think deeper about the decisions that we make and um that is something that Jen Patton has done over her time on the board and um we will miss her that even though sometimes it's you know it could get a little heated but that's what it's about um her support of the students in this district and the staff and um absolutely the laughter and fun so we will we thank you and Miss we'll miss you um I did want to share that
006we had a PTO liaison meeting we um it's been difficult uh trying to organize the you know as Society we get further and further um in years what we're recognizing is many of the families have two working parents in the household so the traditional Wayback PTO liaison where many people attended um is not what we've been experiencing so I have been trying to work closely with the PTO liaison Group which if you're not familiar it is the executive Boards of each of our ptos in the district to determine how we can maximize participation um and of course I asked virtual in person or a combination and literally it was 50 combination 25 in person 25 virtual so it was not very helpful so we had everybody together I had more people here in person and
007what we valued over time and I noticed even when years ago participating even as the assistant superintendent is that the PTO groups really valued their collaboration time I remember we'd step out of the room and two hours later the group would still be here collaborating about what what's happening in each of of the schools and we can't do that virtually so I did give out we had more people who attended I did ask our principals to be diligent and they were in reaching out to their ptos to get me at least two members per school and we had different representation depending on the school but more than we've had in the past we served breakfast as a holiday celebration with each other and spent a great deal of time talking there was a an agenda
008that we went through giving an update on our district goals and some other things facing our schools and then provided time afterwards for collaboration and it was really well attended it was a positive experience we did go to five times a year based on the we used to do it monthly we'd be willing to go back if that's what the group wants and we really um I handed out the survey that I gave electronically we only had eight responses electronically so everybody that was here completed it on paper so I just have to go through those results uh and see how to make it most useful yes anything would be considered I just don't know what the feedback was yet I didn't get a chance to look at the survey so evening is definitely an
009option but it I don't know what the preference is yet I didn't get to go through them but it was really nice for the engagement of having our parents back as you know one of our district goals is uh to increase re-engage with the community and our parent groups and they had great suggestions as well um one of their suggestions which is part of our strategic plan is to actually do a community survey and that will be sometime in the month of June January that will be coming out um but uh that's that's coming we also part of the board Roundtable are um our topic was bullying um Dr barthauer combined or put together a great deal of resources to walk through specific scenarios to apply what we learned we didn't have the best attendance
010um how many people came eight people attended but um it is in the district newsletter our first district newsletter that went out the presentation was in there just what's lost in there is the application of the presentation in different scenarios but she has offered each of our administrators through their PTO presidents to go to PTO meetings if it's a topic or something that they would like to go through um Neil can I just add you guys did an excellent job on that presentation thank you Diane um out of the people that were there um the feedback that I was receiving from them was that it was amazing they didn't think it would be as interactive with as that and they're definitely going to go out there and spread the word thanks I would be remiss
011if I didn't uh thank the administrative team particularly the administrators in the middle school had a lot of to contribute to the presentation um all of those scenarios were actually real student scenarios that we've experienced in the last few years and actually Mr Smith Mr Giordano were able to be there and help facilitate those conversations so it was definitely a team event I'm already scheduled to go to Katina in January so if anyone else would like to engage in in some of that I'd be happy to take the show on the road do you know what date that is uh January 4th I want to say if I'm a betting person let me just double check it's their I believe they're regularly scheduled PTO meeting um that I'll be uh participating and it is January
0124th at 7 pm at the Katina school and obviously if you would like to attend I'm just we're not going to turn you away um but I don't know where I am on the agenda so I'm not sure what other um Katina things you might um sit there before that with that I'd like to move into our recognition for this evening um I'll get up and come around what get up and come out recognition yeah so this evening I have the pleasure and privilege to recognize two of our district Educators the um exemplary education recognition program is sponsored by the New Jersey Department of Education each year the New Jersey Department of Education invites public school districts to participate in the exemplary educator recognition program thank you the goal of the program is to identify
