001s test test testing no i don't know thank you for your patience no that's okay thank you for jumping in and fixing it we're always glad that when you guys are here because we wouldn't know what to do um thank you for entertaining some time with me this evening to talk about our district goals for the 22-23 school year as the board knows annually we identify two goals for us to focus on as a district and i'm going to share some information about the work we're going to do around these goals tonight so our first goal is actually two goals um you'll see one focus for elementary school and one for middle school um with a similar focus in the area of reading as we have discussed previously when i shared spring test data with
002you we knew that english language arts would be a focus for us moving into the school year so we thought it important to make sure that one of our goals this year focused on that on that reading work you might notice that this goal looks remarkably similar to last year's goal we used the same structure last year with a math goal that we found great success with and so we wanted to continue that model into this year using it for reading so when we reviewed our student map data from the spring administration we noted that across grade levels the sub scores in the area of reading informational text specifically key ideas key ideas and details was an area of need for our students so we built this goal with the target for that those specific
003reading skills during august and september we've been meeting with building administrators and coaches to review data at the school level and discuss the standards linked to this goal to provide support and resources so that teams in each of the schools can provide specific training and support for teachers around this this particular goal in specific classrooms and as i said the middle school goal is the same the only difference in middle school is we noticed a trend both in informational text and in literary text so fiction and non-fiction around key ideas and details so we will be doing the fall map assessment and then determining which area of focus for individual students will work on based on their fall map data so following the fall map administration schools will analyze student data and identify those students
004whose scores fall at or below this mean writ band and tier one interventions will be included in the classroom for all students who are identified small group instruction um including tier two and tier three interventions for students who need more specific targeted instruction in these areas so that we can improve their performance for around their work with these standards for the winter map assessment and then at the spring map assessment teachers will also progress monitor throughout the course of the year so in between those map administrations not just fall and winter and then winter to spring but in between those test administrations we'll be doing formative assessments with students to make sure that our kids are moving forward and making progress in the in this area so that we can determine which students are on
005target to meet the goal and which students might need more structured support to get them there and let me just click on thank you um so for each of our goals we developed an action plan this is um really our road map for how we're going to get from point a to point b that's not legible at all i'm sorry can you make a bigger job that would be great fabulous perfect thank you so much again the goals at the top are the same this this model is a model that we have used before for lots of our goals we use the same model for our strategic planning we have action steps identified in here who's responsible for getting us you know for moving those action steps along a timeline detailed the resources progress indicators
006how we're going to measure along the way that we're moving towards the goal and then evidence of completion can you just scroll down a little bit please thank you so as i shared for this first goal we've we've started much of this work already right we've already analyzed our spring map data which has gotten us to the place where we are today identifying the goal we will do that again after the fall administration of the map to help us make decisions around who the students are that will be included in this target group um also in the summer the curriculum team um conducted data dig exercises with building administrators in each of the schools they met with each of the school administrative teams and dug deeply into their schools their students assessment data to really
007look at where our areas of strength are and where our areas of need are and again this theme of informational text and key ideas and details was was evident in in all of the schools a little more please thank you we're also we spent some time in the opening days of school training staff to how to review their map data how to pull reports from nwea so that after our fall administration of the assessment teachers will be able to easily and and very quickly capture that data and look at the class breakdown reports for their students in their classrooms to make decisions around which students fall in this target group for the goal and um which students you know where they are on on the on the continuum in terms of needing support keep going
008thank you um throughout the course of the year we will be working the curriculum department and myself for the supervisors will be working with supervisors and coaches and interventionists at the school level to provide targeted professional development for staff right how we need to give staff resources so that they can support the teachers in the classroom so that they have the tools to make sure that teachers can adequately provide instruction around the needs of the students for this particular goal and then as i said before we will continue to progress monitor in between our map testing windows to make sure that students are making progress and moving along towards meeting the goal and and how we meet that goal is interventions instructional interventions tier one interventions for the whole class tier two and three interventions
009for small groups and individuals of students who um who whose assessment data tells us that they need a little bit more in terms of targeted instruction yeah perfect um this is our second district goal uh this goal is um was lifted directly from our strategic plan one of the goals in the strategic plan is to continue to establish and maintain meaningful relationships between families community and schools recognizing that that homeschool connection is an important contributor to student success so our second goal targets this identified area of growth again specifically from our strategic plan the action steps in this plan can you click on that link there thank you the action steps in this plan come from the strategic plan as well as suggestions from the schools and from working with our administrative team as we
010transition back to a typical school year we're seeking additional methods to really re-engage parents and community members as partners in in learning with their students we want to get back to pre-covered normal of of home and school working together collaboratively for for our kids so here's our roadmap for moving towards meeting this goal we're going to be facilitating parent workshops in the schools we are going to lean on the board to continue to facilitate these community roundtables as the previous ones were so successful we are going to continue to enhance a parent group that is facil facilitated for our our students who are english language learners um our middle schools would like to bring back what was previously a very successful program engaging communities community members in the schools through career day we're going to
011challenge families we're going to do some homeschool challenges around reading and other things where we can get families involved at home in learning things that are connected to curriculum at school and also directly from our strategic plan we will be facilitating a community survey we anticipate that going out sometime in the winter and gaining feedback from the community analyzing that data and making steps to move forward based on the information from that community survey questions from the board thank you so much dr montgomery um thank you thank you oh i'm sorry this is montgomery appreciate it thank you take care thank you for donation we'll miss montgomery thank you so much um i was hoping you could tell us a little bit about um the reading goal um what will that actually look like for
012students and like will they be pulled out of school will it how will that actually play out so if a student is identified and needs extra intervention right so um it will look a lot of ways um first and foremost it will look like some some um tier one instruction for all kids in the class right so the first thing we're going to do is do that fall administration of the map and see where kids fall on the continuum that class breakdown report that i referenced identifies students across the continuum in terms of you know exceeding those goals and you know perhaps at the other end not not near them when we're going to look specifically at those kids who are either who are at or below right so we're going to target specifically those
013kids um for the kids who are right at the mean rit band or very close to it might need just some general classroom instruction that that all of the students are going to get where other students who are at the at the lower end of the continuum might need some more intense instruction that may look like small group instruction in the classroom with the teacher it might look like um intervention instruction with the interventionist push in or pull out again it's going to be um it's going to be targeted to what those k what their assessment data tells us they need so will the communication come from your office or from the teachers from the department from yes it will just look like school normally i mean because this is all tied to our curriculum
014okay yes this is all tied to our curriculum focuses instruction teachers are doing anyway okay great yeah thank you becky um at the last meeting you talked about the whole intervention manager that we're doing now how much of a role is that playing in the district goal like have we started using that i know i know you said it would take a couple days but and i know i know and you're so patient i am right we uh we actually have our first training around using intervention manager um on friday with our district interventionist so that's step one um we there are other four other pieces of the platform that are not ready yet for because we'll be rolling out 504 with that also um so those pieces aren't ready but our goal is ultimately
015that kids who need intensive intervention action plans that will all yes that will all live in in lincoln in the intervention manager and will be seamlessly connected through their map scores so like in in the perfect world you know school starts september 6th and i i'm just yeah yeah broad dates um do you think that by the end of september we'd be able to identify the kids that need intervention oh that's happened already okay we have okay that's not not specific to this goal okay but um teachers are interventionists have have already identified who those kids are and and are starting intervention this week so one question i did have from a couple parents who saw the presentation was you know um we said that how the parents were going to be notified of interventions
016yes how is how is that going to look to the parent like is it going to be like an email is it going to be like were they logging through genesis and something's going to be noticeable so that's that's something that i will be working on on friday when i meet when we have our kickoff meeting or like back to school interventionist meeting there is a standard parent letter that will go okay yep perfect thank you welcome middle school if i'm a middle school student and i'm weak in informational tax but i'm also weak in literary tax how is that decision made are you going to go by what's the lowest or is it going to be more of a child specific motivation it's going to be i don't know that it's going to be
017motivation but it's going to be child specific in terms of where the teacher and the and the interventionists if the interventionist is involved in the decision making as well as the building administrators like their and coaches they're going to be meeting with the teachers looking at that data they'll be making those decisions collaboratively okay um so with regard you said formative assessments so we'll be doing that um are those going to be the digital through linkit or some other platform where they're going they're going to be able to pull that data down later or is that just something that's done in individual classrooms haven't been crafted yet but our goal would be that they are they are assessments either ones that link it produces or ones that we build and put in to link it
018okay and then i know you said on friday you're going to do that but is it possible that that data then gets fed into the intervention manager that's absolutely the goal yeah that's why we want it all to live in the same place and then i guess it's more philosophical but the the formative assessments um that they take are those going to be represented as grades that are going to affect the students market period especially in middle school or are those more of information we haven't discussed that i mean from a from a goal tracking perspective they don't need to be but if it's part of what the teachers are teaching in the curriculum in the classroom anyway there's no reason why they can't be yeah thank you welcome go ahead i have a district
019goal two questions okay um you know i'm very into the whole parent school relationship i know yeah i know as my principal for years ago um we thought about in you know including the ptos and things like this to help reach to parents like pto shine and the other group i i think that that is inherent in what this goal speaks to right like those those are that's part of our parent community we have traditionally tapped into okay um i think part of this goal is is to be even broader than that but i absolutely think that that's where we will be starting and we have every intention of i know we said we're looking to do a roundtable in november so we're open to topics from anybody if you want to provide them because