013outstanding educators for special recognition and it alternates each year some years it's K5 some years at six eight this year it was partic specific to grades Pre-K to five the qualifications exemplary Educators exhibit strong Knowledge and Skills and inspiring presence and a positive impact on students colleagues and the school Community the nominee must also have a rating of effective or highly effective on his or her most recent final summative evaluation this year we are lucky enough to have two staff members not only from the district but the same school received the exemplary educator recognition award um it is no surprise that they are both staff members at the Erickson school where a lot of work has been done around the use of data across the years students owning their data teachers working with data to
014maximize the performance of their students are and they'll both come up at the same time but first um Tabitha menica's phys Ed and health teacher at the Ericsson School foreign exemplary educator at the Erickson School teaching phys Ed and health she is also a leader in the department of physical education and health writing curriculum mentoring and coaching her colleagues and we are very appreciative of all that Tabitha does the impact on our district and her colleagues and on the students that she works with on a daily basis here and at the eclc and I'm going to also bring up the principal of the Erickson School Kathy Orman similar message Kathy is a leader among our administrative team Kathy truly exemplifies and walks the walk which he expects of her teachers she does for herself she
015models professionalism she models uh looking at each student as an individual not only for them to grow academically but to grow socially and emotionally she has a very supportive environment in her school and in her most recent post observation conference I said to her I learned from you every day and I value the the dialogue that we have so I cannot think of two more deserving staff members in our district let's congratulate Tabitha menica and Kathy Orton foreign speech yeah which yeah of course you can well Tabitha is getting her speech it just speaks volumes of how deserving they are to see all of the Erickson Community here today to support them that speaks volumes in and of itself I'll try and make it right okay it's okay all right Mr Dixie Dr Beth Our
016Miss Montgomery members of the Board of Education and the New Jersey Department of Education thank you for this amazing honor I am humbled to have been selected as an exemplary educator by our great state of New Jersey thank you to miss Montgomery your leadership as we wrote the new health and physical education curriculum this summer we knew that it would be a challenging time-consuming alignment but we appreciate that you and Mrs hittinger gave us full autonomy and valued our vantage point in the classroom while navigating this task thank you to the Erickson staff students families and communities it is community it is a privilege to be a small part of such an amazing place to Mrs Armin and miss perella the culture that you Foster at Erickson is unparalleled you lead us you support us
017but most importantly you are not afraid to roll up your sleeves and jump right in and help whenever there is a need a special thank you to my related arts plus team I heard a quote Years Ago by Sir Isaac Newton if I see further it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants you are my Giants okay you inspire me to continually grow as an educator challenge me to implement new things into our classroom into my classroom for our students thank you for your support on my exemplary days and my non-exemplary moments as well to my Eichmann and menika's families you have instilled a great work work ethic in me and a love for learning new things I am blessed to have you all in my life to my husband Jamie thank you
018for being my biggest cheerleader every idea I have as crazy as it may be you always reply with a resounding go for it babe and I love you for that to my four children Abby Ryan AJ and Mason you are my why my prayer for you is that you have a passion for Learning and always find a new way to grow in 2016 my husband and I made the decision to move our family to Freehold Township so that our children could attend the amazing schools here when contemplating the move my husband asked why Freehold the best answer I could come up with is there's just no place like it I'm so thankful that he trusted my judgment one night after moving while talking about how our children were settling into their new school he said
019to me this was the best move we could have made for our family and I agree I hope that one of the greatest compliments I could ever give my colleagues is to is the desire to entrust my own children to them I'm so thankful to be a health and physical educator at Marshall W Erickson in Freehold Township when students enter my classroom I hope they feel empowered to be themselves accepted and loved for who they are encouraged to try new things supported to show grit and perseverance and value the importance of their health and daily physical activity as they grow learn and develop into our next generation of leaders thank you [Applause] I know I just need to acknowledge one thing and thank you everyone for your support the board and administration and my staff
020they know at staff meetings I usually cry because I'm usually proud of something I just want to tell a quick story that I've told my staff so just bear with me but I want the board to hear this when I got hired as a principal they asked me two very strange questions and you may remember one of them was would you rather be a hedgehog or a fox and the other question was is it more important to know where the bus is going or to to get the right people on the bus and I got them both wrong so I don't know why I'm standing here today I still don't know the answer to the Hedgehog and the fox question but the best question I answered it's more important to know where the bus is
021going because how do you get the right people on if you don't know where you're going and so for all of you you know the last several years here we go I've been really challenging for staff and for the board and for parents for everyone and when we got towards the end of the pandemic and everybody was so stressed I said to everyone I finally understand why I got that question wrong we had no idea where we were going when the pandemic hit but all I knew is I had all the right people on the bus and we did it and we did an amazing job for our kids and really me standing up here is just a reflection of all the work that my staff does so thank you foreign just to share which
022I did at the beginning we are a state of many school districts and out of all of the school districts in New Jersey from All the Way North To All the Way South there were only approximately 120 staff members recognized with this honor and it is a minority of those that received it we have two staff members that did and I'm proud of both of them congratulations and from that onto the bullying report um since though I know since the last uh meeting we had seven reports of harassment intimidation and bullying and before you do the math and try to make sense of it sometimes there are um one of one specific report that has multiple offenders or multiple targets so the number doesn't always match when we say the number confirmed and the number
023unfounded so while we receive seven reports we had four confirmed incidents and four unfounded incidents that's all that I have um this would be the first opportunity for public participation uh regarding agenda items only this board offers two opportunities for public participation the first is for items that we are voting on the agenda this evening the second are any items that affect the school district so therefore if anyone wishes to address the board please write your name and address on the sign-in sheet at the podium and state your name for the record your comments or questions are limited to three minutes and should not be abusive of seeing or defamatory in nature does anybody have a question or comment regarding an item on the agenda okay seeing none we'll move on to Personnel Personnel chairperson
024Ms Toman thank you um the Personnel committee did meet this evening present more myself Mrs venditoli and Dr breath hour we discussed all of the items on the agenda and uh some job descriptions um I'd like to move the following items starting with number three retirement as listed leaves of absence as listed resignations as listed adjustment to resignation date as listed creation of positions as listed new employment as listed change of assignment and salary adjustments as listed change of assignment as listed extend change long-term assignment as listed lunchroom assistance salary adjustments as listed PTO honoraria as listed tact task teams as listed recent unpaid day as listed job descriptions as listed additional compensation as listed PBS summer committee as listed permanent substitute bus driver as listed revised substitute rates as listed certified substitutes as listed
025a non-certified substitutes as listed and I believe we have somebody Amy Campanelli who is here today who is part of our agenda so thank you so much for coming um okay good um you just said Amy Campanelli right wave moving into the instructional Coach position at Katina good luck another Erickson staff member and I just want to say voting yes and it doesn't mean I accept it Mrs Campanelli although I'm a Katina mom so I'm happy to have you great it was a fun meeting we had either anymore I do want to I do want to do one do a second first before I speak or no you don't care no okay okay I I do want to share with the board and those that are here today that what we found over the course
026of we've had to do several interviews for different positions whether it be in the last few years supervisor or instructional coach and what the board and all of our staff should be proud of is consistently we WE Post outside of the district and consistently the final round of every interview is our own staff um and the they are competing against each other um all high exemplary and all deserving at that final interview but we can only choose one person and we're proud that Amy Campanelli Rose to the top but we should all be proud of the development the leadership development in our district um and we're just finding like I said each and every time when we get to that final round out of the first two group interviews when it comes down to the
027central office time it's consistently our own staff members who are outperforming in the process with the and it's not just interview questions there's tasks associated created and they are the most proficient and rising to the top each and every time I just want to add as an Erickson parent and as a parent Mrs campanelli's class especially we do have some of the most amazing staff members and we are going to miss you greatly she's amazing and Katina is very lucky to have her so you can come back anytime you want does anybody have any other questions from the agenda okay then can I have a second roll call Miss casalino Mr Gargiulo yeah Mrs O'Sullivan yes yes Patton yes Mrs Thurman yes Mrs Van Natoli congrudgingly yes Julie this is Lambert yes motion carries okay
028um moving on to curriculum for your very last time let me use the microphone it's like a safe bet at this point so the curriculum policy curriculum policy committee met this evening present where myself miss casalino Mr gargulo Ms Montgomery and Mr Dixie I'd like to move uh first I'd like to discuss what we discussed at the committee meeting all items on the agenda the start strong report on data reflective practice protocol ECG revision to the current regulation 2464 word study small scale implementations the first reading of the of 2464 regulation and the second readings for policies and regulations as shown on this evening's agenda foreign I'd like to move course reimbursement as listed in the agenda item four field trip list update as listed item five home instruction as per the agenda item six