020that's definitely something we want to do at least two to three times a year great thank you i have a question regarding the writ mean yes um since we're basing the intervention on students that are at or below the written mean yes what mechanism do we have in place that determines whether the writ mean we're working with is what this district would expect so the red scores are nationally normal right so so i understand okay right but there's the national norms and then there's what we would expect as a district right do we ever adjust them do we just go by them are they typically high enough like we have traditionally um we have traditionally used the writ measure as our as our measure as our measure okay yeah okay thank you thank you thanks
021thank you andrew you on to the public participation um for the um ssbs do you have any other administrative items to address um just thank you to those of you who um completed my very old school grid that i asked you to complete as you know back to school nights are underway donovan was our first last thursday so if you are planning to attend if you could just let me know so we can share it with the principals um and then a second item is just a reminder that uh after our um vote this evening we can talk about it then yeah so that's it for now okay uh now therefore be a result that the board of education shall open the public hearing on the ssds report for reporting period two school year 2022
022so at this point uh this is opportunity for public participation public hearing on the ssds report the violence vandalism hibb reporting that dr brethauer just presented in in the administrative report would anybody like to address the board with any questions regarding the report yes yes please um so i'm glad that you have asked us this question thank you can we get a breakdown of what that data was can you hear me yeah can we get a breakdown of what that 86 instances were what they were because when before we mentioned the total you mentioned there were several different things that go into that bucket so can we understand what went into it sure there are several categories that the way they're classified violence vandalism or damage in some way to property substances substance abuse alleged
023substance abuse uh weapons and hiv confirmed so hiv alleged is not in that count it's confirmed um i'm sorry hiv confirmed is a separate category from hiv alleged so it's two different ones but it is reported and then other incidents leading to removal would be suspensions so any sort of suspension or act or incident that resulted in a removal from this the typical day i understood that part that was going on into it but so can we actually remember let's say of the difference also with hiv confirmed and hiv alleged and uh is that participating students in schools that are hiv confirmed or alleged hiv i'm sorry it's harassment intimidation and bullying as per the the policy and the law so anytime there is an alleged incident of harassment intimidation or bullying i apologize if
024i wasn't good at everybody sounded like you said that that's why i was like what no no no harassment intimidation bullying so there's an anti-bullying bullet bill of rights and we have very specific guidelines we have to follow anytime there's even a report right we have to report it so alleged means that it was reported we investigated and we could not confirm that it was an incident of harassment intimidation and bullying based on the definition that the state of new jersey puts out if it's confirmed we have confirmed it and the administrators have confirmed that it definitely meets the criteria okay that's all i wanted clarification sorry thank you for your patience does anybody else have any other questions regarding the ssds report before any comments oh sorry sorry any other questions or comments for
025this portion of public hearing for the ssds report um okay um board questions yeah okay yeah um so um you said that the numbers were um elevated compared to prior years um how how elevated we don't see the year before so i don't know what the reference would be i can actually get those numbers for you so you can see it it's usually our total is not what we have for the reporting period too so 63 would be more incidents than we've had in a total year in a long time that being said we've had very atypical years so it's really has to be considered that now that we get back to normal right we're going to start to see behaviors again and we're going to start to see potentially a spike because as we
026teach expectations and we apply right and and expect application of those skills um there's more accountability for students not so you shine the light and typically there's a spike this was us being back to full school full everything you know the second half the second half of the year yeah masks off and game on yeah that's that's totally understandable i think my um my main concern are incidents that involve violence and i would just love to know what our plan is to mitigate that going forward um are there any new new things we're going to try anything you know what can we do because like this this is really too high i'm not comfortable with this i don't think anybody's comfortable with it but i think when we are expecting um the criteria is very
027specific we don't have a lot of flexibility right um and i think that um we are very honest reporters of what really happens in our schools every day and i just want to be clear about that like so this is literally every darn thing that has happened and in any way shape or form fits the criteria we're reporting it that being said um our pbs teams worked diligently over the summer we with this big kickoff with the staff came a big kickoff and a reboot of pbs positive behavior supports sorry to use acronyms and be confusing um it's a kick off of expectations in school right what does it look like to be a responsible student in the cafeteria in the hallway on the way to the bus on the way out of the bus
028right we are re-teaching all of that and holding you know students accountable and acknowledging it and acknowledging them for meeting those expectations but also right now is the re-teaching part you know we're a couple of days in yeah right we're kind of like who's struggling with some of those expectations similar to the data that miss montgomery shared we break down data as a pbs team like where are the issues right it seems that kids are struggling being respectful when they leave the cafeteria how do we create an environment that promotes positive behavior so i think to be truthful we were um in survival mode last year right we didn't have enough subs to sustain our pbs meetings during the day there was a lot of things that we had to give up um to get
029things to happen and to be done and i think we sort of i don't want to say paid the price for that but you can see to spend the it and attention to focus on pbs um just just an addendum to that we had spoken last spring when we were probably doing the end of the year you know uh hiv reporting um and we had talked about the idea of getting more resources for children who were the victims of any of that so has that been put into place can we so we are vetting a resource right now okay um called hipster okay um and it is used um all over the state of new jersey the city of philadelphia it's a very widely used program and not only will it help us um from
030a management standpoint counselors and administrators there every one of these incidents has a layered vote load of stuff that goes with it um and that's great for accountability but we they're similar to intervention manager there has to be a way that this is archived and on a continuum that we can see right so hipster we're waiting right now for the go from um our vetting company um and then once we do that uh there is actually components built in that are educational components for specific justice restorative justice for the on both ends so that was our first step and lena winter who supervises our counselors and the ed services department has done an amazing job of working with our sac courtney culford and really curating and finding resources that we could use this year right
031um so we're just waiting it's it's really i don't wanna say formality but as soon as we get the go um are we thinking that might be in place like by the by our next meeting or i would we already have accounts okay we just i'm not giving the go on the data transfer you know student information until we have the the go from private logo we got to go okay so sorry there's your answer yes thank you can i ask a follow-up on that um so in looking at the data um it's hard not to notice that one of the schools is struggling more than others are we doing anything specifically in that building i think what's not reflected in this data is the rate of recidivism um by a handful of students okay
032so we have on our own broken down the data and to be truthful in terms of one-time offenders there's not that many in terms of repeat offenders who own a lot of this so yes so that number that jumps off the page is owned by a handful of students who do struggle meeting expectations who are tier three students needing interrupt like intensive interventions okay a quick question yes um and you may not even have an answer to this yet because i know it's kind of new like how much of an effect is mallory's law going to have on what we're doing right now in return in regards to hiv and student conduct and all of this it's an excellent question mallory's law for those of you don't know is a fairly aggressive law that was
033just passed um and it kind of takes the bill of rights up a notch um right now the only items that uh go the only reports or anything that goes with the child in their permanent record would be a suspension that is the only thing that gets cc'd in the file mallory's law says that after the third hib um the prcs now have to be confirmed they have to the it needs to go in the student's file it doesn't say yet developmentally it's just a pretty broad um but it is pretty aggressive and that will be a change for parents we were in the process of revising all of our letters anyway we were using the original documents from a good decade ago and they are a little scary if you read them um so
034parents have asked us to really like change the letter so they understand um so i think the biggest hurdle for parents this year will be the concern that if their children a child makes a mistake and it is confirmed you know at some point two or three will result in it going in a permanent record and as a parent having and as a middle school principal that is usually the concern of the parents with whom i speak that they understand their child made a mistake but now they're gonna carry it with them and so that is a huge change with mallory's law the other big change is that um we as administrators and as principals in particular are losing the discretion to make the decision as to whether we think um a an incident needs
035to be investigated so mallory's law requires that the superintendent of schools is involved in every one of those decisions which is which is cool a lot um and documentation of the day time of that decision it all has to be tracked so these hiv alleged um it was it we had discretion as administrators which is kind of part of the par for the course you're accepting responsibility for for having this weight on you um now it has to go to the superintendent so um they are tracking essentially what is and why it is investigated versus not um and again um if you know me as a pbs mama we shouldn't be yelling at the class when one kid does something wrong and mallory's law it was it's a law named for a lovely young girl
036who took her own life from bullying um and her mom actually presented in district years ago um we would do anything to have that kid back but this law really takes it to the to the next level and it is really yelling at the class for uh the few districts that did not take things seriously is my understanding of where the inception came from so i can tell you that and becky and i um we want we uncover right our goal is to make sure the kids are in a safe environment that that is our jobs so we don't benefit from not acknowledging or right you know so and i think it also speaks to what you said before the the ssds report is an honest accounting of what of incidents in our district i
037don't know that i think mallory's law is in response to other districts not be not being as transparent yes but thank you for bringing it up and i'm sure we talked about one of the community roundtables potentially um and we are going to the freehill township police will be doing a presentation in october i will confirm that date for you next time um on social media and the newest challenges we have so there'll be a presentation in the middle schools and and a presentation of all district parents but then i think we did talk about maybe code of conduct versus hiv harassment intimidation and bullying right and what are the differences like because i think i think that's very confusing for parents you know it is that you know it's not an hiv what is
038it and they think that if it doesn't qualify as an hiv because you know it's got to check all these boxes and if it's not in the box and it's right outside the box it doesn't count and they think that it doesn't really transpire anything to happen in the schools i think they need to understand that it does it just doesn't necessarily fit into a category like that correct it's a specific category specific criteria but code of conduct if anyone saw the policy right is very it's there's a lot there um and so in the acknowledging kids for doing the right thing doesn't mean we don't hold them accountable for not making good decisions there's plenty of not good decision making that went on here um and so that's why we look at data academic
039data and behavioral data it's all connected and then so for instance reporting period one remind me that is so we'll get that in what spring-ish early spring it it reflects incidents from september 1st through december 31st it's due um to be submitted in mid-january so i think by early february is usually when we put it out on the board agenda we'll have an idea of we'll have a gauge and uh typically like i said spring with we usually have to do boosters in the spring it's tough anyway but this was this jumped off but like you know becky and i were saying it was really the first shot at normalcy in a really long time yeah i mean we had back to assemblies and back to large group things that we hadn't had and yeah