029first reading item seven second reading of policy as listed item eight student teacher practicum observation placements as listed and item nine the 2023-2024 school calendar does anybody have any questions I have one it's easy it's about the calendar um that's never easy no it is so I'm just wondering why in uh hold on I can't remember the months January thank you January and April we did a we did a like in January we have offer Martin Luther King weekend and then we're coming back to school for a half day and then we're doing the same thing in April we have a four day weekend then we're coming back to a half day is there a reason we're gonna put the half day before the weekend yes so um we to me seems a little yeah
030they um well two things I wanted to I was actually going to explain why this calendar looks different we are having a difficult time um going back to the way we traditionally did professional development traditionally professional development we were able to pull the grade levels across the district um we just don't have the substitute coverage we did raise our rates a few meetings go to 130 a day um that's helping very little uh so we don't have the substitute coverage to be able to pull staff at a large scale level to do the professional development we need so our supervisors and coaches are spending session after session so the same the session we were traditionally present in one day across the district they're presenting over the course of three or four days to different groups
031or five days to to minimize the impact on the lack of coverage for our students um so what we did here is we built an additional early dismissal days for professional development under the philosophy that those would be a sequence of professional development that in total would be the equivalent of what they would get if they were pulled for a day so that's the rationale behind it why are they after because sometimes we have staff members who need to back up to those days on the usually the before end so we put them on the after end also you don't think having the kids off for like four days and only coming back for a half day is no because when we do our early dismissal days while it's a little loss of time it's
032more concentrated because the only time you're out of your classroom in the elementary school is the 25 minute related art period so there's no lunch there's no it's you're with your teacher receiving instruction for all but 25 minutes of that four hour day I'm saying like but why are they after days off why couldn't they be like the following week why are we having kids go for like four days off and a half day I just I just don't see the purpose because some families take advantage of that and extend vacation to a day so we're trying to match get match that take advantage of that too so we have them in different places we traditionally always put them before this time we put them after but not each time only in two times uh
033the one in February um one of them matches the regional calendar so we did it that way we're trying to vary the days that the way that we do it okay good point I don't understand we were chat we're challenged with the 2024 uh with the way the holidays fall so um typically njsla and our map testing is taking place and as you can see by the calendar it's somewhat restrictive um and most of that's going to have to happen in May so that's really why we left it in April but um it's typically the window is typically the end for Middle for K to eight it's typically the end of April through the end of May so with the holidays split um it's going to pose some correct it so it's going to pose
034some scheduling um concerns and so really April's so chopped up it conserves a solid May to do some of that work not again not an excuse just a rationale you know okay okay I asked this every year not to put you on the spot but I know we tried it as best we can to align with the high school for the regional we are are we are there are there anything that's not aligned like only early dismissal days not necessarily aligned because of where we would need the professional development and sometimes the high school has them for different reasons like PSAT day um or uh uh back to school night conferences so that's where we're not aligned on early dismissals but our closings are aligned our spring break's aligned all of that's aligned foreign roll
035call for curriculum oh I'm sorry that's good I'm already confused that's okay all in favor say hi hi motion carries okay Finance facilities and transportation Ms O'Sullivan we had a committee meeting today [Music] Williams Michelle Lambert and myself we discussed the township housing plan the committee discussed clinical friendship Sciences [Music] for a demographic study to help plan for future employment changes uh construction bids we discussed the construction bids on the agenda we noted that we're recommending the rejection of one one of the roofing bids the company did not have enough legal capacity to perform the work the wellness committee the District of reforming the wellness committee that started prior to kobit we asked for Parental Volunteers in December's newsletter to join the committee that is required as part of our policy the interlock agreement was
036discussed with the township that is on tonight's agenda is identical to the current agreement the facility use policy we discussed the need to make some minor language changes to the facility use policy we are also looking to increase our fees for facility usage we have not modified our facility use fees in several years and we are looking for a first reading in February equipment needs we discussed some of our equipment for the 2324 budget this includes new buses and trucks for the maintenance staff we are also exploring replacing the service line equipment at most of the cafeterias in the district the future capital outlay projects and Rob grants the state is making a 350 million dollars in Rod grants available for the capital needs in January we discuss submitting a proposal for replacing the HVAC
037at Erickson and Applegate and upgrading the electrical system at Eisenhower we are looking to have the architect's proposal approved active at the reorganization meeting in January to avoid delays in submitting our Rod Grant applications okay I like to move to number three certifications uh move as listed secretary and treasury report as listed bills and claims Mr casalino thank you for doing the bills and claims uh for two million 173 613.45 as listed yeah traveling related expenses as listed for I like to move the transfers as listed Consultants as listed shared and service agreements as listed the honorarium update as listed the honorary resend as listed the out of District contract as listed tuition contract for received students as listed State contract numbers as listed and the alliance for competitive Energy Service the aces natural gas
038Services as listed all right we're still moving on number 17 which is the acceptance of bids for projects 22k045 HVAC upgrades at the West Freehold school as listed the award a bid for project 22k0545 HVAC upgrades at the West Freehold school as listed the withdrawal from capital reserve account as listed the rejection of bid for project 22k046 Roofing Restoration at multiple schools as listed 21 the acceptance of bids for projects 22k046 Roofing Restoration at multiple schools as listed 22 the award of bid for project 22k046 Roofing Restoration at multiple schools as listed 23 withdrawal from capital reserve account as listed 24. sidebar agreement ftaa as listed 25. Grant funded salary substitute stipends 2022-2023 as listed idea basic and preschool for the year 2022 Grant update as listed 27 PBS coaches the esa title IV as
039listed and that is it means a lot today no questions we're good on paper say hi hi I've seen from Minecraft the sixth number five thank you I apologize okay um moving on to Old business new business and president's remarks rolled into one um I'd like to take this time to say farewell to our fellow board member Jen Patton in conjunction with this uh we recently received a voicemail that Mr dickstein received and shared with the board from a Community member who was I was trying to play it but I lost my pocketbook somewhere and it's on my phone I wanted to try to play it for uh for the audience um basically okay oh thank you Bob okay I don't know if it would work or not anyway whatever all the money is yeah
040um clearly I don't um so if I can if I can play it I'm not sure if I can play it where everyone could hear it probably not um basically do you want to say what happened or yeah sure Mr Smith great email great received Mr Smith received a voicemail Mr Smith is the principal at the barclo Middle School uh traditionally if anybody is in this area at around um dismissal time 12 25 on a on a early dismissal day you'll see somewhat chaos of students walking to different places to have lunch together nice thing just wish they would do it a little more safely but a nice thing they go around and Mr Smith received a voicemail from a gentleman who was a former educator but was working with a an adult I believe
041with autism in the community and community-based instruction disconnected to our district and observed our students at Starbucks and referenced their patience their kindness as this this adult with disabilities was engaging at Starbucks and showed a great deal of empathy compassion and how well behaved they were overall with a large number of middle school students in little Starbucks over there so it gave us a great deal of Pride to get that feedback about our students that they're generalizing what we're teaching and what they're learning at home all together in the community observed by somebody who really didn't need to take the time right to call and let us know that so we were extremely proud about that so it was off that when I was wondering what you know what to say about Jen Patton this
042evening as she departs this board after over 10 years um I you know as you mentioned uh you know collectively the individuals sitting in these chairs come from diverse backgrounds uh ethically religiously professionally we have one common goal though when we sit in the seat is which is what to do what we believe is in the best interests of the students of this District and part of that and part of what Jen has fought for all her years on the board is exactly that and to make sure that as a district we educate a balanced child the whole child not just a particular subject all the time it's not one particular element that defines a child or how they should be educated everything requires balance and I've been on this board with Jen for 10
043years and I've watched her fight for balance and fight for your kids her kids all the students of the of this District while raising her own family like I said we had our own little board baby born while she was on this board she used to sit in that seat and we were waiting for a board baby Morgan to be born who's now in fourth grade so we are old we are old um so I I don't know you know or I people come and go in these seats people come and go in town and as students leave eighth grade and went to high school sometimes parents don't really understand or appreciate sometimes the sacrifice that it takes to sit in this seat and the time that aside from the couple of hours every other