040and uh the kids you know one question yes um do the middle school students understand the mallory law and are they at least given an opportunity to at least read it or have somebody read it to them and explain it to them so that they would know what the consequence of their action would be before they do so yeah two things one yes i do think that in either respect week or school violence awareness week in october two weeks that we acknowledge it would be beneficial to have a developmentally appropriate lesson on mallory's law right that would look very different for our littles in k2 then it would look in three five and i i don't want to just target the middle schools there was plenty plenty of stuff happening in three through five right
041plenty of uh okay so but i do think there has to be an explicit instruction of um and that will connect really with detective catalar's presentation because a lot of what mallory experienced was online so there's this perception that if you're behind the instagram wall you know you you're not doing any harm and you're safe you're not gonna get in trouble and that's not true so the presentation is very heavy on um saying something face to face and doing it on the instagram it's just as it's just as power it's just as harmful correct so we will connect it all together it's not written yet it hasn't and this pool is just responsible whether it's parts of our attention that it's online or in person correct if it impacts the learning and the safety of
042students it does so that is a big it can happen on the weekend and the schools are responsible thing it's not going to be confined to just what happens with the classroom if it's talking about it then it impacts the minute it impacts the school environment it now becomes our issue um yeah okay okay thank you okay now therefore be resolved that the board of education shall close the public hearing on the ssds report reporting period 2 for the school year 2021 2022 coming up now is public participation the first opportunity for public participation this is on items that are on the agenda tonight only there'll be a second opportunity for public participation on all other items later if anyone wishes to address the board please write your name and address on the sign in
043sheet and state your name for the record statements are limited to three minutes and should not be abusive obscene or defamatory in nature and again this opportunity is addressing items that are on the agenda only would anybody like to address the board testing testing um is this this is regarding the curriculum now anything that's on the agenda okay so last week we had a presentation similar to this and all of the parents were here because of the curriculum because it's obviously very important for us to see this new curriculum and understand it and everything that was on the slide was too small for anyone to see and we were told by mr dickstein that we would get a copy of the presentation we still don't have it can we get a copy of that certainly
044i mean depending on the action that the board takes this evening the curriculum itself not just the presentation will be available publicly tomorrow right i understand oh so tomorrow it's going to be available where on there again depending on the action the board takes this evening all of our curriculum is available on the district website specifically i was talking about the presentation that we had last week or i'm sorry i mentioned last week but the last meeting which we could not see we could see everything else but i apologize i couldn't email that to you i think everybody would probably want a copy of it not just me right i mean the community and then the other thing that i had asked last meeting was i wanted clarification on what is permitted inside the classrooms
045we have the american flag we have the state of new jersey but i wasn't given an answer on whether or not a teacher may have the flexibility to put up in one of the classes uh a social flag on her board or on a bulletin board is that permissible or is that not what do you mean by social flap anything representing a social group flags of any any social uh origin nothing is a flag that does not represent a country or a state do you want to answer that or i think your question was specific to um when we're creating like bulletin boards we have some sort of displays that are reflective of curriculum and it probably and it is a different answer than what i personally may have on or where or have in
046my person and teachers can have on their person okay they can't express themselves okay so a teacher can have on their person meaning what they're wearing they can express their own individuality their own social perspective so to speak which we know a teacher standing in front of a classroom wearing whatever they're wearing influences by suggestion to these impressionable children so they're able to do that there's really no dress code then i mean there probably is in terms of spaghetti straps and no shorts and no flip flaps but what you're saying basically i didn't think that was funny i was actually trying to be very serious but that they could wear and express their own individual position on a number of issues in their clothing yes yes okay and um just we're going to be going
047over the curriculum tonight we're voting on the curriculum tonight oh it's not a discussion that we're all having we can up to the board because we haven't been we've been coming to the meeting to find out about what this means for the curriculum as parents so just as a reminder to everyone based on the what happens tonight with the board as miss montgomery shared if the the decision is to approve the curriculum tonight it will be on the website tomorrow and until after it's available though so we don't really get to say we're not going to get a discussion presentation yeah right sorry the presentation last board meeting we didn't see outlined we didn't we couldn't see the presentation we heard bits and pieces of it and when i asked you know can we please
048see you know what is on the part that you guys put together with the bullet points which we could not see we were told that he was going to print it out and give it well actually he told me he would he would meet with me separately or give it to me by email but i i think i speak on behalf of the parents who are here whether they agree with me or not that we all want the information that we came here to get in advance requested yes i i didn't request to meet i'm here in a meeting with you guys now and i asked the question in the meeting with the material that was presented in the meeting that we could not see if i could please get a copy of it that
049i could actually see then you should have requested it with mr dickstein we did i did request it with mr dickstein i shouldn't have to you didn't no excuse me i said that i did stood right here and i asked for it he told you to get in touch with him and he would give you i shouldn't have to do that though and it's not excuse me miss lambert excuse me it's not just for me specifically it's not just for me there are other parents here and their parents watching on youtube who want the information and they can and they could have so we so coming to this meeting coming to this meeting doesn't give us the information we thought we were part of the conversation and understanding what was happening with the curriculum we
050got a very high level perspective of it and there was a presentation on the screen that we i don't know if it was intentional now i'm wondering if it wasn't we couldn't read it i'm going to be very honest with you i watched from home well i hope that you're being honest because this is what we're about and i heard the whole presentation very clearly i understood all the parts that i was watching from home on and i saw even on my screen from home so that's your perspective here so i don't know what you saw didn't right but if you watched it from home you probably heard my question then is that right yes i heard the whole meeting okay okay good so then we agree on that you might have been able to
051see it because on your computer you could see the actual presentation but it was different for us sitting in the audience we couldn't see it but the procedure would be that if you want something from no no i stood up and i requested it so i'm doing it again formerly there are how many board members here you can hear me requesting okay that's not going to do a separate thing so i'm going to move on now because i'm not going to argue with you so my next question is this okay you have to allow others to speak your three have i been here for three minutes you took up part of my time going back and forth with me i was answering your questions well i you can speak no you were arguing everyone has
052had an offer you are arguing with me and the next question that i have is i want to know we just talked about the hiv allow other people okay fine then you can get back up fine that's fine and thank you for you know you represent yourself poorly by arguing with me [Music] i just want to state my piece because split season has begun so i'd like to start tonight by saying i don't envy any can you state your name cindy and what you guys have endured in the past year and i don't envy any of that for you but there's only one right decision tonight for our community and that's to vote no i would ask you that you would look to your moral compass and do what is right for the children of
053freyo township freo township is a god-loving community that only wants the best for our children we must at any cost protect their innocent their innocence this curriculum does not protect their innocence and is morally wrong if we cross that line there's no going back the things i've learned in the last year about our state and this country is that they are not out for the betterment of our children we as a community must take a stand and protect our children even if that means the state comes down on our district we must keep the parents informed that are too busy paying their bills to know what the state is doing to the educational system none of us want this for our kids and this curriculum does not contribute to the making of a better human
054being i ask for you to reach down deep and find the courage to vote no tonight courage is a is contagious and if freehold township takes a stand hopefully more districts will follow will you take a stand and fight for the future of all children thank you guys hello my name is renata brand i have a one question don't you think that teaching different genders to children is going to confuse them like who knows cisgender what's a pan gender is it an xxy gender is it an xyy gender do you want to know why there's more violence and a decrease in education it's because they're stressed because they're confused and this is going to add to it you think we're at eighty percent now below the school level the national level we're going to get
055lower this is not going away so is there an answer to that question do you think teaching confusing genders to children is going to make them better based on your statement right now you said we're eighty percent behind that was on the screen hold down our goal that's our goal oh okay i confused it but okay thank you thank you but regardless it will still go down then it's even better because now we're at a higher level and i believe personally this will confuse kids aggravate them cause more violence more unrest and it's gonna it's gonna increase the problems not decrease it so do you have an answer to that question do you think teaching genders will confuse children i leave it to the board any anyone as i answered a question last at the
056last board meeting what i think is is not relevant the curriculum is mandate or the standards are mandated by the state my role is to build a curriculum that aligns with the state standards and meets the expectations of this board of education and the feedback that they've received from the community and that is what i'm presenting to the board tonight and we've gone over many many times you can see it on the replay that the state allows flexibility by the board it's not written in stone everyone knows that so you're avoiding it you're avoiding the issue you're avoiding the question it's like the nazi germany german soldiers who said we will shoot you because the government told us to you're doing the same thing i would because that's what it is you're hurting the children
057you're not helping you're hurting and with that i'll say dear parents that are watching that are listening the only way to avoid this is to opt out opt out i was gonna i was gonna yeah i was just gonna say that if if that is a concern that you feel that your child would be confused about that then opting out is an option right she's specifically talking about gender though good evening my name is maury abreu i just learned about this meeting about an hour ago my son is brand new to the freehold township education system as of this week i'm a father of six i've been employed by the government since i was a boy a teenager when i signed up to be a marine i've which means nothing because i'm a parent i'm
058a father of six i have a top secret clearance i conduct counterterrorism operations around the planet protecting people that don't know they're being protected and my job is to be there and for folks to not know that i am there this is not about my resume this is about me being a parent i had maybe three minutes to prepare just a few short notes based on some of what i've heard here tonight um some of what i've read about the curriculum and it is very disturbing um i ask you to consider this i'm a government employee i know what it's like when the government tells you to do something that you don't agree with i'm not going to release the details of that here tonight because they're not relevant and it's still being processed by
059my agency there are thousands of folks in my line of work that say no when the government comes down with things that challenge our ethics and our morals there are things that we know are inherently right i understand tolerance i don't know how you guys parent i teach my children to love first there's an old 2000 year old book that says that is the number one thing to guide us is to love others to treat them with dignity to teach them to treat them with respect sadly as well intended as you are that starts in the home and it gets repeated in the education system so my foundation that i partner with freeze children from the sex slave industry there are unintended consequences of this curriculum that i have grave concerns about grooming exposure desensitization