044Tuesday the time that goes into being a board member at the sacrifice sometimes of your own children and time that you take away from your family and for that sacrifice 10 years worth I can't thank you enough I'm honored to have been on this board with you as is I am sure everybody else and I will give everybody an opportunity to say their own few words and when we received I know it seems hard to connect for maybe some people but when Neil shared the voicemail that was it that's everything that we it's every that voicemail to me was every reason we sit in the seat every reason I know you sit in the seat and have done it for years through the Ops the Downs the good and the bad so it was perfect
045timing to know for me to tell you you can leave here proud for a job well done well I'm sorry that the voters didn't see it that way and I do I am sorry but you should be proud one thing I think also that you're you know connecting the voicemail one thing is you're leaving the board with one of the biggest pieces of advocacy that Jen has done over the years is it's please expand preschool make it a full day um more opportunities and you are leaving the board with preschool having the highest enrollment we have ever had we're almost full yeah um we're out of space and have to look into and all those times where I was like Jen just enough already like I know I hear you but we're trying and we
046collaboratively you pushed very hard and we you are at a place now where our preschool enrollment is the highest it's ever been that's and it's written the eclc is why I first ran it's because of what was given to my family my first child attended there as preschool disabled and it would it made me realize oh I knew over the years all this district has to offer but to think that we had that opportunity to expand on that or possibly given budgets to lose that that's initially why I ran so keep looking out for those babies I love that um that's where I met you yes I met this crazy lady dragging three kids down the hallway who was running for the Board of Ed yes she was I was a normal one yes to
047serve with all of you over these years and the the board members that have retired from the board already um has been a true privilege and you could not have said anything nicer Michelle and Neil I really appreciate that um this is I hate this I hate saying goodbye so I'm gonna have to come visit um but also I love what you said that I leave on a good note I feel like everything happens for a reason and I do feel like I'm leaving on a good note bottom line all we've been through these last few years as Miss Armin mentioned earlier it kind of sucked it was a hard few years but at the end of the day looking around this table looking at all of you we are the good guys are in
048charge and we're very blessed to have you so thank you thanks thank you thank you I don't think I'm going to be able to match any of that but I am going to say thank you for putting me on this journey yeah um yeah that was a good that was something great thing to encourage someone Stakes were made I want I want to thank you for taking a new board member who who came here as like a parent advocate remain that way kid Advocate um Damn the Torpedoes and and kind of showing me how this worked um and always being patient even when we disagreed always coming back to the conversation um and making this place better thank you and I thank you for your friendship too but I'm not going to say goodbye to
049that okay oh Jennifer Patton the person that calls me up two days before the petition is due and says you're running aren't you and I said no I'm not and she says no but you have to and I said but I've already done it for six years I think I've I've done what I can do oh no Elena you gotta run again and 20 minutes later I looked at my husband who was driving and he says he goes you're running again I thought you were running yes I'm mine so thanks to Jen both Michael my husband and Andrew my son say oh it's Tuesday you're out out the door and is people like Jen that have a spark and you can she can take that spark and Infuse it into anyone into any population and
050get that ball moving and get that project going and get something done and for me working with Jen it it's really been terrific because she has such personality such she has what I always call that internal fire and as an educator I always see that internal fire in people and she had she's far from a pilot light she is on full blast and she just goes and goes and goes and that's what we need just to continue just to continue on working together and going full throttle and if we can continue doing that Freehold is going to be as it is already the place to be but will continue to be the place to be in the place for our children and maybe in some cases grandchildren to be educated and and move on so
051thank you Jen for everything that you've done for us it's a great District thank you very blessed um oh well I know not you Carrie okay she's gearing up we'll save her for last um I just wanted to thank you for your patience and for your knowledge sharing because I'm very new at this and I've learned a lot from you and I could always count on you to tell me exactly how you feel about everything and I just appreciated that and we needed that so much and it was very helpful especially during these two you know first my first two years which were particularly difficult it was nice to have a mentor there who could you know give me some words of advice and you know tell me what was really going on and you
052know so that I could know uh how to do this job you know this is this is a difficult job and it's very helpful to have all of these people on the board who have been doing it for a while so I just I appreciate you uh as a role model and we're gonna miss you thank you I meant it before you were the crazy lady I was a normal one um there's only two people that have ever kind of really told me to be quiet and sit down pull your jets yeah you and Becky um many times many times but I will miss you I I mean I'll miss you here but you're still going to be here anyway there's nobody I like fighting with more than you because as much as people probably
053don't realize this we probably fight more than anybody we fight a lot um yeah sometimes sometimes in a good way sometimes but but with passion for what we both believe in you know um you know the three-way fights between me you and Mary were they're always fun too and I hope that you're going to be the referee from now on but I will miss you you're the Thelma to my Louise and I think that you have done amazing things and I don't think this is the end of your journey and I believe with that everything does happen for a reason and I can't wait to see what you do next because you have the passion and you have the heart and you are the Pollyanna and we will miss you thank you I'm getting a
054little uncomfortable I could make it worse but I won't Jen I really don't know you that long but in the time I've been with you you have a great sense of humor you bring a lot of knowledge to the table and I really wish you good luck in everything you do thank you yeah that was very nice everyone and at the end of the day I'm I'm glad that you're all going to be looking out for our staff and our kids because we really have the best of the best and Jenny bhuta yeah we've known each other for a long time you were a teaching assistant at Eisenhower when I first came to Freehold and then I had your brothers you and Neil both and then your uncle worked with us for a long time
055so you are so embedded in the fiber of the Freehold Township community so even though you're not sitting in the chair you are always here with us so I value the 20 plus years that we've known each other um I know we're so old and um you 've Done Right by kids uh it's the best compliment I can give you so thank you for your volunteerism for your friendship for everything and you're 10 years hard to imagine volunteering and donating 10 years of your life to something you love so much beside your family and that's because we are like family so thank you and look on the bright side as an advocate and you're a natural advocate we who sit in these chairs the the hardest lesson to learn is that sometimes you have more
056power in those chairs than these actually most times yeah so now take one of the take one of those chairs and give us a run for our one yes it will keep it entertaining and bring cake at least bring cake um so we wish you well thank you okay um with that we'll move into our second I do one thing oh I just want to make sure I sent everyone an email with the proposed schedule for the board meetings for next year speak now holy for peace it'll be on the reorder agenda the one date um if you guys want to change is to the budget hearing on the 14th of February you tell me you want to move to Wednesday or do you want to keep me your call what you want to do
05714. yeah [Laughter] it's up to you okay all right let's see if you see anything before we come back in January let me know all right because that's what I'll get posted um you generally get posted sometime next week and are we comfortable with 7 30 meetings or we're just seven o'clock start agree with everybody seven o'clock's good but that means committee meetings are gonna be a big six yeah or we could consider committing virtual assistant schedule there was a time my committee met on Fridays or Saturday I would like that better I and maybe it's committee independent meetings would be okay meetings would be in advance of the board meeting I'd like that too a lot of flexibility in that that's a lot I do feel Administration stays yes and I think Personnel sometimes
058we had we had tried to meet earlier and found that um it was too early right so almost like a Monday might work best but if depending upon how committees shake out um if during the day works or afternoons we could be flexible time so I think seven o'clock is not a bad idea especially when they have kids coming well we I we're we're hoping to bring we're ready to bring students we want students back in the board meeting so it the earlier is better plus you all stay here your work day's done but you hang around for hours well I wasn't including you and I said you all uh all right so if that's okay you want do you want to move to seven okay I'll change it if it didn't work out we
059could always amend ment under okay go back to 7 30. okay all right now public participation okay now would be the second opportunity for public participation if you'd like to address the board on any item please write your name and address on the sign in sheet at the podium state your name for the record statements are limited to three minutes and shouldn't be abusive obscene or defamatory it's like hi Granada brand as you know I've been elected I'm coming in in January so this is one of the last times I'll be on this side of the podium and I want to thank you all for being here and I want to thank also the over 5200 people that voted for me it's humbling and it's an honor to be in to be trusted by so
060many people and having said that I've also want everyone to know that I'm going to be working as hard for the people who voted for me as well as the people who didn't vote for me I did a lot of door knocking in my campaign I knocked thousands of doors and I spoke to thousands of people and the one issue that everybody almost unanimously I would say 99.99 agreed on was the uh this the cursive the script people are shocked uh unbelieving disbelief that that aspect is not being taught in schools script is so important because each individual has a different signature you could have the same name but you can't have the same signature so you need to have that brought back to the classrooms and made a priority for the students I'm also