060i'm not pointing a finger at i have no ill will against any individual here tonight i'm telling you whether you are and i don't say this disrespectfully willfully ignorant meaning you just don't know you don't have ears to hear or eyes to see or you know there are things in this curriculum that desensitize our children to certain topic points that are to be handled at the dinner table with parents or guardians that are with them that can speak intimately they can get information from them and educate them on these things and this notion of just check your kid out so i checked my son now all his buddies or some of his buddies are in that class children and anybody here that has you don't have to have six you know kids talk so i
061ask you as someone that's new to freehold as an american as a human being for you to consider saying no voting no this idea this concept of the government said this so i'm going to do it that idea when she started speaking before you get very emotional and understand that because i as a law enforcement officer have been blamed for a whole lot of crap the last few years that i've never participated in i know how that feels it doesn't feel good but many times the statements by those that are feeling the injustice though emotional and maybe offensive are grounded in pain they're grounded in the journey and we don't want to have our children feel this unnecessary trauma and confusion in this ever evolving world where up is down and down is up and
062what's good is evil and what's evil is good it's already dominating every aspect of society let's not add to that god bless y'all thank you excuse me sir i just have a question for you first of all welcome to freefold and thank you so much for your service um i was just hoping that you could if by the way your youtube is not live uh you can't hear anything um my question is um thank you for your comments you mentioned things that you've read and you used some euphemisms i was hoping that you could specifically tell me what in what we've presented what we're going to do here in freehold township i don't care what anybody else is doing in the state or other states or or wherever i'm talking about what we have presented
063to do in freehold township absolutely you are opposed to so i learned about this meeting like i said about an hour before i got here i i am familiar with the curriculum that was presented when it first came out uh so i have read that curriculum i cannot speak intelligently as to the pink hold on just bear with me please i'll i'll attempt to answer your question uh the pink and blue i don't know the right vernacular of what that specific curriculum is but are we teaching fifth graders about masturbation no no eighth graders about masturbation uh anal sex it's a standard okay at what age eighth grade eighth grade are we teaching them about accessing pornography and how they can access that for free no no i would talking to them about self-touching no
064no masturbation no so what is i there's a definition the eighth grade standard requires teachers to define for students anal oral and vaginal sex that's it that's the standard that's all we're doing um i want to speak more to the beginning of your comments about teaching tolerance and dignity i'm sorry i'm hard of hearing i can't hear um i i want to speak to your comment earlier about teaching tolerance and dignity and respect for all humans that is a standard and that is embedded in the curriculum so my concern about not voting for this curriculum is exactly what you're saying you you have spoken to the need to teach kids about tolerance and respect and dignity that is a standard that is embedded in this curriculum that i've presented to the board for this year
065as a parent i hear you that's well intended that's not to be outsourced uh because that's not open for in-depth discussion um in a way that a parent can have with the child that they've you know that they've raised i i don't know a lot of things i know a little bit about having children and raising them in this world ranging from three years old to 23 year old twin girls and i'm not an expert we don't get issued owner's manuals as parents but i definitely don't feel uh compelled to release that level of responsibility to a government entity so that's my last hi good evening um thank you all for bringing us together and i would like to oh hi alex casavant uh live on shank road um i'd like to respectfully disagree with
066some of the other folks who have spoken for a couple of reasons you know one of which has to do with the the facts around comprehensive sex education if you look at what the american college of obstetricians and gynecologists has written the things that best prevent unwanted pregnancy at a very young age prevent stds are comprehensive sex education so i think it's absolutely critical for for parents in the room to augment their children's education with the the moral values that they want to view to them i 100 respect that but as a member of the community i also want to keep kids safe from diseases from things that can affect their life for decades and i think it's important to you know to build that bridge between the school system and the community in the
067ways that you've described earlier to the gentleman who was discussing trafficking i've also served on the young professionals board of an anti-trafficking organization and the factors that lead to those horrific circumstances are never teachers in education their economic circumstances their their broken homes their exploitation by the people closest to them i don't know of a single instance where education has led to those outcomes and to the the person back there who started talking about nazis as a jewish american i find that really offensive and i resent that so please don't talk back to me um so okay thank you again and i hope you will provide a curriculum to the children of this town that keeps them safe that keeps them healthy and that allows parents to have a voice but doesn't necessarily give parents
068the only voice having a kid doesn't make you a teacher doesn't make you a medical professional and medical professionals have very clearly spoken in favor of comprehensive sex ed thank you i was really hoping not to have to do this tonight as a constituent in this community and retired i'm sorry kim luxoy as a retired teacher i've taught kids for years i raised two children of my own before i came here tonight i lost several of my friends what did you teach your kids about sex where did you learn about sex and they laughed at me well i learned from no i didn't teach my kids i never had to love dancers like that i will tell you that i taught my children about sex i have two girls we sat down years ago we
069watched 90210 does anyone remember that tv show everybody in school was watching it i said they couldn't watch it i sat there with them and on every commercial what do you think about that what would you do about that to the point where they said do you really have to watch with us mom yes if you want to watch this i have to watch it with you did i want to watch it no one thing i've learned there are certain things that parents don't know how to teach their children i learned that today talking to my friends there are certain things that parents don't feel comfortable teaching their children not good we live in an age where our children including my grandchildren they go upstairs i don't know what they're doing i check in on
070them as much as i can they're on tick-tock they're playing video games they're chatting with their friends on two three o'clock in the morning they're learning all these things without us and they're not learning them correctly they are not learning them in a way that makes them responsible adults that makes them responsible individuals and will someday make them responsible parents and maybe teachers with knowledge comes power and i applaud you for putting together this curriculum and i really hope you consider it tonight thank you hi my name is grace weinmeier i have just one question to ask i've been trying to contact the curriculum department teachers and um i got some answers but never anything that led clarity to my answer as far as accessing like documentation and text materials that the children will be
071reading regarding english history and the health i know there's an option to opt out but if i wanted to see some materials my fifth grader or my eighth grader are reading in regards to the history lesson or the english lesson they're learning i know from middle school there's different genres and you have an option to opt out of them that's fine that's understandable but as far as text and just work from the textbook or any information they are actually reading how can we have viewing of that before they do so um all of our teachers use learning management systems google classroom at the elementary schools in schoology at the middle schools most lesson plans and content are linked right in schoology if you're not finding what you need you can always contact a class teacher
072director okay but is there any way that we can just get a summary of the year or at least half the year yeah all of our curriculum the summaries of the curriculum are available on the district website but as far as the atlas rubicon yes um section the drop down menu uh it's standards only which is like very vague if you if you scroll down there the standards are listed above and then below that are the essential questions and enduring understandings and below that are the um the skills and the content that are taught that's what the content is actually that provided if you scroll down it's all that okay so as of now it's last year's so our curriculum doesn't change every year um we have a curriculum review cycle that um our different
073content areas are reviewed and updated you know on a on a five or six year cycle so this year was the year for health and physical education okay now in regards to family sex education i know the last two people had spoke about it um i as a student i graduated in 1998 eighth grade i think i had family sex education in seventh or eighth grade and there was nothing wrong with the way we learned it it was understandable whether that was just reinforcing whether your parents taught it or not and i learned the safety of it so i don't understand the exotic changes that are being made to today we learned it in 1998 that was how many years ago a long a long time ago they had to say so i learned it
074i didn't have to sit down i watched 90210 my mother let me watch it and i learned from that i learned right from wrong so these crazy exotic changes that they're trying to implement to 2022 is just to me ridiculous because he's saying the children have to be educated and informed to learn how to make the right decision in life but i was taught family such a sex education it's not like we weren't so what is the difference between then and now so um periodically the state reviews the standards and and release revises and releases updates so the last time the health and physical education standards were reviewed and revised was in 2014 they did a complete overhaul of the standards much of which is the same in the 2020 standards there are some new
075changes and some because they banded the standards from differently they're now k2 3568 some of the things that were previously taught at some grades have moved to others but those were released in 2020. the reason that we are releasing them today and now is because the state gave schools dispensation to take time to write their curriculum to be in line with these standards because of the pandemic so we were managing lots of other things during the pandemic so schools didn't really have the time and effort to focus on on good solid curriculum writing so we took the time over the course of the spring and the summer to write the curriculum that's why we're implementing it now sure i don't mean to be disrespectful but i do think that the state of new jersey is
076trying to weave lgbqt into the curriculum i think they they're not shy about that and i think that they want that to become i think that's the difference that she's talking about again i'm not i just wanted to i did not that was not my understanding i was speaking specifically to the health but having read it myself yeah i'm not saying i agree or disagree with it but i do think that that's part of the answer that was never in the old and as far as all that um i'm not biased to any of those whatever you want to call them social organizations um but i do think that there's an appropriate age level to be taught that as far as more like the high school level not eighth grade talking about anal sex i
077mean children shouldn't be having sex in eighth grade that's what should be promoted okay not teaching about how you can have anal sex okay maybe a safe sex type of class something that i was taught how to be safe in regards to being in those type of situations hiv how it could be transmitted and those are all appropriate but talking about changing your gender i don't know who said it but it is very confusing and traumatizing to these children and i know little girls that my daughter my daughter went to school with and she was having home family life issues and just with all this being promoted she probably knowing the type of girl she was not willingly is making steps in her life that she probably wouldn't if this wasn't being promoted by society
078like it's very very confusing to children so thank you and again it should be at an age appropriate level so please do not vote on this curriculum for children that it's not appropriate for thank you your three minutes would anyone else like to address the board or readdress so someone said that they applaud the curriculum but we still haven't seen it because it's not going to be we don't get to be part of reviewing it until it's announced am i is that right by policy how the how the procedure works the public had an opportunity to give input through the community roundtable meetings through coming here this evening i have facilitated lots of emails and phone conversations with parents who have reached out to my office to give me feedback to ask questions to review
079standards um and i've taken all of that information into account in working with my curriculum team but we're here because we want to be part of the conversation so i'm very confused as to us being here but we haven't seen anything tonight about the curriculum and as i mentioned earlier with michelle that last uh meeting we couldn't see the presentation we were promised to get a copy of it and now we're here again tonight because we were told that tonight was the night we were going to be discussing the curriculum and i that we haven't discussed it so how can we be applauding the curriculum we haven't seen speak to procedures i apologize if somebody told you we were discussing the curriculum tonight we have two board meetings ago that we would be voting on
080it tonight and the board meeting prior there would be a presentation on it but we didn't get the information last last board meeting we got it we got a high level and we were supposed to get the the handout because the presentation wasn't viewable we could not see it it was so small so it seems like you should hold off on this vote because we don't have all the information that we need to be informed parents of these children that are going to be going to these classes we need more information i don't think that you should even vote on it until you give us the right to see the information first i ask you a question about that you watched this meeting from home correct were you able to see on on the youtube
081the presentation and hear mrs montgomery's explanation yes and youtube was available after this meeting yes it's possible thank you well that may be true but we need i'm asking that we please put a halt to it or at least put a delay to give us the opportunity to see the information so that we know what is the curriculum i can't believe somebody said i applaud the curriculum we don't even know what it is yet because we were told that what's on the state's website is not necessarily going to be the curriculum that you guys are going to tailor it to the school district and we just want to see it right but we don't have the information and and i believe that you should at least put a halt on it at least giving us
082the opportunity to see the information montgomery yes i think you said in the presentation at one point in time that because of the breadth of the curriculum you were you we personally chose to highlight the controversial and i i absolutely did because it it would be impossible for me to things i think i don't want to put words on this but what i'm hearing having sat through all these meetings the things i think that people are concerned about were absolutely addressed in my presentation presentation yes the videos that were shown as well as the document will be shared with eighth graders for those that don't opt out right yeah okay but the other part was okay first of all i don't see anything regarding the opt out on genesis yet for the health curriculum so
083it's not going to be in tomorrow because the curriculum has not been adopted okay i can't i can't do that proactively though yeah so certainly absolutely well before you do that though i have another question though it's more than just that it's what's being embedded across all of the subjects that we talked about as well so it wasn't only just opting out of health when we were here but it was also what was going to be going into the ela and to map the embedded so you're speaking to the diversity equity correct yeah we need more information on what's going on there absolutely separate from from the health curriculum but it's a new it's new it's this year so it's it's not new this year um it is there at the state released a set
084of standards around diversity equity inclusion when with an expectation um prior to my taking this position so i'd have to look into when that was um and um i think it was 2019 2019 okay thank you um with the requirement that school districts um implement those standards across content areas so in language arts in science and social studies there are there are elements of diversity equity and inclusion across all of our content regarding everything inclusive lgb qt and yeah and ela and math all of that that's great so um so then we're not going to be able to see the curriculum it's just going to get voted in and and that's it so procedurally the board of education votes on the curriculum if it is adopted then it will become public facing tomorrow and so
085we can't get it public facing tonight for just food for thought i can't release the curriculum until it's released without the board of education's approval that's not and tomorrow based on the board of education so procedurally i can tell you again this is not my decision to make it's the boards should the board adopt the curriculum this evening tomorrow a letter will go out broadly to all parents identifying um or inviting parents to log into their genesis parent portal there will be a letter grade level specific and i did explain this in my presentation at the last board meeting each child will get a grade level specific letter in that letter will be a link to the curriculum that you can access on the website and um and also a highlight of which standards are
086being addressed in each in that particular grade level because as i shared the standards are banded k to two so not all standards land in kindergarten or first grade or second grade so we had to stretch out those standards across three grade levels so if you are a parent of a third grader you're going to get a letter that says i appreciate what you're saying i just i feel like you guys are making this a rubik's cube and it's very unfair and if i had the option i'm just going to close if i had the option of pulling my child out completely i would absolutely do that because this is a mess you guys are hiding a lot of stuff you're making it very convoluted where we can't get straight answers you're voting on things
087you're not showing it to us two meetings in a row and then you're looking at me like i have two heads here and i'm a concerned parent i have a right to ask questions and you should welcome this and and be excited that we're engaged but we if we come to a meeting because it's based on the curriculum we want to hear about the curriculum and i'm going to close it right there because i know i'm not going to get what i need tonight you were provided with that presentation last night no that presentation was not a presentation mr armor also presided over that meeting could you see the screen the text was extremely small thank you for the people thank you but maybe at home on your screen it might have been blown up
088well that's why i wasn't here i'm asking for clarity in the audience it was so tiny they couldn't read it thank you they could hear it but it wasn't red miss lambert it wasn't red line for a line what would i was back there too and i could barely see it yeah okay so i mean that being the case we want to be fair you know this is our most precious commodity as you can imagine it's not a laughing matter and it's not anything to take lightly these children are suggestible they're impressionable and anything they see in their classes and if the teachers are able to wear whatever they want representing whatever social group that they want to represent these kids are impressionable they take cues from what they see and what they hear and
089we just need all the information if we couldn't see it last last meeting then let us see the information and then vote on it i think that's fair okay thank you thank you hi again renata brand uh i'd like to uh reiterate the same concerns i think those those standards should be made available and legible because it's fine you know you've read them but not every line so i'd like that to be issued to all the parents i just want to address that again if you were sitting here you received the presentation as was offered by miss montgomery you could have also followed up with the district vm this is yours and you could have and you could have watched it at youtube at your convenience so it may not have been clear to access
090the information the information on the screen was totally illegible illegible not even slightly legible and every line on that screen was not read so that was not a presentation it was a screen show all right that's point number one so i really would appreciate a deferment on this vote until that information is available to all the parents secondly the lady before that asked well what's the difference between 1992 and 2022. besides the 30-year difference has changed this the um the the screen the screen of education it's not health ed anymore this is sex ed so if we want our kids to go to a porn show and see anal sex that's great but you don't do it in school so with that i'll close i think that should be reconsidered i'm sorry i just want
091to clarify that that there's like like a growth mischaracterization that is going on here as if we are going to be showing children okay okay it's just because i'm very passionate i love children and you guys are killing them literally destroying them i think you are i think you are really an unfair statement no it's not because there are children that have been hired there are greater depression today there are children in middle school high school that are committing suicide depression because why because of all this sex education that's going into their heads they're getting confused they're depressed and they're violent and they become violent with others and with themselves and this is where the problem lies right is wrong and wrong is right the reason yeah the research says the exact opposite yes yes
092health health no i don't believe so either you can do so when it's your turn do not no sir do not scream from the back if you want to address the board you can do so when it's your turn i'm gonna ask i know that this is a heated discussion and everyone is passionate about it i need you all to stay respectful about it to each other and to the board so let's respect our kids and let's respect the parents and let's give them knowledge and so that they can give consent thank you hi my name is amy deluca um from the last meeting multiple people asked why isn't there going to be an opt-in option and we were told it's illegal but there's other districts doing the opt-in options so i just wanted to
093kind of come in right so can i finish explaining i was explaining to mrs mahmoud the process and i and i was sure wasn't allowed to finish so we are we are not doing an opt-in option but we are doing a parent acknowledgement option so that letter that's going to be released to parents in the um in the parent portal tomorrow will require parents to read the letter it's in its entirety to see the specific standards that are being taught to your child's grade and then um acknowledge receipt of that letter so that every parent in the district recognizes that this is what's being taught to their child in their classroom parents who choose to opt out will have another step in the process where they will go into the um into the documents tab
094and complete an opt-out form but every parent in the district will be required to acknowledge this is the the content that is my child is going to be learning in health so that that was how we're we're responding to that because we were hearing the concerns from the community okay and if it helps i can ex i wouldn't use the term illegal i will explain the statutory framework that allowed for opt out where um i think you'll see most of the districts are and this is the reason that they're there okay so it's not illegal the new jersey well the new jersey it's the language that's used in the statute so the new jersey administrative code chapter six which got which lists this standards assessments and what the requirements are by local boards of education
095in implementing standards and assessments basically gives the authority and the mandates of how a board should develop curriculum and what not in the new jersey administrative code chapter six and i can get you the exact statute if you need it it basically it's okay it basically says that if there is an element of a piece of curriculum that is against your moral your your conscience you have the right to opt out as prescribed by njsa title 18 um i don't know maybe i have it somewhere maybe like um there's a statutory uh reference in the new jersey statutes um the statute speaks specifically to i think healthcare health foreign specifically yeah 4.7 and in 4.7 here you go i'll read it for you this is new jersey statute this is the law it said any
096child whose parent or guardian presents to the school principal a signed statement that any part of the instructions in health family life education or sex education is in conflict with his conscience or sincerely held moral or religious beliefs shall be excused from that portion of the course where such instruction is being given and no penalties as to credit or graduation shall result there from so the language in the beginning any child whose parent or guardian presents to the school principal a signed statement is where the opt-out origin came from so that's where school districts provided parents i mean just based on the statute it could have been left to parents to put a letter together but schools put together an opt-out form and if you want to exercise your right under this statute you can
097opt out i understand the opt-in argument and i understand that for years maybe some parents just didn't pay attention to all the forms and and opting in allows a certain level of acknowledgement and knowledge that many people feel the parents should have in this in this curriculum hence the acknowledgement letter that this district is requiring so every parent has to acknowledge that they received the curriculum that their child will be taught or exposed to if that parent after seeing that letter and acknowledging that curriculum decides that there's a portion of that curriculum that is not appropriate for their child based on maybe the child's age or their religion or closely held moral beliefs they go to the next level in opting out of that part of the curriculum and that is what this district has
098chosen to do at this time because it satisfies the opt-in um arguments that parents need to be made aware and we need to make sure they're aware right so if that helps you that's the statutory framework i add a point to that michelle do you mind i had concern i'm sorry i can't get it to turn around there we go i had some concerns and originally was a big advocate of opt-in i still am when i spoke to mr dickstein about my concerns he also reminded me that if you have a parent that just does nothing they're busy they're oblivious to this and you don't want accidentally your child to go into a class and get the instruction you would get a phone call if you didn't acknowledge the letter so that's kind of like
099an opt-in now a hybrid because if you just do nothing your child cannot participate because if you don't acknowledge the letter so that should make it i'm not saying i support this at all but should it pass then the people that want an opt-in should feel comfortable that it's kind of a hybrid opt-in anyway that was the only point i wanted to make um regarding i'm catholic regarding the catholic school system today they're very successful school system but unfortunately they've been infiltrated with secularism so you can't use them no longer as the perfect standard of sex ed that's number one and i've done extensive research on this and i don't want to disagree with anyone but this is my opinion of what i've read the second thing i'd like to say is that i went