061a volunteer not volunteer I I work in the Board of Elections and I'm a poll worker and frankly I've had a couple of people adults who didn't know how to sign their names they were so embarrassed it's it in today's day and age we're supposed to be moving forward not backwards I mean we all have educations we're intelligent people we have Esquires we have phds we have mbas we have doctors we know the difference between life today and the way it was 200 or 300 years ago when education began to teach people the reason we have education is to teach people script and history and Civics and bringing things back to the basics it's not just a political slogan it's a reality that parents are looking for so with that I'll see you in next
062month thank you good evening my name is Alicia Mendez I'm a resident of the whole Township um I'd first like to congratulate the recipients of the awards this evening and I'm never in a room with this many Educators so I just want to say thank you for your nurturing guidance that you offer our children every day as a parent considering re-enrollment of my child back into the district how would I go about I have two questions how would I go about understanding or identifying how diversity and inclusion related to historically disabled and lgbtqia plus persons has been incorporated into the current curriculum answer that are you on Becky well there are two ways to do that the first is you can start with the school that your child would be scheduled to attend and if
063you're re-enrolling I assume that you would know what that is if not you can call and we would let you know you can start with the supervisor in that building and follow up with Mrs Montgomery and the curriculum Department you can choose whichever you're most comfortable with yeah I mean I would also say that all of our curriculum is available digitally online so you can search through our curriculum documents on the district website to yep get them to find that information and my second question thank you for that by the way welcome um super helpful my second question um is around the health education policy there are 25 delineated health and well-being requirements and then I understand that one of them has a direct correlate to diversity and inclusivity so my question there is how
064um how would I identify what if any other efforts have been made to ensure that curriculum includes an evolving spectrum of diversity and inclusion um so first and foremost again the health health education curriculum is also available online um on our district website you can search by grade level you can search by units of study um all of that is there and the curriculum is aligned with the standards related to the state's mandates around diversity equity and inclusion part of our curriculum process is to it's something that I'm working on with my curriculum team currently is to create a cycle for the review and revisions of our curriculum over the course of years right so some years where we're doing research about particular in particular curriculum areas and then the following year we're doing some
065implementation or some piloting and we and we you know revise review and revise our curriculum along the way for several years so that it's like a five to six year cycle in each content area um so should new mandates come out that would require reviews and revisions but or we're always reviewing and revising our curriculum to to make sure that we are aligned with what the standards expect thank you so much I appreciate your time welcome thank you would anyone else like to address the board hi my name is Carmela spieler I live in Freehold um my question is this um so with the new 2020 curriculum guidelines that came out and parents have the right to opt out and I'm not sure if I'm understanding that correctly so how what do you plan on
066doing for those children that are going to be opt out what will you be doing to make them feel included and not segregated and make it you know appealing to them and enjoyable as well so oh I'm sorry go ahead no I assume you're talking about the health and PE curriculum correct okay so one of the things that we have done with the team of of health health Educators in the district is design alternate assignments for each grade level so for any students grades two through eight whose families opt to have them not participate in that um personal growth and Human Relationships unit of study there is an alternate assignment that students would will be given the schools are managing what that looks like differently based on the number of students that that are opting
067out so for example some schools teach their health classes collaboratively right so there's two say for example two fifth grade classes together one teacher would teach the health curriculum the other teacher will take the students whose parents have opted them out to do the alternate assignment those numbers vary from grade level to grade level and from school to school so each school is managing you know the supervision and the completion of those alternative assignments differently based on the number of kids and what their master schedule will allow okay I guess I'm just concerned that it would almost seem punitive to them like you're here's this alternate assignment you're going to go in the library or something like that like where it's not going to feel comfortable for them no I don't think so I mean
068we have traditionally in in past years always had some families that opted kids out so it's some it's standard practice the schools are are comfortable doing and nobody is made to feel uncomfortable about it okay I hope so thank you would anybody else like to address the board nope okay um thank you all for attending this evening hope you have a happy healthy New Year merry Christmas happy Hanukkah whatever you celebrate enjoy your break enjoy your holidays enjoy your families and stay healthy we'll see you back here in January for our reorg meeting and um that would that's on January 3rd at seven right that's and that's a seven o'clock meeting January 3rd with that I'd like a motion to adjourn second meeting adjourned all in favor say aye aye