100to school you know they didn't have chalk when i went to school so a little joke in the 60s and i grew up in brooklyn and i did go to parochial school but that's besides the point i taught in the public schools but when i was a kid i had a great childhood because all i did was play and my brain was not full of any of this stuff we went home and from that moment i did my homework i went outside and we played and at school i wasn't taught any of this stuff then now like i said uh in the catholic school system has changed quite a bit from not only the lower level all the way up to college like my university fordham university i don't give money anymore to it because
101he's become the school is becoming has become very poorly run and they don't hold up catholic teaching so that's what i wanted to say um yeah i also i just feel like this curriculum is just like taking away our rights as parents of like when we want to teach our children these things like these very sensitive topics i mean i even have a brother that's transgender and i my children are four and six and i want to decide when i want to talk to them about that i mean it's not like i don't support it or anything it's just it's a that's how i think that's how we all feel like we want that right we want our kids to come to us for that emotional support with certain topics so and and the the
102statute that mrs lambert described and the opt-out option exists for you for that reason yes right yes you know and i i also want to add and and this is something that not only as a board member but as a parent is important to me um this district is also going to so like say you say you don't opt your kid out now like say you're like i don't know if i really want to do it before it's presented in your classroom you will get a letter home saying specifically what is going to be covered so you have a second shot of saying i thought he would be ready he's not like war or vice versa i thought he wasn't ready but now i think he is now you know you you okay it's not
103like this district at least in what was presented to us accommodating to parents and it's not only accommodating it's about involving parents in the dialogue so that if you wanted to like i did with my first son i wanted to have that conversation with him before he had it in school right so i had to at that point call up the teacher and say what are you going to cover okay because i want to speak i want to be the first person to speak to him about that okay and i will say that our health one last thing because i'm not sure if you were here last time because one of my biggest concerns was that parents um would be able to see absolutely anything read absolutely anything that their child is going to see
104or read and um mrs montgomery can correct me if i'm wrong but i believe that that is that that is the case you can you can talk to your child's health teacher you'll be able to see the curriculum and then anything on there that you want to see before they see it you will be able to see any parent will be able to say all you need to do is reach out to the teacher okay thank you yes sorry think it's yes like this yes okay uh my name is russ i'm uh i have three daughters that are state your last name please franca b-r-a-n-c and sign um the sign-in sheet i have uh three daughters that are in the school system two go to erickson and one goes to barcelo uh i have a
105seventh grader and you're telling me that in the next grade in the eighth grade she's gonna learn about anal sex according to this curriculum is that is that correct the definite what do you mean by the definition explain the definition because i'd love to know what the definition of i mean we all can figure out what the definition of anal sexes but how are you telling my daughter who's going to be 13 years old about anal sex i would love to know anybody want to answer that you're all teachers right no none of you are teachers yeah some of us are some of you are okay so explain to me i mean when you went to school what did you learn about anal sex did any of you learn anal sex in school oh you
106didn't but you think it's okay to teach my 12 13 year old anal sex that's that's okay why don't we just i don't know this young this woman over here had her kids watching 90210 why don't i just take my kids and have them watch game of thrones they'll see all the anal sex and sex you want in that movie that's okay oh but it's for you to decide if my kid you could talk about anal sex in school no not it's not that's all bs the option to opt out because what's going to happen is the people that didn't opt out are going to talk to my daughter at the lunchroom that did opt out and now it's all going to be delusional and all twisted and it's going to be like the telephone
107game so that all opt in opt out that's all that's bs to me that means nothing that's that's garbage it's either you do it or you don't i vote that you definitely don't do it definitely not at the eighth grade level absolutely not you got to be out of your minds to think something like that is even remotely normal i mean i don't know i'd still like to know when you all learned about anal sex i mean that's pretty interesting to me it's okay that you teach my daughter it's it's not appropriate you're absolutely right and it's not appropriate that you're teaching my daughter at 13 years old about anal sex i'm going to reiterate that we've said it multiple times if the curriculum passes tonight there will be a letter in genesis tomorrow you
108can opt out all your concerns right you are allowed to opt out um maybe in the program okay now talking to my daughter at the lunchroom guess what i just heard i know how to insert a penis into an a-hole what are we talking about here it's it's crazy i mean what what are you trying to teach our children by teaching them anal sex why don't you concentrate on history math reading how is anal sex going to better them getting them jobs you're supposed to teach our children about making money and supporting themselves and becoming professionals like you all individuals to get money to to support their family to support themselves to make a better quality life for themselves teaching them anal sex at 13 isn't doing that it's not even close to doing that
109so i'd like to know where the board thinks that comes in i'd also like to know what is the penalty for you guys if you decided to opt out of this whole curriculum what is the penalty is there a penalty by the state that was discussed at the last ford meeting you lose you lose funding yeah also you lose money oh so the truth behind it is money that was not the answer that was given that is not the answer that was not the answer we discussed it at the moment what do you want you gotta put that on bob what'll happen is every district in the state over a three-year process we're back to three years again yeah we took a little uh respect because of uh covid every three years the state through
110the county office will come in and there's a there's got to be 100 pages of checks boxes you have to go through and you have to the board will have to approve us submitting these check boxes but then account actually comes in and they reviews and one of the things they do the big one the biggest section is curriculum and so if you come in and when they score that on you and you're below a certain threshold you have to write a corrective action plan and guess what the corrective action plan is going to say do the curriculum right right exactly so you get a one year reprieve i believe is what mrs montgomery had said and if you don't abide by the corrective action plan at some point the state can come in and
111take over your board of education they make your life difficult so it's either it's so it's either we don't do it now but eventually it's definitely gonna happen it is pretty much it would come from it would come through a corrective correct it would we would be mandated and how many people will that be later on in life for the for the children no no no probably this school year right it would be great we're due for monitoring this coming school year for monitoring so then what's the point of all of this that we're doing if this we create our own curriculum here in freehold township and the presentation if you haven't seen it i totally urge you to look at what uh mrs montgomery presented at the last board meeting because we're going to
112talk about it it's not it's not clear on youtube it's not the it's not clear on the on the secondary viewing okay it's not clear i'm happy to we can have the presentation posted on the website tomorrow okay well i i think that i think that there's some confusion in a lot of the board meetings that the it's our decision to teach this and there are many people who will tell you that we have the authority not to teach it um i am happy what makes you an expert in teaching sex ed i am not i am not an expert in teaching sex that i'm giving you the framework of why this district wrote this curriculum so you understand where it came from well what about districts like middletown that just voted against it totally
113there's a lot of misinformation about what a lot of other districts are doing and i don't doubt that there are some districts in the state that are going to defy the standard the reality is that in the law right now in the new jersey administrative code board of education has to develop curricula that aligns with the state standards as prescribed by the department of education a board of education's curricula has a lot of um i i i would say i don't want to say leeway but a board of education has the right to purchase curriculum write their own curriculum interpret interpret the standard how they see fit for their demographic as long as by at the end of the day the students in those districts meet the standard which means the standard may say understand
114what the word reproduction is maybe that's second grade or third grade understand what the word means as long as you're going to teach my kid about reproduction in the second grade no we had we went through this i i went i don't think this is getting worse so for example if you weren't at the last meeting i'll give you an example it wasn't anything okay i should have been according to this this is this is out of control yeah i understand one of the standards is understand reproduction that is shown to students by showing um a mama bear and a baby bear a cat and a a cat and a kitten and you match the mother up with the baby you understand that as living beings we create more living beings i think our kids
115know that already well this is the point but that satisfies the standard no but but that's satisfying that's our business to tell our children that's not your business you're going to encourage you to contact your legislature i can't even listen to you because you just got done telling me that catholic schools taught sex ed i went to school away to college they did not teach sex ed i don't know i should have went there but they didn't teach sex well i went to saint joe's right down the road but i just wanted to sex ed they taught health not sex ed they did but but i just wanted to make a point because this is really important at least to me so i have a third grader i have a daughter who just graduated from
116the 8th grade and i have a 17 year old son and um what what i was trying to say was the presentation that mrs montgomery gave right when i saw and i've read the standard the 65 pages you can you can read the standard so i know i know what we have to hit but what she presented was the most conservative version of that possible and if we don't approve our this curriculum that we've done the state can come in and do whatever they want i i get it that's tell me what the conservative part of anal sex is tell me how do you teach it's so interesting it's just a definition it's a standard it's an eighth grade standard for definition yes what's the definition tell me what did that there will be no
117visuals there will be no videos there will be no there will be exclusively just a definition yeah can we have the definition certainly i don't have it with me i'm happy to send me reach out to my aunt you're going to you're going to decide on this today so can we have the definition i i don't i don't have it with me this evening i'm unhappy right i guess that's what i'm trying to get every on everyone to understand that in the new jersey administrative code boards of education are required to ensure that their districts meet the curriculum requirements that make the students meet the state standard requirements that should be met science history what it should be what it should be and what it is maybe are two different things the point is the
118administrative code says that that is the law and as a board of education as long as i sit in this seat i have to make sure this district aligns with the law so when these standards came out and i understand they're controversial where each member of this board of education personally believes those standards should be is probably as diverse as the audience everyone has their own moral compass and everybody has their own opinion as to where these standards would be however we were tasked with writing a curriculum this board of education tasked ms montgomery and the curriculum department with writing a curriculum that was as age appropriate and as aligned with our community concerns as possible we held multiple roundtables we took the comments we took the concerns and we gave them back to her
119whether or not you agree that anal sex should be in the curriculum is irrelevant it's a standard and if you want it to be relevant you have to start with the legislature two years ago when the doe was voting on this and held public meetings on this you know no one went and now now districts are i don't think a lot of people were informed of a lot of this information if we were more informed of this information and what was going to happen based upon those votes i agree we would have definitely been in a different situation than we are saying despite how any one of us here feels personally the job that we asked the curriculum department to do which was to take into account all the community concerns and do the most
120conservative curriculum possible within the age bandwidths so that it could be considered age appropriate they did eighth grade the band is what fifth or eighth grade right six three the sixth through eighth grade is the band made a very clear decision that so you have some districts we didn't make the decision that the sixth or eighth grade should be the time when you two no no that's the state standard department of education what are you talking about so so we looked at the standards that are banded k2 3 5 6 8 that comes from the department of education we do not have any flexibility about that just to be clear that means that over the course of grades six seven and eight these standards by the standards or the types of things that you're describing
121that are um that make some people uncomfortable are clearly not age appropriate for sixth graders and clearly not age appropriate for seventh graders and and in some people's opinion not age-appropriate for eighth grade but that's not what the standards say the standards say we have to in district teach them before kids exit eighth grade so we put it in eighth grade because we know that from a maturity standpoint they are the most able of any of those three grade levels of kids to be mature enough to understand that information i'm not disagreeing with you on that we have to we had to get the standard we had to make sure our curriculum was aligned with the standards you're telling me you lose funding nobody said anything about funding yeah so if you decide to not
122do this at all and not teach our children six through eight anything about sex ed like this then what happens we would mrs lambert describe the problem we would be um out of compliance out of compliance with cusack and they would issue a corrective action plan demanding that you know what that corrective action it would tell us what tell us to teach you how it might it'll tell you how to teach it and when to teach it but they'll tell you to teach it teach it later on no they could just teach it it's great it's great at that point i may interject the point there is time that elapses so if this board should not approve it and if a lot of boards throughout the state of new jersey don't approve it there's elections
123coming up in november and if you elect the legislature they could overturn that and then nobody has to implement it but as long as that's on the law so there is again these standards were implemented the state issued these standards in 2020 yeah it's two years after the fact that we're finally implementing them because the why did they tell you you have them two months at this year correct yeah long as we could and now this year you just decided oh let's do it no it's like last chance right yeah well i hope you all make the right decision and not let put on children because that's that's they're way too young to be learning this type of information i think for three minutes i think yes would anyone else like to address the board
124so at the beginning i believe you were talking about the kickoff where i don't know if that's the correct term where the goddard school wb mason sodexo was contributing um supplies is that right to the school different things yeah donations you had said um like pens and stuff that teachers can stash in classrooms and we know that the teachers you know every year we get the supply list for that the kids have to it's optional that they can bring it in but we always feel that we should bring it in but my question to you is when you did the was it 500 hours implementing the curriculum is that what you guys said in the previous meeting oh that was all of the curriculum revisions over the summer right but it's the health but all
125of the curriculums included the embedded uh inclusion into all the other subjects as well that actually wasn't any of the curriculum work we did this summer okay but a big chunk of it was implementing this as well as you know some other things and my my question to you is if we don't have the supplies that are being given to the the teachers in their classrooms no so just understanding what i said what i said i'm sorry about that okay we were looking to have some incentives some like prizes i'm not saying we don't have pencils i'm saying that we were looking for some fun stuff with like red hair on top okay type pencils i guess my perspective on that is because we bring these supplies in every year in regardless of what you
126said about that it just seems that if we have the money to spend on defining inappropriate personal sexual relationships that this gentleman just discussed then shouldn't we have the funds to have these materials in the classroom so that the parents don't have to continuously bringing in or even getting that note that says they're optional but we would appreciate you you send these things in and then the other thing i wanted to ask you regarding the hipster or mallory's malory's law i know that we talked about consequences for children who bully or harass right and they're very severe so you know we went through two years of a pandemic with kids covering their faces and fear being talked about in every direction and a lot of these children there's an epidemic of anxiety severe anxiety out
127there i'm just curious if you guys are taking into consideration the uh support that these kids need to help them because some of these kids are acting out potentially because they've all gone through emotional trauma having their faces covered for two years developing anxiety and what what are you guys doing to prevent them from having these act outs because those there's a lot of kids who need that support right now because of the anxiety that they've developed and i'm a therapist so i see children every single day who are in very debilitating situations of anxiety so i just i know we talked about how we're going to punish them but how we're going to help these kids who are suffering so i mean we our district and this is pre pandemic had developed a very
128lengthy social emotional learning curriculum to support kids through things like that we've also um through the pandemic added resources and district we have a licensed clinician who is an employee in the district um to help our kids you know through crises at school um we also have a and they have extended our relationship with the ymca where we have kids receiving counseling in school through the ymca uh providers right there's some kind of uh something just to re-uh uh what's the word i'm looking for just reintroduce them to a normal living or or that's all right everyone everything we've been doing since the first day yeah so partly that's what pbs is is um not only teaching expectations and it's not just about punishing it's it's a lot about acknowledging students um and it's also
129about them developing the ability to regulate and self-regulate and to regulate where they are how they're feeling and what their needs are and that looks different with the little ones than it does in the middle school right i guess you know it really would be great if we heard something like that we were offering some type of meditation or some type of of quiet time you know instead of instructing them on what's normal behavior and what isn't allowing them to have some peace and quiet to be alone with their thoughts and this will help bring down those anxiety levels i think that that would be more innovative than introducing anal sex thank you would anybody else like to address the board okay seeing none i'm going to move on to personnel the personnel committee met
130this evening and we discussed the items on the agenda present were myself mrs fentissoli mrs lambert and dr brethower um i'd like to move the following items resignation as listed new employment as listed adjustment to start dates as listed leave of absence as listed salary adjustment as listed change of assignment salary adjustment as listed change of start date salary adjustment as listed standing orders for school nurses as listed resend pto honoraria as listed pto honoraria as listed district honoraria as listed update of district honoraria as listed translators and interpreters as listed curriculum committees as listed certified substitutes as listed and non-certified substitutes as listed does anybody have any questions can i have a second roll call mrs carsolino mr gargiulo yes mr matthews yes mrs o'sullivan yes mrs thomann yes this is ben the tully
131yes mr amoroso yes mr lambert yes motion carries curriculum yes um the curriculum committee met this evening a present where mrs montgomery myself and mr gordula we discussed all the items on the agenda and any questions we had we discussed the policies and first reading on the agenda for emergency virtual and remote instruction program and the accompanying regulation we discussed the chpe curriculum and any other questions we had we also discussed the fall testing the testing window is from september 19 to september 30th for the start strong ndlm testing that is now required by the state um we also discussed um the fact that the district has received its njsla data and that we have received it and we have sent it to link it for an upload because it comes as a csv file
132we also had a preview of the district's goal presentation that mrs montgomery offered and we had another update on the fact that we're going to have language a language standards based assessment we're looking into one for k to two and we're going to be running it for grades three to eight and map i would like to move those as well as number three course reimbursements number four home instruction number five the ss reporting period i think that's an extra i thought that was an extra yes um the safe return to schools plan the student teacher practicum observation and placements as listed the first reading of the policy regulation and regulation policy number 24 25 and regulation 24 25 and i'm gonna move number nine separately because i'm sure folks want to speak to that okay
133so can we have any do we have any questions on one through eight yes just a quick question um to start strong yes is can that be used in any capacity for the informational text rit banding um i'm not overly familiar with start strong so i i don't know the answer to that until oh sorry can i talk sorry okay um until after the assessment is given one of the um things about start strong is that it's very brief it's narrow um so i don't know if any questions will address that standard specifically certainly if it does the good news about strong start strong is we get those results back almost immediately so if it does that will certainly give us some information if not we are giving map just a few weeks later thank
134you can we have a second on one through eight all in favor say aye aye now i would like to remove number nine which is the 2022 and 2023 curricula change so um before we move that um does anybody have anything that they'd like to say or explain by way of how they're going to vote or do you want to vote or discuss anything amongst board members i i was going to give my statement when i voted okay and that's fair so can i have a second let me just make sure the mics are on we have commentary okay so i'm going to vote this with a royal call bob okay mrs casolino okay this district began this process many months ago mrs montgomery and her team have gotten together have looked at the state
135standards which this district is charged with meeting um in addition as a board member we i read over and read over and read over the ethics as they apply to board members and one specifically charges us with following all laws rules and regulations of the state board of education and making decisions in terms of what is educationally appropriate for our children now our teachers are not groomers as some board of ed members have suggested but are educational professionals that are familiar with our children i am familiar with my children as a parent i can make a decision as to what is appropriate for my my son my other son and my other son however when we look to draft curriculum we look to experts who are familiar with all children in our district and i
136have nothing but esteem for the teachers that are delivering education to our kids those that i've encountered through my own children those who i hear about from other parents i do believe we have an excellent team of professionals and i believe that has been done here so i am going to cast my vote in favor of this curriculum mr gargiulo i'm sorry i think mrs montgomery and her team did the best she could with the learning standards the learning standards lock in the school districts to a certain extent on what they could teach and i know she tried very hard the opt out that she created was very good um and sure also she's going to be sending brochures home which is very good this is really i i know they say that the school
137board is not political but it's the most political the new jersey department of education partnered with new jersey state equality which is a very activist lgbt group they didn't let's say have another side come in and talk with them they had them who heavily influenced the curriculum i personally believe that teaching kids all the variations on gender is a very confusing situation i know that the the uh medical profession has not said there's more than two genders so we're going to confuse the kids as they go along i think sex education besides basic reproduction in the later grades should be left up to the parents the parents have the right on this in this area schools should not be involved in this area as heavily as it is and it will get heavier as we
138go forward i cannot say the areas where it's going to go forward in my reading because i don't want to alarm anybody but i'm just telling you that if this is implemented which is fine you have the opt out option which is good but it's only going to to generate and then everyone's going to look around and say how did that happen why are the kids acting this way why are kids doing this why is it a high suicide rate why is there so much violence it's not right and based upon what i said and i'm not trying to be antagonistic to anyone i vote no mr matthews thank you so i have six kids four of which are in this district so i take this responsibility very seriously um i too have done as
139much research as i possibly could also realizing that i am not an expert in this field um everything that i've read and i've seen has said that a comprehensive sex education decreases the likelihood of unplanned pregnancy it decreases the rate of stis it decreases the rate of bullying among students that is a problem right now i work in schools i can tell you firsthand bullying is a problem and acknowledging that is important and acknowledging that these children exist is important there is no grooming we're not saying you need to become this and i i listen i appreciate that everyone has opinions and as parents i respect that what's important to you is what you obviously need to teach your children and i i completely respect that and i think that's true for everybody we're not
140always going to agree on everything but i do think that given the constraints that the district was placed in i think the curriculum is a good curriculum for what we were required to do the alternative of potentially having the board taken over by the state where we have absolutely no say as a community is not where we want to go and um i applaud the work that ms montgomery and the curriculum writing team did it this was not an easy task for them they approached it in a professional manner and i'm grateful for their work and i'm a yes mrs o'sullivan i'll get to the bottom line first i'll say yes as a science teacher as an administrator as a parent and my child did go to the freehold township schools this curriculum has every
141point covered that the students need to know we have to be able to trust the science teachers the phys ed teachers the health teachers that are going to be teaching this curriculum they're the ones with the knowledge they're the ones that know your children and not every parent is going to have the conversations with their child and at least those children will have an opportunity to get the information that is correct and to keep them out of trouble to not turn them into bullies to not have them experiment and if we think that the children here in freehold township don't have the opportunity to experiment then we're not facing reality we're trying to do the best that we can for our children and by saying by me voting yes i believe that we will we
142are doing the best mrs montgomery and the curriculum team thank you for your countless hours that you put into this curriculum as a person that understands curriculum has written curriculum knows curriculum and design you have done a fabulous job mrs thomann thank you um as i mentioned i also i have three kids who are in this district or have recently just gone through this district and over that period of time for the past 11 years i've gotten to know many of the teachers in our schools and i've been able to develop relationships with them and i don't know there's a lot of stuff on social social media there's a lot of stuff in the news i don't know what is happening out there but i will tell you that i know what is happening here
143in freehold township because i've looked i've had the conversations i've looked at all of the material and for me the most important thing is transparency and that parents can see what their children are going to see they're going to have the opportunity to see it before their children view it so that they can put it into whatever context aligns with their beliefs that's very important to me and i have the fullest confidence that that is exactly what is going to happen here in freehold township some people mentioned confusion and children being confused i think it's far more confusing for children to see things in the world and not be taught about it and wonder or get their information from a place that is not um appropriate like the internet or youtube we live in a
144very diverse community we need to respect one another and it begins with education so for those reasons i'm voting yes mrs vinitoli like a lot of the other people up here um i am a parent in this district i've been a parent for 10 years and i still have 11 years to go uh believe it or not um and i'm i'll admit i know i'm gonna be here forever um i've struggled with this as most of you all know um because i'm very center of the road person and i believe that everything needs balance and as a board member i need to look past my personal beliefs and my personal opinions and even my own children at times and look at the district as a whole and i don't think i mean i don't think
145we're we're i think we are actually being very proactive in a parent choice type of situation because we are going to be able to offer both ends of the spectrum to both you know sides of parents whether you want this curriculum implemented and your children to learn it or whether you don't um i don't think it's fair to say the people who don't want the curriculum implemented have more of a say than the people who do want to implement it um i think having the opt out and having the parent acknowledgement um i like that i like that parents are going to know what's going on i like the pamphlet information um parents want choice and i think that this is the best way to give it to them you can choose for your personal
146family but you don't get to choose for anybody else's family um and i do think that our district took into consideration you know because we hosted a roundtable so i i know how many people registered versus how many people came i know how many cards we got i've read every single one of them and i know what concerns were brought to becky and i know that every single one of them was taken into consideration when this curriculum was written i think that we have done the best that we can do with what we were given and i trust that our teachers and our administrators and our staff are going to do what's in the best interest of all our kids so i'm a yes because i believe that this this district will do what's best
147for our children mr amoroso i don't even know where to begin but i don't know this is going on 11 years on the board right like 11 for us probably one of the toughest votes not because i don't know how to vote but because i almost feel bullied as a board member because we have a legislature that created these statutes these laws and not everyone in the state of new jersey is in agreement with these laws and these statutes we all want to live our lives according to our own moral compass but sometimes you find yourself living in an envelope and you really can't raise your family in the way you want a public school because you have to live in an environment that respects everybody's beliefs so we're in a situation right now where
148we're board members and we're told that we're supposed to vote on something but are we really voting on anything because really everything's kind of laid out our only vote tonight is really to just say that mrs montgomery has done her job like she has created the curriculum i get all that and i understand that it's very easy as a person just to say you know what yes you've done that sorry that everybody hates this law or at least some people do but we have to support it but then you have to look within yourself and you have a moral compass you have to say to yourself look despite penalties despite the fact that we could lose cusack points despite the fact that you know we might lose funding despite any of these things what in
149your heart do you think is right for a child from pre-k to eight to be taught should it be your parents should it be someone in the school now i do agree that there need to be resources within a school for children that seek this information there's a guidance department there's people that these children need to talk to if someone has a concern a question if they're misinformed about something with their sexuality or what's going on they do need an avenue where someone can tell them professionally that this is the right information where i disagree is that it needs to be woven and threaded into the whole curriculum and just taught to everyone and people have to opt out so for that reason i am an emphatic no i do not feel that this should
150even be brought up to our board but unfortunately it is it puts us in a weird position um it's already i'm sure passing but i know that if it is implemented we do have the op down i know it's been a well-written curriculum in terms of what you have to do but i'm personally morally horrified by the whole thing and as a human and as someone that has raised three daughters i just think that it's the wrong direction now come ninth grade high school college i have a totally different viewpoint you're dealing with children children that haven't they haven't developed and they need their parents and when they do need the support of professionals there should be an avenue for that but it shouldn't blanketly be brought into the school system that's how i feel
151i can't change the way i feel so i'm a no michael mr lambert i thank everybody for your um thoughtful responses this is a board that um like mike said uh 11 years this is probably one of the most difficult things and mike is right this isn't a board voting on the curriculum or the content or whether it's appropriate or inappropriate our job here is to vote on the curriculum in certifying that our curriculum department did what they were tasked to do by this board of education and are meeting the state standards in in the process i've been um told by countless parents that uh it's it's not a law it's not a mandate i've asked people to provide me with whatever legal opinion you have that can show me where my duty as a
152board of education member should stray from the law as i know it so how i feel about any of the content personally is irrelevant if i leave this room and you want to ask me about it go right ahead but while i'm sitting in this seat i have a job as a board member and right now i keep going back to the codes and the statutes and code says district board of education shall ensure that curriculum and instruction are designed and delivered in such a way that all students are able to demonstrate the knowledge and skills specified by the new jersey student learning standards and shall ensure that appropriate instructional adaptations are designed and delivered to students with disabilities ells etc etc as when you're elected to the board of education by statute you have
153to take an oath of office and a code of ethics and the first item in that code of ethics states i will uphold and enforce all laws rules and regulations of the state board of education and court orders pertaining to schools i do understand that if you're morally opposed to something you have a dilemma however the second sentence in your code of ethics as a school board member states desired changes shall be brought about only through legal and ethical procedures so as a board member i'm here to vote on whether our curriculum department designed a curriculum in line with our community standards and in line with the law i'm not here to impose my own morality and make decisions outside any legal or ethical procedure because by doing so creates anarchy and i would implore
154you to know that you don't want nine members of the board of education voting on their own moral compass because it works well when it agrees with yours and it's anarchy when it doesn't you want a board of education who upholds the laws as they see fit and as individual citizens outside of this room take whatever necessary measures they feel they may take lobbying against the laws that are in place so with that said i also would like to applaud ms montgomery's curriculum department this was not an easy task and i sat i reviewed the curriculum with mr gargoulo and miss casolino and um we both know that i and i've reviewed other districts curricula as well um or outlines of it that were kind of you know given offhand and i don't know a
155lot of districts who followed the procedures that we did in this district i don't know any districts who did community roundtables and took into account as many parent concerns as we did i i applaud the curriculum department i think you did a great job you've done your job and therefore i have to do mine and i'm a yes yes uh we did not meet as a committee tonight um so number two bills and claims ms thuman thank you for reviewing the bills and claims the total was one million nine hundred twenty seven thousand fifty five dollars and ninety eight cents i'd like to move number three which is travel and related expenses as listed number four new jersey school board association attendance as listed transfers as listed nursing service says as listed tuition contract for
156received student as listed consultant as listed withdrawal from capital reserve account as listed grant funded salary substitute stipend 2022 2023 year as listed honoraria from the dwight d eisenhower middle school as listed and that is it any questions so on number four do we have to see mike jarrett unfortunately i got called down to court and i didn't get a chance to tell ally so it's been a fun day okay um can i have a second second all in favor say aye aye aye old business and new business we are going to have a retreat october 3rd um bob will advertise it yeah correct um yes what time october 3rd at 6 00 p.m for those of you that are still here or retreat is a public meeting um you will see advertisement um on
157it uh so that's all that i have for old business new business and president's remarks since we do have an executive session that's getting late i'll move right into uh our second opportunity for public participation on any item you'd like to address the board on if you wish to address please write your name and address on the signing sheet state your name in the record statements are limited to three minutes and should not be abusive obscene or defamatory in nature would anybody like to address the board on any item may i just um say something if no one will speak sure just a reminder that tomorrow letters will post to genesis for all students and i'd like to probably thank joe and andrew they run our tech department there's a lot of pressure um so
158when our system crashes there are lots of people at home texting feverishly that uh i can't hear i can't hear so i just want to thank them because this isn't an overtime gig for them this is them being here because they want it to go well and i want to publicly thank both of them for all they do for technology for me thank you would anybody else like to address the board i thank you all for your patience um this evening um and for being respectful everybody voicing their opinion nothing about this was easy for anybody involved at this point uh we have an executive session so i'd like a motion to move into executive session second whereas pursuant to njsa10412b the board of education may exclude the public from that portion of a public
159meeting at which the board discusses any of the matters described at njsa 10 412 b 1 through 9. now therefore be it resolve that in accordance with the provision of the open public meeting act the board of education shall conduct a closed session pursuant to the personnel and legal exceptions prescribed by njsa 10412 for the purposes of discussing matters concerning collective negotiations for the ftaa and the twu it is anticipated the length of this executive session will be 30 minutes and action will not be taken in public when executive session is concluded be it further resolved that said discussion may be disclosed to the public when the reasons for discussing and acting upon it in closed session no longer exist thank you all for coming out when we resume the meeting we're just going to
160conclude the meeting but you are welcome to are we meeting in here um in here